Technology

**📢 Wichtiges Update für das Sprachcafé in Manifesto!** 📢 2. Etage wo es geschlossen ist. Alle Teilnehmende **müssen** etwas bestellen. Wenn nicht, werden wir uns in Neukölln treffen. **Ein Getränk bei der Soot Bar** (unten bei den WCs) **oder Essen woanders** zu kaufen, damit wir dort bleiben dürfen. Danke fürs Mitmachen! 😊

Join us for a creative gathering for neurodivergent people, including those with autism, ADHD, AuDHD, dyslexia, and similar neurodivergences. **At this edition of the Creative Sharing Circle we want to show you how to fold zines**. We will show you how to fill paper with text, drawings and collage. The **content can be political, fun or introspective**. Zines are a great accessible way to communicate something meaningful you‘d like to share with the world. **Zine culture is intimately intertwined with liberation movements of marginalized people.** Let‘s keep it alive and enrich it with **neurodivergent perspectives.** We will provide some arts and crafts equipments but feel free to bring your own arts and craft tools if you want to do your own project. The facilitators will also guide you on how to create zine and how to use the arts and craft material. **The event is free and there will be no donation box at the event, but your support is very much welcomed Donation Link: [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/neurodivergentberlin)** **Where:** PopUp Gruppenraum 2 at Amerika Gedenkbibliothek **Facilitators:** [Agnieszka Błaszczak ](https://www.instagram.com/foxyberlin21/)(Aga), a multimedia artist, and [Cosmo](cosmo@kritische-maennlichkeit.com) (Visual Anthropologist). **Important Notes:** * If you can’t attend, please edit your RSVP to give the spot to others people. * The community is run by neurodivergent volunteers, so please help us create a positive experience. * Bring sensory tools (headphones, stimming toys, etc.), and we will have some available. * A quiet corner will be provided for breaks. * This event is for late-diagnosed adults (18+). For children’s events, a parent or guardian must be present. See you there!

In a world that unfolds behind the screen, working from home feels gradually more lonely and disconnected. Weather you are an employee without an office, a creative, a freelancer or just someone in need of a working space, this is for you. You don’t need to cross the city to find a working space anymore, your favourite coworking space just landed in Sonnenallee. Every Monday and Thursday From 10:00 until 16:00 In the indoor room of @sfera Free water and wifi

-DROP IN - *(English below)* **Lindy Hop \| Swing Dance** Klassen (fast jeden Montag) 19:00 Uhr Starter 20:15 Uhr Improver / Refresher Für mehr Informationen & Kosten, bitte hier schauen: [SWING PATROL KOLLE 37](https://www.swingpatrolberlin.com/sp-kolle37.html) \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Classes (almost) every Monday 19:00 Uhr Starter 20:15 Uhr Improver / Refresher For more information & cost, please look here: [SWING PATROL KOLLE 37](https://www.swingpatrolberlin.com/sp-kolle37.html)

Join us for a relaxed Monday evening full of new faces, unexpected conversations and the kind of atmosphere that makes the week feel a little more alive. Whether you’re new in Berlin or simply looking to meet open-minded people, this is a space to connect, share stories and start the week with a little more curiosity. Orga The location accepts only card payments. We will be sitting in the first room. Questions? Check our Meetup-FAQs: [https://socialbutterfly.berlin/meetup-faq/](https://socialbutterfly.berlin/meetup-faq/) Meet your host I’m Julia — a Berlin local who loves bringing people together. My path went from growing up in a dance school to studying philosophy to working in IT support, and somehow all of that led me here: hosting meetups and creating spaces where people can show up, relax, and connect. Insta [https://www.instagram.com/juwaberlin/](https://www.instagram.com/juwaberlin/) LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-waehnert/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-waehnert/) About The Social Butterfly Club 🦋 is a Berlin-based community that has been bringing people together for over three years. Each gathering is part of a larger framework designed to help friendships grow through shared experiences in the city — with a long-term vision of turning Berlin itself into a shared, playful experience. Love the vibe? There’s a whole community waiting for you. 🦋 Join the Social Butterfly Club and experience Berlin together [https://socialbutterflyradar.substack.com/](https://socialbutterflyradar.substack.com/)

-DROP IN - *(English below)* **Lindy Hop \| Swing Dance** Klassen (fast jeden Montag) 18:15 Uhr Starter 19:30 Uhr Improver / Refresher Für mehr Informationen & Kosten, bitte hier schauen: **[SWING PATROL PANKE](https://www.swingpatrolberlin.com/sp-panke.html)** \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Classes (almost) every Monday 18:15 Starter 19:30 Improver / Refresher For more information & cost, please look here: **[SWING PATROL PANKE](https://www.swingpatrolberlin.com/sp-panke.html)**

**Open Platform for Writers to connect, share & grow. Together.** ‍ We create a safe space to be creative, connect through writing and give and receive feedback from each other. Get ready for bringing in different writing styles and helping each other improve our own writing skills and get to know some new friends. ...for more info check out www.dna-artclub.com / follow us on IG: @nightart.club See You soon :) Love. DNA. *** \*Members of Dair Night Art e.V. and Subscribers of DNA. Art GbR. \*\*By entering the DNA. ART HOUSE, You agree to comply with the Hausordnung of Dair Night Art e.V. and Geschäftsordnung of Dair Night Art e.V. Please ensure You review these documents thoroughly in advance.en

Dear Community, it is our honor to share that in July, we have the one and only, Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon joining us. Dr. Vogels was so kind to meet with our community, have a joyful session and answer your questions in person. During the day he will be the keynote speaker at [WeAreDevelopers World Congress](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress). Later in the evening, we will have the privilege to spend an exclusive time with Dr. Vogels to get answers to questions we have from you! =================================================== 17:30 - Doors open 17:45 - Warm up by AWS UG Berlin 18:00 - **Fireside chat with Dr. Werner Vogels** **Registration:** Because we expect many registrations for limited seats, please consider your registration pending. We will contact you individually to confirm whether you can join or not. **Attendance:** Please arrive at NLND no later than 17:45 to secure your spot. Once Dr. Vogels is on stage, you won't be able to enter. **Questions:** Feel free to address your questions in the form below, or mail to kadir@berlinawsug.de ================================== Additional Information **This event is wheelchair friendly.** Help us spread the word, and invite your friends & colleagues! If you're attending with wheelchair and need assistance, please mail us: organisers@berlinawsug.de for further details. Would you like to host AWS UG Berlin events at your company? [Register here](https://bit.ly/aws-host) Would you like to speak at AWS UG Berlin sessions? [Submit your talk here](https://bit.ly/aws-talk) ================================== NLND (Neuland) Berlin is a 150.000 sqm innovation district catalysing industrial transformation. We bring together industry and SMEs with universities, startups and government to create a European lighthouse project for AI, Deep Tech, Industry 4.0 and future city technologies. ​Discover more from NLND [nlnd.com](https://nlnd.com/?utm_source=luma) \| [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/nlnd?utm_source=luma) \| [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nlnd.hq/?utm_source=luma) **Photography Notice** ​Please note there’ll be a photographer at the event. By attending, you agree that NLND Berlin and partners may use photos for marketing and communications. If you prefer not to be photographed, please let a member of the event team know.

# Connected Intelligence: AI Builders Meetup — WeAreDevelopers PreDay, Berlin AI agents are moving into production. The question is no longer whether to use them, but what it takes to make them reliable once the demo is over. This WeAreDevelopers PreDay meetup brings together builders, founders, and practitioners integrating AI agents into real codebases, CI/CD pipelines, developer platforms, and knowledge systems. The evening focuses on the conversations that rarely fit into conference talks: what breaks at scale, how context engineering works in practice, where failure modes hide, and how teams build systems they can trust. Under the theme **Connected Intelligence**, we will explore graph-based reasoning, constraint satisfaction, agentic code review, AI-powered development workflows, and Java’s evolving role in AI systems. No vendor pitches. Just practical lessons from systems running in production. **## Agenda** **-** 17:00 **— Doors Open, Drinks & Networking** **-** 17:30 **— Welcome & Opening Remarks** **-** 17:45 **—** Andreas Kollegger**, Director of GenAI, Neo4j** **-** 18:10 **— Break, Food & Networking** **-** 18:35 **—** Panel: ***Agentic AI in the Wild*** **-** 19:20 **—** Charles Francoise**, Staff Software Engineer, CircleCI** **-** 19:45 **—** Ana M**aria Mihalceanu**, Java Champion Alumni & Developer Advocate, Oracle - **20 **25 ****— Closing Remarks # Speakers and Session ## Andreas Kollegger — Director of GenAI, Neo4 ###* Where is the Zebra? Agent Decision-Making as Constraint Satisfactio* Zebra Puzzles provide a useful model for understanding agentic reasoning: they require structured constraint satisfaction rather than domain expertise Enterprise decisions such as loan approvals, compliance checks, resource allocation, and approval routing often hide similar constraint problems beneath layers of complexity This session examines how constraint networks, LLMs, and hybrid architectures approach structured decisions—and when agents need search, inference, generation, or a combination of all three ## Charles Francoise — Staff Software Engineer, CircleC ###* Plan with Opus, Code with Sonne* What if working effectively with AI agents is not only about choosing the best model, but choosing the right model for each task This session explores how different models can support planning, implementation, and development workflows—and how teams can use them together more effectively ## Ana Maria Mihalceanu — Java Champion Alumni and Developer Advocate, Oracl ###* Now and Next Java for A* AI does not have to remain a black-box REST endpoint. With JDK 25 and the Foreign Function and Memory API, Java developers can connect models directly to native runtimes such as ONNX for CPU and GPU inference The session demonstrates tensor mapping with` MemorySegmen`t, execution-provider switching, and self-contained Java inference applications. It also looks ahead to Project Babylon and the possibility of expressing model logic as analyzable Java code that can be lowered to accelerator backends # Panel: Agentic AI in the Wil What does it take to move AI agents from proof of concept into systems that operate reliably Practitioners from across the technology stack will discuss context management, governance, production workflows, failure modes, and what changes when agentic systems scale Expect concrete lessons, not talking points ## Moderato **Dana Fine — Open Source and Community Manager, Qod** Dana leads open-source programs and community initiatives at Qodo. She runs the GitHub User Group, CNCF local and GenAI communities, and the Bond AI meetup series ## Panelist ### Nnenna Ndukwe — Developer Relations Lead, Qod Nnenna is a software developer, applied AI researcher, and community builder with experience across med-tech, fintech, and media-tech. She focuses on integrating AI code review into enterprise and open-source development workflows ### Sebastian Kiste Sebastian is a cloud and enterprise transformation practitioner implementing production-ready architectures for Agentic AI Operations. As an active CNCF and Linux Foundation member, he advocates for scalable platforms and a people-first approach to transformation ### Tevfik Aloglu — Applied AI, OpenA Tevfik works on OpenAI’s Applied AI team, partnering with ambitious startups across Germany and Europe to turn frontier AI into product advantage and measurable business impact Previously, he co-founded the generative AI startup Pyne as CPTO and built AI and machine-learning ventures at BCG Digital Ventures and Project A. He studied computer science at the Technical University of Munich, spent time at Carnegie Mellon University, and is an alumnus of CDTM # Location **w3.hub Berlin**

We're trying something new this month at the Berlin Collaborative Modeling Meetup. And guess what? It's about AI! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll move beyond “chatting with the coding assistant” and practice giving an AI agent real tasks: planning, implementing, iterating, and reporting back. You’ll follow along from your own laptop and experience the shift from working with the agent to delegating work to the agent. Bring your laptop and your tokens.

Just before everyone disappears for the holidays, let's get together for one more Java meetup! This time we're joining forces with **JUG Berlin-Brandenburg**, and thanks to our friends at **JetBrains**, we'll be meeting at their office. We'll also have a raffle featuring **WeAreDevelopers World Congress** tickets and other prizes. ## 🎤 Alexei Zinoviev *Software Developer at JetBrains* ### **Kotlin and Spring Boot: From Messy Public Data to a Robust Application** Real applications rarely get clean input. Source pages change, fields are missing, text formats are inconsistent, parsers make assumptions, and external services such as geocoders can be slow, incomplete, or temporarily unavailable. In this talk, we will use a small Berlin-focused Spring Boot application written in Kotlin. It reads public demonstration data, parses semi-structured HTML, converts raw rows into a typed domain model, applies classification rules, geocodes locations where possible, and exposes the result through a Spring MVC API, an interactive map, and a timeline. The Kotlin part is not a rewrite pitch. Spring Boot stays the familiar foundation for controllers, services, scheduling, database access, and operational endpoints. Kotlin helps in the parts where enterprise code often becomes defensive and noisy: nullable input, parsing results, rejected rows, domain identifiers, explicit states, and readable transformation pipelines. A central part of the example is a small Kotlin DSL for rules. The classifier is not AI and not a black box: rules are written as type-safe Kotlin code, close to configuration, readable in the IDE, and able to explain why a certain operational risk score was assigned to an event or route. We will also look at what makes the application robust in practice: handling parser failures, conversion problems, missing coordinates, partial results, and unstable external services without turning every expected problem into a generic HTTP 500. ## 🎤 Dmitry Chuyko *Architect at BellSoft* ### From Kitchen to Table: A Safe Software Journey with SBOMs The EU's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is turning Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) from a "nice to have" into a legal requirement for many software products. Managing your software supply chain is no longer optional—it's part of shipping software responsibly. Think of your containerized Java (and Spring) application as a dish served to production. Every ingredient matters, and someone will eventually ask what's inside. SBOMs are the ingredient lists that security scanners, auditors, and regulators rely on. In this practical session, we'll look at how Java and DevOps teams can make SBOMs part of their everyday workflow. We'll cover: * generating and managing SBOMs in CI/CD (GitHub Actions and GitLab CI) * verifying pre-built container images * enforcing supply-chain policies in Kubernetes with OPA and Ratify * navigating SPDX vs. CycloneDX * integrating SBOMs into existing toolchains without unnecessary complexity Rather than treating SBOMs as compliance paperwork, you'll learn how to use them as actionable security artifacts that improve visibility, strengthen your software supply chain, and help meet regulatory requirements. ## Schedule **18:00** – Doors open **18:30** – Alexei Zinoviev **19:00** – Networking break **19:30** – Dmitry Chuyko — *From Kitchen to Table: A Safe Software Journey with SBOMs* **20:30** – Networking, refreshments, and the **WeAreDevelopers World Congress** ticket raffle

THERE IS NO WAITLIST. EVERYONE CAN JOIN. ​ Whether you're a seasoned tech veteran or just starting out, let's create the ideal afterwork place to meet and chill with other workers in tech - find that new job, expand your network, share ideas, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the industry. Let's inspire, innovate, and shape the future of technology in Berlin! Tech, AI, Data, IT, and more \~ ​ \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### Event Details 💰 Cost: €3 (Online only, no tickets at door) [ Link to Website ](https://techsocialberlin.com/event/meetup) 🍺🥃 Afterwork drinks and social 📍 Belushi's Berlin (Alexanderplatz) (Inside, or ask for Tech Social) - Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 41 🕕 6:00pm onwards every Friday ​ **Or RSVP on the website for our Discord / WhatsApp communities, and to see who else is going and what their backgrounds/seniority/interests are:** 🔗 [Link to Website](https://techsocialberlin.com/event/meetup) ​ If you cannot find us, ask staff about Social Meetup, or find a table, snap a photo and ask in the WhatsApp community above. ​ \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### Who Should Attend? Perfect for **Berlin tech professionals** including: * **Software Developers & Engineers** (Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, React, Node.js) * **Data Scientists & Analysts** (Machine Learning, AI, Data Visualization, SQL) * **Cybersecurity Professionals** (InfoSec, Ethical Hacking, Cloud Security) * **Product Managers & Tech Entrepreneurs** * **Students & Tech Graduates** looking to break into tech * **Career Changers** entering tech industry * **Remote Workers & Digital Nomads** in Berlin * **Startup Employees & Entrepreneurs** * **Digital Marketing & Product Professionals** * **Senior Engineers** looking to mentor and network \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### What You'll Experience * 🤝 **Network with Berlin tech community** * 💼 **Job opportunities** and referrals from peers * 🚀 **Career acceleration** through peer networking * 🎯 **Skill sharing** and tech discussions * 🧠 **Knowledge sharing** on latest tech trends * 🎉 **Social activities** and games * 🧠 **Learn from peers** about real-world challenges * 🚀 **Collaborate** on projects and ideas * 🎯 **Mentorship connections** (both ways!) * 🍻 **Fun, casual atmosphere** \- no matter your seniority level \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### Event Guidelines * Support the venue by purchasing drinks/food (no outside items allowed) * Maintain appropriate behavior and respect for all attendees * Bring physical ID if required by venue (call ahead to confirm) * Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with the venue, we just use the space. So don't call the venue asking about our events. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ​ ​ *Berlin Germany tech social mixer afterwork drinks AI connect network data IT programming cybersecurity digital nomad blockchain crypto big data science computer networking community jobs entrepreneur industry product design startup software development machine learning python javascript professional networking career development it professionals developers mentorship ai sql analytics data engineering business intelligence deep learning tensorflow pytorch data visualization data analysts ml engineers Berlin Germany tech social mixer afterwork drinks AI connect network data IT programming cybersecurity digital nomad blockchain crypto big data science computer networking community jobs entrepreneur industry product design startup software development machine learning python javascript professional networking career development it professionals developers mentorship ai sql analytics data engineering business intelligence deep learning tensorflow pytorch data visualization data analysts ml engineers***📱 Follow us:** [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/tech.social.event) \| [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/tech.social.event/) \| [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-social-event)

All talks will be **presented in English**, to ensure that as many people as possible can participate and engage at this event. **If you want to attend, please RSVP to secure your spot - this will make organizing easier. Thank you so much ♥️** **Location:** [SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH, Rotherstraße 16, 10245 Berlin](https://maps.app.goo.gl/9t7c5Q6EF2tnWZzo6), see [travel information](http://www.sva.de/sites/default/files/2025-06/AnfahrtSVA_Berlin_2025.pdf) for more. \-\-\-\-\-\- **🏠 18:00 - Arrival: Networking, Drinks & Snacks (30 min.)** Grab yourself snacks & drinks and say hello to everybody else! **📅 18:30 - Introduction & What's new at Datadog? (15 min.)** **🎙️**Speaker: Marcel Drechsler, User Group Leader & Datadog Ambassador Introduction into the evening and highlights of Datadog's recent new features and products. **📅 18:45 - Working Smarter With AI in Datadog: From Bits AI and Investigations to Full LLM Observability - Pilot to Production for your Projects! (40 min.)** **🎙️**Speaker: James Henderson, Partner Solutions Architect (EMEA) @ **[Datadog](https://www.datadoghq.com/)** Most of us use a fraction of what Datadog can actually do - **and now there's powerful new capabilities: AI for Datadog and Datadog for AI.** This session is a live demo: your chance to see the latest AI features in action and what they mean for your day-to-day work. We'll start with AI for Datadog - how Bits AI, Autonomous Investigations and natural-language querying take the toil out of troubleshooting, surfacing root cause in seconds. Then we'll flip it around to Datadog for AI: if you're shipping AI projects, LLM features or agents, we'll show you how AI LLM Observability traces every prompt, call and tool step, catches quality and cost drift early, and takes your AI from pilot to production with confidence. We'll spend fifteen minutes aligning on the new Datadog AI capabilities, then move straight into the platform for live demos showing what's possible. **📅 19:40 -The AI Agent Passed Every Test. Then It Shipped.** **(30 min.)** **🎙️**Speaker: David Edoh-Bedi, Developer Relations @ **[Datadog](https://www.datadoghq.com/)** Your CI is green. Your evals passed in dev. You shipped the agent. Now what? Production AI agents fail in ways your test suite was never built to catch. Prompts drift silently as people "optimize" them. Agents enter tool loops and burn through your API budget overnight. Your dashboards stay green and your users notice anyway. This talk walks through real production failure modes using a live agent, shows what each one looked like from the outside (spoiler: fine), and demonstrates the monitoring that actually caught them. You'll leave with specific instrumentation to add before your next agent ships, and a clearer sense of what your dashboards aren't telling you. **🥗 20:15 - Drinks, Food & Networking** Enjoy refreshments while networking with community peers! **👋 21:00 - Goodbye, see you next time!**

**[IMPORTANT NOTICE registration is HERE](https://luma.com/wh28yfqv)** ​**Please bring a valid ID (driving licence or passport) with you on the day, as it will be required for entry to the venue.** Join **Aerospike** **AWS, Adjust and Miro** for an evening of technical talks focused on the challenges of running real-time, business-critical systems at scale. Hear firsthand lessons from engineers managing large datasets, database migrations, and cloud infrastructure availability in production. From Miro's Redis-to-Aerospike migration on Kubernetes to AWS best practices for capacity planning and resilience, speakers will share practical insights gained from operating demanding workloads where performance and reliability matter. ​Connect with fellow engineers, architects, and technology leaders from Berlin's tech community over drinks and networking. ​ ​**Agenda** **17:30 – 18:00 - Welcome & networking** **18:00-18:10 - Speed vs Capacity: Designing Data Systems for Real-Time Scale** *Dirk Möller, Regional Lead Germany and EE, Aerospike* In high-performance data systems, balancing RAM and disk is key to real-time performance at scale. This session explores the technical nuances of database architecture in today’s AI-driven era, where workloads demand low latency, massive scale, and adaptive infrastructure. Drawing on real-world, mission-critical systems, we’ll show how to achieve the right mix of speed, scale, cost-efficiency, and reliability - designing architectures that meet today’s real-time demands while staying sustainable and affordable. **18:10 – 18:30 - Scaling Beyond Millions of Transactions** *​Leonardo Muñoz, Platform Engineer, Adjust* A behind-the-scenes look at how Adjust powers high-throughput, low-latency workloads at scale using a distributed database platform running on bare metal infrastructure. Leonardo will explore the architectural and operational decisions behind the deployment, the challenges of managing dedicated hardware at scale, and the lessons learned from years of production experience supporting mission-critical workloads. **18:30 – 18:50 - Pod Ready ≠ Data Safe: Migrating a Critical Dataset on Kubernetes** *Yuriy Chernikov, Staff Software Engineer, Miro* ​ Miro migrated one of its most critical datasets from a legacy caching platform to a modern distributed database running on Kubernetes - and not everything went according to plan. This practical talk covers what the migration actually required, the design decisions that made failures survivable, and the operational lessons that only emerge when managing datasets measured in terabytes. **18:50-19:10 - Managing Amazon EC2 Capacity and Availability** *Nati Cohen, Sr. Specialist Solutions Architect, Compute, AWS* ​ Modern data-intensive applications require infrastructure that delivers high performance, scalability, and resilience. Organizations often seek to leverage the latest storage-optimized EC2 instances, select larger instance sizes for improved performance, place infrastructure close to data producers and consumers, and scale efficiently as business demands grow. In this session, we'll explore how to balance these performance requirements with cost optimization and capacity availability. We'll review the various EC2 capacity and reservation models, including Capacity Reservations, On-Demand Instances, Savings Plans, and more. Learn how to combine these options to optimize cost, performance, and availability for large-scale production workloads **19:00-20:00- Networking** **[IMPORTANT NOTICE registration is HERE](https://luma.com/wh28yfqv)**

Topic to be announced. **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/ **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: https://www.veeam.com/ **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Most people use LLMs by feel: ask a question, read the answer, decide whether it “seems good,” and move on. That works for casual use. It does not work when you are building software, automating workflows, writing important documents, or relying on AI for anything that needs to be repeatable. In this talk, we’ll look at how to improve and evaluate the inputs and outputs of LLMs using practical measurement techniques. We’ll cover how prompt changes affect results, how to compare outputs, how to build simple evaluation sets, and how math-based methods like similarity scoring can help you move beyond guesswork. This will be beginner-friendly, so even if you don't know anything about AI, you should get something out of it. However, this will be a little more technical than our intro talks. You do not need to be an AI researcher, but programmers and technically curious attendees will get a lot out of it. We’ll cover: * Why “it looks good” is not enough * How to improve prompts by changing the input, context, and constraints * How to compare LLM outputs more systematically * Basic evaluation techniques for accuracy, consistency, and usefulness * How embeddings, cosine similarity, and scoring can help evaluate results * Where automated evaluation works — and where humans still need to stay in the loop By the end, you’ll have a practical mental model for treating LLMs less like magic and more like systems you can test, measure, and improve. 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.

Christians in Tech is a community at the intersection of faith and technology. Our meetups are designed to spark meaningful conversations, promote knowledge sharing, and encourage growth—both in your career and your spiritual walk with God. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting your tech journey, CIT welcomes you. Our Website [https://linktr.ee/citcbus](https://linktr.ee/citcbus) Sponsors and Partners * Improving (Venue Sponsor) * Bethel World Prayer Center (Fiscal Sponsor) * Fruits & Roots (Coffee Partner)

Bring your Raspberry Pi, Arduino, microcontroller, or any other electronic project and join fellow electronics makers for a night of creativity and collaboration! This session is open forum to share your current projects—whether complete or in progress, it’s all interesting! Whether you’re deep into embedded systems, exploring new ideas, or just getting started, you’ll find a welcoming space to collaborate, share, and get inspired. **New to electronics or curious about tinkering?** You’re absolutely welcome. If you’re a beginner and want to experiment, I’ll have a couple of starter kits available so you can try things out—whether that’s blinking your first LED, putting something on a display, or experimenting with simple sensors. No pressure and no experience required—just an interest in learning and building. While we continue to pursue a more permanent venue for this Meetup, we’ll be using public library facilities based on availability.

You can sleep in on the Semiquincentennial (observed), we’re shifting to the following Friday. But join the local UX community for a chat and some biscuits to catch up. If you were in CA for Figma Config, tell us all the lines and you can tell me how I can animate an SVG without coding it by hand, and why I’d even want to. Thanks to the team at Nationwide of supporting the group.

**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** *July Meeting - Lightning Talks!* Lightning talks are very short presentations on a topic of your choice (must be related to .NET). Talks should be 15-20 minutes in length and include minimal slides and quick demo (no live coding please). There will be 6 slots available! First come, first serve! **YouTube Link** TBD

**Practical Curiosity: Learning from Everyday Data** How do we actually get better at utilizing our day-to-day data? Fancy dashboards and complex models might look nice and draw attention, but that’s not where most of us spend our time. In fact those shiny outputs frequently sit unused, while the real insights are drawn from the analyst’s daily practice. Sometimes it’s as simple and as powerful as noticing that a segment is shrinking, a channel is underused, or certain links keep getting all the clicks. There’s many different places that the spark of insight can come from, but you have to keep your head in the data and know where to look. In this session, we’ll explore real-world examples of how segmentation, testing, and click behavior can uncover practical digital marketing opportunities. You’ll leave with inspiration for your own use cases, along with a few simple ways to ask better questions, spot meaningful patterns, and make smarter decisions without overcomplicating it. **About Our Speaker:** [Elaine Armbruster](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainearmbruster/) is a Director of Digital Experience at the [American Diabetes Association](https://diabetes.org/), where she focuses on using data and insights to create smarter, more effective digital experiences. A lifelong Columbus resident, she has built her career in email marketing and the broader digital user journey, and is finding she most enjoys working in the messy middle where systems, data, and big ideas don’t quite line up yet. 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)