MapReduce

Exploring Entrepreneurial Projects in Singapore and also in the China-Asean Economic Agency business in Guangxi, China. Explore the various channels of starting, operating and growing a thriving business in fast-growing industries. Explore opportunities to overcome the pressing challenges that Singapore faces: fastest ageing population, declining productivity, sky-rocketing costs, super competitive environment and ever growing number of foreign talents entering the already very tight economic spaces.....and many more. Complaining about these challenges will not help at all. Let's explore viable options and avenues opened to the average individuals to overcome these social-economic pressures.

Hello everyone! Join us for an IN PERSON Apache Kafka® x Apache Flink® meetup on Apr 10th from 6:30pm, hosted by Credit Agricole CIB in Singapore! **📍 Venue:** Mapletree Business City Blk 20 West 20 Pasir Panjang Road Singapore, 117439 , Level 13 \*\*\* **🗓 Agenda:** * 18:30pm-19:00pm: Food, Drinks & Networking * 19:00pm-19:30pm: Zabeer Farook, Technical Architect, Credit Agricole CIB * 19:30pm-20:00pm: ​Dominique Ronde, Staff Solution Engineer, Confluent * 20:00pm-20:30pm: Networking \*\*\* **💡 Speaker:** ​Dominique Ronde, Staff Solution Engineer, Confluent **Talk:** Guardians of the Stream: Kafka, Flink, and the Rise of GenAI **Abstract:** In this session we will explore how Kafka and Flink can seamlessly integrate with GenAI to build intelligent systems capable of real-time learning, automation, and decision-making. Discover the next frontier in data streaming and artificial intelligence, where Kafka, Flink, and GenAI take center stage in shaping the future of industries. **Bio:** ​**Dominique Ronde** is a Staff Solution Engineer at Confluent, a pioneer in enterprise event-streaming platforms. With previous roles as a Big Data Architect and Data Scientist at freeyou, SAP, and Allianz, Dominique brings deep expertise in digital transformation, Java, AWS, and Apache Kafka®. Since 2016, he has worked extensively with Apache Flink and currently serves as a subject matter expert in the APAC region. Dominique is a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide, with a recent focus on innovative data use cases in the insurance industry. Outside of work, he enjoys experimenting with Arduino microcontrollers, IoT home devices, and traveling. \-\-\-\-\- **💡 Speaker:** Zabeer Farook, Technical Architect, Credit Agricole CIB **Talk:** Natural Language Analytics in the Lakehouse : Why is it harder than it looks? **Abstract:** AI agents and the Model Context Protocol finally make natural language analytics on your lakehouse technically plausible — any LLM can discover your schema, plan a query strategy, and return results in seconds. But connect an agent directly to your Iceberg stack and something uncomfortable happens: it returns confident, fluent, wrong answers with no signal that anything is amiss. This talk demonstrates exactly why — wrong metric formulas, invented business terms, incorrect join paths — and introduces the architectural layer that fixes it: the unified semantic layer, exposed as an MCP API. A glimpse at what becomes possible when agents call meaning, not just schema. **Bio:** Zabeer is a seasoned Technology Architect with nearly 20 years of experience in enterprise software across FSI and fintech, including retail banking, wealth management, KYC, regulatory reporting, and payment systems. He brings strong expertise in digital transformation, legacy modernization, and data engineering, with hands-on experience in AWS, Kubernetes, Kafka, Flink, Spark, APIs, and DevOps. Actively contributes to the Singapore tech community, co-hosting Kafka meetups and delivering technical talks, with a strong focus on real-time data streaming and event-driven architecture. \*\*\* ***DISCLAIMER*** BY ATTENDING THIS EVENT IN PERSON, you acknowledge that risk includes possible exposure to and illness from infectious diseases including COVID-19, and accept responsibility for this, if it occurs. As the classroom is a mask-on setting, please be reminded that masks should still be worn at all times unless actively eating or drinking NOTE: We are unable to cater for any attendees under the age of 18. \*\*\* If you would like to speak or host our next event please let us know! [community@confluent.io](mailto:community@confluent.io)

Welcome back to our meetup in April. The date is right before the GITEX AI Asia conference held at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. * **06:00 PM** Registration, dinner, networking * **06:30 PM** Talk starts Talk #1: Powering AI Agents/Apps with contextual data from more than just the default vector search Description: Most solutions showcase vector search as the default search mechanism to power AI applications. But it is often not the most effective solution. In this demo, we will showcase different search techniques and hybrid approaches for retrieving contextual data with MongoDB. Talk #2: Real Practical RAG, from Demo to Production - in a 10,000-person organization and an intelligence org Moving from controlled demos to real-world deployment exposed several challenges that are easy to underestimate. In clean demos, our prompts/queries are often well-formed and datasets are neatly curated, and we test the happy paths. But real users behave very differently. We observed clear gaps between how users express intent and how that intent is represented in the embedding space (leads to irrelevant/missed retrievals). This made retrieval design and chunking strategy critical: how documents are split, indexed, and ranked directly impacted whether the system could “understand” a query. Additionally, as the dataset scaled with many similar or overlapping documents, retrieval became noisier - every vector is similar to a lot other vector - making it harder to consistently surface the right information. These challenges highlight that building a production-ready RAG system is not just about ensuring our datasets and RAG method works, but also user's intent and behavior. TBA: We will have a 2nd speaker talking about AI in real use cases in intelligence orgs either in this meetup or the next meetup. More details for the 2nd speaker are still being prepared.

## Nature Walk with Singapore Democratic School Do you take an interest in topics such as 'self-directed education', 'unschooling', and a child-centric approach towards education? Then join us for a fun and family-friendly nature walk! During our walk, we will be discussing the book 'Free to Learn' by Professor Peter Gray. In the book, Peter Gray discusses how play is essential for children to become happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life. He argues in favour of self-directed education, which means that students get to decide what, when, and how to learn. We will meet outside the Botanic Gardens MRT, near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. This walk is organised by Singapore Democratic School. You can learn more about the school here: [https://www.singaporedemocraticschool.sg/](https://www.singaporedemocraticschool.sg/) P.S. Didn't read Peter Gray's book yet? Here is a brief summary: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OMYesA1nQo ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OMYesA1nQo )

Hey AWS Security fam 👋 **Our goal remains the same: bring security and cloud practitioners together.** Security is wide; cloud teams move fast. Let us meet in the middle — share what is working, what is painful, and how we can ship safer, faster. Want to speak next time? We are lining up lightning talks and deep dives for upcoming meetups — 30-minute sessions, interactive by design. New voices welcome: operators, builders, blue/red/purple teamers, platform folks. If you have shipped it, broken it, or fixed it, we want to hear it. (Ping the organizers / DM us after you RSVP.) 🎤 **Speakers** ✅ **Building Visibility into Identity: Reporting with AWS IAM Identity Center** 📌 Alfred Koh - Senior Manager, Fintech This session explores how AWS services can be combined to build a practical reporting dashboard for AWS IAM Identity Center, using QuickSight to surface access patterns, governance signals, and operational visibility for security and identity teams. ✅ **Hardening Sensitive CI/CD Workloads with AWS Lambda** 📌 Bobby Lin - Manager, Application Security and DevSecOps, Fintech In this session, Bobby will share an architectural approach to decouple high risk workflows from CI/CD pipelines using AWS Lambda, reducing blast radius and improving security posture. The discussion will use GitLab based pipelines and focus on secure design patterns. ✅ **Automating Secure Access Across Your AWS Ecosystem** 📌 Deddy Gunawi - APJ Solution Architect, Okta In this session, Deddy will explore practical approaches to automating secure access across AWS environments through centralized identity and lifecycle management. The discussion will cover mapping user identities to cloud resources, automating provisioning and deprovisioning workflows, and applying attribute based access models to reduce manual credential management and over privileged accounts. 🧭 **Event Details** 📅 Date: Wednesday, 8th April 2026 🕡 Time: 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM 📍 Venue: AWS Singapore, 2 Central Blvd, IOI Central Boulevard East Towers, Level 5 🛂 **Registration & Check-in (Important)** Watch for an email titled: AWS Security User Group Singapore: Registration Confirmed for AWS Security Meetup – April 2026 Show this email at Level 1 Concierge to access Level 5 for verification. Walk-ins: Only if capacity allows. Confirmed registrations get priority. No confirmation email = walk-in; entry not guaranteed. 🙌 **What to Expect (and why it’s worth your evening)** * 30-minute interactive sessions — no death-by-slides * Live Q&A & show-and-tell — bring questions, tooling, and war stories * Security × Cloud crossover — incident learnings, IaC guardrails, identity, data protection, cost/risk trade-offs 🍕 **Agenda & Housekeeping** 6:30 PM — Pizza & drinks (vegetarian + halal options) Talks — Start right after dinner Networking — Meet builders, defenders, and platform folks 📸 Photos/recordings may be used for future promo Pro tip: Arrive early to skip queues and snag a good seat 🎁 Swag & promo codes — stay till the end for giveaways

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in Singapore. Most men have no symptoms in the early stages — and by the time they do, it may already be advanced. **Early detection saves lives. And it starts with knowing your risk.** This April, take the most important step for your health and join us for a free, expert-led talk by **Dr. Lim Huat Chye Peter** — one of Singapore's most respected urologists and founder of the Society for Men's Health (Singapore). **📅 Date:** Saturday, 11 April 2026 **🕑 Time:** 1:30 PM – 4:00 PM **📍 Venue:** Farrer Park Hospital, Connexion, #16-06 (Viv Hall) **💰 Admission:** FREE **If you're a man over 40, this talk is for you.** Most men avoid talking about their health — until it's too late. Don't wait for symptoms. Prostate cancer is highly treatable when caught early, but the window matters. This is your chance to get straight-talking, expert guidance in a relaxed, open setting where all questions are welcome. **What you'll learn:** * What prostate cancer is and how it develops silently * Who is at risk — and why men over 40 need to act now * When and how to get screened, and what tests to expect * Treatment options and the latest advances in urological care * How to have the conversation with your doctor — and what questions to ask Come alone, or bring a father, brother, husband, or friend. The men in your life need to hear this. **Seats are limited. This event is free — but your health is priceless. Register now before it's too late.**

The Fellowship of the Star Schema: Transforming OLTP Data for Power BI One does not simply build reports on OLTP data. Join us on an epic journey from the depths of raw, normalized tables to the shining halls of a well-modeled star schema fit for Power BI greatness. We will demystify the differences between OLTP and OLAP, walk through star schema vs snowflake (and why Power BI has a clear favorite), and show you the compression differences between normalized and columnar storage that will make you never look at an OLTP model the same way again. We will cover the different types of dimensions, when to use them, and how to handle Slowly Changing Dimensions without losing your mind. You will leave knowing exactly how to identify a bad model, how to convert OLTP data into a clean star schema, and how to forge relationships that rule them all. Whether you are a data wizard, a curious hobbit, or somewhere in between, your models will never be the same.

Jimmy V's Grill & Pub in Grandview Heights. You are responsible for your own meal/drinks. We usually don't have any agenda other than eat, drink and talk. :) If the weather is nice we will be on the back patio, otherwise we are in the cigar room. This group has been meeting every Tuesday evening for over a decade. Many attendees do not RSVP on meetup. Please don't let the small number here discourage you. Anyone/everyone is welcome to come. We'd love to have you join us. COTA bus #5 comes to W. 5th and Wyandotte Rd. And it's a minute walk to the restaurant. *** Did you know that there are atheists everywhere?!?! You may not know it, but we are! We're in your schools, diners, police force, military, government, and some are even still in your churches! So come and join us and meet other local atheists, along with agnostics, heathens, humanists, skeptics, and anyone else who's 'hell bound'! Vision: a Central Ohio that accepts atheism as a viable alternative in all areas of public and private life. Mission: grow, support, and provide community for atheists in Central Ohio. Social meetings held most Tuesdays at a local pub/restaurant at 7:00 PM (and often into the wee hours). Attendees call themselves agnostics, skeptics, humanists, non-theists, deists or even theists. All attendees are welcome but should support our vision. Atheists of Columbus (AoC) is part of Omnipresent Atheists (OA). AoC members are invited to join this OA meetup and/or OA Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/omnipresentatheists/ ) but are free to continue conversations on the AoC Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/columbusatheists/ ). AoC was founded in 2012 as a networking, social group for Central Ohio area humanists, skeptics, atheists, agnostics, nonbelievers, freethinkers, and the curious. It was a member of Columbus CoR and held weekly meetings, mostly on Fridays, for several years but then operated as an online only group for some time. In November 2018, Omnipresent Atheists (OA), a group that routinely meets on Tuesdays, invited AoC to merge. Omnipresent Atheists is a member of the Columbus Coalition of Reason (ColumbusCoR.org). Omnipresent Atheists is a member of the Columbus Coalition of Reason ( http://www.ColumbusCoR.org ). Omnipresent Atheists endorses the mission of the Secular Coalition for America ( http://secular.org ).

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** GitHub Copilot is powerful, but what if you could scale from a solo AI assistant to an entire team of specialized agents working in parallel? This session introduces Squad: an open-source framework for multi-agent orchestration that lets you define teams of AI agents with specific roles, responsibilities, and expertise. We'll progress from Copilot basics to the Copilot CLI, explore how Agents add autonomy, and see how Instructions and Skills let you customize agent behavior. Then, the climax: a live demo where a Squad team of 3 agents (Lead, Developer, Tester) stands up and builds a working application in real-time, showcasing true multi-agent collaboration. Whether you're new to AI or exploring how to scale your use of Copilot, this session will show you what's possible when agents work as a team. **YouTube Link** TBD

Jimmy V's Grill & Pub in Grandview Heights. You are responsible for your own meal/drinks. We usually don't have any agenda other than eat, drink and talk. :) If the weather is nice we will be on the back patio, otherwise we are in the cigar room. This group has been meeting every Tuesday evening for over a decade. Many attendees do not RSVP on meetup. Please don't let the small number here discourage you. Anyone/everyone is welcome to come. We'd love to have you join us. COTA bus #5 comes to W. 5th and Wyandotte Rd. And it's a minute walk to the restaurant. Did you know that there are atheists everywhere?!?! You may not know it, but we are! We're in your schools, diners, police force, military, government, and some are even still in your churches! So come and join us and meet other local atheists, along with agnostics, heathens, humanists, skeptics, and anyone else who's 'hell bound'! Vision: a Central Ohio that accepts atheism as a viable alternative in all areas of public and private life. Mission: grow, support, and provide community for atheists in Central Ohio. Social meetings held most Tuesdays at a local pub/restaurant at 7:00 PM (and often into the wee hours). Attendees call themselves agnostics, skeptics, humanists, non-theists, deists or even theists. All attendees are welcome but should support our vision. Atheists of Columbus (AoC) is part of Omnipresent Atheists (OA). AoC members are invited to join this OA meetup and/or OA Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/omnipresentatheists/ ) but are free to continue conversations on the AoC Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/columbusatheists/ ). AoC was founded in 2012 as a networking, social group for Central Ohio area humanists, skeptics, atheists, agnostics, nonbelievers, freethinkers, and the curious. It was a member of Columbus CoR and held weekly meetings, mostly on Fridays, for several years but then operated as an online only group for some time. In November 2018, Omnipresent Atheists (OA), a group that routinely meets on Tuesdays, invited AoC to merge. Omnipresent Atheists is a member of the Columbus Coalition of Reason (ColumbusCoR.org). Omnipresent Atheists is a member of the Columbus Coalition of Reason ( http://www.ColumbusCoR.org ). Omnipresent Atheists endorses the mission of the Secular Coalition for America ( http://secular.org ). This group has been meeting every Tuesday evening for over a decade. Many attendees do not RSVP on meetup. Please don't let the small number here discourage you. Anyone/everyone is welcome to come. We'd love to have you join us.

Pay attention! We’re delaying a week for those of you who may be on Spring break and/or celebrating the holiday. Ok, no pancakes, but waffles-a-plenty. Join the local UX and Digital Design community for a casual monthly breakfast. Look for us upstairs!

Jimmy V's Grill & Pub in Grandview Heights. We meet in the bar in the room on the right (the cigar shop). You are responsible for your own meal/drinks. We usually don't have any agenda other than eat, drink and talk. :) If the weather is nice we will be on the back patio, otherwise we are in the cigar room. This group has been meeting every Tuesday evening for over a decade. Many attendees do not RSVP on meetup. Please don't let the small number here discourage you. Anyone/everyone is welcome to come. We'd love to have you join us. COTA bus #5 comes to W. 5th and Wyandotte Rd. And it's a minute walk to the restaurant. *** Did you know that there are atheists everywhere?!?! You may not know it, but we are! We're in your schools, diners, police force, military, government, and some are even still in your churches! So come and join us and meet other local atheists, along with agnostics, heathens, humanists, skeptics, and anyone else who's 'hell bound'! Vision: a Central Ohio that accepts atheism as a viable alternative in all areas of public and private life. Mission: grow, support, and provide community for atheists in Central Ohio. Social meetings held most Tuesdays at a local pub/restaurant at 7:00 PM (and often into the wee hours). Attendees call themselves agnostics, skeptics, humanists, non-theists, deists or even theists. All attendees are welcome but should support our vision. Atheists of Columbus (AoC) is part of Omnipresent Atheists (OA). AoC members are invited to join this OA meetup and/or OA Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/omnipresentatheists/ ) but are free to continue conversations on the AoC Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/columbusatheists/ ). AoC was founded in 2012 as a networking, social group for Central Ohio area humanists, skeptics, atheists, agnostics, nonbelievers, freethinkers, and the curious. It was a member of Columbus CoR and held weekly meetings, mostly on Fridays, for several years but then operated as an online only group for some time. In November 2018, Omnipresent Atheists (OA), a group that routinely meets on Tuesdays, invited AoC to merge. Omnipresent Atheists is a member of the Columbus Coalition of Reason (ColumbusCoR.org). Omnipresent Atheists is a member of the Columbus Coalition of Reason ( http://www.ColumbusCoR.org ). Omnipresent Atheists endorses the mission of the Secular Coalition for America ( http://secular.org ).

**The Data-Driven Brand: Using Analytics to Shape Perception** Can you use analytics to improve tacos? This being CBUSDAW, we think the answer is probably “yes”, but we’re not sure how to implement or test this theory. For our April meetup we’ve got Sara Kear, CMO of Condado Tacos, to investigate this delicious question. Sara will explore how she blends quantitative data and qualitative customer feedback to shape brand positioning and drive business decisions. We all know that marketing and analytics go way beyond attribution. Sara will show how Condado uses customer insights to inform product and pricing strategy. She’ll also highlight how Condado leverages customer feedback at scale to influence operational priorities, positioning marketing as the voice of the customer across the organization. In the last 12 years Condado has gone from one location in Columbus to 52 locations across 10 states, so we’re guessing there’s more to that growth than really good guac (though the guac probably helps). Ultimately, this talk focuses on the intersection of art and science—using data to inform creativity and build a brand that resonates with customers in a measurable way. **About Our Speaker** Sara Kear is Chief Marketing Officer at Condado Tacos, where she oversees brand, restaurant design, menu and pricing strategy, off-premise including catering, and customer data strategy. Since joining in 2021, she has helped grow the brand from 19 to 52 locations while building a data-driven marketing organization focused on loyalty and customer insights. Condado has since been named to the Inc. 5000, recognized as Breakout Retailer by Chain Store Age, and consistently ranked among FastCasual’s Top 100 Movers & Shakers. Thanks to our 2026 sponsors: [Clarivoy](https://www.clarivoy.com), [What Box Consulting Group](https://www.whatboxconsultinggroup.com), [Conductrics](https://www.conductrics.com), and [Piwik PRO](https://piwik.pro) More info at [cbusdaw.com](https://cbusdaw.com)