AI Engineer November Meetup

Ready to level up your AI game with the real-world knowledge you need to ship? This month, we're diving deep into two of the most critical aspects of building production AI systems: evaluation and tool integration. How do you know if your model is actually working? What metrics matter when you're moving from POC to production? And once you're ready to ship, how do you securely connect your AI systems to the external tools and data sources they need?

Join us for an evening packed with practical insights from the trenches. Eric Ness, Lead AI Engineer at Blank Metal, will share his recap of the comprehensive AI Evaluation course from Parlance Labs. Eric has built several AI-driven products at scale and knows firsthand the challenges of getting AI projects from proof-of-concept to production reality.

Then we'll dive into lessons from Anthropic's own engineering team with a recorded video from the 2025 AI Engineer Summit. We'll watch John Welsh's talk "Remote MCPs: What We Learned from Shipping" - a deep dive into the architecture, authentication, and engineering decisions behind enabling secure, scalable tool integrations for AI systems.

Whether you're debugging evaluation pipelines, trying to convince stakeholders your model is ready to ship, or architecting secure connections between AI agents and external tools, this session will arm you with actionable techniques that actually work in the real world.

Agenda
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
🥨 4:00 PM – Doors open + snacks and networking
🎤 4:30 PM – Eric Ness presents: AI Evaluation Deep Dive
📺 5:10 PM – AI Engineer Summit video: "Remote MCPs: What We Learned from Shipping" by John Welsh (Anthropic)
💬 5:30 PM – More networking and discussion
🚗 6:00 PM – Go home and build

Parking
Multiple parking options available:

• Riverplace parking ramps ($2/hour, 24/7 access)
• Metered street parking on surrounding streets ($1-2/hour)
• Surface lots near Nicollet Island Inn

What to Bring
Just yourself! We've got everything covered.

Snacks + Drinks
Snacks and beverages will be provided at 4:00 PM courtesy of our sponsor, Blank Metal Consulting.

Important to Know
Please register in advance - this event is free to attend but we need to plan for capacity.

Accessibility
The Garamond Conference Room is wheelchair accessible through the attached Riverplace parking ramp or the FRGMNT coffee shop entrance on Main St.