Project Management Practices

Spec-driven development flips the traditional workflow on its head: instead of code being the source of truth, the specification becomes the backbone of design, collaboration, and delivery. In this session, we’ll explore how GitHub Spec-Kit enables teams to treat specifications as first-class artifacts—living documents that drive architecture, implementation, and verification. You’ll learn how Spec-Kit helps teams clearly express intent using structured, version-controlled specs that live alongside code. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that starts with defining system behavior and constraints, then progressively refines those specs into testable, automatable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll show how specs can reduce ambiguity, improve cross-functional collaboration, and make design decisions explicit before a single line of production code is written. This talk will cover: --What spec-driven development is (and what it isn’t) --How GitHub Spec-Kit fits into modern developer workflows --Using specs to align product, engineering, and AI-assisted development --Real-world examples of turning specs into implementations with confidence Whether you’re building greenfield systems, integrating AI into your stack, or trying to reduce costly rework, spec-driven development offers a scalable way to move faster without sacrificing clarity. Attendees will leave with concrete patterns and a clear mental model for adopting GitHub Spec-Kit in their own projects.

At Toastmasters, we empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. Our meetings provide a supportive and positive learning environment where members grow through prepared speeches, impromptu speaking (Table Topics), and constructive evaluations. Whether you're looking to overcome your fear of public speaking, enhance your work communication, or develop leadership skills, you're welcome here. Guests are always invited to observe first. If you'd like to speak, we’ll ask before inviting you to participate - no pressure at all. See how Toastmasters can help you build confidence, develop new skills, and connect with a community focused on growth.

Join us for a chill voices-off hangout for ASL practice and socializing. It's a night to connect, learn, and have fun! All signing levels are welcome—whether you are fluent, just starting out, or somewhere in between. The first hour entails a practice activity or around-the-room introductions geared toward ASL learners and those more fluent who enjoy encouraging learners. The second hour is an unstructured social. Streetcar 82 is the region's only Deaf-owned and operated brewery! They serve up non-alcoholic options as well as an array of their crafted beers. If the weather is nice, the large group gathers on the patio outside. Check out Streetcar 82 on Instagram: @streetcar82brewingco Note this event is held monthly, on the first Tuesday of the month. Check out the brewery's online calendar for the most up-to-date status. https://streetcar82brewing.com/events/

Discover the power of your breath to manage your mind and experience instant peace & calm. Join a 60-minute free Workshop and get a glimpse of the Sudarshan KriyaTM- The breathing technique that is revolutionizing the lives of millions. What you’ll discover at ‘Beyond Breath’ ✔ A taste of the Sudarshan KriyaTM, a breathing technique taught in the Happiness Program ✔ An instant energy booster that awakens & relaxes your mind - Take it home and practice daily! ✔ The peace & calm of a unique guided meditation ✔ Secret keys to manage your mind ✔ The power of surrounding yourself with positive, like-minded people. You can use your breath to master your thoughts and emotions - the key to managing the quality of your day. The Happiness Program At the end of this workshop you may enroll into the Happiness Program (3 days, 3 hours each day) to learn the Sudarshan KriyaTM, a science-backed, rhythmic breathing technique through which you can: Tap into a reservoir of energy and use it as you please! Relieve deep-rooted stresses and anxieties Uplevel your productivity Overcome emotional blocks, move on from past events and shed limiting beliefs Heal your body & gain power over your mind Experience the true state of meditation Learn more about the Happiness Program & the Sudarshan KriyaTM in our introductory workshop 'Secrets to Meditation'. register: http://aolf.live/introSKY

Discover the power of your breath to manage your mind and experience instant peace & calm. Join a 60-minute free Workshop and get a glimpse of the Sudarshan KriyaTM- The breathing technique that is revolutionizing the lives of millions. What you’ll discover at ‘Beyond Breath’ ✔ A taste of the Sudarshan KriyaTM, a breathing technique taught in the Happiness Program ✔ An instant energy booster that awakens & relaxes your mind - Take it home and practice daily! ✔ The peace & calm of a unique guided meditation ✔ Secret keys to manage your mind ✔ The power of surrounding yourself with positive, like-minded people. You can use your breath to master your thoughts and emotions - the key to managing the quality of your day. The Happiness Program At the end of this workshop you may enroll into the Happiness Program (3 days, 3 hours each day) to learn the Sudarshan KriyaTM, a science-backed, rhythmic breathing technique through which you can: Tap into a reservoir of energy and use it as you please! Relieve deep-rooted stresses and anxieties Uplevel your productivity Overcome emotional blocks, move on from past events and shed limiting beliefs Heal your body & gain power over your mind Experience the true state of meditation Learn more about the Happiness Program & the Sudarshan KriyaTM in our introductory workshop 'Secrets to Meditation'. Instagram: artoflivingDMV aolf.live/secretstomeditation

collaborative community for ServiceNow specialists and IT professionals to connect, share knowledge, and grow together. This group focuses on real-world use cases, best practices in ITSM, emerging technologies, and career development. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced professional, join us to exchange ideas, improve communication skills, and build meaningful industry relationships.

What does it look like when ideas come to life? Join NOVA Scribes and MAFN for a full-day, in-person open house where the public is invited to step inside the world of facilitation. This is a come-and-go experience designed for curiosity, exploration, and conversation. Whether you are new to facilitation groups, you are welcome. The space will be set up as a "theater in the round," (see the image) with facilitators working live around the room. Throughout the day, you will see different techniques, styles, and modalities demonstrated in real time, from visual templates, facilitation tools, and decision-support methods. You can observe, ask questions, and engage directly with the practitioners as the work unfolds. **What you can expect** * Live demonstrations of facilitation techniques * Multiple practitioners working simultaneously, each with their own approach and style * Short, informal demos and tiny teaches that explain how and why specific techniques are used * Opportunities to talk one-on-one with experienced facilitators * A chance to see how facilitation can support sensemaking, alignment, and group dialogue **What you might explore** * Methods and templates for planning, strategy, and reflection * Facilitation methods that support participation and decision making * Tools, materials, and setup considerations for live work This open house is designed to be accessible, hands-on, and inspiring. You do not need to stay all day. Come for 20 minutes or stay for hours. Watch ideas take shape. Notice how facilitation can change the energy in the room. Ask the questions you have always wanted to ask. If you have ever been curious about how facilitation works and supports groups, this is your chance to experience it up close. **Open to the general public. No prior experience required.** We’re not charging for this workshop, but we will be asking for donations!

**IMPORTANT! Please register on [Luma page](https://luma.com/klm98cuc)** *Ignore the displayed time — it’s 5:30pm VA time.* AI is making us faster than ever — and at the same time, quietly questioning our place at work. ​We’re all feeling it: tools that boost output in minutes, automate entire workflows, and sometimes… do the job better. So where does that leave the human? ​This conversation dives straight into that tension — no sugarcoating, no generic optimism. Just real perspectives from people working inside the shift. ​ **Speakers:** [Nina Borysova, MBA ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nborysova/?utm_source=luma)**Director, Product Management Technical (PMT), Data Analytics and AI Solutions, Mastercard** **​**[Dr. Volodymyr Tkach ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/volodymyr-tkach/?utm_source=luma) CEO \| Ph\.D\, Associate Professor \| MIT Research Fellow \| Cybersecurity\, Threat Intelligence\, Anomaly Detection\, Artificial **​We’ll unpack:** ​– where AI actually boosts productivity vs. where it replaces thinking ​– which roles are evolving — and which are quietly disappearing ​– how teams are restructuring around AI (and what that means for individuals) ​– how to stay valuable when execution becomes automated ​– what “creative work” even means when AI can generate ideas on demand ​– the psychological side: anxiety, denial, adaptation ​If you’re feeling both excited *and* uneasy about AI — you’re not alone. And you probably shouldn’t ignore either feeling. ​Come for clarity. Leave with a more honest map of what’s ahead.

Wind down and get ready for the week ahead by spending some time reflecting through intentional conversation and watching the sunset. There is free parking, a restroom, and water station at this park. Some example topics of conversation: 1\. Where have you felt the most alive lately? 2\. Is there anything in your work/life that has felt unresolved\, and why? 3\. Who has had the most influence in your life lately\, and what have they contributed? 4\. What was the most memorable moment of the last week? Please bring: \- Snacks and drinks to share \- A blanket \(some will be provided as well\) **To ensure an accurate headcount, you MUST respond to the question in the invite. Those who sign up without answering will be removed from the guest list.** NOTE: Because this event is outside, the date and time is subject to change due to weather. Please check your email and/or the Meetup app for updates!

Learn to manage stress and achieve self-growth through simple relaxation and Meditation. Heartfulness Meditation is a simple, modern, methodical approach to meditation. Rather than homing in on your breath or repeating a mantra, you simply focus inward, on your heart, to cultivate inner strength and serenity. Heartfulness meditation is gaining traction in recent years. It focuses on the heart, allowing individuals to connect with themselves on a deeper level, and ultimately achieve peace, relaxation, and clarity. It is a practice that encourages patience, self-compassion, and acceptance, helping cultivate a deeper appreciation for the present moment. This practice is offered with love and at no cost

This meetup is designed to be an open forum amongst our community. We intend for it to be an opportunity for members to showcase what projects we've been working on this year related to Linux and AWS. If you are a current (or aspiring) professional looking for a practical way to build your experience with Linux and cloud computing, this event is for you! About us: Respect The Tech is an organization focused on information technology education and innovation. Our mission is to innovate technology education through virtual labs and gamified training. All of our team members are experienced professionals in the cybersecurity and cloud computing field. We are based out of the DMV and aim to serve the DMV with the same tools that enabled us to be successful with technology. ______________________________ Requirements: A functional laptop AWS account created and ready to use (free tier recommended)

**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.

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

This meetup is a beginner-friendly session introducing version control for Unity projects, with a look at three common tools: Git, Perforce, and Unity Version Control. The goal is to help you understand what version control is, why it matters for Unity development, and what options are out there. The format will likely be presentation-style, with live demos and time for questions throughout. You'll see each tool in action and learn how they fit into a Unity workflow. What to Expect: * An introduction to version control and why it's essential for Unity projects * An overview of Git, Perforce, and Unity Version Control * Demos of each tool in a Unity workflow * Tips for getting started * No prior version control experience required * Resources for continued learning All experience levels are welcome. Whether you're new to version control or already using one of these tools, this session will help you understand what each one offers. Food and drinks provided. Join us to learn more about version control options for Unity.

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?!"

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

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