Analytics: Outcomes, Experimentation Intelligence

February CHAI meetup. [Petr Homola](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAIueyoBx8DWndiCJ61mJf7coQSQ_esAtH4) will talk on developing AI applications on the iPhone. and [James Ahearne](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesahearne/) on how AI tools can help speed up and improve software development. Come along for 2 talks on developing AI based products and also for chats in the pub afterward. Sponsored by [Stack and Co recruiters](https://stackand.co/)

We are delighted to collaborate with [Dublin C++](https://www.meetup.com/cppdug/) this month. We have one talk and it's about Python and [Blender](https://www.blender.org/)! We will be upstairs in Anseo. The talk will be followed by Q&A, a chance for you to follow up with the speaker, and for both communities to chat and exchange stories and experiences. **TALK DETAILS** **Title:** Python + Blender: Automating Creative Workflows by Carlos Alexandre **Description:** (15 mins + Q&A) This talk walks through the workflow of a computer graphics project, covering its main stages: fundamentals, modeling, lighting, materials, texturing, and rendering. We’ll explore how Python can be used inside Blender to automate parts of the modeling process, helping reduce repetitive tasks and improve efficiency across the pipeline. The session demonstrates how scripting can support procedural modeling, and scalable workflows, connecting creative production with technical automation. The talk is suitable for beginners and intermediate users interested in computer graphics, Blender, or Python, and no advanced scripting experience is required. ** THANKS** **Community Partners:** * [Coding Grace](https://codinggrace.com/) * [PSF](https://www.python.org/psf/): Meetup * [PyLadies](https://pyladies.com/) **FAQ** Note that all our events are 18s+. **Q. I'm not female, is it ok for me to attend?** A. Yes, PyLadies Dublin events are open to everyone at all levels. We encourage non-female attendees to suggest a female friend/colleague to sign up to the event. So bring a friend! ✨ **Q. Do you have a Code of Conduct?** A. Yes, you can find it at [dublin.pyladies.com](https://dublin.pyladies.com/) **Q. I am interested in giving a talk at PyLadies Dublin, where do I submit my interest and talk details?** A. You can submit your talk details to the following form: [https://sessionize.com/pyladies-dublin-meetup](https://sessionize.com/pyladies-dublin-meetup) Any other enquiries (e.g. getting involved, sponsoring), email [dublin@pyladies.com](http://dublin@pyladies.com%2A%2A/)

**PLEASE NOTE NEW START TIME 7 PM** Beauty is hard to deny while watching olympic skaters twirling acrobatically on the ice. Or meeting a newborn for the first time, or appreciating some stunning aspect of nature. But what about those experiences makes them beautiful? And what makes certain scenes, actions or events ugly? And why don't we all agree what's beautiful or ugly? Join us at Walters Cafe in Dun Laoghaire this Tuesday and bring your views with you; buy and drink at the bar and engage meaningfully with others in a civil discourse on beauty and ugliness.

TOG will be open on Tuesday evenings from 19:00 to 21:30 for a general Open House event. Expect to find members and visitors in the space up to all sorts of activities. It's a great time to drop in and see what the space is about. If you're an artist, tinkerer, maker or just plain curious, come in and see what the space is about. Maybe you already have something to work on (or want to), have something to fix, create, design, bodge or tinker... drop in. We're also open for just for plain old social chat and hang out, with plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits. We have lots of free parking right outside our door.

For February, the TOG Science Fiction Book Club is reading ***The Left Hand of Darkness* by Ursula K. Le Guin**. First published in 1969, this Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel remains one of the most important works in science fiction. Set on the icy planet of Gethen, it follows an envoy sent to persuade its inhabitants to join a galactic coalition. But the real story isn’t about technology — it’s about culture, politics, trust, and identity. On Gethen, gender works very differently from what we’re used to. Le Guin uses this unfamiliar world to explore themes of communication, loyalty, isolation, and what it really means to understand another society. It’s thoughtful, beautifully written, and guaranteed to give us plenty to talk about. **Tuesday, 24th February 2026** **7:30 pm** **TOG Hackerspace, Dublin 12** As always, you don’t need to finish the book to join in. New readers are very welcome — just bring curiosity (and maybe a warm coat, Gethen is cold).

**Overview** === He's back! For our February event, we are thrilled to welcome a special guest out of semi-retirement: John Ryan. As a former Snowflake employee and current Data Superhero, John has been there since the beginning. In fact, he and I co-hosted Ireland’s first-ever Snowflake event. Since the venue was a converted church, we called it the **"Church of Data."** It was the perfect setting to kick off our Snowflake evangelism. **Abstract** === Moving from on-premises data platforms to cloud isn’t just a technology change — it’s a cost and operating model shift. Many teams underestimate this and end up with performance issues, spiralling spend, or both. This session explains why traditional on-prem thinking breaks down in Snowflake, how Snowflake is designed to scale, and where customers commonly go wrong. Using real lessons from three large Snowflake customers, we’ll walk through: What “scale up” really means in Snowflake (and when not to use it) Three common mistakes that quietly drive cost and poor performance What actually worked in production — not theory, not marketing slides This is a practical, experience-based session aimed at engineers, architects, and technical leaders who want Snowflake to run faster without wasting money.

My name is Aurelie and I'm graduating with an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Limerick. I run monthly **machine learning** and **deep learning** tutorials in Dublin with a small group of people. \*\*In this tutorial, we will build a **CNN** model to classify images into categories, we will be using a public dataset. Together, we will walk through the full pipeline from data preprocessing to model training and evaluation. You will receive a jupyter notebook with reusable code showing all of these steps. No set up required, just a laptop and a google email address :) **The tutorials are limited to 15 participants and you can reserve your spot either here or by emailing aureliem219@gmail.com. Please make sure to book as soon as possible, as the registration count on Meetup does not guarantee availability.** **For more information about the tutorials:** * The tutorials are interactive and will be conducted using **Jupyter notebooks** on **Google Colaboratory** (a free, cloud-based platform that lets us write and run code directly in the browser). While **Google Colaboratory** is free to use, tasks that require more computational power (such as training deep learning models) may benefit from GPU access. In that case, Google offers a once-off payment for around €10 which can last several months depending on your usage. Some familiarity with **Python** or other programming languages is helpful but not required. Everyone is welcome to join and learn at their own pace. * The tutorial lasts for 1.5 hours. * During the tutorial, I share the Jupyter notebook with participants so they can keep it for future reference. We go through the notebook step by step together and I do my best to answer any questions along the way. * The notebook includes the complete code from data preparation to model training and evaluation. It can be reused or adapted for your own business needs or personal projects * We will be working with a variety of **Python** libraries including **Scikit-learn**, **PyTorch**, **TensorFlow**, **Keras**, **Seaborn**, **Pandas** and **Matplotlib** and the **Hugging Face** framework. These tools will help us explore different machine learning and deep learning techniques using publicly available datasets. * Each tutorial focuses on a different algorithm in depth. Topics covered include **linear regression**, **logistic regression**, **K-means clustering**, **decision trees**, **artificial neural networks (ANNs)**, **convolutional neural networks (CNNs)** for image classification, **object detection** and **natural language processing**. The goal is to break down each technique step by step, making it approachable and practical for real-world applications. This tutorial take place at the **Grafton Hotel, 32 Stephen Street Lower, Dublin 2** (We will be sitting in the lounge in the corner or on the right handside). It will run from **3 pm** to **4 pm**. **Grafton Hotel, 32 Stephen Street Lower, Dublin 2** * The tutorials are a high-level practical introduction to machine learning and deep learning and the emphasis on understanding how we process the data , train and evaluate a model with Python. We won't cover the mathematics behind it however some tutorials may have mathematical formulas as part of the algorithm explanation and some tutorials might have more complex data preprocessing as it depends on the datasets and the task we are doing. However the tutorials focus on the practical part! * *Payments need to be made in advance to secure your place and fees are non-refundable unless I need to cancel the event, in this case refunds will be made.*

Dublin Dataviz is delighted to welcome Andy Kirk as our first speaker of 2026! Andy is the founder of [Visualising Data](https://visualisingdata.com/) and works with [clients around the world](https://visualisingdata.com/clients) as a data visualisation design consultant and prolific [trainer](https://www.visualisingdata.com/training/). He is a a four-times published [author](https://www.visualisingdata.com/book/) and host of the ‘[Explore Explain](https://www.visualisingdata.com/podcast/)’ video and podcast series. In his talk, **The 7 Hats of Data Visualisation (Revisited!),** Andy will showcase the value and richness of data visualisation as a key literacy in this contemporary digital age. We all have a stake in this, whether that is through our roles as creators, consumers or coordinators, but it can appear to be a substantial challenge to fully embrace the multi-disciplinarity of this subject, whether as individuals or more generally across organisations. Framed as the ‘7 hats’ of data visualisation, Andy will look back over his 15+ years of experience developing an expertise in this subject to present his view of the major competency ‘ingredients' that make up the all-round talent recipe of a visualiser today. He will differentiate the knowledge required from skills necessary to demonstrate, the attitudinal maturity from the technical intelligence. He will also advise on some of the strategies that will help you continue to develop and refine your data visualisation literacy. Join us for what's going to be an amazing evening, with pints in Arthurs pub surely to follow.

Join us for an Apache Kafka® x Apache Flink® meetup on Wednesday February 25th from 6:00pm in Dublin hosted by Autodesk! **Venue:** Autodesk 1 Windmill Lane, 2nd Floor, Dublin D02 F206 **PLEASE BRING A FORM OF VALID ID AND REGISTER WITH YOUR DETAILS FOR SECURITY PURPOSES/BUILDING ACCESS. THANK YOU!** **Agenda:** * 6:00pm: Doors open * 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Food, Drinks & Networking * 6:30pm - 7:15pm: John Byrne, Sr. Manager, Partner Applied Solutions, Confluent * 7:15pm - 8:00pm: Rishayah Kumar Trivedi, Senior DevOps/SRE Engineer, Autodesk & Douglas Hobson, Principal DevOps/SRE Engineer, Autodesk * 8:00pm - 9:00pm: Additional Q&A and Networking **First Speaker:** John Byrne, Sr. Manager, Partner Applied Solutions, Confluent **Title of Talk:** Flink State: Design Choices You Can’t Undo *(on Confluent Cloud)* **Abstract:** A practical look at how state behaves when running Flink on Confluent Cloud, the early design decisions teams often underestimate (keyed state, TTLs, upgrades, reprocessing), and the kinds of problems that only show up months later. **Bio:** John Byrne is a Sr. Manager, Partner Applied Solutions at Confluent, the company founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka®. With a strong background in data engineering, John previously worked for Slice, Registers of Scotland, and Sopra Steria, where he specialized in event streaming, ETLs, and data governance. Passionate about GIS, mapping, and ETL processes, he has delivered talks at FOSS4G and developed production-grade ETL projects incorporating spatial data and mapping technologies. In his spare time, John enjoys playing golf and coaching his local youth rugby team. **Second Speakers:** Rishayah Kumar Trivedi, Senior DevOps/SRE Engineer, Autodesk & Douglas Hobson, Principal DevOps/SRE Engineer, Autodesk **Title of Talk:** To Production and Platform: Our Kafka Journey, DR Strategy, and Kafka-as-a-Service **Abstract:** In various organisations, multiple teams have historically had to build Kafka the hard way, spending months on security hardening, compliance validation, observability, and disaster recovery, often repeating the same work with inconsistent outcomes. The result is slow onboarding, duplicated effort, and operational silos that don’t scale as more streaming use cases come online. In this talk, we walk through our Kafka production journey on AWS MSK: how we began with a POC, what it really takes to make Kafka production-ready, and the key platform decisions we had to take to standardise the architecture and operations. We’ll then dive into disaster recovery for streaming applications where the hard problems aren’t just infrastructure failover, but event continuity and restoring pipelines under pressure. We’ll share our HA DR approach for Kafka-backed systems, including an active/passive regional strategy, and practical failover/failback considerations to minimise RPO/RTO. Finally, we’ll close with our Kafka-as-a-Service (KaaS) vision for Autodesk teams: self-service, policy-driven deployments and service tiers that let internal teams onboard in hours instead of months so the product teams can focus on building streaming features, while the platform provides consistent guardrails for security, reliability, and recoverability. Attendees will leave with a checklist of production-ready requirements for Kafka, a clear mental model for DR in streaming systems and a set of platform patterns for evolving towards Kafka-as-a-Service. **Bios:** **Rishayah Kumar Trivedi (Senior DevOps/SRE Engineer, Autodesk)** Rishayah is a Senior DevOps/SRE engineer at Autodesk's data streaming and processing platform team with 9+ years of experience building scalable cloud infrastructure and automating enterprise deployments. He holds industry-recognised credentials in AWS, Kubernetes, and DevOps, and has led many initiatives improving reliability, performance, and security through Shift-left approach, IaC and CI/CD best practices. **Douglas Hobson (Principal DevOps/SRE Engineer, Autodesk)** Douglas is an accomplished Principal Devops/SRE engineer in Autodesk's data streaming and processing platform team with extensive experience in cloud architecture, infrastructure automation, and systems reliability. With a proven track record at various firms, he has led global teams in building scalable, secure, and high-performing cloud environments. Skilled in AWS, IaC, and distributed systems, Douglas is recognised for his technical leadership, problem-solving expertise, and commitment to operational excellence. \*\*\* DISCLAIMER We are unable to cater for any attendees under the age of 18. If you would like to speak or host our next event please let us know! [community@confluent.io](http://community@confluent.io/)

We present a hands-on Demo from the Google Cloud Professional Architecture Exam Learning Path Location: 1 O'Connell Street Lower, North City, Dublin, D01 TX31

The next Dub\|Sec meetup will take place in the Dublin Workday offices on February 25\, 2026\. Workday are delighted to be hosting this Infosec event in conjunction with Dub\|Sec and the Women in Cybersecurity Community Association \(WICCA\)\. In order to ensure your place on the evening, please sign up through [this link](https://invites.envoy.com/group-invite/TQWwzJ2WyL5lED4D). We'll be there from 6.00pm. Our first speaker will start at around 7pm. **19:00 - Building a digital beehive: The cluster that wasn't real, but the attacks were** by Arnav Tripathy Kubernetes is everywhere now—and so are attacks against it. Misconfigurations, exposed APIs, and overly permissive RBAC have made clusters a prime target, while most security tools stop at scanning images and YAML instead of showing what attackers do after they get in. This talk introduces KubeDecoy – a lightweight, open-source Kubernetes honeypot built from familiar components: vcluster, Falco, Falcosidekick, and NGINX. The goal is simple: stand up a convincing fake cluster, expose realistic attack surfaces, and quietly observe how real adversaries interact with them. **19:40 - OffSec x AI : The Rise of Autonomous Pen-testing Agents** by Manav Bankatwala. As we are witnessing a shift from static security scanners to "Agentic AI", tools that don't just find signatures, but actively reason, plan, and exploit like a human hacker. This talk will explore the current state of AI in offensive security, using the open-source tool Strix as a live case study. If you would like to speak at any future Dub\|Sec\, please email us at [info@dubsec.ie](http://info@dubsec.ie/)! Join us for some drinks, food and general chat about infosec. Everyone is welcome whether you’re a pro, an amateur or just curious about the field!

**Disrupt Dublin returns on 26 February 2026, bringing sharp ideas and real conversations about the future of work.** Expect big bold ideas, brilliant conversations, and a room full of people who do not just talk about change, they build it. **[REGISTER THROUGH EVENTBRITE HERE](https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/disrupt-dublin-returns-february-26-2026-tickets-1976595846385)** What happens when you mix TED, Ignite, and a truth serum that removes all corporate gloss? You get Disrupt Dublin, a rapid-fire, idea-packed, community-powered evening. Speakers have five minutes. Twenty slides that automatically advance. Straightforward insights that challenge how we design work, lead teams, and shape talent in 2026 and beyond. If TED talks finally cut to the point and said what everyone is really thinking, this would be it. ### Why Attend **Get Energised** Ten big ideas delivered in a single evening. Hear from HR leaders, founders, researchers, and workplace innovators redefining the world of work. **Stay Ahead of the Curve** Discover how organisations are rewriting playbooks on culture, AI, talent, leadership, skills, and employee experience. **Expand Your Circle** This is the first Disrupt summit in Dublin since the Pandemic! Join us to celebrate the relaunch and rub shoulders (gently) with forward-thinkers from HR, Talent, Tech, People Ops, L&D, Consulting, and Leadership. These are the conversations that spark partnerships, job offers, and fresh opportunities. ### Agenda for 26 February 2026 5:00 to 6:00 Registration and Networking Drinks, canapés, and first connections. 6:00 to 6:15 Welcome and Opening Remarks Settle in. Things are about to get lively. 6:15 to 7:00 Lightning Talks Round One Fast, fearless five-minute sessions from inspiring voices in the workplace space. 7:00 to 7:15 Break Refresh. Decompress. Debate. 7:15 to 8:00 Lightning Talks Round Two More ideas. More energy. More “I am stealing that for Monday.” 8:00 to 8:30 Wrap Up and Final Networking Because the best conversations usually happen after the talks end. ### Speakers Speakers will be announced soon. ### Ready to Disrupt Dublin? If you are hungry for fresh thinking, curious about new possibilities, or tired of the same old workplace conversations, this event is for you. Join us for an evening that sparks action, connection, and meaningful change across the world of work.

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message **Chris (the organizer)** with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services)

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** *Spec-Driven Development with GitHub Spec-Kit: From Intent to Implementation* Spec-driven development flips the traditional workflow on its head: instead of code being the source of truth, the specification becomes the backbone of design, collaboration, and delivery. In this session, we’ll explore how GitHub Spec-Kit enables teams to treat specifications as first-class artifacts—living documents that drive architecture, implementation, and verification. You’ll learn how Spec-Kit helps teams clearly express intent using structured, version-controlled specs that live alongside code. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that starts with defining system behavior and constraints, then progressively refines those specs into testable, automatable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll show how specs can reduce ambiguity, improve cross-functional collaboration, and make design decisions explicit before a single line of production code is written. This talk will cover: --What spec-driven development is (and what it isn’t) --How GitHub Spec-Kit fits into modern developer workflows --Using specs to align product, engineering, and AI-assisted development --Real-world examples of turning specs into implementations with confidence Whether you’re building greenfield systems, integrating AI into your stack, or trying to reduce costly rework, spec-driven development offers a scalable way to move faster without sacrificing clarity. Attendees will leave with concrete patterns and a clear mental model for adopting GitHub Spec-Kit in their own projects. **YouTube Link** TBA

Excited to share that AWS Cloud Club's first meeting will take place on Thursday, February 26th at 5pm - 6pm! We’re collaborating with [Big Data & Analytics Association](https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-data-analytics-association/) to host [Alok Jha](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alok-jha-42abb928/), Head of Product Management for AWS Intelligent Application Protection at Amazon Web Services, for a tech talk + Q&A on his journey in leading cutting-edge innovation in industry. If you’re interested in cloud, cybersecurity, AI, or product management, this is a session you won’t want to miss. Make sure to join our Meetup and GroupMe to stay up to date for future events and collabs!

Join other experienced and aspiring agile coaches and professionals to: * develop and practice your coaching skills in a peer-to-peer environment * share current successes and challenges in your work environment and get support from each other * learn from each other, build better relationships and experiment with new ideas

**\*\*\*\* 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.

We will show a variety of methods for building agents that run in Microsoft Foundry. This covers the different types of agents: Prompt, Multi, and Hosted, as well as the development lifecycle using evals and traces.

Meeting @ Improving's office in Downtown Columbus, near Cosi. Parking is paid, food & drink are free! This time we're hanging out after the long winter break. We are going to look at a group-member's project used to help learn the fundamentals of Go, and if time allows, we can take a look at how we like to build Go projects using AI.