Ontology

**Stop Experimenting. Start Delivering. Go from Proof-of-Concept to Production.** We continue with **Part 2** of our **AI Ops with Databricks** series, where we explore how to move from AI experimentation to real, production-scale value. In this session, **Wynand Jordaan** and **Matthew Thomson** will unpack the practical steps, architecture patterns, and operational best practices for delivering **AI at scale** using Databricks. We’ll discuss: * How AI Ops bridges the gap between data science and production systems * Leveraging Databricks to operationalise machine learning workflows * Building robust monitoring, observability, and governance for AI models * Expert heuristics, tips, tricks and rules of thumb for building reliable agentic systems * Real-world examples of accelerating AI delivery and reducing time-to-value Whether you’re a data engineer, data scientist, or tech leader looking to scale AI impact, this session will give you actionable insights and a roadmap to production success. **Speakers**: * **Wynand Jordaan** – AI & Data Engineering Specialist, passionate about scaling intelligent systems in production. * **Matthew Thomson, PhD** –Director for Architecture, Consulting and Enablement for UK&I at Databricks, focused on helping customers build and deploy Apache Spark and machine learning models at scale. Join us to learn, share ideas, and connect with others shaping the future of AI operations.

We're finally back at Sobell Leisure Centre: \- Tuesdays 7pm\-10pm \- Courts 1a\-1d \(courts 1a\-1c after 9\.20pm\) \- Sobell Leisure Centre\, Tollington Rd\, London N7 7NY\. We are a friendly, competitive club for players at high intermediate to advanced / league standard. Not suitable for beginners or lower intermediates. We are always looking for new competitive players. The club has a regular attendance of around 25 players, and will be participating in the Middlesex league in ladies' doubles, men's doubles and mixed doubles in the 2025/26 season. We play doubles or mixed doubles only, with top quality feather shuttles. Please RSVP if you like to attend, or don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. Guest Fee is £17 for the 3-hour session. Enquire for our membership options. Please be prepared to pay by bank transfer or cash. The club reserves the right to charge the full fee for non-attendance or if you withdraw later than 4 hours before the start of the session (if your space cannot be filled by another person on the wait list). For new joiners: Please be prepared to pay after your first few games during the session. You can also join our WhatsApp community if you wish - feel free to ask us to add you. Bank details: Sobell Badminton Club / Account 43745220 / SC 230580

We're excited to be heading to Civo Tech Junction for our March meetup. We'll have some great talks, detailed below, and drinks and food for everyone. **We are short of volunteers so please get in touch if you can help with logistics on the night**. **6:00pm - Arrival** **6:45pm - Introductions** **7:00pm - The Talks** **Building Secure CI/CD for Multi‑Cloud: An AWS Builder’s Perspective - Alam Ahmad** “Shift left on security” sounds simple until you’re juggling AWS and Azure, Terraform templates, and CI/CD pipelines moving faster than you can keep up. In this talk, AWS Community Builder Alam Ahmed shares how he brought practical, automated cloud security to life across multiple cloud environments without slowing delivery. Through real‑world stories and live demos, Alam shows how to embed policy‑as‑code tools like Checkov and Trivy into GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins pipelines. Expect working examples you can drop into production and see how open‑source tools (Terraform, Prowler, Trivy, and more) can help teams catch misconfigurations before they ship. You’ll learn how to bridge security patterns between AWS and Azure, apply Security‑as‑Code that actually works, and harness the open‑source ecosystem to move faster while staying compliant. Alam Ahmed began his career in a Network Operations Center before shifting into cloud security and automation. He’s an AWS Community Builder in Security, a regular meetup speaker (Elastic London, Yorkshire DevOps, Cloud Native London), and an open‑source contributor pursuing opportunities as a Junior Cloud Engineer or Application Support Engineer. His talks connect hands‑on ops experience with actionable security automation for the real world. **Into the Agentic Mud Fight: Surviving the Shift from Scripts to Vibes - Ivan Pedrazas** We started with Copilots, then the AI IDEs arrived. Then the Terminal took the spotlight with Claude Code, which was nice... until the OpenClaw landed, and now we're knee deep in an "Agentic Mud Fight", and the DevOps community is caught in the crossfire. While AI Agents promise a future of self-healing infrastructure and autonomous deployments, they introduce a radical paradigm shift. We are moving from deterministic, script-based automation to probabilistic, goal-oriented autonomy. DevOps was built on the comfort of "if this, then that," but Agents operate on the principle of "this is likely the best next step." Suddenly, we’re wondering if an ever-mutating pipeline is actually the way to go (or just a very fast way to break things). In this light-hearted journey through the trenches, we’ll look at the three pillars of our new daily reality: security, observability and reliability. With two decades of experience in distributed systems, Ivan Pedrazas has spent the last year at the forefront of the AI evolution. He is currently building the next generation of developer tooling, integrating AI agents and MCP servers to create seamless workflows between LLMs and (non-deterministic) production environments. **Participate in a future Meetup** If you'd like to speak at a future meetup, or if you are able to host or sponsor the event, please fill in this [form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FYGHEWTeBb5vVztGGg2YoUJmKR03o9mZaFIghf6vjzo/viewform?edit_requested=true) and we'll get back to you.

**Event Info!** We are here to fill gaps from our own group members. **We aren’t club.** It is important to speak with one of organisers before making a request. Possibility it will be ignored as session might be full by regular people outside this app or can get cancelled as well. The best way to get in touch is through meetup as your message will get picked up by the designated organiser for the chosen event. ❌ No racquets will be provided ❌ No guests in session until booked ❌ No last-minute cancellation ❌ No short notice request ❌ No admission fee covered in £13 contribution ✅ Feathers Shuttles ✅ Doubles with rotation ✅ Average Session 2 hours ✅ Minimum 4 and Maximum 6 people ✅ £13 Contribution to be paid in advance (No Cash) To ensure fair access to the session, anyone who signs up but does not make payment 48h in advance will have their places cancelled and offered to other players. Please ask for bank account details as we don’t accept cash or card payments. **Waiting List Update** If the event is full, there will be a waiting list for players to put their names on. Once a spot becomes available, i.e. another member cancels, the first person on the waiting list will be added to RSVP automatically. As such, the person will be sent an automated email confirming so. For those who do not wish to be added automatically, please remove your name from the waiting list. Please cancel waitlist 24 hours before the event if made other plans, as meetup will push you to attending list if spot opens. We charge on spot basis **Cancellation** If you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice a full fee will be charge unless we found a replacement. (only if no other spots available. Preference to fill other spots) If you found a replacement You MUST also inform the organisers who your replacement is so you will get a full refund. **No Show Fees** Full fee will be added to the profile on the next visit. No Refund will be provided **Beginners or Training** If you are Beginner/Starter, send us text as we arrange separate sessions. We do not provide any professional coaching or training however if the courts avail players are welcome to train each other. **Disclaimer** This is a social session we do not cover any liabilities. Organisers, Host or Venue can accept no liability for any loss or injury, however sustained, while taking part in group activities. If you want to cover yourself against injury to yourself or others, please make sure you have the appropriate insurance. In the interest of health and safety, proper footwear is a must in this group which means no casual footwear and no barefoot on the court. **Any other question please ask** Lastly Avoid wasting our time or last-minute cancellation as people get ban/blocked 🚫 by doing it.

Hiya Women in UX! We’re so excited to host our next informal networking drinks of this year, on Tuesday 31st of March! Join us to talk about all things UX design, research, content and... probably AI, let's be honest. 📍We'll meet at Two Floors on Kingly street, right next to Cahoots. When in doubt, ask for Andrea. 🌟If there are no more available spots left here, you can also RSVP ON [EVENTBRITE](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-in-ux-march-informal-networking-drinks-tickets-1984720154409?aff=oddtdtcreator). Spaces are limited so book sooner rather than later as it's first come first served. 🍸 Please note that this event isn’t sponsored, so any drinks you order will need to be paid for at the bar. 💌 Stay connected with us by following our [LinkedIn](http://linkedin.com/company/women-in-ux). See you there xx Women in UX

**Details 🚀** This meetup is a **vibe coding jam** where we use [BeyondPlay](https://www.beyondplay.xyz/) to turn ideas into playable games! Whether you’re an experienced vibe coder or have never written a line of code, you’ll fit right in. You can use [BeyondPlay](https://www.beyondplay.xyz/) or any AI tools you like. Let's see what we can build together before the last order 🍻 **Format 🛠️** We’ll be teaming up in small groups (3–4 people). Everyone gets the game challenges, and then it’s heads-down building with your teammates. The goal is to **vibe, learn from each other, and see where the collaboration takes us.** **New to vibe coding? ✨** No worries! We begin with a simple starter guide with example prompts and tips so even total beginners can dive in without stress. *** **Schedule 🕒** *(Doors open early so we can settle in — aim to arrive by 6:50 PM so we can kick off on time)* * **7:00** – Presentation * **7:25** – Assignment + team formation 🤝 * **7:30** – **Round 1:** Build together 💻 * **8:15** – Break (grab a drink, swap ideas, hang out) 🍺 * **8:30** – **Round 2:** Keep building 🏗️ * **9:00** – Optional demos 📺 * **9:15** – Hang out, network, make friends ✌️ *** **Who is it for?** **Anyone!** Curious coders, tinkerers, designers, artists, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to explore AI-powered creativity in a fun, social pub setting. **What to bring:** * **Laptop!** 💻 * **Vibes** ⚡ 👉 **No pressure, no gatekeeping.** Just good people, fun ideas, and some fast-paced collaborative building.

Thank you to everyone who has joined the Agentic community so far and thank you to those who attended the launch event in January! Its exciting times as we now gear up for the 2nd meet up of the year once again hosted by the wonderful team over at Vorboss LTD! We have a stellar line up for you again so please RSVP and join us on 1st April! **Odhran O'Donoghue \| Co\-Founder & CTO @ Magentic** **Making AI with Enterprise-level Reliability** Making AI work in critical business use cases requires superhuman-level reliability. Achieving this with AI is non-trivial, and even advanced developers can find themselves chasing the wrong paths to success. This talk covers how to build genuinely reliable generative AI to meet the needs of the world's largest customers, drawing from learnings on real-world deployments covering billions of dollars in spend. Odhran O'Donoghue is CTO of Magentic, the AI agent platform for the world’s supply chains. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, used across a range of Fortune 500 manufacturers. Odhran has previously worked with OpenAI and NASA, and led research at the Francis Crick Institute - Europe’s largest scientific centre. **Anastasia Kundush \| Head of Product @ Alpic** **Beyond the Chatbot: rethinking user flows in the agentic era.** Imagine apps that live directly inside ChatGPT or Claude. Instead of clicking buttons, you interact with agentic interfaces. We'll examine novel use cases where models seamlessly adopt complex roles and merge interactive visualizations with conversational insights. You'll learn how to design for this new paradigm and what doesn't work. Alpic provides the infrastructure and tools to turn your product into an AI-native experience. Our all-in-one MCP hosting platform offers easy one-click deployment, as well as MCP-specific evaluation, analytics, authentication, transport and security. A huge thank you to Odhran and the team at Magentic for sponsoring pizzas and also a big thank you once again to Vorboss for hosting and supplying drinks for all attendees on the night :)

Hi everyone! Booking is now open for our next badminton session, 11am-1pm on Sunday at Ark All Saints Camberwell 140 Wyndham Road SE5 0UB. The cost is only £10 per person plus £1.62 Meetup booking fee, paid in advance before the start of the session. Bring your racket or lease one for the session for a nominal £2.00, shuttlecocks is provided. The lease rackets are available at the venue, so just make your way down. Please note we don't have enough for everybody just a few. If you damage your racket during the session you get one to use for free. So if you wish to play and don’t yet have a racket make your way down, try and have a couple of nuggets (£2.00) handy because the racket lease fee is not included with the session booking fee. Payment is by PayPal, Debit card, Credit card, Bank transfer, and Cash. Contact the host if you encounter any problem with making payment or wish to pay by other method (Payment by Bank transfer & Cash is £10.00) Direction: The badminton hall is situated at the rear of the school, read on for direction on how to locate the hall. The main entrance to the school is located on Wyndham road, on Wyndham road look for Toulon Street it is on the same side as the school. If you stand facing the school Toulon Street should be to your right. Toulon street lead on to Pitman Street which is where the entrance is located. Use the pedestrian gate to let yourself in, if it is locked use the intercom and somebody should let you in. Immediately inside the school premises the entrance to the badminton venue is the building to your immediate right. For more info, contact the host Look forward to seeing you! Many thanks Afam

Welcome to our second London meetup of 2026, where we discuss Gen AI and Kubernetes! Details below: **Location:** Civo Tech Junction, First Floor, 32-37 Cowper St, London EC2A 4AW **Time:** Doors open at 6PM **Drinks, snacks, talks, and networking.** We’re excited to invite you to our second in-person **DevOps Society Meetup** of 2026, proudly **sponsored by Cast AI**. This event is focussed around Gen AI and Kubernetes, with two really exciting speakers lined up for this one in Carly and Kunal. Format of the Meetup: 6:00pm – 6:30pm — Networking on arrival, with food and drinks provided by CastAI 6:30pm – 7:10pm — First speaker + Q&A 7:10pm – 7:20pm — Break for refreshments and networking 7:20pm – 8:00pm — Second speaker + Q&A 8:00pm onwards — More networking at the venue, then at a nearby pub. *Timings can vary slightly depending on Q&A.* We’re excited to welcome everyone to our next DevOps Society London meetup, where we’ll be diving into two incredibly relevant topics in modern infrastructure: observing GenAI applications in production and optimising Kubernetes clusters. We’ll be joined by two brilliant speakers from the ecosystem who are working at the forefront of developer tooling and cloud infrastructure. As always, expect a relaxed evening of technical learning, discussion, and networking with fellow engineers from across the London tech community. *** ## 🎤 Speaker 1 - Carly Richmond **Developer Advocate Lead @ Elastic** ### Observing AI Applications with OpenLit and OpenTelemetry Observability is the ability to measure the current state of a system. With the rapid emergence of LLMs and GenAI applications moving into production, teams now need deeper insight into how these systems behave in real-world environments. In this talk, Carly will explore best practices for observing production AI applications, covering how engineers can capture logs, traces, and metrics to better understand how LLMs interact within their application ecosystem. She’ll walk through a real example of instrumenting an AI agent application written in TypeScript, using OpenLit to generate OpenTelemetry signals. The session will show the types of telemetry data teams can capture to identify usage patterns, detect errors, and troubleshoot issues commonly seen in production GenAI applications. ### About Carly Carly Richmond is Developer Advocate Lead at Elastic, based in London. She’s a UI developer who also writes backend services, a keynote speaker, and a tech writer who is passionate about helping developers build better systems. Outside of tech, Carly enjoys cooking, photography, drinking tea, and chasing after her young son. *** ## 🎤 Speaker 2 - Kunal Kushwaha **Senior Developer Advocate @ CAST AI** ### Optimizing Kubernetes and Unlocking Blockers with Container Live Migration Kubernetes promises automation, yet most clusters run at around **10% CPU utilisation**, leaving large amounts of infrastructure sitting idle. With endless instance types, constantly shifting prices, and the complexity of modern workloads, maintaining efficient clusters can quickly become a full-time job. In this talk, Kunal explores the real-world challenges teams face when running Kubernetes in production. He’ll cover where Kubernetes automation works well, where it falls short, and why optimisation remains difficult for many teams. Topics include: * Why most Kubernetes clusters are underutilised * The realities of autoscaling in production environments * Challenges around instance types and Spot capacity * Common mistakes teams make with HPA and VPA Once these challenges are laid out, Kunal introduces Container Live Migration as a way to overcome some of these long-standing blockers. To bring the concept to life, he’ll run a live technical demo where Pods running a small video game are migrated across nodes in real time, while the audience participates. The game continues running without downtime, demonstrating how live migration can improve cluster efficiency without disrupting workloads. Please register below to secure your spot. Spaces are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. We’re really looking forward to getting the community back together again for our first event of 2026. [Our slack community](https://join.slack.com/t/devopssociety/shared_invite/zt-3mswuylw7-MhJg1IZ70rX_GpJTluG2Cw) \- join in and introduce yourself\! [Our Youtube Channel ](https://www.youtube.com/@DevOpsSociety)for regular podcasts with DevOps professionals + more DevOps content. [Website](https://thedevopsociety.com/) [To partner with us](https://thedevopsociety.com/partnerships) CAST AI website - https://cast.ai/ Thanks! From the DevOps Society team [Ben](https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwhitmarsh/) and [Vytas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vytasdevops/)

Join the Corinthians Badminton Club for a fun and social evening of badminton! This event is perfect for anyone at **Intermediate level** looking to improve their skills, meet new people, and have a great time on the court. We will have friendly matches and plenty of opportunities to socialize with fellow badminton enthusiasts. Feel free to share the event with a friend so they too can come along and enjoy a night of sports and recreation in a welcoming and inclusive environment. We play with feather shuttlecocks and unfortunately cannot accommodate beginners. This is to ensure games are fair and enjoyable for everyone. We currently have 15 regular members and are opening up 8-10 guest slots using MeetUp. Guest fees are £10 per session, please arrange payment 24 hours before session starts otherwise we would have to release your place. We are unable to offer refunds at this point. Bank Transfer Details: Account: Corinthians BC Account No: 22788263 Sort Code: 60-19-01 Reference: Your Full Name Venue: Emerson Park Academy Wych Elm Road Wingletye Lane Hornchurch Essex RM11 3AD

**🏛️ WHAT'S PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY ABOUT?** Practical Philosophy is a weekly meet-up that brings critical thinkers together for an opportunity to dive deep on a topic, practice communicating, and building a community. All with no ‘official’ philosophy knowledge required! 😎 Practical Philosophy is based on the idea that philosophy should be accessible to all, and not something reserved only for academics. Each week we choose a topic, and the goal is to use the conversation to develop our critical thinking and communication as we explore that topic. The goal is to help develop our Critical Thinking, Communication, and Community 🙌 📓 **HOW DOES IT WORK?** Each week, we pick one topic and discuss it. The topic for the week is shared, generally in the [Whatsapp group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ja2H9lXYtWX8RdCKHw6qNK), along with jump-off points to get the conversation going. When groups get bigger than 7-8 people, it’s important that we break into smaller groups. This way we are able to maintain a conversational flow as opposed to having our meetups feel like a discourse or lecture. **General Meeting Agenda** Each Practical Philosophy meet-up follows this general timeline: * 13:45-14:00 - People arrive and chat, get to know each other before the ‘official' start. * 14:00-14:05 - Meeting introduction, explanation of Practical Philosophy and the topic for the week, read the guidelines and the overview so attendees know what to expect in terms of timelines. * 14:05-14:45 - Break into small groups - introduce yourselves and general thoughts on the topic, open discussion afterwards. At this point the group can review the ‘jump-off’ questions as needed, but they are just there to help guide the conversation. It’s not obligatory to answer them. * 14:45 - We do a group conclusion of the things we discussed, and then we typically take a photo and go on our way :) If you don't want to be in the group photo, there's no pressure, it's just a way to close out the meeting. You are free to walk around Calthorpe's Community Gardens afterwards. **🧧PRICING?** Practical Philosophy Club is FREE to attend, and we operate on donations. If you'd like to donate to support our running costs, that helps keep our group self-sustaining. Donations are 100% voluntary, but your contribution is appreciated! QR codes to donate will be present. Tea’s and coffees and are paid by the individual should they wish to have them. **💛 WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY** 🗣 “I feel like Philosophy Club helps someone build their own belief system through a series of perspectives while not promoting what’s right and wrong” - Ekam 🗣 “I got hooked from day 1 (the topic was authority) and felt it was the right place for me. I feel it is a place where people can go to learn and discuss new perspectives and increase critical thinking and community by interacting with people who might challenge your point of views but at the same time encourage you to have openness and mind flexibility.” - Daniel **🤓 FAQ** * What will we talk about? What's the topic? The topic for the week is shared every week in the Whatsapp group before the session. We try to add the topic to the comment section on this event page as well but if you don’t see it, the topic and the jump-off points will be in our [Whatsapp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ja2H9lXYtWX8RdCKHw6qNK). * Do I need to study or read anything to attend? No preparation is necessary. This isn’t a study of other thinkers. We want to know what YOU think about the topic, not what an old philosopher thought. If you have a perspective from a religion or a school of thought to share, throw it on the table and we’ll discuss it, but it's not required. * Is there a specific philosophy that Practical Philosophy is focused on? The goal of our meet-ups is to not have dogmatic discussions, and flex our critical thinking muscles. Because of this, we want to hear from every realm of thought, and don't study a particular school. * Is it mostly men that attend? Surprisingly, no! Although philosophy is seen as a Candelabra affair in a dark room with a bunch of guys, our Practical Philosophy meetups are generally 50/50 between genders, and we don’t meet in any dark rooms. * Can I come alone? Of course you can, we encourage it :) * Can I be late? Please don't be! We do have a 15 minute grace period where we allow people to funnel in while we hang out, but after that if you arrive too late, it disrupts the flow of the conversation. * Where do you meet? The location is posted in Meetup and our [Whatsapp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ja2H9lXYtWX8RdCKHw6qNK) group for this location. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you join the Whatsapp group! If you want to know what other cities have a Practical Philosophy Club, you can see our chapters on our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/practical-philosophy-locations/). 🤝**POLICY** To respect our members privacy, we ask that no one privately message a member without first getting explicit consent. (This looks like speaking in person and being asked to message privately.) Contacting or texting other participants without prior consent is not permitted and may result in removal from the group. Practical Philosophy reserves the right to enforce this policy at its discretion to maintain a safe and respectful environment. **PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY - Making Philosophy Available To All.** ✨ Practical Philosophy hosts weekly, in-person meetups in 25+ countries, including Canada, Spain, Japan, Mexico and many more! 🗺️ \*\*\* Join our [Whatsapp group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ja2H9lXYtWX8RdCKHw6qNK) 👈 Follow us on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/practicalphilosophyclub/?hl=en) 👈 Our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club) 👈

Time is precious. Here we value non-boring valuable chats and interactions that are fully engaging, soulfully enriching, inspiring, and leave you a bit wiser than when you arrived. In that spirit (mind the pun!), today’s fully hosted laid back social coffee chat will offer a perfect haven for the inquisitive & curious - those drawn to the mysteries of the universe, life and everything in between. A tasty caffeine infused fun afternoon of thought-provoking causal chats exploring spirituality/consciousness and related interconnected topics spanning **philosophy,** **neuroscience**, **parapsychology,** **paranormal.** **cosmology** and **noetic sciences** over a mug of sweet coffee (or amazin value Chardonnay!) Chaired by me - a former Reuters journalist & published empirical researcher exploring spirituality topics in pursuant of the "truth" since a teenager, there'll be no strict structure - a relaxed friendly space to openly chat, exchange ideas & experiences without judgement, but I'll preside to promote inclusivity and zone in on specifics to avoid people digressing onto unrelated tangents to ensure like all of our events - particpants derive maximum utlity and engagement from attending. We’ll touch on everything from the limits of scientific understanding to exploring the unexplained using practical fun exploratory divination practices drawing on elements of **psychology, metaphysics, epistemology** and **statistical** **probability** of rare events as we do so. Whether you're a practicing "spiritualist", a curious skeptic, or just someone who loves deep conversation on **life’s big questions**, you’ll hopefully walk away more enlightened with some practical tips you can start applying and inspired to explore more! As well as illuminating chats to guide self-reflection, obviously no sprituality event woul be complete without practical tools so there'll be FREE Tarot & I-Ching readings, demonstrations of meditation method to activate super powerful gamma brain waves, and pyschic tests for a bit of fun, laughter & intrigue! **Sample of conversational threads** might include: Are we mere organisms pursuing biological survival or does consciousness exist beyond neurons firing in our brains? What explains peoples' paranormal experiences? What would reality look like If our brains were limitless? Declassified CIA files show that as as well as mind control experiments, the US govt employed mediums and remote viewers. If all mumbo jumbo then why? Is Nirvana just a fantasy of deluded people? Does everything happen for a reason? To clarify - we define spirituality here as an exploration of consciousness, Donald Rumsfeld's unknown unknowns and undiscovered aspects of reality, NOT religion. After all, as my philosophy professor once rightly postulated to me: "If God created Adam, who created God Lucas?" Yep - that inconvenient flaw **debunks every fairytale religion** out there including the oldest religion of them all - paganism - so why is witchcraft still practised outside of **Hogwarts** today? I may also share the latest peer reviewed empirical evidence surrounding **paranormal** and **consciousness** phenomena. **=== POTENTIAL CONVERSATION STARTERS ===** 1. Does consciousness survive death or is Cambridge Astrophysics Professor Brian Cox right in asserting if **ghosts** existed then particle accelerators at CERN would have already detected ghost molecules making Ouija boards kids play? Are Poltergiests 100% hoax? Brain scans indicate thalamocortical circuits in our brain (pathways in the parietal cortex & central lateral thalamus) drive **consciousness -** so how can spirit/mind live on after **brain death**? 2. Is **synchronicity/coincidence** simply randomness disguised in the eye of the beholder or can what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance" (quantum entanglement) explain it? Molecular Biologists have shown that just like plants - our cells give off resonant frequencies between 10 & 180 kilohertz - could this be a source of non-verbal communication like telepathy? 3. Given **neuroscience**'s infancy with much yet undiscovered - could mediation help access functions outside of our BAU alpha & beta brain wave states? Can **Kundalini yoga** boost **DMT** (dimethyltryptamine) naturally vs drugs like ayahuasca, mushrooms, LSDand if so by what mechanism? Do the artifically created neural signatures using magnetic stimulation observed during mystical experiences debunk them? Is the Maharishi Effect real? 4. Are clairvoyants and mediums just good people readers or are they really able to access time and space in non-linear ways? Is Tyler Henry the real deal or just faking it? Was **Abraham Lincolm** precognizant when he dreamt his own fatal assignation? 5. The laws of statistical probability, Drake Equation & common sense tells us there is other non-microbial life out there. So what explains the Fermi Paradox? Was that 1976 WOW signal aliens? How about the recent strange bahaviour of Boyajian's star or Oumuamua/Atlas interstella object that has just entered our solar system? 6. Could metaverse explain deja vu & reincarnation vs theories from the **psychology** literature (Mandela Effect?) or do we just live in a **simulation** as **Elon Musk** proposes? 7. **Stephen Hawking** once said: "The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities" If matter only manifests when observed as the double slit experiments shows, does that mean everything is consciousness? Does the discovery of *quantum superposition /* disappearing neutrons imply **parallel universes**? 8. Do NDEs suggest something beyond physicality? Were Steve Jobs final words "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow" before he died (New York Times) visions of an afterlife or just neurochemical changes / drugs playing tricks? 9. Can photons omitted by our bodies explain auras that people see? 10. Could limits in our understanding of quantum physics, space and time explain paranormal experiences? 11. What existed before the **big bang** \- how do you get something from "nothing"? I believe our reality is the product of a black hole\. What you reckon? ***So how do we get to the "truth"?*** Both in my journalism days and applying the most advanced empirical research techniques in my client consulting work - it becomes clear the truth is often elusive. No matter how much we triangulate evidence - we can only provide part answers. "All models are wrong, but some are useful" George Box What we think we know and reality diverge leading to that great **paradox of knowledge.** And as the boundary between knowns and unknown converge, we end up with cognitive dissonance and more questions. In that spirit - every credible philosopher & scientist acknowledges - we'll never get to the complete truth but could **experimental methods** get us closer to it? A balanced approach guided by Immanuel Kant's pragmatism and Aristotle's deductive reasoning seems the most rationale framework here but are there any other methodologies? How about the **"spirituality"** toolkit? **=== RENDEZVOUS POINT ===** We will meet in the Penderel's Oak. *283–288 High Holborn, Holborn WC1V 7HP* zone 1 central london so very easy to get to. I'll be wearing a **Starwars identifier** and will share mobile hotline just before event start and table number/location Lucas - The Unenlightened Desperately Seeking Answers

Pay attention! We’re delaying a week for those of you who may be on Spring break and/or celebrating the holiday. Ok, no pancakes, but waffles-a-plenty. Join the local UX and Digital Design community for a casual monthly breakfast. Look for us upstairs!

**Caller: Kim Thompson** **Band: Full Moon Country Dance Orchestra** **Clinton Heights Lutheran Church** **15 Clinton Heights Ave, Columbus, OH 43202** WHAT IS CONTRA DANCING? Picture the Grand Ball scenes like you’ve seen in period films such as “Pride and Prejudice”, where the dancers are lined up in long lines, across from each other. That’s English Country Dancing, the predecessor of contra dancing. Now, add moves like “swing your partner” and “do-si-do,” like you’ve seen in square dancing. Set it to fabulous, high energy, live music with fiddles, guitars, percussion and more, alá “Riverdance.” Finally, set the whole scene down in the middle of Woodstock, with a hip, groovy atmosphere, a bit of tie-dye, and hints of counter-culture attitude. THAT’s Contra Dancing! Wear cool and comfortable clothes (you will get warm) and clean shoes that won't mark up our nice wood floor. Be sure to come for the beginner's lesson from 7:30 - 8:00, followed by dancing 8:00 - 10:30. All dances are taught; we will help you learn! Beginners always welcome, no need to bring a partner. Cost is $10.00 adults, $5.00 ages 12-26. Under 12 free. Free parking in church lot. For more information contact me or check out our website: [www.bigscioty.com](http://www.bigscioty.com/) Please bring your own refillable water bottle.

The Fellowship of the Star Schema: Transforming OLTP Data for Power BI One does not simply build reports on OLTP data. Join us on an epic journey from the depths of raw, normalized tables to the shining halls of a well-modeled star schema fit for Power BI greatness. We will demystify the differences between OLTP and OLAP, walk through star schema vs snowflake (and why Power BI has a clear favorite), and show you the compression differences between normalized and columnar storage that will make you never look at an OLTP model the same way again. We will cover the different types of dimensions, when to use them, and how to handle Slowly Changing Dimensions without losing your mind. You will leave knowing exactly how to identify a bad model, how to convert OLTP data into a clean star schema, and how to forge relationships that rule them all. Whether you are a data wizard, a curious hobbit, or somewhere in between, your models will never be the same.

It’s time to take control of your mental health. How do you get rid of stress, anxiety and uncertainty? These emotions are buried deep in your reactive mind. Find out what the reactive mind is, and in the process find yourself. Have you ever suffered from a traumatic experience, a deep loss or been through a painful breakup? Has your ability to communicate suffered as a result? And after that, even though you "moved on" did you find that things were never quite the same? Have you ever looked at childhood photos, or reminisced your early life and wondered where that happiness and spark went? Are your emotions out of your own control? Have you ever felt, even if you aren’t aware of it, that possibly you are getting in your own way of your happiness and success? How does this affect your self-confidence? Find out what is at the root of all stress, anxiety, depression and self-doubt. Find out how and why you hold yourself back from achieving your goals and having the life you have dreamed of. As soon as you learn what is at the root of these unwanted conditions, you’ll see it is something you can DO something about. You will not be labeled or categorized at this MeetUp.

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/2/a/9/6/600_348310902.jpeg Instructor - Crow, HPS Class fee is $30 at the door or approved exchange RSVP with Advance pay of $25 (discounted) by PayPal on the web or by contacting Enchanted Elements (614) 437-2642. Reservations made directly to Enchanted Elements will be added to the class list manually not online. Private Instruction ~ Closed to the Public ~ Initiated Members Only Please come prepared for ritual. Blessings ~ Crow

Feeling down? Sometimes depressed? Can't focus? Negativity & stress? Recent losses? Creativity in career and personal life hindered by mental blocks? Sometimes we never fully recover from traumatic experiences. Whether it was yesterday, last week or a year ago, traumatic experiences - a loss of a loved one, losing a job, a breakup - can leave you scarred. You talk about it and feel a little better, but it never goes away. After you hang up the phone, it's still there; the sadness, the cloud, the over-thinking, the worry, the guilt. You try to focus, but you're blocked. You try to look forward into new experiences, new relationships but a cloud is hanging over you, casting a shadow on what you once considered a bright, cheerful future. What happened to your courage? Your strength of character? You're 'why not' attitude? Whoever said 'time heals' must have had a special time machine, because after weeks, months, years, you're wondering - when exactly does that kick in? Sometimes it seems like drinking or drugs are the way to go. But they wear off, and now the problem is still there with added side effects from the drugs. At this free local Meetup event we will talk about: * What causes grief, anxiety and depression to become chronic. * Is it possible to regain your joy and happiness even after traumatic experiences? * How to break away from negativity and focus on the future * What are the steps to take to get control of your mind and your emotions? Learn about a safe, gentle, do-it-yourself counseling that can be done in the comfort of your own home. Let's explore safe, effective solutions for healing from traumatic experiences. Be sure to click on the red "Attend" button below to come to the event. We look forward to seeing you there. This group is sponsored by the Dianetics & Scientology Life Improvement Center.

**The Data-Driven Brand: Using Analytics to Shape Perception** Can you use analytics to improve tacos? This being CBUSDAW, we think the answer is probably “yes”, but we’re not sure how to implement or test this theory. For our April meetup we’ve got Sara Kear, CMO of Condado Tacos, to investigate this delicious question. Sara will explore how she blends quantitative data and qualitative customer feedback to shape brand positioning and drive business decisions. We all know that marketing and analytics go way beyond attribution. Sara will show how Condado uses customer insights to inform product and pricing strategy. She’ll also highlight how Condado leverages customer feedback at scale to influence operational priorities, positioning marketing as the voice of the customer across the organization. In the last 12 years Condado has gone from one location in Columbus to 52 locations across 10 states, so we’re guessing there’s more to that growth than really good guac (though the guac probably helps). Ultimately, this talk focuses on the intersection of art and science—using data to inform creativity and build a brand that resonates with customers in a measurable way. **About Our Speaker** Sara Kear is Chief Marketing Officer at Condado Tacos, where she oversees brand, restaurant design, menu and pricing strategy, off-premise including catering, and customer data strategy. Since joining in 2021, she has helped grow the brand from 19 to 52 locations while building a data-driven marketing organization focused on loyalty and customer insights. Condado has since been named to the Inc. 5000, recognized as Breakout Retailer by Chain Store Age, and consistently ranked among FastCasual’s Top 100 Movers & Shakers. 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)