Lightning Talks

We’re excited to share our initial line-up for Practically AI Lightning Talks — a fast-paced evening of short, practical sessions from engineers using AI in real workflows. Expect real demos, honest lessons, and actionable takeaways you can use immediately.

Confirmed Lightning Talks

Samia Durrani — AI for good: how to prevent cyberattacks using AI
A practical look at how AI can help detect, mitigate and prevent real security threats — from common attack patterns to defensive automation ideas you can try today.

Chinaza Chukwunweike — Anatomy of an AI Agent: How Autonomous Systems Learn to Think and Act
A deep dive into how AI agents are structured, how they make decisions, and what patterns you can adopt when building autonomous workflows.

Charles Anthony Browne — AWS Bedrock: Simple & Cost-effective Tools for AI Automation
Concrete tips for architecting cost-efficient automation with AWS Bedrock — including orchestration patterns and avoiding unnecessary spend.

Saeed Esmaeelinejad — From Stateless Prompts to Stateful Intelligence: Embedding AI into .NET Applications
Walk through turning simple prompts into stateful behaviours in .NET apps — including practical patterns and pitfalls.

Mia McMillan — How Claude Code Transformed My PM Workflow
A grounded story of using Claude Code to speed up planning, task breakdown and prioritisation — with examples you can adapt to your own team.

What to Expect

This session brings together short, focused talks followed by social time and networking. You’ll enjoy a friendly, inclusive atmosphere with opportunities to chat with speakers and peers throughout the evening.

Agenda

18:30 – Doors open, pizza & refreshments
18:50 – Welcome & brief format overview
19:00 – Lightning Talks begin (15 min per talk)
20:30 – Social & networking
21:00 – Close

Who Should Attend

Practising software engineers, platform/DevOps engineers and engineering leaders interested in practical AI applications — from workflow automation to developer tooling, observability, and secure operations.

Why It’s Worth Attending

This format gives you multiple real-world examples in one night, with presenters focused on hands-on outcomes. It’s about what actually works — and what to avoid — when applying AI in engineering contexts.

Entry

Upon arrival at Matillion please check in at reception and you’ll be directed to the meetup space.