Software Modeling

⚠️ **IMPORTANT — PLEASE READ BEFORE ATTENDING** ⚠️ RSVPs are now CLOSED. Due to building security at MoonPay's office, **only attendees on our approved guest list can enter.** ✅ "Going" status = you're approved. See you Wednesday! ⏳ "Waitlist" status = you are **not currently approved to attend**, unfortunately the building security will have to turn you away. I'm manually approving waitlist requests as spots open up — you'll receive a notification from me on Meetup if you've been moved off the waitlist. Please do not come to the office unless you've received that confirmation, as security will not let you in. If you can no longer make it, please update your RSVP so someone on the waitlist can take your spot 🙏 Join us at MoonPay's London office for an evening of technical talks at the intersection of AI and crypto, followed by food, drinks, and networking. **Agenda**: * Food, drinks & networking (\~30min) * Welcome & intro to MoonPay (\~5 min) * Nir Kaufman — "LangChain: Building AI-Powered Applications" (\~45 min) * Aashir Javed — "Personal Agent: From Small Chores to First Crypto Transaction" * Food, drinks & networking **About the speakers:** * **Nir Kaufman** is a Front-end Tech Lead at Tikal, Google Developer Expert in Angular & Web Technologies, and an international public speaker. He's spoken at conferences including iJS, NG Poland, JS Poland, and AiDevTLV. His talk will cover LangChain — a framework for building applications powered by large language models. * **Aashir Javed** is a software engineer with a decade of experience, having built systems across companies like Deliveroo, Zalando, and Nordcloud (IBM), and currently shipping at MoonPay. In this talk, he shares his journey of building a personal agent from automating daily tasks to executing its first crypto transaction **What we'll provide:** * Food * Beer, soft drinks * Awesome content **Who this is for:** Developers, engineers, and builders who are interested in AI, crypto, or both. All experience levels welcome - whether you're already building with LLMs or just curious about what's possible. Spaces are limited to 30–50 people to keep things intimate, so grab your spot early. MoonPay is the payments infrastructure behind crypto, powering on- and off-ramps across 160+ countries. We're also hiring — come say hi and find out what we're building.

We're delighted to announce an exciting LSCC event on Wednesday 13th May, in partnership with our friends at Zopa Bank! Join us at the Zopa Canary Wharf office in London for this session and get the chance to flex your architectural design muscles! "So how are we supposed to get great architects, if they only get the chance to architect fewer than a half-dozen times in their career?" — Ted Neward. This quote highlights the need for practice, which is what our LSCC architecture katas provide: a safe, repeatable way to hone your software architecture design skills by simulating architectural challenges. **What's the format?** You'll be split into groups and have a business problem to solve. You'll be tasked with designing a technical architecture to meet that problem context. As with real-life you'll have to manage various trade-offs in your design and interact with a Product Owner to clarify your questions. At the end of the task each team will showcase their architecture and technology choices back to the wider group as part of a group discussion. Whether you're a seasoned coder, software architect or new to the scene, you're invited to share insights, discuss best practices, and learn from fellow participants. No prior session attendance or architecture knowledge is required – just bring your enthusiasm. No laptop is required for this session, we'll provide each group with paper, pens and sticky notes to support the activity. Thank you to the Codurance team that will run the event at Zopa Bank's office. Find out more at https://www.codurance.com/ Food and drinks will be provided with vegetarian, vegan and non-alcoholic options available - thanks to Zopa Bank for sponsoring refreshments and hosting in their great office. **About Zopa** Founded in 2020 with a full banking licence and backed by some of Silicon Valley’s most iconic investors, digital bank Zopa is building the Home of Money. This is a place where financial products deliver good value and managing money is made effortless; deep and long-lasting relationships mean customers are left confident about their choices. One of the UK’s highest rated and most celebrated financial brands, Zopa has been recognised with over 10 British Bank Awards, holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.6/5, and has one of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the industry. Zopa Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. https://www.zopa.com/ We look forward to seeing you soon!

Something's shifted. The people who've spent years deep in data - the analysts, the engineers, the consultants - are building with AI agents now. **And it's the most exciting thing in a decade.** New tools. New workflows. Whole new ways of thinking about what data work even means. Everyone's experimenting. Everyone's learning. **Nobody's done this before.** We couldn't find a community in the UK for people doing this work. So we're starting one. In pubs, with laptops, sharing what's actually working. No slides. No pitches. No lanyard energy. Just people who build things, showing each other what they've built. **Bring your terminal. Bring your questions. Bring the thing that's half-working and you can't figure out why.** More at [swarm.org.uk](https://swarm.org.uk/)

Tash is a new model for our group! Link to Tash's Instagram [@still_tashh](https://www.instagram.com/still_tashh/) The session is held in the TRA Community Hall, Ground Floor, Simla House, Weston Street, SE1 3RL. All abilities are welcome to draw and meet likeminded people. Two hours of active dynamic poses from 2 to 25 minutes. £12.00 for the session. The group is run on a drop-in basis. Pay on the night. Cash or card. Artists are advised to bring their own materials although a small amount will be available for emergency use. I think that is everything but message me if you have any queries. Kind regards, Cliff

🎉 Come along to the London Scala Talks! 🎉 In this event you'll hear from Caroline Morton and Katrina Petrevice. **Agenda** 6:00pm - 🥤 Doors open. Come along and grab a drink! 6:35pm - 🗣️ Introduction 6:40pm - 🗣️ Katrina Petrevice: Caching in Scala using Ref 7:20pm - 🍕 Intermission: Join us for some free food and drinks! Vegan and vegetarian options are provided. Let us know if you'd like something special - we'd be happy to accommodate. 7:50pm - 🗣️ Caroline Morton: Accidental Functional Programming in Rust (From an Epidemiologist's Perspective) 8:30pm - 🥤 Socialising: Grab a drink and let's discuss the talks. 9:00pm - 🍻 Join us in a pub to discuss the talks! 🌐 **This event may have a live stream** Watch this space for more details. **🗣️ Katrina Petrevice: Caching in Scala using Ref** Caching in memory is often one of the first strategies used to improve system performances. However, implementing caching in a purely functional way introduces unique challenges, specifically around state management and testability. In this talk, we will look at how to utilise functional programming principles with [Ref](https://typelevel.org/cats-effect/docs/std/ref), while maintaining clarity and composability. We will also deep dive into some common pitfalls and look into practical ways to test Ref effectively. ⭐ Katrina Petrevice ⭐ Katrina comes from a non–computer science background and was first introduced to Scala while working at JPMorgan. She credits much of her Scala knowledge to hands-on experience within her team, where she works on building and maintaining data pipelines and managing data systems. Since then, she has developed a strong interest in functional programming and now co-leads the Functional Programming Group at JPMorgan, where she helps share knowledge and foster a community around these ideas. **🗣️ Caroline Morton: Accidental Functional Programming in Rust (From an Epidemiologist's Perspective)** I don't have a background in functional programming - and I never set out to write it. But somewhere between writing trait-based epidemiological pipelines, composing data transformations, and leaning hard on Result, enums, and pattern matching, I started hearing from others: “That's pretty functional.” In this talk, I'll explore what it means to write “functional-ish” Rust as someone solving real-world scientific problems. I'll walk through the patterns I reach for - like chaining iterators, avoiding shared state, and embracing expressive types - and reflect on which functional programming ideas emerge naturally in Rust, even if you're not trying. I'll also share how designing for epidemiologists - most of whom are used to chaining functions in Python (like Pandas) or R - has pushed me toward creating ergonomic Rust APIs with Python and R bindings. These tools aim to feel familiar to scientists while leveraging Rust's power and safety under the hood. This is a talk for functional programmers curious about Rust, and for Rustaceans wondering if they've been functional all along. No formal theory required - just real code, real use cases, and a pragmatic perspective from someone building public health tools in Rust. ⭐ Caroline Morton ⭐ Dr. Caroline Morton is a medical doctor, epidemiologist, software engineer, and PhD candidate specialising in synthetic data, epidemiology, and Rust. With 60 peer-reviewed papers and two books on software, she combines deep technical expertise with a commitment to improving scientific workflows. Caroline co-founded the first [Women in Rust](https://www.meetup.com/women-in-rust/) group, fostering diversity and encouraging more women to explore opportunities in systems programming. She leads an open-source project improving codelist management in epidemiology using Rust, creating efficient, reliable tools for health data research. Her PhD focuses on synthetic data methods for epidemiology, particularly using Rust to generate large, realistic datasets. A strong advocate for open science and reproducibility, she contributes extensively to improving software practices through publications, workshops, and open-source projects. ———————————————————— 🗣️ Would you like to present, but are not sure how to start? Give a talk with us and you'll receive mentorship from a trained toastmaster! Get in touch through [this form](https://forms.gle/zv5i9eeto1BsnSwe8) and we'll get you started 🏡 Interested in hosting or supporting us? Please get in touch through [this form](https://forms.gle/3SX3Bm6zHqVodBaMA) and we can discuss how you can get involved. 📜 All London Scala User Group events operate under the [Scala Community Code of Conduct](https://www.scala-lang.org/conduct/). We encourage each of you to report the breach of the conduct, either anonymously through [this form](https://forms.gle/9PMMorUWgBnbk1mm6) or by contacting one of our team members. We guarantee privacy and confidentiality, as well as that we will take your report seriously and react quickly.

For our May meetup, we're delighted to be back at the fabulous Accurx offices. We have two amazing talks lined up and the agenda will be: * 6:30pm - arrive, drinks, networking * 7:00pm - Welcome & Housekeeping * 7:15pm - **Talk** **1: "A practical guide to inner sourcing your IDP"** Bridging the gap between developers and platform teams is hard. Scattered documentation, fragmented language and hidden knowledge leave developers frustrated, while platform teams struggle to understand what devs really need. Treating platforms as products is a start, but treating them like open source projects unlocks real collaboration, allowing developers to contribute and maintain features. In her roles as Developer Advocate and platform engineer, Lian has years of experience working with highly bureaucratic organisations helping to improve developer experience and adoption. In this talk, she’ll share concrete steps to identify contribution opportunities, set up maintainable processes, and measure engagement. You’ll leave inspired with ideas to boost adoption, reduce friction, and turn your platform into a collaborative, thriving ecosystem. **Speaker:** Lian Li, Cloud Native Human *Lian always wanted to save the world. After leaving law school, she decided to work with computers instead. While in Web Dev, she started attending tech events, and soon fell in love with the community. In her roles as Consultant and DevRel, Lian combined technical knowledge with a focus on the human side.* *Currently, Lian works as freelance Platform Engineer in Amsterdam and is the Chief Karaoke Officer for Kuberoke, the first and only Kubernetes Karaoke Community. She also enjoys performing in musical improvisation theatre and standup comedy shows.* * 7.45pm - food, more drinks & networking * 8.00pm - **Talk** **2: "The Humans Behind the Platform: Structuring Teams for Culture and Capability**" It’s easy to focus on the tech when building a Platform team, and that’s tremendously important, but it’s often the people and how they work together that determine success. Over the past couple of years, Claire has led a Platform Engineering Team through different formations, migrations, and tooling adoptions. Whatever shape the team has taken, whatever they're working on, the constants have been a need for clear purpose and a culture where people can thrive, this takes work, and has sometimes been tricky to get right. In this talk, she’ll share what she's learned from shaping and supporting platform teams: what’s worked (and what hasn’t) when it comes to team composition, balancing seniority, and supporting career growth. Collaboration is central to how to operate, so she’ll talk about how her team works with and supports internal customers, and what’s helped to navigate complex, knotty migration projects. She’ll also cover how they built a culture that gives engineers space to lead. We want engineers at every level to feel confident taking ownership, and that takes deliberate effort. If you’re figuring out how to shape your platform teams to enable others as well as deliver, this talk will offer practical ideas, and maybe a few things to rethink. **Speaker:** Claire Reckless, Engineering Manager *Claire is an Engineering Manager and leads a Platform Engineering Team. With a background spanning Tech Support, Testing, and QA across sectors like Finance and Security, she brings a deep appreciation for resilient systems and collaborative teams. Claire is passionate about learning and development, and she’s especially proud of her past work coordinating an apprentice programme, an initiative that’s helped build a more diverse and sustainable pipeline of engineering talent. She’s energised by helping engineers at all levels grow their confidence, take ownership, and shape the future of their teams.* * 8.30pm onwards - drinks and networking. So, please come and join us, we look forward to seeing you there. The LOPUG team. * Food and drinks provided * Good time will be had by all

Register: [https://luma.com/hack-night-tessl-may13-2026?utm_source=neo4j](https://luma.com/hack-night-tessl-may13-2026?utm_source=neo4j) ## What's Hack Night? ​Five hours. One room full of builders. Zero fluff. As many demos as we can. ​Hack Night at Tessl is a London evening for people who would rather build than posture. You show up with an idea, find a team if you want one, spend a few focused hours shipping with a DJ in the background, and demo what you made before the night ends. Then we head to the pub. ​**When**: May 13\, 2026 \| 4:00 PM \- 8:45 PM BST **Where**: Tessl office, London ## Here's How It Works ​**4:00 PM - Doors Open** Check in, grab food, meet other builders, form groups, (or solo hack if you want) and decide what you're making. ​**4:30 PM - Opening Context** Quick welcome from the host and venue partner so everyone knows the flow for the night. ​**5:00 PM - Short Technical Remarks** If there are host or sponsor remarks, they stay short. The point is to get useful context, then get people building. ​**5:30 PM - Build Time** Heads down. Music on. Ship something. Use the time to test an idea, explore a tool, or finally build the thing you've been sitting on. ​**7:30 PM - Demo Time** Show what you made. Get feedback. See what everyone else shipped. ​**8:45 PM - Wrap Up** Final demos, shout-outs, and a clean finish to the night. And of course, Pub! We're heading to a pub nearby for a pint and a proper debrief. Come if you want to keep the conversation going.

Shaping our future with AI. Creating opportunity through AI fluency, connection and community. No jargon. No hype. No confusing terminology. NOTE: This event will be focussed on the changing shape of software development. Everyone is welcome to attend but the content will be somewhat technical. **Join us for our next in-person meetup in London on Thursday May 14th.** Our theme for this meetup is **Reimagining Software Development with AI.** We're going to take a step back and think about the role we, the humans, play in the software development process now that coding agents have arrived. This event provides a small glimpse of the future, from the innovators who are challenging everything and rebuilding the process of software development from the ground up, with humans at the centre! **Where and When?** * Thursday, May 14th * Doors open at 18:00 * Talks start at 19:00 * AutogenAI, 123 Pentonville Rd, London N1 9LG **Talk 1: The Validation Gap: We Need A Better Way To Review AI Generated Code** (Robert Werner, Co-Founder & CTO Leapter) AI coding is fast. We're generating more code than ever. But more code means more code to verify, and agentic workflows are scaling that gap faster than review processes can keep up. The bottleneck didn't disappear. It moved from writing code to verifying logic. For most generated code, you can ship, test, and iterate. But what if we need to be sure? What about the code that runs our financial systems or decides if you qualify for a loan? It has to be right. Hope is not a strategy, we need to better ways to review code. In this talk Robert will share his recent innovations, experiments and insights with you. **About Robert:** Robert Werner is the CTO of an AI startup dedicated to shaping the future of AI-native software development. He has over 20 years experience focussed on Software Engineering, Developer Experience and Transformational Platform Engineering, across Fortune 500 companies and FinTechs. **Talk 2: Narrative Engineering: What Cognitive Science Actually Tells Us About Building with LLMs** (Sal Kimmich, Security Architect at Gadfly AI) We keep treating LLMs like search engines that hallucinate. That is the wrong category, and it produces the wrong engineering. LLMs are narrative generators. They do not retrieve facts or execute logic. They complete stories. That distinction is not philosophical. It determines what kind of system you can build with them and what kind you cannot. Neuroscience has been studying probabilistic, distributed, narrative-generating systems for decades. Most of the LLM engineering field is ignoring that work. This talk walks through cyberneutics, an open source methodology and repository built on the premise that we need a new engineering discipline for narrative computing the way software engineering emerged from symbolic computing. The theoretical foundations come from second-order cybernetics, distributed cognition, and Minsky's Society of Mind. The empirical validation comes from 2025 mechanistic interpretability research showing that reasoning models internally simulate multi-agent dialogue to reason better. The practical techniques come from iterative practice: adversarial committees, pipeline algebra with formal quality propagation, observer-aware interaction design. Three real lessons for practitioners building agentic systems: reliability is a property of the pipeline, not the prompt; repetition is latent space exploration, not failure; and if you want auditable AI reasoning, you need to externalise the dialogue structure, because the transcript is the explainability artifact. The discipline does not exist yet. This is what building it looks like. **About Sal:** Sal is a developer advocate for open source and passionate about helping engineers, ethical hackers and digital enthusiasts understand the complexity of modern software development. With over a decade of experience as building cloud-native machine learning pipelines in the healthcare and tech for good sectors, their work is now focused on filling the cracks in the open source software supply chain to build a better digital future for all of us. **Thanks!** We'd like to thank our sponsors [Leapter ](http://leapter.com/)and AutogenAI for making this event possible. **Code of Conduct** This event has a code of conduct that you can [review here.](https://aifortherestofus.live/code-of-conduct) By joining the community and registering for this event you agree to abide by our code of conduct. **Providing Your Name and Email** To register for this event you'll be asked to provide your email address. After the event you will be automatically subscribed to the newsletters from *AI for the rest of us* and Leapter GmbH. You can unsubscribe at any time (But why would you? They are really very good!)

**PLEASE PURCHASE YOUR TICKET VIA THIS LINK ONLY:** **[TICKETS](https://fatso.ma/3foN).** Step into a bold new creative playground at **L’arch** — a 1,200 sq ft converted railway arch launching this spring as a striking photoshoot space designed for powerful visual storytelling. This immersive urban venue blends industrial edge with theatrical elegance, offering a dynamic backdrop for high-impact content, fashion editorials, and artistic collaborations. **Theme: “Iconic Statements”** Inspired by underground culture, high fashion, and futuristic fantasy, this shoot fuses burlesque drama,, and urban-core aesthetics — all elevated with elegance and class. It’s about reclaiming space, pushing boundaries, and creating visuals that feel iconic, rebellious, and unforgettable. Whether you’re shooting, modeling, styling, or showcasing your work — this space is built to transform creative visions into standout content. **WHAT TO EXPECT** ✨ 4-Hour Collaborative Photoshoot 👠 Live Catwalk Runway Moments throughout the session 🤝 Network While Shooting — connect, collaborate, and create in real time 🎥 High-Volume Content Opportunities • Behind-the-scenes • Backstage footage ⚡ Relaxed but High-Energy Creative Vibe Designed to maximise output while keeping it fun and supportive. **VENUE HIGHLIGHTS – L’ARCH SHOOTING LOCATION** 🎹 Baby Grand Piano 👗 Plush Dressing & Prep Area 👑 Statement Throne with Wings 💡 Neon Runway Catwalk 🎨 Graffiti Walls & Industrial Textures 🛋 Semi-Circle Sofa for Editorial Setups 🔆 Iconic Illuminated Signage 🏢 Expansive 1,200 sq ft Open-Plan Layout **Who’s this for?** ✔ Photographers & Content Creators (All skill levels welcome) ✔ Models & Performers (No experience required) ✔ Designers, Stylists, MUAs & Visual Artists ✔ Anyone looking to collaborate, create, and elevate their portfolio DRESS CODE – MODELS Models should arrive with 1–3 of their own looks prepared before the shoot. If designers are joining, they will be present to provide additional outfit changes on the day. STYLE DIRECTION Think editorial, bold, and expressive. ✨ Burlesque glamour, class & elegance ✨ Futuristic silhouettes ✨ Elevated urban looks ENCOURAGED ELEMENTS Corsetry • Leather • Metallics • Tailoring Dramatic accessories • Statement makeup Bring pieces that tell a story — this is a space to go all in. **Collaboration Disclaimer:** This is a collaborative shoot. • No additional charges should apply for models to receive photos. • All imagery created must be shared without logos or watermarks. • Everyone involved will be encouraged to collaborate via Instagram & credit all creatives appropriately. We’ll ensure all participants are informed and aligned to keep the collaboration fair, respectful, and transparent. **Want in?** Once you grab your ticket, email welove.socialise@gmail.com with your WhatsApp number and Instagram handle. You’ll be added to the WhatsApp group chat at least 2 weeks (if not before) before the event where all final details will be shared. 📍 Exact location revealed to ticket holders only 📸 Follow us on IG **@welove_shoots** for updates and previews

MCP is changing how developers build with AI, but we're just scratching the surface. Join us for an evening of talks that go beyond retrieval to explore what's actually possible when you give agents real tools, real constraints and real APIs. **Agenda** ​6:00 PM - Doors open, registration and networking ​6:10 PM - Welcome (Upsun & Cloudflare) ​6:20 PM - MCP: Context is Everything! - Carly Richmond, Elastic ​6:45 PM - Sandboxes: how to limit agents so we can use them more - Patrick Dawkins, Upsun ​7:00 PM - Break (Food & Drinks) ​7:30 PM - Cooking with MCP in VS Code - Liam Hampton, Microsoft ​7:55 PM - Efficient tools with MCP code mode - Confidence Okoghenun, Cloudflare ​8:15 PM - Open networking and drinks ​9:00 PM - Close 🗣️ ​**Talks** ​**MCP: Context is Everything! - Carly Richmond (Developer Advocate Lead, Elastic)** ​MCP is a powerful tool for giving LLMs capabilities to not just retrieve information, but to automate key actions based on relevant data. Let’s see how it can be used for retrieving relevant context and other activities such as observability. ​**Efficient tools with MCP code mode - Confidence Okoghenun (Senior Developer Advocate, Cloudflare)** ​Traditional MCP approaches choke on context windows: Cloudflare's 2,500+ endpoint API would require 1.17 million tokens. Code Mode flips the script by having LLMs write code against typed APIs instead of making direct tool calls, achieving 99.9% token reduction. Come learn how code mode works and how to optimize your MCP tools with it. ​**Sandboxes: how to limit agents so we can use them more - Patrick Dawkins (Principal Engineer, Upsun)** ​We want our agents to run longer and use more tools, but we're hampered by constant prompts for approval. Sandboxes are the practical middle ground: isolate the agent so you can stop watching every command and let it work. This talk covers what "sandbox" means, who provides them today and the Linux primitives that let you build one yourself. ​**Cooking with MCP in VS Code - Liam Hampton (Senior Cloud Advocate, Microsoft)** ​In this session Liam will show you how VS Code is fully supporting the MCP spec, from MCP Apps to sandboxing and elicitations. 📅 **Date and Time:** Thursday, May 14, from 6:00-9:00 PM 📍 **Location:** Cloudflare Address: 6th Floor, County Hall/The, Riverside Building, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 7PB, UK 👉 You can also register here: https://luma.com/eb8j6lhu ⚠️ Please make sure you provided your full name (no nicknames or abbreviations will be allowed) and to bring your ID card as it will be mandatory to show it upon check-in to security. Entry will be first come, first served. We recommend arriving early to make sure you get in. **⚡️ Interested in giving a talk? ⚡️** Have you ever considered presenting on your Elastic use case? We welcome 5-10 minute lightning talks, 45-minute deep dives, and everything in between. If you're interested, please submit via our [CFP](https://sessionize.com/elastic-meetups/) or send us an email at [meetups@elastic.co.](http://meetups@elastic.co./)

We are back! This is going to be a monthly IN PERSON meet up in London. A very big thank you goes to Accurx who is hosting us in their amazing Shoreditch offices. This will include access to facilities including coffee! 😻☕️ **Want to know more? 👇** As with all CoffeeOps, this is an interactive, chatty, build your own adventure type of meet-up. Instead of booking in experts to *learn* *from*, we gather a group of practitioners to ***learn*** ***with***. We have been running for over 4 years now and often get feedback that this is the most useful meetup people join! The event is approximately 90 minutes and always starts by brainstorming topics to discuss. The group then votes on the most relevant/interesting to them and we then cycle through the topics trying to discuss each deeply, but in a time bound slot. To get an idea of topics, you can check out our remote board [here](https://easyretro.io/publicboard/h404NF84Uje4tCcxpJdHr4Ycs9B3/a4a35d2b-181b-409b-832e-a729be1af79c). The general gist is anything is fair game, though we tend to revolve around software delivery and definitely lean towards the more Ops-y or DevOps-y side of things.

Join us for an informal evening of experimenting, building, and sharing ideas around Umbraco and AI. Whether you're curious about AI-powered content generation, the Umbraco MCP Server, AI-assisted development workflows, or other AI innovations in Umbraco - this is your chance to experiment, learn, and build alongside fellow community members in a relaxed, supportive environment. Bring your laptop, your curiosity, and anything you’ve been meaning to try. You can come with a specific idea, jump into something with others, or just tinker and learn as you go. There’s no strict agenda, just a relaxed space to collaborate, swap ideas, and make progress together. We’ll kick things off with a quick intro, then open the floor for hacking, discussion, and demos. If you end up building something cool (or even just interesting), you’ll have the chance to share it with the group at the end. **EVENT HOSTS** [Novicell](https://www.novicell.com/uk/services/software-development/umbraco/) (Umbraco Gold Partner) have kindly agreed to provide refreshments and host us for the evening in their offices in Shoreditch. If you think you will be making it, please sign up ASAP. Novicell's offices are 21-33 Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3EJ in a building called Fora, approximately an 8 min walk from Liverpool St and Old St stations. If you arrive between 6:00 and 6:15pm there will be someone to meet you in reception with instructions. If you arrive later you might need to phone us to be let in: we shall email all attendees with the contact numbers on the day. **CODE OF CONDUCT** Please read the [Code of Conduct](https://bit.ly/UmbLondonCodeOfConduct) for all our events.

We have three great talks lined up, plus time to chat and meet others in the community. We can’t wait to see you there! We want NSLondon to be welcoming to everyone and support a broad range of voices. To help address existing imbalances in attendance, we’re offering a limited number of **early-access spots to women, non-binary people, and others who are currently underrepresented** in the iOS developer community. You can request one of these spaces by filling in [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkWvVomYXUwESWHet2HDxTia4euvYcP2WKtkVQLXCzjmtbvA/viewform) before RSVPs open for general availability. (**Update:** This form is now closed.) **💬 Talks:** **Raphael Velasqua** — “Claude as Your iOS Pair Programmer” *What if your codebase could teach Claude how your team codes — not just generic Swift? A glimpse of scaffolding, writing reliable tests and more with Claude.* **Paul Shone** — “Turning Applications in to Apps: Tips on getting hired in a changing marketplace” *Join Paul Shone, Co-Founder of Pixelated People, a recruitment leader with over 15 years of experience in building world-class mobile engineering teams. Paul shares invaluable insights on how to standout and secure your dream job in this changing and competitive job market. If you are a job seeker aiming to land the perfect role this session is packed with actionable advice that will set you apart from the competition.* **Vadim Popov** — “From ARKit to Vision – How Far Can You Push the iOS Camera” *This talk explores how far you can push the iOS camera by rebuilding core camera features using AVCaptureSession, comparing real-time face and skeleton detection across ARKit, Vision, and MediaPipe, and diving into live image analysis like sharpness, brightness, and composition scoring with Vision and Accelerate. It also reflects on what users actually value in a camera app, sharing practical lessons and missteps from the journey.* **🕓 Schedule:** 6:30 PM Arrival and check-in at JustPark reception 7:00 PM Presentations start 9:00 PM Continue the conversation at the pub (TBA) * **Arrival Time:** Arrive at 6:30 PM to complete the check-in process. If you need mobility assistance, let us know at least one day in advance. * **Check-in Process:** Go to JustPark reception. Provide your full name and mention the NSLondon event to receive your badge. * **Full Names Required:** Ensure your Meetup profile has your full name or send it to us in a private message at least 48 hours before the event. * **Late Arrival:** A JustPark staff member will guide us to the event space. If you arrive late, you may need to wait. 💎 **Acknowledgments:** We'd like to thank JustPark for their generous support in hosting this event. NSLondon is a community-driven group and needs your support! Contact us for information about venues, speakers, or sponsorships. Feel free to reach out with any questions. See you there! Please read our [Code of Conduct](https://nslondon.com/coc). MC: Aled Samuel

**The Unscented Transform: theory, extensions and practical application to Bayesian inference** We are delighted to have John Whitamore back at the Bayesian Mixer. Please register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bayesianmixer/2154878 **Abstract:** How can we perform Bayesian inference without resorting to slow random sampling methods? Isn't there a nice, pragmatic way to use the geometry of a problem to use only a very small number of samples, placed deterministically? Isn't there a good, straightforward way to implement Bayesian models in practical settings? This talk explains the real-world problems that can be solved by the Unscented Transform. It begins with an intuitive introduction to Bayesian methods, discusses the Unscented Transform and connects the ideas to geometry, finite elements analysis and deep learning. **Bio:** John Whitamore is a Senior Data Scientist at Simply Business, a leading UK InsureTech firm. He has previously served as Head of Data Science for a leading food retailer, as Head of Trading and Systems for an investment management company and as Global Head of Convertible Bond Trading for a European investment bank.

Join us for a practical, beginner-friendly guide to choosing the right large language model. We’ll compare major models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, talk about when to use hosted APIs versus local models, and break down the tradeoffs around cost, speed, quality, privacy, context windows, coding ability, and reliability. You’ll leave with a clearer mental model for picking an LLM based on your actual use case instead of hype, benchmarks, or brand names. No deep AI background required. 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.

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!

**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** TBD **YouTube Link** TBD

**Improving Office in Franklinton** Physical location: Improving Office 330 Rush Alley Suite #150 Columbus, OH 43215 Schedule: 6:00 p.m.: Socialize, eat, and drink. Improving will be providing pizza and beverages. 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Main meeting and presentation(s). Topic: This month John Lairson will share a notebook describing the Alpaca (Paper) Trading API and discuss different algorithms for evaluating stock trades. We meet on the last Monday of each Month. Presentations are given by members and friends of this group. If you would like to do a presentation (small or large) on a python topic, please contact Central OH Python at centralohpython@gmail.com

Our hybrid event takes place both as a face-to-face and as an online meeting using the GoToMeeting software application: [ ](http://app.goto.com/meeting/449766181)[CinMIC LINK](https://meet.goto.com/449766181). This club is an operating stock investment club, open to the public as an educational opportunity. Each month this club covers an investment educational topic or presents a teaching segment. Stocks are discussed and studied. Because it is EARNINGS SEASON, we will be having full reports on more than half of our portfolio holdings along with a short educational presentation. There will be a stock study and if time allows, we end the meeting with a "Talkin' Stocks" segment of two quick company overviews. Investors at all levels are welcome at the face-to-face meeting or online by using this[ ](http://app.goto.com/meeting/449766181)[CinMIC LINK](https://meet.goto.com/449766181). Get to know fellow investors!

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.

We will show how to build custom agents with Microsoft Agent Framework. Attendees will learn how to build and custom host agents when Microsoft Foundry is not a viable option.