Behavior-Driven Development

*📍**Location*** London Bridge Hive, 8 Holyrood Street, SE1 2EL London - 2 minutes from London Bridge Station *📌**Description*** Agentic AI isn’t about replacing engineers — it’s about reshaping how work flows through the SDLC. We’ll explore new interaction patterns, boundaries, and responsibilities in AI-native delivery. 🔍 ***Key topics*** •Agentic AI • SDLC **⏲️ *Agenda*** 6:00 Pizza and drinks 6:30 Welcome 6:45 Talk 7:30 Q&A 7:45 Networking and Pizzas! 🍕 8:30 Wrap up & See you at the next Meetup! **🎙️*Speaker*** Giulio Roggero CTO @ Mia-Platform 25 years of experience in software engineering, serial entrepreneur with more than 10 business initiatives launched, today is co-founder and CTO at Mia-Platform, the Internal Developer Platform named by Gartner Cool Vendor for Software Engineering Technologies and in the Cloud Application Platforms Magic Quadrant. Principal focus: cloud native, platform engineering, data fabric and omnichannel experience. He likes to paint Blood Bowl miniatures, construct Lego, build and drive RC Cars and learn piano.

PEL Network helps you connect with the right people at luxurious locations. So you can boost your business ten fold. We welcome interior designers, architects, builders, real estate developers, entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders and professionals from various fields. We always choose the luxurious lounges all around London so you can network in peace and focus. We make sure you feel comfortable and fulfill all of your needs. Our locations are at the heart of central london so it's easy for you to travel to and from. Food and drinks are also available at our venues. For our event, we have reserved an area of the venue so that we can mix and mingle and meet old and new friends, new contacts, and new clients too! We encourage everyone to talk to as many people in the event as possible. That said, once you feel a certain chemistry or opportunity with someone, we encourage to talk with them on a deeper level. We forget about 90% of people after a goodnight sleep. However when we establish an emotional resonance with someone, they will remember us the next day. Program: The evening's format is called personalized networking. No more being stuck in 10 min superficial conversations and exchanging cards or linkedin. It is designed for networking in a relaxed setting, providing an opportunity to meet fellow business leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors. We emphasize building genuine relationships on a personal level. I will be there to help with introductions and get over the barrier of anxiety when approaching someone you don't know. How many people are attending? The venue has a capacity limit of 40 guests, and due to the popularity of our events and the unique ambiance of the location, we anticipate this event will reach full capacity quickly. We strongly advise securing your reservation early to ensure attendance. If you haven't gotten a ticket, you can pay when you arrive but it will be 50% more expensive than buying it in advance. Our events achieve success through a straightforward yet impactful strategy. A few days prior to the event, we establish a WhatsApp group for attendees interested in pre-event networking, enabling participants to arrange meetings both for the event day and beforehand. On the day of the event, you will experience a relaxing atmosphere with a hospitable and encouraging community. Dress code: business casual (no trainers, no jeans) Refund policy: Advance purchase tickets are offered at a discounted rate compared to those bought on the event day. Please note, these tickets are non-refundable but can be transferred to another individual of your choosing. PEL Network Membership: If you buy the yearly membership for our PEL Network you will receive the following benefits. 1. All the events are free for the whole year. 2. Join the members only community chats and events. 3. One free Motivational Profile Test 4. One free Sensory Personality Test 5. One free book a month (from our collections) 6. Free Consultation for your business growth, marketing, employee engagement and sales.

May Edition ✨✨! We will be at Kraken Tech (Octopus Energy Group), London office! (in-person only event, no streaming) **Talks:** **Django's GeneratedField by example — Paolo Melchiorre** Learn how to use Django 5.0's GeneratedField through practical examples. This field lets the database compute values automatically based on other fields in your model — a powerful feature that's easy to underuse. Paolo will walk through real-world use cases to show where it fits and how to make the most of it. Paolo Melchiorre is a Python backend developer, Django contributor, and Python Software Foundation Fellow. He serves on the Django Software Foundation board, co-organises PyCon Italia, and is a coach for Django Girls and a navigator for the Djangonaut Space mentorship programme. *** **Django in the Lab: how web development is reshaping behavioural research — Andy Woods** Off-the-shelf platforms can't always keep up with the complexity of academic research. Andy has been using Django since version 1.11 to build tools that can — from coordinating live location-based VR studies to running inclusive diary studies via WhatsApp and auditing immersive experiences for accessibility. He'll share where Django works especially well in academic settings, what surprised him along the way, and why this moment feels like a real opportunity for the Django community. Andy Woods is a Senior Research Engineer-Psychologist at CoSTAR & StoryFutures, Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Django Software Foundation Individual Member. **Want to share your Django or Python knowledge?** We’d love to feature your talk! Just fill out our [Speaker form ](https://tinyurl.com/django-london-speaker-form) to propose a talk! **Agenda:** • 6:15pm Doors open, socialising • 6:30pm Food and drinks offered by our sponsor • 7:00pm Doors close \*\* • 7:15pm Introduction, News, Talks • 8:30pm Socialising • 9:30pm Fin **Please make sure to arrive between 6:15 PM and 6:55 PM**. If you arrive earlier than 6:15 PM or later than 6:55 PM, you can take a seat in the seating area located in the downstairs reception. **Please note that we cannot accommodate arrivals after 7:15 PM.** Our meetups are governed by a [Code of Conduct](https://www.djangolondon.com/code-of-conduct/). Please take a few minutes to read it. This meetup is sponsored by: • [Kraken Tech (Octopus Energy Group)](Octopus%20Energy%20Group): "Kraken is a revolutionary energy tech platform built with predominantly Python & Django. We Serve 54 million households worldwide and have 38GW of contracted capacity." • [JetBrains](https://www.jetbrains.com/): "We make professional software development a more productive and enjoyable experience." Website: [https://djangolondon.com](https://djangolondon.com/) BlueSky: [@djangolondon.com](https://bsky.app/profile/djangolondon.com) Github: [github.com/djangolondon](https://github.com/djangolondon/) Open Collective: [opencollective.com/the-london-django-meetup-group](https://opencollective.com/the-london-django-meetup-group/)

Get ready for an another awesome night at the London Tech Social! It’s the perfect spot to chill with designers and engineers and make new friends. Whether you’re a tech wizard or just curious, you’ll fit right in. This is your chance to meet cool people and maybe even kick off some exciting projects together🚀 Mark your calendar for a night filled with fun and new connections📅 We look forward to seeing you there!

**Pre-Registration is REQUIRED. RSVP here - [https://luma.com/ppyy0sqw](https://luma.com/ppyy0sqw)** ## 🚀 From OpenClaw to Cowork: The Rise of Agentic AI in 2026 **Agentic AI is moving beyond chat and into execution.** Join us for an evening of deep-dive insights as we explore the shift from simple LLM interactions to autonomous, AI-native workflows. Whether you’re a developer, product manager, or business leader, this session will help you navigate the practical future of AI agents. ## The Speaker **Sheamus McGovern,** *Founder of ODSC AI \| Venture Partner at Cortical Ventures \| Author of "The AI Skill Flip"* ## The Topic: The Rise of Agentic AI In this talk, Sheamus explores how tools like **OpenClaw**, **Claude Cowork**, and the emerging **Model Context Protocol (MCP)** are starting to automate real workflows. We’ll move past the hype to look at how agents are working across tools and systems to solve actual production challenges in 2026. ## Our Partners A huge thank you to our partner **[Snowflake](https://www.snowflake.com/en/)** for supporting the London AI community and providing the incredible venue for this event. ## Details * **Date:** 7th May, 2026 * **Time:** 18:00 – 20:00 BST (London Time) * **Perks:** Pizza and soda will be provided 🍕🥤 * **Venue:** Snowflake HQ, 3 Crown Place, London EC2A 4EF, UK ## Agenda * **18:00 - 18:30:** Networking, Pizza, & Drinks * **18:30 - 19:15:** Talk: From OpenClaw to Cowork (Sheamus McGovern) * **19:15 - 19:30:** Interactive Q&A * **19:30 - 20:00:** Closing & Community Networking Come ready to learn, connect with London's AI community, and see what the next phase of automation looks like in practice! **Some useful links:** • Get free access to more talks/trainings like this at Ai+ Training platform: [https://aiplus.training/](https://aiplus.training/) [•](https://hubs.li/H0Zycsf0%EF%BF%BC%E2%80%A2?utm_source=luma) ODSC blog: [https://opendatascience.com/](https://opendatascience.com/) [•](https://opendatascience.com/%EF%BF%BC%E2%80%A2?utm_source=luma) Slack Channel: [https://hubs.li/Q038cQBy0](https://hubs.li/Q038cQBy0) [•](https://hubs.li/Q02ZkDV90%EF%BF%BC%E2%80%A2?utm_source=luma) Code of conduct: [https://odsc.ai/code-of-conduct/](https://odsc.ai/code-of-conduct/)

*❗️Event Announcement.* 🎟️ **Register via** [Luma](https://luma.com/5hfjgv9b) — we do not accept sign-ups through Meetup. 📅 **7th May** · Doors 6:00 PM, Start 6:30 PM **How Many SKILL. md Files Is a Profession?** *Discovering accounting's patterns from the corrections of human experts* **🎤***Nikolay Turusin, Data Science Lead · Anna Money* A profession decomposes into a finite library of procedural patterns — smaller than you'd expect. And you don't find them by interviewing experts. You find them by watching where experts correct the system. Nikolay is building a production UK Corporation Tax engine on GenAI. This is his field report: what the right unit of work looks like inside an LLM system, why this kind of automation suddenly becomes tractable, and what expert-bounded self-improvement means when you're shipping to real users. Candid talk. Open discussion. Bring questions.

🇯🇲🔥💪🏽 DANCEHALL FITNESS!! 🔥💪🏽🇯🇲 Every SATURDAY 10am! 📍Falcon Park 14 Cranleigh Mews, London SW11 2QL 🔥🤸🏽‍♀️ High Energy Group WorkOuts! 💪🏽🔥 Qualified Personal Trainers & DJs! All Ages And Fitness Levels Welcome! DJs playing Strictly Dancehall Music! 🔊🇯🇲 If you would love to join us or get involved follow us and send a DM us on Instagram @dancehallfitness_ Get ready to sweat with Dancehall Fitness! Fitness moves that’ll boost your energy and mood! Tickets: Via Eventbrite: Search Dancehall Fitness #LondonFitness #LondonWorkouts #exercise #OpenAirFitness #StartNow

Hello and welcome to our next **GenAI UK x Cloud Native & Open-Source AI** meetup. This event brings together engineers, practitioners, builders, and leaders working across cloud-native platforms, open-source ecosystems, Gen AI, Data and Agentic AI. Our meetups are friendly, welcoming, and community-driven; everyone is welcome, whether you’re experienced or just curious. This session will include practitioner talks, demos, Q&A, and time for networking with like-minded peers. We run bi-monthly in-person meetups in London, bi-monthly online global events, and regional chapters across the UK, North America, and APAC. Food and refreshments will be provided for in-person events where a host venue is supporting. We are delighted to host this event in **London** on the **7th of May** with Netmind AI NetMind XYZ ([https://xyz.netmind.ai/](https://xyz.netmind.ai/)) is NetMind.AI's new agent platform where you can create your agents with just natural language. Agents on NetMind XYZ can now join moltbook. **Speakers and Sessions:** Speaker: Henry, AI Agent Engineer at NetMind.AI Session Title: From Agentic Workflows to Bio-Image Insights: A Cell Migration Case Study Description: As AI infrastructure becomes commoditized, the next wave of value will be captured at the application layer, where automation, domain knowledge, and user-centered design turn AI capability into measurable outcomes. Speaker: Richárd Kovács, CTO at Harikube Session Title: From Orchestration to Platform: The Missing Puzzles to Unify Polyglot Services on Kubernetes. Description: Imagine a world where Kubernetes itself becomes the unified platform—not just for container orchestration, but for serverless functions, microservices, and the entire API ecosystem. This presentation explores the missing architectural pieces required to make that world a reality. We focus on the architectural puzzles required to unify these layers: serverless functions, specialized Kubernetes Operators, and the powerful Aggregation API layer. By solving these integration puzzles, you can empower development teams to build real Cloud-Native nanoservices, microservices, and REST APIs on the same PaaS, in any language they choose, turning Kubernetes from a simple orchestrator into a powerful, opinionated application platform. **Agenda (GMT /UK ):** * 18:00: Welcome and refreshments * 18:30: Introduction - Ethan Sumner * 18:35: Richárd Kovács * 19:10: Break * 19:20: Frank Contrepois * 19:55: Close and Networking **Get Involved:** We are always keen to hear from: • Speakers — case studies, engineering deep dives, lessons learned, open-source talks • Hosts — organisations able to provide space for future meetups • Sponsors — support with refreshments, marketing, or accessibility If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please get in touch with **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)**[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)via LinkedIn. You can find our YouTube Channel **[here.](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)** This community forms part of the **[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)**[ ](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)and follows the Community Stack Code of Conduct to ensure a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees.

We're excited to invite you to ***our next Meetup***! Join fellow graph enthusiasts, Neo4j developers, and members of the AI community as we explore how graphs, knowledge graphs, and context engineering can unlock smarter applications and better answers. We look forward to connecting with the community to exchange ideas on graphs, tech, and AI - join the discussion! Session 1: **From Weak Assistants to Super Agents** Sefik Serengil, Senior Software Developer - Neo4j Session 2: **The Latest on Working with Agents** Baptiste Fernandez, DevRel - Tessl A synthesis of data, experiments, and developer feedback on how to build with agents and steer them in practice.

A regular meetup for those committed to practising and improving their Arabic. It is designed for those who know the very basics and want a structured opportunity to practise reading, listening, speaking, and building confidence. If you're still learning the very basics but want some motivation to keep going, you're very welcome to join. Note: This is a practice group facilitated by a native speaker - not a formal teacher or taught class, and not a Quran teaching session. 📚 SESSION FORMAT: ⏱️ 30 mins Intro & Social: We'll go around and introduce ourselves in Arabic. Feel free to prepare 2-3 sentences beforehand if you don't like being put on the spot! 🗣️ 60 mins Structured Practice: A focused session practising together with guidance : ◾ Taking turns reading passages aloud ◾ Listening to excerpts from an audiobook ◾ Working together to translate and understand the text 💬 Continued Socialising: Feel free to stick around afterwards for more informal chat and connection. ✊ Note: Active Muslims is equally about focusing on the actual activity, in this case, it is a practice session requiring mental engagement and active participation (and not just a social), therefore it is advised to approach and attend these events with that mindset, intention and purpose. 📍 LOCATION: Barbican ⌚ MEET: By the cafe G Level (Benugo) ⏱️ TIME: Meet from **11:00am** for intros and socialising. The practice session starts promptly at **11:30am** insha'Allah. 🎒 What to bring: 📚 Any Arabic texts you would like to read 🎧 Headphones (optional, if you prefer listening privately) ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ If you can no longer attend, please update your RSVP to free up your spot for someone on the waiting list. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 🌐 **[@Active.Muslims](https://www.instagram.com/active.muslims)** *(Follow for latest events updates)*

Join us on May 7th from **6:00pm** for a Data Streaming meetup hosted by **[Fresha](https://www.fresha.com/)**! 📍**Venue:** **Fresha** The Tower, 207 Old Street London, EC1V 9NR 7th Floor **PLEASE bring your PHOTO ID and REGISTER with your First and Last Name, Email. Thanks!** **DOORS CLOSE AT 7PM FOR SECURITY.** 🗓 **Agenda:** * 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Food/Drinks and Networking * 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Anton Borisov, Principal Data Engineer, Fresha & Nicoleta Lazar, Sr. Data Engineer, Fresha * 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Olena Kutsenko, Staff Developer Advocate, Confluent * 7:30pm - 8:00pm: Tom Scott, Founder & CEO, Streambased * 8:00pm - 9:00pm: Q&A Networking 💡**Speaker One:** Anton Borisov, Principal Data Engineer, Fresha & Nicoleta Lazar, Sr. Data Engineer, Fresha **Title of Talk:** Apache Fluss: Streaming Storage for Real-Time Analytics **Abstract:** Apache Flink has largely solved streaming computation, but state management remains a bottleneck. Operator state—often backed by RocksDB—is scoped to individual jobs, making it hard to share state across pipelines without re-emitting it through systems like Apache Kafka. This leads to expensive joins and added operational complexity. Apache Fluss (incubating) addresses this by externalizing state into a streaming storage layer backed by S3. Its PrimaryKey tables act as upsertable key-value stores with replicated changelogs, enabling shared state tables accessible from Flink, Spark, or native clients. With Flink 2.1’s Delta Join, both sides of a join can perform lookups against Fluss-managed indexes—eliminating the need for large join state altogether. In this talk, we’ll introduce Fluss, show key use cases like CDC enrichment and bilateral joins, and share lessons from running it in production on EKS —including the trade-offs and rough edges we encountered. 💡**Speaker Two:** Olena Kutsenko, Staff Developer Advocate, Confluent **Title of Talk:** The journey of a record from Kafka topic to analytics table **Abstract:** Modern data platforms increasingly rely on streaming systems like Apache Kafka as the source of truth—but turning event streams into reliable, queryable analytics tables is far from trivial. This talk explores what really has to happen when moving data from a Kafka topic into an Apache Iceberg table. Beyond simple ingestion, we will walk through the essential steps: schema evolution, data normalization, partitioning, exactly-once guarantees, late-arriving events, and table maintenance. Using Confluent Tableflow as one concrete example, we will examine how these challenges can be addressed in practice. Along the way, we will compare alternative approaches—such as Kafka Connect sinks, stream processing pipelines, and custom ingestion frameworks—to highlight trade-offs in correctness, latency, and operational complexity. The goal is not to promote a single solution, but to provide a mental model for designing robust streaming-to-lakehouse pipelines, helping you understand what matters regardless of the tooling you choose. **Bio:** Olena is a Staff Developer Advocate at Confluent and a recognized expert in data streaming and analytics. With two decades of experience in software engineering, she has built mission-critical applications, led high-performing teams, and driven large-scale technology adoption at industry leaders like Nokia, HERE Technologies, AWS, and Aiven. A passionate advocate for real-time data processing and AI-driven applications, Olena empowers developers and organizations to use the power of streaming data. She is an AWS Community Builder, a dedicated mentor, and a volunteer instructor at a nonprofit tech school, helping to shape the next generation of engineers. As an international speaker and thought leader, Olena regularly presents at top global conferences, sharing deep technical insights and hands-on expertise. Whether through her talks, workshops, or content, she is committed to making complex technologies accessible and inspiring innovation in the developer community. 💡**Speaker Three:** Tom Scott, Founder & CEO, Streambased **Title of Talk:** *Infinite Kafka? Rethinking Retention with Iceberg* **Abstract:** Apache Kafka is designed for high-throughput, low-latency event streaming, not cost-efficient long-term storage. Yet we constantly see cases like event sourcing, audit/compliance, and large-scale reprocessing forcing that pattern onto it. As retention increases, costs grow linearly to support edge cases, one-time runs, and “checkbox” use cases. Can Iceberg help here? In this talk, Tom explores a hybrid architecture that separates hot and cold data while preserving Kafka’s log semantics. Using a combination of Kafka and Apache Iceberg, he demonstrates how to extend Kafka into low-cost object storage, enabling effectively unlimited retention without sacrificing performance or access patterns. The result is a unified log that supports both real-time processing and long-term replay, removing the traditional trade-off between cost and capability in Kafka-based systems. **Bio:** Long-time enthusiast of Kafka and all things data integration, Tom has more than 15 years of experience in innovative and efficient ways to store, query, and move data. Tom is currently CEO at Streambased, a company focused on unifying operational and analytical data estates into a single, consistent, and efficient data layer. \*\*\* If you are interested in hosting/speaking at a meetup, please email community@confluent.io

## From Zero to AI App: A Hands-On Meetup for Data Professionals Curious about AI but tired of the hype? This beginner-friendly, practical meetup is designed to help you **actually understand and use AI in data roles**—not just talk about it. We’ll break down the core ideas behind modern AI systems in a simple, no-jargon way—then bring everything together by **building a real AI app live**. Whether you're a student, aspiring analyst, or working professional, you’ll leave with **clarity, confidence, and practical skills you can apply immediately.** *** ## 💡 What You’ll Learn In this session, we’ll go from fundamentals to real application: * What *Agentic AI* really means (and why it matters) * A simple breakdown of *LLM architecture* * What vectors are and why they power modern AI systems * What *RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)* is and how it works in practice * How all these pieces connect in real-world data workflows And most importantly… 👉 **We’ll build a working AI app live—so you can see exactly how it all comes together.** *** ## 🎤 Talks ### 1️⃣ From Concepts to Creation: Understanding & Building with AI A practical walkthrough of key AI concepts—followed by a **live app build** where we turn theory into something real. ### 2️⃣ CV Blueprint * **The Perfect CV Blueprint:** Stop making the top 5 mistakes that lead to automatic rejection. Learn how to transform your experience into **quantifiable achievements** that hiring managers love. *** ## 👥 Meet Your Speakers **[Nitish Galat](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitish-galat/) – BI Analyst & Gen AI Specialist** Nitish works at the intersection of data automation and generative AI, with a focus on simplifying complex systems and making AI accessible to everyone. **[Abhishek Gadve](https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-gadve-8010a2119/) – Senior Product Analyst** Abhishek specializes in turning data into business impact, helping teams make faster, smarter decisions using analytics and AI. *** ## 🎯 Why You Should Attend This isn’t another theory-heavy AI session. You’ll walk away with: * A clear understanding of how modern AI actually works * Practical knowledge you can use in data roles right away * Exposure to real tools and workflows used today * The confidence to start building with AI yourself *** ## 🎟️ Free Event – Limited Spots We’re keeping this meetup **small and interactive** to encourage discussion, questions, and hands-on learning. If you're serious about understanding how AI fits into data and analytics, this session will give you a real edge. 👉 **Reserve your spot now**

Join fellow product people at **The Product Group London** on **Thu 7th May** for an evening of learning, sharing and networking. **Topic of the Night: Product Today: Surviving & Succeeding** Succeeding (or even surviving) in product management today, what does it take? On the night we’ll explore the current state of the industry and what’s required to succeed (and/or survive) now and in the future. Topics will include what’s changing about the role, what’s staying the same and what’s unknown? How is AI, economic uncertainty, changing company dynamics and the selective job market impacting the role? How do you succeed (or survive) today and in the near future incl. what to focus on and which skills to optimize for? **Featured Guest: David Eason, Principal Product Manager, Trainline** David is a Principal Product Manager at Trainline, where he has spent 7 years building and scaling customer-facing products. He currently leads monitisation initiatives, focused on driving meaningful revenue growth by expanding the core Trainline proposition. As a product generalist, David has delivered across all parts of Trainline’s web and app products in B2B and B2B2C spaces. His work has covered the full product lifecycle incl. launching new AI-powered tools in the product. Before joining Trainline, David worked at Ford, where he focused on experimental product development and collaborated with leading London-based software and design agencies. **About The Product Group London** The Product Group London is a monthly meetup designed to bring product people of all levels together for topical discussions, as a group and with our guest speakers. With attendees from startups to large enterprises, there is no shortage of opportunities to network and make new connections. And whilst the focus is on product management, we welcome product designers and engineers to join for some friendly and lively discussions. **A word about our sponsor and host, BrainStation** [BrainStation](https://brainstation.io/london) is a global leader in digital skills training, empowering businesses and brands to succeed in the digital age. Established in 2012, BrainStation has worked with over 500 instructors from the most innovative companies, developing cutting-edge, real-world digital education that has empowered professionals and some of the largest corporations in the world.

Practical AI for Power BI Developers A year ago, “agentic AI” was mostly hype for Power BI teams. Today, it deserves your undivided attention. For Power BI pros, there is now a real opportunity to reduce repetitive development work, accelerate delivery, and help developers do more, but only when strong DataOps practices are in place to make AI workflows effective. This session is a no-nonsense introduction to effective AI patterns for Power BI and Fabric development. Along the way, we will make sense of the growing pile of terminology, including skills, plugins, hooks, and MCP. You will see examples of how modern AI tooling can help with development tasks across Power BI and Fabric, along with the prerequisites, guardrails, and DataOps principles needed to use it responsibly. Whether you're burned out on AI hype or already using Copilot CLI daily, this session will show you the foundations that are finally making AI-assisted development genuinely useful.

**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.

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

PLEASE NOTE!!! This event will be In-Person for our very 1st Improving collab! If you know the [Columbus Unity group](https://www.meetup.com/columbus-unity-user-group/) location, we'll be at the same place. This is our 1st event and are doing a soft launch with limited attendance. 1st come 1st serve. If you want to be there and we fill up, please email me at [info@thecogg.com](mailto:info@thecogg.com) and I'll be in touch. All street parking is free on Sundays but you can also pay to park in any of the local garages. See image of [parking map here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mr9_LFIggbs-0_Zd3AJTGNqEhgMf2TzQ/view?usp=sharing). \-\-\- On the last Sunday of the month, we're having our usual end-of-the-month social gathering with our GameDev Meetup meeting. There will be announcements and presentations followed by some social networking Let's continue the conversations with good vibes and friends. All are welcomed from all ages and backgrounds to this public event. If we can, we'll be streaming or uploading the video later via our COGG YouTube channel here: [https://www.youtube.com/@TheCOGG/streams](https://www.youtube.com/@TheCOGG/streams) (Also please do subscribe if you have not done so!) No game development experience required! If you are interested in doing a 20 minute game development related presentation, please fill out our form online here: [https://goo.gl/forms/lVdTJZiNJewlPJuj1](https://goo.gl/forms/lVdTJZiNJewlPJuj1) Or e-mail us at info@thecogg.com with the following: Your Name, Company/Affiliation, Name of Your Game/Topic, Description, Tech Needs, and Your Contact. Be sure to check out our Discord for real time news updates: [https://discord.gg/NrBhuNQ](https://discord.gg/NrBhuNQ)

We will show how to build custom agents with Microsoft Agent Framework. Attendees will learn how to build and custom host agents when Microsoft Foundry is not a viable option.

**TBA**

FREE event [https://www.ccad.edu/chroma](https://www.ccad.edu/chroma) Friday, May 15, 3–7 p.m. CCAD campus, 60 Cleveland Ave, Columbus, OH Join Columbus College of Art & Design for *2025* *Chroma: Best of CCAD*, our annual campuswide exhibition showcasing outstanding student work from across the college’s academic programs. This faculty-juried show features select work from CCAD students of all class years, and is a can’t-miss end-of-year campus celebration recognizing their tremendous achievements. It’ll be a night of fun and entertainment, with interactive games, animation and film screenings, art symposiums, poetry and prose readings, and more (along with some of the best local food trucks). *Chroma* is free and open to all. Many exhibitions including... **Game Art & Design:** **DSB, first floor, Welcome Center lobby and Room 115**