Beyond the Chat: Designing AI Workflows with Pydantic AI

Welcome to our next Python Meetup! Whether you're a seasoned developer or just beginning your Python journey, this event is designed to help you dive deeper into the language, meet fellow enthusiasts, and share insights. We’ve lined up an exciting main technical talk that will showcase innovative ideas in Python, followed by lightning talks where community members present quick, interesting projects or tips. It’s a great opportunity to learn, network, and collaborate.

Feel free to grab some refreshments, get comfortable, and get ready for an engaging evening of Python!

Date: 18 August, 2026
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: Improving, 10111 Richmond Ave. # 100, Houston, TX 77042

### Welcome and Networking

• Time: 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM
• Description: Attendees check in, grab refreshments, and network with fellow Python enthusiasts.

### Opening Remarks

• Time: 6:30 PM – 6:40 PM
• Speaker: Dillon Niederhut
• Description: Brief introduction to the event, agenda rundown, and announcements.

### Main Technical Talk

• Time: 6:40 PM – 7:20 PM
• Title: Beyond the Chat: Designing AI Workflows with Pydantic AI
• Speaker: Brian Newman
• Description: Most people experience large language models through chat interfaces, using them as personal tools to answer questions, generate content, and complete individual tasks. But an LLM can also operate behind the scenes as one component of a larger application or business process. This talk introduces Pydantic AI and explores the shift from conversational interfaces to structured, workflow-driven applications. Using a completed invoice-processing project as a practical case study, we’ll follow an unstructured document through extraction, typed outputs, external system lookups, business-rule validation, and human review. Along the way, we’ll examine where LLM reasoning adds value to traditional automation and where ordinary Python code should remain in control.
• Bio: Brian Newman is a hands-on development and data engineering leader who builds Python-based data platforms, integrations, internal applications, and AI-enabled automation. His work spans FastAPI, Pydantic, Prefect, Databricks, and document-intelligence workflows, with a focus on creating systems that are typed, observable, and reliable enough for real operational use. He currently leads Development and Data Engineering at Cotton Holdings.

### Lightning Talks

• Time: 7:30 PM – 8:00 PM
• Description: 5-minute talks on various Python-related topics. Lightning talks are meant to be quick and informal, showcasing small projects, tools, or quick tips. Lightning talk sign-ups are at the event!
• Format: Each speaker has 4 minutes to present, followed by 1 minute for questions.