BSD

**Not only startups have a startup-ish mindset. And it’s pretty important to think and react like a startup even if you’re not building one.** **Startup Social Kaunas** is a monthly meetup, happening every first Tuesday of the month. We welcome everyone – startup founders, service providers, investors, or just anyone curious about the Kaunas startup scene 🫡 We’re starting 2026 with a bang. A basketball-sized bang. For the 35th Startup Social Kaunas, we’re hosting the **CEO of [BasketNews](https://basketnews.com/), [Jonas Miklovas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonas-miklovas-a85a7536/)** 🏀 **And before you think, “Hey, but is it a startup?”** Well… kinda, yeah. They create digital products, they’re expanding rapidly to global audiences, they keep incorporating new ideas, and they’re constantly experimenting with ways to attract more people worldwide. We’d say that’s definitely a startup-ish mindset. [BasketNews](https://basketnews.com/) is is Europe’s number one basketball media company – but that’s not all. Besides their news website, they run multiple social media channels for different regions, a successful podcast series, and the EuroLeague Fantasy game. Join us on January 6th to hear how BasketNews became what they are today, what strategies they use to keep the startup vibes alive, and what failures or challenges they face along the way. **❗ Don't forget to register!** **When: Tuesday, January 6th, at 6:00 pm (doors open)** **Where: Movie theatre "Daina"** **AGENDA:** 18:00 - Doors open + networking 18:30 - Intro 18:35 - Founders Spotlight: a fireside chat with Jonas Miklovas + QnA from the audience Moderators: [Gytautas Kulakauskas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gytautaskulakauskas/) and [Andrius Veršinskas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrius-ver%C5%A1inskas-7b1563190/) (Head of Business Division at Kaunas IN) 19:35 - networking, snacks, and drinks **Powered by: Confluence Investment** Confluence Investment, a Kaunas-based family office with a history of investing in startups through global funds, is now turning its attention to Kaunas. They are eager to contribute directly to the growth of startups in the city. With a commitment to empowering ambitious founders, Confluence Investment aims to be an active player in helping Kaunas startups scale beyond Lithuania. ❗️IMPORTANT: The event will be photographed. Interview language - English. [sTARTUp Day](https://www.startupday.ee/) is comming (January 28-30). You can use the code **kaunasin15** for a ticket discount;)

**Not only startups have a startup-ish mindset. And it’s pretty important to think and react like a startup even if you’re not building one.** **Startup Social Kaunas** is a monthly meetup, happening every first Tuesday of the month. We welcome everyone – startup founders, service providers, investors, or just anyone curious about the Kaunas startup scene 🫡 We’re starting 2026 with a bang. A basketball-sized bang. For the 35th Startup Social Kaunas, we’re hosting the **CEO of [BasketNews](https://basketnews.com/), [Jonas Miklovas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonas-miklovas-a85a7536/)** 🏀 **And before you think, “Hey, but is it a startup?”** Well… kinda, yeah. They create digital products, they’re expanding rapidly to global audiences, they keep incorporating new ideas, and they’re constantly experimenting with ways to attract more people worldwide. We’d say that’s definitely a startup-ish mindset. [BasketNews](https://basketnews.com/) is is Europe’s number one basketball media company – but that’s not all. Besides their news website, they run multiple social media channels for different regions, a successful podcast series, and the EuroLeague Fantasy game. Join us on January 6th to hear how BasketNews became what they are today, what strategies they use to keep the startup vibes alive, and what failures or challenges they face along the way. **❗ Don't forget to register!** **When: Tuesday, January 6th, at 6:00 pm (doors open)** **Where: Movie theatre "Daina"** **AGENDA:** 18:00 - Doors open + networking 18:30 - Intro 18:35 - Founders Spotlight: a fireside chat with Jonas Miklovas + QnA from the audience Moderators: [Gytautas Kulakauskas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gytautaskulakauskas/) and [Andrius Veršinskas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrius-ver%C5%A1inskas-7b1563190/) (Head of Business Division at Kaunas IN) 19:35 - networking, snacks, and drinks **Powered by: Confluence Investment** Confluence Investment, a Kaunas-based family office with a history of investing in startups through global funds, is now turning its attention to Kaunas. They are eager to contribute directly to the growth of startups in the city. With a commitment to empowering ambitious founders, Confluence Investment aims to be an active player in helping Kaunas startups scale beyond Lithuania. ❗️IMPORTANT: The event will be photographed. Interview language - English. [sTARTUp Day](https://www.startupday.ee/) is comming (January 28-30). You can use the code **kaunasin15** for a ticket discount;)

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: **Use AI to convert an old game into an iOS App** **John Endres** How I decided to learn AI tools in Xcode (Claude and ChatGPT) John is a long time iOS Developer. What is Cocoaheads (http://cocoaheads.org/)? CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on MacOS X and iOS (including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch). During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. What is BuckeyeCocoa (http://buckeyecocoa.org/)? BuckeyeCocoa is a group of Objective-C/Swift developers/enthusiasts. We host monthly Cocoaheads and near-weekly NSCoder meetings in Columbus, Ohio. The meetings are free to attend. Presentations! Presenters welcome! We are always in need of people willing to present material. Any Swift and/or Objective-C related topic is welcome. Times can be 5 minutes (i.e. lightning talks) to a maximum of 2 hours. Interested? Contact info is on the BuckeyeCocoa website. To volunteer for a presentation contact us at @BuckeyeCocoa on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! @BuckeyeCocoa (https://twitter.com/#!/Buckeyecocoa/) For more information: http://buckeyecocoa.org/

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 **Abstract** GitHub Copilot is rapidly changing how developers write, understand, and maintain code. Powered by generative AI and deeply integrated into modern development environments, Copilot acts as an intelligent coding assistant, helping developers move faster while maintaining quality and focus. In this session, we’ll explore what GitHub Copilot is, how it works, and where it fits into a real-world developer workflow. We’ll break down what Copilot can (and cannot) do, where it can be used, and how licensing differs for individuals and organizations. Most importantly, this talk goes beyond theory with a live, hands-on demo showcasing Copilot inside the IDE and on GitHub, demonstrating how it can assist with code generation, refactoring, learning new APIs, and accelerating day-to-day development tasks. Designed for developers, technical leads, and engineering managers, this session provides a practical introduction to AI-assisted development, highlights best practices for getting value from Copilot, and closes with guidance on how to continue learning and evolving alongside this rapidly advancing tool. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how GitHub Copilot can enhance productivity, improve developer experience, and fit into modern software teams today, not someday. **YouTube Link** TBA

Sleep in on Sundays. When you've had your fill of pajama-time, roll out and have some tasty brunch with your fellow Humanists!

Columbus Code & Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. People of all skill levels attend, and we love it that way. Many people (optionally) bring projects to work on, and many other people (optionally) socialize the entire time. It's entirely up to you! **What to Expect at the Intro Circle** \~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~ Near the beginning of the event (1:30 pm), we do a standup: * Organizer announcements, updates, and logistics Round 1 - (7 secs max): * Your name * What you're working on * What you can help others with Round 2: * Community events you wanna plug. If none, that's cool too. Round 3: * Job opportunities you're hiring for OR announce that you are looking for one. If none, that's cool. After the introduction circle, everything is self-organized! Feel free to work alone, pair up, attend one of our workshops/presentations, or mingle!

Join the [Columbus Vegan Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/columbusveganmeetup/) on **Saturday, January 10, 2026, at 11:00 AM** at **1043 W 3rd Avenue in Grandview**! Come hang out and enjoy delicious pastries from this **all-vegan, family-owned** local favorite. Whether you’re a longtime vegan or just curious, it’s the perfect time to build your social circle and support a community business. See you there!

SQL Server 2025 delivers a major round of improvements across performance, security, manageability, and hybrid connectivity, and this session gives you a practical, no‑nonsense tour of what matters most. We’ll cover enhancements to the core engine, query processing, storage, and availability that benefit DBAs and developers regardless of where SQL Server runs. You’ll see how SQL Server 2025 aligns with Azure SQL’s roadmap while still supporting strong on‑premises and VM‑based deployments. We’ll highlight new management, monitoring, and troubleshooting capabilities designed to simplify operations and reduce firefighting. AI‑powered features exist in this release, but the focus here is on the foundational improvements you can use immediately. Whether you’re modernizing, maintaining, or planning your next upgrade cycle, this session will help you understand what’s new and how to prepare your environment and your team.

Our January program is privileged to have Kristen Tregar as our speaker. Ms. Tregar is the co-author with John de Lancie (the actor who portrayed the character Q on Star Trek next generation) of a radio play depicting the events surrounding the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial. The trial decided the issue of some of the Dover school district board members attempting to insert creationism disguised as "intelligent design" into the 9th grade biology curriculum. She will discuss the trial and the process of writing the play. (Bob Leonhard has seen the play and it is riveting and tense). Ms. Tregar's bio is below: Kristen Tregar is a dramaturg, director, playwright, and theatre teacher. She earned her Ph.D. in Drama and Theatre from the UC San Diego and UC Irvine joint program. In addition, she has a MS in Forensic Science from City University of New York- John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a MA in Educational Theatre from New York University- Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. In 2013, in collaboration with Irish colleagues, she founded *The Ireland Project*, an intercontinental devised theatre work with high school students in New York and Tallaght, Ireland. Her original short story "Far From Here" was recently published in *Stay Awhile Longer: More Scenes From Temecula Valley*. She has two rescued dogs (Kira and Harry) and she rides, competes, and foxhunts with her horses, Andromache and Baker Street Irregular. Food and drinks will be provided at the event. Feel free to show up a little bit early to hang out and talk. Going forward our meetings will be hybrid. You can meet us in-person or attend online Join Zoom Meeting [https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87836564953?pwd=4Mi57ElZkDIFlb1fnlNwOJ0NiOK4tP.1](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87836564953?pwd=4Mi57ElZkDIFlb1fnlNwOJ0NiOK4tP.1) Meeting ID: 878 3656 4953 Passcode: 760812 One tap mobile +19292056099,,87836564953#,,,,\*760812# US (New York) +13017158592,,87836564953#,,,,\*760812# US (Washington DC) The formal presentation will start at noon