Apache

We are very excited to announce another Search Tech Berlin Meetup. The meetup will be hosted and sponsored by Zalando (thank you!). **Agenda** 18:15 - Doors open 18:45 - Introduction 19:00 - **Talk: Samay Kapadia: Multi-Modal Embedding Search with modern VLMs** 19:40 - Networking, food & drinks 20:00 - **Talk: David Fennesey: Automating the tedium of golden sets with agentic flows** 20:40 - Let’s socialize and grab some drinks 21:00 - Doors closing **Talks** **1) Multi-Modal Embedding Search with modern VLMs** Samay Kapadia, Principal ML Engineer, Zalando Creating a state-of-the-art search embedding model for products, that supports both text and visual inputs. Since there are no open-weight multimodal embedding models, we will convert VLMs like Qwen3 and Ministral 3 into embedding models using LoRA (Low Rank Adapters). **2) David Fennesey: Automating the tedium of golden sets with agentic flows** David Fennesey, Principal Engineer, Flink Search relevancy optimization, such as taxonomies, labeling, and query classification, is expensive to build and painful to maintain. Modern reasoning LLMs, with a small agentic framework around them are easily capable of exploring, evaluating, and iterating through your data. This talk builds that workflow from scratch: tool calls for strategic exploration and guardrails to keep it in check. See you at the event René & Roman

Du möchtest Russisch lernen, stellst aber fest, dass dir die Sprachpraxis fehlt? Hast du bereits Russischkurse besucht und möchtest deine Sprachkenntnisse auffrischen und auf einem guten Niveau halten? Dann ist unser Sprachklub genau das Richtige für dich! Das bevorstehende Treffen des Sprachklubs widmet sich Michail Saltykow-Schtschedrin, einem bedeutenden Schriftsteller und bekannten Satiriker des 19. Jahrhunderts. Seine Werke zeichnen sich durch scharfsinnige Gesellschaftskritik und tiefgründigen Humor aus, der auch heute noch relevant ist. Die Diskussion wird die literarische Bedeutung Saltykow-Schtschedrins sowie seinen Einfluss auf die russische Satire beleuchten. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt auf seinen charakteristischen Stilmitteln und den sozialen Themen, die in seinen Texten behandelt werden. Das Treffen bietet die Gelegenheit, seine Werke im historischen Kontext zu verstehen und die satirische Perspektive auf die Gesellschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts näher zu erkunden.

Bachata (the dance of our generation) is a social couple dance like Salsa - no choreography. The community in Berlin is active daily - you will meet a lot of open-minded people and make new friends quickly! Every Wednesday we have Bachata dance classes in Berlin - we are usually a group of around 20 people (95% beginners): 🕖 19:00 - class: Technique for Beginners+ (0-1+ years experience) • No partner needed (we switch). • You can start from zero in any of these classes! 📍 Adress: Klosterstraße 44 ([Google Maps Link](https://maps.app.goo.gl/5VGEqaVSy9xBCoHv9)) - near S+U Alexanderplatz • Entry: Entrance A, code: 5928# - 5th floor (500), then black door. • Price: 12€ per class. ✅ Dance teacher contact: [WhatsApp-group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/IWKPsid0cBDAUHCWKZNL2B) / [Instagram](https://instagram.com/mahir.bachata.berlin) 🇩🇪: Bachata (der Tanz unserer Generation) ist ein sozialer Paartanz wie Salsa - keine Choreographie. Die Bachata-Szene in Berlin ist groß und täglich aktiv - du wirst schnell viele offene Leute kennenlernen und neue Freundschaften schließen! Jeden Mittwoch findet dieser Bachata Tanzkurs statt - wir sind meistens eine Gruppe von 20 Leuten (95% Anfänger): 🕖 19 Uhr - Kurs: Technik für Anfänger+ (0-1+ Jahre Erfahrung) • Kein Partner nötig (wir wechseln). • Du kannst in diesen Kursen jederzeit von null starten! 📍 Adresse: Klosterstraße 44 ([Google Maps Link](https://maps.app.goo.gl/5VGEqaVSy9xBCoHv9)) - Nähe S+U Alexanderplatz • Zugang: Eingang A, Code: 5928# - drinnen Knopf drücken links an der Tür. 5. Etage (500). • Preis: 12€ je Kurs. ✅ Tanzlehrer Kontakt: [WhatsApp-Gruppe](https://chat.whatsapp.com/IWKPsid0cBDAUHCWKZNL2B) / [Instagram](https://instagram.com/mahir.bachata.berlin) Schreib uns gerne eine Nachricht, wenn du offene Fragen hast! Wir freuen uns auf dich ❤

Let's talk Android! This time we have two amazing talks prepared: Shaders on Android by Nicole Terc In this talk Nicole will introduce the totally not shady world of programming Shaders on Android. What are they? What do they want? What can they do? What can you do with then? How much do they cost and do they have a dog? These are only a few questions answered by this talk. Python on Android by Mario Bodemann Snakes. Don't be afraid of snakes. Especially not the programmable ones! Mario will talk us through 3 different way to integrate the snake taming language in your Android application. Ever wanted to run snake on your phone? This talk is your chance to learn how. 🎉🎉 Happy new year everyone, we're happy to host you at c-base again this year.🎉🎉 Join for some healthy discussions about our favorite mobile operating system ("Android") and maybe learn or teach a thing or two. Agenda --- Hosted By Mario Bodemann, GDG Organizer 🧑‍💻 Louis Tsai, Android Developer Matthias Geisler, "Geißler" Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-berlin-android-presents-berlindroid-monthly-meetup-2026-01-28/.

Cuban salsa classes every Wednesday . Join us, learn how to dance, save lives and make friends! **Classes**: 19:00 - Absolute Beginners (For Free) 20:00 - Beginners 2 21.00 - Improvers 1 **Price: (Card payment only)** 1 class - 7€ 10 class pass - 49€ or 42€ reduced* (To use within 11 weeks. Valid for all our classes. It can only be used by one person per class. No refund possible) * Reduced price for students, Schüler, Azubis, H4-Empfänger, and pensioners/retired folks. A valid proof is needed. **Why should you learn Salsa, and why with us?** - It's great fun! - You don't need any prior dancing experience. - You get to know loads of new people. - No registration, just swing by. - No fix starting date - you can start any week. - No dress code - come in whatever you feel comfortable in. Note:No outside shoes in the room: socks or a pair of clean shoes will be required - No partner needed - we change regularly during the classes (bring all your friends though!) - You can help us make a difference! **What is Salsa4Water**? Simple! We teach Salsa and donate all our profits to the NGO Welthungerhilfe, which uses these funds for their local projects in Malawi. Welthungerhilfe fights for equal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene in nearly 40 countries world wide. This gives you the chance to save lives while dancing!

Hola chicos, Moin zusammen, lasst uns Deutsch und Spanisch sprechen und ein paar Bier zusammen trinken, die Idee ist einfach und gut :) Bitte bringt zumindest basis Deutsch oder Spanisch Kenntnisse mit! Vamos a hablar español y alemán y tomar unas cervezas, la idea es simple y buena jaja. ¡Por favor, ven por lo menos con un nivel básico de español o alemán! Danke, gracias!

**IMPORTANT PLEASE RSVP:** https://www.meetup.com/grafana-and-friends-berlin/events/312736114/?eventOrigin=group_upcoming_events **🕐 Agenda** * **18:00 — Welcome & Snacks** * Doors open! Grab a slice, meet fellow community members, and get settled. * **18:30 — Opening Remarks** * A warm welcome from the **Berlin community** and event partners. * **18:45 — Tech Talks Begin** **Talk 01: Keeping data private in real-time pipelines** **Abstract** We all love real-time data — clicks, payments, rides, messages — but most of it comes with a catch: it often includes personal information we’re not allowed to leak, such as names, emails, locations, or subtle clues that can identify someone. So how do we keep streaming data **useful** and **safe** at the same time? In this talk, we’ll explore practical approaches to protecting privacy in streaming systems using **Apache Kafka**, Apache Flink, and Apache Iceberg. We’ll cover: * Simple techniques like **masking and tokenizing PII** * Why “anonymous” data often **isn’t really anonymous** (the re-identification problem) * Privacy-preserving approaches such as **bucketing, k-anonymity, and adding noise** * How to **balance privacy and data utility** (because over-hiding can make data useless) ### **Talk 02: TBA** Details coming soon 👀 ### **Talk 03: TBA** Stay tuned for the announcement!

Join us for the **first Berlin meetup of the year** as we bring together **Kong × Kafka × Grafana** for an evening focused on **real-time data, streaming, and observability** 🚀 This meetup is all about learning from practitioners, sharing experiences, and kicking off 2026 with the local data & platform community. As always, expect **high-quality technical talks**, **great conversations**, and **good vibes** — plus **pizza 🍕 and cold drinks** to keep things flowing. *** **🔐 Important** For security reasons, please provide your **Full name and surname** during registration. Our volunteers will verify your registration at the entrance — this is **mandatory** to access the venue. Your information will be used **only** for this purpose. *** **🗓️ Event Details** **📅 Date:** 29.01.26 *** **🕐 Agenda** **18:00 — Welcome & Snacks** Doors open! Grab a slice, meet fellow community members, and get settled. **18:30 — Opening Remarks** A warm welcome from the **Berlin community** and event partners. **18:45 — Tech Talks Begin** 📚 **Talk Details** ### **Talk 01: Keeping data private in real-time pipelines By Olena Kutsenko** **Abstract** We all love real-time data — clicks, payments, rides, messages — but most of it comes with a catch: it often includes personal information we’re not allowed to leak, such as names, emails, locations, or subtle clues that can identify someone. So how do we keep streaming data **useful** and **safe** at the same time? In this talk, we’ll explore practical approaches to protecting privacy in streaming systems using **Apache Kafka**, Apache Flink, and Apache Iceberg. We’ll cover: * Simple techniques like **masking and tokenizing PII** * Why “anonymous” data often **isn’t really anonymous** (the re-identification problem) * Privacy-preserving approaches such as **bucketing, k-anonymity, and adding noise** * How to **balance privacy and data utility** (because over-hiding can make data useless) *** ### **Talk 02: Blackbox Monitoring is Hard! (And Why That’s the Best Part) By Goutham Veeramachaneni** I’ve been experimenting with [Beyla](https://grafana.com/oss/beyla-ebpf/) and [eBPF-based monitoring](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ebpf-instrumentation) since its inception. While it’s an incredible tool for getting started with zero-code instrumentation, making it work reliably at scale presents a unique set of hurdles. In this session, we’ll introduce Beyla’s architecture and show how it can kickstart your observability journey.But the real story lies in what happens next. Navigating the scaling challenges has been an absolute blast, and we’ve tackled each bottleneck unfazed—sometimes by leaning into the tech, and other times by resorting to white box native instrumentation to gain the granular insights we need.What you’ll learn: * • **The "How":** A technical deep dive into how Beyla works under the hood. * • **The "Real-World":** The specific challenges we faced when moving beyond the initial phase. * • **The "Trade-offs":** A transparent look at the limitations of different approaches, from pure blackbox eBPF to native instrumentation. * • T**he "Product":** Insight into the intricacies of building a new product in a rapidly evolving ecosystem. Whether you are an observability veteran or just starting with eBPF, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of your monitoring stack and the confidence to handle the limitations of the tools you use. ### **Talk 03: Securing and governing both external and internal traffic By Sven Walther** Modern enterprises must secure and govern APIs, event-driven systems, and internal services—without fragmenting control across multiple platforms. This talk shows how a unified management plane brings consistency, visibility, and security across the entire application landscape using Kong Konnect. The session will cover three key areas: * **External connectivity & event exposure** Securely connect partners and customers to your event-driven systems without exposing internal infrastructure directly. * **Internal service governance with Service Mesh** Apply security, traffic control, and observability across your internal network using a service mesh. * **Fine-grained Kafka governance** Enforce policies and security down to the individual message level for internal event streams. *** ### **🤝🏻 21:00 — Networking & Q&A** Connect with fellow developers, data engineers, platform teams, and observability enthusiasts. Share ideas, experiences, and maybe even exchange a LinkedIn connection or two. **21:30 — Event Wrap-Up** *** **📷 Photo Notice** By attending this event, you consent to being photographed. These photos may be used for future community and event promotions. Don’t forget to smile 😄 *** We’re excited to kick off 2026 with the Berlin community and can’t wait to see you there! If you have any questions or are interested in **speaking at future meetups**, feel free to reach out.

I'm excited to announce another meetup! If you're interested in give a talk, feel free to reach out to me at marcel.drechsler@andsafe.de \-\-\- All talks will be **presented in English**, to ensure that as many people as possible can participate and engage at this event. **If you want to attend, please RSVP to secure your spot - this will make organizing easier. Thank you so much ♥️** **Location:** Spiced Academy, Ritterstrasse 12, 10969 Berlin, 2. Hof \-\-\-\-\-\- **🏠 18:00 - Arrival: Networking, Drinks & Snacks (30 min.)** Grab yourself snacks & drinks and say hello to everybody else! **📅 18:30 - So you want to observe an Event Driven System? (45 min.)** **🎙️**Speaker: Roman Boiko, Enterprise Sales Engineer @ [Datadog](https://www.datadoghq.com) Event-driven architectures offer powerful decoupling, but they often shatter traditional monitoring strategies. When a single business process jumps across multiple queues, buses, and microservices, tracing the line between cause and effect becomes a complex puzzle. This talk bridges that visibility gap by exploring practical observability strategies using OpenTelemetry. We will navigate the critical architectural decisions behind distributed tracing - specifically choosing between Span Linking and Parent-Child relationships - and master context propagation to ensure no transaction is lost in the noise. Join us to learn how to connect low-level technical data with high-level business metrics, turning asynchronous complexity into a clear, manageable system. Roman Boiko is a Senior Enterprise Sales Engineer at Datadog, where he helps developers and architects build reliable, observable, and scalable systems. With a strong background in serverless and cloud-native architectures, he’s passionate about bridging the gap between engineering and operations to help teams move faster with confidence. Roman frequently speaks at tech events, sharing practical insights on observability, distributed systems, and modern application design. He enjoys exploring how developers can simplify complexity and deliver better software through data-driven decisions. **📅 19:15 - Datadog at Zendesk - a solid foundation for scalable, reliable and cost efficient systems (30 min.)** **🎙️**Speaker: Anatoly Mikhaylov, Principal Software Engineer & Datadog Ambassador @ [Zendesk](https://www.zendesk.de/) Anatoly will share practical and valuable lessons what value Datadog brings and what role it plays at Zendesk. They customized and encorporated observability triad (APM, Logs and metrics) within a large volume of systems and applications. Zendesk made it work very well at scale and so that Datadog became a common language engineers and product teams can speak to one another. A single picture often helps to narrow down the issue, surface the problem, brings the solution and be confident remediation is applied successfully. Zendesk teams are fluent using complex Datadog tools and drive necessary changes. **📅 19:45 - Continuous Profiling with Datadog (30 min.)** **🎙️**Speaker: Felix Geisendörfer, Senior Staff Engineer @ [Datadog](https://www.datadoghq.com) Instrumenting systems with logs, metrics and traces is a great way to make them more observable. However, the resulting map is not the territory, and only allows indirect reasoning about the code it represents.Continuous profiling fills this gap by allowing software developers and operators to directly understand the CPU, Memory and Latency trends of their systems using stack traces that break down problems and opportunities in terms of files, functions and line numbers. This presentation will demonstrate the value of this capability by live-debugging an incident caused by an AI assisted refactoring using Datadog’s Continuous Profiler product. Additionally the presentation will give an overview of other capabilities as well as the work we’re doing upstream to add profiling as the fourth signal of OpenTelemetry. **🥗 20:15 - Drinks, Food & Networking** Enjoy refreshments while networking with community peers! **👋 21:00 - Goodbye, see you next time!**

Join us for chill **indoor** beach volley! 🏐 🏐 🏐 This event is for everyone who enjoys chill games and is not a *complete* beginner (A1.5+). We play 3v3 (or 4v4) with beach rules. There are no trainers at this event. Register via [the simultaneous event](https://www.meetup.com/berlin-volley/events/) for higher-level 2v2 matches (F1+). After playing, you can join us for socials with drinks and snacks at the bar area. We often play a social deduction game, which you're also welcome to join. We play in domes that are heated up to at least 15C. It's recommended that you come 10 minutes early so you have time to change and find the fields. If it is your first time, 15 minutes might be even better. You can join whatever court you like and move between courts during the event. We self-organize, so once you finish a game, you can start a rematch, mix with another court, or take a break as you see fit. Upon arrival, join the warmup happening on one of the courts. Join our WhatsApp community via [https://volley.berlin/WhatsApp](https://volley.berlin/WhatsApp) ([QR code](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/f/d/5/highres_532249109.webp)) Follow us on Insta at [https://www.instagram.com/berlinvolleyball](https://www.instagram.com/berlinvolleyball) **Rules**: Do not join if you have an infectious disease. For everyone's safety, we do not allow kicking the ball during games with beginners. Be respectful of your fellow players. **Venue**: We play at BeachMitte. There are changing rooms, toilets, and hot water showers that cost 1 EUR. There are no lockers. There is a bar that sells drinks and snacks. **Payment**: You pay in advance via Meetup. Payment via PayPal or Urban Sports Club is not possible. **Refunds**: The venue does not provide refunds. Thus, we cannot refund you either, even if the event is canceled due to bad weather. If you know you can't make it in advance, you can try selling your spot to someone else via WhatsApp or the comment section. In the rare cases that we cancel an event due to poor attendance, everyone gets a full refund. Pictures might be taken and shared publicly, such as on Meetup or Instagram. You can opt out by letting the organizer know you do not wish to be photographed. By RSVP'ing to this event, you acknowledge and agree to the following: Participation in this volleyball event is at your own risk. The organizer is not responsible for any injury, loss, or damage sustained during the event, whether caused by negligence or otherwise. You are aware of the inherent risks involved in beach volleyball and voluntarily assume these risks. You agree to hold the organizer harmless from any claims, liabilities, or expenses arising from your participation, including any medical costs. Share anonymous feedback with the organizer via [https://www.admonymous.co/entropy](https://www.admonymous.co/entropy)

**📅 Week 2 Focus: Image Processing Recap & Intro to Deep Learning** Each 7-week cycle focuses on a **small, well-defined part of a larger system**—and over time, these cycles build toward a complete, real-world project (covering data engineering, data science, and deployment). Feel free to join at any week and we will catch you up. There is no need to be at the beginning of the cohort to build. Complete beginners welcomed! 🧠 Current Project This cycle’s shared project is an **image-based knowledge extraction system** Last week, we kicked off our shared project by getting our hands dirty with OpenCV and exploring traditional image processing techniques. In Week 2, we’ll: * **Recap what we explored last week** and share cool experiments * **Look under the hood** of the OpenCV techniques we used * **Start exploring deep learning–based approaches** for text and object detection 📌 By the End of a Full Cycle, You should Have 🎯 A working project in your own GitHub repo 🎯 A small but real portfolio piece you can demo or write about 📅 When: Saturday, Jan 31 · 9:30–11:30 📍 Where: Torstraße 59, Forward Earth 💻 Bring: Your laptop, an idea—or just curiosity **👋 Who Is This For?** 🔹 Beginners who learn best by doing — no prior experience needed 🔹 Career switchers from product, engineering, design, marketing, or other fields who want to break into data 🔹 Analysts, engineers, and PMs looking to sharpen their skills or build real-world projects 🔹 Data professionals who want a creative playground outside of work 🔹 Anyone with big questions and a love for learning through experimentation \*\*\* **BUILD. LEARN. EXPERIMENT. OVER COFFEE.** Come hang out, meet like-minded people, and work on something fun. 📍 Based in Berlin – in-person meetups only (for now!) 💻 Laptops + ☕ highly encouraged Join our Discord → [https://discord.gg/dPnmzcCP8w](https://discord.gg/dPnmzcCP8w) Check out our program resources: [Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15DmZqD4bLBk2vU4zpvh1HiB3_5n09v-q?usp=sharing) \*\*\* ✨ Who’s Hosting? I’m Lindsey, a senior data scientist working on AI, causal inference, and data products. I’ve built models for fraud detection, uplift modeling, and LLM-based systems. I am always open to suggestion for different format for this meetup.

Tauche ein in technische [Deep Dives ](https://www.sva-events.de/event/f080c6fc-449f-45be-a3bb-e14980e2e708/summary)rund um **Automation, Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, Cloud Native, DevSecOps und Plattform Engineering.** Triff Gleichgesinnte aus der Branche, diskutiere aktuelle Herausforderungen und lass dich von unseren Expertinnen und Experten inspirieren. Sei unser Gast und werde Teil der Community! Natürlich ist auch für dein leibliches Wohl bestens gesorgt. Wirf doch gerne schon mal einen Blick in die [Themen](https://www.sva-events.de/event/f080c6fc-449f-45be-a3bb-e14980e2e708/agenda) vor Ort. **Wir bitten um Anmeldung über diesen [Link](https://www.sva-events.de/event/f080c6fc-449f-45be-a3bb-e14980e2e708/regProcessStep1).**

Das alte T-Shirt mit einem Statement-Print wiederbeleben, eine verlorene Spielfigur nachdrucken oder einen Stempel designen: MeetUp im Humboldt Forum! In diesem dreistündigen Workshop sind alle Interessierten mit und ohne Vorkenntnisse dazu eingeladen, verschiedene Maker Space Technologien kennenzulernen. Wir erklären an unterschiedlichen Terminen (s.u.), wie sich mit Laser Cutter, 3D-Drucker, Schneidplotter, Näh- oder Stickmaschine nützliche Dinge für den Alltag herstellen lassen. Inspiriert von den aktuellen Ausstellungen und Themen des Hauses, können am Laptop mit der Software Inkscape oder Tinkercad eigene Grafiken und Objekte entworfen und gestaltet werden. Wer sich geschickt anstellt, kann am Ende ein fertiges Produkt mit nach Hause nehmen. Die Personenzahl ist begrenzt. Bitte buchen Sie am Veranstaltungstag an der Tageskasse im Foyer pro Person ein kostenfreies Teilnahmeticket! Der Workshop ist nicht für Kinder und Jugendliche unter 16 Jahren geeignet. **Die nächsten Termine und Themen** * 3\. und 10\. Januar 2026 Kleine Aufnäher & Patches mit der Stickmaschine * 31\. Januar und 7\. Februar 2026 Textildruck mit Schneidplotter und Transferpresse – Bitte T\-Shirt oder Beutel aus Baumwolle mitbringen\! * 28\. Februar und 7\. März 2026 Schmuckstücke und Anhänger aus dem 3D\-Drucker * 28\. März und 4\. April 2026 Stempel & Schablonen aus dem Laser Cutter **Weitere Informationen:** Kostenfrei. **Bitte buchen Sie Ihr Ticket direkt am Veranstaltungstag an der Tageskasse im Foyer. Die Ticketbuchung im Voraus und im Webshop ist nicht möglich.** Dauer: 180 min. Ab 16 Jahre. Sprache: Deutsch, Englisch. Rollstuhlgerecht. Ort: Werkräume, 1. OG. Maximal 15 Personen.

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/cbus-hug-2026/

## Details \#\# Learn Infrastructure\-as\-Code \(the FUN Way\) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: DevOps Columbus - Azure CBUS - Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint DevOps Columbus, Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. \#\#\# What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time \#\#\# Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐

**💥 Join us THIS Saturday and EVERY Saturday!** **💥 At Columbus’ Hottest New Salsa Venue!** **.** Lincoln Street Salsa THIS Saturday and EVERY Saturday! 8 pm – 1 am **.** **💥 Gorgeously Renovated Studio!** **💥 Free Parking!** **💥 BYOB!** **💥 Easy Access from Highway!** **.** Lincoln Street Salsa 1717 Brice Rd Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43215 **.** **ENTRANCE IS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE BUILDING** **Behind Anthony’s Pharmacy!** **.** **PLEASE SHARE and help get the word out!** **.** **🟣 Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue Dancing!** **.** **🟣** 8:00 pm – 8:30 pm **𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻** **.** **🟣** 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm **𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 Class!** **.** **🟣** 9:30 pm – 1 am **𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆!** **.** **✅ Questions?** **Visit [LincolnStreetSalsa.com](https://columbussalsadancing.com/)** Or Text Todd: 614-774-8146 **.** **✅ No Experience Necessary!** **✅ No Partner Required!** **✅ Plenty of People to Dance With!** **.** **✅ $15 Cash / $16 Card** **✅ College Students $5 Off with Valid ID!** **✅ BYOB** **✅ Age 18+** **.** **✅ Lincoln Street Salsa is the perfect place for…** **.** **👉 Learning to Dance** **👉** Social Dancing **👉 Birthday Celebration** **👉** Bachelorette Parties **👉 Girl’s Night Out** **👉 Date Night** **👉** Getting Fit / Burning Calories **👉 Meeting New People** **👉** Having Fun, Fun, Fun! **.** ✅ **Questions?** Visit [LincolnStreetSalsa.com](https://columbussalsadancing.com/ "https://columbussalsadancing.com/") Or Text Todd: 614-774-8146 .

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group × DevOps Columbus** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS, Columbus HashiCorp User Group, and DevOps Columbus meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/

**💥 Join us THIS Saturday and EVERY Saturday!** **💥 At Columbus’ Hottest New Salsa Venue!** **.** Lincoln Street Salsa THIS Saturday and EVERY Saturday! 8 pm – 1 am **.** **💥 Gorgeously Renovated Studio!** **💥 Free Parking!** **💥 BYOB!** **💥 Easy Access from Highway!** **.** Lincoln Street Salsa 1717 Brice Rd Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43215 **.** **ENTRANCE IS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE BUILDING** **Behind Anthony’s Pharmacy!** **.** **PLEASE SHARE and help get the word out!** **.** **🟣 Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue Dancing!** **.** **🟣** 8:00 pm – 8:30 pm **𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻** **.** **🟣** 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm **𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 Class!** **.** **🟣** 9:30 pm – 1 am **𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆!** **.** **✅ Questions?** **Visit [LincolnStreetSalsa.com](https://columbussalsadancing.com/)** Or Text Todd: 614-774-8146 **.** **✅ No Experience Necessary!** **✅ No Partner Required!** **✅ Plenty of People to Dance With!** **.** **✅ $15 Cash / $16 Card** **✅ College Students $5 Off with Valid ID!** **✅ BYOB** **✅ Age 18+** **.** **✅ Lincoln Street Salsa is the perfect place for…** **.** **👉 Learning to Dance** **👉** Social Dancing **👉 Birthday Celebration** **👉** Bachelorette Parties **👉 Girl’s Night Out** **👉 Date Night** **👉** Getting Fit / Burning Calories **👉 Meeting New People** **👉** Having Fun, Fun, Fun! **.** ✅ **Questions?** Visit [LincolnStreetSalsa.com](https://columbussalsadancing.com/) Or Text Todd: 614-774-8146

### 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/)