Network Engineering

Join us at the next monthly London Security Engineering meetup! **🍕 6:00pm: Arrive** \- Kick off the evening with light refreshments and networking \(30 mins\) 🎤 **6:30pm:** **Main Talk** \- Kat Traxler\, who will be speaking on: "Azure's Unnamed Operators \- Threat Modelling Platform\-Level Identities\." **☕ 7:15pm: Q&A -** Questions and discussion **🍻 7:45pm: Pub** \- We usually go to a neighbouring pub for a drink after\! This event is a good opportunity to gain practical insights, meet fellow security professionals and discuss the latest trends in the industry. 📅 **When:** Wednesday 1st July 2026 *This event is made possible by the teams at Maze, MMC and Tracebit.*

🍻 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! 🍻

Hi folks! Welcome to our July Cloud Native London meetup! Join us to hear from our two 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 Architecting Safe Autonomy: High-Stakes Autonomous Agents Need Deterministic Checkpoints for Safety (Hossein Kakavand, Luther Systems) 7:15 Putting Open GitOps to the test (Steve Fenton, Octopus Deploy) 7:45 Wrap up See you there! Cheryl (@oicheryl) **Putting Open GitOps to the test (Steve Fenton, Octopus Deploy)** The Open GitOps principles sound plausible, but the world is full of surprising realities. Join Steve Fenton and explore the GitOps research to see whether GitOps delivers on its promises, based on an analysis of over 600 perspectives from roles like DevOps engineers, developers, platform engineers, and cloud infrastructure engineers. *Steve Fenton researches the socio-technical systems behind software delivery; how organizations, people, and technology actually work together (or don’t). At Octopus Deploy, he explores GitOps, Platform Engineering, Continuous Delivery, and compliance through a lens shaped by punk history, psychology, and the kind of genre fiction that asks uncomfortable questions about systems and society.* *He’s an eight-time Microsoft MVP (DevOps), a DORA Community Guide, a CD Foundation Governing Board member, and a contributor to the CNCF Platform Engineering Community Group. He’s written books on TypeScript, Octopus Deploy, and Web Operations Monitoring, and occasionally writes horror fiction.* *https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefenton/* *https://mastodon.social/@stevefenton* *https://bsky.app/profile/stevefenton.co.uk* **Architecting Safe Autonomy: High-Stakes Autonomous Agents Need Deterministic Checkpoints for Safety (Hossein Kakavand, Luther Systems)** The more freedom we give an autonomous agent, the more it drifts into hallucinations or policy violations, yet clamping it down with prompts kills the reasoning we want. Think Brownian Motion versus a Brownian Bridge: a random walk wanders anywhere, but pin it at fixed points and it moves freely between them while always landing where it must. Deterministic checkpoints are those pins. InsideOut applies this to infrastructure. It works with the user to shape a feature set, stack, config, Terraform and cost estimates, then deploys and manages the infrastructure in real time for monitoring, alerts and changes. Each stage must produce a structured artifact validated against fixed rules, and if a check fails only that stage repeats, catching errors before they propagate. High-stakes actions stay locked down by design: the agent can request a deploy by presenting a button, but never holds the cloud keys itself. The result is an agent that is more productive precisely because it is safely unconstrained. *Hossein Kakavand holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has been with several start up in AI, ML and Distributed Systems, with IPOs on NASDAQ and LSE. He is currently a Co-Founder of Luther Systems focused on solving the Enterprise Operations problem at scale. @HosseinKavavand* ***Check out [https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon](https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon) if you're interested in speaking or sponsoring.***

This session is designed for **juniors**, **new graduates**, and **non-tech attendees** who want to understand how **AI** can help in building microservices. You’ll learn the best practices for building microservices from scratch, including **writing acceptance criteria** and **creating REST APIs**. We’ll also demonstrate how **AI tools** like ChatGPT can help you write better code, catch errors early, and automate common tasks, making development easier and faster. By the end of this session, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to design and build microservices, all while using AI tools to optimize your workflow. 🧪 **What You’ll Learn:** * **Microservice Architecture Best Practices**: Learn core principles like **decoupling services** and **scalability**. * **Writing Acceptance Criteria**: How to define clear requirements that ensure your microservice works as expected. * **Creating REST APIs**: Learn how to design secure, scalable APIs for communication between microservices. * **AI in Microservice Development**: How AI tools like ChatGPT can assist with code writing, error-checking, and test generation. 💡 **Why It Matters:** * **Scalable Services**: Microservices break down large systems into smaller, manageable parts that are easier to maintain and scale. * **AI Assistance**: Tools like ChatGPT help you automate parts of the development process, speeding up coding and reducing errors. * **Real-World Applications**: These practices are in high demand, and mastering them will equip you with valuable skills for modern software development. 👨‍💻 **Who Should Attend:** * **Juniors** and **new graduates** looking to learn microservices and AI in development. * **Non-tech people** interested in how AI can assist in coding and building software. * Anyone looking to understand **modern development practices** and how AI can improve workflows. 🕓 **Schedule** * 18:15 - Networking * 18:40 - Program starts * 19:20 - Q&A - networking * 19:30 - End

***Enter the live meeting room here: [https://discord.gg/5wgxtr4c2u](https://discord.gg/5wgxtr4c2u)*** ***Download the engine here: [https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download)*** Welcome to the **Unreal Engine Workshop!** In each session we'll tackle essential game design discussions, then transition into hands-on project creation. Participants will build and expand their skills continuously as we explore every aspect of game development. From basic blueprints and interactive mechanics, to advanced rigging, animation, environment design, and lighting, we'll work our way up to creating small complete games. We encourage experimentation and peer teaching, so whether you're a beginner or experienced developer looking to deepen your expertise, our sessions provide a supportive environment to learn, create, and innovate together in Unreal Engine 5.

For our next London SEO meetup, we want to switch up the format. Instead of a panel session, you’ll hear from 4 speakers on relevant, timely topics. Each talk will be 15 minutes long with a break in between. Speakers include: **Ben Morris, GTM Enterprise Director at Profound** **Why a marketing engineer is your next great hire** Drawing on Profound’s thinking around marketing engineering, Ben Morris explains what a marketing engineer does, where the role fits inside modern GTM teams, and how it can help you ship faster without losing strategic control. **John Iwuozor, Content Marketing Specialist** **How to use query fan-out to win AI visibility** In this talk, John Iwuozor will explain how query fan-out works across tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and why existing keyword research strategies won’t get you all the way there. **Miracle Inameti-Archibong, Product Marketing Lead at John Lewis Partnership** How to optimize your data for LLM workflows Miracle Inameti-Archibong will explain how LLMs read and process content so marketers can make smarter decisions about what to mark up, simplify, or restructure. You’ll learn how to reduce wasted tokens, and format content for better AI performance. **Kanaar Bell, Enterprise Account Manager at Moz** **How to prove SEO value when rankings aren’t enough** Kanaar Bell will share a retention-focused framework for defending SEO budget, connecting activity to business impact, and showing stakeholders why SEO still matters. **Besides the panel, you’ll enjoy an evening of** * Networking with SEO and digital marketing leaders in a laid-back setting * Great food and free drinks * Q&A time with experts shaping AI search and LLM visibility ### Event details 📍 Venue: Brunswick Art Gallery, Brunswick Centre, London WC1N 1AE 📅 Date: July 1, 2026 🕕 Time: 6 pm–9 pm Curious about the vibes at Sip & Search? Here’s[ a 1-minute video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIbfZGAG-VE) from our last event to get you excited. ### Important notes Please provide answers to all questions. We create [name tags](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TPWfbtfDTie6U7_CiPq-c4TTobl4l-yX/view?usp=sharing) that include your LinkedIn QR code, name, and company information. It has proven really helpful for networking at past events. ### Shoutout to our sponsors for making this event possible [Moz](https://moz.com/) [Profound](https://www.tryprofound.com/)

Join the Chinese Business and Social Network at Lucy Wong for an evening of networking, opportunity and conversation. **Chinese Business and Social Network (CBSN) Networking Evening** **Lucy Wong Fitzrovia \| Wednesday 1st July \| 6\.00 PM – 8\.30 PM** Join us for another evening of relaxed, high-quality networking at Lucy Wong, the stylish underground cocktail bar in the heart of Fitzrovia. CBSN brings together professionals, entrepreneurs, creatives, founders, investors, and internationally minded people interested in UK–China business, culture, and connection. Our events are open to all nationalities and backgrounds. Whether you are looking to: • grow your professional network • meet potential collaborators or clients • reconnect with existing contacts • discover new opportunities • or simply enjoy good conversation in a welcoming atmosphere …you will be very welcome. CBSN is more than just an in-person event community. Members can also join the CBSN website to meet attendees before events, continue conversations afterwards, build professional visibility through member profiles, and connect with other members throughout the year. For this event, CBSN guests will gather in the raised railed area at the far end of the bar — an intimate and comfortable space ideal for conversation and introductions. Previous CBSN events at Lucy Wong have brought together people from sectors including: AI, property, finance, education, import/export, hospitality, recruitment, media, fashion, wellness, technology, consulting, and the creative industries. **What to Expect** • Friendly and welcoming atmosphere • Structured introductions for newcomers where appropriate • Relaxed networking throughout the evening • International and cross-cultural audience • Excellent cocktails and bar menu available to purchase **CBSN Website Community** **https://cbsn.co.uk/** Members can: • Create a professional profile • Connect with attendees before events • Continue conversations afterwards • Join forum discussions • Browse the member directory • Message other members directly **Venue** Lucy Wong 33-34 Rathbone Place Fitzrovia London W1T 1JN **Tickets** Early booking is recommended as capacity in our reserved area is limited. We look forward to welcoming both familiar faces and first-time guests. Hosted by Charles Palmer, Yajie Xu and Maggie Song — Chinese Business and Social Network (CBSN) Connecting UK & Chinese Businesses Through Trusted Relationships, Events, and Opportunity

**Join the Inaugural (GB)NUG Connect Event** *The Soho Hotel\, London \| 2nd July \| 6pm\-8\.30pm* Talks · Open Discussion · Drinks · Light Bites (GB)NUG's first event brings together two practitioners ready to share their experiences and opinions on enterprise networking. Grab a drink, connect with your peers, hear from fellow practitioners and join the conversation. **Madoc Batters, Head of Cloud & Cybersecurity at Warner Hotels**. With 25+ years building cloud, network and hybrid platforms across hospitality, telecom and finance. Madoc will be sharing his experiences driving multi-cloud migrations and applying GenAI to real-world security and cost operations. **AI Enabled networking – isn’t this what Skynet wanted in Terminator?** There is lots of talk about AI changing everything, but in this day and age what should an AI enabled network look like? What is the good and bad of this approach and when things go wrong, how can we fix them? **Duncan Bates, Solutions Architect, Fortinet** **Agenda:** 6pm: Meet for drinks and networking in the Crimson Bar 6.30pm: Hear from our speakers in Screen Room 2 7.15pm: Connect with your peers over drinks and light bites 8.30pm: Event Closes (GB)NUG is a practitioner-led, open, collaborative community for enterprise network architects, engineers, operational leaders and innovators across Great Britain. The group is independent, open and built around peer knowledge. **First event - no playbook - come and help shape what this becomes.** [Follow GB(NUG) on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/gb-nug) Supported by Alkira and Megaport.

Hello and welcome to our special joint meetup between **Cloud Platform Engineering London**, **Cloud Platform Engineering Leaders**, **Data & AI Leaders**, **AWS AI UG**, **Azure AI UG**, and **GCP London**. This crossover event brings together platform engineers, cloud architects, data and AI leaders, SREs, engineering managers, technology executives, and practitioners exploring how AI is reshaping modern cloud platforms, developer workflows, business transformation, and enterprise engineering. This is a special **Community Stack ecosystem event**, bringing together several of our cloud, platform, and data-focused communities for an evening of practical talks, senior technical discussion, and cross-community networking. A huge thank you to **[Arrows](https://www.arrowsgroup.com/)** for hosting and sponsoring this event, and for supporting the growth of the cloud, platform engineering, data, and AI community in London. Speakers and sessions: **Get a High Return-on-Investment from AI Business Transformation** **Nora Balla, Founder and AI Business Transformation Lead, Add Velocity** Nora Balla is the founder of Add Velocity, an AI-native business transformation and implementation consultancy. Nora has gained extensive experience across investment products, business transformation, finance operations, and regulated asset and wealth management environments. Previously a freelancer, she now operates in a collaborative delivery model, helping organisations scale AI and automation solutions in complex business settings. Her experience includes finance transformation at Harley-Davidson, reporting process improvements in commercial real estate funds, and supporting the Aladdin implementation at Royal London Asset Management. In this session, Nora will explore how organisations can achieve a stronger return on investment from AI business transformation. The talk will cover the opportunities and high-value use cases, the real risks organisations need to manage, the skills required for the agentic era, how to define and measure success, and practical tips for improving efficiency when working with AI systems. **Agents in the Fastlane** **Ryan Cormack, Principal Engineer, Motorway** **Luke Marrai, Engineering Manager, Motorway** Motorway has used traditional AI and machine learning for years to enhance and improve its systems. But how can those years of learning be applied to build the next generation of agentic systems for users? In this session, Ryan Cormack and Luke Marrai from Motorway will explore how they are enhancing the functionality of Motorway’s platform to provide more accurate search results for dealers looking to acquire stock through the online marketplace. The talk will cover how Motorway is using **AWS AgentCore** to run its agentic systems, and how evals are being used to ensure the system performs as expected. Ryan Cormack is a Principal Engineer at Motorway, the UK’s leading used car marketplace, where he leads technical strategy and drives AI-powered transformation across the engineering organisation. With over 14 years of experience building and scaling systems on AWS, Ryan specialises in turning architectural best practices into practical engineering outcomes, from cloud modernisation programmes to the adoption of agentic workflows and AI-native developer tooling. Luke Marrai is an Engineering Manager at Motorway, supporting engineering delivery and helping teams build effective, scalable technology for one of the UK’s leading automotive technology platforms. Agenda: **18:00** — Arrival, refreshments and networking **18:30** — Welcome and introduction **18:35** — Get a High Return-on-Investment from AI Business Transformation — Nora Balla **19:00** — Break and networking **19:20** — Agents in the Fastlane — Ryan Cormack and Luke Marrai **20:00** — Networking **20:45** — Close **Join us on June 11th:** We are also hosting the **Cloud Native & Open Source AI Conference** on **June 11th in London**, bringing together a fantastic line-up of speakers across AI, cloud-native, open-source, platform engineering, leadership, and modern infrastructure. You can view the full speaker line-up and event details **[here](https://www.communitystack.io/conferences/cloud-native-london)** **About the communities:** This event is jointly hosted across **Cloud Platform Engineering London**, **Cloud Platform Engineering Leaders**, **Data & AI Leaders**, **AWS AI UG**, **Azure AI UG**, and **GCP London**. Together, these communities form part of the **[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)**, bringing together technical practitioners, leaders, partners, and organisations across cloud, platform engineering, data, AI, and open technology. We are always keen to hear from speakers, hosts, sponsors, and community partners. If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please reach out to **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)** via LinkedIn. This event follows the **[Community Stack Code of Conduct](https://www.communitystack.io/code-of-conduct)** and **[Privacy Policy](https://www.communitystack.io/privacy-policy)**, ensuring a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees.

AI assistants are getting more capable. The question is how we build effective workflows around them. At DevDay London, [Lucy Joyce](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-joyce-597485166/), [Ash Shakrani](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ash-shakrani/) and [Arun Kurian](https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun-mathew-kurian-39b8aa5a/) will explore harness engineering through the lens of a payment integration. From requirements and design through to implementation, they’ll demonstrate why context alone isn’t enough for successful AI-assisted development. Drawing on real-world experience, they’ll show how engineering harnesses, reusable context, standards, and validation workflows help teams move beyond experimentation and build reliable, scalable AI-assisted development practices. **This session will unpack:** 🎯 Why “more context” isn’t the answer on its own 🎯 What engineering harnesses are and how they create reliable feedback loops 🎯 How standards, workflows, and validation reduce AI-generated rework and technical debt 🎯 Practical techniques teams can adopt immediately to improve AI outcomes 🗓️ **Save the Date:** 2nd July, 2026 📍 **Location:** Sahaj Software, 1 Quality Court, London, WC2A 1HR 🕕 **Time:** 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (BST) The evening will feature: 🎤 **One engaging talk** with Q&A 🤝 **Plenty of time for networking** over free pizza and non-alcoholic drinks Don’t miss this chance to learn, connect, and share with fellow tech enthusiasts. 👉 Please click the link below to register. https://sahaj.ai/events/harness-engineering-in-practice-from-requirements-to-implementation/

Register: [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ljc-meetup-at-neo4j-smarter-search-with-spring-ai-and-neo4j-tickets-1991379537804](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ljc-meetup-at-neo4j-smarter-search-with-spring-ai-and-neo4j-tickets-1991379537804) LJC Meet-ups is a series of events, aimed at giving all Community members an opportunity to present at an LJC event. We're excited to invite you to our next Meetup, co-hosted with **neo4j**! Join the London Java Community for an evening of technical talks, networking, and knowledge sharing hosted by Neo4j. This month’s meetup explores two of the hottest areas in modern software development: integrating Generative AI into Java applications and deploying Machine Learning models within Java ecosystems. Whether you’re a Java developer, architect, data engineer, or simply curious about the latest innovations shaping our industry, this session will provide practical insights and real-world examples from experienced practitioners.

**Looking for a business networking event in London with focus on business owners, agencies, service providers?** Join us in **Covent Garden** for a quality business networking hosted by digital business card app GMax Card and web/eCom agency **Getshop Today**. **What to Expect** * **Meet business owners and B2B decision-makers** across industries in a relaxed, purposeful environment. **Build partnerships, generate referrals, and connect with potential clients, suppliers, and service providers.** * Exchange ideas, spot market trends, and uncover new opportunities. * A **lightly structured event** \- not a formal conference\, nor a random pub mingle\. * An **atmosphere that feels high-quality yet relaxed,** with space for real business conversations. * Hosts are there from the start to **help with introductions.** **Who You'll Meet** * **Business owners and founders from startups to established SMEs** * **B2B service providers** and agencies looking to grow their client base * **Business decision-makers** actively seeking partnerships, referrals, and new opportunities * Local businesses and London-based professionals across industries * Business professionals visiting London looking to expand their commercial network Please note: our events are theme-led rather than closed-sector events, so you may also meet relevant professionals from adjacent areas such as finance, property, tech, and business services. **How the Evening Flows** 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 - Sycamore Bar at Middle Eight Hotel** A stylish, design-led bar inside the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel in central London. Located in the Covent Garden/Holborn area, just a short walk from Holborn, Covent Garden and Tottenham Court Road stations, it offers a relaxed and refined setting for business networking. **Entry & GMax Cards** * Free RSVP: Event access only * Paid ticket (when available): Includes a contactless GMax Card (ask host to claim; not distributed automatically) **Dress Code** Business / smart casual **Hosted by:** [GMax Card - a digital business card](http://www.gmaxcard.com/) platform designed for modern networking and professional connections beyond LinkedIn. Share **all** your contact details through one simple link. **Important Info** * 18+ (ID may be required) * Photos/video by [CineEye Audiovisual Production Studio](http://www.cineeye.co.uk/) (inform us if you prefer not to appear) * Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and the venue are not liable for any injury, loss, or damage. **Limited spots - register early!** Join our [WA Business Community](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.

**Looking for a business networking event in London for property investors, landlords, agents, and developers?** Join us in **Covent Garden** for a quality networking evening hosted by a digital business card app GMax Card. **What to Expect** * **Connect with property professionals, investors, landlords, and developers** in a relaxed but purposeful setting - where conversations turn into deals, partnerships, and opportunities across the full property ecosystem: assets, acquisitions, the rental market, development, and beyond. * **Build valuable business relationships** across the property and business ecosystem, exchange ideas, spot market trends, and uncover opportunities. * A **lightly structured event** \- not a formal\, overcrowded conference\, nor a random pub mingle\. * An **atmosphere that feels high-quality yet relaxed**, with space for real professional conversations. * Hosts are there from the start to **help with introductions**. **Who You'll Meet** * Property developers, investors, and asset managers * Residential and commercial landlords * Estate agents, letting agents, and block managers * Architects, interior designers, and fit-out specialists * Surveyors, mortgage brokers, and bridging lenders * Solicitors, conveyancers, and planning consultants * PropTech founders and digital service providers * Business owners with property interests Please note: our events are theme-led rather than closed-sector events, so you may also meet relevant professionals from adjacent areas such as finance, investment, business services, technology and entrepreneurship. **How the Evening Flows** 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 - Sycamore Bar at Middle Eight Hotel** A stylish, design-led bar inside the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel in central London. Located in the Covent Garden/Holborn area, just a short walk from Holborn, Covent Garden and Tottenham Court Road stations, it offers a relaxed and refined setting for business and property networking. **Entry & GMax Cards** * Free RSVP: Event access only * Paid ticket (when available): Includes a contactless GMax Card (ask host to claim; not distributed automatically) **Dress Code** Business / smart **Hosted by:** [GMax Card - a digital business card](http://www.gmaxcard.com/) platform designed for modern networking and professional connections beyond LinkedIn. Share all your contact details through one simple link. **Important Info** * 18+ (ID may be required) * Photos/video by [CineEye Audiovisual Production Studio](http://www.cineeye.co.uk/) (inform us if you prefer not to appear) * Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and the venue are not liable for any injury, loss, or damage. **Limited spots - register early!** Join our [WA Business Community](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.

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)

Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/

Most people use LLMs by feel: ask a question, read the answer, decide whether it “seems good,” and move on. That works for casual use. It does not work when you are building software, automating workflows, writing important documents, or relying on AI for anything that needs to be repeatable. In this talk, we’ll look at how to improve and evaluate the inputs and outputs of LLMs using practical measurement techniques. We’ll cover how prompt changes affect results, how to compare outputs, how to build simple evaluation sets, and how math-based methods like similarity scoring can help you move beyond guesswork. This will be beginner-friendly, so even if you don't know anything about AI, you should get something out of it. However, this will be a little more technical than our intro talks. You do not need to be an AI researcher, but programmers and technically curious attendees will get a lot out of it. We’ll cover: * Why “it looks good” is not enough * How to improve prompts by changing the input, context, and constraints * How to compare LLM outputs more systematically * Basic evaluation techniques for accuracy, consistency, and usefulness * How embeddings, cosine similarity, and scoring can help evaluate results * Where automated evaluation works — and where humans still need to stay in the loop By the end, you’ll have a practical mental model for treating LLMs less like magic and more like systems you can test, measure, and improve. 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.

Build your network the fun and productive way! We have had THOUSANDS of amazing connections created at our luncheons over the last 9 years! Join us at the brand new North High Brewing, in Downtown Dublin, every 3rd Monday from 11:30am-1pm! The address is: 56 N High St, Dublin, OH 43017 There is plenty of free parking across the street in the Library Parking lot! All are welcome, and there is no charge for the event. Just purchase your own lunch! Whether you are a new networker, or a seasoned networker, you'll feel welcome from the time you arrive, and leave energized with all of your new connections! Arrive at 11:30am to enjoy some open networking in a very cool location! At 11:45am, everyone will be seated, order their own meals, and get to know their new table-mates! Beginning at noon, we provide the opportunity for all participants to be introduced and welcomed to the group. Having a good conversation and want to stay longer? No problem, we have a private room, so stay as long as you like. We do have a limited amount of space, so RSVP right away and please honor your RSVP! I will keep an eye out and close off the event once we reach capacity. See you at lunch! By attending an event with the CONNECTED Networking Group, Become a Better Networker, and/or Chris Borja, you are granting permission to the CONNECTED Networking Group, Become a Better Networker, Chris Borja, and anyone authorized, to have unlimited right, without charge, to use your likeness in photos, videos, recordings and in all media now known or hereafter created to be used and distributed in perpetuity for promotional and publicity purposes. By attending an event you agree to release the CONNECTED Networking Group, Become a Better Networker, Chris Borja, and anyone authorized, their staff, board of directors, members and their partners from any liability.

You can sleep in on the Sesquicentennial (observed), we’re shifting to the following Friday. But join the local UX community for a chat and some biscuits to catch up. If you were in CA for Figma Config, tell us all the lines and you can tell me how I can animate an SVG without coding it by hand, and why I’d even want to. Thanks to the team at Nationwide of supporting the group.

CONNECTED – Grove City A casual, people-first networking gathering. CONNECTED – Grove City is a casual, people-first networking gathering. Join us for a relaxed, low-pressure space to meet new people, build real relationships, and have meaningful conversations — no sales pitches required. From 7:30–8:30 AM every 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Grove City Business Center. Coffee & baked goods available for purchase at Pick ’Em Up Joe's. Free street & public lot parking behind the building. Free to attend & open to all!

Our monthly PHP meetup. A virtual shindig courtesy of Zoom. Check back here for the details around 6:15 pm