Artificial Intelligence

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

**\*\*\*\* More details and sign up at: https://aifalliance.org/summit-2026/ \*\*\*\*** **What is AI Freedom Alliance?** AI Freedom Alliance promotes the responsible growth of AI guided by practical, commonsense ethics. Our nonprofit is built by professionals from a wide range of industries and is made up entirely of small- and mediumbusiness representatives—never large tech companies. We provide a counterbalance to big corporate influence, focusing instead on how AI can benefit businesses and the world at large. **What’s Happening?** ***The inaugural AI Freedom Alliance Summit.*** This full-day event will explore how we can ensure AI is adopted responsibly through shared ethical standards that empower humanity. The summit will feature interactive and educational sessions led by thought leaders, technologists, policymakers, and advocates who are passionate about making AI fair, transparent, and beneficial for everyone. **Why Attend?** Learn about the legal and technical challenges with implementing AI solutions within your organization. Build better solutions while protecting your organization from legal and compliance risks. And learn how to think strategically about AI as a differentiation tool for your business. This summit is highly recommended for C-Suite leaders to learn as well as interact with each other and our sponsors.

NFT's are here to stay folks! This is a group for like minded people interested in understanding, leveraging, using, creating for, profiting from, trading too i suppose, NFT's.. everything around them, complexity, fear and exploits, best practices and more. **PLUS** This group will talk AI ART tools, techniques, artists, video, audio, prototypes and more in the AI assisted production space- ART specifically, but we can get into any aspect of some of the cooler things happening in AI in general.

Start the new year with your local IxDA pals. Join members of the Central Ohio UX and design community for our monthly breakfast.

* Who Can Attend * The Central Ohio .Net Developers Group meetings are free and open to the public! All developers; professional, student, and hobbiest are welcome and encouraged to attend. * When we meet * The Central Ohio .Net Developers Group meets on the 4th Thursday of every month. * Where we meet * Please check our Meetup group link below for location details! * Join our Meetup Group * https://www.meetup.com/Central-Ohio-NET-Developers-Group-CONDG/

Bill Darling, Director of Assistive Technology Ohio (AT Ohio), will address the purpose and function of AT Ohio. Of particular interest to our group is likely their Device Lending Library. As taken from their website, AT Ohio's mission is to help Ohioans with disabilities learn about or acquire assistive technology. Assistive Technology refers to devices, equipment or services that assist individuals with disabilities to function independently in the areas of work, home or school. AT Ohio is NOT a grants-giving or funding organization. They do not assist in financing the purchase of any assistive technology. If you need funding for a device, they might be able to direct you to resources that may provide funding, but they do not fund devices. Target audience for this group is persons who are visually impaired, especially those who have experienced recent loss, however, all are welcome, including family members and supports. Light refreshments will be served. You can also join the meeting by Conference Call at (518) 263-8851.

The January Ohio North Database Training user group meeting will be held on **January 6th, 2025 at 5:00PM**. This will be a **HYBRID** event and we will be joined online by **Jason Romans**. You're welcome to come meet in-person at our meeting location, the offices of Improving at **[6000 Freedom Square Dr,](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Improving/@41.4004167,-81.6614462,17z/data=!3m2!4b1!5s0x8830e5b8255c5919:0xd8297060eb68fe04!4m6!3m5!1s0x8830dc7a0fe35dc9:0xbfc4710ecadfc5c!8m2!3d41.4004127!4d-81.6588713!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3hkqp3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQzMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)** **[Unit 110,](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Improving/@41.4004167,-81.6614462,17z/data=!3m2!4b1!5s0x8830e5b8255c5919:0xd8297060eb68fe04!4m6!3m5!1s0x8830dc7a0fe35dc9:0xbfc4710ecadfc5c!8m2!3d41.4004127!4d-81.6588713!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3hkqp3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQzMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)** **[Independence, OH 44131](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Improving/@41.4004167,-81.6614462,17z/data=!3m2!4b1!5s0x8830e5b8255c5919:0xd8297060eb68fe04!4m6!3m5!1s0x8830dc7a0fe35dc9:0xbfc4710ecadfc5c!8m2!3d41.4004127!4d-81.6588713!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3hkqp3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQzMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)** [Teams Link ](https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_N2Q3ODVjM2YtNDQ1NS00MDBjLWI5MzYtNDQ3YmFlZjkzMjAx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22b966f302-6b93-4686-9041-c084635642c5%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2278c760cb-657f-46aa-bd2f-7066d9403bdb%22%7d)if anyone needs it after RSVP-ing for in person. If you would like to subscribe to our email list outside of Meetup, we have changed platforms recently and you will need to register [here in Kit ](https://ohio-north-data-training.kit.com/b8f036f615)instead to receive emails. Agenda: **5:00 PM EST**: Online and in-person meeting begins with a social hour. This is an unstructured hour where you can join us to catch up and meet other group members before the session starts. There will be food brought in for in-person attendees. **6:00 PM EST**: Updates and announcements, followed by our feature presentation. See below for presentation details. **7:30 PM EST**: Optionally after the main presentations, the in-person crowd may go out for snacks and drinks at a local establishment. We hope to see you there! Session Abstract **Data on Fire: A Hands-On Intro to Spark in Fabric** Curious about Apache Spark but not sure where to start? This hands-on session introduces you to Spark in Microsoft Fabric Notebooks—a powerful and accessible way to process and analyze big data using familiar tools in the Microsoft ecosystem. We’ll break down key Spark concepts like distributed computing, DataFrames, and lazy evaluation, then show how they come to life inside Fabric’s notebook experience. You’ll see practical demos that cover loading, transforming, and analyzing large datasets—while leveraging Fabric’s modern data stack, including OneLake, Dataflows, and Pipelines. You’ll also learn how to choose between Spark and pure Python notebooks in Fabric, based on execution needs, data integration, and use case fit. Whether you're a SQL pro, BI developer, or data engineer, this session will give you the tools and confidence to start using Spark in your own projects—no cluster management required. \*Please note, that we will be using Microsoft Teams for the online portion of this meeting. You may want to join a few minutes early to ensure you do not have any issues. If you are attending in person, there are large TVs at the office, and you do not need to bring a laptop or use Teams.