Lisbon Search and AI #1 Hosted by Arrow Electronics

Hi, and welcome to the official launch of the Lisbon Search & AI user group.

Below you will find the agenda + talk summaries
18:00 – 18:20: Arrivals, Networking, Food & Drinks
18:20 – 18:25: Welcome & Housekeeping
18:25 - 18:45: First Speaker - Kris Freedain, OpenSearch
18:50 – 19:15: Second Speaker - Carlos Rolo, NetApp Instaclustr
1920: – 19:45: Third Speaker - Afonso Mendes, Freelancer
19:45 – 20:00 Q&A, Wrap-up.
Talk 1: Community and Contribution:
Speaker: Kris Freedain - OpenSearch
Talk Summary: OpenSearch Community - learn about the project, the community, and different ways you can contribute and help it grow.
Talk 2: Search Meets AI — Connecting OpenSearch to LLMs for RAG, Agents, Memory, and AI Pipelines.
Speaker: Carlos Rolo - NetApp Instaclustr, Manager Open Source Contributions
Talk Summary: This session shows how to connect OpenSearch with large language models to build modern, AI-powered search. We'll cover practical examples of vector indexes, reranking, AI Search Pipelines. Beyond classic RAG, we'll demonstrate agentic workflows that use OpenSearch as a tool, add, if we have time new features like short- and long-term agent memory for context persistence, MCP, and flow agents.
Talk 3: Large Language Models and their role within the current Search & AI ecosystem
Speaker: Afonso Mendes
Talk Summary: This session looks beyond the buzz to question what large language models (LLMs) truly bring to the table, and where their limits lie. We will examine how these models fit within the broader ecosystem of Search and AI tools and how they relate with more traditional systems. From uncovering where LLMs shine to exposing where they do not, the discussion invites a clearer view of their real value in today’s landscape.