Computer Science

Happy 2026! Our first meetup of the year will be back at Zühlke's offices near Old Street, with Guillaume Faas talking about better ways to handle exceptions, Jenny Martin talking about taming complexity with OOPSI, plus the usual drinks, snacks, and plenty of time to chat. Doors 18:30, the first talk starts at 19:00 and we'll be done and heading to the pub at 21:00 to continue the conversation. **Guillaume Faas: Throw exceptions... out of your codebase** Throwing exceptions is often used to handle errors, validations, and other specific use cases. It is considered by many to be the standard way of indicating a failure and providing feedback to the caller. However, this approach can cause significant issues like being hard to detect, obfuscating the flow or leaving the system invalid. In this talk, I want to show you a faster alternative that offers more transparency and predictability. We will see how to integrate ideas from the Functional paradigm, such as "Monads", into an Object-Oriented codebase using a real-life project: Vonage's open-source .NET SDK. This talk will be the perfect opportunity to show you what they are and how easy they are to use. **Guillaume Faas** is a Senior .Net Developer Advocate at Vonage, based in Thionville, France. In recent years, Guillaume has focused on sharing my experience through mentoring, public speaking, and open-source contributions; all aimed at helping teams grow and build sustainable software. With nearly 15 years of experience in .NET development, he's worked across industries as an engineer, coach, and now developer advocate. His current focus is on developer experience: building SDKs, writing approachable technical content, and speaking at conferences around the world. **Jenny Martin: OOPSI: Making Sense of Complexity** OOPSI stands for outcomes, outputs, process, scenarios, inputs. It’s a flexible, easy-to-use collaboration framework that helps agile and product development teams cut through complexity and focus on value. OOPSI is timely because it maximises the intrinsically human aspects of effective delivery, helping teams understand how and when to collaborate, while producing lean, example-driven artefacts that clarify scope and intent so both people and automation can work more effectively. In this talk, you’ll learn how to apply OOPSI to strengthen shared understanding, clarify assumptions, and support testable delivery, using a detailed, end-to-end example. **Jenny Martin** is a practitioner, facilitator, and product discovery specialist with over 25 years’ experience working at the intersection of technology, delivery, and human behaviour. She has spent more than 15 years working with Agile and modern product development teams, helping them make sense of complexity and build shared understanding. Known as The Collaboration Coach, Jenny focuses on practical collaboration that supports effective delivery. She is currently writing a book on OOPSI.

This **in-person theatre** and **livestream** talk is available online from Gresham College to Basingstoke Science subscribers. **ADVANCE BOOKING AND PAYMENT IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TALK.** **More details and booking instructions on the Gresham web site:** **[https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/out-reach](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/out-reach)** **SUMMARY** #### Part of: [The Future of Work](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/future-work) Right now, the technological challenge we are most likely to face in the labour market is ‘frictional’ technological unemployment – where there is plenty of work available, but not enough people are able to do it. This lecture explores the phenomenon and its main causes – that people might lack the right skills for the work, not live in the place where the work is created, or have an identity that is at odds with the nature of the work. **LIVESTREAM TIMING** **The livestream will go live at 5.55pm, and the introduction will begin at 6.00pm. If you register but miss the livestream, the video will be available to you via the same link for two weeks after the event date.** For more information on livestreams, see the information below, or [visit our FAQs page](https://www.rigb.org/whats/faqs-ri-livestreams). Please use the event link you have been provided with. Gresham College has offered an outstanding education to the public free of charge for over 400 years. Today, Gresham College plays an important role in fostering a love of learning and a greater understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Please consider making a donation on their web site to support the work of Gresham College.

London TypeScript is back! We’re kicking things off with a smaller, more relaxed social before announcing our first major event of 2026. Four Quarters is a great chain of retro arcade bars, with plenty of classic games and a laid-back atmosphere. Come along to play a few games, meet some fellow TypeScript fans, and most importantly, share your ideas and suggestions for the future of London TypeScript.

**Kindly note that this is a paid event and the average number of attendees for our events is 60-70 people. You can register on [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/startup-networking-event-london-featuring-live-elevator-pitches-tickets-1982275830370?aff=meetup]( https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/startup-networking-event-london-featuring-live-elevator-pitches-tickets-1982275830370?aff=meetup)** Network with startups, founders & investors at Founders Connector® 15th Edition – grow, pitch & connect in London Join the **19th edition of Founders Connector®**, London’s leading **startup and entrepreneur networking event** designed for **founders, business owners, directors, and investors**. This exclusive event helps you **build connections, find funding, pitch ideas, and grow your business** in today’s competitive landscape. **This is your chance to:** * **Fuel your entrepreneurial spirit:** Be inspired by success stories and cutting-edge ideas. * **Gain a competitive edge:** Develop your business acumen and refine your strategies. * **Expand your network:** Connect with key players in the business ecosystem. * **Find funding:** Meet with potential investors and learn how to secure capital. This event isn't just about inspiration (although there'll be plenty of that!). It's about equipping you with the tools and connections to **turn your business dreams into reality**. **Entrepreneurs & Aspiring Business Owners:** * **Validate your idea:** Get valuable feedback from experienced founders and investors. * **Develop a winning business plan:** Learn how to craft a compelling roadmap for success. * **Find your tribe:** Network with like-minded individuals who share your passion and vision. The format of the evening is pure networking. 24 hours before the event, we will create a whatsapp group so that you can start interacting with other attendees of the event. We strongly recommend early booking for this event, which we expect to be sold out in advance. ### **Event Host** ### The event is hosted by [Jim McLaughlin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mclaughlin-b227975/ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mclaughlin-b227975/"), a successful entrepreneur with 35+ years of experience building and exiting multiple businesses, is hosting this event as an FSB Membership Advisor to share insights and showcase the essential support services available to help fellow business owners and entrepreneurs thrive. The [Federation of Small Businesses](https://www.fsb.org.uk/ "https://www.fsb.org.uk/") (FSB) is the UK's leading business organisation providing essential membership benefits including networking, legal protection, business insurance, financial expertise, and advocacy support, helping over 165,000 small businesses and self-employed individuals across the UK grow and succeed. ### **Event Details** * **6:00 PM**: The event starts with free format networking, the event is fully hosted. * **7:00 PM:** Elevator pitches and then more free format networking * **WhatsApp Group**: Enhance your connections before and after the event by joining our exclusive attendee WhatsApp group. To join, send a WhatsApp message to 07789740193 with your full name after purchasing your ticket. **Event Disclaimer** Please note that photos and videos may be taken during this event. These may be used on our social media channels and promotional materials to showcase our events. If you prefer not to appear in any photos or videos, please inform the event host upon arrival, and we will ensure your preference is respected. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. * [United Kingdom Events](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom/events/) * [Greater London Events](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--greater-london/events/) * [Things to do in London](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/ttd/united-kingdom--london/) * [London Networking](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/networking/) * [London Business Networking](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/business--networking/) * [#investor](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23investor/) * [#startup](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23startup/) * [#entrepreneur](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23entrepreneur/) * [#networkingevent](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23networkingevent/) * [#founders](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23founders/) * [#businessnetworking](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23businessnetworking/) * [#business_growth](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23business_growth/) * [#startup_business](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23startup_business/) * [#startup_event](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23startup_event/) * [#startup_networking](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23startup_networking/)

## Overview Join us in London to celebrate 15 years of Search, Community and more recently AI in person! ## Search London's 15th Birthday with Search 'n Stuff! Join us **in person** for an epic celebration of **15 years** of Search London. Dive into the future with talks on **Community, Reddit, LLMs and Measuring AI in 2026**. It’s the perfect chance to connect, learn, and network with our community. To celebrate turning 15, we are teaming up with Search 'n Stuff. Come and meet and network with digital marketers from both communities. ️ **Date :** Tuesday, 24 February, 2026 ⏰ **Time :** 18:00 – 23:00 **Venue :** Bounce, 121, High Holborn, Farringdon, EC1N 2TD A big thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible. Thank you to our **headline sponsor** [Candour](https://withcandour.co.uk/?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=searchldnpage&utm_campaign=feb2026), a search-first design & build agency, our refreshment sponsor [WhitePress](https://www.whitepress.com/?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=searchldnpage&utm_campaign=feb2026), our cake sponsor, [Good Signals](https://www.goodsignals.com/?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=searchldnpage&utm_campaign=feb2026), our community sponsors, [StudioHawk](https://studiohawk.com/?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=searchldnpage&utm_campaign=feb2026) and [Lunar Links](https://www.lunarlinks.io/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=eventbrite&utm_campaign=feb-2026) and our scholarship sponsor [Amplfyr](https://www.amplfyr.app/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=eventbrite&utm_campaign=feb-2026) for supporting us. Buy your ticket today on [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/search-londons-15th-birthday-community-reddit-and-measuring-ai-in-2026-tickets-1977195256236?aff=oddtdtcreator) to secure your place. RSVPing on meetup will not guarantee your place. ## Meet our speakers! Come and learn from our speakers: Erin, Jon, Tom and Jandira. **Erin Simmons (They / Them)** [Erin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinsimmonsfreelance/) is Managing Director at the Women in Tech SEO community - focused on democratising successful careers through connection, education, opportunities, & amplification. With 15+ years in marketing and analytics, they now focus on better understanding people and connecting them to the relationships and resources that support them most. Erin will speak about: * **Trust → Visibility: SEO Powered by Community** You can AI-engineer your content and website all day, but even if you show up in the answers, you still won’t be chosen if people don’t trust you. Trust isn’t built between a person and a brand; it’s built in the communities, conversations, and human spaces where people help each other make sense of the world. In this talk, Erin Simmons explores the growing trust gap in search and why the real SEO edge comes from showing up where trust is being exchanged. * When you earn trust, people make you visible -- they reference you in conversations, recommend you in threads, and surface you in the exact places AI and search engines now look for signals. Visibility is a byproduct of trust. * And if you focus on trust first, you’ll show up everywhere that matters: in AI results, in search, and in the moments when people turn to one another to decide what to believe. **Jonathan Moore** [Jonathan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/moorejonathan/) is an independent SEO and analytics consultant based in Cheltenham. With over 15 years of experience, including six years heading up the SEO and analytics for one of the UK's largest independent digital marketing agencies, he has got a knack for digging into the details to find what really matters. He has a degree in Computer Science and works with large data sets, APIs, and scripts the form the backbone of his business. Whether you need help with technical SEO, analytics audits, or uncovering competitive insights, he provides hand on consultancy for any business. Jonathan will speak about: **Measuring search disruption: What metrics matter and who needs to know them** * This talk is for SEOs who need to understand and communicate the impact of emerging AI-driven search disruptors, including LLMs and AI Overviews. * The audience will learn which metrics genuinely matter and how to communicate the right insights to the right stakeholders at the right moment. * The takeaway is practical advice for measuring disruption that supports sound decisions without getting lost in hyper-tactical detail. **Tom Sangers** [Tom](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-sangers-b016819/) is Founder & CEO of Metric Hub Digital, With over 20 years of hands-on experience in digital marketing, Tom brings a broad yet deeply practical skill set spanning PPC, SEO, and Paid Social. As the founder of Metric Hub, he works closely with eCommerce brands to build performance-led strategies that scale profitably, always focusing on real outcomes rather than vanity metrics. Tom will speak about: **Reddit: Turning Communities into Customers** Reddit isn’t niche anymore, it's mainstream attention at scale. \- Usage is real\, and the time\-spent is *sticky*: people don’t skim, they read, compare, and come back. Reddit also gets everywhere, in feeds, links in group chats, and “best of” threads ranking in Google when people want honest answers. For brands, the win is **paid + organic in harmony**. \- Paid gets you discovered and captures demand fast\. \- Organic builds the proof: helpful posts\, credible comments\, answers that match what your ads promise\. \- When they align\, Reddit drives awareness **and** trust and turns curiosity into conversions. Let's look at a few strategies, to bring Reddit to the mainstream **Jandira Neto** [Jandira](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jandira-neto/) is an SEO Manager at Jellyfish, specialising in optimising digital SEO strategies to achieve exceptional results. With a focus on industries ranging from travel to retail, Jandira is dedicated to enhancing organic traffic, rankings, and click-through rates. Jandira will speak about: **A Technical Analysis of LMM Content Retrieval and Its Impact on Brand Visibility** * Discover how to transform LLMs from static predictors into dynamic, real-time experts by mastering the architecture of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). * This talk deconstructs the shift from Naive to Modular RAG paradigms, revealing why technical strategies like semantic HTML are now more critical for brand visibility than traditional SEO. * Whether you are scaling automation workflows or optimizing for AI Overviews, you will leave with a strategic blueprint for building verifiable, context-aware systems that eliminate hallucinations and turn AI into a high performing business asset. ## Ticket includes: ✅ Entry to the event ✅ Finger foods ✅ x2 drinks per person (soft drinks, wine and beer) ✅ Access to all talks and networking Buy your ticket today on[ ](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/search-londons-15th-birthday-community-and-measuring-ai-in-2026-tickets-1977195256236?aff=oddtdtcreator)[Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/search-londons-15th-birthday-community-reddit-and-measuring-ai-in-2026-tickets-1977195256236?aff=oddtdtcreator) and learn from Jonathan and Erin, plus network with up to 120 search professionals with enough food and drinks for everyone. RSVPing on meetup will not guarantee your place.

**DUE TO LIMITED SPACE PLEASE ONLY RSVP IF ATTENDING. IF NO LONGER ATTENDING PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RSVP.** Join us in the upstairs room of the Grafton Pub in Camden for another writing-focused session. Bring whatever you’re working on, whether you’re outlining a new idea or deep into your current WIP. This is a space for writers to connect, share ideas, and find inspiration. Whether you’re looking for feedback, want to brainstorm with others, or simply need a quiet place to write, our goal is to build a supportive and collaborative community for sci-fi and fantasy authors at all stages of their journey. Writing will start at 6:30, but feel free arrive and leave at your own convenience! We will end at 8:30pm, but the pub is open till 11pm so after it ends people can mingle or go home as they please. **While we encourage collaboration and occasional chat we ask everyone be mindful of those focused on writing until 8pm.** **Also please support the venue by buying food or drink from the pub!**

We're welcoming back the legend that is Dave Whitney after a covid time lapse of years. Your chance to catch one of the best tech speakers in the UK software community! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- It's a tough time to be a technology professional. We're simultaneously being told that AI will change everything we know about the world, while simultaneously being told that the bubble is going to burst. Everyone is going to be redundant! AI will fail! AI will ruin the internet! AI can't do anything! It's disorienting and stressful trying to work out what a reasonable strategy should be to move forwards with this technology that appears to shift it's goalposts almost daily. In this session, we'll talk about understanding what AI really is, how to form a reasonable, governance friendly strategy around it, and what the sensible bets for the future are in the space. We'll do a deep dive into ethics, the human cost of content moderation, and having to be confronted by the reality of technical change in real-time. A survival guide to getting the most from the most controversial technology in a decade. An AI moderates warts and all deep dive into surviving as technology changes, without giving in to the hype during times of technology innovation and change. BIO: David is the Director of Architecture for NewDay, and the founder of Electric Head Software. Focusing on iterative software delivery, developer mentoring and cultural change - mostly working with London-based organisations. He speaks about software design, culture, and ethics in technology - rounded out by an assortment of talks about software that probably doesn't need to exist but makes the world a little more fun. David has previously served as the chief coding technical architect for JustGiving and helped market-leading organisations including JUST-EAT, Trainline and Vodafone improve their technical capabilities. David is a Microsoft MVP, has been part of the OpenUK Honours list for open-source advocacy, and is a twice bestselling author of children's books about programming. You can find his open-source projects on NuGet, npm and GitHub, follow him on Twitter @david_whitney, or check out his technical blog at [http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/Blog](http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/Blog). [http://www.electricheadsoftware.com](http://www.electricheadsoftware.com/) [http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk](http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/)

Over the past year, generative AI has gone from novelty to infrastructure. But while most people are still treating tools like ChatGPT as clever calculators, a small group are quietly rebuilding how they work around agentic systems, automated workflows, and personal knowledge bases. This talk is for anyone who suspects there is a big gap between “using AI” and actually being at the frontier. In this session, our own host Dr Manuel Corpas will share **10 concrete patterns** he has used to build a personal AI stack that now runs 24/7 alongside his research and teaching. Rather than a product demo or a hype talk, this will be a practitioner’s tour of what changes when you move away from simply ad-hoc promptings. Manuel will keep the examples grounded in genomics, health data and academic work, with patterns directly transferable to industry, clinical and data‑intensive roles. There will be time for Q&A and informal discussion afterwards (as usual, we’ll migrate to the pub after the main session). **About the speaker** Dr Manuel Corpas is a globally recognized genomicist and health data scientist whose work has advanced the frontiers of equity in precision medicine. His research spans population genomics, pharmacogenomics, and biobanking, with a longstanding commitment to underserved and underrepresented populations. As President of the Spanish Congress of Genomic Medicine, he leads the largest Spanish-speaking platform for genomic health equity. He has been a driving force behind major sequencing efforts such as the Peruvian Genome Project, which expands global reference datasets to include diverse Indigenous and Latin American populations. He has contributed to widely adopted clinical and open‑source tools, including DECIPHER for rare disease diagnosis and BioJS for genomic data visualization. Approximate schedule (@University of Westminster – Cavendish Campus): * 18:30 – doors open * 18:45 – chitchat, announcements * 19:00 – talk starts * 19:45 – talk ends, adjourn to pub Please RSVP at least the day before, and make sure your Meetup name is recognisable (e.g. “J Smith” rather than “weaselstabber”) so reception can match you to the attendee list and direct you to the room.

Join us on February 25th for talks from engineers at **Nebius, Fireworks AI,** **Together AI** and **Cerebras** \- four companies working on distinct approaches to AI infrastructure\, from cloud\-native training platforms to custom silicon\. Topics: * **Nebius** \- Tips and tricks for Training High\-Performance Speculators by Filipp Fisin * **Fireworks AI** \- LLM evaluations and closing the benchmark\-to\-production gap by Shaunak Godbole * **Cerebras -** Technology underpinning the fastest inference by Dmitry Gaynullin * **Together AI** \- Road to 5M Sequence Length: Breaking Memory Barriers in Context Parallelism by Max Ryabinin If you’d like to give a talk or become a partner for one of the upcoming meetups, message [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fedorshabashev/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/fedorshabashev/) or [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirzharov/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirzharov/) In the meantime, you can watch the previously recorded talks: [https://youtube.com/@londonpytorchmeetup](https://youtube.com/@londonpytorchmeetup) Please subscribe to our channel! ❤️

In February, we are taking a look at what is happening with agentic AI and data pipelines Join us in lively Hoxton as we learn from Carmen's and Laura's learning from real-world experiences with agentic AI systems in data pipelines. We are running this event in collaboration with **[Sahaj Software](http://www.sahaj.ai)**. **6pm:** Doors Open **6:30pm:** Talks Start ️The Speakers️ ***Beyond the Hype: Practical AI for Real-World Data Engineering Time Sinks*** ***Carmen Mardiros, Solution Consultant at*** ***[Sahaj Software](https://www.sahaj.ai/)*** ***([Carmen's LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmenmardiros/))*** ***Abstract*:** While the world is obsessed with agentic self-healing ETL pipelines, data engineers everywhere still spend hours upon hours on the same tasks as before -- debugging failing tests, exposing new fields into pipelines, navigating schema changes, QA-ing data and business logic. In this session we'll look at some practical examples from the trenches around how to shrink those time sinks using AI coding assistants so that you can spend more time on what really matters. Examples are dbt-based and Claude Code but accompanied by core tenets applicable to any stack and any coding assistant. ***Carmen's Bio:*** Carmen Mardiros has worked around analytics and data for 15 years. Her experience covers areas such as Data architecture design and implementation and has worked in roles that cover Data Strategist, Lead Data Engineer, Data Warehouse Architect, Tracking Developer, Product/Project Manager, Technical BA, Insight Analyst, Data Modeller. ***Agentic AI for Data Pipelines: Our Good, Bad, and Ugly Learnings*** ***Laura Bogaert, Co-Founder and COO at [Tracer.cloud](https://www.tracer.cloud/)*** ***([Laura's LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-bogaert/))*** ***Abstract:*** As teams move from single models to agentic systems, data pipelines present a uniquely hard production challenge: failures are distributed, context is fragmented, and root-cause analysis is slow. This talk shares practical learnings from building agentic AI systems for troubleshooting real-world data pipelines, including what worked, what didn’t, and why data ontology and context management are critical. Attendees will leave with concrete insights into designing agentic architectures that actually hold up in production. ***Laura's Bio:*** Laura is a co-founder of [Tracer.cloud](http://tracer.cloud/), where she works on building agentic AI systems for alert investigation in production data pipelines across industries. She started her career at McKinsey as part of the fintech and biopharmaceutical team working on AI strategy and M&A. She holds a BSc from University College London and a MSc from Oxford University. **8pm:** Talks finish. We have the space for networking until 9pm. There will be a short break between the talks. Afterwards, we may head to a pub to continue chatting. You can sign up by subscribing to this event **IMPORTANT**: Please make sure to have a ***valid form of ID***. See you all on the 26th February Happy Networking **About our collaborators**: [Sahaj](https://www.sahaj.ai/) is an artisanal technology services company crafting purpose-built AI and data-led solutions for our clients. By attending this event, you agree to abide by our rules of conduct: * Respect others' opinions which may differ from your own. * Keep it appropriate - no harassment of fellow attendees will be tolerated. * If you see something or have a complaint, please reach out to one of the organisers on LinkedIn or email events@dataengineerslondon.com.

Do you want to meet new people in a relaxing chill atmosphere surrounded by new books? Do you dislike loud and smelly places like pubs and clubs? This is the event for you. Science and Philosophy Book Club is creating a new kind of meetup where people who love books and knowledge can meet new friends in a big book shop. We will explore around different sections of the book shop together as a group while making interesting conversations with each other. We will go to both fiction and non-fiction areas. If you feel shy and feel nervous to come alone, I will make sure you will feel comfortable and accomodate to your needs. I will help introduce you to others so you can go over the barrier of anxiety when approaching a new person. We will meet on the ground floor lounge area of Doubletree Hilton Hotel at 6 p.m. It is an amazing cosy bar with classy vibes. We will wait for everyone to show up while getting some drinks and socializing. At 7 p.m we will head to the Waterstones book store near Russel Square and UCL. After we explore the book store, we will come back to the hotel bar and stay there for the rest of the night. This event requires £5 donation to cover the venue fees. You can pay via cash or card. Thank you for helping the book club!

Come and join us for a coffee/tea and chat as we discuss what’s hype and what’s real as well as how analytics helps us fight human trafficking. All Food and drink must be paid for as you consume it. A minimum of a drink must be orders can be water soft drink or coffe/tea etc excellent cocktails available.

**Please register on [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ljc-meetup-at-capital-one-tickets-1981939102207) to join this event.** **About this event** LJC Meet-ups is a new series of events, aimed at giving all Community members an opportunity to present at an LJC event. Join us on 26th February 2026 for a London Java Community meetup hosted at Capital One. This event brings together practitioners exploring what it means to build modern, cloud‑native platforms and work effectively with AI‑powered development tools. As cloud adoption matures and AI coding agents become embedded in engineering workflows, this evening focuses on two critical themes: architecting for cloud‑native efficiency and leveraging AI agents more effectively in real‑world development. **Talk 1 – Tom Clifford‑Clarke, Lead Software Development Engineer at Capital One** *Keeping our heads in the cloud, using AI agents on the ground* Many organisations operate entirely in the cloud — but far fewer are truly cloud‑native. As architectures evolve and AI becomes a core concern, the gap between “running in the cloud” and “optimising for it” becomes increasingly costly. Tom explores why robust architectural patterns and standards are non‑negotiable today. Drawing on Capital One’s journey, he’ll cover practical approaches to Event‑Driven Architecture, serverless adoption, and service cataloguing strategies that unlock scalability, efficiency, and AI readiness — while improving the developer experience. **Talk 2 – Steve Poole, Community Director at LJC** *AI-Assisted Development and the New Risk Surface* AI-assisted coding is now a standard part of development. It accelerates delivery and reduces friction, but it also changes how risk enters our codebases. AI models replicate patterns at scale, including insecure defaults, outdated practices, and subtle flaws. In some cases, attackers can influence public training data or open-source projects, allowing weaknesses to spread quietly through tools and libraries developers trust. This talk looks at how AI-generated code fits into the modern software supply chain, and how speed, automation, and trust can be exploited. We'll examine how vulnerabilities slip past reviews, why unvetted AI output can bypass safeguards, and what these failures look like in real systems. With real-world examples, we'll focus on practical ways to review, test, and integrate AI-generated code responsibly. Strengthening your workflow instead of undermining it. AI isn't the problem. Unexamined automation is. The goal is not fear, but sharper judgment about when AI is helping, and when it needs a closer look. **Speaker Bios** **Tom Clifford‑Clarke** Lead Software Development Engineer at Capital One. Tom’s background spans large‑scale corporate software, end‑user products, and custom delivery tooling. He now focuses on cloud productivity engineering — improving developer experience and enabling teams to build high‑quality software at a sustainable pace. LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbc2/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbc2/) **Steve Poole** Community Director for the London Java Community. Steve is a Developer Advocate, DevOps practitioner and a long time Java developer, leader and evangelist. He’s been working on Java SDKs and JVMs since Java was less than one year old. Linkedin: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/noregressions/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/noregressions/) Huge thanks to our friends at **Capital One** for sponsoring this event and supporting our Community. This event is organised by RecWorks on behalf of the London Java Community. The London Java Community is sponsored by Hazelcast, Neo4j, Redis, and Discover

Join us **the night before Elastic{ON} London** for an exclusive meetup, a perfect warm-up to the big day ahead! This is your chance to connect with the Elastic community, mingle with fellow attendees, and get energized for a full day of presentations at Elastic{ON} London. Don’t miss out! Register for the meetup and make sure you’ve also signed up for [Elastic{ON} London](https://www.elastic.co/events/elasticon/london) as well to experience a full day of learning and networking! **Date and Time:** Wednesday, February 25, from 6:00-8:30 PM **Location:** Davidson Building Address: 1st floor, 5 Southampton St, London WC2E 7HA Note: please use Exeter St entrance as the main entrance is closed after 6pm **Agenda:** * 6:00 pm: Doors open; say hi and eat some food * 6:30 pm: #Talk 1 - Re-thinking significant term discovery Mark Harwood - Ex-Elastic Core Developer and Lucene committer * 7:00 pm: Q&A * 7:10 pm: #Talk 2 - From Specs to Play: How I Built a Generative AI Game with Elastic + Microsoft AI Mike Richter - Principal Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft * 7:30 pm: Q&A * 7:40 pm: Networking and event wrap-up * 8:30 pm: Event close If you’re a long-time Elastic user or just starting your journey, this is the perfect opportunity to share ideas, meet new people, and get inspired. Invite your friends and RSVP on this page! **⚡️ Interested in giving a talk? ⚡️** Have you ever considered presenting on your Elastic use case? We welcome 5-10 minute lightning talks, 45-minute deep dives, and everything in between. If you're interested, please submit via our [CFP](https://sessionize.com/elastic-meetups/) or send us an email at [meetups@elastic.co.](http://meetups@elastic.co./)

Join the inaugural meeting of the Columbus Vintage Computing Club (CVCC)! Get to know others in the vintage computing space and get hands on time with a Commodore VIC-20 and various Palm Pilot PDAs! We will use this time to get to know each other, share projects we've been working on and plan the future of the CVCC. We'll be at the Hilliard Library in Meeting Room 2A at 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

We will show a variety of methods for building agents that run in Microsoft Foundry. This covers the different types of agents: Prompt, Multi, and Hosted, as well as the development lifecycle using evals and traces.

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

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message **Chris (the organizer)** with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services)

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** *Spec-Driven Development with GitHub Spec-Kit: From Intent to Implementation* Spec-driven development flips the traditional workflow on its head: instead of code being the source of truth, the specification becomes the backbone of design, collaboration, and delivery. In this session, we’ll explore how GitHub Spec-Kit enables teams to treat specifications as first-class artifacts—living documents that drive architecture, implementation, and verification. You’ll learn how Spec-Kit helps teams clearly express intent using structured, version-controlled specs that live alongside code. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that starts with defining system behavior and constraints, then progressively refines those specs into testable, automatable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll show how specs can reduce ambiguity, improve cross-functional collaboration, and make design decisions explicit before a single line of production code is written. This talk will cover: --What spec-driven development is (and what it isn’t) --How GitHub Spec-Kit fits into modern developer workflows --Using specs to align product, engineering, and AI-assisted development --Real-world examples of turning specs into implementations with confidence Whether you’re building greenfield systems, integrating AI into your stack, or trying to reduce costly rework, spec-driven development offers a scalable way to move faster without sacrificing clarity. Attendees will leave with concrete patterns and a clear mental model for adopting GitHub Spec-Kit in their own projects. **YouTube Link** TBA

Excited to share that AWS Cloud Club's first meeting will take place on Thursday, February 26th at 5pm - 6pm! We’re collaborating with [Big Data & Analytics Association](https://www.linkedin.com/company/big-data-analytics-association/) to host [Alok Jha](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alok-jha-42abb928/), Head of Product Management for AWS Intelligent Application Protection at Amazon Web Services, for a tech talk + Q&A on his journey in leading cutting-edge innovation in industry. If you’re interested in cloud, cybersecurity, AI, or product management, this is a session you won’t want to miss. Make sure to join our Meetup and GroupMe to stay up to date for future events and collabs!

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