Contractors

This Friday, come and release all the stress of the week! International Friday night! Meet new friends, Dance, and connect. big international event with Whatsapp community as well as Couchsurfing and Facebook community. All together Free event at Rude Lord, from 9 pm, you pay what you drink, Greek and International communities together. All languages are welcome. event organized by Athens Fun & Connection, One of the biggest communities for expats, locals and digital nomads. join our members every Friday As a token of sympathy for the bar, Please Order at LEAST one drink. Let's have fun and a great time, we all deserve it. Let's own the night !! See you all on Friday Michaël +32486805343 Whatsapp and Telegram

Want to practice your public speaking and communication skills? Want to overcome stage fright? Come to our next Toastmasters meeting! We are an open, friendly and fun group of people that practice public speaking and evaluate each other. We follow the Toastmasters methodology that has developed over 100 years and is being practiced in Greece since 2005. Meetings are open to all and require no preparation. For more information please consult: https://web.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556529585790 We meet twice monthly, every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month, from September until July (except of Christmas - New Year & Easter holidays). Αυτή θα είναι μία αγγλόφωνη συνάντηση. Για τις συναντήσεις μας στα ελληνικά επισκεφθείτε την σελίδα: https://www.meetup.com/ethos-pathos-logos-toastmasters-club

Hola good people, We are thrilled to announce our next GreeceJS meetup, happening on 18th of March, from 18:00 to 20:30, at a brand new venue in the center of Athens hosted by Yodeck! ⚠️ **Important:** This venue is new for our community and has a **capacity of 50 people**, so make sure to **secure your spot early**. 📍 **Location:** **Starttech Ventures — 1 Lykourgou Street, Athens 10551** Just a short walk from **Omonia Square**. Please note: the talks in this meetup will be conducted in **Greek (EL)**. Our speakers this time are **Thanos Karagiannis** and **Spiros Martzoukos**, two engineers with decades of combined experience across the JavaScript ecosystem, product engineering, and modern web architectures. Our event is proudly sponsored by **Yodeck** — a fast-growing SaaS company revolutionizing digital signage. As always, the event will be live-streamed via our YouTube channel, and we’ll be sharing the link in our Slack / Instagram, so make sure to join us there! We look forward to seeing you **@ Yodeck** 🎉 **Event Agenda** **18:00 – 18:30** **Networking & cold beverages** Come early, grab a drink, and meet the community! **18:30 – 19:15** **Thanos Karagiannis – “I Was Wrong About AI Coding” (EL)** **Staff Engineer at Causaly \| GreeceJS Co\-organizer** Thanos is a software engineer with 15+ years of experience, fluent across the JavaScript stack — from React frontends to Node.js services. He currently works as a Staff Engineer at Causaly, focusing on backend systems. He’s also a GreeceJS co-organizer. Outside of work, you’ll find him fueled by coffee and out on his bike. Most of us started with AI coding tools the same way — autocomplete, boilerplate, small refactors. Helpful, but not transformative. It was easy to be skeptical. But something shifted. This talk is a personal journey — from dismissing AI coding as “fancy autocomplete” to integrating it into real engineering workflows. Thanos will share what actually works, what doesn’t, and why the engineers who benefit most from AI aren’t the ones who write code faster, but the ones who make better decisions faster. **19:15 – 19:30** **A word from our sponsor: Yodeck** Yodeck is a fast-growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that is laser-focused on disrupting the $23B digital signage industry. Yodeck’s affordable, easy-to-use, and feature-rich solution has been developed to democratize digital signage and empower any and every business around the world. Yodeck was first introduced in 2016 and now powers over 220,000 screens across every type of business — from restaurants and retail stores to schools, stadiums, and conference halls. **[Check out their openings](https://2ly.link/25ysK)!** **19:45 – 20:30** **Spiros Martzoukos – Local-First Apps: Instant UX without the Spinner** Spiros Martzoukos is a Senior Product Engineer at Checkly with 20+ years of experience spanning full-stack engineering, product design, and product management. He has worked across startups and scale-ups including Contentful, Prisma, and Clerk, and is the founder of Makkuro, a next-gen project management tool for digital product teams. He is passionate about building lean, user-first products end-to-end — and making sure your AI apps work reliably well. In this talk, Spiros shows how local-first architecture can eliminate every spinner from your app, delivering instant sub-100ms interactions that feel like magic while dramatically reducing infrastructure costs. He will break down the seven principles behind this approach and share practical lessons about where it shines (B2B SaaS and productivity tools) and where today’s tooling still needs to mature. **21:00** **BeerJS 🍻** We’ll wrap up with informal chats over beers at a nearby place — details will be shared via **Slack**! **Venue Information** **Starttech Ventures** 1 Lykourgou Street, Athens 10551 **Doorbell:** 03# Starttech Ventures 🚨 **Important reminder:** The venue fits **50 attendees**, so please **RSVP early**. **Getting There** **By Metro** Take **Metro Line 1 (Green)** or **Line 2 (Red)** to **Omonia Station**. Exit toward **Panepistimiou / 3rd Septemvriou**. From the exit, it’s about a **2-minute walk**. **By Bus** Multiple bus lines stop at or near **Omonia Square**. From there, follow the short walking route to **Lykourgou Street**. **By Taxi** Ask to be dropped off at **“Lykourgou 1, near Omonia Square.”** Don't forget to **follow us on our socials** for more news about the event, updates, and prizes! 🎉

**☁️ AWS Community GameDay Europe is coming! ☁️** We will join \~**50 User Groups across Europe** for a unique event: an **international, synchronized AWS Community GameDay**, powered by the European AWS community. Join us for an intense evening combining learning, collaboration, and competition — get hands-on with **AI, security, and cloud-native** challenges — no slides, no tutorials. This large-scale, synchronized event is a unique opportunity to test your AWS skills in a fun, engaging, and hands-on environment. Come with a friend, a team, or solo - we’ll form teams of **2 to 4 people on site**. **🧩 What is an AWS GameDay?** An AWS GameDay is a gamified learning event where participants are challenged to use AWS solutions to solve real-world technical problems as a team. Unlike traditional workshops, GameDays are open-ended and non-prescriptive, giving participants the freedom to explore and think outside the box. **🔧** Practical information: * Teams: 2 to 4 players — come with your team, or we’ll form one on site * Equipment: **Your trusty laptop** (internet connection provided) * AWS account: Provided on-site, no personal account required * Game duration: Around 2 hours of competition between local and international teams * Timing: This is a synchronized international event connected via a shared live stream across all participating locations. To ensure a smooth experience, **the GameDay will start on time.** **🎯 Who is this for?** The event is open to anyone with a general knowledge of AWS — no expert level required! **🕒 Agenda** * 18:30 – 19:00: Arrival & team formation * 19:00 – 19:20: GameDay introduction on the stream * 19:20 – 21:30: Game play * 21:30 – 21:45: European closing ceremony — prizes for the top teams Check the participating User Groups here: [https://www.awsgameday.eu/](https://www.awsgameday.eu/) **🎥 Photo & video recordings** Please note that photos and recordings taken during the event may be used for future promotional purposes. We look forward to seeing many of you there! And of course there will be drinks and 🍺 and food 🍕 provided 😃 **Sponsors** Dialectica provides the food 🍕 and event venue. Dialectica is a global information services company that helps businesses access the knowledge they need to make informed decisions.

Παρασκευή 20 Μαρτίου, από τις έξι το απόγευμα μέχρι αργά, σας περιμένουμε στο Μουσείο Μπενάκη της οδού Πειραιώς για καφέ και ατέλειωτο startup networking! Επί σκηνής θα βρεθούν: – Ο [Άγγελος Τσερέκλας](https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelos-tsereklas-zafeirakis-67823167/), Διευθύνων Σύμβουλος, θα παρουσιάσει την [Sotiria Technology](https://www.sotiria.tech/). H εταιρεία αναπτύσσει συστήματα υποθαλάσσιας νοημοσύνης για εφαρμογές εθνικής ασφάλειας, ωκεανογραφίας και γεωφυσικής. – Ο [Ελευθέριος Καραμπατσάκης](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekarabatsakis/), συνιδρυτής και CEO, θα παρουσιάσει την [PlugSecure](https://plugsecure.com/). Η εταιρεία, με αρχική χρηματοδότηση 720 χιλιάδων ευρώ, διασφαλίζει την λειτουργία κρίσιμων υποδομών ενέργειας έναντι κυβερνοαπειλών. – Οι [Αλέξανδρος Χριστοδουλάκης](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandros-christodoulakis/) και [Κωνσταντίνος Φαλιάγκας](https://www.linkedin.com/in/konstantinos-faliagkas/), συνιδρυτές, θα παρουσιάσουν την [Wealthyhood](https://wealthyhood.com/). Η εταιρεία, με συνολική χρηματοδότηση 10 εκ. ευρώ, παρέχει μια πρωτοποριακή επενδυτική εφαρμογή που καθιστά τις χρηματοοικονομικές επενδύσεις εύκολες και προσιτές για όλους. Η προσέλευση ξεκινά στις 6 το απόγευμα, για καφέ και catchup στο μπαρ του Μουσείου Μπενάκη, Πειραιώς 138. Οι παρουσιάσεις στο αμφιθέατρο ξεκινούν στις 7. Αμέσως μετά, επιστρέφουμε στο μπαρ για networking ως αργά. Η είσοδος είναι δωρεάν και ελεύθερη για κάθε ενδιαφερόμενο. Μπορείτε να δηλώσετε τη συμμετοχή σας και να δείτε τη λίστα συμμετεχόντων εδώ & [εδώ](https://www.linkedin.com/events/7435243238082551808/). Συνδεθείτε από πριν με άλλους που θα είναι εκεί! Από το 2007 έως σήμερα, το Open Coffee έχει καθιερωθεί ως το σημείο συνάντησης της startup κοινότητας. Κάθε μήνα, entrepreneurs και startup enthusiasts ανανεώνουν το ραντεβού τους με σκοπό να γνωριστούν, να ανταλλάξουν εμπειρίες και επαφές, εν τέλει να συνεργαστούν στην επόμενή τους προσπάθεια. Πείτε το στους φίλους σας και να είστε εκεί!

ATHENS NOMAD FEST and ATHENS FUN & CONNECTION present : CO-WORKING WEDNESDAY, a weekly co-working event for Digital Nomads and Remote Workers! Keeping the ATHENS NOMAD FEST spirit alive every week 🚀 if you want to go far, work alone, if you want to succeed, work together!👊🏼 let's gather every Wednesday together from 10am to 2pm (or later) to connect, collaborate and keep building Athens Nomad community together! Every Wednesday a different place. Check meetup for the updated location 🙏 Ask the staff to find us or send me a message on Whatsapp: +32486805343 Looking forward to working with you Michaël & Christina

🗓️ Το **Causal Data Science Meetup της Αθήνας** σας περιμένει στις **19 Μαρτίου, 7:00 μμ** για την 6η συνάντησή του! Καλεσμένος μας ο **[Christos Diou](https://diou.github.io/)**, ο οποίος θα μας μιλήσει για **"Causal Representation Learning: From Pattern Matching to World Models"**. Στην ομιλία αυτή θα δούμε πώς το representation learning μπορεί να εμπλουτιστεί με αιτιώδη δομή. Μέσα από τη θεμελιώδη αρχή των ανεξάρτητων αιτιωδών μηχανισμών και αναφορές σε καθοριστικές εργασίες του πεδίου, θα παρακολουθήσουμε την εξέλιξη του causal representation learning από θεωρητική ιδέα σε ενεργό ερευνητικό ρεύμα που επηρεάζει τη σύγχρονη μηχανική μάθηση. Θα γίνει επίσης μια εισαγωγή στη νέα βιβλιογραφία των *world models*, που στοχεύει σε συστήματα AI ικανά όχι απλώς να προβλέπουν, αλλά να προσομοιώνουν και να συλλογίζονται για το πώς αλλάζει ο κόσμος. Το event θα περιέχει Q&A, networking και τα σχετικά συνοδευτικά. Ραντεβού **στο Impact Hub την Πέμπτη 19 Μαρτίου** στις **7:00 μμ**. Ευχαριστούμε για την υποστήριξη την **Plum**, την **Intelligencia AI** καθώς και το **κέντρο Beyond του Εθνικού Αστεροσκοπείου Αθηνών**. 🚀 Κάνε **RSVP** και μη χάσεις την ευκαιρία να βρεθείς στην 5η συνάντηση της Causal Data Science κοινότητας της Αθήνας! Η πλήρης περιγραφή της ομιλίας στα Αγγλικά: *Modern AI systems have become remarkably good at recognizing patterns, however statistical pattern matching alone is not enough to build systems that are robust, generalizable, or capable of reasoning about cause and effect. In this talk, we explore how representation learning, which aims to equip machines with structured internal models of their inputs, can be enriched with causal structure to produce more reliable and interpretable AI. We will begin with an introduction to representation learning and its limitations, then examine how incorporating the principle of independent causal mechanisms changes the way models represent and respond to their environment. Drawing on landmark papers in the field, we will trace how causal representation learning has evolved from a theoretical idea into a practical framework shaping modern machine learning research. We will also touch on the recently emerging world model literature, which envisions AI systems that go beyond reactive prediction to simulate and reason about how the world changes. The talk concludes with a forward-looking discussion of where this field is headed and what it may mean for the future of reliable, trustworthy AI.*

Discover Kiro, AWS’s innovative development environment that adapts to your workflow. Whether you prefer specification-driven development or a more intuitive, vibe-based approach, Kiro empowers you to build applications your way. In this session, speakers will explore Kiro’s core functionality and its evolution through re:Invent 2025, along with demonstrations of prompts used to create APIs, hooks, and steering documents. In the latter part of the session, watch as we build a complete example from scratch, showcasing Kiro’s agentic AI workflow in action for spec-driven development and vibe coding. What You'll Learn - Core Kiro concepts and development philosophy Feature evolution: pre and post re:Invent 2025 Practical examples: API creation, hooks, and steering docs Live coding demonstration with real-time problem solving Who Should Attend - Developers, solutions architects, and technical leaders interested in modern AWS development tools and AI-assisted coding workflows. **Speakers Bio:** Matthew Jorat: Matthew Jorat is a Customer Solutions Manager at AWS with nearly three decades of expertise in AI, cloud transformation, migration, modernization, IT, technology, and business. His career spans infrastructure engineer, solutions architect, security auditor, customer success director, support and services director, and operations officer. He was an early adopter of AWS services as a customer, and his current role at AWS uniquely blends his technical and business skills as he partners with executive teams to translate strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes through cloud adoption, AI implementation, and operational excellence. Matt leads end-to-end AI initiatives for enterprise customers, identifying high-impact use cases and maintaining relentless focus on measurable ROI. He holds eight AWS certifications and serves as Adjunct Professor at Franklin University teaching cloud computing and AWS architecture. His expertise encompasses GenAI, agentic AI systems, migration, modernization, and optimization strategies that drive transformation at scale. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/) Girish Bhatia: Girish Bhatia is a seasoned technology delivery leader with deep expertise in cross-domain program management. He holds multiple AWS certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer – Associate, and AWS Generative AI Practitioner, and is also an AWS Community Builder. Girish brings over two decades of experience in the information technology industry. Throughout his career, Girish has led major technology-driven business transformation from modernizing on-premises applications to driving large-scale cloud migrations. His work includes API-based integration platforms, data-center and mainframe modernization, and enterprise cloud adoption initiatives. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Girish works at a tech-forward fintech company. He is passionate about AWS serverless architectures, Generative AI and emerging cloud technologies. An avid learner and builder, he continues to explore and apply the latest innovations in AWS to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/[https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/) **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

# **Band and caller TBA** Beginner lesson at 1:30, regular dancing begins at 2:00 pm NOTE THAT WE ARE TEMPORARILY DANCING IN THE AFTERNOON INSTEAD OF EVENING. Dance with us in the afternoon then you can still go out in the evening! **Sponsor: All Soles Contra and Square Dancing, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd., Columbus OH 43214** WHAT IS CONTRA DANCING? Picture the Grand Ball scenes like you’ve seen in period films such as “Pride and Prejudice”, where the dancers are lined up in long lines, across from each other. That’s English Country Dancing, the predecessor of contra dancing. Now, add moves like “swing your partner” and “do-si-do,” like you’ve seen in square dancing. Set it to fabulous, high energy, live music with fiddles, guitars, percussion and more, alá “Riverdance.” Finally, set the whole scene down in the middle of Woodstock, with a hip, groovy atmosphere, a bit of tie-dye, and hints of counter-culture attitude. THAT’s Contra Dancing! Wear cool and comfortable clothes (you will get warm) and clean shoes that won't mark up our nice wood floor. Be sure to come for the beginner's lesson from 1:30 - 2:00, followed by dancing 2:00 - 430. All dances are taught; we will help you learn! Beginners always welcome, no need to bring a partner. Cost is $10.00 adults, $5.00 ages 12-26. Under 12 free. Free parking in church lot. Please bring your own refillable water bottle.

Builders, creators, architects, admins, consultants - come one, come all. This one's for you. We're bringing a little friendly competition to the Columbus ServiceNow community while highlighting the cool things people have built on the platform. Five presenters will take the stage to showcase something they've built, solved, designed, or imagined on the ServiceNow platform - and a panel of judges (plus YOU, our amazing audience) will score them live. So basically, America's Got Talent but make it ServiceNow's Got Talent. Bring a notepad if you'd like 'cause you'll definitely be learning something new. Each presenter gets 10 minutes max to wow the crowd with: • A demo • A real-world business solution • A bold idea • A UX transformation • Or a creative use of the platform Judging Criteria: 🏆 Business Value 🚀 Innovation ✨ User Experience This event is about celebrating ideas, sharing knowledge, and showing how ServiceNow can drive both business impact and meaningful user value. Come learn. Come support. Come get inspired. Refreshments and bites will be provided. And maybe next time… you’ll be on stage.

Bring your business cards and network in person with other business professionals! Gold Star Referral Clubs is one of the most established professional networking organizations in the country, with multiple groups in central Ohio. Join us!

It’s time to take control of your mental health. How do you get rid of stress, anxiety and uncertainty? These emotions are buried deep in your reactive mind. Find out what the reactive mind is, and in the process find yourself. Have you ever suffered from a traumatic experience, a deep loss or been through a painful breakup? Has your ability to communicate suffered as a result? And after that, even though you "moved on" did you find that things were never quite the same? Have you ever looked at childhood photos, or reminisced your early life and wondered where that happiness and spark went? Are your emotions out of your own control? Have you ever felt, even if you aren’t aware of it, that possibly you are getting in your own way of your happiness and success? How does this affect your self-confidence? Find out what is at the root of all stress, anxiety, depression and self-doubt. Find out how and why you hold yourself back from achieving your goals and having the life you have dreamed of. As soon as you learn what is at the root of these unwanted conditions, you’ll see it is something you can DO something about. You will not be labeled or categorized at this MeetUp.

**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 **Abstract** TBD **YouTube Link** TBA