Network Engineering

**Looking for a business networking event in London?** Join us in Canary Wharf to connect with **founders, entrepreneurs, and professionals across business, finance and tech**. Event by tech startup **GMax Card** and **Getshop Today**. **What to Expect** A focused mix of founders, business owners, and professionals across tech and finance — the kind of room that feels both high-quality and easy to be in. The setting is lively but designed for real conversations, with space to connect naturally rather than forced networking. Our hosts are available from the start to help with introductions if needed. **Meet and Connect with:** * Startup founders & entrepreneurs * IT, tech & product professionals * Business owners & consultants * Finance, banking & investment specialists * International professionals based in London **How the Evening Runs** 18:30 – Arrival & welcome 19:00 – Optional introductions 19:30 – Open networking 21:30 – Close **Venue: Market Halls, Canary Wharf** Located in the heart of Canary Wharf, **Market Halls Canary Wharf** offers a lively yet polished setting for professional networking. Our event will take place in the **upper floor bar area**, ideal for natural business conversations. The venue is easily accessible via the **Elizabeth line**, with quick connections from both the City and Central London. **Entry & GMax Cards** Free RSVP: Includes full access to the networking event Upgrade your networking: Paid tickets include a contactless GMax Card (when available) **Dress Code:** Smart casual. As this is a business networking event, we recommend dressing as you would for a client or professional meeting. ⚙️ **Co-organised by tech startups:** * [GMax Card - Digital and contactless business cards](http://www.gmaxcard.com/) designed for modern networking. * [Ciitab - AI-powered LinkedIn networking tool](http://www.ciitab.com/) to help you build and nurture professional connections at scale. * [Getshop Today - Create your own independent online store on a UK-built platform](http://www.getshop.today/), so you’re not dependent solely on global marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. **Important Details:** * Age & ID: 18+. ID may be required for alcohol purchases. * Photos & Video: Filming and photography by [CineEye - video production and commercial photography in London](http://www.cineeye.co.uk/). Images may be used for promotion - inform organisers on arrival if you do not consent. * Dress Code: Business/Smart. Please see above for more info. * Liability: Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and venue accept no responsibility for loss, injury, or damage to you or your property. **Register Early!** We look forward to welcoming you - register early and [join this Meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/london-entrepreneur-startup-network-tech-business-ecommerce/) or [follow us on Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/company/gmax-card) for future event alerts.

**Looking for a business networking event in London for finance, banking, fintech** \- while also connecting with founders\, tech professionals and the wider business ecosystem? Join us in Canary Wharf for a **founder-led networking evening** co-organised by London tech startups **GMax Card** and **Ciitab**. **What to Expect** * Connect with professionals in **finance, FinTech, investment banking, B2B and tech** * Build valuable business relationships across the **finance, business and startup ecosystem** * Exchange ideas, spot trends, and uncover opportunities * A lightly structured event - not a random mingle, not an overcrowded conference An atmosphere that feels **high-quality yet relaxed**, with space for real conversations. Hosts are there from the start to help with introductions. **Who You’ll Meet** * Finance, banking & investment professionals * FinTech & B2B specialists * Startup founders & entrepreneurs * Business owners & leaders * Tech, product & IT professionals * International professionals on a business trip to London **How the Evening Runs** **18:30** \- Arrival **19:00** \- Short introductions **19:30** \- Open networking **21:30** – Close Hosts are there from the start to help with introductions. **Venue: Market Halls, Canary Wharf** Located in the heart of Canary Wharf, **Market Halls Canary Wharf** offers a lively yet polished setting for professional networking. Our event will take place in the **upper floor bar area**, ideal for natural business conversations. The venue is easily accessible via the **Elizabeth line**, with quick connections from both the City and Central London. **Entry & GMax Cards** * **Free RSVP**: Event access * **Paid ticket (when available)**: Includes a contactless **GMax Card** (ask host to claim; not distributed automatically) **Dress Code** Business / smart casual **Important Info** * 18+ (ID may be required) * Photos/video by CineEye Audiovisual Production Studio (inform us if you prefer not to appear) * Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and venue are not liable for any injury, loss, or damage. **Limited spots - register early!**

Hi folks! Welcome to our May Cloud Native London meetup! Join us to hear from our three great speakers and network with your fellow techies over pizza and drinks, or alternatively chat and following along on Youtube or LinkedIn! 6:00 Pizza and drinks 6:30 Welcome 6:45 The End of Handoffs: Build, Run, Own in One Flow (Alberto Pose, Pulumi) 7:15 You Can’t Patch Fast Enough: What AI-Driven Attacks Mean (Idan Elor, Oligo Security) 7:45 Break 8:00 From Zero to HyperPod: Distributed Model Training on AWS (Anton Nazaruk, Cloud Combinator) 8:30 Wrap up See you there! Cheryl (@oicheryl) **The End of Handoffs: Build, Run, Own in One Flow (Alberto Pose, Pulumi)** AI is changing the shape of team structures. A similar shift to the one that brought dev and ops together into DevOps is now happening as product must also meet the accountability bar. At the same time, tooling has not caught up with "throwing it to Claude/Codex". Engineers are confronted with a choice: trust code and actions they do not fully understand, or... move too slowly. Are these problems fundamentally new, or are there lessons we can draw from the past to adapt and think about what comes next? *Alberto Pose is a software engineer with a soft spot for developer tooling and infrastructure. He is currently part of the team managing the CI/CD pipelines for Pulumi's open source projects. Before this, he spent nearly ten years at Prime Video and AWS. A major highlight of his time there was helping bootstrap the living room device automation team, taking it from a small group effort to a 30 person organisation that brought full automation to millions of streaming devices worldwide.* **You Can’t Patch Fast Enough: What AI-Driven Attacks Mean (Idan Elor, Oligo Security)** Anthropic’s Project Glasswing announcement put the industry on notice. AI has fundamentally changed the threat landscape and the risks facing organizations, and it’s happening faster than most security models can adapt. AI-assisted attackers can now discover vulnerabilities, generate exploits, and launch attacks at rates never seen before, collapsing the window between disclosure and exploitation. In this environment, patching alone is no longer enough. For cloud-native applications, where systems are dynamic and constantly evolving, this creates a new challenge: how do you stay protected when you can’t fix vulnerabilities fast enough? This talk explores how the attacker model is shifting in the AI era, why traditional approaches are breaking down, and what it means to move from vulnerability-based security to real-time protection at runtime. We’ll cover how focusing on exploit techniques enables teams to stop attacks as they happen, including zero-days. *Idan Elor is Field CTO at Oligo Security, where he partners with large enterprises to solve complex application and cloud security challenges. He most recently served as Director of Solution Engineering & Tech-Alliances at Apiiro, where he empowered enterprises to secure their software supply chains. With over a decade of experience spanning application security, DevSecOps, and mobile security, Idan has also held leadership positions at companies like Snyk, Symantec, and HP. His unique background combines deep hands-on technical expertise. A passionate advocate for bridging the gap between security and development teams, Idan is known for his ability to translate complex security concepts into actionable strategies that organizations can actually implement.* **From Zero to HyperPod: Distributed Model Training on AWS (Anton Nazaruk, Cloud Combinator)** You've got a model that works. You just need more GPUs. How hard can it be? That's where the pain starts. GPU availability, infrastructure complexity, and cost are the three blockers that trip up even experienced teams when scaling from single-GPU training to serious distributed workloads. This talk is a practical walkthrough of how to set up distributed model training on AWS - covering the capacity options (On-Demand, Spot, Capacity Blocks, SageMaker Training Plans), when to use each, and a repeatable infrastructure blueprint for compute, networking, storage, and observability. I'll demo provisioning a HyperPod cluster and running a distributed training job with automatic failure recovery, and share the cost levers that matter at scale. Whether you're a platform engineer supporting ML teams or an ML engineer tired of fighting infrastructure, you'll leave with a decision framework and a blueprint you can implement. *Anton Nazaruk is CTO at Cloud Combinator, where he helps companies run GPU workloads on AWS - from early-stage startups to larger organisations doing distributed training at scale. He focuses on making ML infrastructure repeatable, resilient, and cost-efficient.* *LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anton-nazaruk* *Check out [https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon](https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon) if you're interested in speaking or sponsoring.*

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.**

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/)

🍻 Tech Startups in the Pub – Now Twice a Month! 🚀 We’re levelling up! After 3 years of packed evenings in Shoreditch, we’re adding a second monthly event, this time midweek in Oxford Street. That means two chances every month to meet founders, techies, and startup people over drinks. 🎉 👉 What’s New * A **fresh central-London venue**: Simmons Bar, Oxford Street * A new day: **1st Wednesday** of the month * Find one of the hosts to **grab a wristband**, it makes it easy to spot who’s part of the meetup (and not a random party). 😉 👉 What Stays the Same * No agenda, no panels, just relaxed networking with like-minded people. * Friendly hosts (look for Oliver, Pedro, Rob, or Rob) ready to introduce you. * A mix of founders, builders, operators, and curious newcomers. * Drinks, chats, and maybe some new friends. 📍 Where: Simmons Bar \| Oxford Street\, 203 Wardour St\, London W1F 8ZH 🕕 When: From 6 PM, 1st Wednesday of every month House Rules * No hard selling or heavy pitching, this is a chill after-work meetup. * Not drinking? Totally fine, come for the people, stay for the conversation. So grab a drink, throw on your wristband, and come swap stories from the trenches. See you there! 🍻

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.

**Looking for a high-quality business networking event in London**? Join us in the elegant **Sycamore Bar at the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel, Covent Garden,** where real business connections happen. Co-hosted by London tech startups **Getshop Today and GMax Card.** **What to Expect?** * A more polished, higher-quality alternative to typical casual networking events with atmosphere that feels both approachable and high-quality. * Build valuable business connections in a premium environment * Exchange ideas and uncover new opportunities * Our hosts are there from the start to help facilitate connections - whether you're looking for clients, partnerships, or new opportunities. **Meet and Connect with:** * Founders and entrepreneurs * Tech, digital, and product professionals * Business owners and senior decision-makers * Professionals in finance, banking, and investment * International professionals based in London **Event Flow** We keep a light structure to help everyone connect naturally: * 18:30 Arrival & welcome * 19:00 Short introductions * 19:30 Open networking * 21:30 Close Hosts will be available on arrival to help with introductions before the evening flows into open networking. **Venue** **Sycamore Bar, Middle Eight Hotel**
 A refined, design-led bar inside the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel.
Located in the heart of Covent Garden, within walking distance of Holborn, Covent Garden, and Tottenham Court Road stations. **Dress Code:** Business / smart. This is a business networking event in a 5-star hotel rather than a fully informal gathering in a local pub. **Entry and GMax Card:** **Free RSVP:** Includes full access to the event **Upgrade your networking:** Paid tickets include a [contactless GMax Card ](https://gmaxcard.com/shop)(when available) **Hosted by founder-built tech startups:** * **[Getshop Today](www.getshop.today)**[ - UK-built ecommerce platform](www.getshop.today) for independent online stores * **[GMax Card](www.gmaxcard.com)**[ - premium digital and contactless business cards](www.gmaxcard.com) for modern networking * **[Ciitab](www.ciitab.com)**[ - AI-powered LinkedIn networking](www.ciitab.com) and outreach **Important Details** * **Age & ID: 18+.** ID may be required for bar purchases. * **Photos & Video:** The event may be filmed or photographed by [CineEye Audiovisual Production](www.cineeye.co.uk) for promotional use. Please inform the organisers on arrival if you do not wish to appear. * **Liability:** Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and venue do not accept any responsibility for loss, injury, or damage to you or your property. **Limited spaces available - early booking recommended.** Join our [WhatsApp group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/FJdEP809H5U8WQ4y4BLLS5?mode=hqctcli) to stay connected between events, and follow us on [LinkedIn](http://linkedin.com/company/gmax-card) for upcoming dates.

PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST book and pay for your ticket in advance at https://www.londonfintechs.com/ The London Fintechs Committee would like to extend you an invitation to our May 2026 Networking Breakfast to be held in the private lounge of the famous Bonds of Mayfair - and hope you can join us for a delicious pre-work breakfast and productive business networking to make new contacts and deals for 2026+ We now have over 4000 diverse and relevant London members so it’s the perfect opportunity for making new business connections. See photos from our latest events at https://www.londonfintechs.com/ PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST book and pay for your ticket in advance at https://www.londonfintechs.com/ 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 breakfasts).

We're excited to invite you to ***our next Meetup***! Join fellow graph enthusiasts, Neo4j developers, and members of the AI community as we explore how graphs, knowledge graphs, and context engineering can unlock smarter applications and better answers. We look forward to connecting with the community to exchange ideas on graphs, tech, and AI - join the discussion! Session 1: **From Weak Assistants to Super Agents** Sefik Serengil, Senior Software Developer - Neo4j Session 2: **The Latest on Working with Agents** Baptiste Fernandez, DevRel - Tessl A synthesis of data, experiments, and developer feedback on how to build with agents and steer them in practice.

*📍**Location*** London Bridge Hive, 8 Holyrood Street, SE1 2EL London - 2 minutes from London Bridge Station *📌**Description*** Agentic AI isn’t about replacing engineers — it’s about reshaping how work flows through the SDLC. We’ll explore new interaction patterns, boundaries, and responsibilities in AI-native delivery. 🔍 ***Key topics*** •Agentic AI • SDLC **⏲️ *Agenda*** 6:00 Pizza and drinks 6:30 Welcome 6:45 Talk 7:30 Q&A 7:45 Networking and Pizzas! 🍕 8:30 Wrap up & See you at the next Meetup! **🎙️*Speaker*** Giulio Roggero CTO @ Mia-Platform 25 years of experience in software engineering, serial entrepreneur with more than 10 business initiatives launched, today is co-founder and CTO at Mia-Platform, the Internal Developer Platform named by Gartner Cool Vendor for Software Engineering Technologies and in the Cloud Application Platforms Magic Quadrant. Principal focus: cloud native, platform engineering, data fabric and omnichannel experience. He likes to paint Blood Bowl miniatures, construct Lego, build and drive RC Cars and learn piano.

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!

Hello and welcome to our next **GenAI UK x Cloud Native & Open-Source AI** meetup. This event brings together engineers, practitioners, builders, and leaders working across cloud-native platforms, open-source ecosystems, Gen AI, Data and Agentic AI. Our meetups are friendly, welcoming, and community-driven; everyone is welcome, whether you’re experienced or just curious. This session will include practitioner talks, demos, Q&A, and time for networking with like-minded peers. We run bi-monthly in-person meetups in London, bi-monthly online global events, and regional chapters across the UK, North America, and APAC. Food and refreshments will be provided for in-person events where a host venue is supporting. We are delighted to host this event in **London** on the **7th of May** with Netmind AI NetMind XYZ ([https://xyz.netmind.ai/](https://xyz.netmind.ai/)) is NetMind.AI's new agent platform where you can create your agents with just natural language. Agents on NetMind XYZ can now join moltbook. **Speakers and Sessions:** Speaker: Henry, AI Agent Engineer at NetMind.AI Session Title: From Agentic Workflows to Bio-Image Insights: A Cell Migration Case Study Description: As AI infrastructure becomes commoditized, the next wave of value will be captured at the application layer, where automation, domain knowledge, and user-centered design turn AI capability into measurable outcomes. Speaker: Richárd Kovács, CTO at Harikube Session Title: From Orchestration to Platform: The Missing Puzzles to Unify Polyglot Services on Kubernetes. Description: Imagine a world where Kubernetes itself becomes the unified platform—not just for container orchestration, but for serverless functions, microservices, and the entire API ecosystem. This presentation explores the missing architectural pieces required to make that world a reality. We focus on the architectural puzzles required to unify these layers: serverless functions, specialized Kubernetes Operators, and the powerful Aggregation API layer. By solving these integration puzzles, you can empower development teams to build real Cloud-Native nanoservices, microservices, and REST APIs on the same PaaS, in any language they choose, turning Kubernetes from a simple orchestrator into a powerful, opinionated application platform. **Agenda (GMT /UK ):** * 18:00: Welcome and refreshments * 18:30: Introduction - Ethan Sumner * 18:35: Richárd Kovács * 19:10: Break * 19:20: Frank Contrepois * 19:55: Close and Networking **Get Involved:** We are always keen to hear from: • Speakers — case studies, engineering deep dives, lessons learned, open-source talks • Hosts — organisations able to provide space for future meetups • Sponsors — support with refreshments, marketing, or accessibility If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please get in touch with **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)**[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)via LinkedIn. You can find our YouTube Channel **[here.](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)** This community forms part of the **[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)**[ ](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)and follows the Community Stack Code of Conduct to ensure a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees.

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

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

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

Customer identity resolution becomes increasingly complex as organizations scale across multiple systems, regions, and data formats. Traditional rule-based approaches often fail to keep up with data variability, require constant manual tuning, and struggle with real-time processing needs. This session presents a practical approach to building a scalable identity resolution pipeline using AWS services and modern AI techniques. The architecture combines data ingestion through Amazon S3 and AWS Glue, transformation pipelines using Spark on EMR, and machine learning models deployed via SageMaker for entity matching and standardization. Graph-based relationship modeling is implemented using Amazon Neptune to improve resolution accuracy by incorporating household and shared attribute context. We will walk through how machine learning models can be used for name and address normalization, how intelligent blocking strategies improve matching efficiency, and how feedback loops can be introduced to continuously improve accuracy. The session also highlights how serverless components such as AWS Lambda can be used for orchestration and real-time processing. **SPEAKER BIO** Mosaic Syed is a Senior Data Engineering and Cloud Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performance data solutions across global enterprise environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mosaic-basha-syed-92300856 **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: [https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/](https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/) **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: [https://www.veeam.com/](https://www.veeam.com/) **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **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

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.

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

**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.