PaaS (Platform as a Service)

**A software engineers guide to LLMs** In this talk Richard Conway will break down what LLMs are layer by layer, how they work, how they use software principles to work and how to use them in software. This will be a fluid talk with a lot of philosophy, maths from school and how to build your software understanding things like hallucinations and new techniques that can make your management of LLMs more deterministic. We'll consider a lot of things here including the new code generation tools which have developers quivering in their boots, what they mean for our industry and how to use them for effect. Lots of mini-demos and great discussions, good people, beer and pizza! **About the speaker** Richard Conway co-founded the user group, along with Andy Cross, Joe Hancock and Chris Parsons. He is a Microsoft AI MVP and a Microsoft Regional Director and has been writing software in one form or another since his fingers were large enough to hit a ZX81 keyboard.

Registration Portal: [Event Registration Portal](https://luma.com/cclondon26?utm_source=sherif) About Event ​"Why are there no coffeeshops open late? But what if I want to co-work at night?!?" - everyone on Twitter ​Cerebras is excited to present, Cafe Compute. The first, late-night pop-up coffeeshop with a barista bar ☕️, cozy snacks and couches 🛋️, and more. ​​​​​​This event is brought to you in collaboration with OpenAI. ​​Cerebras is the world’s fastest AI inference, up to 15x faster than leading GPUs. Cerebras Inference is powered by our Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE-3) - the world's largest AI chip. Experience the speed for yourself with OpenAI Codex-Spark, powered on Cerebras, and get free compute at cerebras.ai. Location Please register to see the exact location of this event.

Want to Join this League? Sign up as individual and we will find you a team or bring your own team [Join a League](https://www.basketble.com/leagues/join-a-league/) Welcome to our League 🙂 We want you to have fun and enjoy every session so we will do our best to make this happen. You can also help us achieve that by showing respect and be friendly to other players. We are here to help all the basketball players in the world find a place to play basketball anywhere, anytime and help basketball organisers promote their basketball session. Together we can change the world ! Details: Day: Every Tuesday Time: 19.00 or 20.00 (1hr session) Cost: £12/per week Format: 5 x 5 Level: Intermediate No. of Weeks: Min. 7 Includes: video highlights, referees, photos, awards… Address: Opposite 6 Harley Grove, Bow, London, E3 2AT, UK Directions: Closest metro Mile End Game Setup: 1 hour games (up to 10 minutes warm up) Each team plays each other twice You have one time out per game You have 5 team fouls You can play in the same team with your friends or we will place you in a team Only Accredited Basketball England Referees [Join a League](https://www.basketble.com/leagues/join-a-league/) Rules & Regulations: Treat each other with respect Do not forget to smile. You need to have fun Zero tolerance to fights No food or drinks If you feel unwell please do not attend the event Highly recommended to be vaccinated for Covid A coach, referee or supervisor will attend the session Please bring your own ball, if you have one Discounts: Introduce Basketble to a friend and you ll get a free game once your friend plays twice to any of our sessions Follow us on instagram and facebook and get promo codes to receive from 10% to 100% discount Play regular in our sessions and get loyalty discounts Become a basketball organiser and you can play for free For any questions issues send an email to info@basketble.com or send a whatsapp to +447843098012 or +306956603886/ +306945897501 [Join a League](https://www.basketble.com/leagues/join-a-league/)

**Venue:** Riverbank House, 2 Swan Ln, London EC4R 3AD **Please note:** 1\. 🚨🚨🚨 A valid photo ID is required by building security\. 🚨🚨🚨 2\. This event follows the [NumFOCUS Code of Conduct](https://numfocus.org/code-of-conduct). Please familiarise yourself with it before attending. If your RSVP status says "You're going" you will be able to get in. No need to show your RSVP confirmation when signing in. If you can no longer make it, please unRSVP as soon as possible. **Code of Conduct:** This event follows the NumFOCUS Code of Conduct. Please get in touch with the organisers with any questions or concerns. As always, there will be free food and drinks, generously provided by our host, Man Group. **Main Talks** 1. **[Nicoleta Lazar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleta-lazar-921a6864/) Query federation in modern OLAP databases** As analytics ecosystems grow more diverse, organisations increasingly need to query data across warehouses, data lakes, and operational systems without excessive data movement or duplication. **Query federation** has become essential by enabling unified SQL access and intelligent predicate pushdown into heterogeneous sources. This talk introduces the core principles of federation and why it matters for modern OLAP workloads. Using StarRocks as a model system, we highlight its vectorised execution engine, native connectors, and deep Apache Iceberg integration that together deliver high-performance lakehouse querying. 2. [Ben Guerin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjhguerin/) **How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let Claude Code Write the Python [the story of [ismypubfucked.com](http://ismypubfucked.com/ "http://ismypubfucked.com")]** 43,000 pubs. Official VOA data. One question. [ismypubfucked.com](http://ismypubfucked.com/ "http://ismypubfucked.com") got 400k visits in two weeks and wall-to-wall media coverage: from the Mirror to the Telegraph to City AM. I'm not a Python developer. I used Claude Code to wrangle government spreadsheets, match them to OpenStreetMap, and ship a working site. All in less than 6 hours from initial idea to a live website. The AI wrote the Python, I just knew what story the data could tell. This talk covers what happens when tools like Claude Code unlock Python for people who think in narratives rather than syntax, and what a decade of building viral campaigns has taught me about making people actually give a shit about spreadsheets. **Lightning Talks** 1. **TBC** 2. **TBC** \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **Logistics** Doors open at **6.30 pm** (get there early as you'll need to sign in with building security). Talks start at **7:00 pm**, with drinks afterwards from **9:00 pm** at The Banker (EC4). We have reduced capacity for this event, but there will be plenty of people to discuss data science questions with. Please unRSVP in good time if you realise you can't make it. We're limited by building security on the number of attendees, so please free up your place for your fellow community members. If you want me to trim lightning talks down to two or shorten any abstracts, say which ones.

Tuesday 9pm casual football at a great 3G football pitch next to Stratford and Leyton stations - 1 hour game - Normal 11 a-side rules - No shouting, no aggressive behavior - Book your spot online via Footy Addicts website - www.footyaddicts.com (http://www.footyaddicts.com/) - Book via Footy Addicts Mobile App (available on Google & App stores for FREE) ------------------------------------ All bookings are managed via Footy Addicts website ONLY! footyaddicts.com We do not use Meetup any more to manage our attendance list. Please sign up on Footy Addicts and confirm your attendance online!

Vibe Coding Collective is teaming up with **ElevenLabs** to push the boundaries of sound-first vibe coded apps. For one night, we’re getting full access to their tech to explore what’s possible when vibe coding meets voice and music generation. Whether you want to build a voice-controlled game, an AI storyteller, or a children’s app, this is your playground. Use any tools you like (Lovable, Google AI Studio, v0, Cursor, Replit…) and plug in ElevenLabs' power. 🍻 **Format 🛠️** We’ll be teaming up in small groups (2–3 people). We'll provide a specific "Voice & Vibe" challenge, then it’s heads-down building. The goal is to **vibe, experiment with sound, and see how voice and music changes the way we interact with vibe coding**. ## New to vibe coding or voice tech? ✨ No worries! We’ll provide a special **ElevenLabs Starter Kit** with API recipes and prompt examples so even total beginners can get an AI talking in minutes. ## Schedule 🕒 *(Aim to arrive by 6:50 PM so we can get your API access sorted!)* * 7:00 – ElevenLabs Presentation & Tech Demo * 7:20 – The Challenge + Team Formation 🤝 * 7:30 – Round 1: Build & Hear 💻 * 8:15 – Break (Grab a drink, hear what others are cooking) 🍺 * 8:30 – Round 2: Polish & Play 🏗️ * 9:00 – The "Vibe Check" Demos 📺 (Show/Hear what you built!) * 9:20 – Hang out, network, make friends ✌️ ## Who is it for? Anyone! Curious coders, GameDevs, artists, musicians, sound designers, voice actors, entrepreneurs. If you’ve ever wanted to talk to your computer (and have it talk back), you belong here. ## What to bring: * Laptop! 💻 * Headphones (Essential for testing those voice vibes!) 🎧 * Vibes ⚡ ## Location 📍 London College of Political Technology Newspeak House 133-135 Bethnal Green Road London E2 7DG 👉 No gatekeeping. No silence (this time). Just new voices and friends! Disclaimer: By signing up, you consent to the collection and sharing of your name, email address, photos, videos, and software, unless you explicitly opt out by informing the organizers.

April Edition ✨✨! We will be at Kraken Tech (Octopus Energy Group), London office! (in-person only event, no streaming) **Talks:** **Digitising Historical Caving Data with Django** - *Andrew Northall* Building an automated pipeline with Django which can extract, structure and publish 2,700+ historical printed reports from scanned PDF copies. *Andrew Northall* is a Python & Django specialist who maintains several open source Django projects/services for the caving and amateur radio communities. **llms.txt for Django: what works** - *Thibaud Colas* The llms.txt format is an emerging standard to structure information for Large Language Models. It’s a desirable addition to the docs of Python packages. Let’s review how to adopt it! We’ll discuss the fundamentals of the format and its benefits as a user of the docs, and as a maintainer. How to produce and consume those files across different tools (Sphinx, mkdocs, Django). How to optimize them for different LLMs with an eval suite. Tools and techniques you should be able to reuse through other engineering tasks with LLMs. *Thibaud Colas* works at Torchbox as developer, core contributor to the Wagtail CMS build on Django. **Want to share your Django or Python knowledge?** We’d love to feature your talk! Just fill out our [speaker form](https://forms.gle/LkaRdKVTF9ApbrEq7) to propose a talk! **Agenda:** • 6:15pm Doors open, socialising • 6:30pm Food and drinks offered by our sponsor • 7:00pm Doors close \*\* • 7:15pm Introduction, News, Talks • 8:30pm Socialising • 9:30pm Fin **Please make sure to arrive between 6:15 PM and 6:55 PM**. If you arrive earlier than 6:15 PM or later than 6:55 PM, you can take a seat in the seating area located in the downstairs reception. **Please note that we cannot accommodate arrivals after 7:15 PM.** Our meetups are governed by a [Code of Conduct](https://www.djangolondon.com/code-of-conduct/). Please take a few minutes to read it. This meetup is sponsored by: • [Kraken Tech (Octopus Energy Group)](https://kraken.tech/): "Kraken is a revolutionary energy tech platform built with predominantly Python & Django. We Serve 54 million households worldwide and have 38GW of contracted capacity." • [JetBrains](https://www.jetbrains.com/): "We make professional software development a more productive and enjoyable experience." Website: [https://djangolondon.com](https://djangolondon.com/) BlueSky: [@djangolondon.com](https://bsky.app/profile/djangolondon.com) Github: [github.com/djangolondon](https://github.com/djangolondon/) Open Collective: [opencollective.com/the-london-django-meetup-group](https://opencollective.com/the-london-django-meetup-group/)

**Important:** Register on the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026040809) is required for admission. **RSVP on meetup is turned off** Enjoy afterwork drinks and practical discussions on Apache Kafka, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL and much more. Enjoy a session designed for data engineers, architects and technical decisions-makers like you, who want to address the challenges they face in data-infrastructure. No high-level pitches but straight into practical discussions on how to build scalable, efficient open sourced-powered data platforms. **Why Attend?** * Connect with local data and tech professionals * Get practical insights into streaming, storage, and analytics with Kafka, Iceberg, PostgreSQL, and ClickHouse * Learn how to reduce operational overhead while scaling your data infrastructure performance * Bring your questions and challenges for direct discussions with Aiven experts **Agenda:** * 4:00pm\~4:30pm: Checkin, Food, Networking * 4:30pm\~6:00pm: Tech talks and Q&A * 6:00pm\~7:00pm: Happy hour, Open discussion, Networking * **Tech Talk: Context Is the New Infrastructure** **Speaker:** Stan Dmitriev (Aiven) **Tech Talk: Apache Kafka on Aiven** **Speaker:** Hugh Evans (Aiven)

Elixir London Meetup; February 2026 edition. All are welcome. **Session 1: Anton Borisov - Distilling Kafka's Binary Protocol into Elixir** We'll trace a produce request to show what any Kafka client has to get right. In the BEAM ecosystem, erlkaf wraps librdkafka, brod implements the protocol in Erlang, and [kafka_ex](https://hex.pm/packages/kafka_ex) goes pure Elixir. Kafka_ex's approach is to generate serializers at compile time from Kafka's own schema definitions: plain structs, pattern matching, structural boilerplate isolated from the logic you actually think about. That design is what let us jump two major versions ahead and adapt to significant protocol changes. Let's dig into the idea, the code, and the tradeoffs. **Session 2: Evadne Wu** **\- JavaScript Execution Strategies in Elixir\-based Agent Frameworks** We'll look at integration points between elixir agents (in the AI fashion) and JavaScript execution, and all the foot guns involved. *The event is kindly sponsored by* [Fresha](https://www.fresha.com). **Time** Doors open at 18, start at 18.30. **Venue** Fresha The Bower, 207-211, Old St, Tower, London EC1V 9NR **Refreshments** Food and drinks will be provisioned on the day. **IMPORTANT**: **If you wish to take photos and post online during the event, please notify organisers first, so that attendees can opt-out from being in photos.**

Hi friends, Off to a great start! Our first event made one thing clear, we got together because we all agree it’s surprisingly hard to meet others in our field outside of work or a commercial conference. As a smaller group, we make meaningful connections with like-minded actuaries and quants. Lifelong friendships are forged along the way! Whether you're a veteran, a rising star, or simply new in town and want to expand your social circle, get into the insurance and banking space, or see a friend you know, this is the place to be! No guest speakers nor rigid agenda, just a casual meetup and lots of fun conversation! 🥳 We're also on Luma, so please follow us there too! [https://luma.com/friendly-actuaries](https://luma.com/friendly-actuaries) See you soon! NOTE: Please remember to bring your ID with you, as all guests must be of legal age to enter the venue. **About Us** We're a sister group of [The Friendly Data Meetup London](https://www.meetup.com/the-friendly-data-meetup/?eventOrigin=home_groups_you_organize), a bootstrapped 2000+ person group (and still maintains that small cozy vibe!). This one is focused on actuaries and quants :D 🤗 Welcome actuaries, quants and friends! Sometimes, it can be difficult to make friends within the field, and that's what we're all about! We're a group of like minded individuals who understand the highs and lows of working in finance and insurance. ✅ Our primary goal is to have higher quality conversations that are more meaningful, with smaller groups so that we get to spend more attention on each individual. 💯 If you're already reading this, you're definitely welcome! We welcome everyone, whether you're already in the field, looking to get started or just curious! 🗨️ Bring your friends, bring your plus ones, we're all just here to have a good laugh and a good chat about the world, even if it isn't always about our work. **Our values:** 📖 Openness - We welcome everyone 🤝 Trust - Build long-lasting friendships together 💝 Care - Be kind to others and help each other out **Who it's for:** \- Life Actuaries \- Non\-Life Actuaries \- Health Actuaries \- Pensions Actuaries \- Reinsurance Actuaries \- Quantitative Analysts \- Quantitative Traders \- Investment Bankers \- Portfolio Managers \- Financial Engineers \- Entrepreneurs\, Contractors \- Anyone who works with Insurance\, Pensions\, Hedge Funds\, Investment Banks\, Asset Managers etc\. \- Anyone looking to get into the space \- Friends **How to Make the Most of the Meetup** The Friendly Meetup for Actuaries and Quants has one simple purpose: meaningful connections. We're not just a community of people, we're friends who get invested in each others lives. We check in on our friends regularly, and personally. So come and join us, more than just once or twice! **Code of Conduct:** The Friendly Meetup welcomes all genders, nationalities, ethnicities, backgrounds, identities etc. There is a strict no discrimination policy in adherence to our code of conduct and our guiding principles. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for hateful or antisocial behaviour. In short, be kind to others. Do not insult or put down others. Behave professionally, don't make others uncomfortable. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for The Friendly Meetup.

We are back! This is going to be a monthly IN PERSON meet up in London. A very big thank you goes to Accurx who is hosting us in their amazing Shoreditch offices. This will include access to facilities including coffee! 😻☕️ **Want to know more? 👇** As with all CoffeeOps, this is an interactive, chatty, build your own adventure type of meet-up. Instead of booking in experts to *learn* *from*, we gather a group of practitioners to ***learn*** ***with***. We have been running for over 4 years now and often get feedback that this is the most useful meetup people join! The event is approximately 90 minutes and always starts by brainstorming topics to discuss. The group then votes on the most relevant/interesting to them and we then cycle through the topics trying to discuss each deeply, but in a time bound slot. To get an idea of topics, you can check out our remote board [here](https://easyretro.io/publicboard/h404NF84Uje4tCcxpJdHr4Ycs9B3/a4a35d2b-181b-409b-832e-a729be1af79c). The general gist is anything is fair game, though we tend to revolve around software delivery and definitely lean towards the more Ops-y or DevOps-y side of things.

PHP London Pub Social – April 9th, Jack Horner, Tottenham Court Road Join us for an informal PHP London pub social at the Jack Horner on Tottenham Court Road! We've got a reserved space from 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Thursday 9th April - a mix of seating and standing with a few tables. This is a relaxed, no-agenda evening — just good conversation with fellow PHP developers over a drink. Whether you're a long-time community regular or coming along for the first time, all are welcome. Places are limited.

The Databricks London Meetup is back after a short break, and we’re looking forward to bringing the community together again for another friendly, in-person evening of data, AI, and good conversation. Join us for a relaxed meetup where data and AI professionals can swap ideas, hear a couple of practical talks, and meet others working with Databricks in the real world. Whether you’re deep into the platform already or just keen to learn from the community, this is a great chance to pick up something useful and meet some excellent people along the way. This session will include the latest Databricks updates, a practical talk from the Advancing Analytics team on how they used Lakebase to power AI projects, and time for questions with the Databricks team before we round things off with pizza and networking. **17:30 - 18:00:** Arrival & Networking **18:00 - 18:10:** Opening Remarks & Introductions **18:10 - 18:30** What’s New in Databricks - Simon Whiteley **18:30 - 19:00** Building Better AI Projects with *Lakebase* \- Toyosi Babayeju from Advancing Analytics **19:00 - 19:15** Q&A with the Databricks team **19:15 onwards:** Pizza, Drinks & Networking *Join us for a fantastic evening of learning and networking at the London Databricks meetup!*

The global Azure community is coming together again, and Columbus is officially on the map. View the session lineup and speakers at [Global Azure Columbus 2026](https://coazure.github.io/cbus-global-azure-2026/) On **Saturday, April 18, 2026**, the Azure Columbus Meetup, DevOps Meetup, and Code and Coffee Meetup are hosting our local edition of Global Azure 2026. This is a free, community-driven event packed with learning, networking, and all things Microsoft Azure. Whether you’re building modern cloud-native apps, experimenting with AI agents, deploying containers, automating infrastructure, or just beginning your Azure journey, this event is for you! **What to Expect** * Engaging technical sessions * Real-world Azure architecture & cloud-native patterns * AI, agents, automation, and modern DevOps * Food and drinks (because learning burns calories) * Time to connect with fellow engineers, architects, and cloud enthusiasts **Who Should Attend?** * Software engineers (any language, any stack) * Cloud architects * DevOps engineers * Data professionals * AI explorers * Platform builders * Anyone who loves solving hard problems with great tools If you build, deploy, automate, scale, monitor, or optimize in Azure, you’ll feel right at home. **Why Global Azure?** Global Azure is a worldwide community event where Azure user groups host learning sessions on the same day across the globe. It’s grassroots. It’s technical. It’s practical. And it’s powered by people who genuinely love sharing what they’ve learned. And yes, it’s free to attend!

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.

Topic to be announced! **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/ **THANK YOU** *Leading EDJE* for hosting our meetup! Leading EDJE specializes in helping organizations innovate and solve complex problems. EDJE does this with their "A" player team of professionals using agile methodologies and SCRUM management techniques to give organizations a competitive advantage that sets them apart. Learn more at https://www.leadingedje.com/ **THANK YOU** *Amazon Web Services* for sponsoring pizza! Learn more at https://aws.amazon.com/. **DIRECTIONS** 6515 Longshore Loop, Suite 300 Dublin, OH 43017 (3rd floor) **FREE PARKING** at the Endres Garage across the street, 6540 Riverside Dr, Dublin, OH **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab for a future meetup?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

**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

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!

We're bringing the community together for a casual happy hour with ServiceNow-themed trivia, food and drinks, and great conversation. Details coming soon - for now, save the date and plan to join us for connection and fun.

AI is changing how art is made. But when does it stop being your work and start being the machine’s? This month we're going to be doing a panel with with digital image, music, and written word artists, talking about at what point, while using AI in the creation process, does the work become not the artist creation? We encourage audience participation during this event that will be moderated by Chris Slee. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services)