Cloud Computing

# 🔥 Apache Spark Belgium Meetup - January 2026 Edition **📅 Thursday, January 22, 2026** **📍 Dataminded HQ, Vismarkt 17, Leuven** **🕠 17:30 – 20:00 CET** Join us for the first **Apache Spark Belgium** Meetup of 2026! This edition focuses on **practical challenges and optimisations in Spark** \- from understanding distributed execution to reducing your compute bill\. Whether you're a data engineer, platform architect, or someone wrangling costs and performance in large-scale data pipelines - this one’s for you. *** ## 🎤 Talks & Speakers ### 1. **Distributed Computing Unpacked** **🗣️ Meni Shmueli** - *Co-founder & CEO at DataFlint* Distributed computing especially with Apache Spark can feel unnecessarily complex, but under the hood it's a beautiful system of trade-offs. In this talk, Meni walks through how distributed engines optimize for speed, fault tolerance, and scalability and how understanding these mechanics can help you fix real-world performance issues in your Spark jobs. *** ### 2. **A Practical Guide to Tame Your Spark Costs** **🗣️ Niels Claeys** - *Lead Data Engineer & Partner at Dataminded* Running Spark jobs at scale? You’ve probably seen the bills. In this session, Niels shares practical techniques for diagnosing costly jobs, reducing waste, and write efficient Spark pipelines. *** ## 🗓️ Agenda * **17:30 – 18:00** \| Welcome\, 🍕 pizza & drinks * **18:00 – 18:05** \| Intro * **18:05 – 18:40** \| Talk 1 \+ Q&A: *Distributed Computing Unpacked* * **18:40 – 19:10** \| Talk 2 \+ Q&A: *Taming Your Spark Costs* * **19:10 – 20:00** \| Networking\, drinks & hallway chats *** ## 🎟️ RSVP This is a free, in-person event — just make sure to RSVP as spots are limited.

After a long time, we’re back—refreshed and ready to showcase everything that’s changed. Join us in **Ghent** at Delaware HQ for an energizing technical session themed *“Uncovering the Dust”*, where we highlight the latest and greatest innovations, insights, and best practices. **Parking** The parking is located at Amelia Earhartlaan 2, 9051 Ghent, under the green office building. You can enter the parking freely. Take the 'visitors' elevator or the stairs to go up to the ground floor. Then follow the delaware & Cloud Native signs to the entrance of the delaware building 'Pégoud'. **Event space** Once in the building, you can find the event space & welcome is on the 6th floor of our delaware building – the elevator will take you there without a badge needed. **Catering** You must be hungry when you arrive 😉 so we’ll provide you with a salad & focaccia bar as from 19h00. Drinks are available at the bar throughout the evening. **Sessions:** Session 1: **One cluster to serve them all: A central aks setup for multi-team delivery by Tibo Jacobs (Delaware)** Running a single central AKS cluster for multiple teams and applications sounds efficient, but without proper structure, it can quickly become a tangled mess. This session will show you how to set up a central AKS cluster that stays clean, secure, and easy to manage, even as teams and workloads grow. Session 2: **From scripts to agents: Orchestrating Cloud-Native operations with kagent by Massimo Crippa (Codit)** AI agents are quickly moving from experiments to first-class platform components. In this session, we’ll explore how kagent enables teams to build, run, and orchestrate AI agents the cloud-native way. We’ll dive into the supervisor pattern, showing how multiple specialist agents collaborate and how this approach aligns naturally with platform engineering principles. Session 3: **Learning Agent Behavior the Hard Way (DIY) by Philippe Bogaerts (Fortinet)** Agentic AI systems don’t just “chat” anymore. They take actions: they call tools, hit services, chain steps together, and sometimes do things that look … unexpected. When that happens, we usually have lot's of opinions and some logs, but not enough ground truth. What did the agent really call? What did it touch? What did it spawn or connect to? And which patterns keep showing up across runs? In this talk I’ll share an ongoing hands-on experiment: a small Kubernetes sandbox where I run multiple agents and MCP servers built with different SDKs, then observe them using open source runtime security and telemetry. Think of it as putting agents under a microscope. I'll combine Cilium for L4/L7 visibility, Tetragon for runtime process signals, and Elastic to store and correlate everything into a timeline you can actually reason about: flows, requests, processes, and “what happened next”. Along the way, you also start to see the creative side of agents: how they “find a way” when they are blocked, how they compose tools in novel sequences, and how capabilities can effectively expand through combination and iteration, even when you didn’t design it explicitly. This isn’t about claiming perfect detection. It’s about learning faster, spotting behavioral patterns, surfacing surprising toolchains, and exploring what practical governance might look like next: registries, gateways, and policy-controlled tool exposure.

We’re very happy to announce the 14th **Python User Group** meetup! 🐍 This time the event will take place in **Mechelen**. Big thanks to [Datashift](https://www.datashift.eu) for kindly hosting us 🫶 **🗓️ Agenda** You're welcome from 18:30 onwards. **⭐️ Session 1 \| A modern data stack demo across engineering\, quality\, governance** \- by [Arnaud Gueulette](https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaud-gueulette/) A hands-on demonstration of how to integrate leading DataOps and Data Governance tools to automate data quality checks, orchestrate transformations, enforce governance policies, and deliver trusted analytics across the full data lifecycle. **⭐️ Session 2 \| A modern template for Python projects** \- by [Lode Nachtergaele](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lodenachtergaele/) A demo and discussion of the rationale behind the template publicly available at [https://github.com/cast42/python-minimal-boilerplate](https://github.com/cast42/python-minimal-boilerplate). It's a modern minimal boilerplate for a Python project, based on uv and ruff, with a focus on the new kids on the block: ty, logfire, and zensical. **⭐️ Session 3 \| From venv to isolated application directory: why virtualenvs are not enough** \- by [Wouter Vanden Hove](https://www.linkedin.com/in/woutervh/) A talk packed with tips & tricks from 20 years of real-world experience to set up and maintain robust Python applications. Food and drinks will be provided by Datashift🍴🥃 Hope to see you there! 🚀 Don't forget to RSVP 😇

Êtes-vous un adepte des logiciels de marketing et souhaitez-vous gérer vos campagnes e-mail et vos indicateurs clés de performance (KPI) en toute simplicité ? Marre de jongler entre plusieurs logiciels pour envoyer des newsletters et piloter vos campagnes marketing ? Cette journée de formation 100 % gratuite, le jeudi 22 janvier 2026 à Louvain-la-Neuve est faite pour vous ! Découvrez comment Odoo peut vous aider à centraliser et optimiser votre stratégie marketing. 🚀 Inscrivez vous gratuitement sur notre site : https://www.odoo.com/r/35J4 —--------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Les informations pratiques :** Où? Odoo LLN - Rue du Laid Burniat, 5 à 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Quand ? Le jeudi 22 janvier 2026 de 9h à 17h Inscription? https://www.odoo.com/r/35J4 Prix ? Gratuit ! Au plaisir de vous y voir nombreux et de vous rencontrer !

**Experience Deep Relaxation & Mental Clarity with Access Bars®** ​Imagine letting go of stress, overthinking, and emotional blocks—effortlessly. Access Bars® is a gentle, hands-on technique that activates 32 points on your head, helping to release stored thoughts, beliefs, and tension, leaving you feeling lighter, clearer, and more at ease. ​ ​Your Session ​🕰️ Duration: 30min or 60min in total ​📍 In-Person Only – Feel the full benefits in a calm and welcoming space. ​ ​💰 Investment in Your Well-being: ​30-min session: 25 EUR or 2 Common Hub Tokens (2 CHT) ​60-min session: 50 EUR or 4 Common Hub Tokens (4 CHT) ​ ​Book your session now and give yourself the gift of relaxation, clarity, and renewed energy! ✨ Booking: [https://koalendar.com/e/access-bars-CHB](https://koalendar.com/e/access-bars-CHB) **About Your Host:** ​​​This experience is guided by Mara [Regina](https://linktr.ee/reginadgaia) D'Gaia, an alchemist, holistic therapist and access bars practitioner. ​​​📧 Contact: [integractiveconnections@gmail.com](http://integractiveconnections@gmail.com) ​​​📸 Follow on Instagram: [@reginadgaia](http://www.instagram.com/reginadgaia)

Unisciti a noi a **Roma** il **22 gennaio 2026** per un evento serale esclusivo dedicato a **imprenditori**, **manager** e **professionisti** che vogliono scoprire come digitalizzare la propria azienda e ottimizzarne la gestione. Ti presenteremo Odoo, il **software all-in-one** che semplifica la gestione della tua azienda: dalle vendite alla logistica, dal marketing alla contabilità, tutto in un’unica piattaforma integrata. Una suite completa di strumenti progettati **per le PMI e per chi ogni giorno deve far funzionare e crescere il proprio business**. **Programma dell’evento 🔎** **19:00** \- Accoglienza e benvenuto **19:15 – 21:00** \- Presentazione di Odoo con demo interattiva\, consigli e best practice per digitalizzare la tua azienda **21:00 – 22:00** \- Aperitivo di networking **Ti aspettiamo! Iscriviti gratuitamente qui ➡️** https://www.odoo.com/r/YFzW **La partecipazione è gratuita, ma la registrazione è obbligatoria.** **—** ### **Informazioni utili** **📍 Dove?** The Building Hotel, Via Montebello, 126, 00185 **📅 Quando?** 22 gennaio 2026 **📝 Iscrizione:** https://www.odoo.com/r/YFzW **💰 Evento gratuito** Non vediamo l’ora di incontrarti e mostrarti come Odoo può trasformare la gestione della tua azienda! L’evento sarà presentato in italiano.

EN (FR en bas): We're still accepting people in our classes. Join us!​ -step 1: Book here! -> [https://www.danceproject.be/reservations.html](https://www.danceproject.be/reservations.html) -step 2: Show up! Schedule: [Monday to Thursday](https://www.danceproject.be/classes.html#schedule) Fees : [All info on trials, packs, subscriptions here](https://www.danceproject.be/classes.html#fees) Locations: -Rue Brialmont 7, Brussels Metro/Tram: Botanique Salsa, Bachata, Lindy Hop, Forró Intro - 1: From base to the dancefloor! When you come for the first time we go over the base & rhythm with you. Then you are included in the group and everybody learns the same new steps for which you just need the base. Practice makes perfect: just relax and enjoy Salsa, Bachata, Lindy Hop and/or Forró! Our group is very welcoming and looking forward to meet new dancers! Salsa, Bachata, Lindy Hop, Forró Roots I - 2: Ready to go deeper on Salsa, Bachata, Lindy Hop &/or Forró? Let's go! [https://www.danceproject.be/classes.html#improvers](https://www.danceproject.be/classes.html#improvers) Salsa, Forró Roots II - 3: Looking for #SalsaChallenge? Already familiar with Forró Root? We've got your back! [https://www.danceproject.be/classes.html#intermediates](https://www.danceproject.be/classes.html#intermediates) More info: -Web: [https://www.danceproject.be](https://www.danceproject.be) -Whatsapp: +32 493 16 41 10 -Mail: brussels.salsa.project@gmail.com -[Facebook](https://facebook.com/brussels.salsa.project) -[Instagram](https://instagram.com/brussels.salsa.project) \-\-\-\-\- FR: Nous acceptons encore de nouvelles personnes dans nos cours. Rejoins-nous ! -1ère pas : Fait ta réservation ! -> [https://www.danceproject.be/reservation.html](https://www.danceproject.be/reservation.html) -2ème pas : Vient danser ! Horaire : [lundi à jeudi](https://www.danceproject.be/cours.html#horaire) Les prix : [Toutes les infos sur les essais, packs, abonnements ici](https://www.danceproject.be/cours.html#prix) Endroits : -Rue Brialmont 7, Bruxelles Metro/Tram: Botanique Salsa, Bachata, Lindy Hop, Forró Intro - 1 : De la base à la piste de danse ! Lorsque tu nous rejoins on voit la base et le rythme avec toi. Ensuite, tu es inclus dans le groupe et tout le monde apprend les mêmes pas pour lesquelles tu as juste besoin de la base. C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron : détend-toi et profite la Salsa, de la Bachata, du Lindy Hop et/ou du Forró ! Notre groupe est très accueillant et a hâte de rencontrer de nouveaux danseurs ! Salsa, Bachata, Lindy Hop, Forró Roots I - 2 : Prêt à approfondir la Salsa, la Bachata, le Lindy Hop &/ou le Forró ? Allons-y! [https://www.danceproject.be/cours.html#inities](https://www.danceproject.be/cours.html#inities) Salsa, Forró Roots II - 3 : Tu cherches #DefiSalsa ? Tu connais déjà Forró Roots ? Nous sommes là pour toi ! [https://www.danceproject.be/cours.html#intermediaires](https://www.danceproject.be/cours.html#intermediaires) Plus d’info: -Web: [https://www.danceproject.be/fr.html](https://www.danceproject.be/fr.html) -Whatsapp: +32 493 16 41 10 -Mail: brussels.salsa.project@gmail.com -[Facebook](https://facebook.com/brussels.salsa.project) -[Instagram](https://instagram.com/brussels.salsa.project)

Join us for a full day of collaborative work at HSBXL! This event is open to everyone who enjoys working in a community environment, whether you're advancing on business ventures, freelance projects, or creative endeavors. Bring your laptops, your enthusiasm, and your projects to collaborate, learn, and share in the main room of our spacious hackerspace. During this **8-hour co-working event**, you'll have the opportunity to work on your project, ask for feedback, offer help to others, and if you wish, share your achievements at the end of the day. **Please Note**: While HSBXL has multiple rooms for various purposes, this coworking event is taking place in the main room. It's important to note that online meetings should be avoided during this event to prevent noise disturbance and to maintain a conducive work environment for everyone. \#\#\# What the day will look like: 1\. Introduction and setting up: Find a comfortable spot in the main room\, set up your workspace and grab a Club Mate\, soft drink\, or a coffee to get your day started\. 2\. Work Session: Dive into your project\, seek assistance\, and collaborate with others\. 3\. Sharing Session: Optional\, but encouraged\! Share what you've worked on\, your challenges\, and triumphs\. \#\#\# How to get to HSBXL: HSBXL is located in Brussels. For detailed instructions on how to get to the hackerspace, please visit [here](https://hsbxl.be/enter/). If you encounter any issues while trying to get in, you can contact us at +32 28804004. Please note that the phone is inside the space. Alternatively, you can also reach out to us in our [Matrix chatroom](https://matrix.to/#/#hsbxl:matrix.org). \#\#\# Requirements Please bring your laptop, and if you have, an extension cord. The space has WiFi, but having your own internet backup solution can also be useful. Join us at this **8-hour co-working day** in the main room of HSBXL, and we hope you'll have made progress on your projects, learned something new, and most importantly, enjoyed the power of community collaboration. Whether you're a freelancer, entrepreneur, or creative, we welcome you to this day of productivity, sharing, and collaboration.

**FRANCAIS**: Je démarre une **rotation thématique** tous les mois autour du domaine de l'entrepreneuriat. Pour ce mois, d'août, je propose: **Le freelancing en Belgique** (avantages et désavantages). Etes-vous un freelanceur ou non? Partagez vos avis avec le groupe. On prendra aussi le temps nécessaire pour apprendre à se connaître via une session de réseautage! Si vous souhaitez apporter/partager quelque chose pour manger/boire, n'hésitez pas! Rendez-vous au Cinquantenaire en-dessous de l'arc: [Cinquantenaire (Bruxelles)](https://goo.gl/maps/B4hEv3uyDVKD1Uap6) **ENGLISH**: I am starting **each month a topic** related to entrepreneurship. This month of august, the topic will be : **Freelancing in Belgium** (advantages and disadvantages). Are you a freelance or not? Share your insights with the group. We will take this time for getting to know each other throughout a networking! If you feel like bringing/sharing something to eat, don't hesitate! See you at 50naire next to the arch: [Cinquantenaire (Brussels)](https://goo.gl/maps/B4hEv3uyDVKD1Uap6)

Functional Movement & Yoga at Le Repère Les Glacières (please register in advance at [www.popupyogaconcepts.be/schedule](http://www.popupyogaconcepts.be/schedule)) A practise linking functional movement with yoga and functional breathwork. This practise emphasises posture correction for spine health & breathing properly even when challenged in key poses and during movement. This class is held in a close community giving the chance for people to meet others in a context of calm and wellbeing. We also go for a chai/coffee in the area after class, however this is not mandatory. The location is hosted at Merci Studio in St Gilles (near the parvis) . Everyone is welcome as long as you have a kind and open hearted spirit :-) Address Merci Studio (4th floor) Julien Dillensplein 1 1060 St Gilles Drop in Rate 20 euros

Hi everyone, This coffee morning event is @ Café de Voyageurs! Sunday, 25 January 2026, from 10:00 - 12:30. It's limited to 25 attendees. Therefore, please, cancel if you can't join anymore. Café de Voyageurs opened its doors about 7 months ago. Dalila the owner is one of the most friendly hosts that I have met in Brussels in the past 5 years. She has give her café an African feeling & atmosphere as she is Algerian herself. The Instagram channel: https://www.instagram.com/cafe.des.voyageurs/ **The address is:** Café de Voyageurs 274 Chaussee de Wavre 1050 Ixelles *** 1. The **prime time** of the event is **10:30 - 12:30**. That's when most people will be there. 2. When you enter the gallery, it's either on the right-hand side or left-hand side of its hallway, depending which entrance you take. 3. If you intend **to join past 12:00** (high noon), then there is no need to register. Just come and join! 4. **DON'T forget to cancel** if you can't join! 5. **Please, be respectful towards each other during the event. (And after ;))** **As always, feel free to follow us on INSTAGRAM!** [https://instagram.com/weekendmorningcoffee?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==](https://instagram.com/weekendmorningcoffee?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==) **THE STRUCTURE of THE EVENT:** * I will post the event on Saturday/Sunday evening for the following Saturday. * I send out a reminder to everyone on Friday. * There is sometimes a waiting list. * In case RSVP is closed (once there are 10-15 people on the waiting list), I might reopen it on Friday, depending on the number of cancellations in the meantime. * **For everyone on the waiting,** please check your status and messages on Friday evening the latest. I message everyone on the waiting list on Friday. * **Please, move to "not going" AS SOON AS you know that you can't come anymore, that includes everyone who is on the waiting list.** **IMPORTANT:** * **Please, be respectful towards each other during the event. (And after ;))** * When you register yourself, be careful not to register accidentally a +1 guest (unless you bring a guest). It happens very often. * If you have any questions then, message me. *** **A MESSAGE FOR NEWCOMERS:** *In the three years of hosting this coffee group, I have met many people who struggle with anxieties when coming to an event for the first time. Sometimes, it took them more than one attempt before being able to join.* *Occasionally, people reach out to me before the event, and I have always been grateful for that as it offers the opportunity to communicate with each other and to find the best and most gentle way for that person to join the group.* *I would like to encourage everyone who struggles with this to contact me before. It would really be too bad if you can't join us, as it mostly gets better the second or third time you come.* *In addition to that, if you arrive and notice any signs of nervousness or fear, you can always let me know right then.* **THANK YOU AND SEE YOU ALL ON Saturday!**

Welcome to our weekly event in the upstairs room of The Sister Café, rue Chair et Pain 3, one block from the Grand Place. Please get there early enough to order your drink at the bar first. Thank you! After introductions we will collect questions from the group participants, choose one by voting then discuss it for an hour. Then most of us stay for drinks and bizarre conversations. Past questions have been wide and not confined to academic philosophy: What is a genuine friend? Is social media turning us into emotional zombies? Do we lose some of the experience of things by defining them? Are we driven by sex? Is loneliness a personal failure? Is morality relative? **Crucially, be kind and respectful and generous** in your disagreements; remember how much you personally enjoy someone else proving you wrong before celebrating your cutting counterexamples.

The PhotoBrussels Festival reached its 10th edition! For one month many galleries of Brussels will display photography works of artists from Belgium and around the world. https://www.photobrusselsfestival.com/ On Friday the 23rd, one of its opening days, we will step at the vernissages of different galleries located at St. Gilles, all participating to the festival. We start at 19 with Médor in Rue Blaes 261. Access to galleries are free. For Maison Pelgrims [reservation is mandatory](https://www.billetweb.fr/vernissage-les-paysages-du-reve). After the walk we can have a drink all together at the Parvis de St. Gilles.

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group × DevOps Columbus** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS, Columbus HashiCorp User Group, and DevOps Columbus meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/cbus-hug-2026/

## Details \#\# Learn Infrastructure\-as\-Code \(the FUN Way\) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: DevOps Columbus - Azure CBUS - Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint DevOps Columbus, Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. \#\#\# What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time \#\#\# Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐

Modern software development is rapidly shifting from tool-driven workflows to agent-powered systems that can reason, act, and collaborate alongside developers. This talk introduces Google Antigravity, an emerging agent-first development platform from Google Cloud, designed to move beyond code assistance toward autonomous, skill-based AI agents. In this session, we explore how Antigravity enables developers to create and extend custom agent skills that perform real actions—such as executing workflows, integrating external services, and automating complex development tasks. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of Antigravity’s architecture, the role of skills in agent orchestration, and how agent-powered development changes the way software is designed, built, and maintained. This is a hybrid event. Join the event virtually at https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-chicago-presents-agent-powered-development-with-google-antigravity/ or in person at TAG - The Aspen Group - 311 North Green Street Chicago, 60607 *** Agenda *** Speaker Shadab Hussain - TheMathCompany (Lead Engineer) Shadab Hussain is a technology executive and strategic advisor specializing in AI, Blockchain, and Quantum Computing. As Lead Engineer at MathCo, he architects enterprise AI solutions for Fortune 500 clients. Previously at the London Stock Exchange Group, he led developer relations across global financial ecosystems. A Google Developer Expert (AI/ML), AWS Community Builder, and TEDx spea… Hosts Joel Vasallo - TAG - The Aspen Group (Director, Platform Engineering) Dan Baran Amanda Rossi - Bag Tags, Inc (Web Developer) *** Partners Google (https://www.google.com) TAG - The Aspen Group (https://www.teamtag.com) *** Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-chicago-presents-agent-powered-development-with-google-antigravity/.

**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

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.