Co-Founder

If you have a startup or startup idea and would like to get feedback and guidance from top Penn West mentors, then join this online event. Meet startup mentors, and get advice on your team building and business strategy, key decisions, next steps, and more. Building a winning team is the key to success - we all need a great team to achieve success. Join us to learn how you can attract, recruit, manage a wonderful team. **❯ Guest Speakers include:** * Mali Phonpadith (CEO/Founder, SOAR Community Network) * Laurent Tari (Founder, Bolster Consulting) * Guc Ozenci (Program Director, FI Washington DC) **❯ Who should Attend?** * Anyone who wants to build a great team for a successful venture * Anyone who has a pre-seed company or a startup idea * Anyone who wants to learn about entrepreneurship **❯ What is the Agenda?** * Introduction * The clarity map: vision, mission, strategy * The cycles of team formation * Hidden dynamics in teams * The importance of knowing yourself and each other * Trust as a foundation * Becoming a learning team * Q&A **.** **❯❯ This is a live, interactive online event, so be sure to RSVP at [https://fi.co/e/392694/meetup](https://fi.co/e/392694/meetup) to receive the Zoom URL to join us live!**

Join us for a pickup on a weekday! Group is relatively small which means you will get to show your skill and run quite a bit ! It is a co-ed game and open to all. Once the players limit is reached, no player will be admitted into the game. We already got a number of players confirmed OFFLINE as guests of Host(s) through Signal. *Those in waitlist will be moved to the confirmed list only when spot becomes available.* *The games RULES are as below, fair play and camaraderie must be followed*. ⚽ It is a friendly game, no slide or back tackling, no rough play, and no greedy play or coaching. ⚽ Join the **Signal group**, Download ***[Signal app](https://signal.org/download/)*** and ***[join the Signal group](https://signal.group/#CjQKIBolYKIpshcX_ooOu_fmV7xlbEeJm5zBZ6_V8uTiuFNOEhAk5KeXU1QFVt39OBRP106d)*** for the game day updates. *Firstcomer, SEE the host to approve you to join the group*. ⚽ No groupism or favors, everyone gets to play without regard for the level be it starter, intermediate or advanced. One must pass ball to appropriate fellow players without favors or preference to a particular player(s). ⚽ **You are expected to change positions**, no one is permanent striker or defense, make sure you circle around and give chance to everyone to experience the game fully. Rotate and offer to play full back or defense too not just forward. ⚽In case of disagreement during the game, the **host acts as a referee** so the game stays smooth and enjoyable to everyone. ⚽ You must bring WHITE as well as DARK jersies (and ball too if you can). ⚽ Send DM to host(s) on Signal if you have questions. (NOT to the group except on the game day not more than one hour before the game to reduce distractions) ⚽ Look out for the changes in location of the field in case we would have to change the field. ⚽ Change your RSVP if needed. More than two no shows after RSVP will be banned for next games. If you need to cancel, do so at least 3 or 4 hours before the game. We do not want to have a low turn out due to last minute cancellations or no shows. ⚽ Additional guest must RSVP themselves to ensure personal accountability in case of no shows. ⚽ We typically post the updates on Signal and MeetUp. ⚽ DM host or reply DM if you want to be confirmed to the group. We may get some players confirmed OFFLINE. We limit the RSVP slots to avoid being a large group. If we will have enough players, we will have second game too. Be mindful of heavy traffic on the day and parking challenges of a typical city! Finding parking and arriving on time is your responsibility, so do not expect others to provide you directions or guide about parking spots. Text 510- 394 29 three nine if have any ANSWERED question from above. Welcome to our group and the beautiful game of soccer/football ⚽! **You Agree to these Liability Waivers:** ⚽ By joining our games you fully assume risks of injuries. ⚽ASSUMPTION OF RISK I, on behalf of myself ASSUME ALL OF THE RISKS THAT MAY OR CAN ARISE OUT OF PARTICIPATING IN THE ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE ATHLETIC ACTIVITY ITSELF, USE OF THE EQUIPMENT, FIELD OR FACILITIES, THE ACTS OF OTHERS OR THE UNAVAILABLITY OF EMERGENCY CARE. ⚽ INDEMNITY/HOLD HARMLESS I, on behalf of myself and/or our heirs, personal representatives and/or assigns, also agree to indemnify and hold DC Pick Up Soccer group harmless from any and all claims, causes of actions, lawsuits, arbitrations or proceedings as well as from any expenses, judgments, costs, fees, damages, expenses and/or liabilities, including attorneys’ fees incurred in defending or prosecuting any such claims brought against DC Pick Up Soceer ⚽ RELEASE/WAIVER In consideration for being permitted to participate in the Activities, I, on behalf of myself and/or our heirs, personal representatives and assigns HEREBY RELEASE, WAIVE AND DISCHARGE the host or members of DC Pick Up Soccer from any and all liability associated with or related to my participation in the Activities and agree NOT TO SUE the Host or member of the game for any reason resulting from or associated with my participation in the Activities. This waiver and release is intended to include all claims for injuries, accidents, illnesses, or property loss, whether known or unknown or anticipated or unanticipated, which are in any way related to or associated with the Activities. ⚽ NO INSURANCE I, on behalf of myself acknowledge that the Host or members of the game do not carry insurance on behalf of myself. ⚽ LEGAL RIGHTS I, on behalf or myself understand and acknowledge that I/we are surrendering valuable. ⚽ SEVERABILITY I, on behalf or myself understand and expressly agree that the games Rules and Waivers are intended to be as broad and inclusive as permitted by the law of District of Columbia for which it is used and that if any portion of this rule and waiver is held invalid, it is agreed that the balance of the rule and waiver shall continue in full force and effect and that whatever portion is held invalid shall be interpreted and construed to afford as much protection to DC Pick Up Soocer as permitted by the applicable law.

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

### **What’s Unhappy Hour Breathwork, you ask? It’s our conscious breathing session to embrace our discomfort, sip some soothing tea, and dive deep into the beautiful chaos that is our childhood trauma, daddy issues, mommy issues, work stress, and those oh-so-fun failed relationships. Think of it as a cozy gathering where we can unpack our baggage together, all while sharing a laugh or two (or maybe a few tears).** Let’s be real life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, and that’s perfectly okay.**We will give ourselves permission to be gloriously miserable for a full 90 minutes to** release the weight of our struggles. By using our own conscious breathing we’ll transform our experiences into something powerful and healing. Session will end with a soothing sound bath. Tea will be provided! Mark your calendars for this weekly dose of camaraderie and self-discovery. **What is Breathwork?** Breathwork falls under an umbrella term with many different marketing names and techniques. For this session we will be focusing in one technique while laying down on our back. This is NOT your typical relaxing breathing and it DOES NOT INVOLVE ANY YOGA movement. Breathwork takes us deep into the subconscious mind to make necessary changes and improve our lives by releasing emotional baggage and healing emotional wounds. When we tap into deep states of consciousness emotional release may take the shape of crying, laughing, even screaming. Many people like to call it years of therapy in one single session. It is very common to experience moments of clarity, bliss and many Aha moments during this session. Each person will experience something different with every session. All you need is an open mind and your own breathing to achieve results with no prior experience. Please note breathwork cautions before booking. **What you may experience during this session:** -Deep healing of emotional wounds, grief and traumas -Ability to connect to your higher self, Ancestors and the divine -Release anxiety -Improve emotional balance -Increased feelings of joy, happiness, and inner peace -Ability to create self-love and improve relationships **What to bring:** -Your own water bottle -A pen and notebook -A Yoga mat (or use one at the studio) -A blanket ( or use one at the studio) -Eye mask (if you have one) -Comfortable clothes to breathe and lay down **About Jenny Perez Curandera:** Jenny is a Curandera Shamanic Healer born into the Curanderismo Tradition. Her core values are to LIVE IN HARMONY with great spirit, the elements, nature, animals and people. DO NO HARM TO OTHER PEOPLE, PLANTS OR ANIMALS. In the traditional Curanderismo that Jenny practices the foundation is LOVE AND RESPECT to the spirit world, towards animals,plants, people,free will and the elders who guard the curanderismo tradition (Los Abulitos de la tradicion). Private bookings are available for ancestral healings,energy clearing , energy balancing and tarot readings. If you would like to book a private energy session or tarot reading before/after breathwork send an email to [healing@curanderasheart.com](mailto:healing@curanderasheart.com) or text (703)531-7046 ( Visit our site for more information on our upcoming ancestral healing ceremonies, trauma release ceremonies, cacao ceremonies, full moon ceremonies, women circles, breathwork sessions and energy clearing ceremonies to bring balance to mind, body and spirit) Stay connected via IG @curanderasheart **DATE: TUESDAY** **TIME: 6pm-7:30pm Doors will open 30 minutes early ARRIVE ON TIME TO SET UP YOUR SPOT. PLEASE DON'T KNOCK ON THE DOOR OR DISTURB THE SESSION. ONCE THE DOOR IS LOCK IT MEANS SESSION IS ALREADY IN PROCESS AND IT WILL NOT OPEN UNTIL THE SESSION IS OVER.** **Energy Exchange: $60** **Address: 5852 Washington Blvd unit5 Arlington VA 22205** **Info: WWW.CURANDERASHEART.COM** \*\*[healing@curanderasheart.com**](http://healing@curanderasheart.com**/ "http://healing@curanderasheart.com**/") **703\. 531\.7046 call or text** **\*\*\*\*Cancellation Policy: There are no refunds for missed, canceled reservations or if you arrive after session has already started\*\*\*\*** ### **CAUTION: BREATHWORK IS NOT ADVISED FOR persons with severe mental illness or seizure disorders or for persons using major medications. Pregnant women are advised against practicing Breathwork without first consulting and getting approval from their primary care physician. Breathwork can result in intense physical and emotional release. Therefore it is not advised for persons with a history of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, or significant recent physical injuries or surgery.** ###

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.

[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Demography as Destiny,”** on understanding the links between population trends and world events, with John Rennie Short, geographer, professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of *Demography and the Making of the Modern World: Public Policies and Demographic Forces.* [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-demography-destiny](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-demography-destiny) .] The size of a family doesn’t just affect food and clothing budgets and space needs. If it reflects a broader trend in birth rates, it also can have a profound impact on politics, the economy, and world affairs. Come to Washington D.C.’s Penn Social for a fascinating look at how demographic forces shape the modern world and have driven developments such as the Arab Spring, political unrest in Sri Lanka and Nepal, economic growth in Vietnam and India, the budget crisis in the United States, and the rise of nationalist populism in Europe. Dr. John Rennie Short, who has written several acclaimed books on world trends and gives excellent Profs and Pints talks focused on geopolitical affairs, will break down how various demographic changes can alter nations’ destinies. You’ll learn how baby booms can dampen economic growth, as has occurred in central Africa, and how a “youth bulge” caused by the aging of a baby boom provides tinder for social unrest, as happened in the United States of the 1960s and 1970s and is the case today in Nepal and Sri Lanka. We’ll look at the “demographic dividend” reaped when a youth bulge ages enough to become economically productive and the roles that such dividends played in periods of sustained economic growth in Japan, China, and, most recently, Vietnam. We’ll look at how the aging of a demographic bulge into retirement years can strain national budgets and strengthen the appeal of conservative or populist political movements. You’ll emerge from the talk better equipped to make sense of political and economic developments in the United States and elsewhere around the world. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image by Canva.

Come connect with founders across the DC startup community at our monthly Startup Grind DC Founders Dinner. This month, we’re spotlighting Agency founders—but all founders are welcome to join us for complimentary appetizers and great conversation. Quick heads-up: Your ticket includes event access and appetizers. Entrées and drinks will be on individual tabs. We’re also looking for sponsors who want to support the DC founder community. Whether that’s hosting the event, covering food, or contributing financially, sponsors get the opportunity to connect directly with founders, receive shoutouts in our promotions, speak at events, and reach our 10,000+ pre-seed to Series A founders across the DMV. Agenda --- Hosted By Mia Orantes, Chapter Director I'm a dynamic speaker, angel investor, serial entrepreneur, the host of the celebrated Founders Only podcast, and the CEO & founder of the award-winning agency that automates online growth and profitability engines, Creative Analytics. As a lifelong entrepreneur, I am devoted to serving founders by showing them the road map for rapid online growth and helping them navigate that journey. A native Washingtonian, I hold several designations, including a PMI-certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification, an MBA & MS in Information Technology with a concentration in Project Management, and an in-progress certificate in Digital Transformation & AI from Cornell University. --- Global Partner Carta (http://www.carta.com/launch?utm_campaign=20240423-nam-general-smb-startup_grind_partnership&utm_medium=social&utm_source=startup_grind) Carta helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Carta Launch is the only free cap table product, helping new founders get started. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 7,000 funds and SPVs, and over two million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. For more information, visit carta.com. Partner Creative Analytics (https://creativeanalyticsdc.com/) Creative Analytics is a B2B growth marketing agency that leverages data-driven strategies and creative design to optimize digital performance and boost conversions for innovative brands. Specializing in SaaS, tech, and professional services, their services include conversion rate optimization, HubSpot implementation, content marketing, and web development. The agency combines deep expertise in CRO and product messaging with automation, helping clients scale faster with less time and effort. --- Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind. --- Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-washington-dc-presents-may-2026-founders-dinner/.

# 💼 **Build With Me #3: Build Your Idea (Working Session)** 🗓 Wednesday \| 7–9 PM 📍 Venue: AWS HQ2: 1770 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202 Now it’s your turn. In this session, we take real ideas from the audience and start building them — together. *** ## ⚡ What We’ll Do * Select a few audience ideas * Break them into simple, buildable versions * Start building live (with guidance and feedback) * Share progress and next steps *** ## 🧠 What You’ll Learn * How to evaluate if an idea is worth building * What the *simplest version* should look like * Where AI helps — and where you need to think *** ## 🎯 Who This Is For * Anyone with an idea (big or small) * People who want hands-on experience * Builders ready to take the next step *** You don’t need a perfect plan. You just need to start. *** Bring your ideas. Let’s build.

Please reserve your spot by registering on the below link : **Reserve** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/join-biggest-community-investors-founders-washington-online-tickets-1972272305558?aff=meetup **QUESTIONS ?** Pls Reach out to; Ridhi - [+971504724873](http://wa.me/971504724873) ( WhatsApp Only)

Penn West has a fast growing startup ecosystem, and entrepreneurs here are lucky to have so many resources available to help them in their journey. At this in-person event, we will gather entrepreneurs and investors to discuss beyond the buzz words and the AI hype - Discover Real AI Business Use Cases!. This event is all about learning what is possible today and available for business use. Real cases, immediate solutions offered. **❯ Guest Speakers include:** * Guc Ozenci (Program Director, FI Washington DC) * Arash Sahebe, PhD (Founder & President Sahebe Alliance Enterprises (SAE)) * Gokhan Erdogdu (CEO, CloudOffix) **❯ What You'll Learn:** * Local Solutions to get use for your business * Organizations to help launch and grow your startup * Little-known resources that benefit your industry * Beyond the Myth and Hype, discuss real cases ### **❯ About the Ecosystem Organizations:** * CloudOffix : www.cloudoffix.com Building a scalable foundation for Business AI by bringing disconnected apps and siloed data into one unified operational core that enables secure, real-time AI execution. * AI Collective : www.aicollective.org Building the human layer for the AI era – uniting people in forums worldwide to navigate the rapid acceleration of technological progress. **❯ HOST of the Event:** Sahebe Financial Sevices: www.sahebe.com Business advisory solutions help reduce costs, business risk and increase overall performance. Financial literacy campaign flagship partner and leader Sahebe is guiding the community to a more productive and less risky business methodology. **❯❯ This is an in-person event, so be sure to RSVP at [https://fi.co/e/392693/meetup](https://fi.co/e/392693/meetup) to secure your spot and receive further details.**

Please reserve your spot by registering on the below link : **Reserve** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/join-biggest-community-investors-founders-columbus-online-tickets-1988563717610?aff=meetup **QUESTIONS ?** Pls Reach out to; Ridhi - +971504724873 ( WhatsApp Only)

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

## Candle Making Night at The Arcane Foundry \| Design Your Own Custom Candle **SPECIAL PROMOTION**: Buy 3 and get 1 Free! Step into The Arcane Foundry and create your own custom candle from start to finish. This is a laid back, hands-on experience where **you’ll blend fragrances, choose your vessel, and pour your own candle using 100% soy wax**. Whether you’re coming solo or with friends, it’s designed to be simple, creative, and a good time. We’ll walk you through the entire process, from picking your scents to choosing between a traditional cotton wick or a crackling wood wick. You can go with one fragrance or mix your own blend to create something completely unique**. No experience needed**, just show up and we’ll handle the rest. While your candle sets, feel free to hang out, play a game, explore the shop, or just relax and talk. Drinks and snacks are available, and the atmosphere leans into the **fantasy**, **dark academia**, and **gothic horror** vibe The Arcane Foundry is known for. Learn More: [Candle Making in Columbus, Ohio at The Arcane Foundry](https://thearcanefoundry.com/candle-making/) *** ### What to Expect: * Guided candle making experience * Choose your own vessel, wax, wick, and fragrance * 100% soy wax candles * Optional drinks and snacks * Time to relax while your candle cools *** ### Important Notes: * Please arrive on time so we can start together * Candles will need time to set before taking home * This is a beginner-friendly event *** ### RSVP Required Reserve your spot on Meetup to lock in your seat. **Candle Making** (includes vessel, your choice of wick, wax, scented oil, labels and lids) 5oz Glass Jars $15 8oz Candle Tins $25 12oz Glass Candles $35 12oz Amber Jars $40 16 oz Skull or Jack o Lantern Candle Mugs $65 (Limited Edition!) **All materials included. You just bring yourself (and your drink of choice).** **Payments accepted:** * Credit Card * Venmo: @Daclaud-Lee * Cashapp: $DaclaudL

NFT's are here to stay folks! This is a group for like minded people interested in understanding, leveraging, using, creating for, profiting from, trading too i suppose, NFT's.. everything around them, complexity, fear and exploits, best practices and more. **PLUS** This group will talk AI ART tools, techniques, artists, video, audio, prototypes and more in the AI assisted production space- ART specifically, but we can get into any aspect of some of the cooler things happening in AI in general.

🏓 **CSC Pickleball League – Join the Fun!** Whether you're competitive or just want to connect with fellow members, this friendly ladder league is for you! 🗓 **May 19 – July 7** ⏰ Tuesdays \| 7:00–9:00 PM 📍 Match Point Pickleball Club – 350 McCormick Blvd, Columbus 💲 $85 per player (no sub needed if you need to skip a week) **YOU MUST SIGN UP VIA LINK BELOW AND PAY PRIOR TO 5/17 TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT.** [Pickleball Summer 2026 - Calendar - Columbus Ski Club](https://www.columbusskiclub.org/content.aspx?page_id=4002&club_id=686961&item_id=2948671&actr=3) No equipment required (bring your own paddle if you prefer). Partners rotate weekly, and skill levels are assigned by the facility—no experience needed! Come out, improve your game, and meet great people. All skill levels welcome! Columbus Ski Club Membership is required to participate - don't worry its not expensive and allows you annual access to many other sports leagues and activities along with trips! Sign up for membership here and then proceed to sign up for Pickleball league. Please reach out with any questions! [New Member Sign Up - Columbus Ski Club](https://www.columbusskiclub.org/content.aspx?page_id=60&club_id=686961)

**PLEASE BUY TICKETS THROUGH EVENTBRITE. RSVP THROUGH MEETUP IS NOT A TICKET PURCHASE CONFIRMATION.** Strive welcomes you to 'General Business Networking', Columbus' hottest networking event! We are set in the perfect central location in Downtown for all to join. Are you interested in business? Want to elevate your career? Meet Consultants, Analysts of all types, Bankers, Software Engineers, Entrepreneurs, and more who are active in the space or are eager to get started. **\*\*This will be a multi-vertical event\*\*** **There will be professionals with backgrounds in the arts, finance, tech, real estate, healthcare, and more. Come with an open mind, and leave with connections that wouldn't be possible otherwise!** Pack some business cards and come with an open mind! Meet your future business partners, employers, coworkers, investors, and friends. You don't want to miss this opportunity to expand your network and create a brighter future. We will have a space for our event to check-in. The event will go from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (feel free to come at any point in this timeframe). Name tags will be provided. Business casual dress code. Job fair attire. **Remember, it's not who you know, it's who you meet tomorrow!** We look forward to meeting you at the event! Sincerely, Strive Networking Team *Refund requests are permitted up to 24 hours after purchase, so long as we are not within 48 hours before the event start time. Refunds will be made in full and repaid to your method of payment. Note that we are unable to reimburse PayPal fees.* *Disclaimer: By attending Strive Networking events you agree to photos/videos taken during the event being used to promote future events.*

PLEASE NOTE!!! This event will be In-Person for our very 1st Improving collab! If you know the [Columbus Unity group](https://www.meetup.com/columbus-unity-user-group/) location, we'll be at the same place. This is our 1st event and are doing a soft launch with limited attendance. 1st come 1st serve. If you want to be there and we fill up, please email me at [info@thecogg.com](mailto:info@thecogg.com) and I'll be in touch. All street parking is free on Sundays but you can also pay to park in any of the local garages. See image of [parking map here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mr9_LFIggbs-0_Zd3AJTGNqEhgMf2TzQ/view?usp=sharing). \-\-\- On the last Sunday of the month, we're having our usual end-of-the-month social gathering with our GameDev Meetup meeting. There will be announcements and presentations followed by some social networking Let's continue the conversations with good vibes and friends. All are welcomed from all ages and backgrounds to this public event. If we can, we'll be streaming or uploading the video later via our COGG YouTube channel here: [https://www.youtube.com/@TheCOGG/streams](https://www.youtube.com/@TheCOGG/streams) (Also please do subscribe if you have not done so!) No game development experience required! If you are interested in doing a 20 minute game development related presentation, please fill out our form online here: [https://goo.gl/forms/lVdTJZiNJewlPJuj1](https://goo.gl/forms/lVdTJZiNJewlPJuj1) Or e-mail us at info@thecogg.com with the following: Your Name, Company/Affiliation, Name of Your Game/Topic, Description, Tech Needs, and Your Contact. Be sure to check out our Discord for real time news updates: [https://discord.gg/NrBhuNQ](https://discord.gg/NrBhuNQ)