NWA TechFest - Monthly Meetup

Join the volunteers of NWA TechFest at GOAT LAB Brewery in Lowell, AR for free drinks and great conversations with other STEM professionals in Northwest Arkansas.

Event Info
May 28th, 2025
6:00pm - 9:00pm

Event Presentation
6:15pm - 7:00pm
Jay Shah - "Different Gen AI Cloud Services"

Presentation Description:
It will include a co-speaker [who will be included when I have more information on them - editor] and have some demo + exercise as well.

Do you have something you want to share? If so, submit a presentation!

Community Q&A
7:00pm - 7:15pm

Join us for this post-presentation Q&A segment to hear about upcoming events and opportunities in the area. Share what you know! Have a job opening? Describe it. Need help finding one? Ask.

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This recurring volunteer-organized event was created to give NWA STEM professionals the opportunity to meet, learn, and grow with one another to create a more connected community.

Event History
See our persistent Social Event page for more information on our current and future presenters, including some slides and other downloadable content.

Schedule
While most of this social event is free-form dialog amongst attendees, there are two times where we will ask for your attention:

From approximately 6:15pm to 7:00pm, there may be a presentation from a community member. Past presentations have mostly consisted of slides projected onto a prepared wall of the brewery. Audio is projected from a microphone setup. We are currently investigating providing continuous access to our presentation content after the event, but it is currently unavailable.

From approximately 7:00pm to 7:15pm, event organizers will be focus attendees on a group Q&A session on various topics. Topics could include attendee job-type surveys, attendee preferences for future events, notices other social/STEM groups in the area, and anything else that seems interesting. Attendees be invited to ask questions to the group as well.

Feel free to share any job openings you may know about. If you're searching for a job, feel free to try and market yourself to the audience to see if they have any opportunities they can share with you.

Refreshments
NWA TechFest will be providing a limited drink tab for attendees during the event. Swing by the organizing table to get the tab name. Food is the responsibility of attendees because the pizza is good and it gets expensive quickly. Everyone is encouraged to consume water continuously throughout the evening.

GOAT LAB Brewery has at least like 10 types of beer, some wine, various seltzers, and water.

Parking
There's parking available at Goat Lab Brewery, but if that runs out then you can feel free to park at The Grove, which is a comedy club owned by the same people that is just across the street to the south. As the meetup grows, carpooling is heavily encouraged.

Organizers
This event is organized by NWA TechFest Inc, a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit that has existed in NWA for over a decade. We are a people-focused organization and have a variety of invested volunteers who help run the event every month.

Our event organizers can usually be found day-of either wearing NWA TechFest branded shirts or hanging out around the NWA TechFest table we have set up at the front of the brewery area.

If you would like to join us in organizing this event, would like to sponsor this event, or would just like to say hi, please seek us out.

Notes
- Feel free to come if you are recruiter, but try to keep any hard pitching to the Q&A segment we have regularly scheduled. Don't be surprised if someone asks about salary ranges and benefits.

- Because this event will be in a public establishment, we have no active COVID policies besides encouraging attendees not to show up if they are sick and to wear a mask at all times if they have active health concerns in regards to the virus.

- If you would like to get involved with organizing or supporting this event series, visit the NWA TechFest website listed below.

NWATechFest:
https://nwatechfest.org/
GOAT LAB Brewery:
https://goatlabbrewery.com/beer-food-menus