CMS (Content Management Systems)

Our regular monthly presentation night on the second Thursday of the month from 6:30pm! Thanks to Mantel Group for hosting us again this month. If you're coming in person we're there with food and drinks from 6pm. We will be live streaming the presentations as usual from 6:30pm at [http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/live](http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/live) \-\-\- In an unusual turn of events we have two AI-related talks this month — but I think both will be speaking to the state of our industry and offering perspective on where we are and maybe where we're going. **Agenda** \| 6:00pm \| Food \+ Networking \| \| 6:30pm \| Event begins\. Introductions \| \| 6:40pm \| Andrew Murphy — The five stages of losing our craft \| \| 7:15pm \| Rob Amos \(Bok\) — Forging a Sword Spirit: From AI skeptic to autonomy \| \| 7:55pm \| Wrap up \+ social time at a nearby venue \| \* All times are approximate. Presentation order will be confirmed on the night. \-\-\-\- We are always looking for speakers and believe everyone has an interesting talk hiding inside themselves. If you are interested in letting that talk out at a future event you can get in touch on the website [https://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/talks](https://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/talks) or on Slack.

Toastmasters is a worldwide organisation which empowers its members to conquer their fear of public speaking and become better communicators. There is no need to formally register for the event, just RSVP to this meetup event if you can, then simply show up in person on the evening. If there is no one at the entrance, please message one of the organisers on this app For more information, check out the City Centre Toastmasters website [here](https://citycentretoastmastersmelbourne.toastmastersclubs.org/). What we'll do at the meeting: \- Impromptu speaking \(Table Topics\): Everyone can take part in this\! \- Prepared Speeches: Please note that only Toastmasters members can give prepared speeches\. \- Get friendly and constructive feedback on your speaking\. \- Get to know each other during the break\, before\, and after the meeting\. Important to know * Members of this Meetup are not automatically members of the club. Meetup refers to people who belong to the City Centre Toastmasters Meetup group as 'members,' but from a Toastmasters' point of view, people are only members if they've paid their club dues.

We’re still working to get more people into these Meetups, but our goal is to give PlayYourCourt members a few social tennis outings each week in addition to your practice sessions and Challenge League matches. These Meetups are co-ed, super laid back, and all skill levels are welcome. Post your skill level and a suggested court in the comments section so we can round up as many players as we can for some tennis fun! Also, if you’re looking to meet new practice partners or play some matches and you aren’t already in the PlayYourCourt Community, you can go here to see what we’re all about and sign up: https://www.playyourcourt.com/tennis-community/melbourne-vic/meetup/ If you love tennis, we’d love to have you! Be sure and watch the quick video that explains how everything works. Happy hitting! - Scott

Hi Gophers! We have started planning our May event at Atlassian. * **Agenda** **5.45pm — Food & Networking** **6:30pm — Intro + Go News** **6:45pm — Talks** **8.00pm — Wrap up then head out for kick ons** * **Talks** **🎤 Tristan Penman** **Robotics in Go** This talk will show how Go can be used for small networked robots. Everything will run natively in Go, on a Raspberry Pi using a simple MQTT message bus. In this whirlwind tour, we'll also see how Gobot and Periph can be used to perform IO. We'll finish with a sneak peek at how TinyGo can be used offload timing-critical IO to a microcontroller. **🎤 Yann Vigara** **Developer Onboarding That Doesn't Suck** You probably have a Makefile. It probably has a step that installs golangci-lint. Maybe goreleaser. Maybe buf. Maybe something someone added in 2022 that nobody's touched since and everyone's too scared to remove. And when a new dev joins the team, they clone the repo, run the Makefile, hit an error on step 3, spend 45 minutes debugging something that has nothing to do with the actual product, and then quietly wonder if they made a mistake joining. This month I'll show you how to fix that. Mostly terminal. Mostly live. Probably a few things that will go wrong in interesting ways. * **Interested in speaking at an upcoming event?** We will aim to have a mix of short (\~10min) and in-depth (20-30min) talks. If you’re keen to give a talk on a topic, share a project, or idea, please let us know [bit.ly/GolangMelbourneSpeakersForm](https://bit.ly/GolangMelbourneSpeakersForm)

**Generative AI for Developers Meetup 2026** ***Building AI Applications with Agentic AI, GenAI Workflows & Multi-Agent Systems*** We’re gearing up for another massive night on **Thursday, 14th May**. We’ve got an incredible lineup of speakers, a hands-on agenda, and our wonderful MC, **Annemarie Boicovitis**, to guide us through the evening. **📅 AGENDA** 1️⃣ **Implementing Voice AI Agents** **David Galtieri (DepthNode)** David has been deep in the trenches implementing AI chatbots for enterprise. He’ll share insights on moving beyond text and the mechanics of deploying production-ready Voice AI. 2️⃣ **Round Table Discussion: Is software engineering dead?** **Featuring event host Dr. George Vossos** A community-wide debate on the existential questions facing developers today. George will be joining the panel to dive into how AI-augmentation is shifting the role of the engineer. 3️⃣ **The New Agentic Skill Set & Hiring Trends** **Joh Leonhardt** Our regular AI futurist breaks down what "agentic skills" actually look like in practice and exactly what the industry is looking for in its next wave of AI hires. 4️⃣ **Zero to markermate.ai: The Reality of Building an AI SaaS** **Ryan Sinnott** One of our founding members, Ryan, tells the "real story" of building and launching his own AI SaaS—the technical hurdles, the pivots, and what it actually takes to get to market. *** Whether you're a seasoned dev or just curious about the agentic future, come for the technical insights and stay for the networking with Melbourne’s AI community. *** 🌍 **Live-streamed globally** — YouTube link shared on the day (EU + US welcome!) \-\-\- **Why attend?** If you’re building (or about to build) agentic AI systems, this is the room where you’ll pick up reusable patterns, avoid common traps, and meet others shipping in the same space - developers, data folks, founders, and technical leaders. RSVP here: https://www.meetup.com/genai-for-developers/

FREE ENTRY, 1 drink order upon entryMax 80 guests. 1 Crockford St, Port Melbourne VIC 3207 EVERY FORTNIGHT THURSDAY! 2週間に一度の開催! PRIVATE EVENT! 完全プライベート語学交換会！ \[FREE Language Exchange:無料\! 2週間ごと開催！！日本語と英語で話しましょう\!\] \[MUST READ\!\!\! English below\] hosted by: MELLIFE メルライフ主催 概要は下に！ We do most of the announcements on Instagram! Check us out! インスタフォローもよろしくお願いします IG: @mellife2022 [毎月2回木曜日開催] Location: The Cornerstone 1 Crockford St, Port Melbourne VIC 3207 Entry fee: Free !!! Time: 6pm\~ 8pm [Schedule　当日のスケジュール] 6:00 - 6:30 Entry opens 入場開始 6:30 - 6:45 Japanese time　日本語タイム 6:45 - 7:00 English time　英語タイム 7:00 Announcement from staff members, crowd shuffle, find different partner/group スタッフからのお知らせ、注意喚起等。違うパートナーを探す時間 7:00 - 7:15 Japanese time　日本語タイム 7:15 - 7:30 English time　英語タイム 7:30 - 8:00 Socializing time　社交タイム メルボルン最大の日英ランエク【会場変更のお知らせ】 長すぎたロックダウンを終え、新しく皆が楽しめる場所を提供したいと始まった私たちMELLIFE 初回は30名ほど集まる小さなコミュニティでしたが、結成から半年が経ち、あっという間に多くの方々に参加頂けるメルボルン最大の日英ランエクグループに成長する事が出来ました 今後のMELLIFE が更に成長して、より楽しい時間を提供するために次回のイベントから会場を変更し、質を上げた会場へ移る事を決めました 今回からはメルボルン市内でもとても有名でおしゃれな会場、The Cornerstoneで開催を決定いたしました。 ぜひ次回のイベントからもMELLIFE をよろしくお願い致します メルライフ一同 日本語を学びたい世界の方が集まるので、英語が得意でなくても、コミュニケーションが取れます(日本語、英語喋れる人も) お互いの得意な言葉を教え合って一気に語学上達しちゃいましょう✨ メルボルンで新しい友達が出来るチャンスです ぜひ参加表明をお願いします！ 途中参加の方も受け付けております！ [下記を必ずお読みください] メルライフが主催するイベントはどのような方も歓迎しています。しかし、"お酒などの強要・いじめ・ハラスメント・暴言"　など他のメンバーが不愉快に感じる行為は絶対におやめください。このルールを守れない方は積極的に処置をとらせていただきますので、これらを経験した、または見つけ次第メルライフスタッフにいつでも言いつけをお願いいたします。メルライフを　”いつでも気軽に来れて安全なコミュニティ”　をモットーにするため、皆様のご協力をお願いいたします。 Social event: JAP/ENG language exchange at a fancy venue with great vibes! FREE ENTRY!!!! ✨️ Thursday from 6pm\~✨️ Do you want an opportunity to have a conversation and make friends in person? Say no more! We are organising a language exchange event at a trendy venue near the CBD!!! Feel free to join at any time throughout the event, but good things may happen to those who come in early ;) See you guys then! ENROLL EARLY TO SECURE YOUR SPOT See you guys then PLEASE READ BELOW (Everyone is welcomed to MELLIFE events. However, we ask that all attendees treat each other with respect and be polite. Our community does not tolerate innappropriate behaviour or any form of HARRASMENT!!!!! When you see or experience any, please call it out or reach out to Mellife staff members ASAP so we can address this and keep the community a safe space.)

We invite you to come and practise your English with people from all over the world in a friendly environment. We are open to all levels from beginner to advanced. We have classes in small groups and you will be placed in one of these groups according to your level of English. Our free conversational English classes are every Thursday evening (except term breaks). If you are coming for the first time, please come on time for registration. Please note: English Corner is for non-native speakers. Our team of facilitators is really looking forward to having a wonderful time speaking English with you! **Please scan the QR code upon arrival to register your attendance.** If this is your first time, we recommend arriving a bit earlier to complete your initial registration. In case you aren't able to join us face to face we have an Online Alternate English Conversation Thursday class option too! Sign up for this on Meetup.

**Nirvana Shatakam – Shankara's Six Verses on Freedom** Most spiritual paths tell you to become something. This teaching does the opposite. Through six ancient verses by Adi Shankara, you discover who you are by removing what you're NOT – the body, mind, and roles you play. What remains is your limitless nature that was always here. Over seven months, we'll unpack these verses line by line, transforming how you see yourself and your life. **What You'll Learn** * How you mistake yourself for body, mind, emotions, and roles * Why self-knowledge differs from self-improvement * Why you've never actually been bound – and what keeps that recognition hidden * What it means to recognise yourself as the sought, not the seeker **About the Teacher** Andre Vas teaches Vedanta full-time under the Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) lineage. As a former business owner, he relates deeply to householders juggling work, family, and inner growth. Known for making knowledge stick through lived experience, not just concepts. **Who This Is For** No prior background needed. For anyone noticing that acquiring more, achieving more, or becoming better doesn't stick. For those with burning curiosity and a hunger to know, understand, and live this wisdom. **I'll set up group discussions also to help us make new friends.** **When & Where** 📅 2:00-4:00pm Melbourne time 📍 3 Anjaya Court, Blackburn, Melbourne **More info: [YesVedanta.com/nirvana](https://YesVedanta.com/nirvana)**

Are you craving some conversations with other big thinkers? The Movers & Shakers monthly coffee is for the creative's who are driven, are hustlers, are actively seeking to grow and look for new opportunities and are wanting to be around other dreamers and action takers. If you're seeking out those conversations that inspire you, that leave you feeling motivated, then this event is for you. The Creative Hustle is a social events community for professional creatives in Melbourne's arts industry. STRUCTURE: 15 min - casual networking/order your coffee 40 min - round table intros and questions 30 min - guided conversations topics in small groups Finish with casual networking MINIMUM SPEND: Everyone who attends this event is required to purchase something from the cafe, minimum of 1 drink.

NuCalm is a patented, drug-free neuroscience technology designed to rapidly reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and aid recovery by shifting the body from a "fight-or-flight" state to a deeply relaxed parasympathetic state within minutes. [https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html](https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html) It uses neuroacoustic software, a biosignal processing disc, and light-blocking eye masks to guide brain waves from active beta states down to alpha/theta (relaxation/meditation) levels NuCalm uses a patented, clinically proven pitch and frequency matrix with non-linear oscillating algorithms to safely present your brain with precise signals, prompting what is known as a frequency-following response. Your brain synchronizes with the incoming NuCalm signals helping you naturally and effortlessly manage your state of mind by speeding up or slowing down your brain wave frequencies. NuCalm has mapped all of your brain wave frequency zones and created products to safely and predictably guide you to whatever mental state you desire. The amazing thing is, NuCalm is all-natural and works every time you use it within minutes. The best thing to do now is to watch the video on the website and download the NuCalm app. All you need is a headset and eye mask. This app purchase is covered with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get started today and FEEL the difference even 15 minutes can make. WATCH THE VIDEO ON THE WEBSITE. [https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html](https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html)

**Tickets ($10):** [https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/gay-singles-mix-mingle-tickets-1987800071524](https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/gay-singles-mix-mingle-tickets-1987800071524) We’re heading to **The 86** in Fitzroy for a fresh take on helping you connect with **men seeking men** (all ages 18+). Instead of intense one-on-one chats, you’ll connect in relaxed groups of four - making it easier to find your rhythm, bounce off others, and let conversation flow naturally. Every 15 minutes, we’ll reshuffle the groups at random to keep the energy fresh and the dynamics interesting. After a couple of hours, the structure will drop and anyone who’d like to stay can continue connecting organically. This format is ideal for men who: • Prefer something social and low-pressure • Enjoy group dynamics • Want something structured, but not rigid The event is facilitated by a mental health professional and is designed to feel welcoming and safe. Discrimination and harassment will not be tolerated. If you have accessibility needs, questions, or are experiencing financial hardship, please reach out - we’re happy to chat.

This monthly Sistership Circle is an invitation to step out of the busyness of everyday life and into a space of intentional connection. *** **Registration:** Please go directly to our Eventbrite page to register: [https://sistership-circle-may-2026.eventbrite.com](https://sistership-circle-may-2026.eventbrite.com) *** Whether this is your first time or you’ve joined before, you are warmly welcome. This is not a casual social meetup. It is a thoughtfully held space where you don’t have to perform, fix or hold everything together. *** **What to expect:** This is a guided, small-group experience that may include: • grounding and gentle breathwork • simple nervous system support practices • facilitated group conversation • time for reflection and integration ✨ We intentionally keep this gathering small (up to 12 women) to preserve the intimacy and quality of the experience. *** Women often leave feeling: • more grounded • more connected • more supported • and more themselves Each month offers a unique theme, while holding a consistent intention: to create a space where you can arrive as you are, exhale, and feel supported.

If you’re trying to grow in marketing right now, guessing isn’t a great strategy. This event gives you direct access to how marketing leaders actually think. Join DC Marketing Tech Talks on May 19th in Tysons for a live **CMO Ask Me Anything** — a candid, open conversation with experienced marketing leaders who have built teams, driven revenue, and led at the highest levels. This is your chance to ask: * What skills actually matter right now? * What gets someone promoted vs. passed over? * What does it take to become a CMO today? * How are marketing teams and roles changing? * How do you connect brand to real business growth? Just real answers from people who have done the work. Whether you’re looking to move up, switch roles, or sharpen your edge, you’ll leave with a clearer sense of what to focus on next. As always, this event is free and open to the public thanks to our sponsors, SalesIntel. Food, drinks, networking, and a room full of marketers who care about getting better at what they do. Come with questions. Leave with direction.

NOVA Code and Coffee is an inclusive, informal, co-working session. People of all skill levels are invited. The concept is simple, bring a laptop and ideas, we'll provide the coffee and donuts! Here's how it works: 1. At 10:15 everyone introduces themselves and briefly describes what brought them to Code & Coffee today (project, homework, networking, etc) 2. For the rest of the day, folks work in the communal space on their projects providing one another help and conversation as needed. Oh and they usually drink coffee and tea too! That's it! Hope to see you there! **Location** Our hosts are the Fairfax City Economic Development Building: [10300 Eaton Pl, Fairfax, VA 22030](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d7298231ca2df594df822003f9a93517c788fceefe1fcbb79c8976696e341bc6JmltdHM9MTc1MzIyODgwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=180d0745-3b7f-69a1-23a2-11433a7868e5&u=a1L21hcHM_Jm1lcGk9MTA5fn5Ub3BPZlBhZ2V-QWRkcmVzc19MaW5rJnR5PTE4JnE9RmFpcmZheCUyMENpdHklMjBFY29ub21pYyUyMERldmVsb3BtZW50JnNzPXlwaWQuWU44NzN4ODI4MTk2Mjg0NTk5MDM4MTU0MiZwcG9pcz0zOC44NjE0NDYzODA2MTUyMzRfLTc3LjMwMjE3NzQyOTE5OTIyX0ZhaXJmYXglMjBDaXR5JTIwRWNvbm9taWMlMjBEZXZlbG9wbWVudF9ZTjg3M3g4MjgxOTYyODQ1OTkwMzgxNTQyfiZjcD0zOC44NjE0NDZ-LTc3LjMwMjE3NyZ2PTImc1Y9MSZGT1JNPU1QU1JQTA&ntb=1) Conference Room A- Large, Floor 1 This is a new venue for us, so give us some time to get more details about it. Driving is the best option. There is plenty of free on-site parking. Otherwise, we are a 22 minute bus from the Vienna Metro Station. Bicycling from Vienna is possible but difficult, though once you are here, there's a bike rack in the garage behind the building, and there's also a Capital Bikeshare dock 15 min walk away. **Sponsored by:** Thank you [Fairfax City Economic Development](https://gofairfaxcity.com/) and [Mason Enterprise Center](https://enterprise.gmu.edu/) for making this event possible! **Thank you so much to our wonderful sponsors!** Organized by [DMV Petri Dish](https://www.dmvpetridish.com/) **[Code of Conduct](https://github.com/NoVACodeCoffee/admin/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md):** We value the participation of each member of the community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. To make clear what is expected, all delegates/attendees, organizers, and volunteers at any Nova Code & Coffee events are required to conform to our [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/NoVACodeCoffee/admin/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md).

We’re excited to bring the community together for an evening of learning and connection. This time, we'll have a community member from Chainguard sharing a use case and, as usual, an Elastic employee sharing their expertise as well. Come support your fellow developers, learn something new, and meet others who are passionate about search, observability, and security. **Date and Time:** Tuesday, May 19th, from 5:30-7:30 pm EDT **Location:** Elastic Arlington Office - 4100 Fairfax Drive, Ste 500, Arlington, VA 22203 **Agenda:** * 5:30 pm: Doors open; say hi, grab a seat, and eat some food. * 6:00 pm: The SBOM Pile in Your S3 Bucket: Turning Bills of Materials Into a Risk Dashboard; and Watching It Shrink with Chainguard, by Mike Barreta, Senior Manager, Engineering at Chainguard * 6:30 pm: Q&A * 6:40 pm: **Agentic Observability: Next-Gen Alerting and Auto-Detected Significant Events**, by Jason Rhodes, Senior Manager, Software Engineering at Elastic * 7:10 pm: Q&A * 7:20-7:30 pm: Networking & refreshments **Talk Abstracts:** **"The SBOM Pile in Your S3 Bucket: Turning Bills of Materials Into a Risk Dashboard; and Watching It Shrink with Chainguard**" Most organizations now generate SBOMs because someone — EO 14028, a FedRAMP auditor, an ISSM — told them to. They land in an S3 bucket, get versioned, and are almost universally never queried. This talk is about what happens when you finally do. I'll stand up a self-contained Elastic stack, pour in SBOMs (SPDX), SLSA provenance, Sigstore signatures, Grype vulnerability scans, the CISA KEV catalog, and OpenVEX adjudication for 30 container images, and show the queries that only become possible once SBOMs stop being compliance artifacts and start being telemetry: which packages I actually run right now, which CVEs are real exposures versus VEX-suppressed noise, what swapping a stock image for its Chainguard equivalent would buy me, and how much of my CVE list is just stuff I inherited from the base layer. Then the cleanup. The same dashboards on Chainguard images show what disappears when the SBOM is small, the signatures verify, and the advisory feed is active: \~9,000 fewer CVEs and \~2.5 GB saved across 20 image pairs, KEV exposure dropping from 7 hits to 0, compliance pass rate going from 0% to 76.5% against NIST 800-218 / FedRAMP Moderate / SSDF. **Bio:** Mike Barretta leads Chainguard’s public sector solutions engineering team, focused on helping ensure the federal government receives its fair share of the future. Barretta has worked across civilian, defense and intel programs in a variety of roles—software developer, data scientist, solution architect—for a variety of organizations—system integrators, consulting companies, software vendors—with the common purpose of creating and championing technologies and techniques for simplifying the extraction and utilization of information from lots of data. Having witnessed the ever-increasing threats to those systems, Barretta is now focused on methods and mitigations to secure them **Agentic Observability: Next-Gen Alerting and Auto-Detected Significant Events** We're rebuilding Elastic's alerting engine to make alerts more flexible\, more powerful\, and more valuable as data\. Next\-gen alerting rules will run anything ES\|QL supports and capture whatever fields matter to you\, so alerts carry the context you need for real downstream analysis\. And if you'd rather not manage these rules yourself\, AI agents can help\, drafting them from natural language\, recommending tuning and configuration changes\, and reducing noise through deduplication\. On top of this, we're also building a new Significant Events system which automatically builds a continuously updated knowledge base of your incoming data's own metadata. Using this deep understanding, our agentic tools will detect significant events from log patterns, anomalies, and predicted behavior — without you having to create a single rule. **Bio:** Jason Rhodes is a software engineering lead at Elastic, where he works on alerting and observability features. Based in the DC area, he has over 15 years of experience in software development and has been an active contributor to the local tech community — creating and organizing Baltimore NodeSchool and charmCityJS. When he's not writing and reviewing code, he's probably watching too many movies. **Parking:** * The building’s parking garage is operated by Colonial Parking and is located off N. Randolph Street * Book a spot on[ SpotHero](https://spothero.com/search?kind=address&latitude=38.8818514&longitude=-77.1095268&search_string=4100+Fairfax+Dr+%23500%2C+Arlington%2C+VA+22203%2C+USA) * A Metro Station is located across the street

**ProductTank NoVA is back!** After a brief hiatus, we are relaunching the chapter with a format that cuts out the fluff and gets straight to the reality of building. Every product feed is flooded with AI hype right now, but what does it actually look like on the ground? Instead of a polished keynote, we are hosting **0 to 1 with AI: Real Product Talks**—a "Show & Tell" featuring 3–4 lightning talks focused on the intersection of AI and product. The framing for the talks is simple: *"Here is what I'm building, and here is what I'm stuck on."* We want to look at the messy, 0-to-1 reality of integrating AI into your workflows and products. *(Want to share what you are working on? Reach out! The bar is low-pressure, just 10–12 minutes to talk about a real AI problem you are trying to solve.)* **Agenda:** * **5:30 PM - 6:00 PM:** Doors open, networking, & name tags * **6:00 PM - 6:10 PM:** Welcome + Chapter Relaunch Intro * **6:10 PM - 7:30 PM:** Lightning Talks (Three 12-min talks + 5 mins Q&A each, with a 5-min stretch break) * **7:30 PM - 8:00 PM:** Open networking * **8:00 PM:** Soft close **Location & Logistics:** Herndon Fortnightly Library (Extended Hours Meeting Room) 768 Center St, Herndon, VA 20170 * **Parking:** We'll meet at the library, located just behind the Herndon Municipal Center. There is plenty of free public parking available around the municipal center. * **Metro & Bus:** Take the Silver Line to Herndon Metro Station, then connect via Fairfax Connector Route 921 or 950 to Historic Downtown Herndon. * **Driving (via VA-267/Dulles Toll Rd):** Take Exit 10 North (Centreville Rd, which becomes Elden St). Turn left onto Station St or Lynn St. * **Driving (via VA-286/Fairfax Co Pkwy):** Take the Elden St West exit. Turn right onto Lynn St. Looking forward to seeing everyone again and getting back to building!

Learn to manage stress and achieve self-growth through simple relaxation and Meditation. Heartfulness Meditation is a simple, modern, methodical approach to meditation. Rather than homing in on your breath or repeating a mantra, you simply focus inward, on your heart, to cultivate inner strength and serenity. Heartfulness meditation is gaining traction in recent years. It focuses on the heart, allowing individuals to connect with themselves on a deeper level, and ultimately achieve peace, relaxation, and clarity. It is a practice that encourages patience, self-compassion, and acceptance, helping cultivate a deeper appreciation for the present moment. This practice is offered with love and at no cost

## **1 Million Cups Loudoun – Resource Presentation** **What You Really Need to Know from an HR Professional** **Presented by Donna Giarratana** **Wednesday\, May 27 \| 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM** **Venture X Loudoun** Join us for a practical and insightful resource presentation designed to help small business owners navigate one of the most critical — and often overlooked — areas of growth: **Human Resources**. *** ## **About the Session** As your business grows, so do the complexities of managing people, processes, and compliance. Many entrepreneurs wait too long to think about HR — and by the time they do, they’re already reacting instead of planning. In this session, **Donna Giarratana** will break down what small business owners *really* need to know about HR — in a way that is clear, actionable, and relevant to your stage of growth. This conversation is designed to help you move from uncertainty to confidence when it comes to building and managing your team. *** ## **What You’ll Learn** * When it’s the right time to hire * How to set your business up for success before bringing on employees * Why HR matters — even for small businesses * Common pitfalls and how to avoid them * The foundational HR knowledge every business owner should have *** ## **Who Should Attend** * Entrepreneurs preparing to hire their first employee * Small business owners currently managing a team * Founders looking to strengthen operations and compliance * Anyone who wants to build a business with a strong, scalable foundation *** ## **Why Attend?** * Gain clarity on one of the most important aspects of business growth * Learn how to avoid costly mistakes before they happen * Ask questions and get real-world insight from an HR professional * Walk away with practical knowledge you can apply immediately *** ## **About 1 Million Cups** 1 Million Cups is a national program that brings entrepreneurs and communities together to learn, connect, and grow through presentations and discussion. Loudoun’s chapter meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month. Join us on **May 27** for coffee, connection, and a conversation that will help you build your business the right way from the inside out. We look forward to seeing you there.