Industrial Networking

**Note:** To attend, please register yourself here: [Registration Link](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/multi-industry-multicultural-networking-for-toronto-entrepreneurs-tickets-1980811489487) Please note you will be denied entry to the event if you haven't registered for this event. BNI Ascend is growing community of entrepreneurs, business owners, startup founders who value real relationships, referrals and growth. **BNI Ascend** is a newly launching and building something different- a multi-industry, multicultural chapter bringing together professionals across industries to grow through trust and collaboration. If you’ve been waiting for the right network, this might be it. If you’ve been to networking events that felt rushed, surface-level, or salesy, this will feel different. Join us for this exclusive networking event as we’re currently forming our **core member group**, so seats are intentionally limited. 💼 **What to Expect** **👋 Welcome & Check-In** Arrive, settle and ease into the room with a warm, inclusive welcome. **🌟 Member & Guest Introductions** Every attendee gets an opportunity to introduce themselves, their business, and what kind of connections they’re looking for. 🌍 **Experience How BNI Ascend Works** See firsthand why BNI is the world’s leading referral-based business networking organization. **🤝 Open Networking & Conversations with Diverse Professionals** Meet business owners and professionals from different industries, cultures, and backgrounds across Toronto. **🎤 Spotlight Opportunities** *(limited)* Business Owners get a short spotlight moment to showcase your business to the room. **📸 Photos & Community Moments** We capture moments throughout the event for community highlights and future promotions. ### **Who Should Attend?** You’ll meet professionals such as: 🚀 Startup, Tech & E-Commerce 🍽️ Restaurant & Café Owners 💼 Coaches, Consultants & Trainers 🏠 Home Service Providers 🧘 Wellness, Health & Service Providers 🎨 E-commerce & Tech Professionals 🌍 Immigrant & Multicultural Business Owners Come solo, bring a colleague or business partner. Either way, you’ll leave with clarity, connections, and momentum. **Note:** To attend, please register yourself here: [Registration Link](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/multi-industry-multicultural-networking-for-toronto-entrepreneurs-tickets-1980811489487) **Dress Code** Business Smart / Business Professional **Media Consent** By attending this event, you consent to photography and video recording. These may be used by **BNI Ascend** for marketing and promotional purposes.

Join us for presentations, snacks, and discussion! This time around we have an agenda of monitoring topics on the complete opposite spectrum. We'll talk about pure hobbyist monitoring topics, AI prompt based workflows and debugging your production Kubernetes clusters when they are on fire. **Special thanks to Nokia and Mark Prosser for hosting us at their downtown office.** **Agenda:** 6:00-6:15 PM: Arrivals and introductions 6:15-6:35 PM: Observability Sidequests 6:35-6:40 PM: Q&A 6:40-7:10 PM: Uh, is this a good idea? Examining the viability of reusable AI prompt-based workflows for developers 7:10-7:15 PM: Q&A 7:15-7:35 PM: Debugging your Kubernetes Cluster when it's on fire. 7:35-7:40 PM: Q&A 7:40-8:00 PM: Q&A, networking and wrap up **Talk 1: Observability Sidequests! - Eldin from Grafana** Eldin will demo some of his personal use dashboards, like monitoring his 3D printer and household CO2 and temperature sensors. **Eldin** helps people make sense of their systems through better observability. He's spent years in support, services, and advisory roles, so he knows what it really takes to make tech work in the real world. These days, he's all about helping teams solve modern observability challenges and systems that actually make life easier. **Talk 2: Uh, is this a good idea? Examining the viability of reusable AI prompt-based workflows for developers - Adriana - Dynatrace** It’s tempting to throw AI onto everything we do these days. But do we have to? Can we be lazy enough to tell our AI assistant to set up our local developer tooling for us with just some well-constructed prompts, without having to rely on our platform engineering friends? Can we achieve the Star Trek dream of saying, “Computer, run level 10 diagnostic.” and the computer would just know? And could it be repeatable and shareable? This talk explores the developer's journey of creating a natural-language, reusable prompt-based workflow with Block's Codename Goose to provision a local development environment. Attendees will learn about: \* MCP and Goose \* The target demo workflow \* Challenges faced, and key takeaways Attendees will also come away with an understanding of the possibilities and limits of creating reusable prompt-based workflows, answering the question: can developers self-provision tools using natural language? And just because they CAN, SHOULD THEY? **Adriana Villela** is a blogger, host of the Geeking Out podcast, CNCF Ambassador, and maintainer of the OpenTelemetry End User SIG. By day, she focuses on Observability and OpenTelemetry, as a Principal Developer Advocate at Dynatrace. By night, she climbs walls. She also loves capybaras, because they make her happy. **Talk 3: Debugging your Kubernetes Cluster when it's on fire - Nikola Grcevski - Grafana** Imagine you have a Kubernetes cluster that’s hosting some number of services, perhaps these services are written in different programming languages, perhaps there are some databases in the cluster too. Now, imagine that this cluster is intermittently experiencing errors and it’s not easy to tell what’s going on. In this talk I will show you how you can add detailed telemetry immediately to a problematic production environment cluster, without any changes to your existing cluster configuration or applications, with the new OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation project. We’ll show you how you’ll be able to get insights into what’s wrong with your cluster or services, by leveraging on-demand distributed traces and connectivity graphs, even if it’s the first time you have heard the term OpenTelemetry. **Nikola Grcevski** has worked as a software engineer for more than 20 years, mostly in the field of compilers, managed runtimes and performance optimization. Most recently he's working on low level application instrumentation with eBPF at Grafana Labs.

| February 9, 2026 | | ---------------- | | Send me an email to let me know you are joining us at: | pcalleri@thegaap\.net \| **The CPA Toronto Accounting Group Presents a Casual Get Together** for a few of us to get together, network, learn, have a few laughs, share ideas, make new friends. become more successful etc. I will put a very casual agenda together, but the goal is having a good time. I tried to find a venue that is easy to get to. It is near the 401 and DVP. We will meet at: Swiss Chalet **[Address](https://www.google.ca/search?sca_esv=197713b87bf2beb1&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIKmSo8ztb94J6BUHqec-EeQUWwHRw:1725296229930&q=the+queens+head+pub+scarborough+address&ludocid=4250126838100046784&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiS46qn3aSIAxUS5ckDHbw5GJQQ6BN6BAgrEAI):** 2555 Victoria Park Ave, Scarborough Our reservation is made under Paul. I look forward to seeing you. PS Seats are limited, let me know you are attending; quickly. Send me an email to let me know you are joining us. pcalleri@thegaap.net Sincerely yours, Paul Calleri, Founder of TheGAAP.net, TheGAAP.netCareers, and the CPA Toronto Accounting Group

Welcome to JTIC! **【Timetable】** 6:30 pm - 6:40 pm・・・Check In 6:40 pm - 7:30 pm・・・English & Japanese (25 mins each) 7:30 pm - 7:40 pm・・・Seat Change 7:40 pm - 8:30 pm・・・English & Japanese (25 mins each) **【Fee】** Attendance Fee : **CA$5.00** Once your status has been updated from **"Waitlist"** to **"Going"**, please E -Transfer to **jtic.international.community@gmail.com** by **Sunday 8 pm**. When sending an e-transfer, please include **Your Meetup Name** in the message section. **No Refunds** or **Carryovers.** Your participation fee will be used for meetup subscription, social events and materials/textbooks. **【Event Description】** * This language exchange is for those at an **intermediate** to **advanced** **level**. * This meetup is 2 hours in length, broken up into 2 sessions of 50 minutes each. * Intermediate level of study materials or topic cards will be provided. * You have the options to choose either free talk or use materials provided. **【Rules】** * Please **RSVP** by **Sunday 8 pm** and make a payment. * Attendees who are not confirmed for this event and show up will be asked to leave. * No shows will be moved to the bottom of the waitlist for future events. If you are a repeat no show, you may be removed from the group. * If you are running late, please ensure you send a message to the organizer so we can keep a spot open for you. * This group is for language exchange. If you are joining us for other purposes, you may be asked to leave. **\*\*This is not a dating-related activity\*\*** * Disruptive behaviour, solicitation, or sales activities are strictly prohibited. Individuals who fail to adhere to the instructions of the organizer or staff may be subject to removal from the group. ​- - - - - ジェイティックへようこそ！ **【タイムテーブル】** 6:30 pm - 6:40 pm・・・チェックイン 6:40 pm - 7:30 pm・・・英語＆日本語（各25分） 7:30 pm - 7:40 pm・・・席替え 7:40 pm - 8:30 pm・・・英語＆日本語（各25分） **【参加費】** 参加費：**CA$5.00** 参加ステータスが **"Waitlist"** から **"Going"** にアップデートされましたら、**日曜日の午後8時**までに **jtic.international.community@gmail.com** まで、イートランスファーにてお振込みください。振込の際は、**Meetupに登録されている名前を必ず明記の上**、メッセージをお願いします。払い戻し、繰り越しはできません。参加費はmeetup年間登録費、イベントや教材費に充当させていただきます。 **【イベント内容】** * このミートアップは計2時間のイベント、50分ずつの2セッションに分かれています。 * イベントの前に中級レベルの教材またはトピックカードを提供します。 * フリートーク、または用意された教材を使用し、セッションを楽しんで頂けます。 **【ルール】** * **日曜日の午後8時**までに**RSVP**と**お支払い**をお願いします。 * お席を確定していない方は、参加出来兼ねますので、ご了承下さい。 * 無断欠席の場合、次回以降のキャンセル待ちは最下位となります。No showを繰り返す方は、グループから外されることがございます。 * 遅刻される場合は、必ず主催者にメッセージを送ってください。 * このグループは言語交換のためのイベントです。他の目的で参加される場合は、退場していただくことがございます。 * 迷惑行為、勧誘、営業行為は固くお断りします。主催者・スタッフの指示に従わない場合は、退場していただく場合がございます。

\#\# Details \*\*This is a paid event, please register via our Luma Page. You need to have a ticket in order to attend this event: https://luma.com/sales-toronto-feb-9-2026 **Join TechTO for engaging conversations with leaders in tech and sales** Sales Toronto is the ultimate gathering for founders, sales leaders, and ambitious professionals who want to elevate their sales game, drive revenue, and build high-performing teams. This event goes beyond theory - it’s about sharing real stories, practical strategies, and proven tactics from people who have been in the trenches and come out stronger. You’ll hear from top sales experts, fast-growing startup founders, and seasoned executives on topics like scaling outbound strategies, closing bigger deals, building resilient teams, and navigating the evolving B2B sales landscape. TechTO is more than just great content, it’s a community. Expect plenty of networking opportunities to meet like-minded peers, exchange ideas, and spark collaborations that could take your business or career to the next level. **Featured speakers:** [Kirsten Schmidtke](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstenschmidtke/), Founder and Sales Coach of [Kirsten Schmidtke Coaching & Consulting](https://www.kirstenschmidtke.com/) [Paul Griffin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/griffinpaulm/), CEO & Co-Founder at[ The Sales Factory](https://www.thesalesfactory.com/) **More speakers will be announced soon! Stay tuned!**

For the event details and registration use the user group event link: [TFPUG Feb 2026 Event - Fabric Real Time Intelligen... - Microsoft Fabric Community](https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Toronto-Fabric-Power-BI-User/TFPUG-Feb-2026-Event-Fabric-Real-Time-Intelligence/ev-p/4948482) The RSVP here is not considered a registration and it's just to announce the event to the meetup community. TFPUG Team [Toronto Fabric & Power BI User Group | Microsoft Fabric Community](https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Toronto-Fabric-User-Group/gh-p/TorontoFabricUserGroup) [Toronto Fabric & Power BI User Group | Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/toronto-fabric-user-group/) [Toronto Fabric & Power BI User Group | LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/toronto-fabric-user-group/)

***Tickets must be purchased in advance!*** https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/toronto-real-estate-interior-designer-construction-finance-networking-tickets-1982298843202?aff=ebdsoporgprofile Get ready to connect with Toronto's finest real estate, design, construction, and finance professionals at a networking event like no other! Join us for an exclusive evening designed to connect ambitious professionals in law, real estate, and construction. This event is your opportunity to build valuable relationships, discover new opportunities, and take your career or business to the next level. Whether you’re seeking partnerships, fresh career insights, or simply looking to expand your professional circle, this is the perfect space to **network, collaborate, and exchange ideas**. ### **About Stellar Socials by Limitless** Stellar Socials is the **premier networking experience** for professionals across North America. We bring together lawyers, real estate leaders, construction innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors in a **stylish, dynamic, and welcoming environment**. Our mission is simple: foster **authentic connections** that spark collaboration, innovation, and growth. ### **Who Attends?** Expect a diverse mix of driven professionals, including: * **Legal Experts** – Attorneys, paralegals, and consultants in real estate, construction, and business law * **Real Estate Professionals** – Agents, brokers, developers, investors, and builders * **Construction Leaders** – Architects, engineers, contractors, and project managers * **Entrepreneurs & Investors** – Business owners and firms seeking partnerships * **Graduates & Job Seekers** – Ambitious professionals looking to break into the industry * **Startups & Innovators** – Companies seeking investors, talent, and collaborations * **Media & Marketing Experts** – Creators and journalists covering industry trends 📍 **Age Group:** 21–55 \| **Venue:** 21+ (Bar setting) ### **What to Expect** ✨ High-impact conversations on legal trends, real estate opportunities, and urban development ✨ Direct access to industry leaders and like-minded peers ✨ Career-boosting insights and potential collaborations ✨ A relaxed and open social atmosphere—perfect for organic connections Whether you attend solo or with friends, you’ll leave with **new contacts, fresh insights, and future opportunities**. ### ***The Stellar Socials Experience:*** Our events are curated to encourage **natural, pressure-free conversations**. With a focus on relationship-building, you’ll connect with professionals who can inspire your next move—professionally and personally. Come ready to meet, collaborate, and grow. ### Join the Community 📲 Instagram: [@stellarsocialsbylimitless](https://www.instagram.com/stellarsocialsbylimitless "https://www.instagram.com/stellarsocialsbylimitless") 📘 Facebook: Stellar Socials by Limitless 🎥 TikTok: [@stellar.socials]() ### Notice of Photography: *Please note: Photos and videos will be taken for promotional purposes. By attending, you consent to being photographed and/or filmed. If you prefer not to appear, kindly inform an event organizer upon arrival.*

Let's learn Agentic AI! Welcome to our [KSUG.AI Americas](https://us1.ksug.ai) meetup! **Latest promotions** discovered by our community! * **50%** off [Linux Foundation](https://gk.ksug.ai/) EXPIRED, [Get Notified](https://ksug.ai/?notify&ref=meet) for next BIG one! * **30%** off [KubeCon Europe](https://ksug.ai/events/?ref=meet) 2026 using code **KSAI** * Up to **30%** off popular [Books](https://ksug.ai/books/?ref=meet) and [Events](https://ksug.ai/events/?ref=meet) Stop Babysitting LLMs, Start Shipping. PRs got bigger, not better. Seniors are burning hours on AI bug hunts while *throughput stays flat*. Encode your existing **SDLC** into a gated multi-agent flow so LLMs do the noisy work. Review changes that have already passed **CI**. ## **Swarm Architecture** Encodes a full SDLC loop (**issue** → **spec → plan → PR** → **gate** → **deploy**) in a gated **45-agent swarm** you can explore after the talk. ## **Shift Left** **Mutation-on-diff** and **contract/schema checks** wired into your agentic flow before review. Reduce **review pain** instead of just generating more code. ## **Failure Modes & Guardrails** Hallucinations, reward hacking, process confabulation, and how your architecture catches and fixes them before they reach reviewers. ## **Takeaways** * ✓You'll leave with a working **demo swarm repository** you can clone into your own repos, and a clearer way to decide when to lean on **tokens versus human review**. * ✓For platform and DevEx engineers, tech leads and staff+ developers, and engineering leaders who are tired of wrestling with AI-generated code and **review pain**. * ✓The talk and swarm will be released under **Apache 2.0**. *Come at 5:30 pm have some pizza and chat for a bit. The presentation starts at 6:00 pm.* **Volunteers / Sponsors / Speakers:** [KSUG.AI](https://ksug.ai/?ref=meetup) is actively seeking speakers & sponsors to support our KubeSmart & AI community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or financial support. Sponsors will not only speak at our meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 31,000+ Cloud Native + AI enthusiasts globally. [Volunteering](https://volunteer.ksug.ai/), [Submit Topics](https://speaker.ksug.ai/), [Sponsor Us](https://sponsor.ksug.ai/)! 🚀 **Let's be [kubestrong](https://www.linkedin.com/company/kubestrong/)!** 🎉 Please take a note this event is organized by our peers. We thought it's useful to our members. Join **[#Discord](https://discord.com/invite/Rp9WzYyKua)** for latest update 👉 [https://discord.com/invite/Rp9WzYyKua](https://discord.com/invite/Rp9WzYyKua) 🔖 𝐎𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬: ☸ **30%** OFF [#CNCF Certs](https://cka.ksug.ai/) \- code **30K8SUG** ☸ **37%** OFF [#KodeKloud plans](https://ksug.ai/kk/?ref=meet) \- code **K8SUGKK** 𝟏𝟖𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎+ follow **[KSUG.AI](https://ksug.ai/discount/?ref=meetup)** 🔥 [linktr.ee/ksug.ai](https://linktr.ee/ksug.ai) ✅ Learn 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 ⚡ ✅ Certify 𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 💰 ✅ Grow 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 💪 [KSUG.AI - KubeSmart & AI User Group](https://linkedin.com/company/k8sug) *By registering, you consent to the management of your personal information in accordance with KSUG.AI Meetup's [Privacy Policy](https://k8sug.ai/privacy). Additionally, you agree that our sponsors may contact you.* **[KSUG.AI](https://ksug.ai/?ref=meetup)** is an independent community and not affiliated with or endorsed by CNCF. Kubernetes, K8s, Kubestronaut are registered trademarks of The Linux Foundation.

Event RSVP link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chemistry-kpis-tickets-1982309654539?aff=oddtdtcreator Valentine’s Day Singles Networking Night Hosted by STACKTx This Valentine’s Day, STACKTx is hosting a Networking Night for single entrepreneurs, small business owners, and creatives. Join us for an evening of connection, conversation, and live entertainment - designed to network, meet potential collaborators, make new friends, and yes, maybe even meet someone special, all while mingling with people who share your drive and ambition. What to Expect: • Networking with like-minded entrepreneurs and professionals • Interactive live segment with DateNightGame • Colour-coded wristbands: Red: Chemistry - Here for pleasure Blue: KPIs - Here for business Yellow: Open to both • Candy grams • Caricature Artist • Pop Icon Cover Band to close out the night and keep the energy high Door Prizes for STACKTx Members. No purchase required to participate 2 Toronto Maple Leafs Tickets 4 Othership Passes 2 Fuckup Nights Tickets 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM: Networking & interactive experience 9:00 PM – 11:30 PM: Live music + social hang This is a FREE RSVP event

Stop Babysitting LLMs, Start Shipping. PRs got bigger, not better. Seniors are burning hours on AI bug hunts while *throughput stays flat*. Encode your existing **SDLC** into a gated multi-agent flow so LLMs do the noisy work. Review changes that have already passed **CI**. ## **Swarm Architecture** Encodes a full SDLC loop (**issue** → **spec → plan → PR** → **gate** → **deploy**) in a gated **45-agent swarm** you can explore after the talk. ## **Shift Left** **Mutation-on-diff** and **contract/schema checks** wired into your agentic flow before review. Reduce **review pain** instead of just generating more code. ## **Failure Modes & Guardrails** Hallucinations, reward hacking, process confabulation, and how your architecture catches and fixes them before they reach reviewers. ## **Takeaways** * ✓You'll leave with a working **demo swarm repository** you can clone into your own repos, and a clearer way to decide when to lean on **tokens versus human review**. * ✓For platform and DevEx engineers, tech leads and staff+ developers, and engineering leaders who are tired of wrestling with AI-generated code and **review pain**. * ✓The talk and swarm will be released under **Apache 2.0**. *Come at 5:30 pm have some pizza and chat for a bit. The presentation starts at 6:00 pm.*

Join us for learning and networking on Feb 12, 2026 with Toronto Women's Data Group, in downtown Toronto! Hear from two leading data professionals, who will share their insights on the Data/ML field, hard-earned lessons, and what the day-to-day really looks like. Whether you’re looking to learn, considering a pivot or advancing your career, this event is for you! Speakers: \- Jessica David \- Principal Data Engineer\, Elastic \- Ella Chen \- Software Engineer\, Shopify Schedule (subject to change): 6:00 pm - Doors open 6:30 pm - Speaker sessions, Q&A 8:00 pm - Networking/chatting Shoutout to our sponsors: Index Exchange - https://www.indexexchange.com/ Elastic - https://www.elastic.co/ Allies are welcome to attend, with the understanding that these events are focused on spotlighting the career experiences of women.

**Important note about the retirement of the OWASP Meetup platform** Fellow OWASP Toronto members, We are making an important announcement regarding an upcoming transition. The OWASP Foundation has announced that they will be retiring their Meetup Pro subscription effective January 31, 2026: https://owasp.org/blog/2026/01/13/retiring-meetup.html This means that our OWASP Toronto Meetup group may be removed in the coming days. We understand this may be short notice, so we want to make this announcement before we lose access. You are an important part of our chapter community. Many attendees I have spoken to have discovered OWASP Toronto via Meetup. To continue engaging with the community while using a platform that enables discoverability, we will moving to the [Evenbrite](https://owasp-toronto-chapter.eventbrite.com/) for publishing our events. You can continue to follow us via our [Google Group mailing list](https://groups.google.com/a/owasp.org/g/toronto-chapter), our [Chapter page](https://owasp.org/www-chapter-toronto/), our [LinkedIn group](https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/owasp-toronto-chapter/), our [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqmBl-u_4cOEiH3OXWE3sPg), our Slack channel ([#owasp-toronto-chapter](https://owasp.slack.com/archives/C075DRCB1PZ), does not require an OWASP membership), as well as on our new [Discord channel](https://discord.gg/eg3upJ6N). Please see below for details of our February 12 event. Visit our [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/owasp-toronto-february-2026-tickets-1982057078076) page for more information! \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* **Dual Talk Event: Raising Cyber Awareness Through Electronic Word of Mouth \| When AI Becomes Application Logic: Securing Shadow AI** Presentation #1: Raising Cybersecurity Awareness Through Electronic Word of Mouth: A Data-Driven Assessment Awareness of the many cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, and solutions to mitigate these threats/vulnerabilities is instrumental in improving basic cybersecurity behaviours. A healthy body of knowledge has been devoted to exploring how to better increase awareness, in any given topic, among members of the general public which have explored the role of word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in spreading awareness. In recent years, the rise of social media platforms as an alternative communication channel has created efforts to promote cybersecurity awareness online regarding the numerous cybersecurity threats. However, little research attention has been devoted to exploring eWOM communication on social media surrounding cybersecurity awareness. Moreover, no research to date has considered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these eWOM discussions related to cybersecurity awareness. To address these literature gaps, this research collected 227, 270 relevant tweets surrounding cybersecurity awareness from 2018 to 2022 conducting an exploratory analysis of the corpus using social network analyses, topic modelling and semantic similarity analysis. The results found topics rose in prominence and then dissipated as newer topics emerged while information was found to spread incredibly far despite a high degree of community forming, suggesting the online discourse is very open and evolving over time. These findings illustrate the potential of social media as an effective tool for raising cybersecurity awareness. The impact of COVID-19 observed an increase in the reach of information in addition to new specific topics emerging in the discourse, but the effects appear to be temporary. Speaker: Dane Vanderkooi Dane Vanderkooi is a fifth-year Doctoral Candidate in management science at TorontoMet University who specializes in researching cybersecurity and digital privacy behaviours. He completed his bachelor's of commerce at Uottawa and holds a master's in management science degree from Ryerson University. Dane has published his research in academic journals, conferences and industry reports. Dane has also presented his research at various conferences including HC2P, SERENE-RISC, HCII, CyberToronto, ASAC and SocialMedia+Society, AMCIS, and ICIS. Dane is certified in cybersecurity (CC) from ISC2 and has practical experience working in the field of cybersecurity with private industry, non-for-profits, and the public sector including the Canadian Armed Forces, Public Health and Safety Canada, Justice Canada, Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED), Bell, BMO, Desjardins, Ritchie Bros and Achev. \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Presentation #2: When AI Becomes Application Logic: Securing Shadow AI AI is entering production faster than security teams can see it. From “simple” chatbot integrations to LLMs wired directly into business logic — and agents running entire application flows — organizations are accumulating Shadow AI: untracked, ungoverned, and often dangerously over-privileged. This talk shows how AI quietly changes application behavior at runtime: expanding trust boundaries, introducing non-deterministic authorization paths, and creating blast radiuses that static inventories and policy checklists cannot capture. Using real-world architectural patterns and runtime signals, we’ll demonstrate how security teams can identify where AI is actually used, what it can access, and how attackers abuse AI-driven logic to exploit new classes of vulnerabilities. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for securing AI-powered applications — grounded in runtime behavior and evidence, not assumptions. Speaker: Daniel Shechter Daniel Shechter is the CEO and Co-Founder of Miggo, an Application Detection and Response platform. Shechter has an impressive background in both threat intelligence and within the security industry. Before founding Miggo he was leading cyber security teams in Israel's elite cyber intelligence division, Unit 8200. He later joined McKinsey, a strategy and management consulting company, where he provided guidance on acquisition, developing new business strategies and more. Shechter is an industry expert in security, incident detection and response, threat intelligence, and attack observability.

Connected Westerville Night of Networking flips the script on networking, with surprises and connections that'll make you say, "Who knew networking could be this much fun?!"

**PLEASE BUY TICKETS THROUGH EVENTBRITE. RSVP THROUGH MEETUP IS NOT A TICKET PURCHASE CONFIRMATION.** Strive welcomes you to 'General Business Networking', Columbus' hottest networking event! We are set in the perfect central location in Downtown for all to join. Are you interested in business? Want to elevate your career? Meet Consultants, Analysts of all types, Bankers, Software Engineers, Entrepreneurs, and more who are active in the space or are eager to get started. **\*\*This will be a multi-vertical event\*\*** **There will be professionals with backgrounds in the arts, finance, tech, real estate, healthcare, and more. Come with an open mind, and leave with connections that wouldn't be possible otherwise!** Pack some business cards and come with an open mind! Meet your future business partners, employers, coworkers, investors, and friends. You don't want to miss this opportunity to expand your network and create a brighter future. We will have a space for our event to check-in. The event will go from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (feel free to come at any point in this timeframe). Name tags will be provided. Business casual dress code. Job fair attire. **Remember, it's not who you know, it's who you meet tomorrow!** We look forward to meeting you at the event! Sincerely, Strive Networking Team *Refund requests are permitted up to 24 hours after purchase, so long as we are not within 48 hours before the event start time. Refunds will be made in full and repaid to your method of payment. Note that we are unable to reimburse PayPal fees.* *Disclaimer: By attending Strive Networking events you agree to photos/videos taken during the event being used to promote future events.*

Bring your Raspberry Pi, Arduino, microcontroller, or any other electronic project and join fellow electronics makers for a night of creativity and collaboration! This session is open forum to share your current projects—whether complete or in progress, it’s all interesting! Whether you’re deep into embedded systems, exploring new ideas, or just getting started, you’ll find a welcoming space to collaborate, share, and get inspired. This session will be at the Karl Road Library in Conference Room 1

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

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

I love my job and one of the main things I do is help customers get going with any of the data technologies at Microsoft. Right now there are a lot of my customers asking about Microsoft Fabric. It's hard to weave across all the shiny new options across the Fabric landscape, let alone figure out where it fits into your organization. In this session we'll focus on answering one question - how can I get data into Fabric? We'll talk through the "it depends" options and see some of the options in live demos.