Network Engineering

PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST book and pay for your ticket in advance at https://www.privateequitynetwork.co.uk/ London Family Office & Private Equity Business Networking Committee would like to extend you an invitation to our June 2026 Networking Breakfast to be held in the private lounge of the famous Jaks of Mayfair - and hope you can join us for a delcious pre-work breakfast and productive networking to make new contacts and ideas for 2026+. We now have over 8000 diverse and relevant London members so it’s the perfect opportunity for making new third sector connections. PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST book and pay for your ticket in advance at https://www.privateequitynetwork.co.uk/ ALSO PLEASE NOTE we take most of our event bookings through our website and EventBrite so the numbers booked is much larger than displayed on this Meetup page (normally about 30-50 guests for our breakfast events).

**SPACES ARE LIMITED – BOOK YOUR TICKET BEFORE THE EVENT:** **[https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1985148707222?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1985148707222?aff=oddtdtcreator)** Join us for an exclusive evening dedicated to the Fintech community in the heart of London! The Fintech Startups, Investors & Professionals Networking Event is the premier gathering for innovators, investors, and industry experts looking to connect, collaborate, and shape the future of financial technology. **Event Highlights:** * **Networking Opportunities:** Engage with leading fintech startups, influential investors, and seasoned professionals. Share insights, explore potential collaborations, and expand your professional network in a dynamic and welcoming environment. * **Interactive Networking:** Participate in structured networking activities designed to facilitate meaningful connections and discussions. Exchange ideas, business cards, and forge new partnerships in a relaxed setting. * **Casual Mixing:** Enjoy a casual atmosphere where you can mingle freely, engage in spontaneous discussions, and build relationships with fellow attendees over drinks and light refreshments. **Who Should Attend:** * Fintech Entrepreneurs & Startups * Venture Capitalists & Angel Investors * Financial Services Professionals * Technology Innovators & Developers * Legal & Regulatory Experts * Academics & Researchers **Why Attend:** * **Build Connections:** Meet potential partners, clients, and investors. * **Gain Insights:** Stay ahead of the curve with the latest industry trends and insights through direct conversations. * **Showcase Your Startup:** Present your ideas to an audience of potential investors and collaborators in an informal setting. * **Relaxed Environment:** Enjoy a casual, open environment that encourages free-flowing discussions and networking. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of London's vibrant fintech ecosystem. Register now to secure your spot and take the next step in your fintech journey!

PEL Network helps you connect with the right people at luxurious locations. So you can boost your business ten fold. We welcome interior designers, architects, builders, real estate developers, entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders and professionals from various fields. We always choose the luxurious lounges all around London so you can network in peace and focus. We make sure you feel comfortable and fulfill all of your needs. Our locations are at the heart of central london so it's easy for you to travel to and from. Food and drinks are also available at our venues. For our event, we have reserved an area of the venue so that we can mix and mingle and meet old and new friends, new contacts, and new clients too! We encourage everyone to talk to as many people in the event as possible. That said, once you feel a certain chemistry or opportunity with someone, we encourage to talk with them on a deeper level. We forget about 90% of people after a goodnight sleep. However when we establish an emotional resonance with someone, they will remember us the next day. Program: The evening's format is called personalized networking. No more being stuck in 10 min superficial conversations and exchanging cards or linkedin. It is designed for networking in a relaxed setting, providing an opportunity to meet fellow business leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors. We emphasize building genuine relationships on a personal level. I will be there to help with introductions and get over the barrier of anxiety when approaching someone you don't know. How many people are attending? The venue has a capacity limit of 40 guests, and due to the popularity of our events and the unique ambiance of the location, we anticipate this event will reach full capacity quickly. We strongly advise securing your reservation early to ensure attendance. If you haven't gotten a ticket, you can pay when you arrive but it will be 50% more expensive than buying it in advance. Our events achieve success through a straightforward yet impactful strategy. A few days prior to the event, we establish a WhatsApp group for attendees interested in pre-event networking, enabling participants to arrange meetings both for the event day and beforehand. On the day of the event, you will experience a relaxing atmosphere with a hospitable and encouraging community. Dress code: business casual (no trainers, no jeans) Refund policy: Advance purchase tickets are offered at a discounted rate compared to those bought on the event day. Please note, these tickets are non-refundable but can be transferred to another individual of your choosing. PEL Network Membership: If you buy the yearly membership for our PEL Network you will receive the following benefits. 1. All the events are free for the whole year. 2. Join the members only community chats and events. 3. One free Motivational Profile Test 4. One free Sensory Personality Test 5. One free book a month (from our collections) 6. Free Consultation for your business growth, marketing, employee engagement and sales.

**We're back at Salisbury House for our summer London Airflow Meetup! Join fellow members of the data engineering community for an evening of engaging talks, great food and drinks, and exclusive swag!** **PRESENTATIONS** ***Talk #1: The Orchestration Layer: A Blueprint for Scaling Dynamic DAGs with Integrated Data Quality Gates*** * **Speaker**: [Vasudev Maduri](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasudevmaduri/), Staff Data Engineer, Admiral Group Plc Ensuring high-quality data, accuracy, completeness, and schema validity is essential for building data trust. However, scaling data quality checks across diverse datasets often leads to duplicated boilerplate Python code, human error, and a massive bottleneck for Data Engineering teams. In this talk, we’ll explore how to shift data quality from a backlog of tech debt into an automated, self-serve developer experience directly tied to Airflow. We will demonstrate how to build a multi-faceted data observability framework that empowers end-user teams to define their own DQ rules without writing any Python code. By hiding complex Airflow code, users simply select their parameters—YAML configurations that instantly translate into fully dynamic, end-to-end DAGs, including in-flight data quality gates. The core of this session focuses on the technical implementation of integrated DQ checks that live directly *inside* the generated pipelines. You’ll learn how this metadata-driven approach enables a "shift-left" strategy for data observability, automatically enforcing data contracts and routing alerts without manual engineering intervention. ***Talk #2: Self-healing Data Pipelines in Airflow*** * **Speaker**: [Nilesh Khandalkar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nileshskhandalkar/), Senior Manager, Capgemini Modern data pipelines remain largely reactive—failures trigger alerts, manual retries, and ongoing operational overhead for engineering teams. As systems scale, this approach introduces fragility, delays, and growing complexity in maintaining reliable workflows. This session explores how to design self-healing data pipelines in Airflow using practical patterns such as intelligent retries, conditional branching, and targeted recovery mechanisms. Real-world failure scenarios are used to illustrate how pipelines can detect issues, trigger remediation steps, and resume execution without full restarts or human intervention. The session also looks ahead to how AI-assisted anomaly detection can further enhance these systems by identifying unexpected patterns and enabling more proactive, resilient data workflows. ***Talk #3: What We Got Right (and Wrong) Building a 50-Source Data Platform on Airflow*** * **Speaker**: [Arnaud Caldow](https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaud-caldow-384423142/), Senior Data Engineer at Collibra Collibra helps enterprises govern their data, but how does Collibra's own data team manage the data that powers the business? The answer is an Airflow-based platform that stitches together dlt, dbt, Kubernetes and Collibra's own product for governance -- all orchestrated through 87 DAGs serving 12 business domains. This talk traces a data point's journey through the stack: from API extraction via dlt pipelines running inside KubernetesPodOperator pods, through a layered dbt architecture where platform engineers standardize data and analysts build business models on top, into analytics outputs that serve multiple business teams, and finally back into Collibra Data Governance via reverse-ETL integration DAGs. Along the way, I'll share the patterns that emerged from operating this at scale: how we evolved from one-off custom pipelines to a reproducible framework that's documented well enough for AI subagents (or a new hire) to generate models from scratch, how our own Pod Operators let us test feature branches on shared environments, and how we're leveraging that same mechanism to migrate from Redshift to BigQuery (and from Airflow 2 to Airflow 3) without downtime. Behind the scenes, a 1Password-backed pipeline diffs credential hashes nightly, catching rotations before they break a DAG. **AGENDA** * **5:30-6 PM:** Arrivals, networking, food & drinks * **6-7:45PM:** Presentations * **7:45-8PM:** Networking

**NOTE: PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION BELOW FOR REGISTRATION:** **OWASP AI Security Summit** is taking place at **Infosecurity Europe 2026** on **Thursday, 4 June 2026 at ExCeL London** **Location inside Excel:** South Gallery Rooms 18 & 19 This summit brings together security leaders, researchers, and enterprise practitioners to discuss the latest developments in GenAI and Agentic AI security — including emerging threats, governance, incident response, real-world implementation lessons, and the evolving OWASP guidance shaping the industry. Sample sessions include: • The State of GenAI: Key Trends and OWASP GenAI Security Project • Beyond the Top 10: The Next Chapter of the Agentic Security Initiative • Agentic Security at Microsoft: Strategy, Implementation, and Lessons Learned • Implementing the Agentic Top 10 at AWS • 22 Seconds to Contain: Rewriting IR for Agents • Top 10 for LLMs Update • No Room for Hype: Securing Agentic AI Inside a UK Bank Featured speakers and contributors include OWASP GenAI Security initiative leaders and experts from: Microsoft, AWS, Lloyds Banking Group, OWASP, Deep Cyber, Zenity, and more. **Location inside Excel:** South Gallery Rooms 18 & 19 **REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE** **Register for Infosecurity Europe to attend the summit -** use promo code **OWASP** for a free pass: [https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/en-gb/visit/owasp-gen-ai-security-summit.html](https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/en-gb/visit/owasp-gen-ai-security-summit.html)

**Fabric Data Warehouse with Tino Tereshko** For our June meetup, we’re excited to welcome Tino Tereshko, Partner Director of Product at Microsoft, responsible for Fabric Data Warehouse. Having previously spent several years at Google working on BigQuery, Tino later co-founded MotherDuck — the DuckDB-based SaaS analytics platform — before joining Microsoft to lead Fabric Data Warehouse. It’s fair to say Tino knows a thing or two about modern analytical databases. Tino is visiting from Seattle and has kindly offered his time to present at our London user group. The session will include an introduction to Fabric Data Warehouse, an overview of recent developments and future direction, followed by an open “Ask Me Anything” discussion where attendees can quiz Tino on all things data warehousing, Fabric, and analytics. **Agenda** 18:30 - Welcome, drinks, pizza & networking 19:00 - Main Session 20:30 - Close **Venue** Tenth Revolution offices in London. Aldgate House, 33 Aldgate High St, London EC3N 1DL Please provide your first and last name when registering for the event, as this is provided to building security to allow you entrance into the venue.

Please reserve your spot by registering on the below link : **Reserve** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/join-biggest-community-investors-founders-london-online-tickets-1984545575238?aff=meetup **QUESTIONS ?** Pls Reach out to; Ridhi - [+971 50 472 4873](http://wa.me/971504724873) ( WhatsApp Only)

**Looking for a business networking event in London with a more social, founder-led atmosphere, and on a Saturday?** **Join us for a Business Networking & Founder Mixer in Covent Garden. Hosted by London tech startups GMax Card, Ciitab, and Getshop Today.** **What to Expect** **Quality** **conversations****, relaxed socialising/****networking****, and** **a live DJ throughout the evening** **\- a business crowd in a social setting\. Meet new people\, exchange ideas\, build** **partnerships****, and** **grow your network** **in a relaxed but professional atmosphere.** **Our hosts will help introduce guests early in the evening, before the event naturally flows into open networking, drinks, and** **DJ music****.** **Who You’ll Meet** **•** **Founders** **and** **entrepreneurs** **•** **Business owners** **and** **decision makers** **•** **Finance****,** **FinTech, banking****, and** **investment professionals** **•** **Tech****,** **startup, AI, digital, and product professionals** **• International** **business professionals visiting London** **How the Evening Flows** **18:30 - Arrival & welcome** **19:00 - Short guest introductions** **19:30 - Open socialising/networking with live DJ** **21:30 - Close** **Venue - Sycamore Bar, Middle Eight Hotel** **A refined cocktail bar inside the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel in Covent Garden, just a short walk from Covent Garden, Holborn and Tottenham Court Road stations.** **Dress Code** **Business or smart attire. Think polished Saturday evening out with a professional touch.** **Tickets & GMax Cards** * **Limited promotional Free RSVP tickets include only the access to the event.** * **Selected paid tickets include a premium contactless GMax Card.** **Hosted by founder-built tech startups:** **•** [GMax Card – digital & contactless business cards](www.gmaxcard,com) **•** [Ciitab – AI-powered LinkedIn networking](www.ciitab.com) **•** [Getshop Today – UK ecommerce platform](www.getshop.today) **Important Details** **• 18+ event. ID may be required at the bar.** **• Photography and filming may take place for promotional use by** [Cine Eye (Audiovisual Production).](Audiovisual%20Production) **• Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and venue accept no liability for loss, damage, or injury.** **Spaces are limited and early booking is recommended.**

PyData London 2026 brings together data scientists, engineers, and researchers from around the world for three days of insightful talks, tutorials, and community connection. Hosted in one of Europe’s leading tech hubs, the event highlights the latest developments in Python, machine learning, and data science. Attendees can expect a mix of cutting-edge research, real-world applications, and opportunities to network with industry leaders. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, PyData London offers something for every level of the data science community. **THIS IS NOT A TICKET- TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED ON CONFERENCE WEBSITE.** https://pydata.org/london2026

**Brews and Lose... Track of Time!** Bermondsey Beer Mile. Relaxed pace. Visit craft brewery tap rooms in ancient industrial London. It really is a lovely walk, lots of Victorian buildings, murals, art, etc. As with all our events, you **do not** need an ADHD diagnosis. Come as you are, meet nice, quirky people. We will attempt to visit several of the taprooms in a loosely sequential order. I strongly recommend having thirds or halves of a pint! Some of us will succeed. To keep you in sustenance, there will be assorted food places along the route. We start at [The Kernal Taproom,](https://share.google/c3sPrvF5jXxSsbwGJ) and finish up around London Bridge where... who knows what may happen next, **What will definitely happen:** - At least one person will show up to the wrong place - Someone will spend forty minutes reading the entire tap list and order a basic bitch Fosters/Carling - A conversation will begin, go completely off-piste, and never return to the original point - Someone will announce they're leaving and still be there an hour later - We will collectively lose track of time, money, and the thread of at least six conversations **What will probably not happen:** - Not everyone arriving on time - Leaving when we said we would - Remembering what the plan was - But we will try. **Directions:** Meet at [The Kernal taproom ](https://share.google/c3sPrvF5jXxSsbwGJ) preferably at 12, before the rush. Nearest Tube: Bermondsey - Jubilee Line Our WhatsApp group: [Message us here](https://chat.whatsapp.com/EQgW6gtwMhh2kPgP7CyrBK) READ THE GUIDE!! [Bermondsey Beer Mile Survival Guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YgpzHyIdA2mhpKDV_9yjFjIiWmFf1tyN/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=107544702518017466322&rtpof=true&sd=true) \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **Important note:** This is not a dating meetup, not everyone will want to connect outside of an event. This is a proudly consent-led space.

Fancy a cup of coffee and a chat in a friendly environment? Then this is the group for you. We will meet every 2 weeks at Ole and Steen in Victoria and any other different coffee shops in central a location whenever possible. You are welcome to bring friends along and sometimes we may continue the social event after 4pm with a dinner or other activity if enough participants wish to do so.

**​Founders Running Club (FRC)** brings founders, investors, tech, creative people and startup enthusiasts together for weekly easy runs and networking. We like to be comfortable when we run and finish with coffee and conversations. Choose your pace or follow a pacer—pets, friends, family, are welcome. ​9:15 Bag drop at the Regent's Bar and Kitchen, Regent's Park: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MmZdAVM8yXT9euKc7 ​9:30 Warm Up starts at the Inner Circle & York Bridge, South Gate: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/qw45ehLmDQY7maMD6](https://maps.app.goo.gl/qw45ehLmDQY7maMD6) 🗓️ Launched in San Francisco, July 16, 2022 🌍 Now in 27 cities 📅 Running + Networking events + Community **Join the community [http://foundersrc.com/chats](http://foundersrc.com/chats)** **Stay updated:** **Instagram [http://instagram.com/foundersrc/](http://instagram.com/foundersrc/)** **Podcast [http://podcast.foundersrc.com/](http://podcast.foundersrc.com/)** **LinkedIn [http://linkedin.com/company/foundersrc/](http://linkedin.com/company/foundersrc/)** **Strava [http://strava.com/clubs/foundersRC](http://strava.com/clubs/foundersRC)** **Website [http://foundersrc.com/](http://foundersrc.com/)**

We love a good chat. Come and join us at Table 45

🚨 Spoiler alert: We built the space we couldn’t find. A place where you can show up alone, say hi first, and meet new people naturally. If you’re ready to expand your circle, you’re in the right place. You can check us out on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/_balancers/) 📸🚨 Get ready for another Social🎉 Here’s the Plan: **7:30 PM – Find Your Team** As soon as the event begins, you’ll receive a card with simple instructions to help you find your teammates among the other attendees. It’s a fun and easy way to start conversations with people in the room. **08:15 PM – Team Challenges Begin** Once teams are formed, the challenges start. Winning challenges earns points for your team on the live scoreboard. No skills needed. Just jump in, have a laugh and work together. Winning team get free shots 🍹 **09:00 PM – Open Social & Mingling** Once the challenges wrap up, the room opens up. This is the moment to mix, chat and get to know new people. **10:00 PM – Music** The DJ takes over and the night shifts into a more relaxed social vibe. Chat, dance and keep the connections going. ⚠️ Please note: Entry is not guaranteed after 10:00 PM **11:30 PM – After Party** For those who want to keep the night going, we’ll head to a venue close by for the after party. ⚠️Please bring ID if you plan to join the after party. ✨ Pro tip Try to arrive by 7:30 PM to enjoy the full experience. 🔹 Many people come alone. That’s completely normal here. 🔹 Our hosts are on the floor helping people meet and get involved. 🔹 Most attendees join through our app, so the Meetup “Going” list represents only a small portion of the actual crowd. **[📲 Download our app](https://onelink.to/balancers)** You can connect with people you meet, access ticket deals, track rewards and see the photo gallery from the night. **[💬 Join our WhatsApp Community](https://chat.whatsapp.com/IJKXDkwUTlmDsYTOCIUg7O)** for last-minute updates and reminders. **Our pillars are Openness, Respect, Inclusivity, Kindness and Authenticity**. *Attendance at this event is subject to our [Code of Conduct](https://www.balancers.app/code-of-conduct) and [Terms of Service](https://www.balancers.app/term-of-service). By joining, you may receive emails about Balancers events and community updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.*

Monthly working lunch for Columbus business owners. One specific topic, one to three actions you can run this week. You can be the best at what you do and still be invisible. If local buyers cannot find you, the phone does not ring. Marketing Monday Lunch + Learn is a monthly working lunch for Columbus business owners focused on building relationships, local networking, and local marketing. Every kind of local business welcome. No pitch round, no pressure, no upsell. **This month** Most local businesses pick one or two places to be visible and call it good. The result is inconsistent calls and a feeling that marketing is not working. We will walk through the three places every local business needs to show up, plus the fourth place most owners ignore that quietly produces the warmest leads. **What to expect** Doors open at noon. Order lunch and drinks at the cafe counter or bring your own. You get real conversation with other local owners and a focused marketing lesson. You leave knowing people and with one to three actions to run that week. The room is reserved through 1:30 PM. **Who this is for** Any local business owner who wants clearer marketing direction and real local relationships. Service businesses, retail, home services, professional services, online owners building local presence, anyone serious about being part of the Columbus business community. **Not the right fit if** You are here to pitch the room or recruit for an MLM. **Details** * Second Monday of every month * 12:00 to 1:30 PM * Good Cafe Easton, 4400 Easton Commons, Ste 150, Columbus, OH 43219 * Order lunch and drinks at the counter when you arrive * Free to attend, RSVP required, space is limited **About the host** Rita Suzanne is a local marketing strategist and the founder of Local Marketing Method. She runs Visibility is Profitability, the membership where local business owners build the system that keeps their phone ringing. Learn more at learnlocalmarketing.com. Register here: [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989964540509?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989964540509?aff=oddtdtcreator)

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\.

Topic to be announced. **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

**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)

Most people still use AI like a search box: type one question, get one answer, repeat. But the next step is AI agents: systems that can take a goal, break it into steps, use tools, remember context, and produce useful work for a human to review. In this beginner-friendly session, we’ll demystify what AI agents actually are — without hype or jargon. We’ll walk through practical examples of how agents can help with research, planning, writing, coding, operations, and personal productivity. We’ll cover: * What makes an AI “agent” instead of just a chatbot * How agents break tasks into steps * Where agents are genuinely useful today * Where they fail, hallucinate, or need human review * How to design simple AI workflows for your own work * A live demo of an AI agent-style workflow from start to finish No coding experience required. This is for anyone who wants to understand where AI tools are going and how to use them more effectively right now. LOGISTICS AND PARKING: The talk starts at 7:00 PM. The first half hour is reserved for everyone to get set up and mingle. Free pizza and drinks! The cheapest parking option is to find street parking, which will only cost you a few bucks. Otherwise, park in the nearby veteran's museum lot for $8. It's highly recommended you avoid the nearby $15 garage parking.

We are bringing Microsoft Build sessions to Columbus Ohio! The Central Ohio Azure Meetup and Central Ohio .NET Developer's Group (CONDG) are coming together to bring some of the labs and breakouts from Microsoft Build to your backyard. In this free, 1 day event, you are going to Build stuff with us! And yes, there will be free food. So please RSVP for a head count!