REFACTR.TECH

Join us for a casual happy hour at Westside Motor Lounge, a chance to connect with others across the Atlanta tech community in a relaxed, social setting.

This one is all about meeting new people, catching up with familiar faces, and having real conversations. It’s an easy way to expand your network and get plugged into the community.

If you’ve been to past events, come hang and reconnect. If you’re new, this is a great entry point — just show up, say hi, and join a conversation.

📍 Westside Motor Lounge
🕒 6 PM - 8:30 PM

Food and drinks will be available for purchase (everyone covers their own tab).

If you’ve been wanting to meet more people in the community or just get out and connect, we’d love to see you there.

Everyone participating in the REFACTR.TECH conference, events and Discord/Slack community—including, but not limited to attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at REFACTR.TECH, are required to agree to the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.

A joint build night from ReactATL, Atlanta JavaScript, VueATL, Modern Web Atlanta, and REFACTR.TECH — five communities, one room, no useful software produced.

Build for one of these

• Most Gloriously Useless — solves nothing, beautifully
• Best Demo Disaster — it worked ten minutes ago
• Worst Possible Interface — it functions. It shouldn't.
• I've Never Done This Before — first game, first 3D, first anything
• Overengineered Beyond Reason — 47 dependencies, one button

Pick a lane before you get here, or ignore them completely.

Who it's for
Anyone who writes code, at any level. Solo or on a team — find people when you arrive or keep to yourself, both work.
Build it by hand or let AI write the whole thing. We're honestly interested in both, and comparing how people went about it is half the point. If you've skipped hackathons because they felt competitive, start with this one. There is nothing to win.

How it works
Show up with a rough idea — at 60 minutes, deciding what to make after we start costs you a quarter of the jam.
At 8:00 we stop. Whoever wants to show theirs gets 90 seconds and the big screen. Live only, no slides. If it falls apart in front of everyone, that's the best outcome available to you.
Showing is optional. Nobody is going to make you.
Organizers and a few experienced devs will be floating the whole night — grab one when you're stuck, or just to talk an idea through.

Agenda

• 6:30 — Food, drinks, arrivals. Find a team or don't.
• 6:50 — Kickoff: categories, rules, demo signup
• 7:00 — Build
• 8:00 — Demos, 90 seconds each
• 8:25 — Hang until they kick us out

What to bring
A laptop. That's genuinely it — food and drinks are covered.

When & Where
📅 Wednesday, September 23, 2026
⏰ 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
📍 Improving Offices · 11675 Rainwater Dr #100, Alpharetta, GA

Everyone participating in the REFACTR.TECH conference, events and Discord/Slack community—including, but not limited to attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at REFACTR.TECH, are required to agree to the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.

• Tons of food options inside the market
• Easy, low-pressure networking
• No agenda—just lunch and convo

Finding Us
Look for the tables with the REFACTR.TECH signs and come say hi.

Parking & Getting There

• On-site parking garage and surface lot available
• All visitors must register and pay for parking when they arrive
• Pay by scanning a QR code, texting a code, or using pay stations in the garage
• Garage rates start around $4 for the first hour before 4 pm
• Surface lot has a 3-hour max stay during the day
• For more parking and transit details, see the Krog Street Market website: https://www.thekrogdistrict.com/visit

Come as you are, bring a friend, grab something tasty, and let’s build community over lunch.

If you have trouble finding us or have questions, drop a comment on the Meetup.com page or ask in the #ask-us channel in our Discord.

Everyone participating in the REFACTR.TECH conference, events and Discord/Slack community—including, but not limited to attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at REFACTR.TECH, are required to agree to the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.

Speakers
Anjie Adeyemo — Lead Advanced Analytics, AT&T
Down the Rabbit Hole: Real-World Workflows With GitHub Copilot
AI isn't magic, but it can be a workflow multiplier if you learn to use it intentionally. Anjie shares how she actually uses GitHub Copilot day to day, what she calls "vibe coding": editing scripts, debugging, brainstorming, and speeding up the small tasks that quietly eat your time. She'll walk through real examples of exploring solutions and experimenting with ideas, plus how to go down the AI rabbit holes responsibly by asking better questions, iterating on prompts, and challenging the output instead of trusting it blindly. Expect an honest look at what's working with Copilot, what isn't, and how to get more value from AI without becoming dependent on it.

Anjie is a lead advanced analytics professional who loves experimenting with AI tools to make coding and everyday workflows more efficient. She works with SQL, automation, and data pipelines, and enjoys sharing practical lessons from her learning journey while keeping the human developer in the driver's seat. Outside of work, she mentors students through Girls Who Code.

Dwane Hemmings — Developer Advocate, Vonage
Drop In, Keep Coding: Let Web Components Do the Heavy Lifting
Building real-time video into your app shouldn't require learning every intricate detail of the SDK. Ideally, you just drop in where you'd like your and other participants' videos to appear, then keep building, regardless of which JavaScript framework you're using. We'll do just that in this talk with open-source Web Components: you'll see before-and-after code, interact through live in-session polls, and leave knowing exactly how to add video to your next project without the heavy lifting.

Hi, I'm Dwane. Long-time hobby coder turned professional. I'm a JavaScript Developer Advocate at Vonage

Jay Miller — Developer Advocate & Founder, Black Python Devs
Creating a Global Community Platform With Django
Over the last three years, Black Python Devs has grown from helping more Black Pythonistas get to conferences into a major sponsor of Python conferences around the world. That growth forced a rethink of the tech stack. Jay shares the why and how behind migrating from a static site, and away from commercial tools, to Django in order to better serve members, student ambassadors, and the events the community supports.

Jay is a keynote speaker, developer advocate, and founder of Black Python Devs. With over a decade of serving developers as a meetup and workshop organizer, he currently works as a Staff Developer Advocate at Aiven.

What to expect

• Talks on open source and modern dev tooling from people doing the work
• Time to connect across Atlanta's tech communities
• Food and drinks, on us (thanks to our friends at Vonage)

When: Tuesday, October 20, 2026 · 6:30 to 8:30 PM
Where: Tech Square ATL

This is a joint meetup with REFACTR.TECH and our partner communities:

• Atlanta JavaScript
• React ATL
• Modern Web
• Atlanta Vue.js

Food and drinks sponsored by Vonage.

Everyone participating in the REFACTR.TECH conference, events and Discord/Slack community—including, but not limited to attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at REFACTR.TECH, are required to agree to the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event.