Business Process Improvement

## Ticketed Event - please register via Eventbrite! **TICKETS for this event are £19** 2 for 1 tickets available [Ticket link ](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1984229791721?aff=oddtdtcreator) ## This week: Silence & Emotional connection We explore how rich and powerful silences can be, play with subtle non-verbal communication and physicality and make a deep dive into emotional connection with your scene-partner and of course yourself ## Overview Improv drop-ins suitable for beginners. A fun and supportive space to help you boost your spontaneity, imagination, and collaboration. **New to improv or already tried some and want more?** Don’t worry — we have you covered. #### Our Drop-Ins Improv is the art of making things up on the spot and feel immensly proud of it as there is no judgement. Our workshops are designed to be gentle, fun and inclusive. Being on the spot can feel scary and overwhelming. We make sure that you feel supported and at ease at all times. Improv is an amazing tool to **boost your confidence and ability to connect to other humans**, it helps you be creative and let the inner judge go and sip a tea whilst you have fun discovering how freeing being sponteanous can be. Our weekly drop-in classes explore both general topics and specific areas of improv. Story-telling, emotional connection and creative collaboration are the key aspects we focus on, with exciting niche topics designed to stretch you in a safe and playful environment. **Stepping out of your comfort zone should feel fun and exciting** \- we make sure you feel supported and encouraged in the best way possible\, while connecting with others and creating a bit of magic together\. These classes are open to all, **our gentle approach specifically focuses on people who struggle feeling confident in social settings**, however, if you have done improv before, you will certainly find joy coming to our drop-ins. The first half of the lesson we will focus on group and exercises in pairs The second half will be more scene-based where you can showcase your unique self. No pressure to perform. You will be amazed how you will shine with little effort. The drop-ins run either Mondays or Tuesdays from **6:30pm–8:30pm** and are designed as stand-alone classes, so you don’t need to worry if you miss a week. #### What is improv, you ask? Improv is creating something in the moment — unplanned and unscripted. It’s about listening and building something together with others: the ultimate collaboration. Improv is also a great tool for enhancing creativity and for life in general. It encourages spontaneity and connection in a playful, non-judgemental way. #### Who We Are Karo and Avril have over **20 years of cumulative experience** within the improv community. They have performed together in a wide variety of shows and formats for many years, as well as teaching and facilitating workshops, classes, and training sessions. #### Avril Avril is an improviser and actress who has been performing improv for over 12 years. Her credits include *Upstairs Downton: The Improvised Period Drama*, *Carmen: The Improvised Film Noir*, *Moments In Time*, *Blend Off*, *ImprovShire*, and *The Improvised Play*. Avril is also a founder member of LadyProv, who run a regular night at Hoopla showcasing the talents of women and non-binary performers. She has led numerous improv workshops and loves teaching. Her interests include Stoppard, character work, the senses, disaster movies, and team building in the workplace, to name a few. She has a particular passion for narrative improv and enjoys exploring different theatre styles. Avril has also co-taught with Stephen Davidson at Impromiscuous. Outside of improv, Avril loves whisky and exploring how taste, environment, and food pairings influence creativity. She enjoys writing short stories and has written her own one-woman show combining stand-up, character, improv, and sketch. She can also be heard playing several characters in *Lusus*, a modern-day horror series on BBC Sounds. #### Karolina Karolina is an actor, improviser, and improv coach originally from Austria, who has been performing improv for over 12 years on stages across the UK and Europe. From short-form improv to fully improvised plays, she has explored a wide range of genres. She has performed with groups such as Scumbags (a Hoopla house team in the style of the Coen Brothers), *Carmen* (a gender-flipped Film Noir), *3 Worlds*, the short-form comedy group Improvable, and *Lost to Life*, where she improvises an entire play with Avril and the team in the style of different playwrights. Karolina has facilitated many classes over the years, including weekly drop-ins for people who feel shy, focused workshops for theatre companies, the Surrey Theatre Academy, corporate clients, and co-teaching with Impromiscuous. Human connection and empathy are central to her work. She enjoys exploring emotional authenticity, non-verbal communication, physicality, dramatic improv, and unusual characters.

We're excited to be back and pleased to say this event is being sponsored by [pgMustard](https://pgmustard.com). On the talks front, we have **Anton Borisov and Vlad Bokov** from Fresha who will take us through how they recently upgraded their fleet with zero-downtime. We will then host our first ever debate, on a topic to be determined! WHERE Join us at **Doggett's Coat and Badge on 14 April from 18:30.** PROGRAM 18:30 Welcome 19:00 Swapping the Elephant Without Breaking the Room: Zero-downtime Major PG upgrades in practice (Anton Borisov and Vlad Bokov, Fresha) - abstract below 19:45 Sandwiches and bar snacks (paid for by our sponsor) 20:00 Debate — topic TBD ABSTRACT **Swapping the Elephant Without Breaking the Room: Zero-downtime Major PG upgrades in practice** Upgrading PostgreSQL across hundreds of production databases without downtime sounds impossible, especially when logical replication slots, Debezium CDC pipelines, and outbox event streams are in play. At Fresha, we faced exactly that: mission-critical workloads still on PostgreSQL 12, and no safe way to reach 17 without freezing the business. This talk walks through how we designed and automated a blue-green upgrade framework using logical decoding, controlled WAL overlap, and connector orchestration. We’ll dive into how Debezium connectors, replication origins, and PgBouncer pools were coordinated to guarantee continuity for both CDC and outbox topics, with rollback and dry-run modes built in. Attendees will learn practical techniques for: * Orchestrating zero-downtime Postgres major upgrades on RDS or self-managed clusters * Managing replication slots and Debezium connectors safely across clusters * Handling sequence alignment, WAL overlap, and connector state transitions * Designing reversible, testable database cutovers This is a practical session from real production experience: no magic tools, just PostgreSQL internals, Debezium, careful planning, and a few well-placed bash scripts. SPEAKERS **Anton Borisov** architects real-time data systems centered on PostgreSQL. At Fresha, he designs zero-downtime migrations, Debezium-based CDC pipelines, and overall data strategy integrating Postgres with Kafka and Flink. His work spans query planning analysis, partitioning and indexing, autovacuum and bloat optimization, and performance tuning under high-concurrency workloads. He also builds downstream lakehouse integrations with Iceberg, Paimon, and StarRocks. Anton publishes technical deep-dives on PostgreSQL internals, streaming infrastructure, and production reliability at medium.com/@borzoniusy **Vlad Bokov** is a Staff Engineer at Fresha working on systems behind activity feeds and communication between partners and customers. He deals with what breaks at scale: PostgreSQL under heavy write load, WAL bottlenecks, replication issues, Kafka pipelines, and zero-downtime migrations. Most of his work is about making production systems behave: fixing what is slow, unstable, or too expensive, and making trade-offs that hold up under pressure. He works across Snowflake, StarRocks, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, and Redis, and is currently exploring newer streaming approaches, including Apache Fluss, for real-world workloads. *** THE OFFICIAL BITS The meet-up abides by [PostgreSQL Code of Conduct](https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/coc/). Postgres, PostgreSQL and the Slonik Logo are trademarks or [registered trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada](https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/trademarks/), and used with their permission.

**Join us for a hands-on workshop where you'll build an agentic commerce solution and explore how AI agents can discover products and complete payments using Stripe.** **About** Experience a hands-on workshop designed for developers interested in the future of AI-driven commerce and agentic payments. This workshop is the very first time this content has ever been delivered. It is a pilot workshop for Stripe Sessions, and attendees will get early access to technology and workflows that are still very new inside Stripe. The way customers discover and purchase products is shifting from traditional search to LLM-powered agents. In this workshop, you’ll customize an AI agent to become an intelligent shopping assistant capable of discovering products and completing transactions. **Through practical exercises, you will:** * Customize an AI agent for commerce workflows * Implement Shared Payment Tokens (SPT) using the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) * Enable secure payment credential handoff from an AI agent to Stripe * Process payments and perform risk evaluation through Stripe * Build a complete end-to-end agentic commerce experience Because this is a pilot workshop, the content is evolving and highly experimental. Participants will be among the first developers anywhere to build an agentic commerce integration with Stripe. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a fully functioning agentic commerce solution complete with code, equipping you with the skills to build next-generation AI-powered buying experiences. **Attendance & Invitations** ⚡ This is a small, invite-only workshop designed for a very limited group of developers. To keep the session highly interactive, attendance is restricted to a small number of participants, and admission is **by invitation only**. To request an invitation: 1. Join the waitlist to express your interest 2. We will review all waitlist requests 3. Selected participants will be moved to the confirmed list 4. You will receive confirmation once your spot is approved. **Please wait for confirmation before making plans — only confirmed attendees will be admitted.** This approach allows us to create a focused, collaborative workshop environment and ensure the best possible experience for participants. **Schedule** **1:00PM – 1:15PM — Arrival & Welcome** Arrive, grab coffee and refreshments, and make sure you're set up and ready to go. **1:15PM – 4:00PM — Hands-on Workshop** Introduction to agentic commerce and AI-driven purchasing. You'll build a working agentic commerce solution including: * AI agent customization * Agentic Commerce Protocol setup * Shared Payment Token creation * Payment flows through Stripe * End-to-end testing **Requirements** This workshop is designed for developers interested in building AI-powered commerce experiences and agentic payment workflows. Developers should be comfortable with: * Basic JavaScript fundamentals * Using a terminal or command line * Working with APIs * Basic web development concepts No prior AI or Stripe experience is required. **What You'll Need** Laptop and charging cables — no Chromebooks or tablets Code editor and ability to download and install necessary tools Required software: * IDE such as VS Code * [Node.js](http://node.js/) * curl

**PLEASE MAKE SURE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET IN ADVANCE TO ATTEND THE EVENT. YOU CAN RESERVE YOUR SPOT HERE. [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1983612901586?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1983612901586?aff=oddtdtcreator)** Welcome to Tech Startups, Investors, Innovators & Professionals Xmas Networking Event in London, the ultimate networking event designed exclusively for IT and Technology professionals. Prepare to expand your professional network, exchange knowledge, and forge valuable connections with like-minded individuals at the forefront of the digital age. Event Overview: Tech Startups, Investors, Innovators & Professionals Xmas Networking Event in London is a premier networking event that provides a unique platform for IT and Technology professionals to come together, collaborate, and engage in meaningful discussions. Whether you are an experienced industry expert or an aspiring tech enthusiast, this event offers an opportunity to connect with peers, gain insights into the latest trends, and explore potential career advancements. **Who should attend?** IT and Technology Professionals Networking Event welcomes all IT and Technology professionals who are passionate about advancing their careers, expanding their networks, and staying at the forefront of the ever-evolving digital landscape. This event is ideal for: * **Startup Founders**: Looking to pitch ideas, find partners, or secure funding. * **Investors & VCs**: Seeking new, disruptive technologies and promising startups to invest in. * **Innovators & Tech Enthusiasts**: Exploring emerging trends and sharing breakthrough ideas. * **Software Developers & Engineers**: Building innovative solutions or seeking collaboration in new projects. * **Cybersecurity Specialists**: Interested in protecting tech innovations and networking with startups. * **Data Scientists & Analysts**: Exploring data-driven technologies and connecting with tech leaders. * **IT Managers & Team Leads**: Looking to scale their teams, streamline operations, or discover new tools. * **Cloud Computing Experts**: Engaging with startups utilizing cloud infrastructure for growth. * **AI & Machine Learning Professionals**: Exploring the latest AI trends and networking with innovators. * **Industry Professionals**: From tech, finance, or legal sectors offering expertise in scaling businesses. * **Business Developers**: Focused on partnerships, collaborations, or market expansion. * **Mentors & Advisors**: Offering guidance on business strategy, scaling, or product development. **Why attend:** Networking: Experience an evening of dynamic networking in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. Meet IT professionals from diverse backgrounds, including software development, cybersecurity, data science, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and more. Career Advancement Opportunities: Explore potential career opportunities by interacting with representatives from leading tech companies and startups. Discover the latest job openings and internships in the IT and Technology sectors. Career: For job seekers, the event offers an exclusive opportunity to meet top tech companies actively recruiting talent, opening doors to exciting career prospects. Don't miss this exceptional opportunity to connect, learn, and grow within the vibrant community of IT and Technology professionals. Tickets need to be bought online and are not available at the door! How our event works: 7.00pm - When you arrive your name will be checked off the guest list, the host will direct everyone to the reserved area and explain how the event will work. 7.30pm – Event starts, you will be introduced to each other in a nice relaxed environment in the semi private reserved area. 8pm - 1 minute Elevator pitch 8:30 pm - Networking 10 pm - Event ends all guests are welcome to stay and enjoy chatting with each other. This event will be hosted till 9pm; the key to making the most of speed friending is to follow up with your contacts over time to develop friendships. Dress code is either business or office attire or smart casual, no T-shirts, no trainers. If you have any questions email contact@thebusinessminds.co.ukTicket for 1 person allows 1 person to enter the venue from 7pm Please Note:Tickets need to be bought online and are not available at the door!

**Welcome to DSF Sandbox Sessions!** Top tech talks and masterclasses from the best in the industry. Every month, and completely free. The catch? There isn’t one. Just a monthly dose of epic content to power up your data passion! **Event details** 📆 **Date:** Tuesday 14th April 2026 ⏰ **Time:** 6:00 – 9:30 PM BST 💡 **Topic:** **Signals, Systems, and Scams: Deconstructing the Future of Financial Intelligence** 🗣️ **Speakers:** Kristjan Erik Liive, Volodymyr Panov, Baran Koseoglu, Zoltan Szopory, Vera Shishkina, Aaron Wilson, Mohammed Topiwalla [Sign up for this event by clicking here!](https://datasciencefestival.com/session/wise-sandbox-session/) As global financial platforms evolve, the “Trust Gap” becomes an engineering challenge. Scaling a product to millions of users requires more than just better models—it requires a fundamental shift from manual heuristics to automated, high-fidelity intelligence. Join Wise for an exclusive Sandbox Session designed for senior data scientists and engineers. We’re moving beyond the basics of model training to explore the “Last Mile” of production ML: the infrastructure of compliance, the democratisation of optimization, and the transition to foundational representation learning. Through three practitioner-led deep dives and a collaborative product-data science panel, we will deconstruct how Wise builds resilient financial infrastructure where performance and safety are never a zero-sum game. What we’ll explore: • The GenAI Reality Check: Moving LLM automations from “cool demo” to “compliant production” in highly regulated spaces. • Decoupling Optimization: How we built “Threshold UI” to empower non-experts to tune model performance across hundreds of cohorts without a single code change. • Beyond Velocity: Replacing hand-crafted features with User Event Transformers to capture the deep behavioral context that traditional tabular data misses. • The Co-Design Philosophy: Why the future of fraud prevention isn’t just a better algorithm, but a tighter feedback loop between Product and Data Science. Food, drinks, and networking with fellow practitioners will follow throughout the evening. Check out the full session details below! **Please note: Due to high demand and limited capacity, tickets for this event will be allocated via a random ballot. Submitting an application does not guarantee entry. Successful applicants will be notified throughout March and early April. If you have not received confirmation by April 9th, this means your ballot application was not selected on this occasion.** **Talk 1: Evolution of GenAI: Building Compliant LLM Automations at Wise** **Speakers:** Kristjan Erik Liive, Senior Data Scientist & Volodymyr Panov, Senior Data Scientist. **Abstract:** Evolution of GenAI applications in servicing tasks at Wise. We will share examples, discuss architectures and challenges of building LLM-based automations in compliance-heavy space. We will also present our vision and key opportunity areas in further augmentation and automation. **Key takeaways:** Practical examples of scoping and implementing LLM-based solutions. **Talk 2: On the Threshold of Greatness: Democratizing Model Optimization at Wise** **Speakers:** Baran Köseoğlu, Lead Data Scientist & Zoltán Szopory, Staff Software Engineer. **Abstract:** This session will talk about machine learning model threshold optimization across hundreds of customer cohorts. Traditionally, optimizing these thresholds has been a complex, time-consuming task, often relegated to highly technical experts. At Wise, we faced the challenge of managing diverse customer segments, each with unique risk profiles and compliance mandates and as a solution we developed Threshold UI we will talk about more in the session. **Key takeaways:** Boost your machine learning model performance without changing any configuration in your training pipeline. **Talk 3: More Than Meets the Eye: Transforming User Events into Deep Context** **Speaker:** Vera Shishkina, Staff Data Scientist. **Abstract:** Moving from purely manual feature engineering to representation learning. This session covers the technical POC of a User Events Transformer – a foundational model designed to produce customer embeddings that augment traditional tabular features. We will discuss the proposed architecture, the challenges of building temporal data pipelines, and our vision for using these embeddings to boost performance in domains like scam prediction. **Key takeaways:** How learned embeddings provide deep context that traditional “velocity” features often miss. **Talk 4: Panel Discussion – Mind & Machine: How Product and DS Co-Design the Future of Trust** **Panellists:** Aaron Wilson, Fraud and Victim Prevention Product Lead & Mohammed Topiwalla, Fraud and Victim Prevention Data Science Lead. **Abstract:** Fireside chat to understand how DS and Product work hand in hand to keep wise safe. **Key takeaways:** How do you find the middle ground between business growth and risk precision? What is the future of DS in fraud prevention? **Schedule:** **6:00 PM** – Doors open – networking with food and refreshments **6:45 PM** – Intro **6:50 PM** – Talk 1 (20 minutes + 5 minute Q&A) **7:15 PM** – Talk 2 (20 minutes + 5 minute Q&A) **7:40 PM** – Comfort break **7:50 PM** – Talk 3 (20 minutes + 5 minute Q&A) **8:15 PM** – Talk 4 (30 minutes) **8:45 PM** – Networking with refreshments **9:30 PM** – Event close **Registering for the event:** Click the 'Sign up here!' button on the specific event page following the link below. Once you have completed the registration form, you will be emailed a link to join the webinar. You will also receive a reminder link one week, one day and one hour prior to the event. **PLEASE NOTE: Clicking 'attend' on Meetup does not register you for the event. You will need to register for the event on the link provided below to receive a joining link. If you do not, you will not be able to join the event.** **[Click here to sign up for this specific event](https://datasciencefestival.com/session/wise-sandbox-session/)** Please note the time zone when you book this event.

This FREE event is for anyone looking to set up or who has recently set up a new business and wants to understand some of the basic tax issues relating to their business. Please note this is not a General Networking event and is not appropriate for other professionals since this restricts the places available to those members who would benefit from attending. It will cover aspects such as VAT registration, National Insurance, type of business structure, tax deductible expenses and how to deal with HMRC. The aim is to provide expert practical advice along with useful tips to make your business as tax efficient as possible. Our speaker is Peter Evans, Tax Director of Pink Accounting Resources Ltd. Peter has spent his entire career dealing in all aspects of taxation and is highly regarded for his ability to explain complex tax issues in a straightforward and understandable way. As a former Tax Inspector Peter has a unique insight into the workings of the tax system which he uses to great effect when advising others. There will be opportunities for questions and networking both before and after the presentation. Event Timetable 6.00pm Registration and Networking 6.15pm Presentation by Peter Evans 8.00pm Question and answer session followed by networking. 8.30pm Finish If you would like to attend this event please register as soon as possible as numbers are limited to ensure that attendees have the opportunity to ask Peter questions and get the maximum benefit from the session. Look forward to seeing you there.

**We are holding an Agile Standup dinner at the Mercato Metropolitano food court in Mayfair.** https://mercatometropolitano.com/locations/mayfair/ The focus of the evening is to enjoy amazing food while networking, learning and discussing using agility to create better software, products, teams and organisations. **The evening will take the form of a round table discussion** \- Bring a great question or describe a problem which you'd like to share\, we will then discuss it at the table\. **Who might come along?** Whether you're a seasoned agilest or completely new to it, you are most welcome. **The Dinner** \- Be prepared to pay for your own food and drinks\, what you choose is up to you\. **On the night:** The event starts at 6:00pm, hopefully we'll not be that hard to find, message the organisers on the meetup chat if you can't find us or if you are running late. When you arrive, join us and order a drink. We'll aim to eat at around 7pm. Afterwards there will be an opportunity to meet, mingle, discuss and maybe even find mentors or future work colleagues. If you have any questions, just drop us a line. We will finish at around 9:00pm, but you can leave earlier, if you need to. *Photographs may be taken throughout the evening, please let the organisers know if you would prefer not to be featured in them.* Looking forwards to seeing you there.

**——————————** **Event Description:** **——————————** Welcome product enthusiasts! We're a meet-up group that hosts regular speaking events for those interested in the world of **digital products** and **doing things differently!** Each meet-up features new guests from some of the most influential product companies around the world, providing unique insights, tangible ideas, and new techniques to help drive change from the inside out. **————————** **Event Format:** **————————** 🚨 **This is an in-person event only.** 🚨 **————** **Venue:** **————** **Our Product Unleashed London Event:** We are hosted in the beautiful event space @ **[Youlend](https://youlend.com/).** 🚨 **Note:** Youlend Entrance opposite the Rosewood hotel 🚨 We're looking forward to seeing you there! **———————** **What to expect:** ⚡ This event will be made up of 2 speakers dropping knowledge bombs in the form of 20 minute talks straight into your minds 🤯 **———————** **SPEAKER 1** **———————** **Alison Howard** Alison Howard is a Principal Product Design Consultant with 14 years of experience working across some of the UK's most complex and fast-moving products. As an independent consultant, she has partnered with organisations including Trainline, Expedia, BP, HSBC and Emirates to untangle messy problems, align teams and deliver design that actually gets built. Outside her consultancy work, Alison manages PD Ladies, a community of 800+ women in Product Design. **————————** **About the Talk:** **————————** **Learn the Language, Win the Room** If you've ever left a meeting feeling like no one understood what you were saying, this talk is for you. Alison explores the gap between how designers communicate and how everyone else does, and what happens when you close it. ***Expect practical tools and honest reflections on learning to speak the language of product, commercial and engineering teams, so your work gets the traction it deserves.*** **———————** **SPEAKER 2** **———————** **Anna Popova** Anna Popova is Head of Product at [Judge.me](https://judge.me/), one of Shopify’s most installed apps, helping over 600,000 e-commerce brands build trust through customer reviews. With more than a decade of experience across product management, data science, and delivery, Anna focuses on how product teams can increase leverage and build better systems for decision-making and execution. Recently, her work has centred on exploring how AI can reshape the product development process — from discovery and research to prototyping, UX design, and creating high-quality requirements for engineering. She is particularly interested in how small product teams can use AI to dramatically increase output while preserving strong product thinking, judgement, and product craftsmanship. **————————** **About the Talk:** **————————** **When Building Becomes Cheap: Rethinking Product Process in the Age of AI)** **Software is becoming dramatically cheaper to build. AI tools are rapidly reducing the cost of prototyping, coding, and experimentation — faster than many product teams realise.** But while the cost of building is collapsing, the cost of process remains high. Many teams still rely on workflows designed for a world where engineering time was scarce: heavy discovery phases, long specification cycles, and complex coordination structures. In the AI era, these processes risk becoming the real bottleneck. In this talk, Anna explores how product teams may need to rethink how they operate when building becomes cheap. At [Judge.me](https://judge.me/), they've started asking a provocative question: what if a product team should never grow beyond 10 people — even when serving millions of users? Drawing from experiments with AI-assisted workflows, Anna will share how AI can augment product work — from rapid prototyping and spec generation to creating a “digital twin” of a product manager. ***Get ready to explore which parts of the product process should be automated, which should remain human, and how product leaders can adapt.*** **—————————————** **Support from:** **—————————————** We are kindly hosted by our friends at Youlend. **——————————** **About your hosts:** **——————————** Product Unleashed is brought to you by your hosts **[John Griffin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-griffin-designer/)** and **[Dominic Port](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-port/)**. The duo has worked on the design of products of all shapes and sizes and bring their energy and enthusiasm to this unique meet-up, packed with great guests and knowledge - for anyone interested in levelling up their game in the world of products.

*'An incredible, touching, and fun experience. I cannot recommend this highly enough.* Joshua Brostoff, Clinical Study Director Wed 15 to Sun 19 Apr 2026 Le Moulin de Canole, 24540 Capdrot, France 21 hours + of improv, all meals, lodging, swimming pool and sauna included. **Early bird prices include £50 off when you book before 15 Feb.** Info and bookings: [https://imprology.com/G201462/we.shtml](https://imprology.com/G201462/we.shtml)

**🎭 Friendly Group Improv in Clerkenwell, London 🎭** Come and join a relaxed, playful **group improvisation session** in the heart of London! We’ll dive into **theatre games**, **acting warm-ups**, and **icebreakers**, followed by short, light-hearted scenes — spontaneous fun! 💥 🎯 **Our aims**: * Build **self-confidence** in social settings * Make **new connections** 👋 * Push your **comfort zone** 💪 * Explore **self-expression** 🎨 * Release **social inhibitions** * Sharpen **communication skills** 🗣️ All through **fun, interactive, and communal play!** 🧩 Whether you're looking to **laugh**, **connect**, or **unleash your creativity & inner child**, you’re welcome here! 😄✨ **Pay on Eventbrite here:** [Improv-eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/improv-for-well-being-confidence-and-fun-tickets-1982624895433?aff=oddtdtcreator) \*with discount code JU6F for the amount of £12.65 **or in-person when you arrive.** 🍽️ **Stick around after?** Feel free to join us for a **drink or dinner** afterwards — we do this occasionally depending on end time and interest 🥂🍕 *** 📍 **Location:** Peel Institute Three Corners Centre, Northampton Rd EC1R www.thepeel.org \* This venue is wheelchair accessible 🚪 **Finding the Peel:** The Peel is situated on the corner of Northampton Road and Corporation Row. Please note; Northampton Road is a sort of U shape so if you find yourself at the other end of the U, and are confused you probably need to walk to the other end - just a few mins. 🚇 **Tube:** Farringdon or Angel *** 💷 **Payment:** **£12.65 pay when you arrive and RSVP now.** Pay by **Card**, **Cash**, or **Contactless** on arrival. Or via eventbrite [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/improv-for-well-being-confidence-and-fun-tickets-1982624895433?aff=oddtdtcreator) 📞 If you get lost, call **07841 456974** – but note: my phone will be **off once the session starts**, so try to arrive **on time or a little early!** ✅ **Please RSVP** — or you may be refused entry, thanks! 👕 **What to wear:** Anything you like! There’ll be some movement, so **looser/comfy clothing** is ideal — but there’s **no dress code**. *** 🕗 **Schedule (approx.):** 🕣 19:00 – 19:15 \| Arrivals & Payments 🔥 19:15 – 20:00 \| Warm\-ups & Games 🧘 20:00 – 20:05 \| Short Comfort Break \(if needed\) 🎬 20:05 – 21:00 \| Scene Games\! I’ll arrive after **18:40** – please aim to be on time for **19:00**, thank you! *** 📢 This group is also listed on **Eventbrite** – so we’ll have friendly faces from there too! 😊

🎉 **Event #23 – The Analytics Engineering Meet-up** 🎉 The London Analytics Engineering Meet-up - Hosted by Monzo! **Speakers:** [Pablo Fernandez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablofergui/) \- Head of Data & Analytics Engineering @ Lawhive [Federico Arduini](https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicoarduini/) \- Lead Analytics Engineer @ Checkout\.com 📅 **RSVP opens 27th March** (3.5 weeks before the event). This event will be **over-subscribed**, so set a reminder — you won’t want to miss it! 📍 **Agenda** 6pm – Doors open, networking, food & drinks 7pm – Talks kick off 8:30pm – More drinks & networking @ local pub This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with some of the UK’s top data professionals, share challenges, and exchange learnings. We are always looking to improve the event and get new ideas for talks, if you could please fill out a [feedback form](https://cognifysearch.com/the-london-analytics-engineering-meet-up-feedback-form/), this will help us continue to improve! The **Analytics Engineering Meet-up** is a community for data professionals working with the modern data stack, machine learning or AI. We host regular meet-ups featuring talks from data leaders building and scaling analytics, data platforms, and AI in forward-thinking teams. The community is ideal for Data Engineers, Analytics Engineers, Analysts, and those working in Data Science, Machine Learning, or AI. The **Analytics Engineering Meet-up** is organised by [Cognify](cognifysearch.com) — a specialist recruitment partner for teams working across the modern data stack, machine learning & AI. If you’re looking to hire top data talent or exploring your next move in data, feel free to reach out to the Cognify team — we’re always happy to help and chat through the market. Our sponsor is [Omni](Omni.co), an AI-powered BI platform that helps people use data to do their best work. Whether users prefer AI, Excel, point-and-click exploration, or SQL, Omni enables fast, trusted answers from a governed semantic model. If you’re eager to dive deeper into industry insights, check out ***The Stacked Data Podcast*** for conversations with industry leaders: Listen on: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/24fIpekn8WfRDZsVHNcf7Q) [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/@CognifySearch) or [Apple Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stacked-data-podcast/id1700301417) Your feedback is so valuable to us, we'd love to hear from you to help us continue to improve, [Feedback Form here](https://cognifysearch.com/the-london-analytics-engineering-meet-up-feedback-form/) **No-Show Policy**: * If you miss **2 consecutive events** or **2 out of 3 events**, you wont be able to attend the next event. We hope you understand this is to keep things fair for venues and other attendees.

**AI is changing product management faster than most teams can adapt. Join us for an evening exploring what this means for your role, your skills, and your future.** **Are you ready for what AI is doing to product management?** Artificial intelligence is no longer a future trend. It is already reshaping how products are designed, built, and managed. From generating requirements to analysing data and automating workflows, AI is changing the day-to-day work of product managers. The real question is no longer *if* things will change, but *how your role will evolve*. **What this session will explore** In this keynote, we will go beyond the hype and look at what is actually happening in the industry right now: * What AI can already do in product management * Where its limitations still lie * How the role of the Product Manager is shifting * Why judgement, strategy, and leadership are becoming more critical * The emerging split between administrative and strategic product roles * The skills you need to stay relevant in an AI-driven world This is not a theoretical discussion. It is a practical look at what product professionals need to understand and act on today. **About the Speaker** **Louise May** Director of Product Management, Product Focus Louise brings over 20 years of experience across start-ups, scale-ups, and multinational organisations. She has led product teams, coached professionals, and built development programmes that support product managers throughout their careers. She is known for her practical insights, clarity of thought, and ability to connect theory with real-world application. **About Product Playground** Product Playground is a community for product professionals who want to think more deeply, share experiences, and learn through meaningful conversations. This is not just another meetup. It is a space to: * explore ideas * challenge assumptions * connect with like-minded professionals **Who should attend** * Product Managers (all levels) * Product Leaders and Heads of Product * Aspiring Product Managers * Consultants and practitioners working with product teams **Why you should attend** You will leave with: * A clearer understanding of how AI is changing your role * Insight into what skills will matter most going forward * Perspectives you can immediately apply in your work * Connections with other product professionals in London **Important Note** This is an in-person event with limited capacity to encourage meaningful interaction. 👉 **Reserve your place early to avoid disappointment**

Our phones make our life easier and efficient. But how often do you find yourself picking up your phone, to discover that time just slipped away, again, and what really mattered got squeezed out? So, it’s not about rejecting our phones altogether – it’s about not being ruled by our phones and living with more intention. This session explores strategies and tips on how to: * break the scroll habit * reclaim your time and attention * create healthier digital habits **This is a free live in-person 60-minute seminar.** ***Waitlisted participants*** *who would still like to attend are welcome to check [here](https://www.innerspace.org.uk/events/reset-your-phone-habits-316-276/?occurrence=2026-04-18#mec-events-meta-group-booking-3663) for any available places.* **If you would like to make a voluntary donation, please click** [here.](https://www.innerspace.org.uk/donations/ "https://www.innerspace.org.uk/donations/") \* I consent to my submitted data being collected and stored. We will process your personal data in line with the GDPR requirements and always store it securely and use it only for the purpose for which it has been collected. We will not pass on your details to any third parties without your consent.

**⚠️⚠️ TICKETED EVENT - BUY TICKETS ON [LUMA EVENT PAGE](https://luma.com/icr5pkqs) ⚠️⚠️** Product Is… is tackling something that keeps a lot of product teams up at night. ​ AI products are shipping faster than users are learning to trust them. In some industries, that gap is getting dangerous. ​ Tom Blower, Chief Product and R&D Officer at Agreena, has spent his career building AI products in sectors where the stakes are real - healthcare, agriculture, climate tech. He knows what it looks like when a product gives the right answer and the user still doesn't act on it. ​This event will be on the seventh floor at Synechron's office, 35 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7QB. A massive thank you to Synechron for providing the venue. ​Doors open at 6:30 PM, we kick off at 7:00 PM, and wrap up by 8:30 PM. Drinks and snacks will be provided. Come ready for proper discussion, new connections, and ideas worth thinking about. ​--- THE THEME - PRODUCT IS... CREATING A TRUST GAP --- ​AI products are getting better at a rate that is genuinely hard to keep up with. But capability and trust are not the same thing. ​Think about a farmer. They have decades of lived experience in their soil, their land, their seasons. An AI tool tells them to do something different. What happens? Often, nothing. Not because the AI is wrong, but because trust has not been earned. ​This is not a niche problem. It shows up in healthcare, in finance, in anywhere that human expertise has been built over time. Product teams are shipping features that users are quietly ignoring. The question is why, and what to do about it. ​We will be exploring how product teams build trust in AI when the people using it have good reason to be sceptical. How do you design for adoption when lived experience is the competition? And when speed of development is part of the problem, how do you slow down in the right places? ​The central question for the evening: can AI earn trust in industries built on lived experience? ​Come ready to pick a side. ​--- THE SPEAKER - TOM BLOWER --- ​Tom is Chief Product and R&D Officer at Agreena, a FinTech, AgTech and ClimateTech platform that helps farmers and corporations unlock the value of nature. At Agreena, Tom has led the development of Agatha, an AI advisory tool that gives farmers data-driven guidance tailored to their land - built on satellite data, remote sensing, and a deep respect for what farmers already know. ​Before Agreena, Tom was VP of Product at Kry and Livi, where he built digital and physical healthcare products used by millions of patients across Europe. Before that, he led product at Ada Health, the AI-powered symptom assessment app with over 10 million downloads and the number one healthcare app in 120 countries. ​Tom started his career at Dyson, where he spent nearly a decade in R&D and product design, winning a Red Dot Award along the way. ​He has shipped AI products to some of the most trust-resistant user groups on the planet. He has a lot to say about it. ​-------- ABOUT 'PRODUCT IS...' -------- ​PMs, UX & UI designers, user researchers, developers - you like to dream big when it comes to digital products… Now it's time share your perspective! ​'Product is…' grounds itself in informed, knowledgeable context and healthy conversation - vital ingredients to tech success. One keynote speaker sets the tone on a theme of less travelled subject matter before all attendees add their perspective during the second half of round table-style discussion. ​Don't expect standard tech meetup fare like "How to improve your CV/Portfolio for that dream job at Facebook" or "How this new framework/approach will improve your workflow" - this meetup is food for the mind, but also a place to meet like-minded big-thinkers! We welcome everyone who works in tech - EVERYONE has a valuable perspective that we learn from. ​-------- WHY WE CHARGE FOR TICKETS -------- ​We do not aim to make a profit from this meetup, our goal is to create healthy and interesting conversations, meet new people and make new connections. Speakers and the organising team give up their time free of charge to ensure the events are enjoyable for all. A charge is required for attendance - this allows the organisation team to cover overheads, plus food and drink for the evening. To be clear, we're working towards lowering our costs as much as possible to keep ticket prices as low as possible.

Join Voice Over Pros Of Ohio for an exciting morning of networking, and exploring opportunities in the world of voice acting. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this event is perfect for expanding your network, learning how to start a VO business, and for honing your skills. Connect with fellow voice actors and VO experts, that will help you succeed in your voice over business. This event will feature discussions on professional development, entrepreneurship in the voice over industry, with tips for navigating the world of voice acting. Don't miss this unique opportunity to learn from others, collaborate with like-minded individuals, and take your voice over career to the next level. Join us Saturday, March 28, from 10am - 12pm and learn how to start or grow your voice over business. Let your voice be heard! The $10 fee covers refreshments and door prizes.

A WiA Collective Wisdom Exchange At the start of this year, we gathered to look back, set intentions, and imagine the next chapter. This is the follow-up. Not a check-in. Not a progress report. A small, facilitated circle to reconnect with what you said mattered — and honestly explore what’s actually happening now. Together, we’ll explore: • What you intended at the start of this year - and what that looks like three months in • What’s surprised you, supported you, or shifted • What the next chapter needs now that you know what you know If you were at our January gathering, bring whatever you made or wrote — your word, your artifact, your intention. We’ll look at it with fresh eyes. If this is your first time, you belong here too. You’ll start where we all started: with what’s true right now. Optional art materials will be available for anyone who wants to reflect creatively alongside conversation. If you brought something home from January, you’re warmly invited to bring it back. The intention is the same as always: everyone leaves feeling more clear, more connected, and a little lighter. Space is intentionally limited to keep the experience intimate. What to Expect • A small, welcoming circle (not a large meetup) • Structured conversation so everyone has space to speak • Reflection, listening, and lived experience — not advice-giving • Optional creative reflection alongside conversation • A calm, supportive environment Who This Is For Women and underrepresented folks working in or around agile, product, technology, leadership, or organizational change — especially those looking for honest conversation and community beyond frameworks and buzzwords. Good to Know • No preparation required • If you attended in January, we invite you to bring anything you created or wrote (or something that represents your intention at the start of the year) - it’s optional but invited • Participation is invitational; listening is always welcome • Creative activities are optional

Whether you've never done improv before, or you've done it for so long you knew Del Close on a personal level, or anywhere in between, come join us! Swing by *Gresso's* for the **Columbus Improv Comedy Meetup** for some fun and games! The idea behind improv is to create entire scenes from scratch based on a suggestion from the audience. This can be done in game form, like *Whose Line Is It Anyway*, *ComedySportz*, or *Wild 'n Out*; it could also be done to tell stories, like *Middleditch and Schwartz*. Our meetup, which is central Ohio's longest running (and free!) weekly comedy event, brings the games (and occasionally different forms) for you to play in a safe, supportive, and compassionate environment. Not only is it a lot of fun, but you get to work on thinking faster on your feet, plus it's an excellent way to meet new people and make friendships that'll last a lifetime! Ask yourself if you want to join the **Columbus Improv Comedy Meetup**, and say "Yes, And" that you'll have fun!

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 ***NOTE:*** Pre-registration is required for this event. **Please arrive 10 minutes early** to check in at the security desk.

Do toxic people weigh you down? Affect your happiness? How can having toxic relationships affect your Health? And moreover, how can you spot them before it’s too late? Attend this in-person meeting to find out how to spot these people and remove their negative emotions from your life. This event is hosted by The Dianetics and Scientology Life Improvement Center in Central Ohio.

At Evolve Synergy Sessions, you'll be part of a supportive mastermind where we share challenges, brainstorm solutions, and inspire one another to take bold steps in our businesses. Grow your network, gain fresh perspectives, and build meaningful relationships with like-minded women who are committed to success. Whether you’re looking to move the needle in your business or simply need a space to connect and recharge, this is the perfect place to fuel your entrepreneurial journey. [Add Event to Calendar](https://evolvecolumbus.eventcalendarapp.com/) \*\* Please note, we will be arriving around 8:15a for open networking! Get there early and get connected! Contact Alexis Morley at [alexis.morley@edwardjones.com](mailto:alexis.morley@edwardjones.com) or Terri Lawson at [terri.lawson@e-merge.com](mailto:terri.lawson@e-merge.com) for more information.

Come attend a free in-person seminar where you will find out why you: -Feel isolated -Can't express yourself openly -Get nervous or anxious in front of people -Run out of things to say or feel tongue-tied -Feel introverted -Don't feel comfortable in any social setting -Can't make more friends -Are shy and miss opportunities to connect in a meaningful way And we cover what you can do about any one, some or all of the above. This seminar is the weapon against loneliness, isolation and boredom, come join us! COME TO THIS SEMINAR AND LEARN THE SECRETS TODAY This seminar is brought to you by the Dianetics & Scientology Life Improvement Center. 1266 Dublin Road, Columbus, Ohio 43215