Collaboration Between Creative Minds

Attention if the day doesn't fit we might can shift to next week. Let me know! **Slack**: [https://tinyurl.com/join-aws-pt-user-group-slack](https://tinyurl.com/join-aws-pt-user-group-slack) \- join the \#castelo\-branco channel after you join\! Hi everyone. Join us for an amazing time together learning about AWS. If you would like to speak about your AWS or any other tech related experience, reach out to us! **Agenda**: 19:00 Meet and Greet 19:15 Introduction 19:20 Talk 20:30 Networking, Pizza 🍕 & Drinks 🍻 **Talk** **Title**: AWS Bedrock AgentCore - Building AI Agents from Local to Cloud **Abstract**: Built [https://ai-secure.dev](https://ai-secure.dev) (automated security compliance audits) using AWS Bedrock AgentCore. Will cover: AgentCore as "Fargate for AI agents", AgentCore Browser for web automation, local-to-cloud development workflow, cost optimization with model routing, and production learnings. Based on [https://martinmueller.dev/aws-agentcore](https://martinmueller.dev/aws-agentcore) **Duration**: \~50 minutes **Speaker 1**: Martin Mueller (AWS Fullstack ) **Bio:** ... **LinkedIn**: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmueller88](https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmueller88) **Are you interested in being a speaker?** Please get in touch with me [https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmueller88](https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmueller88) **Are you interested in being a sponsor?** Please get in touch with me [https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmueller88](https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmueller88) **Slack**: [https://tinyurl.com/join-aws-pt-user-group-slack](https://tinyurl.com/join-aws-pt-user-group-slack) \- join the \#castelo\-branch channel after you join\!

**AI-Supported Creative Exploration** *For Unassuming Intuitives & Practicing Creatives* This meetup is part of AI as Creative Partner — A Practice Group, a set of open, non-sequential creative labs you can join at any point. We use AI as a thinking partner—not to replace your ideas, but to help surface and shape them without overthinking or pressure. You bring fragments—ideas, impulses, unfinished concepts. With AI as a supportive collaborator, we explore how those fragments can become clearer, more coherent, and ready to share if and when you want to. No technical background is required. If you can talk or type, that's enough to work with AI here. This session is intentionally low-commitment and flexible: * Arrive late or leave early * Work quietly or observe * Ask questions, or simply watch the process unfold There's no presentation and no expectation to finish anything. Showing up as you are is enough. **OPEN AI CREATIVITY LAB - DROP-IN WORKING SESSION** This is an open, low-pressure creative lab for people curious about working with AI rather than using it as a tool. There's no presentation and no requirement to arrive on time or stay the whole session. Some people work quietly. Some observe. Some ask questions. I'll be working on my own creative projects using AI as a thinking partner—you're welcome to do the same, or simply watch how the process unfolds. **NOTE**: This is the first time I'm running this format. I've scheduled two hours for this inaugural session to give plenty of room for settling in, orienting newcomers, and genuine working time. I'll be here working on my own projects regardless of attendance. If you show up, great. If not, I'm still getting work done. **HOW TO FIND US** Look for the room with the door open on the lower level. Look for the guy with the screen projector and ambient light and sound. Feel free to just walk in and settle.

**What to Expect:** Join us for a relaxed, supportive gathering where we'll create together, share our process, and connect mindfully. No art experience necessary, all levels and all creative expressions welcome! **What to Bring:** Please bring your own art materials and supplies, whatever you enjoy working with! **Ideas for materials:** sketchbooks, journals, pastels, crayons, markers, colored pencils, collage materials, yarn, lego, diamond art, iPad or tablet for digital drawing, or anything else that calls to you. Bring paper or surfaces to work on as well. There's no right or wrong, just bring what feels good! 🙂 **What we'll do:** **6:00 pm:** Arrive, get settled, grab a drink/snack, and find a spot **6:10 pm:** Set out your supplies, take a breath, and ease in **6:15–7:30 pm:** Create, chat, unwind, and follow the good vibes **7:30 pm:** Gentle wrap-up with *Come/leave whenever, this is relaxed and flexible gathering!* **Location:** Whole Foods, cafe area (front of the store), 4501 Market Commons Dr, Fairfax, VA 22033. Look for the table with art supplies! This is a social, low-key meetup, not a formal class, and there will be no instruction.

**Looking for a group you can write with *whilst sipping your fave coffee*?** ☕✍️ Then come join **Shut Up & Write!** on **Saturday, January 24th from 1:30pm to 4:00pm** at **Ridgetop Coffee & Tea**! Whether you're cranking out a novel, journaling, looking for new friends, or just trying to get that stubborn paragraph right—we’ve got a cozy seat and a supportive group waiting for you! **No critiques, no peer review, no pressure—just a chill space to get words on the page.** 📝 **What to expect:** 1:30–2:00pm – Grab your coffee or tea, find your seat, and meet your fellow writers. 2:00pm–3:30pm – Silent, focused writing time 3:30–4:00pm – Debrief, celebrate any writing wins, commiserate on any obstacles, and head out feeling accomplished. **RSVP Info:** The room seats only 8 people comfortably! RSVP as soon as possible to secure your spot!! If you are unable to attend, please cancel your reservation **ASAP** so those on the wait list are able to RSVP and attend!!! **Meeting Room:** Enter the coffee shop, walk straight towards the play area and on your left you will see a meeting room just past the bathrooms. The room has a TV, white board, and walls are painted green. **What to Bring:** Whatever helps you focus, and be productive. There is a wall outlet at each end of the room, so you're able to bring your laptop to write. You're welcome to bring headphones if you enjoy listening to music while working. **Parking & Accessibility:** there is a large parking lot out front and it is free! There are no stair cases when entering the coffee shop or when inside. This coffee shop is incredibly spacious with many seating options. If you have any questions, please message me through MeetUp. I'm happy to help. **Dietary Information:** many GF, Vegan, and SF options. Just ask your barista when ordering for specifics! Can’t wait to see you there! 🎉

Looking for a quiet, focused space to write? Come be part of our writing group—a dedicated time just for writing alongside fellow writers in your community. No readings, no critiques, no peer-review—just you writing within a supportive atmosphere. 7pm-7:15pm: Find your seat, set up your writing station, quick intro's. 7:15pm-8:45 pm: An hour and a half of silent focused writing. 8:45pm-9pm: Quick debrief, pack and head home. Can't wait to see you! :)

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“The Life of Frankenstein,”** on the birth, evolution and impact of a tale of man-made monstrosity, with Bernard Welt, an emeritus professor of arts and humanities at George Washington University who frequently lectures on Frankenstein in literature, cinema, and culture. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-life-of-frankenstein](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-life-of-frankenstein) .] Guillermo del Toro’s lush and lovingly produced film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel *Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus* is just the latest of many iterations of the story to capture the public’s imagination. People have watched Victor Frankenstein give life to his monster in numerous films, on television, and on stage, and even perform “Putting on the Ritz” with him thanks to the comic genius of Mel Brooks. Mary Shelley did not just tell a tale. She spawned the modern genre of speculative fiction and gave rise to a myth that would crop up in debates over nature versus nurture and other matters. Even today it stokes anxieties over the potential impacts of robotics, artificial intelligence, and genetic engineering, by evoking the image of a monster turning on its progenitor. Come gain a new appreciation of Mary Shelley’s creation with the help of Dr. Bernard Welt, who has studied the relationship between nightmares and the horror genre and is the author of *Mythomania: Fantasies, Fables, and Sheer Lies in Contemporary American Popular Art.* Dr. Welt will start by telling a literary origin story almost as famous as Frankenstein itself, of how an 18-year-old Shelley started writing *Frankenstein* in 1816 while staying in a villa on Lake Geneva with two of her era’s leading poets, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, her lover. Housebound by foul weather, the three read Gothic tales of ghosts and monsters and challenged each other to produce something even more terrifying. Mary dreamed up a story of a man who defied death by creating a living being out of scraps of deceased men harvested from graveyards and anatomy labs. The resulting novel, *Frankenstein*, published anonymously in 1818, would by that century’s end become a touchstone in philosophical discourse on the nature of humanity and in political discussions of imperialism and populism. By the 21st century, Mary Shelley (as she became) had earned a more significant place in the literary canon than Byron and her husband Shelley. We will examine how this grisly tale became a landmark of modern thought and look at the part played by numerous film adaptations from the first years of cinema to the present day. (Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: From a Theodor von Holst engraving in an 1831 edition of *Frankenstein* published by Colburn and Bentley of London.

We're experimenting and trying a new place! Activities: Writing Sprints (individual time boxed writing time) These writing times can be used to do any writing-related activities like plotting/outlining, and most importantly writing and working on your own writing! Make sure to bring your writing tools (laptop, notebook, your brain). We start the first sprint promptly at 10:15 between every writing sprint we take 5-15 minute breaks We shoot for a total of 3 sprints (45 minutes of writing) Location: Corner Bakery Parking: Is free Food: breakfast until 11:00 Standard lunch menu after that https://cornerbakerycafe.com/