Management

🗒️ **Details** Grafana 13 just dropped at GrafanaCON 2026 and we're not wasting any time. Join us at Clare & Don's Beach Shack in Falls Church, VA for a free meetup where we dig into what's actually new, what it means for your stack, and where observability is heading. If you work in DevOps, SRE, or platform engineering in the DMV, this is your people. Whether you've been running Grafana for years or you're just getting started, you'll leave with something useful. 📋 **Agenda** 🎉 **5:30 – 6:00 — Kick-Off & Check-In** Grab a plate of food, meet the people around you, and get settled in. We're at Clare & Don's so the vibes are already taken care of! 🎙️ **6:00 – 6:30 — Rob Santos: Grafana 13 & AI in Observability** Grafana Assistant is now baked into the platform and it changes a lot. Rob breaks down what's new in Grafana 13, how AI is reshaping the way teams monitor and troubleshoot, and what it actually looks like in practice. No sales pitch, just real talk. [Rob Santos, Senior Solutions Engineer @ Grafana Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-j-santos/) 🎙️ **6:30 – 7:00 — Christopher Field: Building ML-Powered Apps with Grafana** Christopher shares how Theia Scientific built a custom application platform that combines Grafana, machine learning, and Jupyter notebooks to power materials research and non-destructive testing workflows. A cool real-world example of Grafana being used way outside the typical use case. *[Christopher Field, Co-Founder, President & Principal Investigator @ Theia Scientific](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisrfield/)* 💬 **7:00 – 7:45 — Networking & Open Q&A** Bring your questions, your war stories, and your opinions. This is where the good conversations happen. 🔚 **7:45 – 8:00 — Wrap Up** *** **Spots are free but limited — grab yours before they're gone.** We look forward to seeing you there! *** 📌 **P.S.** Stick around until the end — we're raffling off two things: 🎁 A Grafana swag bundle 🔧 A $100 gift card to Craftsman Autoshop in Vienna, VA with a goodie basket

We are a President's Distinguished Club and welcome new guests! Meeting is every Wednesday.

Discover the path to stress management, life's tranquility, and self-improvement through Heartfulness Meditation. Embrace relaxation, meditation, and emotional detoxification practices to unlock your best self. Join our free sessions every Wednesday at 730 PM at MD. Experience the profound benefits of these simple yet powerful practices. Commit to a few months of meditation and witness the transformative impact firsthand. We eagerly await your presence at these enlightening sessions.

This group was originally started by Chad Keith who created and hosts a podcast by the same name in Charlotte, NC. I am hoping to continue his legacy here in NoVa as I recently moved to this area. This group is all about finding community around self-improvement and exchanging ideas on how to be your best self and get the most out of life. This group is for anyone who is interested in overcoming average in all areas - career, ambitions, relationships, hobbies, health, everything. I am so excited to meet driven individuals in the NoVa area so please reach out if you have any questions at all. EVERYONE is welcome so please sign up for an upcoming meetup!

\-\-\-\-\-\- [REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE (ON LUMA)!](https://luma.com/kfs3cotc) \-\-\-\-\-\- Join us for an evening of collaborative problem-solving as we work on a variety of civic tech projects together. Project needs vary but often include brainstorming, researching, writing, coding, or analyzing data. Check out [our website](https://www.civictechdc.org/projects) for a list of projects which may make an appearance! Meet other civic tech enthusiasts. Learn new skills. Contribute to a project to improve a local civic issue. **All are welcome and collaboration is encouraged.** Laptops are recommended but not required. **Where do I register?** To better serve our growing community, we’re transitioning our event registrations to Luma! **We still love Meetup** Meetup has been an incredible platform for us to build and connect with our community. We’ll continue sharing upcoming events there so that new people can find us, but Luma will be our primary registration platform moving forward. **Why we're making the switch** Meetup’s registration system has some limitations, and we need more flexibility to manage sign-ups and engagement. \-\-\-\-\-\- [REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE (ON LUMA)!](https://luma.com/kfs3cotc) \-\-\-\-\-\-

Hello everyone! Who doesn't love discussing AI over mini-golf! We'll be meeting at Starr Hill Tysons Biergarten at the top of the Capital One Building. There's mini-golf, corn-hole, and beer on tap. Come have some fun! Guaranteed fun time, or else your first putt is free :) **Location:** Starr Hill Tysons Biergarten, 1805 Capital One Dr S Suite 1100, Tysons, VA 22102 **\*\* We're on the Roof! \*\*** **Overview:** Join us at AI Innovators Network for our upcoming meetup in Tysons dedicated to exploring the latest trends in Artificial Intelligence. Whether you're an AI enthusiast, a professional, or someone curious about the intersection of technology and AI, this event is perfect for networking, learning, and sharing insights. Connect with like-minded individuals from DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland as we dive deep into the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation driving innovation and progress in Artificial Intelligence.

## Stop chasing opportunities and start attracting them by mastering the art of professional branding. ## Join us as "The Brand Architect" Kristen Henry King reveals how to align your reputation, image, and message to build instant trust. In today’s competitive market, it isn't enough to just be good at what you do; you have to be **unforgettable**. Many professionals struggle to communicate their value, leading to missed connections and stagnant growth. This session is designed to bridge the gap between your expertise and your visibility, ensuring that your personal and professional brand does the heavy lifting for you. Kristen Henry King, known as “The Brand Architect,” brings twenty years of Hollywood insight and business strategy to the EMA DC stage. She will guide you through the process of clarifying who you are and what you represent, providing practical strategies to ensure your marketing and personal interactions work in harmony. You will learn how to step into your authority so that trust is established before you even speak. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a creative, or a corporate leader, this presentation offers a blueprint for consistency across all platforms. By the end of the hour, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to align your message and image so that opportunities come to you — not the other way around.

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

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

**Begin your bikablo journey!** In this very full training day, you will learn and practice how to do all of the following and walk out the door with skills you can use at work (or play) the very next day! * Learn to hold the pen, draw clean lines, and structure your space on the flip chart * Create graphics and text containers/geometric shapes, objects and symbols * Discover the easy ways the bikablo® method provides to draw people, roles, groups, and situations * Use simple and fast options to color elements and spaces to support the graphic structure * Improve your handwriting—make it more legible and attractive—on flip charts… and more! **Location:** **IN PERSON** at Brian's Lizard Brain Studio in Herndon, Virginia. Exact address to be shared with registered participants. **Cost:** $600, payable to Jill Greenbaum. Go to Jill's calendar [here](www.jillgreenbaum.com/calendar), to choose and register for this course. **You MUST register with Jill to attend!**

**Take your skills to the next level!** Maybe you’re feeling ready to jump into Day 2. How are you feeling about the speed with which you draw icons, symbols, and figures? How do you introduce emotions into your posters? Would you like to improve your handwriting and lettering skills? Have you worked with mobile elements? Step into the opportunity to capture live conversations using a simple, elegant technique for creating visually appealing charts There’s so much to learn and integrate into your repertoire. ***NB: bikablo Day 1 training is a prerequisite for this program, as we will complete one review exercise of learning from Day 1, and then we will move into new territory!*** **Location:** **IN PERSON** at Brian's Lizard Brain Studio in Herndon, Virginia. Exact address to be shared with registered participants. **Cost:** $600, payable to Jill Greenbaum. Go to Jill's calendar [here](www.jillgreenbaum.com/calendar), to choose and register for this course. **You MUST register with Jill to attend!**

It is irresistible, to enjoy a GERMAN convo with drinks. ***GRAB A DRINK AND YOU ARE ALL SET TO FLEX YOUR LANGUAGE CAPACITY. YOU NEED TO GET AT LEAST A DRINK OR FOOD :) To get the event going and show support. We know that you like our events. P.S. : We have non-alcoholic drinks as well.*** We have a tiny venue and we hit capacity often and early arrival is suggested. We have the discretion to decide entry. HOW IT WORKS : We will try to assign tables for each represented languages and will direct attendees to their respective tables accordingly. Rules to abide : 1\. Event is 21\+ \(bring ID\)\. 2\. Be respectful to your counterparts and give them a chance to exchange with others as well\. 3\. We all are native speakers of one or two languages and be willing to help others and try to accommodate as much as possible\. 4\. If you don't speak the other person's required language\, LEAVE THEM ALONE\. 5\. Rude or aggressive members are removed from the group at an organizers discretion\. 6\. This is a face\-to\-face language exchange event\. DO NOT try to arrange an online meeting\, by using the comment box or direct message\. 7\. Most of our members complained about people writing in the comment box\. Since it sends notification to all attendees\. If you have any questions\, send a message to the organizers\. Don't write in the comment box\. 8\. We have ZERO TOLERANCE for solicitation\. We don't allow anyone to run their own agenda at the Event\. If you are interested to promote/sponsor/collaborate; contact us via \(info@merevents\.com\)\. 9\. When you get there\, we will greet you and take you to your respective group\. 10\. Don't be shy of your local languages\. We have diplomates assigned to different countries\, who would love to practice your languages\. 11\. Be patient for the first 30 minutes\, up until we form your respective language group\.
 12\. We will have a registration station and check you in\. 13\. This is mainly a social for Intermediate/Advanced/Native Speakers\. It is not as such to learn a language\. Beginners\, if you want to learn a language\, reach out to us \(info@merevents\.com\)\. We have a school and will arrange you a class\. ***AFTER THE EXCHANGE, WE HIT THE DANCE FLOOR! BRING YOUR DANCING SHOES, WE WILL DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY!***

**bikablo Basic Days 1 & 2** Join Jill, in person, for **Days 1 and 2**! In this two-day training, we focus on the basics of drawing and imagery in visual language: No matter your level of talent or skill, you will take your first visual steps up at the wall and learn how to use small details to make large spaces look clear, attractive, and lively. You will be working both individually and in small groups, and I will take plenty of time to answer your questions and guide you into the world of visual language with hints and techniques suited to fit your individual progress. **Areas of focus and learning:** * Holding the pen and drawing the line: How do I draw clean lines and structure my space on the flip chart? * Graphics and text containers: How do I create simple arrows and connecting elements from basic geometric shapes in order to present related topics? Which text containers (e.g. speech bubbles) can be used to support which kinds of messages? * Objects and symbols: How do I draw simple symbols to underline messages? What is essential, what can be left out? * Drawing symbols: How can I easily draw and use symbols to convey meaning? * Figures: What easy ways does bikablo® provide to draw people, roles, groups and situations? * Color and space: What are simple and fast options to color elements and spaces in a quick and simple way that supports the graphic structure? * Writing: How do I improve my handwriting on the flip chart to make it more legible and attractive? * Posters and settings: Combine the ingredients (graphics, writing, symbols, figures, and color) to create visual translations of content and meaningful posters for different purposes (welcome, agenda, instructions, group work) * **Location:** **IN PERSON** at Brian's Lizard Brain Studio in Herndon, Virginia. Exact address to be shared with registered participants. **Cost:** $1100, payable to Jill Greenbaum. Go to Jill's calendar [here](www.jillgreenbaum.com/calendar), to choose and register for this course. **You MUST register with Jill to attend!**

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

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 together, build better relationships and experiment with new ideas

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

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

Start your week the right way with Manic Mondays. Giving you an enjoyable Bachata lesson with a push of cool moves. The second hour has Beginner/Intermediate Salsa on 1. You must understand basic Salsa skills to participate. 730pm-830pm Bachata Cool Moves 830pm-930pm Salsa On 1 (Beginner/Intermediate) 15 for One Class 20 for Both Free Parking & Plenty of Dance Space. Viva Dance Columbus 2809 Festival Lane Dublin OH 43017

**Total Eclipse of the Chart: School Redistricting Dashboards** In this presentation, we will explore the utilization of maps, sets, and SQL within a Tableau dashboard to help provide “what-if” analyses generated through the use of a mapped dashboard, providing different scenarios and the potential implications of these. While in this use case we are focused on a large school district, the concepts of utilizing existing data to explore the future impacts of modifying different geographic boundaries can be useful to many industries, balancing the mix of maps with visual analytics. **About Our Speaker** Robert Kramer is the Data Systems and State Reporting Coordinator at South Western City Schools in Grove City. He has worked there for 17 years, serving previously in the roles of Data Analyst, Programmer, and Operations Coordinator. Prior to working at South Western, he worked as a Systems Engineer at Pinnacle Data Systems in Groveport. He graduated in 2005 from The University of Toledo with his Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering, and a minor in Mathematics. Robert resides in Obetz with his wife, and their 15 and 12 year-old daughters. He was also just elected to his 3rd four-year term on the Obetz City Council. Thanks to our 2026 sponsors: [Clarivoy](https://www.clarivoy.com), [What Box Consulting Group](https://www.whatboxconsultinggroup.com), [Conductrics](https://www.conductrics.com), and [Piwik PRO](https://piwik.pro) More info at [cbusdaw.com](https://cbusdaw.com)

Bring your business cards and network in person with other business professionals! Gold Star Referral Clubs is one of the most established professional networking organizations in the country, with multiple groups in central Ohio. Join us!