Functional Programming

Join Sandon Jacobs on Monday, May 25th from 6:00pm hosted by Improving! 📍**Venue:** **Improving Office** 171 East Liberty St Unit 235 Toronto, Ontario M6K 3P6 **Directions (171 E Liberty St - Suite 235)** **By transit** Streetcars 504 and 509 both travel close to the office (less than 10 minute walk to the office from either), the lakeshore GO train is also a 5 minute walk from the office. **By car/parking** On street parking is available - there are a handful of paid parking spots directly in front of the entrance - with a large city parking lot across the street. **Entrance** The entrance to the office is beside the Bulk Barn entrance facing Hannah Street. There is an Improving logo on the door. 🗓 **Agenda:** * 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Welcome, Food/Drinks & Networking * 6:30pm - 7:30 pm: **From Chaos to Contract: Governing Data Streams** by Sandon Jacobs **💡 Speaker Details:** Sandon Jacobs, Senior Developer Advocate, Confluent **From Chaos to Contract: Governing Data Streams** So you’re committed to this path of data streaming with Apache Kafka. But, here’s a question: would you build a REST API and make users guess the request and response formats? Doing so opens a Pandora’s Box… * What’s the domain model? * Name the operation… POST? GET? PUT? PATCH? * What does this error code even mean? * Is the documentation - if it even exists - accurate and relevant? * Imagine the complex, repetitive logic every consuming system would need to implement to make sense of it all. In a distributed, asynchronous system, these problems are magnified. Apache Kafka's flexibility—messages as simple bytes—is a huge strength, but it's also a major risk. While your event streams likely consist of some structured data (maybe JSON strings), enforcing structure, managing evolution, and basic validations aren’t a hard requirement. This leaves consumer applications to perform this preprocessing of every event - even if that event has no business value. In this session, we'll define data contracts and how to enforce them at the source - the applications that produce events. We’ll cover the practice of using a schema registry - supporting popular serialization formats like Apache Avro and Google Protobuf - to design events in the terminology of our business domain. Because data structures change over time, let’s discuss safe schema evolution practices. Then we’ll utilize these contracts with schema registry-aware producer and consumer code. We’ll end our time by looking at how smart CI/CD pipelines and build-time checks can add an extra layer of defense against the costly problem of poison data. It’s time to stop guessing and start governing. Join us to learn how to move validation upstream and transform your event streams into high-quality, discoverable data products. You’ll walk away with a practical blueprint for enforcing schema integrity and automating evolution—ensuring your data streams are a trusted asset. \*\*\* DISCLAIMER We don't cater to attendees under the age of 18. If you want to host or speak at a meetup, please email [community@confluent.io](http://community@confluent.io/)

Welcome to the Toronto Young Professional & Startup Enthusiast Meetup Group! Navigating work/personal life in this mega city can be challenging ! We welcome all the Toronto young professionals & startup lovers to join this community that provides you an inclusive and casual platform to share, discuss, and grow! No matter what career stage you are at, what industry you work for, or what startup idea you are brainstorming, this inclusive & vibrant community aims to help you embark on your new personal/work journey! If work sounds annoying to you or you are new to the city, you can just come have a coffee and meet new people! Let's exchange ideas and create new memories together! We welcome you to join us at Sweetway Cafe. We plan to meet weekly or biweekly at various locations in Toronto. If you have any suggestions for meeting locations or activities, feel free to let me know!

**🏛️ WHAT'S PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY ABOUT?** Practical Philosophy is a weekly meet-up that brings critical thinkers together for an opportunity to dive deep on a topic, practice communicating, and building a community. All with no ‘official’ philosophy knowledge required! 😎 Practical Philosophy is based on the idea that philosophy should be accessible to all, and not something reserved only for academics. Each week we choose a topic, and the goal is to use the conversation to develop our critical thinking and communication as we explore that topic. The goal is to help develop our Critical Thinking, Communication, and Community 🙌 **📓 HOW DOES IT WORK?** Each week, we pick one topic and discuss it. The topic for the week is shared, generally in the [Whatsapp group](https://tally.so/r/81LP4A), along with jump-off points to get the conversation going. When groups get bigger than 7-8 people, it’s important that we break into smaller groups. This way we are able to maintain a conversational flow as opposed to having our meetups feel like a discourse or lecture. **General Meeting Agenda** Each Practical Philosophy meet-up follows this general timeline: * 19:00-19:15 - People arrive and chat, get to know each other before the official start. * 19:15-19:25 - Meeting introduction, explanation of Practical Philosophy and the topic for the week, read the guidelines and the overview so attendees know what to expect in terms of timelines. * 19:25-20:45 - Break into small groups - introduce yourselves and general thoughts on the topic, open discussion afterwards. At this point the group can review the ‘jump-off’ questions as needed, but they are just there to help guide the conversation. It’s not obligatory to answer them. * 20:45-21:00 - Bring everyone back together to discuss conclusions of the topic - each group gives a short 1-minute summary. Organizer concludes the meeting and everyone takes a group photo. * 21:00 - The official meeting is over but it’s a great opportunity to get to know people in a non-structured environment, so we often stick around, chat, and get to know each other. **🧧PRICING?** Practical Philosophy is operated entirely on voluntary donations! If we are meeting in a café, buy a beverage! Donations are 100% voluntary, but they help us to bring the gift of deep conversation to people around the world. If you'd like to support, you can [donate here](https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donation-form/donate-to-practical-philosophy)! (Practical Philosophy is a registered Canadian charity) **💛 WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY** **🗣** “I feel like Philosophy Club helps someone build their own belief system through a series of perspectives while not promoting what’s right and wrong” - Ekam 🗣 “I got hooked from day 1 (the topic was authority) and felt it was the right place for me. I feel it is a place where people can go to learn and discuss new perspectives and increase critical thinking and community by interacting with people who might challenge your point of views but at the same time encourage you to have openness and mind flexibility.” - Daniel **🤓 FAQ** * **Do I need to study or read anything to attend?** No preparation is necessary. This isn’t a study of other thinkers. We want to know what you think about the topic, not what an old philosopher thought. If you have a perspective from a religion or a school of thought to share, throw it on the table and we’ll discuss it. * **Is there a specific philosophy that Practical Philosophy is focused on?** The goal of our meet-ups is to not have dogmatic discussions, and flex our critical thinking muscles. Because of this, we want to hear from every realm of thought, and don't study a particular school. * **Is it mostly men that attend?** Surprisingly, no! Although often, philosophy is seen as a Candelabra affair in a dark room with a bunch of guys, our Practical Philosophy meetups are generally 50/50 between genders, and we don’t meet in any dark rooms. * **Can I come alone?** Of course you can, we encourage it :) * **Can I be late?** Please don't be! We do have a 15 minute grace period where we allow people to funnel in while we hang out, but after that if you arrive too late, it disrupts the flow of the conversation. * **Where do you meet?** The location is posted in Meetup and our [Whatsapp](https://tally.so/r/81LP4A) group for this location. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you join the Whatsapp group! If you want to know what other cities have a Practical Philosophy Club, you can see our chapters on our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/). 🤝**POLICY** To respect our members privacy, we ask that no one privately message a member without first getting explicit consent. (This looks like speaking in person and being asked to message privately.) Contacting or texting other participants without prior consent is not permitted and may result in removal from the group. Practical Philosophy reserves the right to enforce this policy at its discretion to maintain a safe and respectful environment. **PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY CLUB - Philosophy, everywhere. ✨** We started in Practical Philosophy back in 2021 and there are now 50+ chapters in 25+ countries, including Canada, Spain, Japan, Mexico and many more! 🗺️ **\*\*\*** **Join our [Mississauga Whatsapp](https://tally.so/r/81LP4A) 👈** **Follow us on [Instagram](instagram.com/practicalphilosophyclub/) 👈** **Our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/) 👈**

### JUST GO WITH IT IMPROV – WEEKLY DROP-IN Whether you’re experienced in improv or completely new, you’re invited to join us each week at the Thornhill Community Centre. (Atrium Room, Look for large plant in middle of round hallway. We welcome all skill levels for a fun, supportive, and high-energy session. Have limited spots available and hoping to get a few extra from meetup. **$25 per drop-in • 7:00pm–8:00 PM**

🎟 **This is a paid event. Tickets must be purchased on Luma.** **Get yours: [https://luma.com/tiequest-2026](https://luma.com/tiequest-2026)** **\#\#\#\# TiEQuest Summit 2026 \- Building in Canada for the World** A morning built for founders who are done thinking small - and ready to hear how the best in Canada actually went global. **🧠 What to Expect** Sharp talks and practical insights from founders, operators, and investors who are actually doing the work. No fluff, just the real story of what it takes to scale ambitious companies from Toronto to the world. **🤝 Who's in the Room** Founders at every stage. Operators building something meaningful. Investors looking for what's next. If you're shaping the future of Canadian tech, you belong here. **📍 Where** U of T Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, one of Canada's most exciting hubs for tech and entrepreneurship. **📅 Monday, May 25, 2026** **⏰ 8:30AM – 12:30PM** **📍 108 College St, Toronto, ON**

**Set goals.** **Be accountable for them.** **Move your life forward with purpose.** Our goal is to cause greatness by mentoring men to live with excellence and, as mature masculine leaders, create successful families, careers and communities. If you have the desire to work on being the man that your legacy demands that you be (which means being the best you can be, we can work on what your legacy demands with you later) and the man you always wanted to be then we look forward to you attending. Our group is part of Mentor Discover Inspire (MDI). This group meets Mondays, North of Finch Avenue, usually indoors, outdoors in the summer but occasionally on Zoom. To confirm this week's location, please rsvp to Ricardo, call/text (647) 880-1488, or email ricardophilip@hotmail.com From MDI website[: https://goo.gl/3DQ6](https://goo.gl/3DQ6aY)aY From Toronto Sta[r: https://goo.gl/oDH](https://goo.gl/oDH3uX)3uX Regular attendees do not always RSVP, expect 6-8 men to be present.

These monthly socials are a chance to network with other students and professionals in the geomatics field to chat GIS, data, remote sensing, surveying and more in a casual atmosphere. Feel free to bring friends and colleagues along - we're eager to welcome everyone back for a fantastic evening! This is a free event. Please RSVP to let us know you're attending.

Toronto's professional singles deserve better than dating apps and awkward bar introductions. Soulmates Club is raising the standard. **Make sure you get your ticket through Eventbrite: [click here](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1989964088156)** Join us for an intimate evening of real conversation, genuine connection, and effortless mingling curated exclusively for ambitious professionals who are serious about finding love. **What to expect:** * A handpicked guest list capped at just 50 attendees * An upscale, welcoming atmosphere at one of Toronto's premier venues, Myth * Smart casual dress code, come as your best self Follow us to learn more! Website: [https://thesoulmatesclub.com/](https://thesoulmatesclub.com/ "https://thesoulmatesclub.com/") Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/the_soulmates_club](https://www.instagram.com/the_soulmates_club "https://www.instagram.com/the_soulmates_club")

**✨✨ Toronto Tech Week 2026 is here!! ✨✨** Here’s the May edition of our in-person event at Super.com on May 27, 2026 Join us for some drinks, snacks, and a Tech Talk. Coming from TTW and looking for an informal meetup to meet new people? Our May meetup is your place! Get introduced to TorontoJS events format with a Tech Talk, and then join other like minded folks over some food and beverages. Make sure to mark your calendars and come out and join us for this event! **🕑 Agenda & Schedule ✨** * **18:00** - Doors open * **18:20** - Intro and announcements * **18:30** - **Shipping AI Chat in Production: The Things JavaScript Demos Don’t Show** by [Sanyam Khurana](https://www.sanyamkhurana.com/) **Abstract:** *Adding AI chat to an app looks simple in demos, but production is where it gets real. I’ll cover streaming, rate limits, cost control, retrieval, and security pitfalls like prompt injection—plus patterns to move from prototype to reliable, production-ready systems.* * **19:00** - Networking over Food and Beverages * **21:00** - Doors Close *** (**Note**: *All times in the schedule are an approximation.*) Please RSVP to confirm your attendance. If you have your friends or teammates joining please ask them to RSVP as well. This event is open to all skill levels. Many thanks to [Super.com](Super.com) for hosting us! We're looking for sponsors for events like these. If you or your company would like to support TorontoJS and get a message out to our community, please get in touch with organizers@torontojs.com The Code of Conduct is enforced at all TorontoJS events and spaces - online or in-person. TorontoJS is a volunteer-led not-for-profit organization. **Please help us** with tidying up. Otherwise, the venue staff and volunteers will have to pick up after you. \-\-\- # **The Venue 🏠** The venue is next door to Shoppers Drug Mart, a nondescript door that you'll have to look for a little more carefully. “*Toronto Tech Week is a citywide celebration of the people building what’s next. From May 25–29, 2026, founders, investors, and builders come together for hundreds of community-led events across Toronto, connecting tens of thousands of people around Canadian tech. Torontotechweek.com*” \-\-\- *TorontoJS is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all. Our Code of Conduct applies both online and in person at all our events and spaces.* See you there! 🎉

Can your agents scale without bankrupting your API quota or your compute budget? Join this session to explore a production-ready architecture that uses the LLM Council pattern, Google’s Agent Development Kit (ADK) for Java and Spring AI, all deployed on Cloud Run. And discover how replacing probabilistic reason-and-act (ReAct) loops with LLM Council enable goal-oriented action planning (GOAP) creates agents that are not only smarter but also significantly lighter and faster – making them the perfect workload for serverless execution. **About the venue** Free Times Cafe has bistro-style seating and a full food and drink menu. Please consider helping to support the venue by planning to have supper during the talk. **Speaker Bio** Dan Dobrin is an App Architect in Google Cloud, helping customer teams adopt modern AI technologies, cloud-native patterns, practices and technologies in GCP. Dan focuses on building GenAI applications, adopting AI coding assistance tooling with Gemini, Native Java Images, Spring AI, event-driven architectures, production-readiness and performance optimization. Prior to joining Google Cloud, he has built highly scalable, low-latency, frameworks for technology, security and financial services organizations.

**[GrafanaCON Local](https://grafana.com/events/grafanacon-local/) Toronto - featuring the latest in AI Observability** Join us for a local edition of GrafanaCON — a recap of the keynote highlights combined with fresh voices from the Toronto community, all with an AI twist. We'll dig into actually useful uses of AI in observability, and how to add observability for AI workloads. Free to attend. Pizza and drinks provided. **Talks** 🎤 **Grafana 13: The road to AI-native observability** — Marylia Gutierrez, Principal Software Engineer @ Grafana Labs This talk will walk through Grafana 13 and the most impactful improvements across the platform. Learn how Grafana is continuing to invest in AI to become the first fully AI-native observability platform, and the default choice for agents. 🎤 **Scaling Grafana Assistant: Context, confidence, and AI observability** — Edward Qian, Staff Software Engineer @ Grafana Labs AI agents are only as powerful as the context they receive. In this session, we'll share lessons from building Grafana Assistant and offer practical tips for bringing the right context to get the most out of AI agents. 🎤 **AI tools to optimize your development workflow** — Cristiano Ventura, Senior Software Engineer @ Grafana Labs The way we write software has changed. AI systems read code, plan, execute shell commands, run tests, open PRs, and ship work end-to-end. This talk will showcase useful AI tools and concepts to improve your development workflow. **Agenda** 5:30 PM — Doors open, food + networking 6:00 PM — Talks begin \~8:00 PM — Networking continues 8:30 PM — Wrap *Note that by registering for this event you consent to related event & product communications from Grafana Labs and agree to our [code of conduct](https://grafana.com/events/events-code-of-conduct/).*

🚨📢 **Please register using this link:** 👉 https://usergroups.snowflake.com/e/mwgfby/ **Bring your laptop fully charged. No prior CoCo experience needed.** Join the Snowflake Toronto User Group for **CoCo Labs** — a hands-on evening dedicated to **Cortex Code (CoCo)**, Snowflake's AI coding agent that takes data teams from natural language to production-ready code. ​You'll get a live demo from Snowflake SMEs, guided hands-on lab time, and the chance to build real things: fix a data pipeline and create your first Cortex Agent — all through conversation with CoCo. Wrap up the night by showcasing what you built (only for the brave!), then stick around for networking and happy hour. A light meal and refreshments will be served. **Agenda 🗓️** ​5:00 – 5:15pm - Arrival and check-in ​5:15 – 5:30pm - Welcome + Cortex Code Overview ​5:30 – 5:45pm - Account sign-up and set up of Cortex Code ​5:45 – 6:30pm - Cortex Code Workshop * ​Diagnose a stale pipeline, fix it, and onboard new sources * ​Build your first agent: enable business users to ask natural language questions on our data ​6:30 – 7:00pm - Explore Cortex Code on your own ​7:00 - 7:20pm - Brave Soul Showcase ​7:20 - 8:00pm - Networking & Happy Hour

[Summary] This meetup is for those who are interested in code, web development, design, cloud, or AI. All levels are welcome, so feel free to bring your laptop and discuss what you are working on or what you are learning. You can share your projects and ideas with other participants freely. There are outlets and WiFi, drinks are about $5 for tea, they take card only. [Price] Attendance is FREE. But you need to buy something from the venue. [Policies] \- We do not tolerate harassment of our members \- We remind users that that this meetup is intended for networking and hobby development\, and any attempts at using this meetup event as a dating platform will not be not be tolerated Further information: https://torontostack.exchange/

**NO PHILOSOPHY EXPERTISE REQUIRED!** **🏛️ WHAT'S PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY ABOUT?** Practical Philosophy is a weekly meet-up that brings critical thinkers together for an opportunity to dive deep on a topic, practice communicating, and building a community. All with no ‘official’ philosophy knowledge required! 😎 Practical Philosophy is based on the idea that philosophy should be accessible to all, and not something reserved only for academics. Each week we choose a topic, and the goal is to use the conversation to develop our critical thinking and communication as we explore that topic. The goal is to help develop our Critical Thinking, Communication, and Community 🙌 **📓 HOW DOES IT WORK?** Each week, we pick one topic and discuss it. The topic for the week is shared, generally in the [Whatsapp group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t), along with jump-off points to get the conversation going. When groups get bigger than 7-8 people, it’s important that we break into smaller groups. This way we are able to maintain a conversational flow as opposed to having our meetups feel like a discourse or lecture. **General Meeting Agenda** Each Practical Philosophy meet-up follows this general timeline: * 19:30-19:45 - People arrive and chat, get to know each other before the official start. * 19:45-19:55 - Meeting introduction, explanation of Practical Philosophy and the topic for the week, read the guidelines and the overview so attendees know what to expect in terms of timelines. * 19:55-21:15 - Break into small groups - introduce yourselves and general thoughts on the topic, open discussion afterwards. At this point the group can review the ‘jump-off’ questions as needed, but they are just there to help guide the conversation. It’s not obligatory to answer them. * 21:15-21:30 - Bring everyone back together to discuss conclusions of the topic - each group gives a short 1-minute summary. Organizer concludes the meeting and everyone takes a group photo. * 21:30 - The official meeting is over but it’s a great opportunity to get to know people in a non-structured environment, so we often stick around, chat, and get to know each other. **🧧PRICING?** Practical Philosophy is operated entirely on voluntary donations! If we are meeting in a café, buy a beverage! Donations are 100% voluntary, but they help us to bring the gift of deep conversation to people around the world. If you'd like to support, you can [donate here](https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donation-form/donate-to-practical-philosophy)! (Practical Philosophy is a registered Canadian charity) **💛 WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY** **🗣** “I feel like Philosophy Club helps someone build their own belief system through a series of perspectives while not promoting what’s right and wrong” - Ekam 🗣 “I got hooked from day 1 and felt it was the right place for me. I feel it is a place where people can go to learn and discuss new perspectives and increase critical thinking and community by interacting with people who might challenge your point of views but at the same time encourage you to have openness and mind flexibility.” - Daniel **🤓 FAQ** * **​What will we talk about? What's the topic?** ​The topic for the week is shared every Sunday in the Whatsapp group. We try to add the topic to the comment section on this event page as well but if you don’t see it, the topic and the jump-off points will be in our [Whatsapp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t). * **Do I need to study or read anything to attend?** No preparation is necessary. This isn’t a study of other thinkers. We want to know what you think about the topic, not what an old philosopher thought. If you have a perspective from a religion or a school of thought to share, throw it on the table and we’ll discuss it. * **Is there a specific philosophy that Practical Philosophy is focused on?** The goal of our meet-ups is to not have dogmatic discussions, and flex our critical thinking muscles. Because of this, we want to hear from every realm of thought, and don't study a particular school. * **Is it mostly men that attend?** Surprisingly, no! Although often, philosophy is seen as a Candelabra affair in a dark room with a bunch of guys, our Practical Philosophy meetups are generally 50/50 between genders, and we don’t meet in any dark rooms. * **Can I come alone?** Of course you can, we encourage it :) * **Can I be late?** Please don't be! We do have a 15 minute grace period where we allow people to funnel in while we hang out, but after that if you arrive too late, it disrupts the flow of the conversation. * **Where do you meet?** The location is posted in Meetup and our [Whatsapp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t) group for this location. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you join the Whatsapp group! If you want to know what other cities have a Practical Philosophy Club, you can see our chapters on our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/practical-philosophy-locations/). 🤝**POLICY** To respect our members privacy, we ask that no one privately message a member without first getting explicit consent. (This looks like speaking in person and being asked to message privately.) Contacting or texting other participants without prior consent is not permitted and may result in removal from the group. Practical Philosophy reserves the right to enforce this policy at its discretion to maintain a safe and respectful environment. **PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY CLUB - Philosophy, everywhere. ✨** We started in Practical Philosophy back in 2021 and there are now 50+ chapters in over 25 countries, including Canada, Spain, Japan, Mexico and many more! 🗺️ **\*\*\*** **Join our Toronto [Whatsapp Group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t) 👈** **Follow us on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/practicalphilosophyclub/) 👈** **Our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/) 👈**

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: Nothing yet. (You should volunteer). What is Cocoaheads (http://cocoaheads.org/)? CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on MacOS X and iOS (including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch). During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. What is BuckeyeCocoa (http://buckeyecocoa.org/)? BuckeyeCocoa is a group of Objective-C/Swift developers/enthusiasts. We host monthly Cocoaheads and near-weekly NSCoder meetings in Columbus, Ohio. The meetings are free to attend. Presentations! Presenters welcome! We are always in need of people willing to present material. Any Swift and/or Objective-C related topic is welcome. Times can be 5 minutes (i.e. lightning talks) to a maximum of 2 hours. Interested? Contact info is on the BuckeyeCocoa website. To volunteer for a presentation contact us at @BuckeyeCocoa on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! @BuckeyeCocoa (https://twitter.com/#!/Buckeyecocoa/) For more information: http://buckeyecocoa.org/

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

**Latest Dojo Location!** **Knotty Pine Brewing** 1765 W 3rd Ave, Columbus, OH 43212 We're going to try a new dojo location for a few weeks and see how it works Dojos are informal Python group study sessions where everyone interested in Python gathers to learn about Python, help others with Python, or just hang out. Everyone is welcome from Python beginners to experts. Bringing a laptop is encouraged (we'll have extension cords and power strips). If there's something you want to learn leave a comment on this invite so we can plan ahead. We're looking for speakers for our Monthly Meetups! Fill out the form if you are interested in presenting to the Python Community. https://forms.gle/ehSfUAC2WgR34Crq9

**How to take control of your subconscious and harness its power!** Join us for an eye-opening lecture where the speaker will break down complex ideas in a clear and practical way. You’ll gain insights into: ✅ The true definition of the subconscious ✅ How it generates unwanted emotions ✅ Its real purpose and function ✅ What determines the pressure it exerts on you And the most important topic: **How do you take control of your subconscious!** But this isn’t just another lecture where you sit and listen passively. It’s interactive and engaging—you can ask questions at any time. 📅 Reserve your spot now! Seats are limited, so don’t wait too long to sign up. Location: 1266 Dublin Rd, Columbus, OH 43215 Hosted by the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation

**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** Like it or not, AI agents are now capable of turning a quickly written paragraph of requirements into a pull request that is ready to be integrated into real-world production applications and it's now our responsibility to make sure AI doesn't go rogue and take down prod - or corrupt our data by misunderstanding the requirements or our existing schemas. In this session we'll explore strategies to protect our codebases through unit and integration testing, documentation, and code review along with additional ways of providing context and guard rails to our AI agents as they carry out the work we've assigned them to do. By the time we're done, you'll have a firm grasp of the problem and understand some helpful options for protecting your codebase from vibe coding mishaps getting YOLOed into prod. **YouTube Link** TBD

Our monthly PHP meetup. A virtual shindig courtesy of Zoom. Check back here for the details around 6:15 pm

Most people use AI like a search box: they type one sentence, hope for the best, and get frustrated when the answer is generic, wrong, or useless. But getting better results from tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other AI systems is not about memorizing magic prompts. It is about learning how to give the AI better context. In this beginner-friendly session, we’ll break down how to make AI dramatically more useful by improving the way you communicate with it. You’ll learn how to give clearer instructions, provide examples, set constraints, ask for better output formats, and use follow-up questions to turn a mediocre answer into a genuinely useful one. We’ll cover practical techniques you can use immediately for work, learning, writing, coding, planning, research, and everyday problem solving. We’ll also touch on why these same ideas show up in more advanced AI systems, including RAG, agents, evaluations, and AI workflows. No technical background required. Bring your curiosity, your questions, and maybe one real task you wish AI was better at helping you with. **What you’ll learn:** * Why “better prompting” is really about better context * How to structure requests so AI gives more useful answers * How to use examples, constraints, and output formats * How to iterate when the first answer is not good enough * How these skills connect to more advanced AI workflows This meetup is for anyone who wants to move beyond basic ChatGPT usage and start getting more practical value out of AI. 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.