IT Professionals

**Meetups for Rebels of all kinds — to connect, learn and share** This is a Social Networking event with a Fireside Chat with [Jess Rowlings](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-rowlings/), CoFounder of Next Level Collaboration, a Neurodivergent-led social enterprise in gaming and education. 📍 This Event is hosted at Natural Velocity AI Learning Centre, Docklands, 🍕 Free Pizza & drinks will be provided **Agenda:** * 5:45 - 6:30 PM (45 mins) - Get to know each other & Welcome * 6:30 - 7:20 PM (50 mins) - Fireside Chat & Q&A from Audience * 7:20 - 8:15 PM (55 mins) - More Social Networking There’s no dress code, no hard sales pitches, and no pressure — just great people and meaningful conversations 🙂 🌍 Est. 2013 – Rebel Meetups now run globally 🆓 This event is free thanks to our members, our partners, our volunteer hosts, and generous venues. **This event is hosted at [Natural Velocity AI Learning Centre](https://www.linkedin.com/company/natural-velocity/ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/natural-velocity/")** **— a venue generously supporting our community** Notice: We will be capturing content from the event, to post on our socials. See you there! **Directions Help:** Up the Escalator, between 'Melbourne College of Hair & Beauty' and 'Gap Maps'. As shown in the red dots in the image below: [Directions Map](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fkcpXvzZrEs0kKMPEI_vXbUCz7OEPTzf/view?usp=sharing)

**January Meetup: AWS re:Invent re:Cap (Panel)** 📍 NAB Events Hub – 395 Bourke Street, Melbourne 📅 Wednesday 28 January 2026 🍕 Food & Networking from 6:00pm 🙏 A huge thanks to **Mantel Group** for their continued sponsorship of the Melbourne AWS community. 📺 This event will be **live-streamed on YouTube**, as always, for those who can’t attend in person. *** **🚀 Event overview** AWS re:Invent 2025 was packed with announcements, launches, and big ideas. Now it’s time to step back and look at what actually matters as we head into 2026. Join us for our **annual AWS re:Invent re:Cap**, featuring a panel discussion hosted by AWS Hero Stephen Sennett, joined by local community members who attended re:Invent and followed the announcements closely. Expect honest perspectives, practical insights, and time for audience questions. *** **🎙 Host & Panel** Host: **Stephen Sennett – AWS Hero** Panelists: * **Christina Chen,** Senior SRE @ Mantel Group — AWS Community Builder * **Dale Orders**, Software Engineer @ Five9 — AWS Community Builder * **Tony Zhang**, Principal DevOps Engineer @ Versent *** **🗓 Agenda** 6:00 pm – Food & Networking 🍕 6:30 pm – Introductions 👋 6:40 pm – What’s New in AWS ☁️ 6:55 pm – AWS re:Invent re:Cap Panel Discussion 🎤 7:55 pm – Marketplace (Who’s Hiring) 💼 8:00 pm – Close 👋 *** **🎤 Want to speak at a future meetup?** We’re always looking for new speakers and fresh perspectives. If you’ve got a technical talk, architecture story, or lesson learned you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you. 👉 Submit a talk: melb.awsug.org.au/speak/ *** **🤝 Sponsors** A huge thank you to our sponsors, Mantel Group and Cevo, for supporting the Melbourne AWS community.

Depression, Anxiety, Stress and worry are real concerns when we consider mental health. What causes the overwhelming sadness, the insomnia, the frightening panic attacks, the lack of energy, the mental fatigue and nervousness experienced by so many people. https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/2/8/1/0/600_459310256.jpeg Even a temporary state of stress can affect our ability to reason and result in actions or decisions that have disastrous long-term results. What is it that is holding you back and stops you from being YOU? Quality of life depends so much on mental health. People desire happiness but authentic happiness is often short-lived. Sometimes only a dim memory from childhood. Children are known for their ability to find joy in the simplest of things. What is it that affects a person's ability to experience true happiness? The Circumstances are the same, but the person no longer responds with positive emotions. Instead he or she may have a persistent gnawing anger, fear or sadness that depresses the consciousness and brings the person to reliance on pills or alcohol. The change may be gradual, occurring slowly over many years or it can be sudden, triggered by a traumatic stress such as the death of a loved one or a broken heart. The answer to these problems has been searched for for thousands of years but the problem appears to getting worse, with the rates of depression and suicide climbing alarmingly. Very few lives remain unaffected either directly or indirectly by these modern scourges. Could it be that the modern "treatments" and "solutions" to these problems are actually making things worse? That could only occur if the people developing and using these "treatments" did not know the true underlying reason for these problems. Today's meetup topic is based on Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard We will discuss the underlying reason for depression, anxiety, fear, nervousness, unhappiness, phobias and many other unwanted emotions and reactions as revealed and is fully explained in L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics. Life can become fun again, just like it was when you were a child. Hard to Believe? Well don't believe - find out for yourself and then you will KNOW. You have the opportunity to have all your questions answered. Nothing in Dianetics has to be true for you unless you have observed it and it is true according to your own observation. Today's meetup enables you to make your own observations. Make this go right for you, RSVP yes and ensure you attend this meetup. Know Yourself, Know Life! Tanja This Event is educational only and not to diagnose, treat or cure mental health issues. Attend our Meetup's at our scheduled Meetup times or visit Scientology at Ascot Vale at any time best suited to you. We are open 7 days each week. Alternatively visit our Network TV channel at www.scientology.tv You will be able to find out facts and why it is that people from all walks of life including many business owners use Scientology tools to improve. This group consist our of many religions including those with no faith (Atheist) All people of goodwill are welcomed.

**➡️➡️➡️➡️ To Register, [SIGN UP HERE](https://www.lewagon.com/events/what-s-holding-your-networking-back-identify-your-strengths-blind-spots-ub32YK) ⬅️⬅️⬅️⬅️⬅️** Build Relationships That Actually Move Your Career Forward Networking doesn’t have to feel awkward, transactional, or exhausting. In this interactive 1-hour session, Chris Kong will introduce a practical and human approach to networking that helps you build genuine relationships, even if you’re introverted, early in your career, or allergic to “selling yourself.” This session introduces Chris’s **SIGN Framework** which is a simple, memorable model designed to help professionals connect with intention and confidence: * **Strategic** – being clear on who and what you’re building relationships for * **Ice-breaking** – starting conversations naturally and authentically * **Giving** – creating value without overthinking or people-pleasing * **Nurturing** – maintaining relationships without it feeling forced Drawing on stories from his journey leading technical teams and coaching professionals across industries, Chris will share practical insights you can apply immediately. You’ll also complete a short **networking diagnostic**, helping you reflect on your current strengths and blind spots to identify where small shifts could unlock better opportunities. ### **What you’ll get** * A clear, practical framework for strategic networking * Real examples and stories from tech and corporate environments * A short self-diagnostic to assess your networking style * Space for reflection and interaction This session is offered **free to the Le Wagon community** and is designed as a low-pressure, high-value introduction to Chris’s approach. **About the facilitator:** **Chris Kong** is the founder of *Crouching Tiger Network* and a former Director of Data & Digital at Danone. He supports technical and ambitious professionals to navigate communication challenges, build influence, and grow their careers with confidence. His work blends strategy, psychology, and real-world leadership experience.

We all recognize that if things were better organized, people would be better off. We have all had experiences with a business or government, school or a group that was not well organized and we experience the confusion, delays and upsets of trying to deal with disorganization. On a personal level, trying to get something started - a plan, some new bright idea you had, perhaps starting a new business - without organization can be a nightmare. Organization is a key and often missing factor in personal success. It is also essential for a flourishing family, group, organization or business. Attaining one's goals, no matter how large or small, requires a knowledge and application of organization.

[We're now using Luma to organise the meetups, we're just duplicating the event here at Meetup to notify registered users. **Please register - and subscribe for future notifications - at the [Luma January Melbourne MicroPython Meetup](https://luma.com/zfcwjv1w) event!**] The January MicroPython Meetup will be held at the CCHS and live-streamed and recorded over zoom: ​​[https://planetinnovation.zoom.us/j/93446219588?pwd=NWsyYjhlakJ6eXNOWTUraVl4eUFpdz09](https://planetinnovation.zoom.us/j/93446219588?pwd=NWsyYjhlakJ6eXNOWTUraVl4eUFpdz09) ​​ The CCHS will open at 6:30pm and we'll aim to **start talks at 7:15pm**. ​​International guests, please check the [time in your timezone](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=November+Melbourne+MicroPython+Meetup&iso=20251126T1830&p1=152). ​​For those meeting in-person, pizzas will be organised - please chip-in $15 if you're interested. ​​We'll be doing a News Roundup and maybe another talk or two (TBD!). ​​Recordings of previous meetups can be found on the official [MicroPython YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@MicroPythonOfficial) channel - or older recordings on [Matt's personal YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@mattytrentini/videos). ​​Beginners are *always* welcome, just bring a laptop if possible and we'll supply plenty of microcontrollers for you to use.

Would you like to enhance your creativity, confidence and increase your awareness? We’d love you to join us to Thoughtstorm® the topic International Day of Education in the warm, friendly environment of the Yarraville Community Centre. How Thoughtstorm came about Thoughtstorm is a technique developed from a seed of speculation: are there more effective (rational, cooperative, compassionate) ways of thinking? Methods whose long-term consequences will not lead to oblivion. This is the genesis of Thoughtstorm. What is it? For anyone with an interest in leadership, deeper conversations or creative problem solving, something much more than a group discussion occurs. What is experienced in Thoughtstorm is a forgotten sensory ability - mind-linking. An evolution in human thinking and learning. The direction moves from a narrow range of possibility into discovering corecepts, when individual minds merge into a much more powerful collective awareness and experience a deeper, more compassionate comprehension of reality. Corecepts trigger intuitive recognition and agreement by the group, a ‘Why, of course!’ reaction. New insights guaranteed! Because this process taps into abilities already present in the human mind and into aggregates of consciousness straining to express themselves, very little practice is required. Would you like to see and understand things in a way that is new for all of us? Would you like to develop your consciousness and your creative intelligence? Would you like to be inspired to create positive change? Then come and join us to Thoughtstorm together. If it’s your first time to Thoughtstorm, please RSVP early to give plenty of time to arrange a brief prep call on Zoom to go over the Thoughtstorm procedures so we can all get started on time together. **Agenda:** 6.30pm - Arrive, meet and greet, read over Thoughtstorm instructions 6.45pm - Begin the Thoughtstorm 7.45pm - Finish When you RSVP we will be in touch with the details. We look forward to seeing you there! Thoughtstorm® is a registered trademark of Star's Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.

**"TechWalking" - Networking + Walking** Are you a tech professional looking to network beyond the screen? Look no further than my upcoming #TechWalking event! 💪🏃‍♀️ Join us for a refreshing walk around the scenic Albert Park Lake. It’s the perfect chance to connect with industry peers while getting in some steps! I know many of you have been tuning in to my online events, but we've never had the opportunity to meet in person. Let's change that! Check out the video from the last event: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0kzu8nGhT1E We'll kick things off at **10 am sharp** at the Albert Park Fitness Station. Please, don't be late! We're hitting the trail around the lake as soon as we gather. And trust me, you won't want to miss it – unless you're up for a bit of a sprint to catch up! (we're going anti-clockwise) This event is pet and kid-friendly, as long as your little ones and furry friends can manage a 5 km walk, they're more than welcome to join. Looking forward to meeting you all in real life! *** Join us for a Live Discussion on Wednesdays at 5.30 pm (AEDT) Subscribe to YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ITCareerinAustralia Follow me on LinkedIn for more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yana-martens/ Just moved to Australia? Grab your FREE guide to land your first tech job! [https://yanamartens.com/first-tech-job-in-australia/](https://yanamartens.com/first-tech-job-in-australia/)

We’re hosting the first Functional Programming Melbourne meetup of 2026 at Factor House HQ on Thursday, 29 January. This will be a relaxed, meet-and-greet style event welcoming functional programming practitioners and enthusiasts of all levels, with light talks and community connection. Location: Factor House HQ, Northcote Doors open: 5:30pm (food & drinks provided) Please register via the FP Melbourne Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/fp-melbourne/events/312721035/

We are glad to announce the first edition of FP Melbourne meetup of 2026, which will be hosted at Factor House office(https://factorhouse.io/) on 29th of January. We welcome all functional programming practitioners and enthusiasts across all levels to attend. Since this is the inaugural meeting we expect to have more of a meet-and-greet type of gathering where we get to know each other, focus on fostering the community and maybe have a light tech talk on some of the interesting projects people have been doing. We are honoured to have Factor House as the sponsor of this event. If you are interested in using functional programming for your business then look no further to the wonderful work and great success Factor House has achieved. They are one of the largest industrial user of functional programming in Australia and in particular the adoption and proliferation of Clojure ecosystem. We will have wonder people from Factor House including its Co-founder and CEO Derek to talk about everything related to Clojure. If you would like to submit a FP related tech talk for this meeting, please send us a message and specify the topics, duration and anything else related to the talk. The location is at 13 Robbs Parade Northcote, the easiest way to get here is by taking the Mernda line on metro train and get off at Northcote station, then it's walking distance to Factor House office. Doors open at 5:30pm, refreshments such as pizza, beer, soft drinks etc will be provided for your enjoyment. Hope to see you soon!

Join LUV for our yearly barbecue! It will be held 31st January at Yarra Bank Reserve. ​Guests are welcome! Come hungry, and feel free to bring food and/or drinks. \-\-\- \*\*​Getting to Bank Yarra Reserve:\*\* ​Public transportation is still free on the 31st! ​Tram: A tram stop is right next the park (line 48 and 75) ​Train: Hawthorn Railway Station is a quick 15 minute walk from the park. ​Car: Free parking right next to the park. \-\-\- [RSVP on Luma](https://luma.com/y0mgcit5) to get updates. It isn't required but helps us to know how much food to buy. ​View this [event on our website](https://linuxvictoria.org/posts/2026-01-31_LUV-BBQ) for more details.

Melbourne BitDevs is an in-person meetup held monthly for discussing: Bitcoin software, tools, research, protocol upgrades (BIPs), mining and more. ⚡💻 Held on the last Thursday of the month. Current venue is upstairs at the Fox Hotel in Collingwood. Arrive anytime from 6pm, with a **prompt start at 6:30**. Website: https://bitdevs.com.au Telegram: https://t.me/btcmelbourne Discussion topics (please add!): https://github.com/MelbourneBitDevs/MelbBitDevs/issues/

## Details \#\# Learn Infrastructure\-as\-Code \(the FUN Way\) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: DevOps Columbus - Azure CBUS - Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint DevOps Columbus, Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. \#\#\# What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time \#\#\# Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group × DevOps Columbus** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS, Columbus HashiCorp User Group, and DevOps Columbus meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/

## Learn Infrastructure-as-Code (the FUN Way) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: Azure CBUS × Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. ### What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time ### Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐 Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/cbus-hug-2026/

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

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.

How to Be a Better Communicator Communication is everything in life You are only as successful as your ability to communicate. \- What if you could confidently talk to anyone? \- What if you had the ability to calmly control every conversation? \- What if you could close that sale\, ask for that date\, make new friends\, repair problematic relationships\, get that raise\, or effortlessly express any idea with confidence? You can! The secret to success relies on your ability or inability to effectively communicate. Attend a free seminar and gain a better ability to communicate. Hosted by the Church of Scientology of Central Ohio 1266 Dublin Road, Columbus, OH 43215 For more information, contact Rhiannon, the Event Host at 614-221-5024