Microsoft

Join us on Wednesday 6th May for our next AI Exchange event, hosted by AWS at their Holborn HQ. Here's what's on the agenda: **[WeBuild-AI](https://www.webuild-ai.com/)** are making the case that bigger isn't always better. Their talk breaks down how small language models, through distillation, fine tuning and low rank adaptation, can deliver the same results as larger models, at a fraction of the cost. **[Nova Intelligence](https://www.novaintelligence.com/)** are tackling a problem that doesn't get talked about enough, most AI agents simply weren't built to work with enterprise software like SAP. Their talk discusses how they have solved that, and what it looks like when AI works as well in the enterprise world as it does everywhere else. **[AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/)** are tackling the question underneath all the others, not how to use AI, but what it's doing to the human mind. Their talk explores how cognition is shifting, which human traits become more valuable as AI takes on complexity, and what genuine human AI partnership actually looks like. As always, doors open at 6:30pm and talks start at 7pm sharp. We have a tight capacity for this event, so please RSVP as soon as you can to secure your space. **Agenda:** **[Adel Rahimi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelr/) @ [WeBuild-AI](https://www.webuild-ai.com/)** "**Small Language Models: Practical AI for the Real World"** Large language models have dominated the AI conversation, but a quieter revolution is underway. In this talk, we'll explore the rise of small language models and why they matter now more than ever, from reduced infrastructure costs to data sovereignty and the ability to run AI on-premise or at the edge. We'll dive into the techniques that make small models punch above their weight, including distillation, quantisation, fine-tuning and low-rank adaptation. Whether you're navigating regulatory constraints, working with limited compute, or simply looking for a more practical path to production AI, this session will give you the tools to think smaller and smarter. Bio: Adel is a Principal Engineer at Webuild-AI. He has a decade of experience in building and scaling AI and ML solutions at different industries and different company sizes, ranging from series A to unicorns and more recently he was a Sr. AI Engineering Manager at Procter & Gamble. He has also published several research papers in the areas of AI Explainability and NLP and is an advocate of safe and explainable AI. **[Marcello Urbani](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcello-urbani-4730b75/?skipRedirect=true) @ [Nova Intelligence](https://www.novaintelligence.com/)** "**Bringing Agentic AI to the SAP Ecosystem"** Most enterprise software wasn't built with AI agents in mind — and mainstream agents weren't built for enterprise software. SAP is the sharpest example: code lives in the system, not a filesystem, and git-based workflows simply don't apply. Nova closes that gap — an agentic assistant that speaks SAP natively. This talk covers the mismatch problem, how we designed Nova around SAP's environment, and what it looks like when an AI agent finally works as well on SAP as it does on mainstream systems. Bio: Marcello is a software engineer with over two decades in the SAP ecosystem, most of them building DevOps tooling at Basis Technologies. Last year he joined Nova Intelligence to focus on AI applied to SAP systems. An active open source contributor, he is best known for abapfs, a VS Code plugin that enables ABAP development directly in the editor. **[Elliott Almeida](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-almeida/) @ [AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/)** **"The Cognitive Partnership: How AI is Reshaping Human Intelligence"** This session explores the profound psychological transformation at the intersection of human cognition and artificial intelligence. Moving beyond tactical implementation, we examine how AI is fundamentally altering our cognitive identity and which human psychological profiles naturally thrive in AI collaboration. Drawing on the "Missing Middle" philosophy and the tension between cognitive offloading and scaffolding, we investigate the paradox of augmentation: as AI handles increasingly complex cognitive tasks, what uniquely human capacities become more valuable? We hope to see you there for another great AI filled evening! **Sponsors...** The AI Exchange is brought to you in partnership with[ LinuxRecruit](https://www.linuxrecruit.co.uk/) and[ AWS.](https://aws.amazon.com/) LinuxRecruit is building the next wave of Tech Unicorns in Europe. Whether you're hiring or exploring your next opportunity, [get in touch](https://www.linuxrecruit.co.uk/jobs). The types of roles we have currently are across Founding Engineers, Engineers across Product, Software, AI/ML, Data and Platform Infrastructure/DevOps.

**Welcome to our Official Members Club Night!** * See our new payment terms, prices & updates below! * **Suitable for Higher Intermediate to Advance players!** Many of our players compete at a Division 1 Level in the local leagues! * **Guests of a suitable standard welcomed (if interested in playing league matches do enquire)** * To maintain the level of the session, it may be necessary to direct a player to one of our other nights at their suitable level! **New Payment Terms, Prices & Updates (from 9/9/25)** * **Make your payment when you RSVP** (bank details below), don't leave it till later! (unless on waiting list) * If you don't complete the above you will be removed from the list/added to waiting list! See T&C's below! * **Members and Guests prices have increased!** (see below) **SESSION DETAILS** **VENUE** \- Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich\, SE22 0NR **TIME** \- 7\.30pm till 10pm **COURTS** \- 4 **SHUTTLES** \- Quality Feather Shuttles **COST** - **Annual Members £10 per session / Non-Members £14** * Pay when you RSVP, or you will be moved to 'Not Going' * Membership (only applicable for Wed sessions) For details regarding membership email - [sandra1.crossfire@gmail.com](mailto:sandra1.crossfire@gmail.com) Please note Membership may not always be available for different reasons! **BOOKING YOUR SPACE** **1 - RSVP & Pay via Bank Transfer to NatWest Account Details below** * **PLEASE MAKE YOUR PAYMENT WHEN YOU RSVP!** If you delay in making your payment, your spot will be removed without notice, and placed in the the waiting list or not attending **PAYMENT DETAILS** * Bank - NatWest * Account Name - Crossfire Badminton Club * Sort Code - 60-24-25 * Account no - 10579109 * Reference - Your Name & Session date * * **Waiting List** \- Be sure to have notifications on from Meetup to know if/when you are allocated a spot\! It is your responsibility to keep update\. Payment will be required promptly to secure your place\! Cancellation & No\-Show policies apply\. * If you take to long to secure your spot, you will be removed from the waiting list, giving other players a chance to book! **\*\*\*\* TERMS & CONDITIONS \*\*\*\*** **RSVP & UPDATING STATUS -** \~ You can only RSVP on this website! A prompt payment will be required unless you're on the waiting list. ( a delay in payment could mean you lose your spot! \~ **You can RSVP until 7pm the latest on Wednesday!** However do note the cancellation policy/times below! \~ If you have **RSVP'd and your plans change, please update/change your RSVP immediately!** So that other players have a chance to book! \~ No rackets are provided **CANCELLATION /NO SHOW POLICY & PENALTY FEE** **This session does not give a refund**, however, if you cancel your RSVP before 48hrs of the session start time, we are happy to transfer your payment to the following Wednesday session upon request! (Contact Sandra) **No Show Penalty**. A £5 penalty will be enforced which is payable before attending a future session. Repeat offenders will not be allowed to attend other sessions! \~ **Waiting List** **\- Please do keep an eye on any updates as you will be automatically added if someone cancels\, and required to make your payment ASAP to secure your place**. Cancellation/ No-Show policies apply! \~ Please understand that a 'No Excuses accepted!' policy will be taken, and understand that purpose of the penalty system is to maintain the value of the session, and allow us to plan accordingly. We thank you for your understanding and support! Toilets will be available, but changing rooms & showers will be closed, so arrive dressed to play **DRESS CODE, WELL-BEING, CONDUCT & EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES:** Please ensure that you wear suitable clothing and footwear for indoor sporting activity. Ensure than your jewellery is also kept to a minimal, and avoid wearing large ear rings, chains or bracelets/bangles. If your footwear and/or clothing is not suitable you might not be able to participate in the session. No refund of transfer of session fees applicable! Your health and safety in important to us, so if needed please seek advice from your doctor before playing any sports. You are also responsible for warming up/cooling down stretches to reduce the risk of strains/ injuries. Please understand that you play at your own risk as Crossfire Badminton Club will not be held responsible for any injuries incurred. We welcome players of all backgrounds, and treat everyone equally with respect. This is also expected from our participants. If you fail to do this, you may be asked to leave the session, or even banned from future sessions Thank you for all your understanding and support CrossFire Badminton Club

AI is changing how engineering teams work. Faster iteration. More output. Less time spent on the basics. But turning that speed into real delivery isn’t straightforward. At this Future Form session, we’re looking at what it actually takes to move from faster development to shipping real value. Speakers: **Brian Scanlan\, Senior Principal Engineer \| Intercom** Brian will share how they’re increasing engineering throughput using AI inside a large SaaS codebase. What’s improved, where it’s worked best, and the practical challenges that come with scaling it beyond demos. **Luca Lanziani\, Head of DevOps & Platform Engineering \| Nearform** Luca will explore what happens around the code. Because when development speeds up, the constraints shift. Platform, delivery pipelines, team structures. The organisations that benefit are the ones that adapt. Join us for pizza, drinks, and practical insights of where AI can genuinely accelerate delivery, and what needs to change to make that happen. **If you’re working hands-on with AI tools or responsible for how software gets delivered, this session is for you.**

**What we are about:** Life drawing sessions every Wednesday 7.30pm-9.30pm This class is for all drawing levels, aiming to improve your own drawing style and learning about drawing the human form and anatomy in a relaxed and friendly environment. The class invites you to study guided or untutored with professional models in a variety of different poses. Usually we begin with a series of short poses and warm up exercises from 1min to 5mins. Followed by longer studies of 10, 15 and 20mins. We have a small break and the we’ll continue with a 25 min pose and concluding with a 20 minute pose. A different model each week All levels welcome Guidance given/optional Drawing materials and paper provided and included in the price. We are a friendly, welcoming, sociable group. Price: Drop-in, single session £15 - weekly sessions art materials and paper provided You can pay by cash or use this pay pal link : // [paypal.me/CreativeLifeDrawing](http://paypal.me?CreativeLifeDrawing) please choose - pay friends and family members If you like to secure your spot you can pay via this meet-up site but they will add some additional fees. CreativeLifeDrawing [J_wolfmail@yahoo.com](mailto:J_wolfmail@yahoo.com) Jennifer Wolf

**HURRY - Tickets going fast!** [Reserve your spot here](https://cgconnect.chaos.com/pages/07b704e3-uplift-london-educate-participate-connect) Join us in London from 2pm on **Wednesday 6th May** for **Uplift London**, an inspiring afternoon and evening dedicated to the art and future of 3D visualisation and creative content industries. **3D London,** in partnership with **Chaos** and **Elmtec** brings together creative minds, technical experts, and passionate storytellers for an unforgettable experience built around learning, sharing, and connecting. ## **A full day of inspiration, innovation, and connection across visualisation, design, and creative technology.** Join **3D London, Chaos, Creative Lighting** and **Elmtec** for the third edition of our yearly gathering in London! [Reserve your spot here](https://cgconnect.chaos.com/pages/07b704e3-uplift-london-educate-participate-connect) **UpLift London** brings together a vibrant mix of artists, designers, and creative technologists for a day that’s as much about people as it is about ideas. Expect inspiring talks, honest conversations, real-world workflows, and opportunities to share your work – where creativity connects with opportunity, and new directions start to take shape. ## **What is UpLift London?** UpLift London is more than an event – it’s a shared space for creative growth. Across **three dedicated tracks**, the day is designed to balance inspiration, practical knowledge, and meaningful connection. Expect a mix of: * Engaging talks and discussions * Creative insights * Hands-on exploration and expert guidance * Opportunities to connect with the community [Reserve your spot here](https://cgconnect.chaos.com/pages/07b704e3-uplift-london-educate-participate-connect) ## **Why attend?** * Discover new approaches to creative storytelling and visualisation * Learn smarter, faster workflows used by professionals * Gain practical insights you can apply immediately * Connect with a forward-thinking creative community * Explore opportunities for growth, collaboration, and visibility From presentations and panel discussions to portfolio reviews, the Ask & Discover Corner, and the Education space for emerging talent, the day is designed to support both **creative growth** and **professional development.** If you’re looking to learn something new, feel inspired, and reconnect with the community, **this is the event for you**. **When:** From **2:00 PM**, Wednesday **6th May 2026** **Where:** **The White Rabbit Studio** **Food & Drink:** Pizza and drinks provided for all attendees **Spaces:** Limited to keep the experience personal – early registration is highly recommended! [Reserve your spot here](https://cgconnect.chaos.com/pages/07b704e3-uplift-london-educate-participate-connect)

We play every Wednesday 9pm at Kings Cross Outdoors Space, Hard surface pitch • 1 hour game • Friendly game • Hard surface pitch, no studs of any type allowed • Closest station: Kings Cross • Book your spot online via Footy Addicts website - www.footyaddicts.com All bookings are managed via Footy Addicts website ONLY! We do not use Meetup any more to manage our attendance list. Please sign up on Footy Addicts and confirm your attendance online!

Welcome to our May event. We're delighted to welcome [Elena Lape](http://linkedin.com/in/elenalape), Founder, Holopin and [Rupam Jha](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupam-jha-151313a7/), Senior DevOps Engineer, as well as [Areg Hovakimyan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/areg-hovakimyan/), Senior DevOps Engineer. **Elena** takes an affectionate but honest look at the wonderfully chaotic reality of working with AWS, a platform that can do almost anything, but rarely in just one obvious way. **Rupam** answers the question every fast-moving team faces: how do you stay secure, compliant, and audit-ready on AWS without creating bottlenecks for builders? **Areg** provides an overview of Amazon EKS, while highlighting what truly makes a difference in production. A big thank you to our sponsors [Cloudscaler](https://rebrand.ly/cloudscaler), [Rayo](https://rebrand.ly/rayo-cloud) & [The Scale Factory](https://rebrand.ly/scalefactory) **Programme:** 18:00: Arrival, registration 18:15: Talks start 20:00: Networking with food and a drink provided by the generosity of our sponsors. **Talk 1:** ***AWS: An Experience with Elena Lape*** Those of us who care a lot about developer experience would certainly agree: AWS is, undeniably, an experience. This session explores the quirks, overlaps, and “wait, why?” moments that make AWS both impressive and deeply relatable. Expect an affectionate look at the strange reality of using a platform that can do everything except explain itself briefly. **Elena** is founder and Head of Engineering at Holopin, where she leads a platform used by 150,000+ software engineers worldwide. Before Holopin, she worked across several Silicon Valley scaleups building Kubernetes integrations, developer tooling, and cloud infrastructure, and has been building on AWS since 2016. Elena is deeply focused on developer experience. She spent part of her early career at GitHub, remains active in hackathon communities, and today serves on the W3C Advisory Board. **Talk 2:** ***Learn how to turn AWS security and compliance policies into automated, scalable, and auditable practices — without slowing down innovation with Rupam Jha*** Many organisations struggle to enforce security and compliance consistently across AWS environments while scaling their workloads. In this session, I’ll walk through practical strategies to secure AWS accounts, implement automated compliance controls, and simplify audits. Using real-world examples and best practices, attendees will leave with actionable techniques to protect data, streamline operations, and maintain regulatory readiness in the cloud. **Rupam** is a Senior DevOps and Platform Engineer who enjoys building AWS platforms that are scalable, secure, and easy for teams to use. Her focus is on creating cloud-native environments with tools like AWS, Kubernetes, EKS, Terraform, and Vault, helping engineering teams ship faster and more confidently through automation, standardisation, and strong platform foundations. A big part of what she does is reducing complexity for developers by building self-service infrastructure, improving delivery pipelines, and making platforms more reliable, observable, and cost-effective. She cares about security by design and operational excellence, and she believes infrastructure should feel like a product - something dependable, well-designed, and built to help teams move quickly without adding unnecessary risk. **Lightning Talk:** ***EKS in Production: What Actually Changed After Adoption*** **Areg** is a Senior DevOps Engineer and will talk about Amazon EKS. Amazon EKS offers many capabilities to simplify Kubernetes operations, but in practice, not all of them deliver the same value. In this 15 minute talk, Areg will provide a quick overview of key EKS capabilities, highlight 2-3 that truly make a difference in production, and explore common areas where teams tend to overcomplicate their platforms. **Do you have a story to share?** If you are interested in speaking at one of our events, please check out our [call for papers here](https://awsuguk.org/call-for-papers/). We are advocates for greater inclusion & diversity in UK Tech and are especially keen to receive talk submissions from people in underrepresented groups. If you are interested in speaking at a future meetup but would like to discuss what to expect or need assistance, please contact our Inclusion & Diversity Lead Natalie Gray - graynataliej@gmail.com or DM her [@natjgray](https://twitter.com/natjgray) Check out our [website](https://awsuguk.org/) for more information about our community. Remember to follow us [@AWSUserGroupUK](https://twitter.com/AWSUserGroupUK) and on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aws-ug-uk) for the latest updates, and you can find videos of our past meetups [here.](https://awsuguk.org/our-videos/)

Get ready for an another awesome night at the London Tech Social! It’s the perfect spot to chill with designers and engineers and make new friends. Whether you’re a tech wizard or just curious, you’ll fit right in. This is your chance to meet cool people and maybe even kick off some exciting projects together🚀 Mark your calendar for a night filled with fun and new connections📅 We look forward to seeing you there!

Join fellow product people at **The Product Group London** on **Thu 7th May** for an evening of learning, sharing and networking. **Topic of the Night: Product Today: Surviving & Succeeding** Succeeding (or even surviving) in product management today, what does it take? On the night we’ll explore the current state of the industry and what’s required to succeed (and/or survive) now and in the future. Topics will include what’s changing about the role, what’s staying the same and what’s unknown? How is AI, economic uncertainty, changing company dynamics and the selective job market impacting the role? How do you succeed (or survive) today and in the near future incl. what to focus on and which skills to optimize for? **Featured Guest: David Eason, Principal Product Manager, Trainline** David is a Principal Product Manager at Trainline, where he has spent 7 years building and scaling customer-facing products. He currently leads monitisation initiatives, focused on driving meaningful revenue growth by expanding the core Trainline proposition. As a product generalist, David has delivered across all parts of Trainline’s web and app products in B2B and B2B2C spaces. His work has covered the full product lifecycle incl. launching new AI-powered tools in the product. Before joining Trainline, David worked at Ford, where he focused on experimental product development and collaborated with leading London-based software and design agencies. **About The Product Group London** The Product Group London is a monthly meetup designed to bring product people of all levels together for topical discussions, as a group and with our guest speakers. With attendees from startups to large enterprises, there is no shortage of opportunities to network and make new connections. And whilst the focus is on product management, we welcome product designers and engineers to join for some friendly and lively discussions. **A word about our sponsor and host, BrainStation** [BrainStation](https://brainstation.io/london) is a global leader in digital skills training, empowering businesses and brands to succeed in the digital age. Established in 2012, BrainStation has worked with over 500 instructors from the most innovative companies, developing cutting-edge, real-world digital education that has empowered professionals and some of the largest corporations in the world.

**Join us in Enfield Croquet Club to play like a pro on their beautiful dedicated lawns for a free croquet coaching session!** No experience or equipment required, just good vibes ✌️ **However you do need to pre-register via the email address course@enfieldcroquet.org to ensure there is space for you play, as this is open to local Enfielders too and some spaces may be booked up already.** In this free session they will share their skills and tips to become a better croquet player. All equipment is provided, with coaching delivered by experienced club members; just wear flat shoes or trainers. Please arrive by 9.45 am for a 10 am start and the session will finish around 1pm. 24 players can be on the lawns at any given time. **\*\* As stated above, it is very important that people pre-register early to avoid disappointment through the official Enfield Croquet Club email [course@enfieldcroquet.org](http://course@enfieldcroquet.org%2A%2A/) as there are limited mallets and lawn space\*\*** The game does not require strength, stamina, or speed, it is a game of precision, accuracy and strategy. Once you try it, you'll never look back. Following your session you will be told about membership offers if you would like to keep playing at Enfield. Details of this can be found here: [http://www.enfieldcroquet.org/join-us/](http://www.enfieldcroquet.org/join-us/) Attendees are welcome to bring a packed lunch, hang out, and carry on playing in the afternoon if they like. There's food outlets nearby. There is a Kubb Croquet Club WhatsApp group to be kept updated on what is happening in the club. This will be shared in the event comments. **NEAREST STATIONS:** Bush Hill Park or Enfield Town, Weaver Line, London Overground. **BUS:** The 192 goes from either station. The ‘Fotheringham Road’ bus stop is the nearest to the croquet club. **VENUE:** Enfield Croquet Club, Cecil Ave, Enfield, EN1 1PS Please read our code conduct, which all attendees are require to follow: **\- We play croquet to have fun \- that said please do obey the rules of the game while playing\, treat other participants with respect\, play in the spirit of the game\, and don’t argue about the rules/scoring\.** **\- By attending this event you agree that your safety and your personal belongings are your own responsibility and that the organisers are not responsible or liable for them\.** **\- The organisers are happy to show you how to play the game and use the croquet equipment\, but it is your responsibility to use it safely\. Please return the equipment at the end of a game\.** **\- This event is open to all\, and attendees are expected to be respectful and inclusive\. Any abusive\, discriminatory\, confrontational or bullying behaviour will not be tolerated and may result in the attendee being asked to leave\. Everyone deserves to feel welcome\.** **\- Attendees are responsible for their own behaviour\. The organisers are not liable for the behaviour of any attendee\.** **\- Please respect the area where we play and do not leave rubbish behind\.**

Life Drawing ✍️ Pls pay at class £15 cash or £16 by card. If you are a concession pls speak to Sophie. Class fee includes tea, coffee & biscuits 🍪& sometimes 🍰 😋 We’re upstairs at Primrose Hill Community Association NW1 8TN

**Important:** Register on the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026050710) is required for admission. **RSVP on meetup is turned off** Welcome to the AI meetup in London, in collaboration with Google. 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 **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 May 7th from **6:00pm** for a Data Streaming meetup hosted by **[Fresha](https://www.fresha.com/)**! 📍**Venue:** **Fresha** The Tower, 207 Old Street London, EC1V 9NR 7th Floor **PLEASE bring your PHOTO ID and REGISTER with your First and Last Name, Email. Thanks!** **DOORS CLOSE AT 7PM FOR SECURITY.** 🗓 **Agenda:** * 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Food/Drinks and Networking * 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Anton Borisov, Principal Data Engineer, Fresha & Nicoleta Lazar, Sr. Data Engineer, Fresha * 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Olena Kutsenko, Staff Developer Advocate, Confluent * 7:30pm - 8:00pm: Tom Scott, Founder & CEO, Streambased * 8:00pm - 9:00pm: Q&A Networking 💡**Speaker One:** Anton Borisov, Principal Data Engineer, Fresha & Nicoleta Lazar, Sr. Data Engineer, Fresha **Title of Talk:** Apache Fluss: Streaming Storage for Real-Time Analytics **Abstract:** Apache Flink has largely solved streaming computation, but state management remains a bottleneck. Operator state—often backed by RocksDB—is scoped to individual jobs, making it hard to share state across pipelines without re-emitting it through systems like Apache Kafka. This leads to expensive joins and added operational complexity. Apache Fluss (incubating) addresses this by externalizing state into a streaming storage layer backed by S3. Its PrimaryKey tables act as upsertable key-value stores with replicated changelogs, enabling shared state tables accessible from Flink, Spark, or native clients. With Flink 2.1’s Delta Join, both sides of a join can perform lookups against Fluss-managed indexes—eliminating the need for large join state altogether. In this talk, we’ll introduce Fluss, show key use cases like CDC enrichment and bilateral joins, and share lessons from running it in production on EKS —including the trade-offs and rough edges we encountered. 💡**Speaker Two:** Olena Kutsenko, Staff Developer Advocate, Confluent **Title of Talk:** The journey of a record from Kafka topic to analytics table **Abstract:** Modern data platforms increasingly rely on streaming systems like Apache Kafka as the source of truth—but turning event streams into reliable, queryable analytics tables is far from trivial. This talk explores what really has to happen when moving data from a Kafka topic into an Apache Iceberg table. Beyond simple ingestion, we will walk through the essential steps: schema evolution, data normalization, partitioning, exactly-once guarantees, late-arriving events, and table maintenance. Using Confluent Tableflow as one concrete example, we will examine how these challenges can be addressed in practice. Along the way, we will compare alternative approaches—such as Kafka Connect sinks, stream processing pipelines, and custom ingestion frameworks—to highlight trade-offs in correctness, latency, and operational complexity. The goal is not to promote a single solution, but to provide a mental model for designing robust streaming-to-lakehouse pipelines, helping you understand what matters regardless of the tooling you choose. **Bio:** Olena is a Staff Developer Advocate at Confluent and a recognized expert in data streaming and analytics. With two decades of experience in software engineering, she has built mission-critical applications, led high-performing teams, and driven large-scale technology adoption at industry leaders like Nokia, HERE Technologies, AWS, and Aiven. A passionate advocate for real-time data processing and AI-driven applications, Olena empowers developers and organizations to use the power of streaming data. She is an AWS Community Builder, a dedicated mentor, and a volunteer instructor at a nonprofit tech school, helping to shape the next generation of engineers. As an international speaker and thought leader, Olena regularly presents at top global conferences, sharing deep technical insights and hands-on expertise. Whether through her talks, workshops, or content, she is committed to making complex technologies accessible and inspiring innovation in the developer community. 💡**Speaker Three:** Tom Scott, Founder & 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. \*\*\* If you are interested in hosting/speaking at a meetup, please email community@confluent.io

**Pre-Registration is REQUIRED. RSVP here - [https://luma.com/ppyy0sqw](https://luma.com/ppyy0sqw)** ## 🚀 From OpenClaw to Cowork: The Rise of Agentic AI in 2026 **Agentic AI is moving beyond chat and into execution.** Join us for an evening of deep-dive insights as we explore the shift from simple LLM interactions to autonomous, AI-native workflows. Whether you’re a developer, product manager, or business leader, this session will help you navigate the practical future of AI agents. ## The Speaker **Sheamus McGovern,** *Founder of ODSC AI \| Venture Partner at Cortical Ventures \| Author of "The AI Skill Flip"* ## The Topic: The Rise of Agentic AI In this talk, Sheamus explores how tools like **OpenClaw**, **Claude Cowork**, and the emerging **Model Context Protocol (MCP)** are starting to automate real workflows. We’ll move past the hype to look at how agents are working across tools and systems to solve actual production challenges in 2026. ## Our Partners A huge thank you to our partner **[Snowflake](https://www.snowflake.com/en/)** for supporting the London AI community and providing the incredible venue for this event. ## Details * **Date:** 7th May, 2026 * **Time:** 18:00 – 20:00 BST (London Time) * **Perks:** Pizza and soda will be provided 🍕🥤 * **Venue:** Snowflake HQ, 3 Crown Place, London EC2A 4EF, UK ## Agenda * **18:00 - 18:30:** Networking, Pizza, & Drinks * **18:30 - 19:15:** Talk: From OpenClaw to Cowork (Sheamus McGovern) * **19:15 - 19:30:** Interactive Q&A * **19:30 - 20:00:** Closing & Community Networking Come ready to learn, connect with London's AI community, and see what the next phase of automation looks like in practice! **Some useful links:** • Get free access to more talks/trainings like this at Ai+ Training platform: [https://aiplus.training/](https://aiplus.training/) [•](https://hubs.li/H0Zycsf0%EF%BF%BC%E2%80%A2?utm_source=luma) ODSC blog: [https://opendatascience.com/](https://opendatascience.com/) [•](https://opendatascience.com/%EF%BF%BC%E2%80%A2?utm_source=luma) Slack Channel: [https://hubs.li/Q038cQBy0](https://hubs.li/Q038cQBy0) [•](https://hubs.li/Q02ZkDV90%EF%BF%BC%E2%80%A2?utm_source=luma) Code of conduct: [https://odsc.ai/code-of-conduct/](https://odsc.ai/code-of-conduct/)

Practical AI for Power BI Developers A year ago, “agentic AI” was mostly hype for Power BI teams. Today, it deserves your undivided attention. For Power BI pros, there is now a real opportunity to reduce repetitive development work, accelerate delivery, and help developers do more, but only when strong DataOps practices are in place to make AI workflows effective. This session is a no-nonsense introduction to effective AI patterns for Power BI and Fabric development. Along the way, we will make sense of the growing pile of terminology, including skills, plugins, hooks, and MCP. You will see examples of how modern AI tooling can help with development tasks across Power BI and Fabric, along with the prerequisites, guardrails, and DataOps principles needed to use it responsibly. Whether you're burned out on AI hype or already using Copilot CLI daily, this session will show you the foundations that are finally making AI-assisted development genuinely useful.

We will show how to build custom agents with Microsoft Agent Framework. Attendees will learn how to build and custom host agents when Microsoft Foundry is not a viable option.

Christians in Tech is a community at the intersection of faith and technology. Our meetups are designed to spark meaningful conversations, promote knowledge sharing, and encourage growth—both in your career and your spiritual walk with God. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting your tech journey, CIT welcomes you. Our Website [https://linktr.ee/citcbus](https://linktr.ee/citcbus) Sponsors and Partners * Improving (Venue Sponsor) * Bethel World Prayer Center (Fiscal Sponsor) * Fruits & Roots (Coffee Partner)

Let's Crop!

Columbus Code & Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. People of all skill levels attend, and we love it that way. Many people (optionally) bring projects to work on, and many other people (optionally) socialize the entire time. It's entirely up to you! **What to Expect at the Intro Circle** \~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~ Near the beginning of the event (1:30 pm), we do a standup: * Organizer announcements, updates, and logistics Round 1 - (7 secs max): * Your name * What you're working on * What you can help others with Round 2: * Community events you wanna plug. If none, that's cool too. Round 3: * Job opportunities you're hiring for OR announce that you are looking for one. If none, that's cool. After the introduction circle, everything is self-organized! Feel free to work alone, pair up, attend one of our workshops/presentations, or mingle!

FREE event [https://www.ccad.edu/chroma](https://www.ccad.edu/chroma) Friday, May 15, 3–7 p.m. CCAD campus, 60 Cleveland Ave, Columbus, OH Join Columbus College of Art & Design for *2025* *Chroma: Best of CCAD*, our annual campuswide exhibition showcasing outstanding student work from across the college’s academic programs. This faculty-juried show features select work from CCAD students of all class years, and is a can’t-miss end-of-year campus celebration recognizing their tremendous achievements. It’ll be a night of fun and entertainment, with interactive games, animation and film screenings, art symposiums, poetry and prose readings, and more (along with some of the best local food trucks). *Chroma* is free and open to all. Many exhibitions including... **Game Art & Design:** **DSB, first floor, Welcome Center lobby and Room 115**

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.