EC2

Vandome Cycles are providing drop in bike check/repair sessions: • Barking Riverside Bike Hub IG11 0FJ: Opening Times: Every Mon & Thu 3pm-7pm and Sat: 9am-5pm • The Fiddlers, Dagenham, RM8 3HH: Every Saturday 10am – 2pm

**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/london-business-networking-event-by-london-connector-2-chesham-hotel-tickets-1978158962708?aff=meetup](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-business-networking-event-by-london-connector-2-chesham-hotel-tickets-1978158962708?aff=meetup)** Join London Connector for a premium business networking event in Central London. Meet entrepreneurs, professionals, founders and expats London Connector hosts premium business and social networking events across Central London, including Belgravia, Mayfair, Soho and the City. Our events connect entrepreneurs, founders, expats, investors and professionals looking to grow their London network. With more than 400 events hosted and a vibrant international community, London Connector is one of the city’s leading networking platforms. ## **Why Attend?** The London Connector series has built a reputation for bringing together ambitious entrepreneurs, company directors, investors, innovators, and professionals from a wide variety of industries. The goal is simple: to connect people who are serious about business, collaboration, and creating opportunities in a relaxed and welcoming environment At this event, you can: * Meet **entrepreneurs and directors** looking to expand their network. * Connect with **investors and professionals** from diverse sectors. * Explore **partnerships, collaborations, and client opportunities**. * Enjoy a **stylish and relaxed setting** ideal for both social and business networking. ## **Event Highlights** * **Informal networking** with introductions facilitated by our host and the members of the London Connector community.. * A welcoming environment where conversations naturally lead to opportunities. * Networking from **6:00 PM until 9:30 PM**, with plenty of time to meet new people and build lasting connections. ## **Who Should Join?** * **Entrepreneurs & Startup Founders –** looking to showcase your ideas, find mentors, or attract strategic partners and investors. * **Business Owners & Company Directors –** interested in building partnerships, meeting potential clients, or discovering innovative solutions for your business. * **Investors & Advisors –** seeking exposure to exciting ventures, forward-thinking entrepreneurs, and professionals in various industries. * **Professionals from SMEs & Corporates –** aiming to grow your personal network, generate leads, or explore collaborations outside your immediate field. * **Consultants & Service Providers –** in areas such as marketing, finance, legal, HR, tech, or sustainability, who want to connect with decision-makers and companies in need of your expertise. * **Innovators & Tech Enthusiasts –** eager to stay ahead of trends, share insights, and explore potential alliances in digital, fintech, AI, or other growth sectors. * **Anyone new to London’s business scene –** looking for a welcoming community where professional introductions are natural, warm, and meaningful. ## **Secure Your Place** Spaces are limited and this event may sell out in advance. To avoid disappointment, we strongly recommend booking early. 👉 **Reserve your ticket today and be part of an evening where business meets opportunity in the heart of Belgravia.** **📸 Photography & Video Disclaimer:** Please note that photos and videos may be taken during the event to capture the energy of the evening. These may be used on our website, social media, and future promotional materials. If you prefer not to appear in any content, simply inform one of our event hosts upon arrival and we will ensure your preference is respected. * [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/) * [#business](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23business/) * [#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/) * [#london](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23london/) * [#businessnetworking](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23businessnetworking/) * [#december](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23december/) * [#business_growth](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23business_growth/) * [#business_professional](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23business_professional/) * [#londonconnector](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom--london/%23londonconnector/)

See http:http://www.trailnet.org.uk/recycling-respoke.html (http://www.trailnet.org.uk/gascoigne-cycle-centre) If you have specific requirements, please contact the organisers before visiting the centre, so they can advise you. (020) 8593 1677 / info@respoke.org.uk

If you are looking to start a personal or group exercise or yoga session, check out this beautiful and spacious fitness studio available for booking on the GameOn Active Operate app ([link here](https://gameonactive.co.uk/operate/#/customer)). If you already have an account on the GameOn Active mobile app you can sign in using the same details. The fitness studio within the Central Foundation Girl's School is only a few minutes walk from Mile End tube station.

**PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE TO CONFIRM SESSION DETAILS AND LET US KNOW YOU PLAN TO ATTEND. THIS IS MANDATORY.** **Want to do something useful with your exercise? GoodGym is no ordinary gym. We're a group of people who get fit by doing good - helping out local charities and community groups with physical jobs like shifting compost and planting trees.** **📍 We meet at** **Wanstead House Community Association, 21 The Green, London, E11 2NT** **at 6:45pm.** **🏃‍♂️ At 7:00pm we'll run, walk or cycle to do a 30-40 minute task.** **🏃‍♂️ Then we'll head back to where we started by 8:45pm, do some stretches and maybe grab a beverage?** It's FREE. It's fun. It's fulfilling. And we're a very friendly bunch. 🍇 — **BOOK ONTO THE SESSION** **To come to the session click here:** https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions **You will need to confirm your attendance on the GoodGym website** (this includes creating an account with us if you haven’t already - it only takes a few mins). The link above takes you to the session listings in your area - if this session doesn’t fit your schedule, you may find something that does so check it out. p.s. GoodGym is a charity and you will be asked whether you’d like to donate when first creating an account. The choice is yours and does not affect your ability to attend a session. — **FAQ** Not sure you'll keep up? GoodGym is for everyone (18+). Whether you've never run before, or are chasing a marathon PB, you are 100% welcome. We always have a back-marker so no one gets left behind. 70% of GoodGym members start as non-runners so if you're new to this kind of thing you will be supported by people who are all on the same journey. 👍 What do I need to wear? Most of us wear gym/running gear. Make sure you're prepared for the weather. Don't feel like you're fit enough? Our tasks are simple and fun. There are easy jobs as well as more challenging things for those who want a workout! The choice is always yours. Do I need to bring anything? Gardening gloves are really useful for a lot of GoodGym tasks. And a head torch too if it’s likely to get dark. Please bring some if you can but there’s no requirement 🧤💡🧤 What is GoodGym? We're a (really lovely) group of people who use our energy to make a difference in our local community (and in communities across the UK!). We often meet on a weeknight, at least once a week, for a session to do good and get fit. We'd love you to come and join us. Any questions, just pop a comment below or send me a message. Find out everything you need to know at goodgym.org

Our next English Conversation Café will be on **Monday 19th January 2026 at** **7:30pm**! Topic for the evening: Books You will have an opportunity to practice your English and meet new people, through conversation topics and games. It's open to all levels of English! The venue is **downstairs** in Costa Coffee, 3 Southwark St, London SE1 1RQ which is a 1 minute walk from London Bridge Station. This is a **free** event, you will not be expected to pay for anything. You will also be able to have a free drink and cake. The café is run by a group of volunteers from [The Globe Church](https://www.globe.church). Please sign up if you would like to attend. If you have any questions please ask us using Meetup. Numbers are limited so please only sign up if you are going to come and change your response if you can no longer come. Look forward to seeing you soon 😊

Join us at our first event of the year at [The Information Lab](https://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/) on the historic Watling Street in the City of London 🙌 We will be kicking off 2026 by delving into the topic of real-time data with our speakers - Sam, Nicoleta & Anton. We are running this event in collaboration with **[Confluent](https://www.confluent.io/)**. **6pm:** Doors Open **6:30pm:** Talks Start 🗣️The Speakers🗣️ ***Load-In to Lights-Out: Data Engineering the World's Biggest Tours and Live Events*** ***Sam Malcolm,*** ***Head of Architecture & Engineering at Centrus ([Sam's Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-m-00b19a110/))*** **Sam’s** session dives into lessons from large-scale live event data systems—handling over **10 billion data points per second** for global tours like Beyoncé, Coldplay, and Glastonbury. He connects the extreme demands of real-time analytics and high-performance networking to modern cloud data practices, showing how the same principles of **speed, resilience, and precision** apply when designing reliable, scalable data platforms today. ***Should I Stream or Should I Join: From Regular to Delta Joins in Apache Flink*** ***Nicoleta Lazar, Senior Data Engineer at Fresha & Anton Borisov, Principal Engineer at Fresha ([Niloceta's LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleta-lazar-921a6864/) , [Anton's LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anton-s-borisov/))*** Joins in the streaming world are where the fun stops and the tradeoffs start. State that grows forever, latency that spikes unpredictably, watermarks that never quite behave, every Flink developer has war stories about this. In this session, Anton Borisov and Nicoleta Lazar break down the join landscape in Apache Flink: → Regular joins and the state explosion problem → Interval joins: when they work, when they don't → Temporal joins and the versioned table dance → Lookup joins: the escape hatch and its hidden costs → Delta joins: the new kid and how Fluss enables them, and why it matters Talks finish by **8pm** and there will be a 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 bring a ***valid form of ID***. See you all on the 22nd January 🤩 Happy Networking 🍻 Checkout Meetup Groups run by Confluent: * https://www.meetup.com/london-real-time-data-meetup/ * https://www.meetup.com/data-streaming-europe/ By attending this event, you agree to abide by our rules of conduct: * Respect others' opinions. * Keep it appropriate - no harassment of any sort. * If you see something or have a complaint, please reach out to one of the organisers or email events@dataengineerslondon.com.

Hello and welcome to our next **GenAI UK in-person event**, delivered **in collaboration with [Data & AI Leaders](https://www.meetup.com/data-and-ai-leaders-uk/)**[.](https://www.meetup.com/data-and-ai-leaders-uk/) This session brings together engineers, ML practitioners, data and platform teams, product leaders, and technologists who are building and operating generative AI systems in real-world environments, alongside senior practitioners responsible for scaling those capabilities inside organisations. This collaborative session focuses on what happens when GenAI moves beyond experimentation, exploring how AI capabilities are built, scaled, and operated in production, and how teams reduce operational toil while maintaining security, reliability, and delivery velocity. Our meetups are friendly, welcoming, and practitioner-led, creating space for the community to learn from real systems, real teams, and real trade-offs. This session will include technical and experience-led talks, Q&A, and open discussion with members of the GenAI UK community. **We run:** • Online events for our UK & global audience • In-person meetups in London Please keep an eye on our Meetup page for future sessions. We are delighted to host this **in-person GenAI UK event in London on the 22nd of January**, in collaboration with **[Data & AI Leaders](https://www.meetup.com/data-and-ai-leaders-uk/)** and **[Incident.io](https://incident.io/)**. **Speakers and Sessions:** **Speaker: [Dylan Ratcliffe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanratcliffe/), Founder at Overmind** **Session Title: How We Detected Toil among 36,000 Changes** How much engineering effort is spent on work that doesn’t add real value? In this talk, Dylan shares how nearly 37,000 infrastructure changes were analysed to quantify toil, identify safe automation opportunities, and reduce manual effort using data-driven models and AI-supported approval workflows. **Speaker: [Rory Malcolm](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-m-m/), Product Engineer at Incident.io** **Session Title: My first year as an AI engineer** Rory walks through Incident.io’s first year building an AI capability, covering both the technical and organisational challenges of moving from early experimentation to a team able to make meaningful progress against real AI goals. **Agenda:** 18:00 — Welcome & refreshments 18:30 — Introduction - [Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/) 18:35 — [Dylan Ratcliffe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanratcliffe/) 19:10 — Break 19:20 — [Rory Malcolm](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-m-m/) 19:55 — Close & networking **We are always keen to hear from:** • Speakers — demos, applied GenAI projects, engineering deep dives • Sponsors — support for venues, recording, accessibility or community initiatives • Collaborators — meetups, research groups and ecosystem partners If you’d like to speak, sponsor, or collaborate on a future session, please get in touch with **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/) via LinkedIn or Meetup**. This community forms part of the **[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)** and follows the **Community Stack Code of Conduct**, helping us maintain a respectful, inclusive and welcoming environment for all attendees. We look forward to seeing you in January, and for those planning ahead, the **next [GenAI UK online](https://www.meetup.com/generative-ai-uk-community/events/312728629/) event takes place on the 3rd of March**.

## Details **Abstract:** A honeypot is a system for which there is no intended legitimate access, so what happens when you place three honeypots on the public Internet, in three different countries? Jonathan will explain what a honeypot is before talking through his research from July 2025, and comparing it to previous research in 2021 and 2022. You may find this year’s most popular password surprising!

Hello and welcome to our next **Data & AI Leaders** event. This session brings together Heads of Data, AI, and Analytics; senior technology and engineering leaders; Principal and Staff Data/ML Engineers; Platform and Capability Leads; and strategic decision-makers responsible for shaping data and AI strategy, governance, and value delivery within their organisations. Our meetups are friendly, thoughtful, and discussion-driven, designed to create a space where leaders can share real-world experience, reflect on complex challenges, and learn from peers who are building and scaling Data and AI capabilities in the real world. This session will include leadership talks, guided discussion, Q&A, and time for networking with fellow data and AI leaders. **We run:** • Bi-monthly in-person leadership meetups and roundtables in London • Bi-monthly online sessions for our wider leadership community Please keep an eye on our Meetup page for future events. Food and refreshments will be provided for in-person events where a host venue is supporting. We are delighted to host this security-focused meetup in London on the **22nd of January,** in partnership with [Incident.io](https://incident.io/). **Speakers and Sessions:** Speaker: [Dylan Ratcliffe,](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanratcliffe/) Founder at Overmind Session Title: How We Detected Toil among 36,000 Changes Description: How much precious engineering time are you spending on changes that don’t really need it? In this talk, we’ll reveal how we analysed nearly 37,000 infrastructure modifications to rigorously quantify "toil"; the work that slows teams down without adding real value. We’ll share the statistical techniques and practical models we developed to find the best opportunities for safe auto-approval, and show how you can use similar methods to identify (and eliminate) wasted effort in your own workflows. We’ll also discuss pitfalls, trade-offs, and how AI can take your approval process even further. Whether you’re a platform engineer or an SRE, you’ll learn how to free up your team to focus on what really matters while keeping your systems safe and reliable. Speaker: **[Rory Malcolm](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-m-m/)**, Product Engineer at Incident.io Session Title: My first year as an AI engineer Description: Join Rory, Product Engineer at Incident.io, as he walks through everything the team learned in their first year building an AI capability. This session focuses on how they scaled both technically and socially, growing from early work into an engineering team able to make meaningful progress against real AI goals. Expect practical insight into team growth, collaboration, and what actually enabled progress. **Agenda (GMT / UK):** 18:00 — Welcome and refreshments 18:30 — Introduction — Ethan Sumner 18:35 — Speaker 1 19:10 — Break 19:20 — Speaker 2 19:55 — Close and networking **We are always keen to hear from:** • Speakers — leadership case studies, transformation journeys and strategic insights • Hosts — organisations able to support executive-style roundtables and meetups • Sponsors — support with venue access, refreshments, recording or accessibility If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future session, please get in touch with **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)** via LinkedIn. You can find our **[YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)**[ ](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)via our community pages, where we publish selected talks and highlights. This community forms part of the[ ](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)**[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)** and follows the **Community Stack Code of Conduct**, ensuring a respectful, inclusive and welcoming environment where leaders can share openly and learn from one another.

PyTorch isn't just another framework; it's the de-facto standard for Deep Learning. Our community is dedicated to bringing together PyTorch users in London and those with a profound interest in ML and AI. This is your platform to share experiences, network, seek advice, and initiate collaborations. This event is packed with opportunities to learn, connect, and exchange ideas and knowledge with experts from both Revolut and the data industry. Join us for exclusive talks from Revolut speakers and our partner, PyTorch, and dive into the world of Data Science—with a special focus on conversational AI. Here's what you can look forward to at the meet-up. **Speakers** 1\. Stas Bichenko\, CEO at Recombine: "Solving Interruptions in Voice AI" 2\. Anna Baidina \(Revolut\) 3\. Angelo Giacco \(ElevenLabs\) **Event Details:** **Date:** 22th January 2026 **Time:** 18:30 (GMT+4) **Where:** Revolut HQ Office

**Connect with eBay, Amazon & Online Sellers - eCommerce Networking Event in Central London** Join us for an informal eCommerce networking evening in central London. Meet eBay and Amazon sellers, online business owners, digital entrepreneurs, and tech professionals in a relaxed, friendly setting. This event is co-organised by eCommerce tech startups **Getshop Today** and **Speed eCam**, with support from **GMax Card**. ⚡ **Limited to 40 attendees** **💼 Note re Contactless Cards** Free RSVP gives entry only - the contactless business card by GMax Card is not included.
To receive a contactless networking card, please book a paid ticket when available. **📍 Venue** **The Refinery New Street Square** A modern bar and restaurant in London’s City district, near Fleet Street and Chancery Lane. With a bright interior, outdoor terrace, and semi-private mezzanine, it’s ideal for relaxed business and eCommerce networking. **👔 Dress Code**
 Dress code is smart casual.
No hoodies or sportswear please. **💡 Why Attend?** * Meet eBay & Amazon sellers and eCommerce professionals * Connect with founders, entrepreneurs, and tech experts * Share insights, ideas, and real-world experience * Discover trends and tools shaping online retail **About the Event** eCommerce is fast-moving, competitive, and constantly evolving. Building strong connections and staying informed is essential for growth. Whether you run an online store, sell on marketplaces, work in digital marketing, or are exploring eCommerce opportunities, this event brings like-minded professionals together for meaningful conversations, new connections, and potential collaborations. Expect a relaxed evening of networking with practical takeaways and fresh perspectives. **Agenda** **6:30 PM – 9:30 PM** Informal eCommerce networking. On arrival, ask the receptionist about the networking event. Hosts may assist with introductions, followed by open networking. **👥 Organised By** * **Speed eCam** – AI-powered eBay listing tool * **Getshop Today** – UK-based eCommerce platform with local support * **GMax Card** – Digital business card **📸 Photo & Video** Photography and video may be taken for promotional use by [CineEye, London based video production and photography service provider](www.cineeye.co.uk). Please inform the hosts if you do not wish to appear. **ℹ️ Important Info** • Ages: 18+ (ID required for bar purchases)
 • Dress Code: Smart/business casual (see above). • Contactless Cards: Free RSVP does not include contactless business card by GMax Card (see above). **🎟 Secure Your Spot** Spaces are limited. Register now and join our group for updates on future events. We look forward to welcoming you for a productive and enjoyable eCommerce networking evening in London.

For our first meetup of 2026, we welcome our very own James Dales to present. *\*\* Please only register if you are able to attend as the number of available places is limited \*\** **The future of Location Intelligence in Power BI** For many, mapping in Power BI is a few bubbles representing sales in different towns or countries - but does really add any value to your report? In this session we're going to explore how to create maps that help you exploit the value of the location in your data. The Icon Map visuals unlock a powerful range of capabilities across all industry sectors. In a demo packed session we'll explore: \- Route and flow maps \- Easiest way to add icons and images \- Overlaying your data on demographics \- 3D buildings and landscape \- Going indoors \- Realtime \- Huge datasets We'll see what's possible today, and also showcase the powerful new capabilities that are being released soon to take your maps to new levels. **Agenda** 18:30 - Welcome, drinks, pizza & networking 19:00 - Main Session 20:00 - Close **Venue** Tenth Revolution offices in London. Aldgate House, 33 Aldgate High St, London EC3N 1DL Please provide your first and last name when registering for the event, as this is provided to building security to allow you entrance into the venue.

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group × DevOps Columbus** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS, Columbus HashiCorp User Group, and DevOps Columbus meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/cbus-hug-2026/

## Details \#\# Learn Infrastructure\-as\-Code \(the FUN Way\) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: DevOps Columbus - Azure CBUS - Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint DevOps Columbus, Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. \#\#\# What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time \#\#\# Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐

Private Group. Closed to the Public Knowing ourselves and understanding our abilities is the first step toward wielding our gifts with control and accuracy. In subsequent classes we will verify and hone our talents with activities and discussion. These are hands-on workshops and participation is expected. The goal of our series will be to develop expertise in areas of particular interest such as mediumship, channeling, divination, healing and, etc.. Our ultimate directions will be determined by class members as we evolve. I look forward to sharing and discovering with you. - Cynthia

**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** GitHub Copilot is rapidly changing how developers write, understand, and maintain code. Powered by generative AI and deeply integrated into modern development environments, Copilot acts as an intelligent coding assistant, helping developers move faster while maintaining quality and focus. In this session, we’ll explore what GitHub Copilot is, how it works, and where it fits into a real-world developer workflow. We’ll break down what Copilot can (and cannot) do, where it can be used, and how licensing differs for individuals and organizations. Most importantly, this talk goes beyond theory with a live, hands-on demo showcasing Copilot inside the IDE and on GitHub, demonstrating how it can assist with code generation, refactoring, learning new APIs, and accelerating day-to-day development tasks. Designed for developers, technical leads, and engineering managers, this session provides a practical introduction to AI-assisted development, highlights best practices for getting value from Copilot, and closes with guidance on how to continue learning and evolving alongside this rapidly advancing tool. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how GitHub Copilot can enhance productivity, improve developer experience, and fit into modern software teams today, not someday. **YouTube Link** TBA

2026 may be the last year many developers write code by hand. We need coding agents to solve complex problems in production codebases, but vibe coding alone won’t get us there. Vibe coding is all gas, no brakes. It burns up the context window until the agent slips on its own slop. You can go fast at first, but the more you stuff into the context window, the more tangled its outputs get. While the industry is rapidly increasing code generation speed, we still have to understand, review, merge, and maintain what gets shipped. This talk featuring Michael Geiger will outline how coding agents (Claude Code + Gas Town) work and a framework for orchestrating them to solve complicated problems in complex codebases. It’s about steering the model: doing the research to align intent, planning the approach up front, implementing in parallel steps, and breaking early. Human judgment still matters, but it should be spent on high-leverage decisions: what to build, what to forbid, and “what is quality?”, not cleaning up slop. Attendees will leave with a checklist to identify workflow and environment gaps that hold agents back, so you and your team can ship higher-quality software starting tomorrow.