Cloud Native

Welcome to Melbourne Volleyball Academy. 🤗 **[[WHAT]]** This session is specifically for games only (no training). There will be a cap of 18 players, allowing for 3 teams of 6. Games will be played to 15 points, with a cap at 18 points. These games are intended to be played at a high-intermediate(BB)/advanced(A) level. Please see an explanation of skill levels on our website here: https://melbournevolleyballacademy.com.au/skill-levels-explained **[[WHO]]** The session is intended for Intermediate players. Players should be able to: * Have strong fundamentals for all volleyball techniques * Serve receive a majority of serves well & serve over the net consistently * Basic understanding of 5-1, and 6-2 systems (we do not play a pass middle 4-2 system in this session) * Have an understanding of base defense * Know all/most volleyball rules Players that are not of the intermediate(BB)/advanced(A) level will be asked to leave as we want to ensure that all players have an enjoyable time playing. **[[HOW MUCH $$]]** $14 card payment will be processed on the day via square reader (EFTPOS). **[[WHEN]]** The stadium is booked from 7 PM-9 PM weekly, every Monday. However, feel free to come early and stretch as the Community Centre is open earlier. Last minute dropouts and no shows will have a zero-tolerance policy going forward. All players are expected to update their RSVP at least 24 hours in advanced if they are unable to attend. This applies to players on the going list and the waitlist. **[[OTHER DETAILS]]** Only those on the “going” list are permitted to play. If you are on the waitlist, or not registered at all, you will not be permitted into the gymnasium.

A mix of dance classes, connections & laughter! We love offering a diverse range of moves to keep things fresh and exciting, and it’s always amazing to see our dance community connecting on and off the dance floor. It’s all about coming together, learning, and having fun! Brighton Beach Bowls Club 2B South Rd Brighton 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm Foundation, Beginner & Intermediate levels $25 CASH or PAYID

Based on Camus’ classic novel - “Confounding, disturbing and yet icily compelling, the experience of watching François Ozon’s The Stranger is not entirely dissimilar to that of reading Albert Camus’ 1942 classic.” Variety. “The most crucial thing that Ozon’s film gets right are the moral, indeed philosophical considerations that build its central character.” The Film Stage. We will meet at the Nova Bar from 6 p.m. onwards. Please book your tickets early, Stefan - 0437777522

A relaxed Monday evening exploring the universe from the heart of Melbourne. We’ll begin with an **optional dinner** in South Melbourne, then head to the historic [Melbourne Observatory](https://maps.app.goo.gl/g4R1JhhnDR8ZFEUEA) precinct inside the Royal Botanic Gardens for **Stellar Nights**, hosted by the [Astronomical Society of Victoria](https://www.asv.org.au/Melbourne-Observatory). Stellar Nights is a guided astronomy experience that typically includes: * Telescope viewing (weather permitting) * Viewing through historic and modern telescopes * Short astronomy talks and explanations * A chance to ask questions and learn about what’s visible in the night sky This isn’t a light show or art installation — it’s real observational astronomy run by volunteers who genuinely love space. You’re welcome to join for dinner + the observatory night, or just the main event. **Plan** 5:30 pm – Meet outside **[Oishii Tokyo - South Melbourne](https://maps.app.goo.gl/MehtHSZwghPB7mAm7)** 5:45 pm - Casual seated dinner. Separate bills. 6:45 pm – Walk towards Melbourne Observatory 7:30 pm – Main event begins **Tickets** You’ll need your own ticket for this session. You can purchase it from here [https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/melbourne-gardens/whats-on-melbourne/stellar-nights/](https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/melbourne-gardens/whats-on-melbourne/stellar-nights/). I got my ticket for **$45**. **Important Notes** * Everyone must purchase their own Stellar Nights ticket in advance. * Telescope viewing depends on weather conditions. * Even if clouded out, the evening still includes talks and observatory access. * Dress warmly — you’ll likely be outside at times. * This involves light walking within the gardens. **Who This Is For** * People curious about astronomy and science * Anyone who enjoys calm, structured experiences * After-work social without loud venues or alcohol focus **Meeting point:** Meet outside [Oishii Tokyo - South Melbourne](https://maps.app.goo.gl/MehtHSZwghPB7mAm7) at **5:30pm**. I’ll post a photo of myself here once I arrive. If you’re running late, please message me your ETA beforehand.

Join Queer Meditation Melbourne for an evening of self-exploration and mindfulness in a safe and inclusive space. Start the event with a guided meditation session focused on promoting wellness, positive thinking, and spiritual growth. Connect with like-minded individuals from the LGBT community and enjoy meaningful conversations that nurture self-empowerment and consciousness. After the meditation practice, we will engage in social activities, promoting healthy living and dining out experiences. This event is designed for gay men and gay and lesbian friends who are looking to nurture their spiritual journey while building connections within the community. Come together to foster a sense of belonging and support each other in a space that celebrates diversity and self-care.

Play board games with around 20 people on 5+ tables in Elsternwick. Friendly. Inclusive. Free entry, Crunchy Euro and Thematic games. Close to public transport and free parking. Exclusive use of a function room with good lighting at the Caulfield RSL. Join our group in the Aftergame App to stay in touch: https://aftergame.app/groups/bayside-games-1853 Games are sometimes organised in advance on our WhatsApp group or in the Aftergame app, however most games are organised following a brief discussion at the venue on the Monday night. Recently we have played the following games: Euros: Brass, Dune Imperium, Anachrony, Endeavor Deep Sea, Inis, On Mars, Ark Nova, Galactic Cruise, Viticulture, Scythe, Concordia, Terra Mystica, Gaia Project, Terraforming Mars, Castles of Burgundy, Lost Ruins of Arnak and Grand Austria Hotel, and Orleans Economic: Indonesia, Food Chain Magnate, Bus, Irish Gauge and Container. Thematic: Voidfall, Dune (Original), Root, Eclipse, Nemesis, Spirit Island, Undaunted, Chaos in the Old World, The Godfather, Spartacus and Dominant Species. **Arrive early** The best time to arrive is around 6:50pm as people discuss which games they would like to play before starting longer games at 7:00pm. Arrive early and we can ensure that you are included in a game. However, should you arrive after 7:00pm you may need to wait for games to finish to be included, or if people are playing long games, it might not be practical to start a new game. **Full bar and snacks available** The Caulfield RSL generously provide the venue free of charge. A selection of food and drinks are available for purchase at the bar. Note that only food or drink purchased at the RSL can be consumed at the venue. We look forward to seeing you!

**PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DETAILS:** This group is suitable for a beginner type player only. **YOU WILL NEED TO REGISTER AND PAY VIA THE ATTACHED LINK TO SECURE YOUR SPOT:** https://play.tennis.com.au/RoyalParkTennisClub/Coaching **Players who just register their interest on Meetup, do not have their spots secured and may miss out.** **Registration Opens:** 6 Days in advance at 9am **Registration Closes:** Close 6pm the day *before* the event. This is to finalise player numbers and organise a playing roster. **Social Tennis Structure:** * Location: Royal Park Tennis Club (333 The Avenue, Parkville, Melbourne) * Day: Monday * Time: 5.30pm-7.30pm * Cost: $18 for Non-Members, $12 for Members. * Participants will play some casual games of tennis: emphasis on learning about tennis, improving your serve, trying to get the ball into play, and having fun. \*\*\* *Please note there is no coaching for this program.* * Balls are provided each week. * Racquets are available for hire if required. * Some refreshments are available for purchase. * Please remember to wear shoes suitable for tennis! * Maximum of 8 spots for each session.

Welcome to the first 2026 meetup of **Melbourne 🇦🇺 MongoDB User Group**. The team at Mantel Group has kindly offered to host us for the evening at their office in Melbourne on Flinders Street. **Complimentary drinks and snacks, as well as some SWAG, will be available, proudly sponsored by the team at MongoDB and Confluent**. We're looking forward to seeing familiar faces and welcoming newcomers! Please note that we have limited spots this time, so RSVP early. You will not be able to enter the building after 6 PM, so please be on time. **Agenda** * 5:00 pm - Arrival & Networking * 5:30 pm - Welcome * 5:35 pm - Talk #1 - Stephen Ermann - Avoid the AI Monolith: Deploy Multi-Agent Systems with MongoDB and Confluent * 6:00 pm - Talk #2 - Alex Peng - Sharding in MongoDB * 6:25 pm - Quiz & Swag * 6:35 pm - Networking & Food **Speakers** **Speaker #1 -** **Stephen Ermann** is a **Senior Customer Success Technical Architect at Confluent**, where he helps large enterprises design and operate mission-critical event streaming platforms with **Apache Kafka,** **Confluent Platform/Cloud** and **Apache Flink**. Based in Australia and working closely with major organisations, he focuses on scalable architectures, secure integrations, and smooth cloud migrations. Stephen has deep, hands-on experience connecting operational data stores like **MongoDB** into real-time, event-driven systems—turning CDC streams and transactional data into streaming workloads that power modern applications. He’s passionate about making distributed systems practical, sharing field lessons, and helping teams move from batch to truly real-time data. **Presentation #1** \- Avoid the AI monolith and learn how to design **event-driven multi-agent systems** with Confluent and MongoDB. In this talk, we’ll unpack the shift from classic predictive models to generative and agentic AI, and show why data readiness and real-time context - not just bigger models - determine whether your agents are actually useful in production. You’ll see how treating agents as event-driven microservices with a “brain” helps you avoid brittle point-to-point integrations and instead build scalable, observable systems. We’ll then walk through how **Confluent Cloud, Apache Flink® Streaming Agents, and MongoDB Atlas** fit together to provide the streaming backbone, vector search, and RAG capabilities that modern agentic applications need. Using an automated insurance claims demo, we’ll illustrate how real-time embeddings, external tables, and vector search in Flink SQL work with MongoDB Atlas to power context-aware decisions and end-to-end workflow automation. We will also share practical pointers and resources so you can start experimenting with your own multi-agent architectures after the meetup. **Speaker #2 -** Alex Peng is a Technical Services Engineer at MongoDB, specialising in MongoDB Atlas Support. With deep expertise in cloud deployments, Alex is passionate about helping customers navigate complex challenges on MongoDB Atlas, ensuring they get the most out of MongoDB's products and services. **Presentation #2** explores the fundamentals of sharding in MongoDB, covering the core concepts and architecture that power horizontal scaling in MongoDB. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of sharding's strengths and how to leverage them effectively. We will also provide practical guidance on selecting the shard key to maximise your application's performance and scalability. Thanks, The Melbourne MUG Team!

**Note - NEW location for this month only at the AWS Builder Studio!** IMPORTANT - the list of attendees will be provided the day before to security. Just go up the stairs / escalator to level 1 and check with your Photo ID to security. Please get in touch ASAP if you would like to talk at a future event, send us an email at Melbourne(at)serverless.org.au for more info! First time speakers are more than welcome and we can provide you assistance if you need with your presentation beforehand. Please reach out Melbourne(at)serverless.org.au. It can be a regular talk, lightning talk, demo, workshop, whatever is your thing our community will love it - as long as it is serverless related! Venue: AWS Builder Studio, Level 1, 555 Collins St. Melbourne 📅 Agenda 📅 5:30 PM - Doors Open! 6:00 PM - Welcome from the organizers / housekeeping 6:05 PM - **"Changing the engine mid-flight: A startup data pivot" - By Susan Brander, CTO Kaleida** What happens when your startup’s data model is held together with duct tape, but you still have to fly the plane, ship features, and act cool about it? Startups move fast, and sometimes that means making the best architecture decisions you can, and being utterly wrong because you don’t yet fully understand the domain you’re building for. At Kaleida, we chose DynamoDB as the cheapest way to get our product off the ground quickly, pushing relational logic into separate tables and thinking we’d gotten it right and assuming if we hadn’t that we’d clean it up later (if we survived). SPOILER! We survived and thrived! Later came around fast, and it looked like: \- bloated documents * Relational logic spread across tables * Queries dragging us down We knew we’d modelled it wrong, and that not changing it soon would only multiply the difficulties in the future. So, mid-flight, we changed engines. This talk is a candid case study of what it takes to evolve your architecture under pressure: * found our real data inside our current data * Pivoted to a One Table design * Pulled off a zero-downtime migration * Did it all while shipping features and pretending we weren’t panicking. If your team is battling tech debt, scaling pains, a data model that no longer reflects reality, (or you just want to hear about someone else’s war wounds) then come along. 6:35 PM - Pizza & Networking 7:00 PM - "**Let the Agent Read the Boring Reports: AI-Powered Database Auditing for PROTECTED Compliance on AWS**" - **By Christina Chen, Senior DevOps Engineer, Mantel Group** Nobody reads CSV audit reports. But under Australia's IRAP PROTECTED framework, organisations must continuously monitor and evidence database user activity — and assessors want proof. This talk builds a two-stage event-driven pipeline: Lambda extracts MySQL RDS user activity to S3, then a Strands Agent on Bedrock autonomously assesses findings against ISM controls, and generates assessor-ready output 7:30 PM - Networking and finish the Pizza! 8:00 PM - Doors Close, see you next time!

Creative Expressive Arts Group Session "Empower Yourself with Nature's Elements" Earth / Air / Water / Fire Reconnection and Empowerment Date Tuesday 28th of April Time 6:30pm to 8:30pm (2 hours) Cost $50 Bookings essential, limited seats What to bring? Yourself What to expect? Being in a sacred space, finding meaning through creative expression. Small group of 6 or less. You will need to fill out a consent form prior to commencement Facilitated by Connie www.conniepenniart.com

🎉 **Melbourne AWS User Group – April Meetup** 🎉 📅 Wednesday, 29 April 📍 NAB Events Hub – 395 Bourke Street, Melbourne ⏰ Food at 6:00 pm, talks from 6:30 pm (with live stream) Join us for our April meetup as we dive into real-world AWS architecture and cutting-edge AI workloads on Kubernetes. This month, we’re exploring how organisations make practical architecture decisions on AWS, and how modern AI tooling and GPU-powered platforms are enabling scalable, real-time applications. This month’s lineup features: • Trent Hornibrook sharing how Bell Financial approaches architecture decisions on AWS. • Yongkang He is presenting a live demo on building and scaling Stable Diffusion on Amazon EKS. A huge thank you to our sponsors: 🥇 Mantel Group – Gold Sponsor, 🥈 Cevo – Silver Sponsor, 🏛 NAB – Venue Sponsor The event will be live-streamed on YouTube as always: https://www.youtube.com/@AWSMelb/streams *** 🗓️ **Agenda** 6:00 pm – Food & Socialising 6:30 pm – Introductions 6:40 pm – What’s New in AWS 6:55 pm – How Bell Financial Architects on AWS (Level 200); Speaker: Trent Hornibrook 7:25 pm – Building and Scaling Stable Diffusion with Amazon EKS (Level 300); Speaker: Yongkang He 7:55 pm – Marketplace (Who’s Hiring) 8:00 pm – Networking + Close *** 🎤 **Talk Details** **How Bell Financial Architects on AWS** Speaker: Trent Hornibrook Level: 200 In this session, Trent will share how Bell Financial approaches architecture decisions and the key choices they’ve made when designing and operating workloads on AWS. This talk provides practical insight into real-world decision-making, trade-offs, and architectural patterns used in a financial services environment. *** **Building and Scaling Stable Diffusion with Amazon EKS** Speaker: Yongkang He Level: 300 Imagine generating AI images from text prompts — powered by Kubernetes, GPUs, and built with the help of Amazon Kiro. In this session (with live demo), we’ll walk through building and deploying a full AI image generator using Stable Diffusion XL on Amazon EKS. From containerisation and GPU nodes to scaling inference and pushing to Amazon ECR, you’ll see how it all comes together in a real-world setup. 💡 Key takeaways: • Build and scale Stable Diffusion on EKS • Use Kiro to accelerate development from code to deployment • Understand GPU scheduling and autoscaling in Kubernetes • Live demo of real-time image generation on AWS *** 🙌 **Want to Speak at a Future Meetup?** We’re always looking for new speakers and believe everyone has an interesting talk waiting to be shared. If you’d like to present at a future event, reach out at the meetup or via our website: https://melb.awsug.org.au/speak/

Get outside and join us for a day of planting trees, shrubs and ground cover on this beautiful property in the Yarra Valley. Your hosts need help planting seedlings to protect waterways, improve ecosystems and create habitat for wildlife. No experience required - we will train you on the day. Morning tea and lunch are provided for free. You'll meet friendly, like-minded people, and return home knowing that you've done something meaningful. You'll need your own transport, approximately one hour's drive from Melbourne CBD. [More info and registration details](https://events.humanitix.com/help-plant-native-seedlings-at-dixons-creek_link) TreeProject is a not-for-profit organisation that has been growing and planting native seedlings for farmers and Landcare groups for over 30 years. We have grown over 2 million trees! This year alone we are growing over 150,000 trees, and helping landowners plant about 50,000 trees! Come and join us!

RSVP on our GDG community platform -> https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-melbourne-presents-gdg-melbourne-april-meetup-4/ This event is hosted at the Mantel Group Office, with the recording of the talks to be shared afterwards on YouTube if you can't make it. There will be food, networking and some surprise swag!Agenda: 6:20 - Intro 6:30 - Talks 8:00 till late - networking & chat (& drinks optional)Speakers and Talks: Nicole Ellis, IT @ Monash (Games and Immersive Media) | Team Co-Lead @ MNET | Comms Officer @ MTS'Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt is the Real Barrier (Not Skill)' Most people in tech are not held back by a lack of ability; they are held back by intimidation. We avoid learning new tools and technologies not because we can’t, but because they feel too hard. We tell ourselves we’re “too busy,” we delay starting, and we stick to what feels comfortable. But often, what looks like procrastination is actually fear. Fear of failure, uncertainty, and self-doubt. Drawing from experience in education, esports, and leadership, this talk explores how hesitation shows up across different environments, and why it matters more than technical skill. This session reframes what it means for something to be “hard” and offers a practical approach to taking the first step towards the things you’ve been avoiding. Cameron Pavey, Principal Engineer | Technical Writer @ Rex 'Building systems that learn and grow' Most AI interactions start from zero every time. But what happens when you build systems that persist, accumulate context, and actually improve through use? This session explores the architecture of my long-running AI companion. Not a chatbot that forgets, but systems that learn your household's rhythms, anticipate needs, and develop genuine continuity over months and hopefully years, no OpenClaw required. We'll walk through the engineering decisions that make this possible: memory architecture that balances retrieval with synthesis, multi-facet coordination that lets different subsystems work in parallel, and the practical challenges of keeping a system coherent when it runs 24/7 across months of operation. Narendra Santhosh Nagarajan, Senior Backend Engineer @ TIG Freight Management 'Debugging my way through GCP'How to find us: Doors open at 5:45 PM at our host the Mantel Group, Level 2/452 Flinders St Melbourne. Message via Meetup or Slack if you are arriving after 6:00 as the lifts won't let you up.  This is an in-person only event. If you have any accessibility requirements please reach out via the Meetup or Slack to the organiser group to discuss and we will do our best to help you out. Agenda --- Hosted By Katie Barnett, GDE Android / GDG Organiser Katie is passionate about all things Android. She has taken on a wide variety of challenging projects including in the live event, media and travel space. Her favourite thing is to see someone having a delightful experience using something she has worked on. Katie is very active in the development community, she is a Google Developer Expert for Android, one of the organisers of GDG Melbourne and is a Women Techmakers Ambassador. She frequently runs events, speaks on technical and non-technical topics and enjoys writing blog posts to share her experience with others. Katie is based in Melbourne, Australia but loves to travel the world and outside of tech she enjoys boardgaming and attempting to finish many craft projects. Suesi Tran, Senior Flutter Developer Google Developer Expert in Dart, Flutter & Firebase, Women Techmaker Melbourne ambassador, GDG Melbourne & Flutter Melbourne co-organiser. In short: Flutter is love, and mobile is life. Poornima Sivakumar, GDG Organiser Lovee Jain, GDG Organiser Lovee is a Software Engineer at Prezzee, a GDG Melbourne Organiser and also a Women Techmakers Ambassador. A tech inquisitive philomath, she loves problem solving and solution design. She has worked at a city council where she developed a lot of useful system integrations and while at Prezzee she develops and works on multiple gift card solutions to cater the B2B2C market. Zach Jensz, GDG Organiser Passionate about the web, seamless UX and accessibility. I love attending meetups, find me and come say hi! Ujjawal Raj, GDG Organiser Bramley Turner-Jones, GDG Organiser Yuba Raj (UV) Panta, GDG Cloud Organiser Kartik Arora, Android Engineer Google Developer Expert in Android Android Engineer @ Bilue Carolyn Ai Chi Wong, Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-melbourne-presents-gdg-melbourne-april-meetup-4/.

Come along and join in a relaxed evening of dev and tech talk, drinks and dinner.

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: Nothing yet. (You should volunteer). 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/

Wild Ones Columbus Annual Native Plant Sale Saturday, May 23th, 2026 9:00 am to 1:00 pm (Eastern Time) Overbrook Presbyterian Church Parking Lot, 4131 N High St, Columbus, OH, 43214 Public Welcome, Family-Friendly Free Event A wide variety of native flowering plants, grasses, shrubs, and trees will be available from Wild Ones Columbus and local vendors Natives in Harmony, Leaves for Wildlife, and Scioto Gardens. Wild Ones will publish a list of plants that will be available at this year's sale closer to the event date. Be sure to stop by! Show up anytime!

Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/cbus-hug-2026/

GRANVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY Plant Swap May 3, 2026 3-4 p.m. Granville Public Library | 217 E. Broadway Is your perennial garden overflowing? Did you start too many native plant or vegetable seeds? Bring your extras to trade with other gardeners. Participants will be able to walk away with one new plant for each one they bring. Plants considered invasive are prohibited from the plant swap. [Click here to read list of prohibited plants ](https://www.oipc.info/list-of-assessed-species.html) To encourage participants to remove invasive plants & plant native plants, Pollinator Pathway will be offering free native plants at the swap. Please label the plants you bring.

It feels like we just saw each other 🤷. Join members of the local design and UX community for our monthly breakfast. For May we’re stopping in for Rooh’s popup breakfast/cafe concept. You know someone is getting the lobster yuzu croissant, and that’s not even the prettiest thing on the menu!.

Click Here For More Videos: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17vTa7EuwG/ ********************************* The Biggest Salsa Night to hit your mid-week is happening at Latin City Wednesdays. Get the feel of the Latin Beat as your hips and feet groove the right way. ********************************* Viva Dance Columbus (2809 Festival Lane Dublin, OH 43017) 830pm-930pm Cuban Salsa Lessons 930pm-Midnight Open Latin Dance Party $15 With Lesson $10 Just Open Dance ********************************** Free Parking, No Need to Bring a dance partner, No Sandals Please and Plenty of Space to Move Around.

Bring your work or your hobby, hang out, and code with us. Follow @buckeyecocoa for more information.