Scrum

**Set goals.** **Be accountable for them.** **Move your life forward with purpose.** Our goal is to cause greatness by mentoring men to live with excellence and, as mature masculine leaders, create successful families, careers and communities. If you have the desire to work on being the man that your legacy demands that you be (which means being the best you can be, we can work on what your legacy demands with you later) and the man you always wanted to be then we look forward to you attending. Our group is part of Mentor Discover Inspire (MDI). This group meets Mondays, North of Finch Avenue, usually indoors, outdoors in the summer but occasionally on Zoom. To confirm this week's location, please rsvp to Ricardo, call/text (647) 880-1488, or email ricardophilip@hotmail.com From MDI website[: https://goo.gl/3DQ6](https://goo.gl/3DQ6aY)aY From Toronto Sta[r: https://goo.gl/oDH](https://goo.gl/oDH3uX)3uX Regular attendees do not always RSVP, expect 6-8 men to be present.

**Welcome to Miss Bachata & Miss Salsa!** As the winter season wraps our city in its gentle sparkle, our community shines even brighter. This time of year reminds us how meaningful it feels to step into a space filled with warmth, laughter, music, and friendly faces—exactly the kind of energy we create together every Monday. While the world outside cools down, our dance floor becomes a cozy haven of joy, connection, and beautifully shared moments. Every Monday feels like a touch of winter magic… only with a whole lot more rhythm. My objective has always been to create a different kind of social gathering—one that is open, non-judgmental, non-salacious, and safe. A place where you can meet people just like you, where socializing and dancing come together to help build community and tear down the walls that separate us. Here, we make new friends, feel a sense of belonging, and enjoy the calmness that comes from knowing we are in a safe and welcoming space. Many times, I have been asked, “Why host an event on Monday night?” Many people escape on the weekend and dread Mondays when they return to work. I believe that if you dance and socialize on a Monday, you infuse your week with joy and positive energy, giving your life balance and helping you face your challenges with enthusiasm and confidence. We’re also thrilled to announce that our trial of advanced Bachata lessons, which began last September, has been a resounding success! Building on this momentum, we’re excited to offer an enhanced schedule for 2025. Our dance evenings will now feature three hours of classes: one hour of beginner to intermediate Bachata, one hour of advanced Bachata, and one hour of beginner to intermediate Salsa. As always, the entrance fee remains $15 for a night of 2 lessons and social dancing. For those interested in the advanced Bachata lessons, there will be an additional $5 fee. Here’s our updated schedule: **Miss Bachata – Main Ballroom** ❄️ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Beginner to Intermediate Bachata Lesson (No partner required) ❄️ 8:00 pm – 12:00 am: Social Dancing **Miss Salsa – Round Room** ❄️ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Advanced Bachata Lesson (+$5) NEW ❄️ 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Beginner to Intermediate Salsa Lesson ❄️ 9:00 pm – 12:00 am: Social Dancing **Additional Details:** ❄️ Free Parking ❄️ Full Bar (Free Water, Beer: $5.75) Over the past decade, organizing Latin dancing events in Mississauga has been a labor of love. Our mission has always been to foster a sense of community, proving that the connections we share are far stronger than the differences that divide us. Loneliness is a growing concern, with over half of U.S. adults and many Canadians experiencing its effects. The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened this issue. Harvard University's long-term study on happiness, which began in 1938, highlights the detrimental impact of loneliness on health. People with strong social connections experience slower mental and physical decline and greater overall happiness compared to those who are isolated. Here are some key findings from the study: • Close ties help delay mental and physical decline more than money, fame, social class, IQ, or genetics. • Relationship satisfaction is a better predictor of aging well than cholesterol levels in middle age. • A strong sense of community improves memory function. • Loneliness can be as harmful to health as smoking or alcoholism. There’s hope! Strengthening our relationships and supporting community initiatives can build healthier, happier lives. Miss Bachata & Miss Salsa provides a wonderful opportunity to make new friends, expand your social circle, and enjoy a safe, welcoming, authentic environment. Bring your open heart and a smile, and we’ll take care of the rest. **Cheers to building an authentic, joyful, and connected community!** **Anna G.** https://www.meetup.com/LatinDanceMeetup https://www.facebook.com/groups/1871491806494168/ https://www.facebook.com/EventsByAnnaG

### JUST GO WITH IT IMPROV – WEEKLY DROP-IN Whether you’re experienced in improv or completely new, you’re invited to join us each week at the Thornhill Community Centre. (Atrium Room, Look for large plant in middle of round hallway. We welcome all skill levels for a fun, supportive, and high-energy session. Have limited spots available and hoping to get a few extra from meetup. **$25 per drop-in • 7:00pm–8:00 PM**

Join the Bitcoin Bay meetup to Learn, Build and Connect about Bitcoin & Crypto with Toronto's oldest Bitcoin community! Stay tuned for future updates and meetup announcements.

We are a men's group where you can expect a frank and confidential space to speak personally, engage in interesting conversations or get support for your personal goals. This new team meets weekly on the East side of Toronto. Our group is part of Mentor Discover Inspire (MDI). This group prefers to meet outdoors but occasionally on Zoom. Guests are welcome but it's pretty casual so make sure you are expected in case we move locations. You can rsvp via meetup or call Tim @ 416-278-3058 to confirm this week’s location. The MDI Mission: To cause greatness by mentoring men to live with excellence and, as mature masculine leaders, create successful families, careers and communities. From MDI website[: https://goo.gl/3DQ6](https://goo.gl/3DQ6aY)aY From Toronto Sta[r: https://goo.gl/oDH](https://goo.gl/oDH3uX)3uX

Welcome to **Rainbow Toastmasters Toronto**! Join us for a fun and welcoming public speaking event at **St. Andrew's United Church, Toronto**. Whether you're a seasoned speaker or just starting, our diverse group of members will provide a supportive environment for you to improve your communication skills. Come share your stories, practice your speeches, and meet new friends in a safe and inclusive space. Don't miss out on this opportunity to grow personally and professionally. See you there! At each meeting, we have speakers present a 5- to 7-minute prepared speech, followed by an opportunity for members and guests to participate in presenting an impromptu 2-minute speech, delivering a joke or quote, or getting involved in other ways. The meeting agenda is structured by a Rainbow Toastmaster, who provides a meeting theme, along with some roles (such as a joke or a quote) that follow from the chosen theme. We start promptly at 7:00 pm, so arriving between 6:30 and 6:45 would be appreciated. Guests are welcome to participate when comfortable.

Toronto Lodge invites you to join us for: 7:00 pm Council of Solace 7:30 pm Open Meeting **-** Topic "The Radiant Dawn" by Bill Anderson. *Rosicrucian Beacon*, June 2024 Both of these events are open to the public. Members are asked to please bring current membership credentials. Location: 7:00 pm Council of Solace - Toronto Lodge, 831 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, ON 7:30 pm Open Meeting, Rosicrucian Cultural Centre, 835 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, ON

Each week there is some recommended readings to be done before we meet. **Please see the attached schedule for this week's readings.** The Bible Timeline® study program takes you on a guided journey through salvation history. Presenter Jeff Cavins will show you how fourteen of the Bible’s narrative books tell the biblical story from beginning to end and will give you the keys to understanding the amazing story woven throughout Scripture. The Bible Timeline will teach you how to read and understand the entire Bible and introduce you to the wonderful narrative of Scripture in a way that will transform your life. The online material can be bought online through the link below (optional). However, each session we can share copies for you to have discussion questions in class and reading guideline for the next session. https://ascensionpress.com/products/the-bible-timeline-the-story-of-salvation-online-video-access

## **Global Service Jam – Toronto (March 13–15)** We’re hosting the Toronto edition of the **Global Service Jam** — a 2-day, hands-on design sprint happening simultaneously in cities around the world. Participants receive a shared “secret” theme on Friday evening and work in small teams to design and prototype service ideas over the weekend. This is not a talk or panel event. It’s collaborative, experimental, and focused on learning by doing. **Format** • Friday + Saturday: Core Jam • Sunday: Optional showcase + celebratory lunch 🎟 **Registration is required via Luma** Spots are limited and tickets are managed there. 👉 **Register here:** [https://luma.com/85b13pet](https://luma.com/85b13pet) Hosted by Service Design Drinks Toronto. Supported by Highline Beta.

**RSVP on [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/toronto-msp-dinner-meetup-project-service-managers-march-2026-tickets-1982992750698?aff=oddtdtcreator)** to confirm your spot! We're gathering at Alternative Payments' events venue for good food and real conversation about the challenges we all face - keeping projects on budget and on schedule, managing service delivery, coordinating teams, and everything in between. The focus is on connecting with peers who get what you're dealing with day to day. **Alternative Payments** and **SherWeb** are sponsoring the dinner, with tickets by donation to the Toronto Food Bank. Calgary raised $250 - let's see if we can beat that! Your host will be [Wim Kerkhoff](https://ca.linkedin.com/in/wimkerkhoff), founder of [TopLeft](https://www.topleft.team) and two MSPs. **What to Expect** * Dinner at Alternative Payments (on us) * Meet other MSP project managers, service managers, and operations leaders * Talk through shared challenges with project management, service delivery, and team coordination * Actual networking time to connect with people facing the same issues you are **Who Should Attend** Project managers, service managers, operations managers, and anyone at an MSP who's responsible for keeping projects on budget and on schedule, managing service delivery, and keeping teams productive. Feel free to bring others from your organization who'd be a good fit. **Where** Alternative Payments in Toronto (35 McCaul St #300). March 10th @ 5:30pm. Space is limited to keep conversations focused. **RSVP on [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/toronto-msp-dinner-meetup-project-service-managers-march-2026-tickets-1982992750698?aff=oddtdtcreator)** to confirm your spot. **About TopLeft** We build project and service management tools for MSPs. We're MSP people ourselves, so we get the daily challenges of balancing service tickets, project work, and keeping teams productive without the chaos. [https://www.topleft.team](https://www.topleft.team)

We're excited to bring the community together for an evening of learning and connection! Come support your fellow developers, learn something new, and meet others who are passionate about search, observability, and security. **Date and Time:** Thursday, March, 12th from 5:30-7:30 pm **Agenda:** * 5:30 pm: Doors open; say hi, grab a seat, and eat some food. * 6:00 pm: Building Agentic AI on ELK stack, by **Gleb Gadyatskiy**, Principal Engineer at PointClickCare * 6:30 pm: Q&A * 6:40 pm: "One Does Not Simply Query a Stream", by **Viktor Gamov** is a Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent * 7:10 pm: Q&A * 7:20-7:30 pm: Networking & refreshments **Talk Abstracts:** **"Building Agentic AI on ELK stack"** Story how I built AI Agent using pure ELK + LLM to automate incidents investigations 1. What is AI Agent, ELK and why I decided to build AI Agent using only ELK 2. Building simple AI Agent using pure Logstash pipelines 3. Building advance AI Agent using Ruby plugin 4. Connecting AI Agent to Elastic AI Assistant **Gleb Gadyatskiy** is a Principal Engineer at PointClickCare. He is a part of the Infrastructure Architecture team and describes his role as “the first line in attack and the last line in defense”. Gleb provides support for all teams to aggregate logs from various apps into Elasticsearch, use AI to get insights from logs and actively promotes Elastic stack in PointClickCare. Gleb enjoys outdoor traveling with his wife and two kids in a camper. **"One Does Not Simply Query a Stream"** Streaming data with Apache Kafka® has become the backbone of modern applications. While streams are ideal for continuous data flow, they lack built-in querying capabilities. Unlike databases with indexed lookups, Kafka’s append-only logs are designed for high-throughput processing—not for on-demand queries. This necessitates additional infrastructure to query streaming data effectively. Traditional approaches replicate stream data into external stores: relational databases like PostgreSQL for operational queries, object storage like S3 accessed via Flink, Spark, or Trino for analytics, and Elasticsearch for full-text search and log analytics. Each serves a purpose—but they also introduce silos, schema mismatches, freshness issues, and complex ETL pipelines that increase system fragility. In this session, we’ll explore solutions that aim to unify operational, analytical, and search workloads across real-time data. We'll demonstrate stream processing with Kafka Streams, Apache Flink®, and SQL engines; real-time analytics with Apache Pinot®; search capabilities with Elasticsearch; and modern lakehouse approaches using Apache Iceberg® with Tableflow to represent Kafka topics as queryable tables. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, understanding the tools and trade-offs will help you design more robust and flexible architectures. **Viktor Gamov** is a Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent, founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka®. With a rich background in implementing and advocating for distributed systems and cloud-native architectures, Viktor excels in open-source technologies. He is passionate about assisting architects, developers, and operators in crafting systems that are not only low in latency and scalable but also highly available. As a Java Champion and an esteemed speaker, Viktor is known for his insightful presentations at top industry events like JavaOne, Devoxx, Kafka Summit, and QCon. His expertise spans distributed systems, real-time data streaming, JVM, and DevOps. Viktor has co-authored "Enterprise Web Development" from O'Reilly and "Apache Kafka® in Action" from Manning. Follow Viktor on X - @gamussa to stay updated with Viktor's latest thoughts on technology, his gym and food adventures, and insights into open-source and developer advocacy. **Location:** Improving Office 171 East Liberty St Unit 235 Toronto, Ontario M6K 3P6 **Directions (171 E Liberty St - Suite 235)** **By transit** Streetcars 504 and 509 both travel close to the office (less than 10 minute walk to the office from either), the lakeshore GO train is also a 5 minute walk from the office. **By car/parking** On street parking is available - there are a handful of paid parking spots directly in front of the entrance - with a large city parking lot across the street. **Entrance** The entrance to the office is beside the Bulk Barn entrance facing Hannah Street. There is an Improving logo on the door.

Drake Lundstrom is presenting: Code Anywhere by Talking to your Phone Abstract: Have you heard the trend of people deploying code anywhere from checkout lines to doctors' offices? In this talk, you will learn how to talk to your phone and have an app on Azure to show your friend 5 minutes later. The basic DevOps tools you already know, plus a little bit of AI magic, are all you need! If you want to follow along, the demo will be in Azure with GitHub Actions and GitHub Copilot, and you can have it set up on your phone by the end of the session. Just come in with an Azure account and a GitHub repo. Join us for pizza, drinks, and networking @ Improving's office. Doors open at 5:45.

Discover Kiro, AWS’s innovative development environment that adapts to your workflow. Whether you prefer specification-driven development or a more intuitive, vibe-based approach, Kiro empowers you to build applications your way. In this session, speakers will explore Kiro’s core functionality and its evolution through re:Invent 2025, along with demonstrations of prompts used to create APIs, hooks, and steering documents. In the latter part of the session, watch as we build a complete example from scratch, showcasing Kiro’s agentic AI workflow in action for spec-driven development and vibe coding. What You'll Learn - Core Kiro concepts and development philosophy Feature evolution: pre and post re:Invent 2025 Practical examples: API creation, hooks, and steering docs Live coding demonstration with real-time problem solving Who Should Attend - Developers, solutions architects, and technical leaders interested in modern AWS development tools and AI-assisted coding workflows. **Speakers Bio:** Matthew Jorat: Matthew Jorat is a Customer Solutions Manager at AWS with nearly three decades of expertise in AI, cloud transformation, migration, modernization, IT, technology, and business. His career spans infrastructure engineer, solutions architect, security auditor, customer success director, support and services director, and operations officer. He was an early adopter of AWS services as a customer, and his current role at AWS uniquely blends his technical and business skills as he partners with executive teams to translate strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes through cloud adoption, AI implementation, and operational excellence. Matt leads end-to-end AI initiatives for enterprise customers, identifying high-impact use cases and maintaining relentless focus on measurable ROI. He holds eight AWS certifications and serves as Adjunct Professor at Franklin University teaching cloud computing and AWS architecture. His expertise encompasses GenAI, agentic AI systems, migration, modernization, and optimization strategies that drive transformation at scale. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/) Girish Bhatia: Girish Bhatia is a seasoned technology delivery leader with deep expertise in cross-domain program management. He holds multiple AWS certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer – Associate, and AWS Generative AI Practitioner, and is also an AWS Community Builder. Girish brings over two decades of experience in the information technology industry. Throughout his career, Girish has led major technology-driven business transformation from modernizing on-premises applications to driving large-scale cloud migrations. His work includes API-based integration platforms, data-center and mainframe modernization, and enterprise cloud adoption initiatives. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Girish works at a tech-forward fintech company. He is passionate about AWS serverless architectures, Generative AI and emerging cloud technologies. An avid learner and builder, he continues to explore and apply the latest innovations in AWS to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/[https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/) **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

We are recruiting new group leaders for virtual men's groups! Our primary groups are outdoor movement groups, but we are launching virtual groups for the state of Ohio and beyond and the groups will move outside in the spring, creating room for men's groups, women's groups and coed groups all over the country. Read below to learn about our groups and click the links at the bottom to apply. ### **What is an Outdoor Empowerment Group?** Our Outdoor Movement & Community Empowerment Groups are simple, guided experiences designed to help people reconnect with nature, themselves, and others. We combine some form of movement (hike, walk, run, bike, yoga, workout) and meaningful conversation within a simple community circle to create a space where individuals can support each other while prioritizing mental and physical well-being. Whether you’re seeking stress relief, personal growth, or community, our groups offer everyone a unique and welcoming environment. ## **Why Join?** * **Improve Mental & Physical Well-Being** – Movement, nature, and supportive conversations reduce stress and promote balance. * **Feel Less Alone** – Build genuine connections with like-minded people in a safe, welcoming space. * **Gain Clarity & Perspective** – Step outside daily routines and into a space designed for personal growth and reflection. ## **The Ideal Group Leader** The ideal group leader * Has a born-in passion for mental health, movement, connecting with nature and building community. * Has 5 extra hours per week to dedicate to a meaningful cause for at least one year. Yes, you can leave any organization at any time and we can also ask you to leave, but we are building with legacy in mind and we need people who can commit and be ALL IN on this mission to build with us. * Is independently financially stable with the ability to volunteer with no expectation of pay. This is a deeply beautiful journey of service that all participants commit to at Speak Your Mind. * An ability to manage groups with high emotional intelligence and desire for human connection. * An ability to self-motivate and market/promote their group on Facebook and other social platforms. * Nature informed therapy or clinical therapists/psychologists a plus. ## **Our Impact**  Since launching, we have helped thousands find support, connection, and healing through our Outdoor Movement Groups. 100% of participants surveyed have reported: * A noticeable improvement in mental clarity and emotional well-being. * An increase in social connection and a sense of belonging. * Said they would return again. We believe mental health should be accessible, community-driven, and rooted in nature. Join us and take the first step toward a more connected, grounded, and supported version of yourself. ### **Why Our Groups are Donation-Based** Our Outdoor Movement Groups are made possible through a donation-based model. This approach allows us to keep our events accessible to everyone, regardless of financial circumstances, while also ensuring that we can continue expanding our reach. It’s a great way to pay it forward and support the growth of this beautiful mission! Every contribution helps us: * **Cover Essential Costs** – Donations allow us to pay essential legal, marketing, insurance, and admin costs as well as nourish the important people who run the organization. * **Grow Our Mission** – With your support, we can bring these healing experiences to thousands more people in the future and execute our long term plan to expand across the USA, affecting up to 500,000 people per year. By choosing to contribute, you’re not just leading an event—you’re helping build a mental health movement that supports long-term well-being and connection for all during a severe mental health epidemic. ## **Come Join Us!** We’d love to have you be part of this growing community of people prioritizing their mental health, movement, and connection. 🔹 **Visit Our Website to Learn More:** https://speakyourmind.men/joinusoutside 🔹 **Apply Here to Lead Your Own Group!** – https://form.jotform.com/taketimespeakyourmind/sym-group-leader-application 🔹 **Support the mission**: If you resonate with the mission and want to support, feel free to join a group before applying or donate to help us reach our goals to help more people! You can donate here: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/angels-for-angels/speak-your-mind Please text Mario with any questions: (808) 855-8831

One of the most valuable parts of this community is the opportunity to think out loud with other product professionals. This session is built for exactly that. As we wrap up the quarter, it’s a great time to pause and reflect. What’s on track? What needs adjustment? Where could a small shift create bigger impact? Join fellow product professionals for a focused, interactive conversation designed to help you recalibrate for the next quarter. You’ll have the opportunity to share where you are, hear how others are thinking through similar challenges, and gain fresh perspective you can bring back to your team and organization. We’ll gather at 8:00AM, with discussion starting promptly at 8:15AM. 📍 First Watch - 7227 N High St Located in: The Shops at Worthington Ample parking is available. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Start your morning with clarity and connection — we hope to see you there! ☀️

We’re still working to get more people into these Meetups, but our goal is to give PlayYourCourt members a few social tennis outings each week in addition to your practice sessions and Challenge League matches. These Meetups are co-ed, super laid back, and all skill levels are welcome. Post your skill level and a suggested court in the comments section so we can round up as many players as we can for some tennis fun! Also, if you’re looking to meet new practice partners or play some matches and you aren’t already in the PlayYourCourt Community, you can go here to see what we’re all about and sign up: https://www.playyourcourt.com/tennis-community/columbus-oh/meetup/ If you love tennis, we’d love to have you! Be sure and watch the quick video that explains how everything works. Happy hitting! - Scott

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