Software Innovation

Please see below for details of our April 15 event. Visit our [Eventbrite](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/owasp-toronto-april-2026-tickets-1986283430209) page to RSVP! APIs power virtually every web and mobile application, accounting for over 80% of all Internet traffic. And APIs are under attack. Gartner states APIs have become the “most frequent attack vector," resulting in hundreds of highly successful, high profile breaches. This API security presentation covers 1) why attackers love APIs, 2) real-world breaches (and how they map to the OWASP API Security Top 10), and 3) best practices to keep APIs secure.

**This is a ticketed event. Please register at [this link](https://luma.com/zcsyrtrx).** ​With [Duncan Cass-Beggs](https://www.cigionline.org/people/duncan-cass-beggs/?utm_source=luma), Executive Director of the Global AI Risks Initiative at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). ​Prominent AI scientists and national security experts are raising the alarm that it may soon become technically possible to build autonomous AI systems capable of posing an extinction risk to humanity. While timelines are uncertain – with most informed estimates ranging from 2 to 10 years – recent advances suggest that AI systems could soon reach a critical threshold and feedback loop of recursive self-improvement. In this context, societies and governments must prepare now to address the most challenging AI scenarios. ​Based on current trends, the most powerful AI systems will likely be developed by frontier AI companies in the United States or China. Canada, like most other countries, therefore, lacks direct influence over the AI developments that may most affect our future. This doesn’t mean we have to resign ourselves to a fate determined by others. Along with efforts to promote AI adoption, innovation, and sovereignty, Canada can help to lead an international effort to avoid the worst global scale risks of AI – and make sure AI goes well and for the benefit of all. The challenges – technological, philosophical, political – are complex and daunting, especially under possibly very short timelines. But they are challenges most worthy of our commitment in this tumultuous and pivotal time. ​Building on CIGI’s recently published [Special Report on AI National Security Scenarios](https://www.cigionline.org/publications/ai-national-security-scenarios/), this session will lay out the key arguments for an international coalition of willing middle powers and others to lead urgent efforts to address global scale risks from AI. The session will then engage participants in a roll-up the sleeves discussion of Canada’s potential interests, roles, and points of leverage, and how best to rapidly mobilize Canada’s contribution. ​​​**Event Schedule** 6:00 to 6:30 - Food and introductions 6:30 to 7:30 - Presentation and Q&A 7:30 to 9:00 - Open Discussions ​​​​​​If you can't make it in person, feel free to join the live stream starting at 6:30 pm, via [this link](https://www.youtube.com/@Trajectory-Labs/live).

This time we’re trying something new by combining Mediterranean fusion and Spanish tapas for dinner at Kabbana Bar & Grill in Port Credit. Here’s what to expect 👇 * We will start at **6:30 PM** on **Wednesday the 15th** for dinner and drinks. The restaurant has confirmed they are happy to host us. * The restaurant has a lively lounge atmosphere and it's our first time trying this spot, so let's see how it goes. * You can check out their menu here 👇 [https://kabbana.ca/menu/](https://kabbana.ca/menu/) * Everyone pays for their own meal. I had called them, they will be ok to have separate bills. * If you have specific allergies or dietary needs, please call the restaurant directly to confirm they can accommodate you. * If your plans change, please cancel at least a day before so we can adjust seating. This is a relaxed, social evening—come by, meet new people, and enjoy some tapas and drinks together.

### The Hip Haus presents: [Professionals Networking Event](https://thehiphaus.com "https://thehiphaus.com")! Hosted at Isabelle's ### \*\*\*\* What is The Hip Haus? \*\*\*\*The Hip Haus is an organization that exists to empower young and experienced professionals alike in the GTA and help the growth of local business. As professionals (especially post pandemic world) it is sometimes difficult to network with other like minded individuals, get good career advice or simply make connections with others you may be able to help or get help from. The Hip Haus is committed to providing social gatherings in an atmosphere where such networking can take place. \*\*\*\* Who Should Attend? \*\*\*\*The Hip Haus events are ***19+***. The focus however is the growth and development of professionals in the GTA. It doesn’t matter if you are a business owner, have a job, are looking for a job, recently graduated university/college, still in university/college, looking for others to launch a new idea or just want to meet other professionals, our events are for you. Remember that Industry is Industry. One is not better than the other to The Hip Haus. We are expecting a diverse range of industry professionals. Our events in clude professionals from Tech & AI to Entrepreneurs, Musicians, Artists, Bankers, I.T Professionals, Accountants, Investors, Advertising/Marketing Professionals, Bloggers, Authors, Lawyers, Doctors, Dentists (This List Can Clearly Go On). ALL ARE WELCOME! \*\*\*\* What to Expect at Our Events? \*\*\*\*Bring Business cards or have your LinkedIn QR code at the ready. Networking! That is the key to these events. Sure it can be a great place to hang out and have a beer with a few friends but it is important to come with an open mind to meet new people and make new connections. Build your network of friends/colleagues/advisors to help yourself as well as them. The Hip Haus wants the professionals of the GTA to come together to help foster personal and professional development. \*\*\*\* Dress Code! \*\*\*\*This is a tricky one. There is NO strict dress code but remember this; you are meeting professionals in an informal manner and we all know first impressions last forever. Come dressed in a way that would allow you to be comfortable and professional according to your industry. Consider This…would a professional musician/artist necessarily dress the same as an investment banker at work? Be who you are or who you want to be. #YoungProfessionalsNetworking #ProfessionalsNetworking #EntrepreneurNetworking #FounderEvents #FounderNetworking #AINetworkingToronto #TechNetworkingEvents #YoungProfessionalsAI #EntrepreneursAI #AIandTechToronto #NetworkingEventsGTA #IssabellsToronto **\*\* Let's Get Social!\*\*** WEB: [www.thehiphaus.com](http://www.thehiphaus.com/ "http://www.thehiphaus.com/") [INSTAGRAM](m/thehiphaus/ "m/thehiphaus/") \| [FACEBOOK](https://www.facebook.com/thehiphaus "https://www.facebook.com/thehiphaus") \| [TWITTER](https://twitter.com/thehiphaus "https://twitter.com/thehiphaus")

**🏛️ 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://tally.so/r/81LP4A), 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: * 19:00-19:15 - People arrive and chat, get to know each other before the official start. * 19:15-19:25 - 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. * 19:25-20:45 - 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. * 20:45-21:00 - Bring everyone back together to discuss conclusions of the topic - each group gives a short 1-minute summary. Organizer concludes the meeting and everyone takes a group photo. * 21:00 - The official meeting is over but it’s a great opportunity to get to know people in a non-structured environment, so we often stick around, chat, and get to know each other. **🧧PRICING?** Practical Philosophy is operated entirely on voluntary donations! If we are meeting in a café, buy a beverage! Donations are 100% voluntary, but they help us to bring the gift of deep conversation to people around the world. If you'd like to support, you can [donate here](https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donation-form/donate-to-practical-philosophy)! (Practical Philosophy is a registered Canadian charity) **💛 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** * **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. * **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 often, 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://tally.so/r/81LP4A) 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/). 🤝**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 CLUB - Philosophy, everywhere. ✨** We started in Practical Philosophy back in 2021 and there are now 50+ chapters in over 25 countries, including Canada, Spain, Japan, Mexico and many more! 🗺️ **\*\*\*** **Join our [Mississauga Whatsapp](https://tally.so/r/81LP4A) 👈** **Follow us on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/practicalphilosophyclub/) 👈** **Our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/) 👈**

Play some beach and meet cool people

​🚀 Join ProductTank Toronto for a night exploring how product people and founders are building **productive AI agents**—from configuring Notion agents to orchestrating systems that design, build, and ship real products. ​This session is all about **execution**: how AI moves beyond experimentation into real workflows that extend your capacity and actually get things done. ​If you've attended a Notion Toronto Community event before, you may already know our speakers. This time, they’re bringing their real-world AI practices to the ProductTank stage. Featuring: [Dave Mence](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-mence/) and [Josh Gonsalves](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshgonsalves94/) ## 🎤 **Dave Menceles, Program Ops Manager @ Notion** ***Quality In, Quality Out: Putting in the Human Work to Make AI Agents Shine*** **​About Dave:** ​Dave manages operations for a group of 120+ third-party Notion experts in one of Notion’s certified consultants programs. He leans on a handful of Notion Custom Agents to help him perform his day-to-day work that would otherwise extend way beyond his individual bandwidth. **​About his talk:** ​Dave will share how his Q&A agent helps to support the members of his program with the deep program knowledge he’s imparted to the agent. He’ll also give an short guide on how to set up your own Notion Custom Agents that can work around the clock to perform helpful work on your behalf. ## **Josh Gonsalves, Founder @ Contraverse** ​**AI That Builds AI: Orchestrating Agents Into a Real Product Team** **About Josh:** ​Josh is a Toronto-based founder building Formive, an AI platform for creating and sharing powerful AI tools and lead magnets without any code. His work focuses on turning AI into a leveraged system that can research, plan, build, and ship real products autonomously. He hasn’t written a single line of code. Instead, he directs AI systems that do. ​**About his talk:** ​Josh will break down how he uses AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor as a coordinated team of AI designers and engineers to build and ship a real product from scratch. He will show how Agent Skills, MCPs, and structured workflows enable these models to collaborate, handling everything from product research and planning to coding, review, bug fixing and shipping production-ready software. This talk are especially **relevant for non-technical** founders and Product Managers. It demonstrates how you can create solid, production-ready software without being a traditional developer by directing systems instead of writing every line yourself. ​Spots are limited—see you there! 📍 BrainStation @ The Well 🗓️ Thursday\, Apr 16th\, 2025 \| 6:00 p\.m\. \- 8:00 p\.m\. 🎟️ Free to attend [hashtag#ProductManagement](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=%23productmanagement&origin=HASH_TAG_FROM_FEED) [hashtag#AIForPMs](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=%23aiforpms&origin=HASH_TAG_FROM_FEED) [hashtag#TorontoTech](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=%23torontotech&origin=HASH_TAG_FROM_FEED) [hashtag#ProductTank](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=%23producttank&origin=HASH_TAG_FROM_FEED) [hashtag#AIExecution](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=%23aiexecution&origin=HASH_TAG_FROM_FEED)

SPACE IS LIMITED! This is a much smaller class than our 7:30 pm event and we can only accept a limited number of students. Key areas of focus: Practicing oral communication (speaking languages), for conversations, presentations, interviews and job skills Schedule: 1. 6:30- 7:15 pm : 45 -minute language conversation class with certified award-winning language teacher John Dias. 2. Language exchange social (7:30-11 pm): includes Free access to the Toronto's BIGGEST Language Party and Social Party also in the Madison Pub led by teacher John Dias (same location) **Cost: just $ 5 while we have this promo.** **PROMO (Limited Time): $5 fee will give you access to both events (usual rate: $15 total)** Feel free to message us if you have any questions!

Let’s do some coding together at a cafe! No more working alone in the weekend. Here, we write code together. And I mean together together. Not occupying-the-same-space-but-separate together. Here’s how it works: Jennifer brings her mobile app project, tells everyone that it is like Pinterest for recipes and she’d like to work on the nav bar. Paul and Chloe think Jennifer's project is fascinating, and they join the group. They gather around Jennifer’s laptop and work on the nav bar for 2 hours. Jennifer is the one typing out the code while Paul and Chloe research, brainstorm, and offer suggestions. If you’re feeling stuck on your own project or need a motivation boost, bring it to mob programming! Want to learn by watching how others code and solve problems? Join someone else’s project at this event! Oh and we love your half-done projects that you are a bit embarrassed to share. Absolutely bring those to the event! **Discord**: We use Discord to share screen & code snippets during the event. Also feel free to share your projects here before the event! https://discord.gg/yvAGbh4PpD **Event policy**: * We have 0 tolerance for harassment. * We don’t allow the projects that are not meant to be shared in public such as school assignments, interview tasks, or trade secrets. * The goal is to write code. We discourage you from pitching business ideas here, doing code reviews, or spending the whole event on planning what to do. * Please buy a drink, and tip the barista well.

Are you looking to build financial security, Freedom, and peace of mind? Join us for an insightful session on the “New Art of Living” Philosophy. Where you will learn practical strategies to create multiple sources of income and take control of your financial future. In this session, we will cover: • How to build multi-source (passive) income • Ways to take control of your income and reduce financial stress • Strategies to create long-term financial security • How to build wealth that can be passed to the next generation • The importance of financial education in today’s economy This is a guest session and everyone is welcome, whether you are working, a student, or simply interested in improving your financial future. 📅 **Date**: 17 April 2026 📍 **Location**: Canadian Convention Centre, 79 Bramsteele Rd, Brampton, ON L6W 3R6 **Timing:-** 🕔 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Welcome Snacks 🕕 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Main Session Come with an open mind and leave with valuable insights towards achieving freedom, security, and peace in your financial life.

**RSVP** **here: [https://reg.experiences.redhat.com/flow/redhat/3646953/redhatfieldeventspreregnoappform/page/landingregistrationpage?sc_cid=RHCTN1260000476061](https://reg.experiences.redhat.com/flow/redhat/3646953/redhatfieldeventspreregnoappform/page/landingregistrationpage?sc_cid=RHCTN1260000476061)** Join your peers and subject matter experts at the Toronto Red Hat® User Group (RHUG) event on April 16, 2026, to discover solutions for your biggest IT challenges. This RHUG is a unique opportunity to network with industry professionals and explore cutting-edge solutions for IT modernization. Our focus will be on The Foundational Role of IT Automation in an AIOps Strategy: Enabling Intelligence with Ansible. Learn how robust, agentless automation prepares your environment for AI-driven insights and reduces manual intervention. Transform your IT services while enjoying complimentary food and drinks. **Event Details:** * Date: April 16, 2026 * Location: IBM Office: 16 York St, Toronto, ON M5J 0E6, Canada * Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET We look forward to seeing you there.

Come hang out. It's been a while. C++TO is getting back together for an evening at Free Times Cafe on College Street. No talks, no agenda — just drinks, food, and catching up with the Toronto C++ community. Whether you've been to every virtual meetup or haven't shown your face since 2019, you're welcome. Bring a friend. Thursday, April 16 · 6:30 PM Free Times Cafe (back room) · 320 College St, Toronto Food and drinks available to order. See you there.

\*\*Please note that this event requires your name and email address for QR code to get access to the building on the event day, you must register or else you will not receive a QR code for access\*\* [Link](https://forms.office.com/r/PBdQuWX4T0)[ ](https://forms.office.com/r/7ZB00rZmBh?origin=lprLink)to Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/PBdQuWX4T0 **Agenda:** Coming Soon **Sponsors:**

Join us for an engaging panel discussion on **AI Agentic Coding** and how autonomous AI systems are transforming the way software is built. Experts in AI, software engineering, and developer tools will share insights on how agentic AI—systems that can plan, reason, and execute coding tasks—is reshaping modern development workflows. The discussion will cover topics such as AI-assisted development, productivity gains, challenges around reliability and governance, and what the future of software engineering may look like with AI agents as collaborators. Whether you’re a developer, tech leader, or AI enthusiast, this session is a great opportunity to learn, ask questions, and explore how agentic AI is redefining coding

Curious about “vibe coding” but not sure what it actually means? This beginner-friendly talk is about how people are using AI to build websites, apps, automations, and small software projects by describing what they want in plain English. We’ll cover what vibe coding is, what AI is good at, where it falls short, and how to actually use it without getting lost. The goal is not to hype AI as magic — it’s to show how to use it as a practical tool. This session is designed for beginners, curious builders, non-programmers, and developers who want a clearer picture of how to build with AI today. Topics include: * What “vibe coding” means * What AI can help you build * Where AI is useful and where it is unreliable * A simple workflow for building with AI * Prompting tips for better results * Common beginner mistakes to avoid If you’ve ever thought, “I have an idea, but I don’t know how to build it,” this talk is for you. 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.

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** GitHub Copilot is powerful, but what if you could scale from a solo AI assistant to an entire team of specialized agents working in parallel? This session introduces Squad: an open-source framework for multi-agent orchestration that lets you define teams of AI agents with specific roles, responsibilities, and expertise. We'll progress from Copilot basics to the Copilot CLI, explore how Agents add autonomy, and see how Instructions and Skills let you customize agent behavior. Then, the climax: a live demo where a Squad team of 3 agents (Lead, Developer, Tester) stands up and builds a working application in real-time, showcasing true multi-agent collaboration. Whether you're new to AI or exploring how to scale your use of Copilot, this session will show you what's possible when agents work as a team. **YouTube Link** TBD

AI is changing how art is made. But when does it stop being your work and start being the machine’s? This month we're going to be doing a panel with with digital image, music, and written word artists, talking about at what point, while using AI in the creation process, does the work become not the artist creation? We encourage audience participation during this event that will be moderated by Chris Slee. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services) Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/55umjqta)

We will cover metadata-driven approach to building and operating data pipelines at scale on AWS. Discuss architecture, design trade-offs, and lessons learned from running a unified pipeline across multiple customers using configuration-driven workflows. **Presenter: Dilshad Nasirov** Seasoned Software Architect and cloud practitioner with 20+ years of experience building scalable systems and data platforms. Specializes in AWS, with deep expertise in data lakes, serverless architectures, and real-time data processing. Has led the design and delivery of enterprise-grade solutions across industries, helping organizations improve performance, reduce costs, and unlock data-driven insights. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilshad-nasirov-4538431/ **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/ **THANK YOU** *Leading EDJE* for hosting our meetup! Leading EDJE specializes in helping organizations innovate and solve complex problems. EDJE does this with their "A" player team of professionals using agile methodologies and SCRUM management techniques to give organizations a competitive advantage that sets them apart. Learn more at https://www.leadingedje.com/ **THANK YOU** *Amazon Web Services* for sponsoring pizza! Learn more at https://aws.amazon.com/. **DIRECTIONS** 6515 Longshore Loop, Suite 300 Dublin, OH 43017 (3rd floor) **FREE PARKING** at the Endres Garage across the street, 6540 Riverside Dr, Dublin, OH **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab for a future meetup?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Join other experienced and aspiring agile coaches and professionals to: * develop and practice your coaching skills in a peer-to-peer environment * share current successes and challenges in your work environment and get support from each other * learn from each other, build better relationships and experiment with new ideas ***NOTE:*** Pre-registration is required for this event. **Please arrive 10 minutes early** to check in at the security desk.

Make sure to RSVP on the Cental Ohio Azure event! The global Azure community is coming together again, and Columbus is officially on the map. View the session lineup and speakers at [Global Azure Columbus 2026](https://coazure.github.io/cbus-global-azure-2026/) On **Saturday, April 18, 2026**, the Azure Columbus Meetup, DevOps Meetup, and Code and Coffee Meetup are hosting our local edition of Global Azure 2026. This is a free, community-driven event packed with learning, networking, and all things Microsoft Azure. Whether you’re building modern cloud-native apps, experimenting with AI agents, deploying containers, automating infrastructure, or just beginning your Azure journey, this event is for you! **What to Expect** * Engaging technical sessions * Real-world Azure architecture & cloud-native patterns * AI, agents, automation, and modern DevOps * Food and drinks (because learning burns calories) * Time to connect with fellow engineers, architects, and cloud enthusiasts **Who Should Attend?** * Software engineers (any language, any stack) * Cloud architects * DevOps engineers * Data professionals * AI explorers * Platform builders * Anyone who loves solving hard problems with great tools If you build, deploy, automate, scale, monitor, or optimize in Azure, you’ll feel right at home. **Why Global Azure?** Global Azure is a worldwide community event where Azure user groups host learning sessions on the same day across the globe. It’s grassroots. It’s technical. It’s practical. And it’s powered by people who genuinely love sharing what they’ve learned. And yes, it’s free to attend!