Information Science

​Join us for an evening of conversation, food, and drinks with Platform Engineering, DevOps, and Engineering leaders exploring how AI is reshaping the future of software delivery and operational scale. ​As organizations move beyond AI experimentation, engineering teams are facing a new challenge: how to operationalize AI safely across the SDLC while maintaining governance, visibility, and developer velocity. ​We’re bringing together leaders building modern engineering platforms inside large-scale environments to discuss what’s actually working, where the market is heading, and the foundational shifts required to support autonomous engineering. ## ​What We’ll Discuss * ​Moving from AI assistants to AI systems that can safely take action * ​The platform engineering infrastructure required to harness the AI-SDLC * ​Governance, context, and control in agentic software environments * ​Real-world lessons from AI Native engineering organizations * ​Where Platform Engineering and Agentic Engineering are heading next ## ​Featured Conversation ​Leaders from Sportradar and Port will share practical stories of agentic engineering. ## ​Event Format * ​Fireside conversation * ​Peer-led discussion * ​Food & drinks * ​Curated networking with engineering leaders ​No product pitches. No lengthy presentations. Just practical conversations with leaders building the future of engineering. ## ​About Port ​Port is the agentic AEP (Agentic Engineering platform) leading companies to autonomous engineering. ​Port brings developers and agents together across the AI-SDLC with a shared Context Lake, Human & Agents collaboration experience, and Guardrails. Engineering teams get the freedom to build their own agentic workflow, without losing control. ​Trusted by engineering teams at GitHub, British Telecom, Yum!, dLocal, LG, and more.

🎉 Come along to the London Scala Talks for a deep dive into functional architecture! 🎉 In this event you'll hear from David Lebl and Przemysław Pokrywka. **Agenda** 6:00pm - 🥤 Doors open. Come along and grab a drink! 6:35pm - 🗣️ Introduction 6:40pm - 🗣️ Przemysław Pokrywka: Ports and Adapters for People on Tight Schedules 7:20pm - 🍕 Intermission: Join us for some free food and drinks! Vegan and vegetarian options are provided. Let us know if you'd like something special - we'd be happy to accommodate. 7:50pm - 🗣️ David Lebl: Complexity is a Sin, But Hexagons Forgive 8:30pm - 🥤 Socialising: Grab a drink and let's discuss the talks. 9:00pm - 🍻 Join us in a pub to discuss the talks! 🌐 **This event will not have a live stream** We hope to see you there in person. **🗣️ Przemysław Pokrywka: Ports and Adapters for People on Tight Schedules** Focus on software architecture is not always associated with pragmatism in common perception. Terms such as architecture astronautics and the ivory tower stereotype highlight the perceived disconnect between many architects and the realities of day-to-day code maintenance. Too often, architectural patterns are applied with insufficient understanding, leading to cargo-cult adoption and increased waste in the software development process. When applied in the right context, however, certain architectural approaches can be powerful enablers. In this talk, I would like to share the story of a serverless application in which elements of the Ports and Adapters architecture made a tangible, positive difference. ⭐ Przemysław Pokrywka ⭐ Husband, dad, grandad, software engineer. Functional Scala enthusiast with imperative OOP Java background. Fan of the command line. **🗣️ David Lebl: Complexity is a Sin, But Hexagons Forgive** A visual journey from spaghetti to sanity. This talk traces how cognitive load accumulates in unconstrained codebases, how domain-driven design and bounded contexts restore order, and how hexagonal architecture provides a practical, forgiving structure for real-world systems — all laid out on a single zoomable canvas where every example links back to the bigger picture. ⭐ David Lebl ⭐ David is a software developer with a CS background and 5 years of Scala and FP experience. He leads a small team, occasionally survives his own accidental complexity, and is here to share what he learned the hard way. ———————————————————— 🗣️ Would you like to present, but are not sure how to start? Give a talk with us and you'll receive mentorship from a trained toastmaster! Get in touch through [this form](https://forms.gle/zv5i9eeto1BsnSwe8) and we'll get you started 🏡 Interested in hosting or supporting us? Please get in touch through [this form](https://forms.gle/3SX3Bm6zHqVodBaMA) and we can discuss how you can get involved. 📜 All London Scala User Group events operate under the [Scala Community Code of Conduct](https://www.scala-lang.org/conduct/). We encourage each of you to report the breach of the conduct, either anonymously through [this form](https://forms.gle/9PMMorUWgBnbk1mm6) or by contacting one of our team members. We guarantee privacy and confidentiality, as well as that we will take your report seriously and react quickly.

IN PERSON STUDY & CONVERSATION GROUP - OCCULT SCIENCE WITH DAGMAR STEFFELBAUER **Occult Science is a written book by Rudolf Steiner and is meant for studying the content. It is composed of VII** **chapters. We have begun with chapter V which will be studied throughout thisterm. Its content is the spiritual path of** **the Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. We are using the translation by George and Mary Adams.** **All are welcome!** **Further information: d.steffelbauer@gmail.com** This group is run under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain and small donations towards expenses are welcome. £ 3 / £2 .

**This event is supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy’s [Local Partners Programme](https://royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/fund-your-event/).** **N.B. this meeting will be held in person in the Prince of Wales pub near Covent Garden. There is also an online session held on Thursday if you are not in London or are not able to attend in-person.** Halfway through our thematic 'Quest' year, we are going back farther than we've ever been to one of the oldest surviving stories, one of the foundations of Western, and now global literature. Homer's Odyssey is the tale of Odysseus' homecoming to Ithaca after defeating the Trojans - his temptations, battles, failures and victories, all interwoven with his wife Penelope's resolve to fend off suitors, and his son Telemachus' search for news of his father. Expect discussions of duty, justice, temptation and different forms of power and leadership. The meeting starts at 7pm with drink breaks at 8 and 9. The discussion will end around 10pm, but leave whenever you need to. Here's the blurb from goodreads.com: If the *Iliad* is the world's greatest war epic, then the *Odyssey* is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

IN PERSON STUDY & CONVERSATION GROUP - SUPERSENSIBLE INFLUENCES IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND WITH TREVOR DANCE **A fascinating series of lectures given by Steiner in 1922 concerning spiritual development throughout the historical epochs, focusing on the changes of** **humanity particularly relating to the Mystery Centres from ancient Egypt and Greece through to later times.** **All welcome.** **Further information: trevordance@hotmail.com** This group is run under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain and small donations towards expenses are welcome. £ 3 / £2 .

Unless otherwise announced this is an in-person social gathering for Smalltalkers to get together and talk about Smalltalk (the Programming Language!). Everyone is welcome from the grizzled and experienced to the merely curious.

This June we reach the incredible milestone of 100 meetups, and we're heading to Matt's dayjob's great new offices near Old Street to celebrate. The evening includes a session to mark our 100th meetup with some special guests, and drinks and food for everyone. **Schedule** 6:00pm -Arrival 6:45pm - Introductions 7:00pm - The Talks **Matt Saunders & Marc Cluet - London DevOps 100: Some Reflections from the last 100 events with some special guests** To mark the milestone, London DevOps organisers Matt Saunders and Marc Cluet take the stage to look back over the journey from event one to event one hundred. Expect highlights from the talks that shaped the community, the trends that came and went and a few honest reflections on how both London DevOps and DevOps itself have changed over the years. They will be joined by some special guests and familiar old faces from across the last hundred events to share their own memories and stories. Part celebration, part trip down memory lane, and a proper thank you to everyone who has made it what it is. The previously advertised talk from Super Group will not go ahead. **Speak at a future meetup** If you'd like to speak at a future meetup, or if you're able to host or sponsor the event, please fill in this [form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FYGHEWTeBb5vVztGGg2YoUJmKR03o9mZaFIghf6vjzo/viewform?edit_requested=true) and we'll get back to you.

Do you have spare books lying around your home? Do you want to read new interesting books for free while socializing with interesting people? This is the event for you. We will enjoy nice drinks and snacks together at a beautiful lounge bar in London. You can bring your books and exchange them with whoever has the books you want to read. Since this is a Science and Philosophy book club, it would be great for you to bring non-fiction books that are insightful and thought-provoking. If you want to bring fiction books that are scientifically or philosophically insightful, feel free to bring those as well. Since it is a social event, I encourage everyone to make deep meaningful conversations and make new friends. You can come alone or bring your friends with you. If you come alone, there is no need to be shy or scared. I will welcome you and introduce you to cool interesting people to speak with. Also feel free to come even if you forget to bring any books.

**We only accept approved registrations for this event. Register on Luma: [https://luma.com/igw02vjg](https://luma.com/igw02vjg)** London Tech Week is full of conversations about what enterprise AI could do. This is the event for the engineers who have to build it. Specifically: agents that hold up past the demo. The ones that need memory that persists across sessions, context that doesn't collapse under load, behaviour that's auditable when something goes wrong, and infrastructure that can actually take the weight. That's a harder problem than most will admit - and we're going to get into it properly. Two engineering teams, one evening. Bring your hardest questions. Pizza and drinks on us. **Speakers** **[Tobie Morgan Hitchcock](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiemorganhitchcock/) — Co-Founder & CEO, SurrealDB** **[Martin Schaer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinschaer/) — Solutions Engineer, SurrealDB** **[Ziv Ilan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziv-ilan-nvidia/) — Super AI team, NVIDIA** *** **Agenda** * 18:00 - Doors + drinks + pizza * 18:30 - Welcome * 18:35 - Talks + Q&A * 20:00 - Drinks + networking * 21:00 - Close *** **About the speakers** **[Tobie Morgan Hitchcock](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiemorganhitchcock/) (CEO & Co-Founder, SurrealDB)** Tobie Morgan Hitchcock is CEO & Co-Founder of SurrealDB, an AI-native, multi-model database for modern applications. A tech entrepreneur and software engineer with 17 years in the software and cloud-computing industries, he founded SurrealDB in 2021 with a focus on distributed databases and highly-available architectures. **[Martin Schaer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinschaer/) (Solutions Engineer, SurrealDB)** Martin is a computer science engineer working at SurrealDB and his own GenAI startup. He recently worked in lab automation designing declarative frameworks for instrument drivers, and his background spans everything from 3D visualisation for robotic systems to founding an advertising agency in Costa Rica. **[Ziv Ilan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziv-ilan-nvidia/) — Super AI team, NVIDIA** Ziv Ilan is a solution architect at NVIDIA, focusing on LLM evaluation, optimization, and deployment. He joined from deci.ai (acquired by NVIDIA), where he worked on neural architecture search and model compression techniques for generative AI and computer vision models. Ziv holds an electrical and electronics engineering B.Sc. from Tel-Aviv University and an M.B.A. from HEC Paris. He uses his technical and business expertise to drive AI solutions development and deployment.

For this iteration of the Philosophy of Life Sciences Reading Group, we will explore the relationship between technology and feminism through Helen Hester’s Xenofeminism, focusing specifically on the first chapter. Xenofeminism (XF) is a technomaterialist, anti-naturalist, and gender-abolitionist form of feminism. With it provocative motto "If nature is unjust, change nature!", XF reimagines feminism within the accelerationist/prometheanist wave. Should we embrace technology and depart from nature to achieve emancipation? Anyone from any background is welcome! If you’d like the pdf or to ask any question feel free to drop me a message. Please don’t worry too much about the RSVP list: we usually have 5-10 people attending already. Doors open at 12:00, the discussion will start at 12:30pm.

**Important:** Register on the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026061110) is required for admission. **RSVP on meetup is turned off** Welcome to the AI meetup in London, in collaboration with **Coder and Netmind**. Join us for deep dive tech talks on AI, GenAI, LLMs and Agents, hands-on experiences on code labs, workshops, and networking with speakers and fellow developers. **Agenda:** \* 6:00pm\~6:30pm: Checkin and Networking \* 6:30pm\~6:45pm: Welcome/community update \* 6:45pm\~8:30pm: Tech talks and Q&A \* 8:30pm\~9:30pm: Open discussion & Mixer **Tech Talk: Scale AI Workflows** **Speaker:** Eric Paulsen (Coder) **Abstract:** This meetup is for developers and platform teams who want to understand what it actually takes to move from AI experimentation to production-ready workflows. We’ll focus on how teams are redesigning their development workflows to work with AI, not just adding tools on top. That includes how to structure workflows, manage agents, and introduce the right level of control without killing developer velocity. No hype. No tool comparisons. Just a clear look at why most AI workflows fail and what actually works at scale. **Tech Talk: AI-DLC: Navigating the AI Development Lifecycle with Kiro** **Speaker:** Ryan Tan (AWS) **Abstract:** This session explores the evolving AI Development Lifecycle (AI-DLC) through the lens of Kiro's current capabilities and future direction. We'll cover Kiro's desktop/CLI deployment model and the path toward broader accessibility, early-stage developments around Kiro's upcoming autonomous agent capability, and how an agnostic philosophy — enabling choice of IDE, LLM backend, and cloud provider — shapes a flexible, developer-first approach to AI-assisted software development. Whether you're evaluating AI coding tools or architecting developer platforms, this session will give you a practical view of where the ecosystem is heading. **Tech Talk: Earning the Right to Step Away: AI Agents in Everyday Practice** **Speaker:** Billy Michael (GlobalLogic) **Abstract:** You've seen the demos. This is what happens after them. It's a look at the agents and skills we actually run inside GlobalLogic, day to day, on our own engineering and business work, and what it took to trust them. We started where most teams do: Claude Code in a terminal, with a human framing every task and pressing enter. The interesting part begins when no one is at the keyboard. I'll walk through the pattern we use to get there: build a skill by hand, live with it until it's boring, then let an event pull the trigger. The unit is always the same, a skill; what changes is how much autonomy the stakes justify. **Tech Talk: Trustable Agentic AI** **Speaker:** Xiangpeng Wan (Netmind) **Abstract:** NetMind.AI's [NarraNexus](https://www.narra.nexus/?utm_source=AI+Camp&utm_medium=Page&utm_campaign=20260611+Event) is a ready-to-run team of agents that already remember, collaborate, and use tools. Start from a template, or compose your own. **Speakers/Topics:** Stay tuned as we are updating speakers and schedules. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: [Submit Topics](https://forms.gle/JkMt91CZRtoJBSFUA) **Sponsors:** We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 20,000+ AI developers in London and 500K+ worldwide.

Join us on June 11th from **6:00pm** for a Data Streaming meetup hosted by **Moniepoint!** **PLEASE bring your PHOTO ID and REGISTER with your First and Last Name. For security purpose** 🗓 **Agenda:** * 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Food/Drinks and Networking * 6:30pm - 7:15pm: Tom Scott, CEO, Streambased * 7:15pm - 8:00pm: *Abraham Imohiosen,* Engineering Manager * 8:00pm - 8:30pm: Q&A Networking. 💡**Speaker One:** Tom Scott, CEO, Streambased **Title of Talk:** Infinite Kafka? Rethinking Retention with Iceberg **Abstract:** Apache Kafka is designed for high-throughput, low-latency event streaming, not cost-efficient long-term storage. Yet we constantly see cases like event sourcing, audit/compliance, and large-scale reprocessing forcing that pattern onto it. As retention increases, costs grow linearly to support edge cases, one-time runs, and “checkbox” use cases. Can Iceberg help here? In this talk, Tom explores a hybrid architecture that separates hot and cold data while preserving Kafka’s log semantics. Using a combination of Kafka and Apache Iceberg, he demonstrates how to extend Kafka into low-cost object storage, enabling effectively unlimited retention without sacrificing performance or access patterns. The result is a unified log that supports both real-time processing and long-term replay, removing the traditional trade-off between cost and capability in Kafka-based systems. **Bio:** Long-time enthusiast of Kafka and all things data integration, Tom has more than 15 years of experience in innovative and efficient ways to store, query, and move data. Tom is currently CEO at Streambased, a company focused on unifying operational and analytical data estates into a single, consistent, and efficient data layer. 💡**Speaker Two:** Abraham Imohiosen, Engineering Manager, Fraud Prevention Tools. **Title of Talk:** From CDC to Decision: Kafka as the Fraud Detection Pipeline's Connective Tissue **Abstract:** Fraud detection isn't one system — it's a system of moving parts (databases, feature stores, rule engines, ML models, case management tools) that all need to agree on what just happened, in milliseconds. Kafka sits in the middle of it, and treating it as "just the message bus" leaves a lot of value on the table. In this talk, I'll walk through three jobs Kafka does inside Moniepoint's fraud detection pipeline: moving events between services, powering real-time aggregations and windowed features, and acting as a CDC source that turns database changes into the canonical stream feeding a final aggregate store, as well as routing evaluated events into the case management system for final decisioning. **Bio:** *Abraham Imohiosen is an Engineering Manager at Moniepoint, where he leads the Fraud Prevention team in building case management systems and machine-learning detection models that protect millions of customers and billions in transaction volume. He has over 10 years of experience across fintech and cloud-based architectures, having previously led the delivery of Monieworld Transfers and a savings product. Abraham holds an M.Sc. in Robotic Systems Engineering from RWTH Aachen University.* \*\*\* If you are interested in hosting/speaking at a meetup, please email community@confluent.io

Connecting people into Philosophy. All welcome. No previous philosophical experience needed. **What it is** Philosophy in the Park is a fun and friendly space for people to come together and have discussions that get deep. It’s a safe space where active creative thinking is encouraged and enjoyed, and where everyone can explore abstract concepts in a way that combines both sincerity and playfulness. Where the most important question is always - what do you think? **What is Philosophy?** Philosophy is about analysing concepts. It's thinking about thinking. It's not about empiricism or the physical world (eg Science and statistics). It's about abstractions, concepts and ideas (eg Identity, Morality, Mind and Truth). **How Philosophy in the Park Works** * Each hour begins with a group vote on which questions to discuss. You can vote for more than one question if you'd like. * We then break out into groups, each focusing on one of the chosen questions. The question is just a starting point and it's cool if you go on tangents and end up talking about different things. You're welcome to join in and participate or if you'd prefer to sit back and enjoy the conversation, that’s also welcome. * After an hour we regroup, take a quick break and then repeat all over again. So across the 3 hours, we’ll break out 3 times. **Where it is** We meet at Baroness Burdett Coutts Drinking Fountain in Victoria Park (East Park). It is marked down as "13" on the official maps found in the park. Please feel free to bring snacks and drinks with you if you want. After the event finishes most people stay and hang out. There’s a local supermarket to get drinks and snacks, or bring your own. You are very welcome to join us. **Guidelines** In order to make the conversations as fun, interesting and productive as possible please follow these simple guidelines: 1. Keep it Philosophical (No Science, no History, no Sociology, no Evolutionary Psychology, no contestable facts, personal anecdotes etc). 2. Think for Yourself (No phones, no looking up definitions, no name dropping Philosophers / books you've read). 3. Tangents are Cool (Don't worry too much if the subject drifts and you don't answer the question). 4. Keep it Succinct (Like this). 5. Be Excellent to Each Other (But of course). Please remember: It's not about debating and trying to win - it's about listening to people and working collaboratively to increase our collective understanding. **Community** Follow us on instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/londonphilosophycollective/](https://www.instagram.com/londonphilosophycollective/) We have a WhatsApp group if you'd like to continue these conversations between meetings. To join the Philosophy in the Park WhatsApp Group please click here: [https://chat.whatsapp.com/CdFaxJHbeOw9UOfuk7spiK](https://chat.whatsapp.com/CdFaxJHbeOw9UOfuk7spiK) In order to stop spam bots this will take you to a Waiting Room. Once in please write your name, answer the joining question and we will add you to the main chat. **Say Thanks** If you would like to help support Philosophy in the Park you can buy me a coffee here: [https://buymeacoffee.com/philosophyjoel](https://buymeacoffee.com/philosophyjoel)

Join us for the **Cloud Native & Open Source AI Conference**, a full-day, in-person event bringing together engineers, architects, platform teams, AI practitioners, technical leaders, and open-source communities working at the intersection of **cloud-native infrastructure, open-source AI, and production-scale systems**. **MAKE SURE TO REGISTER HERE: https://www.communitystack.io/conferences/cloud-native-london USE CODE: CommunityStack for a free ticket** ## Opening Keynote **Evolving the Kubernetes User Experience: More Intuitive, More Extensible, More Agentic** With: **Andrew Randall** — Principal PM, Office of the CPO, Microsoft **Pal Lakatos-Toth** — Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Kubernetes has become the default platform for modern workloads, and increasingly for AI systems. This keynote will explore how the Kubernetes user experience is evolving for both humans learning the platform and AI agents operating within it, with a focus on usability, governance and production readiness. ## Full Conference Programme **09:00 – 09:30** Doors Open **09:30 – 10:15** Opening Keynote: *Evolving the Kubernetes User Experience: More Intuitive, More Extensible, More Agentic* Andrew Randall, Microsoft Pal Lakatos-Toth, Microsoft **10:15 – 11:00** Panel: *From HFT to Enterprise Banking: The Talent War for Cloud Native, Open Source and AI Engineers* Moderated by Ethan Sumner, Community Stack Craig Whiting, RLS Search Jon Freedman, Quant Fin **11:30 – 12:00** *The Massively Parallel Agent Stack* Peter Bhabra, Doubleword **12:00 – 12:30** *Controlling AI Agent Access in Cloud-Native Engineering Workflows* Viola Lykova, nuclecode **12:30 – 13:00** *Preventing Silent Interpretation Errors at Scale* Maebh Booth, Senior Engineering Leader, Former M&S **14:00 – 14:30** *Prompt Driven Platforms: The Future of Self-Service Infrastructure* Salman Iqbal & Amir Tayabali, Appvia **14:30 – 15:00** *Platform as a Product: What Happens When We Treat Security as a User?* Hannah Foxwell, Bimp **15:00 – 15:30** *Beyond the Portal: Architecting AI-Native Platforms with CNOE and MCP* Hossein Salahi, Liquid Reply **16:00 – 16:45** *Intro to Apache Kafka on Aiven: From Managed Simplicity to Inkless Architectures* Hugh Evans, Aiven **16:45 – 17:15** Closing Keynote: *The Age of “Big Tech” is Over* Sean M Tracey, Mitchell Technologies **17:15 – 17:30** Closing Remarks Ethan Sumner, Community Stack Mercedes Moxon Greenfield, Community Stack ## Speakers We are delighted to welcome an exceptional speaker lineup, including: Andrew Randall — Principal PM, Office of the CPO, Microsoft Pal Lakatos-Toth — Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Peter Bhabra — Member of Technical Staff, Doubleword Viola Lykova — Senior Software Engineer, nuclecode Hannah Foxwell — Co-Founder, Bimp Sean M Tracey — Founding Technologist, Mitchell Technologies Craig Whiting — Director, RLS Search Jon Freedman — Chief Technology Officer, Quant Fin Ben Davison — Founder, Axiologik Salman Iqbal — Solutions Architect, Appvia Amir Tayabali — Tech Lead, Appvia Maebh Booth — Senior Engineering Leader, Former M&S Hossein Salahi — Senior Principal Engineer, Liquid Reply Jon Shanks — CEO, Appvia Hugh Evans — Senior Product Advocate, Aiven Ethan Sumner — Co-Founder & CEO, Community Stack Mercedes Moxon Greenfield — Co-Founder & CTO, Community Stack ## Sponsors and Partners This conference is made possible through the support of our sponsors and partners: **Headline Sponsor** BrainStation **Platinum Sponsors** Overmind Appvia Harvey Nash Axiologik **AI Native Sponsor** Nearform **Supporting Sponsors and Partners** RLS Search Doubleword Postman X4 Group Engaging Data BIMP Aiven If you'd like to get involved with a future event, please email: ethan.sumner@communitystack.io

**The Behavior Gap: Where Products Win or Lose** Teams today have more data than ever, and yet many still struggle to understand why customers adopt, engage with, or abandon their products. Teams sprint, ship faster, and chase more signals… all while metrics stall and confidence drops. The missing piece isn’t more data. It’s often the behavioral insight between the metrics, explaining why the numbers move in the first place. Dashboards can tell you what customers did, but understanding why they did it (and how to influence what they do next) requires a deeper blend of insights. This session is about closing that gap. Drawing from real-world experience designing and scaling products as [ZoCo Design](https://zocodesign.com/)’s CEO, [Lacey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceypicazo/) will share how to cut through the noise and identify the insights that actually change behavior—moving people, and moving metrics. You’ll learn: * Why understanding customer behavior is a quant and qual challenge * How to spot the signals that actually predict behavior change * Where AI accelerates insight, and where it creates distraction * How to get meaningfully closer to customers, without adding more tools This talk reframes how to evaluate performance and identify what levers actually improve it, helping your team to make smarter bets with greater confidence. Every meaningful outcome is driven by behavior change. And when you know how to design for behavior, you stop guessing, and start building things that work. **About Our Speaker** [Lacey Picazo](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceypicazo/) is the Founder and CEO of ZoCo, a healthcare product studio that turns complex, high-stakes ideas into products that drive real-world adoption. She partners with healthcare organizations to uncover critical care delivery insights, focus product strategy through behavior design, and build solutions that patients and providers actually use. 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)

Over a billion documents processed. Millions of Veterans impacted. Hundreds of thousands of employee hours saved. Faster decisions. Greater accuracy. More benefits in the hands of our disabled Veterans. We created Smart Search, the world’s largest consumer of Amazon Textract, right when GenAI began reshaping what’s possible. Since then, we’ve built a suite of AI‑driven solutions that transform this data into real, measurable outcomes—accelerating benefits decisions for our Nation’s Veterans. Join us for a focused conversation on how an outcome‑driven approach to AI is helping us boost accuracy, streamline workflows, and deliver faster results for those who have served. This is a follow up to the AWS re:Invent 2023 "Intelligent Document Processing with Gen AI for Public Sector" presentation. About Speaker: Cameron Williams is a Senior Technical Project Manager and cross-functional technical leader at Booz Allen Hamilton with 15+ years of experience architecting and evolving scalable, cloud-native systems, from greenfield development to complex enterprise modernization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronw711/ **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

**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

Title: Smart Search + AI: An Outcome-Driven Journey from IDP to a Suite of AI Register at the Columbus AWS meetup: [https://www.meetup.com/columbus-aws-amazon-web-services-meetup/events/313426379/](https://www.meetup.com/columbus-aws-amazon-web-services-meetup/events/313426379/) Over a billion documents processed. Millions of Veterans impacted. Hundreds of thousands of employee hours saved. Faster decisions. Greater accuracy. More benefits in the hands of our disabled Veterans. We created Smart Search, the world’s largest consumer of Amazon Textract, right when GenAI began reshaping what’s possible. Since then, we’ve built a suite of AI‑driven solutions that transform this data into real, measurable outcomes—accelerating benefits decisions for our Nation’s Veterans. Join us for a focused conversation on how an outcome‑driven approach to AI is helping us boost accuracy, streamline workflows, and deliver faster results for those who have served. This is a follow up to the AWS re:Invent 2023 "Intelligent Document Processing with Gen AI for Public Sector" presentation. About Speaker: Cameron Williams is a Senior Technical Project Manager and cross-functional technical leader at Booz Allen Hamilton with 15+ years of experience architecting and evolving scalable, cloud-native systems, from greenfield development to complex enterprise modernization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronw711/ **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Bienvenue! We host a twice-a-month French conversation club at La Chatelaine on Lane. All levels welcome! Whether you're new to French or running for Président de la République you are welcome here! We often read plays together, play vocabulary games, and generally enjoy the delicious food available at La Chatelaine! We will be at the long table in the back of the restaurant. A bientôt!

Join the Columbus AI community for a special event. **Battle of the Personal Agents** is your chance to see what people are actually building with AI agents and personal automation systems. Whether you’re running OpenClaw, Hermes, or a completely custom solution, bring your agent and show the community how it works. We’re interested in real-world implementations: the problems your agent solves, how you use it day-to-day, how it’s hosted and managed, how you built it, and why you’ve chosen to keep using it. Live demonstrations are encouraged, so be prepared to show your code, architecture, workflows, and your agent performing real tasks. This is less about polished presentations and more about sharing practical experience, comparing approaches, and learning from one another. If you’d like to present, please contact Chris Slee (via meetup) before the event so we can allocate enough time for everyone’s demonstrations. Come ready to show what you’ve built, discover what others are doing, and maybe find a few ideas worth taking home. 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.linkedin.com/company/transformlabs/) Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/transformlabshq)

QA or the Highway is a one-day, affordable, regional, professional conference featuring real-world experience and thought leadership in the QA and testing industry. This is a ticketed event please register here: https://www.qaorthehwy.com/ Featured Keynote Speakers: **Matthew-Hope Eland** **(Wizard at Leading EDJE)** \- An AI Specialist and Wizard at Leading EDJE who is known to teach software engineering\, AI\, and data science concepts in the most ridiculous ways possible\. Matt has used machine learning to settle debates over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie\, reinforcement learning to drive the behavior of digital squirrels\, data analytics to suggest improvements to his favorite TV show\, and AI agents to play board games and create an AI agent with the personality of a dog\. Matt is the author of "Data Science in \.NET with Polyglot Notebooks" and "Refactoring with C\#" as well as several LinkedIn Learning courses\. Matt helps organize the Central Ohio \.NET Developer Group\, runs several blogs and a YouTube channel\, has a Master’s of Science in Data Analytics\, and is a current Microsoft MVP in AI and \.NET\. **Tatyana Arbouzova** **(CEO at Innovate QA)** \- Tatyana Arbouzova is an engineering and business leader with a strong background in Quality Engineering across multiple industries\, including Big Tech\, Healthcare\, and Entertainment\. She has held leadership roles at world\-class companies such as Microsoft\, VMware\, Disney\, and The Pokémon Company International\, where she focused on building quality\-driven cultures and scaling teams to deliver high\-impact products\. With decades of experience\, Tatyana has helped organizations transform their quality practices so teams can deliver software efficiently\, confidently\, and with measurable business outcomes\. Today\, Tatyana advises software companies on adopting AI to optimize quality practices and improve how software is delivered at scale\. She is also a passionate community builder and the founder of Innovate QA\, a thriving Seattle\-based community and conference for quality professionals\.