Engineering Leadership

🎤 **Join Our Free Public Speaking Class in Central London** * 🌟 Are you struggling with public speaking or experiencing anxiety about it? * 👉 Attend our in-person public speaking class, suitable for beginners to advanced speakers, absolutely FREE as a guest! *You don't need to speak - just observe and learn, or participate if you feel ready.* **Why Attend Our Public Speaking Class?** * 💪 **Overcome Public Speaking Fear** Central London Toastmasters is the premier weekly public speaking club, offering a relaxed and supportive environment. Practice in a safe space where no one judges you, and start your journey to becoming a confident speaker. * ✨ **Become a Charismatic Speaker** Enhance your public speaking skills and develop the charisma you've always wanted. Impress your colleagues with smooth, polished presentations and wow your friends with newfound confidence and storytelling abilities. * 💼 **Improve Business Speaking Skills** Our meetings are friendly and informal, making them the perfect starting point for building confidence in public speaking. Many of our members began with anxiety, but now speak with total confidence. As a guest, you’ll see firsthand how warm and welcoming our club is, and you can chat with members about their experiences. * 🏆 **Develop Leadership Skills** Public speaking is not just about presenting; it's also about leading. Our club provides opportunities to take on leadership roles, helping you to develop crucial skills like team management, decision-making, and strategic thinking that can benefit your personal and professional life. 📅 **Location and Time** * 📍 Location: Cittie of Yorke pub, Holborn * ⏰ Time: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM (Feel free to arrive late and quietly take a seat) 🔄 **What to Expect at Our Meetings** * The meeting is divided into two halves, each lasting approximately 50 minutes, with a 10-minute break. * 🎯 First Half: Members participate in impromptu speeches, and guests are invited to introduce themselves by name. * 📈 Second Half: Members deliver prepared speeches followed by evaluations. * After the meeting, we enjoy drinks and informal chats, providing a great opportunity to network and learn more about the club. 🎟️ **Interested in Becoming a Member?** Membership includes access to our online course, Pathways, guiding you step-by-step through your public speaking journey. A full year’s membership, covering 50 weekly meetings, is just £168, plus a one-time £30 registration fee. **💬 Testimonials from Our Members** * **“Toastmasters transformed my life!”** "I went from fearing public speaking to leading meetings at work. This newfound confidence even earned me a promotion!" – **Alexander** * **"A warm and supportive club!"** "From the first meeting, I felt welcomed. The constructive feedback boosted my confidence both in public speaking and daily life." – **Sarah** * **"Overcoming my fear was easier than I thought."** "The support here made my sales presentations more impactful and less stressful. It's been a game-changer for me professionally." – **David** * **"A fun and rewarding experience."** "I look forward to every meeting. The sessions are engaging, and I love the socializing afterward." – **Lucy** * **"I've grown as a speaker and leader."** "Taking on roles in the club has sharpened my leadership skills, making me more effective at work." – **James**

Join us for a conversation with Shailendra Kumar, Product Lead at WhatsApp, as he explores how product leaders navigate decision-making in an AI-native era. Shailendra will share how teams evaluate when AI adds real value, and how thoughtful product judgment shapes scalable, trustworthy products. As AI becomes embedded in everyday products, product leaders face new challenges around reliability, complexity, and user trust. Drawing on his experience building global-scale products, Shailendra Kumar will share practical frameworks for deciding when to use AI, designing systems that scale responsibly, and shipping features that users can rely on. **Event Overview** AI introduces new opportunities and new risks for product teams. In this session, Shailendra Kumar explores how leaders decide when AI is the right solution, design systems that scale responsibly, and ship features without eroding user trust. **01 - Deciding When AI Helps and When It Hurts** Learn how experienced product leaders evaluate whether AI meaningfully improves a product experience, and how to avoid unnecessary complexity that can damage usability or trust. **02 - Designing AI Systems That Scale Responsibly** Discover frameworks for building AI-powered products that handle uncertainty, fail gracefully, and remain reliable as usage and expectations grow. **03 - Shipping AI Without Breaking Trust** Explore how transparency, governance, and accountability can be embedded into product development so teams can innovate quickly while protecting users. **Speakers** **Shailendra Kumar - Product Lead, WhatsApp** Shailendra Kumar is a Product Lead at WhatsApp, where he drives product strategy and execution for features that connect people around the world. With experience in building user-centric products at scale, he focuses on simplifying communication through thoughtful design and data-informed decision-making.

Come and join us every week day from 12.45pm - 2.45pm. Classes for levels elementary to upper-intermediate (A1+ - B2+) Improve your fluency, listening and reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary with our friendly classes. No payment needed - the classes are **completely free** because the teachers are training with a University of Cambridge accredited program. Join us at 24 Great Chapel St, London, W1F 8FS Take the level test in advance for more information about classes for your level (link to the level test: https://forms.gle/mn3hqUgo3BRLyAUi7) and wait for up to one business day for more information. OR Come 15 minutes early on your first day to do a quick speaking test and find your classroom. See you soon!

**Welcome to DSF Sandbox Sessions!** Top tech talks and masterclasses from the best in the industry. Every month, and completely free. The catch? There isn’t one. Just a monthly dose of epic content to power up your data passion! **Event details** 📆 **Date:** Tuesday 14th April 2026 ⏰ **Time:** 6:00 – 9:30 PM BST 💡 **Topic:** **Signals, Systems, and Scams: Deconstructing the Future of Financial Intelligence** 🗣️ **Speakers:** Kristjan Erik Liive, Volodymyr Panov, Baran Koseoglu, Zoltan Szopory, Vera Shishkina, Aaron Wilson, Mohammed Topiwalla [Sign up for this event by clicking here!](https://datasciencefestival.com/session/wise-sandbox-session/) As global financial platforms evolve, the “Trust Gap” becomes an engineering challenge. Scaling a product to millions of users requires more than just better models—it requires a fundamental shift from manual heuristics to automated, high-fidelity intelligence. Join Wise for an exclusive Sandbox Session designed for senior data scientists and engineers. We’re moving beyond the basics of model training to explore the “Last Mile” of production ML: the infrastructure of compliance, the democratisation of optimization, and the transition to foundational representation learning. Through three practitioner-led deep dives and a collaborative product-data science panel, we will deconstruct how Wise builds resilient financial infrastructure where performance and safety are never a zero-sum game. What we’ll explore: • The GenAI Reality Check: Moving LLM automations from “cool demo” to “compliant production” in highly regulated spaces. • Decoupling Optimization: How we built “Threshold UI” to empower non-experts to tune model performance across hundreds of cohorts without a single code change. • Beyond Velocity: Replacing hand-crafted features with User Event Transformers to capture the deep behavioral context that traditional tabular data misses. • The Co-Design Philosophy: Why the future of fraud prevention isn’t just a better algorithm, but a tighter feedback loop between Product and Data Science. Food, drinks, and networking with fellow practitioners will follow throughout the evening. Check out the full session details below! **Please note: Due to high demand and limited capacity, tickets for this event will be allocated via a random ballot. Submitting an application does not guarantee entry. Successful applicants will be notified throughout March and early April. If you have not received confirmation by April 9th, this means your ballot application was not selected on this occasion.** **Talk 1: Evolution of GenAI: Building Compliant LLM Automations at Wise** **Speakers:** Kristjan Erik Liive, Senior Data Scientist & Volodymyr Panov, Senior Data Scientist. **Abstract:** Evolution of GenAI applications in servicing tasks at Wise. We will share examples, discuss architectures and challenges of building LLM-based automations in compliance-heavy space. We will also present our vision and key opportunity areas in further augmentation and automation. **Key takeaways:** Practical examples of scoping and implementing LLM-based solutions. **Talk 2: On the Threshold of Greatness: Democratizing Model Optimization at Wise** **Speakers:** Baran Köseoğlu, Lead Data Scientist & Zoltán Szopory, Staff Software Engineer. **Abstract:** This session will talk about machine learning model threshold optimization across hundreds of customer cohorts. Traditionally, optimizing these thresholds has been a complex, time-consuming task, often relegated to highly technical experts. At Wise, we faced the challenge of managing diverse customer segments, each with unique risk profiles and compliance mandates and as a solution we developed Threshold UI we will talk about more in the session. **Key takeaways:** Boost your machine learning model performance without changing any configuration in your training pipeline. **Talk 3: More Than Meets the Eye: Transforming User Events into Deep Context** **Speaker:** Vera Shishkina, Staff Data Scientist. **Abstract:** Moving from purely manual feature engineering to representation learning. This session covers the technical POC of a User Events Transformer – a foundational model designed to produce customer embeddings that augment traditional tabular features. We will discuss the proposed architecture, the challenges of building temporal data pipelines, and our vision for using these embeddings to boost performance in domains like scam prediction. **Key takeaways:** How learned embeddings provide deep context that traditional “velocity” features often miss. **Talk 4: Panel Discussion – Mind & Machine: How Product and DS Co-Design the Future of Trust** **Panellists:** Aaron Wilson, Fraud and Victim Prevention Product Lead & Mohammed Topiwalla, Fraud and Victim Prevention Data Science Lead. **Abstract:** Fireside chat to understand how DS and Product work hand in hand to keep wise safe. **Key takeaways:** How do you find the middle ground between business growth and risk precision? What is the future of DS in fraud prevention? **Schedule:** **6:00 PM** – Doors open – networking with food and refreshments **6:45 PM** – Intro **6:50 PM** – Talk 1 (20 minutes + 5 minute Q&A) **7:15 PM** – Talk 2 (20 minutes + 5 minute Q&A) **7:40 PM** – Comfort break **7:50 PM** – Talk 3 (20 minutes + 5 minute Q&A) **8:15 PM** – Talk 4 (30 minutes) **8:45 PM** – Networking with refreshments **9:30 PM** – Event close **Registering for the event:** Click the 'Sign up here!' button on the specific event page following the link below. Once you have completed the registration form, you will be emailed a link to join the webinar. You will also receive a reminder link one week, one day and one hour prior to the event. **PLEASE NOTE: Clicking 'attend' on Meetup does not register you for the event. You will need to register for the event on the link provided below to receive a joining link. If you do not, you will not be able to join the event.** **[Click here to sign up for this specific event](https://datasciencefestival.com/session/wise-sandbox-session/)** Please note the time zone when you book this event.

**We are holding an Agile Standup dinner at the Mercato Metropolitano food court in Mayfair.** https://mercatometropolitano.com/locations/mayfair/ The focus of the evening is to enjoy amazing food while networking, learning and discussing using agility to create better software, products, teams and organisations. **The evening will take the form of a round table discussion** \- Bring a great question or describe a problem which you'd like to share\, we will then discuss it at the table\. **Who might come along?** Whether you're a seasoned agilest or completely new to it, you are most welcome. **The Dinner** \- Be prepared to pay for your own food and drinks\, what you choose is up to you\. **On the night:** The event starts at 6:00pm, hopefully we'll not be that hard to find, message the organisers on the meetup chat if you can't find us or if you are running late. When you arrive, join us and order a drink. We'll aim to eat at around 7pm. Afterwards there will be an opportunity to meet, mingle, discuss and maybe even find mentors or future work colleagues. If you have any questions, just drop us a line. We will finish at around 9:00pm, but you can leave earlier, if you need to. *Photographs may be taken throughout the evening, please let the organisers know if you would prefer not to be featured in them.* Looking forwards to seeing you there.

We're excited to be back and pleased to say this event is being sponsored by [pgMustard](https://pgmustard.com). On the talks front, we have **Anton Borisov and Vlad Bokov** from Fresha who will take us through how they recently upgraded their fleet with zero-downtime. We will then host our first ever debate, on a topic to be determined! WHERE Join us at **Doggett's Coat and Badge on 14 April from 18:30.** PROGRAM 18:30 Welcome 19:00 Swapping the Elephant Without Breaking the Room: Zero-downtime Major PG upgrades in practice (Anton Borisov and Vlad Bokov, Fresha) - abstract below 19:45 Sandwiches and bar snacks (paid for by our sponsor) 20:00 Debate — topic TBD ABSTRACT **Swapping the Elephant Without Breaking the Room: Zero-downtime Major PG upgrades in practice** Upgrading PostgreSQL across hundreds of production databases without downtime sounds impossible, especially when logical replication slots, Debezium CDC pipelines, and outbox event streams are in play. At Fresha, we faced exactly that: mission-critical workloads still on PostgreSQL 12, and no safe way to reach 17 without freezing the business. This talk walks through how we designed and automated a blue-green upgrade framework using logical decoding, controlled WAL overlap, and connector orchestration. We’ll dive into how Debezium connectors, replication origins, and PgBouncer pools were coordinated to guarantee continuity for both CDC and outbox topics, with rollback and dry-run modes built in. Attendees will learn practical techniques for: * Orchestrating zero-downtime Postgres major upgrades on RDS or self-managed clusters * Managing replication slots and Debezium connectors safely across clusters * Handling sequence alignment, WAL overlap, and connector state transitions * Designing reversible, testable database cutovers This is a practical session from real production experience: no magic tools, just PostgreSQL internals, Debezium, careful planning, and a few well-placed bash scripts. SPEAKERS **Anton Borisov** architects real-time data systems centered on PostgreSQL. At Fresha, he designs zero-downtime migrations, Debezium-based CDC pipelines, and overall data strategy integrating Postgres with Kafka and Flink. His work spans query planning analysis, partitioning and indexing, autovacuum and bloat optimization, and performance tuning under high-concurrency workloads. He also builds downstream lakehouse integrations with Iceberg, Paimon, and StarRocks. Anton publishes technical deep-dives on PostgreSQL internals, streaming infrastructure, and production reliability at medium.com/@borzoniusy **Vlad Bokov** is a Staff Engineer at Fresha working on systems behind activity feeds and communication between partners and customers. He deals with what breaks at scale: PostgreSQL under heavy write load, WAL bottlenecks, replication issues, Kafka pipelines, and zero-downtime migrations. Most of his work is about making production systems behave: fixing what is slow, unstable, or too expensive, and making trade-offs that hold up under pressure. He works across Snowflake, StarRocks, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, and Redis, and is currently exploring newer streaming approaches, including Apache Fluss, for real-world workloads. *** THE OFFICIAL BITS The meet-up abides by [PostgreSQL Code of Conduct](https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/coc/). Postgres, PostgreSQL and the Slonik Logo are trademarks or [registered trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada](https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/trademarks/), and used with their permission.

**Women in Tech & Leadership London – First Meetup** This will be our first informal meetup to bring people together thoughtful conversations. We have booked a section off upstairs in The Crown & Two Chairmen which is a 3 minute walk from Tottenham Court Rd Station. 18:30 – arrivals & drinks / nibbles 19:00 – quick welcome 19:10 – introductions / informal conversation 20:00 – open discussion / networking The goal of the group is simple: to create a space where people from different industries and backgrounds can connect, share experiences and learn from each other and support each other. If along the way we make some good friends then win - win You do **not** need to work in tech or hold a leadership title to attend. Allies are welcome and needed! If you're curious about these topics or simply enjoy interesting conversations with thoughtful people, you're very welcome. For the first meetup we're keeping things simple - just a relaxed evening to meet each other, have a drink and start building the community. If you're comfortable, feel free to introduce yourself and share what you're working on or curious about. Looking forward to meeting you all

🎉 **Event #23 – The Analytics Engineering Meet-up** 🎉 The London Analytics Engineering Meet-up - Hosted by Monzo! **Speakers:** [Pablo Fernandez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablofergui/) \- Head of Data & Analytics Engineering @ Lawhive [Federico Arduini](https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicoarduini/) \- Lead Analytics Engineer @ Checkout\.com 📅 **RSVP opens 27th March** (3.5 weeks before the event). This event will be **over-subscribed**, so set a reminder — you won’t want to miss it! 📍 **Agenda** 6pm – Doors open, networking, food & drinks 7pm – Talks kick off 8:30pm – More drinks & networking @ local pub This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with some of the UK’s top data professionals, share challenges, and exchange learnings. We are always looking to improve the event and get new ideas for talks, if you could please fill out a [feedback form](https://cognifysearch.com/the-london-analytics-engineering-meet-up-feedback-form/), this will help us continue to improve! The **Analytics Engineering Meet-up** is a community for data professionals working with the modern data stack, machine learning or AI. We host regular meet-ups featuring talks from data leaders building and scaling analytics, data platforms, and AI in forward-thinking teams. The community is ideal for Data Engineers, Analytics Engineers, Analysts, and those working in Data Science, Machine Learning, or AI. The **Analytics Engineering Meet-up** is organised by [Cognify](cognifysearch.com) — a specialist recruitment partner for teams working across the modern data stack, machine learning & AI. If you’re looking to hire top data talent or exploring your next move in data, feel free to reach out to the Cognify team — we’re always happy to help and chat through the market. Our sponsor is [Omni](Omni.co), an AI-powered BI platform that helps people use data to do their best work. Whether users prefer AI, Excel, point-and-click exploration, or SQL, Omni enables fast, trusted answers from a governed semantic model. If you’re eager to dive deeper into industry insights, check out ***The Stacked Data Podcast*** for conversations with industry leaders: Listen on: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/24fIpekn8WfRDZsVHNcf7Q) [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/@CognifySearch) or [Apple Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stacked-data-podcast/id1700301417) Your feedback is so valuable to us, we'd love to hear from you to help us continue to improve, [Feedback Form here](https://cognifysearch.com/the-london-analytics-engineering-meet-up-feedback-form/) **No-Show Policy**: * If you miss **2 consecutive events** or **2 out of 3 events**, you wont be able to attend the next event. We hope you understand this is to keep things fair for venues and other attendees.

**AI is changing product management faster than most teams can adapt. Join us for an evening exploring what this means for your role, your skills, and your future.** **Are you ready for what AI is doing to product management?** Artificial intelligence is no longer a future trend. It is already reshaping how products are designed, built, and managed. From generating requirements to analysing data and automating workflows, AI is changing the day-to-day work of product managers. The real question is no longer *if* things will change, but *how your role will evolve*. **What this session will explore** In this keynote, we will go beyond the hype and look at what is actually happening in the industry right now: * What AI can already do in product management * Where its limitations still lie * How the role of the Product Manager is shifting * Why judgement, strategy, and leadership are becoming more critical * The emerging split between administrative and strategic product roles * The skills you need to stay relevant in an AI-driven world This is not a theoretical discussion. It is a practical look at what product professionals need to understand and act on today. **About the Speaker** **Louise May** Director of Product Management, Product Focus Louise brings over 20 years of experience across start-ups, scale-ups, and multinational organisations. She has led product teams, coached professionals, and built development programmes that support product managers throughout their careers. She is known for her practical insights, clarity of thought, and ability to connect theory with real-world application. **About Product Playground** Product Playground is a community for product professionals who want to think more deeply, share experiences, and learn through meaningful conversations. This is not just another meetup. It is a space to: * explore ideas * challenge assumptions * connect with like-minded professionals **Who should attend** * Product Managers (all levels) * Product Leaders and Heads of Product * Aspiring Product Managers * Consultants and practitioners working with product teams **Why you should attend** You will leave with: * A clearer understanding of how AI is changing your role * Insight into what skills will matter most going forward * Perspectives you can immediately apply in your work * Connections with other product professionals in London **Important Note** This is an in-person event with limited capacity to encourage meaningful interaction. 👉 **Reserve your place early to avoid disappointment**

**——————————** **Event Description:** **——————————** Welcome product enthusiasts! We're a meet-up group that hosts regular speaking events for those interested in the world of **digital products** and **doing things differently!** Each meet-up features new guests from some of the most influential product companies around the world, providing unique insights, tangible ideas, and new techniques to help drive change from the inside out. **————————** **Event Format:** **————————** 🚨 **This is an in-person event only.** 🚨 **————** **Venue:** **————** **Our Product Unleashed London Event:** We are hosted in the beautiful event space @ **[Youlend](https://youlend.com/).** 🚨 **Note:** Youlend Entrance opposite the Rosewood hotel 🚨 We're looking forward to seeing you there! **———————** **What to expect:** ⚡ This event will be made up of 2 speakers dropping knowledge bombs in the form of 20 minute talks straight into your minds 🤯 **———————** **SPEAKER 1** **———————** **Alison Howard** Alison Howard is a Principal Product Design Consultant with 14 years of experience working across some of the UK's most complex and fast-moving products. As an independent consultant, she has partnered with organisations including Trainline, Expedia, BP, HSBC and Emirates to untangle messy problems, align teams and deliver design that actually gets built. Outside her consultancy work, Alison manages PD Ladies, a community of 800+ women in Product Design. **————————** **About the Talk:** **————————** **Learn the Language, Win the Room** If you've ever left a meeting feeling like no one understood what you were saying, this talk is for you. Alison explores the gap between how designers communicate and how everyone else does, and what happens when you close it. ***Expect practical tools and honest reflections on learning to speak the language of product, commercial and engineering teams, so your work gets the traction it deserves.*** **———————** **SPEAKER 2** **———————** **Anna Popova** Anna Popova is Head of Product at [Judge.me](https://judge.me/), one of Shopify’s most installed apps, helping over 600,000 e-commerce brands build trust through customer reviews. With more than a decade of experience across product management, data science, and delivery, Anna focuses on how product teams can increase leverage and build better systems for decision-making and execution. Recently, her work has centred on exploring how AI can reshape the product development process — from discovery and research to prototyping, UX design, and creating high-quality requirements for engineering. She is particularly interested in how small product teams can use AI to dramatically increase output while preserving strong product thinking, judgement, and product craftsmanship. **————————** **About the Talk:** **————————** **When Building Becomes Cheap: Rethinking Product Process in the Age of AI)** **Software is becoming dramatically cheaper to build. AI tools are rapidly reducing the cost of prototyping, coding, and experimentation — faster than many product teams realise.** But while the cost of building is collapsing, the cost of process remains high. Many teams still rely on workflows designed for a world where engineering time was scarce: heavy discovery phases, long specification cycles, and complex coordination structures. In the AI era, these processes risk becoming the real bottleneck. In this talk, Anna explores how product teams may need to rethink how they operate when building becomes cheap. At [Judge.me](https://judge.me/), they've started asking a provocative question: what if a product team should never grow beyond 10 people — even when serving millions of users? Drawing from experiments with AI-assisted workflows, Anna will share how AI can augment product work — from rapid prototyping and spec generation to creating a “digital twin” of a product manager. ***Get ready to explore which parts of the product process should be automated, which should remain human, and how product leaders can adapt.*** **—————————————** **Support from:** **—————————————** We are kindly hosted by our friends at Youlend. **——————————** **About your hosts:** **——————————** Product Unleashed is brought to you by your hosts **[John Griffin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-griffin-designer/)** and **[Dominic Port](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-port/)**. The duo has worked on the design of products of all shapes and sizes and bring their energy and enthusiasm to this unique meet-up, packed with great guests and knowledge - for anyone interested in levelling up their game in the world of products.

**MONTY ENGLISH CONVERSATION GROUP** [https://montyenglish.co.uk/english-conversation-group-classes-in-london](https://montyenglish.co.uk/english-conversation-group-classes-in-london) **How to find us** When you arrive at the Royal George we go down into the basement and you will find us there. Just ask a staff member if you cannot find us! Here is the location of the Royal George on google maps: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/HpkySsu2rEqUUub1A](https://maps.app.goo.gl/HpkySsu2rEqUUub1A) * Food or drink at the pub is not included (please make at least one purchase - they have a good range of drinks and great food if you feel hungry) **How are the lessons?** The lesson is a General English lesson focused on speaking and error correction - every lesson we usually cover 3 different topics. This will encourage you to use new vocabulary and practise grammatical structures. The group has a limit of 25 people but I usually accept people if you are on the waiting list. You will be divided into groups of 3-6 with others of a similar speaking level so you'll have plenty of opportunity to talk and ask questions to your qualified, native teacher Jon. The lesson takes place in the relaxed environment of the Royal George basement which is a pleasant pub, a two-minute walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station. The lesson is ideal for pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate students wishing to get to the next level. If you have any questions about the English lesson then please call me or send me a message. **Payment** Payments can be made in cash or by card (free of charge) when you come to the class. If it is your first time it is only £2! After your first time it is £6 for a single class or you can buy a ticket that makes each class cheaper; 5 classes for £20, 10 classes for £25 (you can use these tickets whenever you like and do not need to come in a set period of time) or 20 classes for £40 which has a limited use to within a six-month period. You can also pay via our website: [https://montyenglish.co.uk/english-conversation-group-classes-in-london](https://montyenglish.co.uk/english-conversation-group-classes-in-london) I hope to see you soon - if you have any questions please message me (via WhatsApp) on 07771 561 576 All the best, Jon (event organiser)

**Details** We're back for another fun, friendly informal evening of product lightning talks and networking. We have 4 great speakers lined up to talk for 10 minutes (max) each on a product management topic that they’re passionate about. **Agenda** * 6:15 - Doors open - networking, drinks and nibbles * 7:00 - Welcome and intro * 7:10 - 4x 10 minute lightning talks + 5 mins Q&A per talk * 8:10 - More networking * 9:00 - Head to the pub **Our Speakers** * [Esra Yetis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/esrayetis/) \- Product Innovation & Transformation Coach & Speaker\. "Building Your Active\-Listening Muscle: Learning with Reflection Cycles" * [Grace Tolley-Smith](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracetolleysmith/) \- Senior Product Manager @ Rightmove\. "What Changes When Your Startup Gets Acquired" * [Rebecca Phillips](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-phillips-495739149/) \- Senior Product Manager\, Payments @ Depop\. "Payments is where product gets real\. 5 lessons from building marketplace payments" * [Debbie McMahon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmcmahon/) \- VP Product at loveholidays\. "Are your customers using AI as much as you are?" **Our event sponsor: Rightmove** * We're exceedingly grateful to [Rightmove](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/) for hosting us at their Soho office. **Getting there** * 33 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QU * Check in at reception, and you will be directed to the event space. * The talks start at 7pm. * Please arrive promptly, as spaces will be limited. * We have a max capacity of 75 attendees and will unfortunately have to turn people away once we reach capacity or after the talks have started. **Our founding sponsor: Zebra People** * Zebra People is a digital recruitment business specialising in helping tech companies to grow their product, engineering and design teams with top-calibre talent. * Looking to hire Product Managers, Engineers or Designers? Visit [zebrapeople.com](https://zebrapeople.com/) or contact nick@zebrapeople.com

**⚠️⚠️ TICKETED EVENT - BUY TICKETS ON [LUMA EVENT PAGE](https://luma.com/icr5pkqs) ⚠️⚠️** Product Is… is tackling something that keeps a lot of product teams up at night. ​ AI products are shipping faster than users are learning to trust them. In some industries, that gap is getting dangerous. ​ Tom Blower, Chief Product and R&D Officer at Agreena, has spent his career building AI products in sectors where the stakes are real - healthcare, agriculture, climate tech. He knows what it looks like when a product gives the right answer and the user still doesn't act on it. ​This event will be on the seventh floor at Synechron's office, 35 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7QB. A massive thank you to Synechron for providing the venue. ​Doors open at 6:30 PM, we kick off at 7:00 PM, and wrap up by 8:30 PM. Drinks and snacks will be provided. Come ready for proper discussion, new connections, and ideas worth thinking about. ​--- THE THEME - PRODUCT IS... CREATING A TRUST GAP --- ​AI products are getting better at a rate that is genuinely hard to keep up with. But capability and trust are not the same thing. ​Think about a farmer. They have decades of lived experience in their soil, their land, their seasons. An AI tool tells them to do something different. What happens? Often, nothing. Not because the AI is wrong, but because trust has not been earned. ​This is not a niche problem. It shows up in healthcare, in finance, in anywhere that human expertise has been built over time. Product teams are shipping features that users are quietly ignoring. The question is why, and what to do about it. ​We will be exploring how product teams build trust in AI when the people using it have good reason to be sceptical. How do you design for adoption when lived experience is the competition? And when speed of development is part of the problem, how do you slow down in the right places? ​The central question for the evening: can AI earn trust in industries built on lived experience? ​Come ready to pick a side. ​--- THE SPEAKER - TOM BLOWER --- ​Tom is Chief Product and R&D Officer at Agreena, a FinTech, AgTech and ClimateTech platform that helps farmers and corporations unlock the value of nature. At Agreena, Tom has led the development of Agatha, an AI advisory tool that gives farmers data-driven guidance tailored to their land - built on satellite data, remote sensing, and a deep respect for what farmers already know. ​Before Agreena, Tom was VP of Product at Kry and Livi, where he built digital and physical healthcare products used by millions of patients across Europe. Before that, he led product at Ada Health, the AI-powered symptom assessment app with over 10 million downloads and the number one healthcare app in 120 countries. ​Tom started his career at Dyson, where he spent nearly a decade in R&D and product design, winning a Red Dot Award along the way. ​He has shipped AI products to some of the most trust-resistant user groups on the planet. He has a lot to say about it. ​-------- ABOUT 'PRODUCT IS...' -------- ​PMs, UX & UI designers, user researchers, developers - you like to dream big when it comes to digital products… Now it's time share your perspective! ​'Product is…' grounds itself in informed, knowledgeable context and healthy conversation - vital ingredients to tech success. One keynote speaker sets the tone on a theme of less travelled subject matter before all attendees add their perspective during the second half of round table-style discussion. ​Don't expect standard tech meetup fare like "How to improve your CV/Portfolio for that dream job at Facebook" or "How this new framework/approach will improve your workflow" - this meetup is food for the mind, but also a place to meet like-minded big-thinkers! We welcome everyone who works in tech - EVERYONE has a valuable perspective that we learn from. ​-------- WHY WE CHARGE FOR TICKETS -------- ​We do not aim to make a profit from this meetup, our goal is to create healthy and interesting conversations, meet new people and make new connections. Speakers and the organising team give up their time free of charge to ensure the events are enjoyable for all. A charge is required for attendance - this allows the organisation team to cover overheads, plus food and drink for the evening. To be clear, we're working towards lowering our costs as much as possible to keep ticket prices as low as possible.

Curious about “vibe coding” but not sure what it actually means? This beginner-friendly talk is about how people are using AI to build websites, apps, automations, and small software projects by describing what they want in plain English. We’ll cover what vibe coding is, what AI is good at, where it falls short, and how to actually use it without getting lost. The goal is not to hype AI as magic — it’s to show how to use it as a practical tool. This session is designed for beginners, curious builders, non-programmers, and developers who want a clearer picture of how to build with AI today. Topics include: * What “vibe coding” means * What AI can help you build * Where AI is useful and where it is unreliable * A simple workflow for building with AI * Prompting tips for better results * Common beginner mistakes to avoid If you’ve ever thought, “I have an idea, but I don’t know how to build it,” this talk is for you. LOGISTICS AND PARKING: The talk starts at 7:00 PM. The first half hour is reserved for everyone to get set up and mingle. Free pizza and drinks! The cheapest parking option is to find street parking, which will only cost you a few bucks. Otherwise, park in the nearby veteran's museum lot for $8. It's highly recommended you avoid the nearby $15 garage parking.

Join other experienced and aspiring agile coaches and professionals to: * develop and practice your coaching skills in a peer-to-peer environment * share current successes and challenges in your work environment and get support from each other * learn from each other, build better relationships and experiment with new ideas ***NOTE:*** Pre-registration is required for this event. **Please arrive 10 minutes early** to check in at the security desk.

The global Azure community is coming together again, and Columbus is officially on the map. View the session lineup and speakers at [Global Azure Columbus 2026](https://coazure.github.io/cbus-global-azure-2026/) On **Saturday, April 18, 2026**, the Azure Columbus Meetup, DevOps Meetup, and Code and Coffee Meetup are hosting our local edition of Global Azure 2026. This is a free, community-driven event packed with learning, networking, and all things Microsoft Azure. Whether you’re building modern cloud-native apps, experimenting with AI agents, deploying containers, automating infrastructure, or just beginning your Azure journey, this event is for you! **What to Expect** * Engaging technical sessions * Real-world Azure architecture & cloud-native patterns * AI, agents, automation, and modern DevOps * Food and drinks (because learning burns calories) * Time to connect with fellow engineers, architects, and cloud enthusiasts **Who Should Attend?** * Software engineers (any language, any stack) * Cloud architects * DevOps engineers * Data professionals * AI explorers * Platform builders * Anyone who loves solving hard problems with great tools If you build, deploy, automate, scale, monitor, or optimize in Azure, you’ll feel right at home. **Why Global Azure?** Global Azure is a worldwide community event where Azure user groups host learning sessions on the same day across the globe. It’s grassroots. It’s technical. It’s practical. And it’s powered by people who genuinely love sharing what they’ve learned. And yes, it’s free to attend!

This is a free, in-person meeting on the subject of betrayals, losses and how to get over them so you can build lasting relationships. Burdened by a stressful relationship? Unhealthy relationships can trigger feelings of anger, despair or self-doubt. They can create dwindling spirals of fights and seeking to make-up, or trying to “pin the blame” on someone or something. If you don’t find the RIGHT reasons, or select the correct sources of the problem, the problem can just get worse and worse. Whether in love or personal ties, with friends or at work, our life really IS affected by the quality of our relationships. Good ones can promote pleasure and survival while less optimum ones can lead to annoyance, anger, self-doubt, stress, or even affect our health and ability to survive well. Whether you are suffering from a divorce, or a painful break-up, don’t know who to trust (or who to CHOOSE) as a partner, friend, boss or employee - the anxiety of relationship troubles can really make a mess of things. Maybe you’ve suffered a betrayal, or are dealing with hostility or criticalness or invalidation. Dwindling relationships can involve destructive behavior, where we hurt those we love, or start succumbing to self-destructive thoughts, attitudes or behaviors that spiral out of control and affect much more than our immediate relationship. Past losses in love or life can affect how we act or react to new people and situations and hold us back from even starting to create new, possibly great relationships! How can one get back onto a saner course of action? Come to our Meetup, where we can introduce you to some of the knowledge, tools and techniques of the breakthroughs in the field of the mind that we can apply to this ever important area of life: human relationships! Break free from self imposed limitations Here we will discuss: • How to “erase” the trauma of past hurts and betrayals so that one isn’t always repeating past mistakes. • Why and how do the negative emotions of others affect you? • Why is my partner withdrawing and what can I do about it? • Why do we sometimes feel compelled to hurt the ones we love? • Fights & arguments - what's really behind them? • What underlies “corrosive criticism” or the need to invalidate self or others? • How one can stably change one’s outlook on life so they can affect positive change? • Where do compulsive destructive behaviors come from and what can be done about them? • How to form closer bonds & keep growing the relationships with the people you care about? • How to enhance one’s own ability to survive and create positive healthy relationships whether in love, family & friendships or in work, business or one’s career? Relationships can be hard and life itself IS challenging. Why not arm yourself with the knowledge and breakthroughs that have been made about the mind, mental reactions & interpersonal relationships, so that one has better awareness and control over themselves and life in general. Learn where painful experiences are “stored” and how they can unknowingly affect us. You will also find out how one can “erase” those past painful experiences so that one is free to move forward without being tripped up by the past. Learn too, about what can lead some people to become “toxic” personalities and how to identify those traits in others so you won’t be tripped up trusting the wrong person. Our free Meet-ups occur in a safe environment where one can learn, without fear of judgment or criticism, and without the recommendation of harmful mental techniques or therapies, just how YOU can get yourself onto a happier & more successful path: in love & in life. We look forward to having you join us! This class is sponsored by the Dianetics & Scientology Life Improvement Center of Central Ohio.

A WiA Collective Wisdom Exchange At the start of this year, we gathered to look back, set intentions, and imagine the next chapter. This is the follow-up. Not a check-in. Not a progress report. A small, facilitated circle to reconnect with what you said mattered — and honestly explore what’s actually happening now. Together, we’ll explore: • What you intended at the start of this year - and what that looks like three months in • What’s surprised you, supported you, or shifted • What the next chapter needs now that you know what you know If you were at our January gathering, bring whatever you made or wrote — your word, your artifact, your intention. We’ll look at it with fresh eyes. If this is your first time, you belong here too. You’ll start where we all started: with what’s true right now. Optional art materials will be available for anyone who wants to reflect creatively alongside conversation. If you brought something home from January, you’re warmly invited to bring it back. The intention is the same as always: everyone leaves feeling more clear, more connected, and a little lighter. Space is intentionally limited to keep the experience intimate. What to Expect • A small, welcoming circle (not a large meetup) • Structured conversation so everyone has space to speak • Reflection, listening, and lived experience — not advice-giving • Optional creative reflection alongside conversation • A calm, supportive environment Who This Is For Women and underrepresented folks working in or around agile, product, technology, leadership, or organizational change — especially those looking for honest conversation and community beyond frameworks and buzzwords. Good to Know • No preparation required • If you attended in January, we invite you to bring anything you created or wrote (or something that represents your intention at the start of the year) - it’s optional but invited • Participation is invitational; listening is always welcome • Creative activities are optional

Attend a free seminar on how to have successful and lasting relationships. At this seminar you will learn: How to spot and handle negative and toxic relationships. How to get through the "rough patches" in a relationship. How to choose the right people to work with. The three things that make or break any relationship. How to make a good relationship great. All are welcome. Be sure to click on the red "Attend" button below to come to this local event. We look forward to seeing you there. Hosted by the Dianetics and Scientology Life Improvement Center of Central Ohio.

**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** GitHub Copilot is powerful, but what if you could scale from a solo AI assistant to an entire team of specialized agents working in parallel? This session introduces Squad: an open-source framework for multi-agent orchestration that lets you define teams of AI agents with specific roles, responsibilities, and expertise. We'll progress from Copilot basics to the Copilot CLI, explore how Agents add autonomy, and see how Instructions and Skills let you customize agent behavior. Then, the climax: a live demo where a Squad team of 3 agents (Lead, Developer, Tester) stands up and builds a working application in real-time, showcasing true multi-agent collaboration. Whether you're new to AI or exploring how to scale your use of Copilot, this session will show you what's possible when agents work as a team. **YouTube Link** TBD