Automating Web Application Testing

## Wo & Wann? **JEDEN MONTAG** findet die offene Lesebühne des Autorenforums Berlin statt (außer an Feiertagen) **BEGINN**: 20:00 Uhr **ANMELDUNG zum Lesen: ab 19:30 Uhr** beim Moderator des Abends – siehe [Termine](http://autorenforum-berlin.de/wordpress/termine/); Die Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung ist kostenlos. **SCHWARTZSCHE VILLA** **Großer Salon** Direkt am S/U Rathaus Steglitz Grunewaldstr. 55 Der offene Leseabend stellt das Herzstück des Autorenforums e.V. dar. Er steht nicht nur Mitgliedern, sondern grundsätzlich jedem Autor und jeder Autorin offen, der gerne einen unveröffentlichten Text vor Publikum präsentieren möchte. Auch Kritik kann jedermann üben. Wer lieber zuhören möchte, kann einfach am Montagabend um 20.00 in der Schwartzschen Villa erscheinen. Für Lesewillige gilt die unten stehende ausführliche Information (mündliche Anmeldung ab 19:30 Uhr). *Unfortunately at the moment, it's only possible to present German texts. Unpublished texts that are already translated into German are highly welcome!* ## Was erwartet Sie? Im Großen Salon der Schwartzsche Villa treffen Sie auf einen Kreis von Literaturbegeisterten, die Ihrem Text eine ernsthafte und fundierte Kritik spenden. Das Publikum wechselt. Es ist gemischt, geeint durch das Interesse an Texten. Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Abends lesen aus ihren bislang unveröffentlichten Kurzgeschichten, lyrischen Texten, Erzählungen, Romanen, manchmal auch aus Theaterstücken. Die Autoren stellen nicht sich selbst, sondern ihre Texte der Kritik. Wir verstehen uns als Arbeitsbühne. Deshalb wird bei uns nach den Lesungen nicht geklatscht. Die Texte werden nach der Lesung des Autors auf handwerkliche Stärken und Schwächen „abgeklopft“. Es geht im Forum daher nicht um weltanschauliche Debatten. Im Idealfall hat der Autor/die Autorin nach einer Lesung und der Kritik verstanden, wo die Stärken und Schwächen seines Textes liegen, woran es seinem Text noch fehlt, was er ändern sollte und wo er bei seiner Überarbeitung ansetzen kann. Der Abend endet gegen 22.00. Im Anschluss können Sie mit den Autoren im Café der Schwartzschen Villa noch ins Gespräch kommen und manches aus dem Literaturbetrieb erfahren. Wir sind im Kontakt auch mit namhaften Vertretern desselben. Also – nicht gleich verschwinden! Dranbleiben. Reden Sie mit den Forumianern! ## Sie möchten selbst lesen? Wenn Sie selbst im Autorenforum lesen wollen, gibt es einige Dinge zu beachten. Wir bitten Sie sehr herzlich, sich mindestens einmal vor Ihrer ersten Lesung bei uns mit unseren Gegebenheiten vertraut zu machen. Ihren Lesewunsch können Sie dann ab 19.30 Uhr (Einlass) bei der Moderatorin oder dem Moderator eines Leseabends anmelden. **Wir weisen ausdrücklich daraufhin, dass über die Annahme und Reihenfolge der Lesungen die jeweiligen Moderatoren entscheiden und es NICHT zwingend nach der Reihenfolge der Anmeldungen geht!** In der Regel reicht die Zeit nur für drei Autoren je Abend und die Nachfrage ist oft recht hoch. Falls Sie einen lyrischen Text vortragen möchten, bringen Sie bitte mindestens 10 (zehn) Kopien mit, damit Ihr Publikum mitlesen kann. Die Kopien erhalten Sie selbstverständlich zurück. # Wie üben wir Textkritik? Nach der Idee von Maik Turni ## **Anschleichen** **Wie wirkt der Text auf mich?** (Keine Angst vor Adjektiven! ) **Was habe ich gehört?** (Zusammenfassung (Nacherzählung)) **Was blieb unverstanden** (akustisch oder logisch) ## **Unter der Lupe** **Was ist das für ein Text?** (Prosa: Genre? Lyrik: Welche Art lyrischer Text?) **Thema** (Welches Thema berührt der Text? Hat der Autor sein Thema im Griff? Ist es überzeugend/plausibel/gut recherchiert, vielleicht sogar zu faktenreich?) **Figuren** (Wie wirken die Figuren? Wer ist die Hauptfigur? Welches Problem hat die Hauptfigur?) **Perspektive** (Wie verhält sich die Erzählperspektive zum Thema / zu den Figuren?) **Sprache** (Welche Bilder sind stimmig / welche nicht? Was lässt sich zum Rhythmus sagen? Sind die Sätze syntaktisch und grammatikalisch korrekt?) **Dramaturgie** (Schafft der Text es, Spannung zu erzeugen? In welcher Reihenfolge werden die Dinge erzählt?) **Bedeutung** (Gelingt es dem Autor, die Bedeutung, die er seinem Text geben will, auch im Leser entstehen zu lassen?) ## **Klarspüler** Fragen werden an den Text gestellt, nicht an den Autor! Daher sollte der Text antworten. ## **Weichspüler** Wird bei uns nicht verwendet. Aber es gilt: Nicht der Autor wird kritisiert, sondern der Text! Hart zum Text, sanft zum Autor!

Welcome to Wet Chickens Comedy - The CREATIVE Open Mic that isn't like any other Open Mic! Comedians aren't allowed to use any old material - NEW JOKES ONLY! And in case they do old jokes. they will get wet, because the host will spray them with a toy water pistole!* *or with something else, but we will! When? Every Monday from 8PM Where? Agata Bar, Weichselstr. 55 in Berlin, Neukölln How much? Its FREE, just get you a reservation, because they might be SOLD OUT soon Doors: 19:30 Show: 20:00 *Reservations are only kept until 19:50, so please arrive before that for assured seating.

**"Dankbarkeit ist nicht das Ergebnis der Freude, sie ist ihre Ursache."** — David Steindl-Rast Liebe Montagsgruppenfreund\*innen, Liebe Interessierte, wie oft sagen wir „danke" und spüren dabei nichts.
Kein Gefühl, keine Regung im Körper, nur das Wort, das an der richtigen Stelle ausgesprochen wird. Als Kinder haben wir es gelernt: „Sag danke." Und danke wurde zur Höflichkeit, zur Formsache, zu etwas, das man sagt. Und wenn wir wahrhaftig dankbar und ganz ergriffen sind von diesem wundervollen Gefühl, dann erscheint uns „danke“ vielleicht gar nicht ausreichend als Ausdruck dessen was wir wahrnehmen. Wann warst du das letzte Mal wirklich dankbar?
 Vielleicht führst du ein Dankbarkeitstagebuch; erzähle uns gerne davon. Vielleicht ist es lange her, dass du dir diese Frage überhaupt gestellt hast. Wofür bist du in diesem Moment dankbar? Dir selbst. Deinen Liebsten. Dem Leben - mit allem, was es gerade bereithält. Fast jede Tradition kennt einen Moment, in dem Menschen innehalten und danken: Zur Erntezeit, am Ende eines Zyklus, bevor etwas Neues beginnt. Wir stehen am Ende des Semesters. Ein guter Moment, um zu danken. Ich lade dich am kommenden Montag ein, die Dankbarkeit im Herzen zu finden, zu fühlen und wo sie da ist, sie zu feiern. Bring mit, wofür dein Herz gerade dankbar ist.
Und auch das, was dein Herz belastet.
Du bist willkommen. Ich freue mich auf dich, euch und uns! Herzlich, Sophie **Ankommen in der Gefühlsschule** ab 19:15 Uhr - bitte nicht früher kommen - Beginn der Gruppe: 19:30 Uhr Kosten: 20 € (bar oder per PayPal vor Ort) Kontakt bei Fragen (ansonsten einfach vorbeikommen, keine Anmeldung notwendig & ich freue mich wenn du dich anmeldest:) [sophie@connecting-circle.de](mailto:sophie@connecting-circle.de)

**Open Platform for Writers to connect, share & grow. Together.** ‍ We create a safe space to be creative, connect through writing and give and receive feedback from each other. Get ready for bringing in different writing styles and helping each other improve our own writing skills and get to know some new friends.

Join and let's have an unique swing experience! **Discover fresh arrangements specially created for dancers, performed LIVE in the stunning Ballhaus Berlin!** It's a unique chance to dance to the sounds the leading Big Band in Berlin and have an unforgettable time. Mark the dates: **📅 5. Januar 📅 12. Januar 📅 2. Februar 📅 2. März 📅 16. März 📅 20. April 📅 4. Mai 📅 18. Mai 📅 1. Juni 📅 15. Juni 📅 6. Juli 📅 20. Juli** Location remains king: 📍 Ballhaus Berlin Ballroom, Chausseestraße 102 Program: 🎓 19:00: Swing dance introduction with Swing Base (No partner and no prior knowledge necessary!) 🎺 20:00: Big Band concert (2 Sets) + DJ 🎫 Ticket prices for dancers €20 (instead of €25!) only with prior reservation! Reservation here: [https://swingbase.de/mondayswing](https://swingbase.de/mondayswing) "Swing Is On Parade" is more than just music – it's an invitation to swing through the night with us.

Liebe Freunde des gesprochenen Wortes, Ob es darum geht, ein Meeting zu leiten oder im Familienkreis einen Toast auszusprechen – diese Situation vor Menschen zu stehen und etwas zu vermitteln kennt so gut wie jeder. Wir lernen gemeinsam, dabei gelassen und souverän zu bleiben, wertvolle Informationen zu transportieren und unser Publikum zu begeistern. **Was macht unseren Club besonders?** Unser "Mut und Rede" Club trägt nicht umsonst seinen Titel: wir pflegen einen wertschätzenden Umgang miteinander, sodass die Hemmschwelle möglichst gering ist, sich selbst auf die Bühne zu trauen. **Wie läuft so ein Clubabend ab?** Es warten vorbereitete Reden auf euch, aber auch ihr habt die Möglichkeit in geschütztem Raum eine spontan improvisierte freie Rede von 1 bis 2 min vor Publikum zu halten. Das klingt vielleicht im ersten Moment etwas abschreckend – aber es ist eine ganz tolle Erfahrung über sich selbst hinauszuwachsen. Und egal was passiert, ihr werdet immer für Euren Mut belohnt. Und es wird auch immer geklatscht. Wir freuen uns, Euch kennenzulernen! Hier findest du die genaue Wegbeschreibung: www.mut-und-rede.de/kontakt#anfahrt Um besser planen zu können freuen wir uns über vorherige Anmeldung: kontakt@mut-und-rede.de https://www.mut-und-rede.de Es findet grundsätzlich jeder Clubabend statt, auch wenn laut meetup nur wenige Teilnehmer zugesagt haben. (Foto © Moritz Erdt)

Hello everyone! The German Testing Board (GTB), together with our partners IREB, iSAQB, and the Einstein Center Digital Future, warmly invites you to **“Quality is NOW – Networking Around Quality Engineering”** in Berlin. Join us for an inspiring evening of networking, engaging discussions, and new connections. Following short talks from the worlds of Requirements Engineering, Software Architecture, and Quality Engineering, we will explore the question: **How is AI changing the world of software development?** During a World Café session and informal networking afterwards, we'll tackle the questions everyone is asking right now: \- What's your biggest pain point when using AI? \- Has AI improved or compromised quality in your projects? \- Which skills do teams and leaders need to succeed with AI? \- And where should we focus our efforts next? Join the conversation, exchange experiences, and discover how others are navigating the opportunities and challenges of AI-driven software development. **What to expect** * **Inspiring insights:** Gain practical tips and fresh perspectives for your career in Quality Engineering. * **Meaningful connections:** Meet developers and quality engineering professionals who share your passion. * **A relaxed atmosphere:** Enjoy drinks, delicious food, and great conversations in an inspiring setting. 📅 **When?** 8 July 2026 – Doors open at 5:30 PM (Event: 6:00 PM–9:00 PM) 📍 **Where?** Einstein Center Digital Future, Wilhelmstraße 67, 10117 Berlin 🎟 **Free admission** – Please register We look forward to seeing you there! **Your “Quality is NOW” Team**

AI agents are moving into production. The question is no longer whether to use them, but what it actually takes to make them work once the demo is over. This **WeAreDevelopers** PreDay meetup is for builders, founders, and practitioners wiring AI agents into real codebases, CI/CD pipelines, developer platforms, and knowledge systems. The evening focuses on the honest conversations that rarely fit into a conference talk: what breaks at scale, what context engineering really looks like, and where the failure modes hide. The theme is **connected intelligence**: how graph-based reasoning, smarter pipelines, and agentic code review are changing production AI systems, and what engineering teams need to do differently to support them. We will explore constraint satisfaction in agent decision-making, agentic AI in production, AI-powered development workflows, and Java’s role in the future of AI systems. No vendor pitches. Just the stuff that runs in production. ## Agenda | Time | Session | | ---- | ------- | | 17:00 | Doors Open, Drinks and Networking | | 17:30 | Welcome and Opening Remarks | | 17:45 | Andreas Kollegger, Director of GenAI, Neo4j | | 18:10 | Break, Food, and Networking | | 18:35 | Panel Discussion: Agentic AI in the Wild | | 19:20 | Tech Talk 2: CircleCI | | 19:45 | Ana Maria Mihalceanu, Java Champion Alumni and Developer Advocate, Oracle | | 20:25 | Closing Remarks | ## Speakers and Sessions ### Andreas Kollegger, Director of GenAI, Neo4j **Talk:** *Where is the Zebra? Agent Decision-making as Constraint Satisfaction* Zebra Puzzles are a useful lens for understanding agentic reasoning. They require no domain knowledge, only structured constraint satisfaction. Real-world decisions, however, are messier: loan approvals, resource allocation, compliance, and approval routing often combine hard rules, soft rules, and human discretion. This session examines how different architectures approach structured decision-making and why recognizing constraint satisfaction problems changes how you build agents. You will learn how constraint networks, LLMs, and hybrid systems solve logical problems differently, how enterprise decisions often hide “Zebra Puzzles” beneath complexity, and when your agent needs search, inference, generation, or a hybrid approach. ### Ana Maria Mihalceanu, Java Champion Alumni and Developer Advocate, Oracle **Talk:** *Now and Next Java for AI* Tired of treating AI as a black-box REST endpoint? With JDK 25 and the Foreign Function and Memory API, Java developers can wire real models directly to native runtimes such as ONNX for fast CPU/GPU inference. This talk shows how to map tensor buffers to Java `MemorySegment`, switch execution providers, and build self-contained Java applications for inference. It also looks ahead to Project Babylon’s code reflection, where model logic can be expressed as Java code that can be analyzed and lowered to accelerator backends, reducing the need for external model files or glue languages. Build expressive and testable FFM-based inference today, and author pure Java AI-ready models tomorrow. ### CircleCI Speaker **Details TBC** ## Panel: Agentic AI in the Wild What does it take to move AI agents from proof of concept into systems that run reliably? This panel brings together practitioners from across the stack to discuss context management, failure modes, governance, production workflows, and what changes when agentic systems scale. Expect specific lessons, not talking points. ### Moderator **Dana Fine — Open Source and Community Manager, Qodo** Dana leads open-source programs and community at Qodo. She runs the GitHub User Group, CNCF local and GenAI communities, organizes the Bond AI meetup series, and has built developer communities across the cloud native and open-source ecosystem for years. ### Panelists **Nnenna Ndukwe — Developer Relations Lead, Qodo** Nnenna leads Developer Relations at Qodo, the AI code review platform. She is a software developer, applied AI researcher, and community builder with over a decade of experience across med-tech, fintech, and media-tech. A 2019 Google Women Techmakers Scholar, she focuses on integrating AI code review into modern development workflows for open source and enterprise teams at scale. **Sebastian Kister** Sebastian is a cloud pioneer and enterprise transformation practitioner known for implementing production-ready architecture for Agentic AI Operations in a large enterprise environment. An active CNCF and Linux Foundation member, he advocates for scalable platform ecosystems and a people-first approach: people first, then tools, then processes.

Need a mid-week pick-me-up? Join us for **Sip Happens!** this week at Electric Social, where good beer and great games come together for a fun and fantastic social night! Whether you're a board game pro or just looking for a chill night out and a fun way to socialize, there's something for everyone. Grab a beer (or cider, or wine, or even a tea!), **pick (or bring) a game,** and meet some new friends as we roll dice, play cards, and laugh the night away. From classics like Catan and Scrabble to party favorites like Cards Against Humanity, we’ve got it all. Coming straight from work? No problem...the kitchen serves awesome food as well! 😉 So, round up your mates or come solo—either way, you’ll leave with new friends and fun memories. Cheers to making midweek nights something to look forward to! 🍺🎉 We always have several organisers there (male and female), so come say hello to us! We care to make sure that everyones enjoys themselves and we have **no tolerance for bad behaviour or creepiness.** **Follow us on Insta:** @siphappens.berlin **Join us on Telegram:** t.me/siphappens_berlin **👉 Other important notes:** \- 🍸 The locations we visit are bars and clubs\, they are businesses and we are able to keep these events free ONLY if people buy drinks\. Please respect the locations and the event by making purchases \- 🦹‍♂️ Remember to keep an eye on your belongings and prioritize your own well\-being\. We are not responsible for any lost items or personal issues\. \- 📷 By attending our events\, you consent to being photographed or filmed\. Photos and videos taken during the events may be shared on our social media\. If you do not wish to appear in the photos or if you appear in a photo that we post that you would like removed\, please send us a private message as soon as possible on Instagram \(@siphappens\.berlin\)

Just before everyone disappears for the holidays, let's get together for one more Java meetup! This time we're joining forces with **Spring User Group**, and thanks to our friends at **JetBrains**, we'll be meeting at their office. We'll also have a raffle featuring **WeAreDevelopers World Congress** tickets and other prizes. \#\# 🎤 Alexei Zinoviev *Software Developer at JetBrains* ### **Kotlin and Spring Boot: From Messy Public Data to a Robust Application** Real applications rarely get clean input. Source pages change, fields are missing, text formats are inconsistent, parsers make assumptions, and external services such as geocoders can be slow, incomplete, or temporarily unavailable. In this talk, we will use a small Berlin-focused Spring Boot application written in Kotlin. It reads public demonstration data, parses semi-structured HTML, converts raw rows into a typed domain model, applies classification rules, geocodes locations where possible, and exposes the result through a Spring MVC API, an interactive map, and a timeline. The Kotlin part is not a rewrite pitch. Spring Boot stays the familiar foundation for controllers, services, scheduling, database access, and operational endpoints. Kotlin helps in the parts where enterprise code often becomes defensive and noisy: nullable input, parsing results, rejected rows, domain identifiers, explicit states, and readable transformation pipelines. A central part of the example is a small Kotlin DSL for rules. The classifier is not AI and not a black box: rules are written as type-safe Kotlin code, close to configuration, readable in the IDE, and able to explain why a certain operational risk score was assigned to an event or route. We will also look at what makes the application robust in practice: handling parser failures, conversion problems, missing coordinates, partial results, and unstable external services without turning every expected problem into a generic HTTP 500. \#\# 🎤 Dmitry Chuyko *Architect at BellSoft* \#\#\# From Kitchen to Table: A Safe Software Journey with SBOMs The EU's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is turning Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) from a "nice to have" into a legal requirement for many software products. Managing your software supply chain is no longer optional—it's part of shipping software responsibly. Think of your containerized Java (and Spring) application as a dish served to production. Every ingredient matters, and someone will eventually ask what's inside. SBOMs are the ingredient lists that security scanners, auditors, and regulators rely on. In this practical session, we'll look at how Java and DevOps teams can make SBOMs part of their everyday workflow. We'll cover: * generating and managing SBOMs in CI/CD (GitHub Actions and GitLab CI) * verifying pre-built container images * enforcing supply-chain policies in Kubernetes with OPA and Ratify * navigating SPDX vs. CycloneDX * integrating SBOMs into existing toolchains without unnecessary complexity Rather than treating SBOMs as compliance paperwork, you'll learn how to use them as actionable security artifacts that improve visibility, strengthen your software supply chain, and help meet regulatory requirements. \#\# Schedule **18:00** – Doors open **18:30** – Alexei Zinoviev **19:00** – Networking break **19:30** – Dmitry Chuyko — *From Kitchen to Table: A Safe Software Journey with SBOMs* **20:30** – Networking, refreshments, and the **WeAreDevelopers World Congress** ticket raffle

Welcome to **Electric Social** \- Berlin’s electrifying arcade bar where nostalgia meets nightlife\! Think neon lights\, beers\, retro games\, and the unbeatable Sip Happens vibe you know and love\. Join us for a night of laughter, friendly competition, and laid-back fun as we take over one of Berlin’s coolest new spots. Whether you’re a Mario Kart master, a pinball wizard, or just here for the vibes, there’s something for everyone. 🎮 **What to expect:** ✨ A full bar with great drinks and booths to hang out in 🕹️ Classic arcade & video games to battle your new friends 🥂 The friendliest crowd in Berlin (that’s you lot!) 💬 Chill areas to chat, connect and hang out between rounds This isn’t your average night out — it’s a chance to play, laugh, and meet new people in a place built for fun. So grab your tokens, bring your A-game, and get ready for another unforgettable Sip Happens night! 📍 **Electric Social, Berlin** 🗓️ **Doors open at 20:00** 🎟️ RSVP now to secure your spot – it’s going to be *next-level fun!*

We're trying something new this month at the Berlin Collaborative Modeling Meetup. And guess what? It's about AI! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll move beyond “chatting with the coding assistant” and practice giving an AI agent real tasks: planning, implementing, iterating, and reporting back. You’ll follow along from your own laptop and experience the shift from working with the agent to delegating work to the agent. Bring your laptop and your tokens.

**[IMPORTANT NOTICE registration is HERE](https://luma.com/wh28yfqv)** ​**Please bring a valid ID (driving licence or passport) with you on the day, as it will be required for entry to the venue.** Join **Aerospike** **AWS, Adjust and Miro** for an evening of technical talks focused on the challenges of running real-time, business-critical systems at scale. Hear firsthand lessons from engineers managing large datasets, database migrations, and cloud infrastructure availability in production. From Miro's Redis-to-Aerospike migration on Kubernetes to AWS best practices for capacity planning and resilience, speakers will share practical insights gained from operating demanding workloads where performance and reliability matter. ​Connect with fellow engineers, architects, and technology leaders from Berlin's tech community over drinks and networking. ​ ​**Agenda** **17:30 – 18:00 - Welcome & networking** **18:00-18:10 - Speed vs Capacity: Designing Data Systems for Real-Time Scale** *Dirk Möller, Regional Lead Germany and EE, Aerospike* In high-performance data systems, balancing RAM and disk is key to real-time performance at scale. This session explores the technical nuances of database architecture in today’s AI-driven era, where workloads demand low latency, massive scale, and adaptive infrastructure. Drawing on real-world, mission-critical systems, we’ll show how to achieve the right mix of speed, scale, cost-efficiency, and reliability - designing architectures that meet today’s real-time demands while staying sustainable and affordable. **18:10 – 18:30 - Scaling Beyond Millions of Transactions** *​Leonardo Muñoz, Platform Engineer, Adjust* A behind-the-scenes look at how Adjust powers high-throughput, low-latency workloads at scale using a distributed database platform running on bare metal infrastructure. Leonardo will explore the architectural and operational decisions behind the deployment, the challenges of managing dedicated hardware at scale, and the lessons learned from years of production experience supporting mission-critical workloads. **18:30 – 18:50 - Pod Ready ≠ Data Safe: Migrating a Critical Dataset on Kubernetes** *Yuriy Chernikov, Staff Software Engineer, Miro* ​ Miro migrated one of its most critical datasets from a legacy caching platform to a modern distributed database running on Kubernetes - and not everything went according to plan. This practical talk covers what the migration actually required, the design decisions that made failures survivable, and the operational lessons that only emerge when managing datasets measured in terabytes. **18:50-19:10 - Managing Amazon EC2 Capacity and Availability** *Nati Cohen, Sr. Specialist Solutions Architect, Compute, AWS* ​ Modern data-intensive applications require infrastructure that delivers high performance, scalability, and resilience. Organizations often seek to leverage the latest storage-optimized EC2 instances, select larger instance sizes for improved performance, place infrastructure close to data producers and consumers, and scale efficiently as business demands grow. In this session, we'll explore how to balance these performance requirements with cost optimization and capacity availability. We'll review the various EC2 capacity and reservation models, including Capacity Reservations, On-Demand Instances, Savings Plans, and more. Learn how to combine these options to optimize cost, performance, and availability for large-scale production workloads **19:00-20:00- Networking** **[IMPORTANT NOTICE registration is HERE](https://luma.com/wh28yfqv)**

Most people use LLMs by feel: ask a question, read the answer, decide whether it “seems good,” and move on. That works for casual use. It does not work when you are building software, automating workflows, writing important documents, or relying on AI for anything that needs to be repeatable. In this talk, we’ll look at how to improve and evaluate the inputs and outputs of LLMs using practical measurement techniques. We’ll cover how prompt changes affect results, how to compare outputs, how to build simple evaluation sets, and how math-based methods like similarity scoring can help you move beyond guesswork. This will be beginner-friendly, so even if you don't know anything about AI, you should get something out of it. However, this will be a little more technical than our intro talks. You do not need to be an AI researcher, but programmers and technically curious attendees will get a lot out of it. We’ll cover: * Why “it looks good” is not enough * How to improve prompts by changing the input, context, and constraints * How to compare LLM outputs more systematically * Basic evaluation techniques for accuracy, consistency, and usefulness * How embeddings, cosine similarity, and scoring can help evaluate results * Where automated evaluation works — and where humans still need to stay in the loop By the end, you’ll have a practical mental model for treating LLMs less like magic and more like systems you can test, measure, and improve. LOGISTICS AND PARKING: The talk starts at 7:00 PM. The first half hour is reserved for everyone to get set up and mingle. Free pizza and drinks! The cheapest parking option is to find street parking, which will only cost you a few bucks. Otherwise, park in the nearby veteran's museum lot for $8. It's highly recommended you avoid the nearby $15 garage parking.

**PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT NOTES:** 1. The dates for this series are simply placeholders at the moment. We are working on our 2026 schedule, and adjustments are forthcoming. 2. Each class in this series has an attendance fee. 3. Each class from BOTH a sign-up and fee perspective is a separate entity. **Introduction:** Our Page Building with Bricks web development class provides detailed instruction for using Bricks Builder, a visual site builder for WordPress, to create and manage websites. Widely considered by many of the world's leading web developers to be the most complete page builder on the market today, Bricks Builder offers a wide range of features and comprehensive tools. Our Bricks Builder web development class provides detailed instructions on utilizing the toolset. The series of courses covers the core features of Bricks Builder, enabling users to design and develop responsive, visually appealing websites. Moreover, the courses are oriented to reinforce a focus on professional, scalable web development. Throughout the series, we focus our page-building instruction on the semantic and structural integrity of the pages in a responsive world. By the end of the 10-class series, participants will have a fundamental understanding of proper web page and website development. **The breakdown of the 10-class series is as follows:** * Class 01 - Survey of Page Builders / What Bricksbuilder Does For You * Class 02 - Boxes, Boxes, Boxes / Sections / Containers * Class 03 - Static Units / Relative Units / Responsive Development And Math Functions * Class 04 - CSS Variables And DRY Development / Classes And Global Styling * Class 05 - CSS Grid And CSS Flexbox * Class 06 - Responsive Development / Breakpoints And Media Queries * Class 07 - Effective Use Of Color / Effective Use Of Images * Class 08 - Beginning To Think Dynamically / Using Templates And Components * Class 09 - Dynamic Styling / Data Attributes And Attribute Selectors * Class 10 - Pseudo Elements / Programmatically Styling With Pseudo Classes Throughout the class sessions listed above, we cover the following key areas of web development with Bricks Builder: * **Introduction to Bricks Builder Interface:** * Familiarization with the builder's layout, including the toolbar, panel, and canvas, and understanding how to navigate and interact with its various components. * **Visual Site Building:** * Techniques for creating layouts using Bricks' drag-and-drop interface, incorporating sections, rows, columns, and elements to build page structures. * **Styling and Design:** * Utilizing Bricks' styling options to customize elements, apply global CSS classes for consistent design, and leverage features like Flexbox and CSS Grid for responsive layouts. * **Dynamic Content and Custom Fields:** * Integrating dynamic content from custom post types and custom field plugins (like ACF, Meta Box) to build data-driven websites. * **Template Building:** * Creating and managing reusable templates for headers, footers, post type layouts, and other site-wide elements. * **Performance Optimization:** * Understanding how Bricks Builder contributes to fast-loading websites and implementing performance best practices. * **Advanced Features:** * Depending on the class level, it might delve into advanced topics such as conditional logic, interactions, and custom code integration to enable more complex functionality. The series aims to equip participants with the skills to efficiently build, customize, and maintain WordPress websites using Bricks Builder, catering to both beginners and experienced web developers.

Our monthly PHP meetup. A virtual shindig courtesy of Zoom. Check back here for the details around 6:15 pm

**PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT NOTES:** 1. The dates for this series are simply placeholders at the moment. We are working on our 2026 schedule, and adjustments are forthcoming. 2. Each class in this series has an attendance fee. 3. Each class, from BOTH a sign-up and fee perspective, is a separate entity. 4. As the Etch toolset evolves, so too will the class outline below. **Introduction:** Our Site Building with Etch class provides detailed instructions on the philosophy of the Etch development framework, as well as in-depth, hands-on instruction on using the Etch environment and associated tools. Anyone familiar with Kevin Geary and the Digital Gravy set of products will tell you that they offer ground-breaking approaches to professional WordPress site development. As we write this, the Etch toolset and environment are rapidly taking shape, with weekly quantum leaps forward in WordPress development methodologies. As early investors in the Etch product offering and its development process, we are actively testing and evaluating the toolset as it takes shape. We are beyond excited to see how WordPress site development is being modernized, and can't wait to bring this course set to you. It will be a paradigm shift in page and site development within WordPress, as well as moving your development mindset light-years forward. Join us as we explore Etch and dive deep into development approaches that will genuinely elevate your craft as a website developer and agency provider. Scalable, responsive, compliant websites are now within easy reach, and Etch provides both the platform and toolset to take you there. **The breakdown of the 10-class series is as follows:** * Class 01 - TBD * Class 02 - TBD * Class 03 - TBD * Class 04 - TBD * Class 05 - TBD * Class 06 - TBD * Class 07 - TBD * Class 08 - TBD * Class 09 - TBD * Class 10 - TBD Throughout the class sessions listed above, we cover the following key areas of web development with Etch: * **Introduction to Etch Interface:** * Familiarization with the toolset's layout and understanding how to navigate and interact with its various components. * **Visual Site Building:** * Techniques for creating layouts using Etch's interface, incorporating sections, divs, containers, and elements to build semantically correct page structures. * **Styling and Design:** * Utilizing Etch's styling approach to customize elements, apply global CSS classes for consistent design, and leverage features like Flexbox and CSS Grid for responsive layouts. * **Dynamic Content and Custom Fields:** * Integrating dynamic content from custom post types and custom field plugins (like ACF, Meta Box, and even built-in fields) to build data-driven websites. * **Component Building:** * Creating and managing reusable components for headers, footers, post type layouts, and other site-wide elements. * **Performance Optimization:** * Understanding how Etch contributes to fast-loading websites and implementing performance best practices. * **Advanced Features:** * Depending on the class level, it might delve into advanced topics such as conditional logic, interactions, and custom code integration to enable more complex functionality. The series aims to equip participants with the skills to efficiently build, customize, and maintain WordPress websites using Etch, catering to both beginners and experienced web developers alike.

Topic to be announced. **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/ **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: https://www.veeam.com/ **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

**TBA**

Where innovation meets practicality. Join us in **Columbus, OH** for our **immersive event** featuring dynamic, audience-driven demonstrations showcasing the groundbreaking features of our software. We'll cover a wide range of topics, from Manufacturing and Accounting to Inventory Management, Sales/CRM, and eCommerce, as we **delve into the capabilities of Odoo 19**. Discover how it can transform your business processes and support your journey towards digital transformation! Attend for FREE -[ ](https://www.odoo.com/r/dKG)**[Register now!](https://www.odoo.com/r/QU4)** For any inquiries, feel free to reach out to us at ellee@odoo.com