Retail Professionals

# **Special Edition Trivia starts 7PM \| Free Entry \| Prizes & The Force Awaits** Gather your troops, light those sabers, and hyperspace jump into our Tavern for **May the 4th Trivia** — a one-night special event where your knowledge will be tested. Hosted in the heart of our bustling Fortress Tavern, this isn’t your average pub trivia. Expect an night filled with themed music, special drinks**,** and like-minded fans battling you for the top prize! 🎁 **Epic Prizes** 🍹 **Themed Cocktails** 🎲 **Star Wars Lore & Curveball Rounds** 🧙‍♂️ **Immersive Vibes. Cosplay Highly Encouraged** Whether you’re Han Soloing or gathering your Stormtroopers, this night is a must for any fan. Entry is free, but tables fill fast, **book your spot** **now!** **You there we hope to see! <(-_-)>**

Calling all \*\*female-identifying, non-binary and gender diverse \*\* filmmakers, actors, and film enthusiasts! Join us at **5pm** **Monday May 4 (the first Monday of every month)** in the Emporium food court (located behind Grill’d Burger Restaurant) for a chance to build relationships in the film community. **From 7pm onwards, we will continue the evening with drinks and/or a meal at The Lions Hotel - Melbourne Central.** This event is an expansion of the very successful **Movie Mutuals Wednesday Night Networking group** which has grown remarkably, with a weekly turnout of over 50 participants, blending newcomers with regulars to create a vibrant, diverse community. Whether you’re a writer, actor, animator, or independent filmmaker, come share your experiences, discuss current projects, or chat about favourite films. This event fosters connections among like-minded women, non-binary and gender diverse people, encourages friendships, and opens doors for collaboration. **RSVP** to help us gauge attendance. You will become part of a growing network of film professionals and enthusiasts. **What to Expect:** *There’s no set theme, workshop, or speaker. It’s a relaxed gathering where filmmakers, actors, and creatives can connect, discuss projects, share needs, and learn from each other. Beyond this networking event, we also host weekly Wednesday night meetups, exclusive events such as table reads, cinematography workshops with Panasonic, member screenings, and more.* \*Note: Our community emphasizes collaboration, friendship, and goodwill rather than promotional activities. If you wish to promote a workshop, course, screening, or similar event, please contact the organizers first. Promotional privileges are generally reserved for trusted, long-standing members.

The Buddhist spiritual path centres on our own mind’s vast potential for peace, compassion and wisdom. True lasting happiness does not depend on external factors but comes from looking inwards to better know our own mind and heart. This course presents key insights from the Buddha’s life and teachings to show how, through meditation and shifting our focus inwards, we can find true, unending contentment. This course presents key Buddhist frameworks that guide our path, including: * The three vehicles of Buddhism, which progressively show how we can nurture our innate peace, compassion and wisdom. * The four seals, which encapsulate what is unique about the Buddha’s teachings and sets them apart from other religions and philosophies. * Including teachings from foremost Tibetan masters of our time, space for contemplation, reflection and discussion, and guided meditations, this course will give you practical tools to help you work with your mind and take charge of your spiritual path. **Details** **Where**: Attend in person at Rigpa Melbourne, 803 Nicholson Street Carlton North. **When**: Monday evenings, for 9 weeks, starting 27 April 2026, a break on 8 June 2026, and finishing 29 June 2026. **Time**: 7.00pm – 9.00pm AEDT. **Cost**: 9-week module: Full $180, Concession $90. **Register here:** [https://rigpa.org.au/event/this-life-the-buddhas-guide-to-inner-transformation-melbourne-april-june-2026/2026-04-27/](https://rigpa.org.au/event/this-life-the-buddhas-guide-to-inner-transformation-melbourne-april-june-2026/2026-04-27/)

We invite you to join us for face-face English lessons at Upper Intermediate level each Monday and Wednesday evening, starting Wed 8th April. **Where:** Level 7, 628 Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD **Time:** 5:15pm - 7:30pm. Please come on time, as the doors are shut at 5:30pm. **What to expect:** You will be greeted by friendly tutors and trainee teachers. We are training English teachers and they work hard to prepare lessons for you. You will meet other speakers of other languages and engage in activities, and lots of practice speaking English.

We are back to Monday's Volleyball Sessions from coming week ! Games start 8 pm at Girls Grammar School South Yarra (entrance from Gate D) Fee: $17 ($15 cash) *ALL LEVELS WELCOME* SEE You all There ! 🙂 #INternational #Volleyball #Club #Melbourne

A mix of dance classes, connections & laughter! We love offering a diverse range of moves to keep things fresh and exciting, and it’s always amazing to see our dance community connecting on and off the dance floor. It’s all about coming together, learning, and having fun! Brighton Beach Bowls Club 2B South Rd Brighton 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm Beginner & Intermediate levels $25 CASH or PAYID

Hi Radiant Ladies, Let’s enjoy a friendly lunch at the Rosstown Hotel in Carnegie. Good food, laughter, and great company with Radiant Women. Julie 🌺🌸

## 🇯🇵 Progressi部: Japanese-English Language & Culture Exchange 🇦🇺 **"Serious Study, Authentic Community" — 本気で学び、本気で交流する。** Join us for our weekly exchange designed for those dedicated to practicing Japanese and English. This is a space to improve your language skills, share cultural insights, and make new, like-minded friends in a respectful environment. ### 🎯 Who This Group Is For We welcome individuals who are here to **actively practice their Japanese or English**. Whether you are looking for a study partner or want to learn more about culture, this is a community for focused and meaningful interaction. **✅ 受付方法 / Event Check-in (Strictly Required)** 到着の際、必ず主催者に以下の提示をお願いします / Upon arrival, please present the following to the organizer: * **Meetupの参加申し込み（RSVP）画面をご提示ください。** / Show your Meetup RSVP confirmation screen. * **予約なし（No RSVP）での参加はお断りしております。** / No walk-ins permitted without a confirmed RSVP. * **Participation Fee: $3 CASH** Non-Japanese citizens. ### 🚫 Conduct & Safety Policy To ensure a high-quality experience for all members, we maintain a strict standard of behavior: * **Immediate Ban:** Any individual found guilty of misconduct or creating "trouble" will be banned from the group immediately.**.** * **Organizer Authority:** The Organizer reserves the right to remove any member at their sole discretion to maintain the safety and integrity of the community. * **Respectful Interaction:** All members are expected to be polite and mindful of others. Do not make fellow participants feel uncomfortable or pressured. * **Privacy:** Please respect the personal boundaries of others. Do not pressure members for private contact information. **If any member makes you feel uncomfortable, please report it immediately to the organizers: Shin, David, or Ray.** *** ### 📝 Event Details * **Time:** Saturday, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM * **Arrival:** Please arrive **10–15 minutes early** due to limited seating. * **Entry Fee:** **$3 CASH** (Non-Japanese citizens). This contribution covers monthly meetup hosting fees. * **Photography:** Photos will be taken during the event for our community archives. ### 🇯🇵 日本語でのご案内 メルボルン市内のカフェで、本気で学べる日英言語文化交流会を主催しています。 * **目的:** 日本語・英語の練習、そして同じ目標を持つ友人作りを目的としています。 * **参加費:** 日本国籍以外の方は $3ドル（現金のみ）。 * **ルール:** 迷惑行為やトラブルを起こす方の参加は一切禁止です。主催者の判断により、即座に退会・出入り禁止の措置を取らせていただきます。 * 困ったことがあれば、すぐにオーガナイザー（Shin, David, Ray）までお知らせください。 ### 🔗 Connect With Us * **Facebook:** [facebook.com/groups/progressibu](https://www.google.com/search?q=http://www.facebook.com/groups/progressibu) * **X (Twitter):** [twitter.com/progressibu](https://www.google.com/search?q=http://twitter.com/progressibu)

We are excited to host Pavel for our next Melb.NET event where we discuss PR Reviews and how we can reduce the bottleneck effect they have on our development velocity! **Agenda:** * 5:30pm arrival - Food and drinks provided in-person * 6pm kickoff - Welcome & Introduction and few words from our Sponsors - 10 min * 6:10pm - Session 1 * 6.45pm - Session 2 **Session 1:** Breaking the PR Review Bottleneck by [Pavel Oborin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/poborin/) Pull request reviews are often the biggest bottleneck in software delivery, especially for distributed teams. What takes minutes to write can sit for days waiting for review, killing development velocity. The open source world has solved this at scale. Major projects like Kubernetes, Rust, and React coordinate thousands of contributors with sophisticated review strategies that go far beyond traditional approaches. This session explores proven techniques from leading OSS projects and how to adapt them for your teams: early design alignment, automated reviewer assignment, merge automation, cultural process shifts, velocity metrics, and modern workflow patterns. You'll leave with practical strategies to eliminate review bottlenecks and measurably improve your team's delivery speed. **Session 2:** How to achieve PR Flow in Messy Legacy Codebases by [Alex Phomphoukhao](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aphomphoukhao/) Exploring how we improved PR flow in a complex legacy .NET codebases. Covering metrics, workshop-driven changes, and how AI tools like GitHub Copilot and CodeRabbit helped reduce review load and speed up delivery. **Hosts:** * [William Liebenberg](https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-liebenberg/) \- Microsoft \.NET MVP \| Consultant at Arinco * [Bron Thulke](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronthulke/) \- Microsoft \.NET MVP \| CTO / Co\-Founder at YouLi * [Bill Chesnut](https://www.linkedin.com/in/billchesnut/) \- Microsoft Azure MVP \| Consultant at SixPivot * [Tama Waddell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tama-waddell/) \- Consultant at Arinco **Sponsors:** We have some amazing sponsors that help make this event possible: * [Arinco](https://arinco.com.au/) \- Venue\, Food and Drinks **Location:** In-Person at Arinco Melbourne. Level 6 / 440 Collins Street, Melbourne CBD 🗣 Apply to speak now: [https://bit.ly/melb-dotnet-cfp](https://bit.ly/melb-dotnet-cfp)

**Welcome to Startup Oasis!** If you are a startup founder, investor, developer, marketer, or anyone else in the tech ecosystem looking to start, join, or help a tech startup, this event is for you! Entrepreneurs pitch their startups to the attendees; then, you can join a breakout room/area (that we curate) to talk to the founders, join their team, ask questions, and/or give feedback. People have been able to start a business as a result of this process. You are welcome to just watch as well. After the last pitch, the audience will be able to vote on a winner who will become eligible to pitch during the championship round at the end of the year to win the grand prize! The official registration page is [here](https://luma.com/wmcdrbnq). **Schedule:** ​5:30 PM - Doors open for networking. 6:00 PM - Sign up at the check-in table if you want to pitch your startup 6:15 PM - Startup Oasis Begins, founders pitch 6:45 PM onward - Founders break off into break-out rooms/areas, and attendees can move around and help one another for the remainder of the time, similar to a hackathon **Startup Oasis was created to pierce the illusion of accessibility of startups and tech by creating a grassroots forum for early-stage founders to pitch to those in the tech ecosystem to get real-time feedback for their idea or business.** Use this [link](https://www.startupoasis.org/contact-10 "https://www.startupoasis.org/contact-10") to: * Follow us on LinkedIn * Join our community * Donate to our cause * Visit our website * Sign up for our newsletter **Nearby Transit:** * Tram: Waterfront City Station (Trams 35, 70, 86) * Car Parking: parking garage nearby

**🔥L​assie & Edward Zia's Business Community is hosting a Business Networking Event @ Pullman Melbourne on the Park!🔥** Join like-minded people in Business for a fun and relaxing Networking Lunch and afternoon of Networking that you won't want to miss!​ Our Business Community includes a diverse range of friendly and supportive Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, CEOs, Managing Directors, Boss Ladies, Thought Leaders and Influencers, open and ready to meet like-minded individuals, to connect and grow their Networks! ​​Our events are all about fostering and empowering meaningful connections, getting everyone out of their homes and offices to build a stronger Network within our Communities. **​T​he Event:** ​Our gatherings are free to you and pretty casual, with minimum structure to allow natural flow of conversations. [Please make a donation, we really appreciate your support.](https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ExcellenceAbove) Come along, grab lunch, ​introduce yourselves, make new friends, and connect with each other on your phones via Linkedin. Our leaders will give a brief introduction after lunch, feel free to move around and speak to everyone before and after, and enjoy a coffee and or beverages of your choice throughout​ the event too. **Before the event** ​Make sure that you have registered for this event, updated your professional profile and install the Linkedin app on your phone, our preferred social media platform for high quality professionals and Business Partners. **After the event​:** ​Touch base with those you have met and connect with any you may have missed on the day. Schedule a coffee meet and come along to our next event to meet and re-connect with others. **​P​arking:** Pullman Melbourne on the Park is located in East Melbourne, about a 10 minute walk East from Parliament Train Station. It's close to the MCG, and is also a popular venue for many concerts and sporting events. Wellington Parade also has many trams, with a tram spot just outside the Hotel. Parking includes a mixture of street parking and paid carparks including: \- Underneath the Pullman on the Park \- The Epworth Freemasons Carpark - Secure Parking, 12 - 20 Flinders Lane This part of town tends to be either empty or completely packed, based on what events are happening at the MCG and more (always great to leave earlier and allow more time when things are busy). **First time with Us?** You're in good hands! We've been running​ networking events in ​since 2015 and beyond **About Us** Our Meetup Business Community has over 16k members and has become one of Australia's largest Business Networking Meetup groups. We host regular Networking events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and zooms throughout the year, supporting a network of ever-growing businesses. With over 16,000 members in our Business Community, you have the best chance of meeting like-minded people to grow and scale your Network faster. **View all upcoming ​events [here](https://linktr.ee/LassieZia)** ### Frequently Asked Question​s **What is the dress code?** Smart Business casual and ​be photo ready. **Do many people attend by themselves?** Many of ​our attendees come by themselves​ and friends, colleagues and first timers are always welcomed. **How can I make contact with any questions?** ​Simply direct message [Edward Zia](https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardzia/) with any further questions. We aim to create High Value and the best Business Networking Events available out there! **Meet - Like - Know - Trust** **Your Network is your Networth!** 🌏🌏🌏💙💙💙🔥🔥🔥 If you love our High Quality Business Networking Events, please Sign up to become a Member of the **[Awesome Influencer Vault](https://edwardzia.teachable.com/p/theawesomemarketingvault)** and help us keep them Running! We really appreciate your ongoing support!

The leadership versus management discourse often characterises leadership as good and management as bad. But managing work is vital to protect people from burnout, ensure work is valued, and resolve problems both inside and outside the team. With the movement for self-managing, some organisations are seeking to remove the explicit Manager role, but without systems in place that can sometimes create a vacuum. We will touch on what managing actually entails and examine an example of a system that can be used with or without an explicit Manager - creating an opportunity to experiment with self-management, or simply make it easier for a Manager (or Leader) to have the right conversations with the right people. **Meet your Speaker - Mel Kendell, all about change** *Always thinking of how things could be better* Mel has had many roles in transformations, products, and projects - basically anything that smacks of change. She is also a co-host of this meetup!

We’re excited to announce our next **Melbourne MLOps Community Meetup** of the year! This one is right out of a sci-fi blockbuster. We are going to explore the AI landscape from **humanoid robotics** in Aged Care, something the team at Andromeda is actively trying to achieve, to the rise of agentic AI **as a teammate** in Software Delivery. DO NOT miss this chance to see how the world is changing right before your eyes. **🎤 Speakers** We’re thrilled to introduce: **\- Jason Chan**, Head of Machine Learning *at* Andromeda. Jason is a jack of all trades in the ML/Software engineering domain. He’s a rare talent who seamlessly pivots from leading elite defense autonomy teams at BAE Systems to architecting **enterprise MLOps** and teaching Deep Generative Models for **Stanford Online**. In his talk, *Making a Machine Feel Like a Character, and Other Hard Problems at Andromeda Robotics* Jason will explain how they are building a companion robot for aged care. A character that a resident is happy to see. **\- Farzad Khodadadi**, Principal Engineer *at* Catapult Sports. Farzad is a seasoned engineer with over 15 years of experience delivering enterprise-scale, cloud-native technology solutions. Specialising in the design and architecture of enterprise IoT platforms, he leads high-performing engineering teams while shaping long-term technical strategy. He will share his wisdom on utilising **Agentic AI** in Software Delivery in his talk: *From Tool to Teammate: Agentic AI in Software Delivery*. **Networking** The Melbourne MLOps Community is committed to fostering a space where AI/ML engineers and practitioners can connect, exchange ideas, and build meaningful relationships. Come ready to discuss: * The tools you’re experimenting with * Trends you’re seeing in ML and MLOps * Challenges you’re tackling * Ways to find peer support We’ll have food, drinks, and the perfect space for great conversations — so feel free to bring along anyone interested in ML, MLOps, or AI more broadly. **Agenda** 🍕 **5:30pm** – Networking, drinks & food 🙋 **6:00pm** – Welcome 🎤 **6:10pm** – Presentation by Jason ❓ **6:30pm** – Questions for Jason 🎤 **6:40pm** – Presentation by Farzad ❓ **7:00pm** – Questions for Farzad 🍻 **7:10pm onwards** – Networking, drinks & food We’re looking forward to seeing you there! **P.S.** If you can’t make it in person, we’ll be streaming the event via Google Meet. Google Meet link: [https://meet.google.com/fxh-hpsg-ryt](https://meet.google.com/fxh-hpsg-ryt)

Bring your business cards and network in person with other business professionals! Gold Star Referral Clubs is one of the most established professional networking organizations in the country, with multiple groups in central Ohio. Join us!

Customer identity resolution becomes increasingly complex as organizations scale across multiple systems, regions, and data formats. Traditional rule-based approaches often fail to keep up with data variability, require constant manual tuning, and struggle with real-time processing needs. This session presents a practical approach to building a scalable identity resolution pipeline using AWS services and modern AI techniques. The architecture combines data ingestion through Amazon S3 and AWS Glue, transformation pipelines using Spark on EMR, and machine learning models deployed via SageMaker for entity matching and standardization. Graph-based relationship modeling is implemented using Amazon Neptune to improve resolution accuracy by incorporating household and shared attribute context. We will walk through how machine learning models can be used for name and address normalization, how intelligent blocking strategies improve matching efficiency, and how feedback loops can be introduced to continuously improve accuracy. The session also highlights how serverless components such as AWS Lambda can be used for orchestration and real-time processing. **SPEAKER BIO** Mosaic Syed is a Senior Data Engineering and Cloud Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performance data solutions across global enterprise environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mosaic-basha-syed-92300856 **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: [https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/](https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/) **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: [https://www.veeam.com/](https://www.veeam.com/) **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Join Voice Over Pros Of Ohio for an exciting morning of networking, and exploring opportunities in the world of voice acting. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this event is perfect for expanding your network, learning how to start a VO business, and for honing your skills. Connect with fellow voice actors and VO experts, that will help you succeed in your voice over business. This event will feature discussions on professional development, entrepreneurship in the voice over industry, with tips for navigating the world of voice acting. Don't miss this unique opportunity to learn from others, collaborate with like-minded individuals, and take your voice over career to the next level. Join us Saturday, March 28, from 10am - 12pm and learn how to start or grow your voice over business. Let your voice be heard! The $10 fee covers refreshments and door prizes.

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

This is a free, in-person meeting on the subject of betrayals, losses and how to get over them so you can build lasting relationships. Burdened by a stressful relationship? Unhealthy relationships can trigger feelings of anger, despair or self-doubt. They can create dwindling spirals of fights and seeking to make-up, or trying to “pin the blame” on someone or something. If you don’t find the RIGHT reasons, or select the correct sources of the problem, the problem can just get worse and worse. Whether in love or personal ties, with friends or at work, our life really IS affected by the quality of our relationships. Good ones can promote pleasure and survival while less optimum ones can lead to annoyance, anger, self-doubt, stress, or even affect our health and ability to survive well. Whether you are suffering from a divorce, or a painful break-up, don’t know who to trust (or who to CHOOSE) as a partner, friend, boss or employee - the anxiety of relationship troubles can really make a mess of things. Maybe you’ve suffered a betrayal, or are dealing with hostility or criticalness or invalidation. Dwindling relationships can involve destructive behavior, where we hurt those we love, or start succumbing to self-destructive thoughts, attitudes or behaviors that spiral out of control and affect much more than our immediate relationship. Past losses in love or life can affect how we act or react to new people and situations and hold us back from even starting to create new, possibly great relationships! How can one get back onto a saner course of action? Come to our Meetup, where we can introduce you to some of the knowledge, tools and techniques of the breakthroughs in the field of the mind that we can apply to this ever important area of life: human relationships! Break free from self imposed limitations Here we will discuss: • How to “erase” the trauma of past hurts and betrayals so that one isn’t always repeating past mistakes. • Why and how do the negative emotions of others affect you? • Why is my partner withdrawing and what can I do about it? • Why do we sometimes feel compelled to hurt the ones we love? • Fights & arguments - what's really behind them? • What underlies “corrosive criticism” or the need to invalidate self or others? • How one can stably change one’s outlook on life so they can affect positive change? • Where do compulsive destructive behaviors come from and what can be done about them? • How to form closer bonds & keep growing the relationships with the people you care about? • How to enhance one’s own ability to survive and create positive healthy relationships whether in love, family & friendships or in work, business or one’s career? Relationships can be hard and life itself IS challenging. Why not arm yourself with the knowledge and breakthroughs that have been made about the mind, mental reactions & interpersonal relationships, so that one has better awareness and control over themselves and life in general. Learn where painful experiences are “stored” and how they can unknowingly affect us. You will also find out how one can “erase” those past painful experiences so that one is free to move forward without being tripped up by the past. Learn too, about what can lead some people to become “toxic” personalities and how to identify those traits in others so you won’t be tripped up trusting the wrong person. Our free Meet-ups occur in a safe environment where one can learn, without fear of judgment or criticism, and without the recommendation of harmful mental techniques or therapies, just how YOU can get yourself onto a happier & more successful path: in love & in life. We look forward to having you join us! This class is sponsored by the Dianetics & Scientology Life Improvement Center of Central Ohio.

Practical AI for Power BI Developers A year ago, “agentic AI” was mostly hype for Power BI teams. Today, it deserves your undivided attention. For Power BI pros, there is now a real opportunity to reduce repetitive development work, accelerate delivery, and help developers do more, but only when strong DataOps practices are in place to make AI workflows effective. This session is a no-nonsense introduction to effective AI patterns for Power BI and Fabric development. Along the way, we will make sense of the growing pile of terminology, including skills, plugins, hooks, and MCP. You will see examples of how modern AI tooling can help with development tasks across Power BI and Fabric, along with the prerequisites, guardrails, and DataOps principles needed to use it responsibly. Whether you're burned out on AI hype or already using Copilot CLI daily, this session will show you the foundations that are finally making AI-assisted development genuinely useful.

**Optional movie afterwards**