Information Architecture

Join me for a relaxed walk and bird watching at Albert Park Lake, an extraordinary wetland habitat that is home to nearly two hundred species of birds. Created from a lagoon and originally part of the extensive Yarra River Delta, the lake and its surrounds are a popular parkland for locals and visitors alike. Together we can enjoy conversation and make new friends as we follow the path beside the water's edge and look out for gulls and cormorants roosting on the wharves. We'll wind our way around the lake and pass Gunn Island, a tranquil sanctuary and a safe nesting environment for local and migratory birds. Further around the lake we'll see waterbirds such as stilts, swamphens and coots among the reed beds. When we reach the southern end of the lake we can stop to enjoy the magnificent views of the city skyline across the water. This is a great spot for photography. We'll return to relax and socialise together in the Coots Picnic area and enjoy a snack and a drink. You can pick up a coffee and something to eat at the nearby Sir Albert Cafe or bring your own drinks and snacks. **Agenda** I will meet you at 10am on the lakeside of the Light Rail Tram Stop No.129 Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. We'll set off at 10.10am and follow the path beside the Melbourne Aquatic Centre and through the picnic area to the lake. From there we'll stroll past the wharves and Gunn Island, follow the long stretch of reed beds and walk to the southernmost point of the lake to take in the stunning views of the city skyline. We'll then make our way back to the Coots Picnic area to enjoy a snack and a drink together. This is an easy walk on flat pathways and the distance will be about 5.5km all up. It will take us around 1hr 45mins at a leisurely pace with stops along the way to enjoy and photograph the birdlife. **Location** Albert Park Lake is located in the suburb of Albert Park, 3km from the Melbourne CBD. The No.96 tram/light rail runs from the Melbourne CBD down past Albert Park Lake. There is free street parking available on Canterbury Road which runs beside the tram/light rail. Parking Fees apply to all car parks within Albert Park. When you RSVP, please click Attend on the event page and I will be in touch via Direct Messages about the details. I will also be available in the Event Comments on the day.

Hi Everyone, The next walk & talk is happening Monday 6th @ 1pm. We're meeting @ **Shrine of Remembrance "Flame"** then we'll walk to Botanic Gardens from there. For newcomers, this group is meant to help participants nurture and create a comfortable, trustworthy and safe emotional space to connect with other men, while sharing vulnerabilities about themselves. Men of all ages welcome. This will provide another great opportunity to practice being more present in the moment, authentic within ourself, while challenging our ability to break the ice with others in attendance. Let's continue practicing connecting in a deeper way with new people we meet. This group will help reinforce the benefit of showing vulnerability with others, while staying authentic to ourselves. This Sunday's group will be led by **Ra'id.** (Mindset Coach) and Co-led by **Fabien** (Group Facilitator) Looking forward to seeing you there. (message me thru meetup if needed)

Have you been interested in woodworking, 3D printing, CNC, cosplay or Electronics? Come visit Maker Community to get a tour of our space, learn about our memberships, have a chat with our members and discuss your dream projects.

**\*\*\*This is a pre-booking event. Please visit [artmasterclass.com.au](https://www.artmasterclass.com.au/) choose your lamp, use the MEETAMC10 coupon code, and make a reservation.\*\*\*** Join us for a hands-on workshop where families can learn the art of creating beautiful Turkish lamps together. This unique and engaging class will guide parents and kids through crafting intricate and colorful lamps. No prior experience is required, as our expert instructors will provide step-by-step instructions on design, assembly, and decorating techniques. This workshop is perfect for families and friends to bond, unleash their creativity, and take home a stunning handmade craft that can brighten any room. Come discover Turkish lamp-making's magic with your little ones in a fun and supportive environment. In this 2.5-hour workshop, you'll lose track of time and end up with a beautiful lamp to take home!

***Gain the Personal Freedom to Achieve Your Goals.*** How can you gain personal freedom to achieve your goals? How can you use Dianetics techniques to gain a greater sense of happiness and well-being? Dianetics is the science of the mind and it is exact and useful. What blocks you from attaining a higher level of ability and understanding of yourself? Why do people react the way they do? How does the mind affect your health? How can you get in control of your own life instead of life controlling you? The secret to successfully reaching your goals depends on knowing the exact actions that always lead to accomplishment. Today's meetup will explain some of the essential fundamentals that you can easily implement. Ask for Michael , Pam or Donovan

Join us for a walk and lunch in St Kilda. Meeting 10:30am, on corner of Fitzroy St and Nepean HWY. Making our way to Albert Park Lake at 10:45am. Giving ourselves 1 hour for the walk, to take our time, take in the fresh air and to connect! Throughout event, I'll mix and move you around so we can all connect with each other. Walking also helps our nervous system. Then heading to a local cafe or pub (most likely the Prince Hotel). See comments on day for exact location. Dogs welcomed. Looking like a lovely day.

Calling all \*\*female-identifying, non-binary and gender diverse \*\* filmmakers, actors, and film enthusiasts! Join us at **5pm** **Monday Apr 6 (the first Monday of every month)** in the Emporium food court (located behind Grill’d Burger Restaurant) for a chance to build relationships in the film community. **From 7pm onwards, we will continue the evening with drinks and/or a meal at The Lions Hotel - Melbourne Central.** This event is an expansion of the very successful **Movie Mutuals Wednesday Night Networking group** which has grown remarkably, with a weekly turnout of over 50 participants, blending newcomers with regulars to create a vibrant, diverse community. Whether you’re a writer, actor, animator, or independent filmmaker, come share your experiences, discuss current projects, or chat about favourite films. This event fosters connections among like-minded women, non-binary and gender diverse people, encourages friendships, and opens doors for collaboration. **RSVP** to help us gauge attendance. You will become part of a growing network of film professionals and enthusiasts. **What to Expect:** *There’s no set theme, workshop, or speaker. It’s a relaxed gathering where filmmakers, actors, and creatives can connect, discuss projects, share needs, and learn from each other. Beyond this networking event, we also host weekly Wednesday night meetups, exclusive events such as table reads, cinematography workshops with Panasonic, member screenings, and more.* \*Note: Our community emphasizes collaboration, friendship, and goodwill rather than promotional activities. If you wish to promote a workshop, course, screening, or similar event, please contact the organizers first. Promotional privileges are generally reserved for trusted, long-standing members.

Welcome to Serverless Sushi, the hottest new restaurant in town! As their newly hired developer, you've been tasked with revolutionizing their online ordering system. Let's embark on this exciting journey of building a robust, scalable API using Powertools for AWS Lambda. Powertools for AWS Lambda is a developer toolkit to implement Serverless best practices and increase developer velocity. It’s an open-source project that helps implement well architected best practices earlier in the development lifecycle. Learn how to build production ready AWS Serverless APIs that will instantly work at scale and learn about Powertools for AWS Lambda. **A laptop is required to participate.**

Hi Gophers! Join us this April for an evening of Go talks exploring real-world systems, from building a BitTorrent client to running Go on legacy architectures. We are looking forward to connecting with you. * **Agenda** **6:00pm — Food & Networking** **6:30pm — Intro + Go News** **6:45pm — Talks** **8.00pm — Wrap up then head out for kick ons** **🎤 Tom Clancy** **Building a BitTorrent client in Go** BitTorrent, first released in 2001 is a peer-to-peer protocol for file sharing. Its decentralised approach, where pieces of files are exchanged with peers (rather than a central server), is a natural fit for Go's concurrency model. This talk looks at the inner workings of the protocol, how to build your own client, and concurrency patterns for performance. Bio: Tom is a Software Engineer at Megaport, working on their edge networking functions platform (written in Go). **🎤 Sam Hobson** **Compiling Go for Ancient Architectures** Some customers approached Knocknoc asking if we can get our Go agent to run on their old HPUX PA-RISC and Solaris SPARC machines, both unsupported by Go, and we took on the challenge of finding a way to make it work Bio: "I'm Sam, I'm a software engineer of a couple of years working at a startup called Knocknoc on Just-in-time network layer access control software. Please come talk to me about cool stuff you're working on!" * **Interested in speaking at an upcoming event?** We will aim to have a mix of short (\~10min) and in-depth (20-30min) talks. If you’re keen to give a talk on a topic, share a project, or idea, please let us know [bit.ly/GolangMelbourneSpeakersForm](https://bit.ly/GolangMelbourneSpeakersForm)

**Cloud to Career** **Proudly presented by AWS Cloud Club @ University of Melbourne & Quantum Club** **Sponsored by CareerXlerate** **Turn your cloud knowledge into real-world impact—and your passion into a career.** In today’s world, knowing the cloud is just the beginning. The real question is: **How do you turn those skills into meaningful, real-world AI and industry solutions?** **Cloud to Career** is a high-impact, immersive evening designed to bridge that exact gap — bringing together students, industry leaders, and innovators into one powerful space. Whether you're exploring cloud, diving into AI, or preparing for your first role in tech, this event will give you something far more valuable than theory: **insight, exposure, and real connection with the people already doing it.** **Event Details** * **Date:** April 8th * **Time:** 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM * **Audience:** \~100 students, engineers, and aspiring tech professionals **What to Expect** Industry Panel: Real Stories, Real Insights. Kick off the evening with a high-value panel featuring leading professionals from the industry. Learn how they transitioned from learning cloud to building impactful solutions in AI, engineering, and beyond. **We’ll dive into:** * Breaking into the tech industry * Real-world applications of cloud + AI * Skills that actually matter (beyond coursework) * Mistakes, lessons, and career-defining moments **Live Q&A — Ask Anything** An open Q&A session where you drive the conversation. Ask your questions — whether you're unsure about career paths, technical skills, or industry expectations. Includes both: * In-person audience questions * Online audience participation **Networking + Buffet** Move into a relaxed networking session with food and meaningful conversations. This is your chance to: * Speak directly with industry professionals * Build genuine connections * Explore opportunities, mentorship, and ideas **Live Case Challenge (Student × Industry Collaboration)** This is where things get exciting. During networking, 2 students and 2 industry professionals will be randomly selected to take part in a live architecture challenge. **What happens:** * A real-world case scenario is presented * Collaborate for 40 minutes * They design and discuss a solution architecture * Present their thinking to a panel of judges **Then:** * Judges break down the solution * Highlight what worked and what didn’t * Share how they would approach the problem Meanwhile, the rest of the room continues networking — making this a dynamic, interactive, and high-energy environment. Why You Should Attend * Go beyond theory and see how cloud + AI is applied in the real world * Learn directly from industry leaders * Build meaningful connections that could shape your career * Experience a live problem-solving environment * Be part of one of the most engaging student-industry tech events at UniMelb **Final Note** This isn’t just another tech event. It’s a bridge between where you are and where you want to be. If you're serious about turning your skills into a career — *this* is where it starts.

**Welcome to 'GENESIS' - The Generative AI Filmmaking Networking Event!** ***THIS MAY BE A LIMITED EVENT - PLEASE MAKE SURE TO RSVP.*** This group is for individuals interested in exploring the intersection of generative AI technology and movie making. Whether you're a filmmaker eager to discuss movie production, a technician looking to collaborate, or simply wishing to learn more and discuss AI in film, this group is for you! Join us at the Emporium food court (located behind Grill’d Burger Restaurant in the CBD, not near Melbourne Station) to discuss AI technologies, workflows, productions, AI ethics, government responsibility and more. After 7pm, we continue the evening with Happy Hour drinks at a nearby bar and a chance to grab dinner together. Feel free to bring friends interested in AI filmmaking; it’s a great way to introduce new faces to our expanding network. RSVP to help us gauge attendance and become part of a growing network of film professionals and enthusiasts. Though the event begins in the afternoon, the relationships you build here can last well into the night and beyond. At 7 PM, we move to The Carlton Club, a five-minute walk away, where we continue networking in a more formal rooftop setting over drinks and food. This change of venue offers an ideal environment to keep conversations flowing. We want to foster a supportive network for creativity, film and television production, and collaboration between the world of cinema and AI. Connect with like-minded individuals and explore the exciting world of generative AI filmmaking together at GENESIS.

Hello everyone! Join us for an Apache Kafka® x Apache Flink® meetup on **Apr 9th from 5:30pm**, in Melbourne! The address, agenda, and speaker information can be found below. See you there! **📍Venue**: 394 High Street Northcote, Victoria 3070 \*\*\* **🗓 Agenda:** * 5:30pm: Doors open * 5:30pm - 6:00pm: Pizza, Drinks, and Networking * 6:00pm - 6:30pm: Chad Harris, Solutions Architect, Factor House * 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Stephen Ermann, Senior Customer Success Technical Architect * 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Additional Networking \*\*\* **💡 Speaker:** Chad Harris, Solutions Architect, Factor House **Talk:** Things that go bump in the night: Kafka Operational Issues and How to Survive Them **Abstract:** Most Kafka talks focus on how things should work—this one is about what actually happens in production. We’ll walk through real-world operational issues encountered with Apache Kafka and its clients, from subtle misconfigurations to full “why is everything on fire?” moments. Along the way, we’ll break down how to identify what’s going wrong, which signals actually matter, and how to approach debugging when the system doesn’t behave the way you expect. This talk will also touch on observability, common failure patterns, and practical mitigation strategies you can apply immediately. Expect a mix of technical deep dives, debugging workflows, and a few war stories (including some questionable decisions and log-staring sessions). If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s just you? It's not! **Bio:** Chad Harris is a streaming data specialist and Solutions Architect at Factor House, where he helps organisations design, scale, and operate Apache Kafka platforms using industry-leading tooling. With experience scaling Kafka across organisations ranging from small startups to some of Silicon Valley's largest companies, Chad has been working with Kafka since its early days. He brings deep expertise across both real-time streaming and data-at-rest systems, with a strong focus on practical, production-ready architectures. \-\-\-\-\- **💡 Speaker:** Stephen Ermann, Senior Customer Success Technical Architect **Talk:** From Lag to Smooth Sailing: How Queues for Kafka (KIP-932) Fix Slow Consumers **Abstract:** Slow or bursty consumers are one of the most common reasons Kafka applications end up fighting lag, over-provisioning, and operational fire drills. Traditional Kafka consumer groups work brilliantly for high-throughput stream processing, but they can make it hard to serve heterogeneous consumers, apply backpressure cleanly, or guarantee fair access when some consumers fall behind. In this talk, we’ll explore **Queues for Kafka**, the new KIP-932 feature that introduces native queue semantics on top of Kafka’s battle-tested log foundation. We’ll look at how queues decouple producer and consumer throughput, isolate slow consumers without penalising fast ones, and provide more predictable delivery and scaling behaviour for “task” and “work queue” style workloads. You’ll walk away with: * A clear mental model of how Kafka queues differ from topics and consumer groups * Concrete design patterns for handling slow and spiky consumers * Migration tips for evolving existing Kafka-based services to use queues safely If you’ve ever stared at a lag graph wondering whether to add more consumers, more partitions, or more coffee, this session will show you a cleaner path to smooth sailing with Kafka. **Bio:** Stephen Ermann is a **Senior Customer Success Technical Architect at Confluent**, working with leading financial institutions across APAC to design and operate mission-critical, real-time data platforms. With deep experience in **Apache Kafka**, **Confluent Cloud and Platform**, and surrounding ecosystems like **Kafka Connect** and **Apache Flink**, Stephen helps customers solve hard problems around scalability, reliability, and security in production. They are particularly focused on **RBAC, OAuth, mTLS, and container image security**, as well as emerging **agentic AI** patterns built on streaming data. Outside day-to-day architecture work, Stephen regularly shares practical patterns and lessons learned at meetups and user groups across the region. \*\*\* If you would like to speak or host our next event please let us know! community@[confluent.io](http://confluent.io/)

Our regular monthly presentation night on the second Thursday of the month from 6:30pm! Thanks to Mantel Group for hosting us again this month. If you're coming in person we're there with food and drinks from 6pm. We will be live streaming the presentations as usual from 6:30pm at [http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/live](http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/live) \-\-\- **Agenda** \| 6:00pm \| Food \+ Networking \| \| 6:30pm \| Event begins\. Introductions \| \| 6:40pm \| Chris Hocking — Pretending to be a coder \- Version 3: The world has changed since we last saw Chris… Codex\, Claude and burnout\. \| \| 7:15pm \| TBC \| \| 7:55pm \| Wrap up \+ social time at a nearby venue \| \* All times are approximate. Presentation order will be confirmed on the night. \-\-\-\- We are always looking for speakers and believe everyone has an interesting talk hiding inside themselves. If you are interested in letting that talk out at a future event you can get in touch on the website [https://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/talks](https://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/talks) or on Slack.

Pay attention! We’re delaying a week for those of you who may be on Spring break and/or celebrating the holiday. Ok, no pancakes, but waffles-a-plenty. Join the local UX and Digital Design community for a casual monthly breakfast. Look for us upstairs!

The Fellowship of the Star Schema: Transforming OLTP Data for Power BI One does not simply build reports on OLTP data. Join us on an epic journey from the depths of raw, normalized tables to the shining halls of a well-modeled star schema fit for Power BI greatness. We will demystify the differences between OLTP and OLAP, walk through star schema vs snowflake (and why Power BI has a clear favorite), and show you the compression differences between normalized and columnar storage that will make you never look at an OLTP model the same way again. We will cover the different types of dimensions, when to use them, and how to handle Slowly Changing Dimensions without losing your mind. You will leave knowing exactly how to identify a bad model, how to convert OLTP data into a clean star schema, and how to forge relationships that rule them all. Whether you are a data wizard, a curious hobbit, or somewhere in between, your models will never be the same.

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!

AI is changing how art is made. But when does it stop being your work and start being the machine’s? This month we're going to be doing a panel with with digital image, music, and written word artists, talking about at what point, while using AI in the creation process, does the work become not the artist creation? We encourage audience participation during this event that will be moderated by Chris Slee. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services)

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!

**The Data-Driven Brand: Using Analytics to Shape Perception** Can you use analytics to improve tacos? This being CBUSDAW, we think the answer is probably “yes”, but we’re not sure how to implement or test this theory. For our April meetup we’ve got Sara Kear, CMO of Condado Tacos, to investigate this delicious question. Sara will explore how she blends quantitative data and qualitative customer feedback to shape brand positioning and drive business decisions. We all know that marketing and analytics go way beyond attribution. Sara will show how Condado uses customer insights to inform product and pricing strategy. She’ll also highlight how Condado leverages customer feedback at scale to influence operational priorities, positioning marketing as the voice of the customer across the organization. In the last 12 years Condado has gone from one location in Columbus to 52 locations across 10 states, so we’re guessing there’s more to that growth than really good guac (though the guac probably helps). Ultimately, this talk focuses on the intersection of art and science—using data to inform creativity and build a brand that resonates with customers in a measurable way. **About Our Speaker** Sara Kear is Chief Marketing Officer at Condado Tacos, where she oversees brand, restaurant design, menu and pricing strategy, off-premise including catering, and customer data strategy. Since joining in 2021, she has helped grow the brand from 19 to 52 locations while building a data-driven marketing organization focused on loyalty and customer insights. Condado has since been named to the Inc. 5000, recognized as Breakout Retailer by Chain Store Age, and consistently ranked among FastCasual’s Top 100 Movers & Shakers. Thanks to our 2026 sponsors: [Clarivoy](https://www.clarivoy.com), [What Box Consulting Group](https://www.whatboxconsultinggroup.com), [Conductrics](https://www.conductrics.com), and [Piwik PRO](https://piwik.pro) More info at [cbusdaw.com](https://cbusdaw.com)

**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