Microsoft Azure

**New Dojo Location!** **Draft Day Columbus** 1130 Dublin Road Columbus, OH 43215 We're going to try a new dojo location for a few weeks and see how it works Dojos are informal Python group study sessions where everyone interested in Python gathers to learn about Python, help others with Python, or just hang out. Everyone is welcome from Python beginners to experts. Bringing a laptop is encouraged (we'll have extension cords and power strips). If there's something you want to learn leave a comment on this invite so we can plan ahead. We're looking for topic suggestions and people interested in presenting at our monthly meetings. To this end we've set up a survey form at [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15eBKF1nQQ2XS5gzD4rvhVRHMBEj7lJtHuA9wXupS3Uc](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15eBKF1nQQ2XS5gzD4rvhVRHMBEj7lJtHuA9wXupS3Uc)

TOPIC (Getting Ready for Spring Macro Photography): Insects are hatching, and flowers are blooming soon. Join us for a presentation on Spring Macro photography and get primed for the photographic season ahead. Meeting Schedule: 1. 6:00 - Introduction, Meet New Members 2. 6:10 - Old Business 3. 6:20 - New Business 4. 6:30 - Pre-Shoot Briefing/Education 5. 7:15 - Break 6. 7:30 - Image Critique 7. 8:00 - Adjourn Pre-Shoot Brief/Education: NIK Collection 8 Image Critique: Previous Photoshoot Images (iPhone images and Christmas Cards). If anyone has images they would like critiqued, please provide them at the beginning of the meeting. Providing Images for Critique: For now, I will collect images at the beginning of the meeting on a USB memory stick. My computer has USB-C ports, so a USB-C memory stick or one with dual (USB-C / USB-A) ports will be needed. Images should follow these format rules: JPG - 80% quality or higher 132 dpi resolution 2048 pixels across the long edge Embedded colorspace - sRGB

Bring your business cards and network in person with other business professionals! Gold Star Referral Clubs is one of the most established professional networking organizations in the country, with multiple groups in central Ohio. Join us!

## Overview Networking event for aspiring school leaders interested in building their own high-quality K-12 public school in their community. **About the Event:** Aspiring school founders in the Columbus, OH, area are invited to join us for this special in-person networking event where you will be able to ask questions, learn more about the BES Fellowship and make sure you are prepared for the application process and beyond. In addition to meeting like-minded leaders who are also committed to transforming education and bringing a high-quality K-12 option to their community, you’ll have the opportunity to meet our team and gain special insights from Dr. Chaundria Smith, BES Senior Director of Fellowship Coaching, who works closely to support BES Fellows. During this event, you can also learn more about the various regions across Ohio we are prioritizing for the BES Fellowship to ensure that new schools will respond to the needs of their community. **About the BES Fellowship:** Leaders in the BES Fellowship embark on a multi-year process to design, found, and lead an excellent K-12 public school that reflects and responds to community needs. We are currently accepting applications to the 2026 BES Fellowship. The extended deadline is March 30, and the 2026 Cohort will begin August 2026. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all spots are filled. Learn more at [bes.org/fellowship](http://bes.org/fellowship "http://bes.org/fellowship").

Join us as we get together to see the period drama / classic monster movie, THE BRIDE! The film is written/directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and stars Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale in a new take on the classic tale, The Bride of Frankenstein. We'll be seeing this one on Thurs, 3/5 one day ahead of the film's opening on Friday. Here’s a description, trailer and plan for this event: DESCRIPTION: In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein's creature asks Dr. Euphronius to create a companion for him. They give life to a murdered woman as "the Bride," sparking romance, police interest and radical social change. It is written, directed and co-produced by Maggie Gyllenhaal and stars Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal and Penélope Cruz. TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-qJkAXLfYM PARKING: Close, convenient parking is available in the nearby garage (located between 9th and 11th, just off High St). Bring your ticket with you and have it validated at the theater and for $2, you’re covered for the night! PLAN: Please purchase your ticket for the 7:00pm showing and we’ll meet inside the upstairs lobby between 6:40 and 6:50pm. Advance ticket purchase is advised (via Gateway website preferred). Once you have yours, please list your seat number in the Comments below! Pre-show bite at Cazuela’s next door at 5:30pm. Please arrive by 5:30pm and ask for the Movie Group! Look forward to seeing you there, Dan

The aim of this group is to get together and practice our German. Doesn’t matter if are a beginner or a native speaker. The goal is to speak and improve our German. Everyone is welcome! If the weather is good, look for us in the Biergarten. Pro Tip: Get there before 6:00 for happy hour pricing.

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

Christians in Tech is a community at the intersection of faith and technology. Our meetups are designed to spark meaningful conversations, promote knowledge sharing, and encourage growth—both in your career and your spiritual walk with God. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting your tech journey, CIT welcomes you. Our Website [https://linktr.ee/citcbus](https://linktr.ee/citcbus) Sponsors and Partners * Improving (Venue Sponsor) * Bethel World Prayer Center (Fiscal Sponsor) * Fruits & Roots (Coffee Partner)

Let's Crop!

Join membersrs of the Central Ohio UX and digital design community for a casual monthly breakfast.

**Back By Popular Request!** Spend an evening exploring the ins and outs of flash photography and off-camera lighting techniques. We will be in the studio for this meeting and will learn how to use supplemental lighting to improve our images! **Meeting Schedule:** 1. 4:00 - Introduction, Meet New Members 2. 4:10 - Old Business 3. 4:20 - New Business 4. 4:30 - Pre-Shoot Briefing/Education 5. 6:00 - Break 6. 6:05 - Continue Presentation 7. 7:00 - Adjourn

**The idea for this group is to build a community where men can gather together and build connections & learn and grow from each other.** How we start each meeting is by each of us checking in with our "roses and thorns" aka what are the good things and the bad things going on in your life recently? Then we will go into a topic discussion. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS** \*\*THERE WILL BE A ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY FOR NO-SHOWS. IF YOU RSVP TO A MEETING AND FAIL TO SHOW UP WITHOUT NOTICE, YOU'LL BE REMOVED FROM THE GROUP. THIS IS TO PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE GROUP\*\* 1. Confidentiality - EVERYTHING that is shared NEVER leaves this space so that this space remains safe and sacred. There is a zero tolerance policy for this. If a man is in violation of this, they will be permanently removed from the group. 2. Non-Judgement - we respect and honor every man’s truth so that we may receive the same from others. While we may not agree on everything, we commit to respecting every man’s perspectives and engaging in honorable discussion with one another. 3. Be committed - honor your commitment to this group and to yourself. If you attend a meeting, please commit yourself fully to the meeting. Also be committed to your own journey. When we fail, we own it & clean it up. 4. Speak from the heart - this is NOT a space to “look good”, have the “right” answers, and have it all together. Relax and know you are not alone. Be exactly who you are within the safety of this space. 5. Be supportive - This means always willing to provide encouragement to your fellow men, encourage action and momentum in each other’s lives.. Be willing to challenge each other. Be willing to hold each other accountable. 6. Participation - what you receive from this community will be a reflection of what you put into it. Period. We ask that you share your perspectives, reflect on others, and give/receive support when and where it’s needed.

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.

The global Azure community is coming together again, and Columbus is officially on the map. On **Saturday, April 18, 2026**, the Azure Columbus Meetup is hosting our local edition of Global Azure 2026. This is a free, community-driven event packed with learning, networking, and all things Microsoft Azure. Whether you’re building modern cloud-native apps, experimenting with AI agents, deploying containers, automating infrastructure, or just beginning your Azure journey, this event is for you! **What to Expect** * Engaging technical sessions * Real-world Azure architecture & cloud-native patterns * AI, agents, automation, and modern DevOps * Food and drinks (because learning burns calories) * Time to connect with fellow engineers, architects, and cloud enthusiasts We’re lining up a strong set of speakers from the local and regional Azure community. Speaker announcements coming soon! **Who Should Attend?** * Software engineers (any language, any stack) * Cloud architects * DevOps engineers * Data professionals * AI explorers * Platform builders * Anyone who loves solving hard problems with great tools If you build, deploy, automate, scale, monitor, or optimize in Azure, you’ll feel right at home. **Why Global Azure?** Global Azure is a worldwide community event where Azure user groups host learning sessions on the same day across the globe. It’s grassroots. It’s technical. It’s practical. And it’s powered by people who genuinely love sharing what they’ve learned. And yes, it’s free to attend!

Drake Lundstrom is presenting: Code Anywhere by Talking to your Phone Abstract: Have you heard the trend of people deploying code anywhere from checkout lines to doctors' offices? In this talk, you will learn how to talk to your phone and have an app on Azure to show your friend 5 minutes later. The basic DevOps tools you already know, plus a little bit of AI magic, are all you need! If you want to follow along, the demo will be in Azure with GitHub Actions and GitHub Copilot, and you can have it set up on your phone by the end of the session. Just come in with an Azure account and a GitHub repo. Join us for pizza, drinks, and networking @ Improving's office. Doors open at 5:45.

Discover Kiro, AWS’s innovative development environment that adapts to your workflow. Whether you prefer specification-driven development or a more intuitive, vibe-based approach, Kiro empowers you to build applications your way. In this session, speakers will explore Kiro’s core functionality and its evolution through re:Invent 2025, along with demonstrations of prompts used to create APIs, hooks, and steering documents. In the latter part of the session, watch as we build a complete example from scratch, showcasing Kiro’s agentic AI workflow in action for spec-driven development and vibe coding. What You'll Learn - Core Kiro concepts and development philosophy Feature evolution: pre and post re:Invent 2025 Practical examples: API creation, hooks, and steering docs Live coding demonstration with real-time problem solving Who Should Attend - Developers, solutions architects, and technical leaders interested in modern AWS development tools and AI-assisted coding workflows. **Speakers Bio:** Matthew Jorat: Matthew Jorat is a Customer Solutions Manager at AWS with nearly three decades of expertise in AI, cloud transformation, migration, modernization, IT, technology, and business. His career spans infrastructure engineer, solutions architect, security auditor, customer success director, support and services director, and operations officer. He was an early adopter of AWS services as a customer, and his current role at AWS uniquely blends his technical and business skills as he partners with executive teams to translate strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes through cloud adoption, AI implementation, and operational excellence. Matt leads end-to-end AI initiatives for enterprise customers, identifying high-impact use cases and maintaining relentless focus on measurable ROI. He holds eight AWS certifications and serves as Adjunct Professor at Franklin University teaching cloud computing and AWS architecture. His expertise encompasses GenAI, agentic AI systems, migration, modernization, and optimization strategies that drive transformation at scale. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/) Girish Bhatia: Girish Bhatia is a seasoned technology delivery leader with deep expertise in cross-domain program management. He holds multiple AWS certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer – Associate, and AWS Generative AI Practitioner, and is also an AWS Community Builder. Girish brings over two decades of experience in the information technology industry. Throughout his career, Girish has led major technology-driven business transformation from modernizing on-premises applications to driving large-scale cloud migrations. His work includes API-based integration platforms, data-center and mainframe modernization, and enterprise cloud adoption initiatives. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Girish works at a tech-forward fintech company. He is passionate about AWS serverless architectures, Generative AI and emerging cloud technologies. An avid learner and builder, he continues to explore and apply the latest innovations in AWS to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/[https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/) **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **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

Window functions have nothing to do with the Windows operating system but provide a “window” to a result set when used in SQL queries. They are powerful, set-based methods to view data in unexpected ways. Window functions provide easy, set-based solutions to solve some common problems: * Using running totals * Performing operations in intervals * Identifying data gaps and islands * Performing aggregates without losing detail Many people are confused by window functions and do not know how to use them properly. This session will explore window functions, how they work, and how to use them. Demonstrations with several examples will solidify how window functions can simplify queries and make them more powerful.

On Thursday, March 12, 2026, we will meet at the TEKSystems offices at 700 N Hurstbourne Pkwy. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m., and the presentations will begin sharply at 6:30 p.m. Along with an excellent presentation, TEKsystems will provide food. Please RSVP so we know how much food to order. Afterward, we will go to Brick House Tavern for drinks and food to continue the conversation. The session will also be broadcast at https://twitch.tv/TaleLearnCode. ### Much Ado About Nullable - C# Nullable Reference Types Explained In 2019 (C# 8.0) Microsoft introduced a feature that has generated a lot of confusion, debate and outright dissent. I'm talking about Nullable Reference Types. In this presentation, I we dig into this feature, explore why it exists, what problem it tries to solve, how it works, and how people have critiqued it, so that you as a programmer can decide if and how you want to use it.