Think Tank
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Meaningful Dialogue 🗣️🔊
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North Florida Forum: Philosophy & Theology
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Washington Foreign Policy Debate - English Language
58 ThinkTankers, Experts, Diplomats
Literary Salon for Writers, Creatives, and Thinkers
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Austin First Responder Critical Care Provider Meetup Group
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Sustainable Philadelphia
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Check out think tank events happening today here. These are in-person gatherings where you can meet fellow enthusiasts and participate in activities right now.
Discover all the think tank events taking place this week here. Plan ahead and join exciting meetups throughout the week.
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Think Tank Events Today
Join in-person Think Tank events happening right now
Pink Moon Toddler Tuesday
**Toddler Tuesdays at Pink Moon**
*A free monthly meet-up for moms in the toddler years*
Toddlers are joyful, hilarious, curious… and sometimes complete chaos. Toddler Tuesdays is a space for moms who are living that reality right now — the snack negotiations, stroller wrangling, big feelings, sticky hands, endless energy, and all.
Join us at Pink Moon for a free monthly community meet-up designed to bring together moms with toddlers. Whether your toddler is shy, wild, sensitive, social, clingy, fearless, or all of the above depending on the hour, they are welcome here, and so are you.
This isn’t a structured class or a polished playdate. It’s a relaxed, come-as-you-are gathering where moms can meet other women in the same phase of life while little ones play nearby. Stay for ten minutes or the full two hours. Enjoy coffee on us.
**What to Expect:**
• Casual community connection with other toddler moms
• Open-ended play and space for little ones to explore
• A welcoming environment where no one minds a meltdown
• A beautiful indoor space designed for moms and families to land, connect, and recharge
**When:**
Third Tuesday of every month
9:30–11:30 AM
**Where:**
Pink Moon \| Bethesda\, MD
**Cost:**
Free + open to the community
***
**About Pink Moon**
Pink Moon is a modern community space for moms in Bethesda — part fitness studio, part gathering space, part “third place” outside of home and work where moms can reconnect with themselves and each other.
Built with motherhood top of mind, Pink Moon offers fitness and wellness classes, community events, workshops, and family-friendly programming designed to support women through every phase of motherhood. Babies, toddlers, feeding schedules, big feelings, and real life are all welcome here.
At Pink Moon, we believe moms deserve spaces that pour back into them, too.
Profs & Pints DC: Demography as Destiny
[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Demography as Destiny,”** on understanding the links between population trends and world events, with John Rennie Short, geographer, professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of *Demography and the Making of the Modern World: Public Policies and Demographic Forces.*
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-demography-destiny](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-demography-destiny) .]
The size of a family doesn’t just affect food and clothing budgets and space needs. If it reflects a broader trend in birth rates, it also can have a profound impact on politics, the economy, and world affairs.
Come to Washington D.C.’s Penn Social for a fascinating look at how demographic forces shape the modern world and have driven developments such as the Arab Spring, political unrest in Sri Lanka and Nepal, economic growth in Vietnam and India, the budget crisis in the United States, and the rise of nationalist populism in Europe.
Dr. John Rennie Short, who has written several acclaimed books on world trends and gives excellent Profs and Pints talks focused on geopolitical affairs, will break down how various demographic changes can alter nations’ destinies.
You’ll learn how baby booms can dampen economic growth, as has occurred in central Africa, and how a “youth bulge” caused by the aging of a baby boom provides tinder for social unrest, as happened in the United States of the 1960s and 1970s and is the case today in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
We’ll look at the “demographic dividend” reaped when a youth bulge ages enough to become economically productive and the roles that such dividends played in periods of sustained economic growth in Japan, China, and, most recently, Vietnam. We’ll look at how the aging of a demographic bulge into retirement years can strain national budgets and strengthen the appeal of conservative or populist political movements.
You’ll emerge from the talk better equipped to make sense of political and economic developments in the United States and elsewhere around the world. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image by Canva.
Less Noise, More Signal: SBOMs + Agentic Observability
We’re excited to bring the community together for an evening of learning and connection. This time, we'll have a community member from Chainguard sharing a use case and, as usual, an Elastic employee sharing their expertise as well.
Come support your fellow developers, learn something new, and meet others who are passionate about search, observability, and security.
**Date and Time:**
Tuesday, May 19th, from 5:30-7:30 pm EDT
**Location:**
Elastic Arlington Office - 4100 Fairfax Drive, Ste 500, Arlington, VA 22203
**Agenda:**
* 5:30 pm: Doors open; say hi, grab a seat, and eat some food.
* 6:00 pm: The SBOM Pile in Your S3 Bucket: Turning Bills of Materials Into a Risk Dashboard; and Watching It Shrink with Chainguard, by Mike Barreta, Senior Manager, Engineering at Chainguard
* 6:30 pm: Q&A
* 6:40 pm: **Agentic Observability: Next-Gen Alerting and Auto-Detected Significant Events**, by Jason Rhodes,
Senior Manager, Software Engineering at Elastic
* 7:10 pm: Q&A
* 7:20-7:30 pm: Networking & refreshments
**Talk Abstracts:**
**"The SBOM Pile in Your S3 Bucket: Turning Bills of Materials Into a Risk Dashboard; and Watching It Shrink with Chainguard**"
Most organizations now generate SBOMs because someone — EO 14028, a FedRAMP auditor, an ISSM — told them to. They land in an S3 bucket, get versioned, and are almost universally never queried. This talk is about what happens when you finally do. I'll stand up a self-contained Elastic stack, pour in SBOMs (SPDX), SLSA provenance, Sigstore signatures, Grype vulnerability scans, the CISA KEV catalog, and OpenVEX adjudication for 30 container images, and show the queries that only become possible once SBOMs stop being compliance artifacts and start being telemetry: which packages I actually run right now, which CVEs are real exposures versus VEX-suppressed noise, what swapping a stock image for its Chainguard equivalent would buy me, and how much of my CVE list is just stuff I inherited from the base layer.
Then the cleanup. The same dashboards on Chainguard images show what disappears when the SBOM is small, the signatures verify, and the advisory feed is active: \~9,000 fewer CVEs and \~2.5 GB saved across 20 image pairs, KEV exposure dropping from 7 hits to 0, compliance pass rate going from 0% to 76.5% against NIST 800-218 / FedRAMP Moderate / SSDF.
**Bio:**
Mike Barretta leads Chainguard’s public sector solutions engineering team, focused on helping ensure the federal government receives its fair share of the future. Barretta has worked across civilian, defense and intel programs in a variety of roles—software developer, data scientist, solution architect—for a variety of organizations—system integrators, consulting companies, software vendors—with the common purpose of creating and championing technologies and techniques for simplifying the extraction and utilization of information from lots of data. Having witnessed the ever-increasing threats to those systems, Barretta is now focused on methods and mitigations to secure them
**Agentic Observability: Next-Gen Alerting and Auto-Detected Significant Events**
We're rebuilding Elastic's alerting engine to make alerts more flexible\, more powerful\, and more valuable as data\. Next\-gen alerting rules will run anything ES\|QL supports and capture whatever fields matter to you\, so alerts carry the context you need for real downstream analysis\. And if you'd rather not manage these rules yourself\, AI agents can help\, drafting them from natural language\, recommending tuning and configuration changes\, and reducing noise through deduplication\.
On top of this, we're also building a new Significant Events system which automatically builds a continuously updated knowledge base of your incoming data's own metadata. Using this deep understanding, our agentic tools will detect significant events from log patterns, anomalies, and predicted behavior — without you having to create a single rule.
**Bio:**
Jason Rhodes is a software engineering lead at Elastic, where he works on alerting and observability features. Based in the DC area, he has over 15 years of experience in software development and has been an active contributor to the local tech community — creating and organizing Baltimore NodeSchool and charmCityJS. When he's not writing and reviewing code, he's probably watching too many movies.
**Parking:**
* The building’s parking garage is operated by Colonial Parking and is located off N. Randolph Street
* Book a spot on[ SpotHero](https://spothero.com/search?kind=address&latitude=38.8818514&longitude=-77.1095268&search_string=4100+Fairfax+Dr+%23500%2C+Arlington%2C+VA+22203%2C+USA)
* A Metro Station is located across the street
CREATIVE HAPPY HOUR on 5/19/26 from 5-7pm
This CREATIVE HAPPY HOUR is for creative people and folks who appreciate creativity. Whether you attend, produce, appreciate, or promote, you are welcome to join us on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 from 5pm-7pm for CREATIVE HAPPY HOUR at Silver Branch Brewing Co in Silver Spring, MD. Register on Eventbrite at [https://HappyHour5-19-26.eventbrite.com](https://HappyHour5-19-26.eventbrite.com).
Come meet, network, and enjoy. Only those ages 21 and up can attend. Happy Hour specials are from 5pm-6pm: $5.95 beer and select drinks. Entrance is free. This is a casual event.
Register on Eventbrite at [https://HappyHour5-19-26.eventbrite.com](https://HappyHour5-19-26.eventbrite.com).
Enjoy delicious craft beers, tasty snacks, and great company in a relaxed atmosphere. Whether you're a beer enthusiast or just looking to unwind after a long day, this event is perfect for you. Don't miss out on the opportunity to kick back and relax with us at Silver Branch Brewing Co. Use the QR codes at the table to order food and drinks, and be prepared to mingle. Check out the[ Silver Branch Brewing Company's Menu](https://www.silverbranchbrewing.com/lagerhaus-biergarten/).
PARKING: Paid parking available one block away at the county's Cameron Street Garage on 8530 Cameron Street (Better pricing than street or private parking.)
See you there on 5/19/26! Register on Eventbrite at [https://HappyHour5-19-26.eventbrite.com](https://HappyHour5-19-26.eventbrite.com).
This event is produced by in partnership with, [ ](https://reelabilities.org/greaterwash/)[ReelAbilities Film Festival: Greater Washington](https://reelabilities.org/greaterwash), [ TIVA](https://www.tivadc.org/) (Television, Internet, and Video Association of DC),[ WIFV](https://www.wifv.org/) (Women in Film & Video),[ Wheaton Film Festival](https://www.wheatonfilmfestival.com/),[ Docs in Progress](https://www.docsinprogress.org/), DC Media Makers Group, etc.
Sponsored by[ Brian Frankel Law Firm PLLC](https://brianfrankel.com/),[ Creative Colony Spaces](https://www.creativecolonyspaces.com/membership/overview), and Adobe Software.
Inside the Mind of a CMO: Ask-Me-Anything
If you’re trying to grow in marketing right now, guessing isn’t a great strategy.
This event gives you direct access to how marketing leaders actually think.
Join DC Marketing Tech Talks on May 19th in Tysons for a live **CMO Ask Me Anything** — a candid, open conversation with experienced marketing leaders who have built teams, driven revenue, and led at the highest levels.
This is your chance to ask:
* What skills actually matter right now?
* What gets someone promoted vs. passed over?
* What does it take to become a CMO today?
* How are marketing teams and roles changing?
* How do you connect brand to real business growth?
Just real answers from people who have done the work.
Whether you’re looking to move up, switch roles, or sharpen your edge, you’ll leave with a clearer sense of what to focus on next.
As always, this event is free and open to the public thanks to our sponsors, SalesIntel.
Food, drinks, networking, and a room full of marketers who care about getting better at what they do.
Come with questions. Leave with direction.
Casual Dining Out: Chef Tan
Welcome to Casual Dining Out, the event series where we explore counterserve establishments, food halls, and other venues for quick bites of Asian, "fusion", and other fare! As in the past, the field for these events will typically be limited, so please RSVP quickly if you know you're coming (or drop out quickly if you can't make it to give others a chance). RSVPs will close at 4 PM the day of the event and anyone who drops afterwards may be subject to the dreaded "no show" designation.
This edition: Hunan specialties and other delectable Chinese fare.
As always, a bonus activity could follow if the mood is right.
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If you have Instagram, you can check out our account at asiandiningandadventuregroup for photos and announcements of group outings!
Think Tank Events This Week
Discover what is happening in the next few days
World Product Day 2026 Celebration
🍻 [World Product Day](https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/) is about more than product — it’s about the people who build them. Join **ProductTank DC** for a celebration bringing together product professionals to connect, reflect, and recharge around this year’s theme: **Resiliency**.
Product people are no strangers to change. We adapt, learn, and keep building—together. This evening is an opportunity to step back, celebrate that resilience, and recognize the shared challenges and wins that define our craft.
Expect thoughtful conversation, practical insights, and a chance to reconnect with the product community in person. Whether you’re an experienced product leader, a new PM, or simply curious about product management, this meetup is a space to learn, contribute, and celebrate the people doing the hard work of building what’s next.
**Special thanks to our host:** Clyde's of Chevy Chase!
*Please note: Attendees are responsible for their own food and drink purchases. Food and drinks will be available directly from the venue*
International Development, Affairs and NGOs Happy Hour
To secure your spot, purchase your ticket from the Eventbrite link ([https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-devt-affairs-and-ngos-hh-with-teetotalersstudents-pass-tickets-880368996367](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-devt-affairs-and-ngos-hh-with-teetotalersstudents-pass-tickets-880368996367)). RSVPing only on the Meetup Page doesn't allow you to attend the Event. ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE IS REQUIRED.
ABOUT THE EVENT
This Happy Hour is devoted to professionals in the International Affairs and Development community, to grow, interact, and learn from each other. It is designed to provide a professional environment to meet other International Affairs professionals to broaden one's career. It is also for those interested in International Affairs and Development careers and are studying or intend to enter the dynamic world of global development.
METRO & PARKING INFO :
The closest metro station is Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. Please check Metro's weekend truck work (https://www.wmata.com/) and plan accordingly.
Street Parking might be a challenge. But if you plan to drive, try your luck on Champlain Street. Otherwise, there is a parking garage around. We highly recommend a shared ride or taxi service.
On https://blackecon101.podbean.com/ every Thursday at 6 pm
• What we'll do
On https://blackecon101.podbean.com/ Thursdays at 6 pm. discussing the economy....
International Dev't, Affairs and NGOs Networking [AT 5PM AT MARRAKESH DC]
To secure your spot, purchase your ticket from the Eventbrite link ([https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-devt-affairs-and-ngos-hh-with-teetotalersstudents-pass-tickets-880368996367](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-devt-affairs-and-ngos-hh-with-teetotalersstudents-pass-tickets-880368996367)). RSVPing only on the Meetup Page doesn't allow you to attend the Event. ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE IS REQUIRED TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT.
ABOUT THE EVENT
This Happy Hour is devoted to professionals in the International Affairs and Development community, to grow, interact, and learn from each other. It is designed to provide a professional environment to meet other International Affairs professionals to broaden one's career. It is also for those interested in International Affairs and Development careers and are studying or intend to enter the dynamic world of global development.
WEDNESDAY International Development, Affairs & NGOs Networking [PLZ READ 🙏]
This Happy Hour is devoted to professionals in the International Affairs and Development community, to grow, interact, and learn from each other. It is designed to provide a professional environment to meet other International Affairs professionals to broaden one's career. It is also for those interested in International Affairs and Development careers and are studying or intend to enter the dynamic world of global development.
HOW IT WORKS : We will try to assign tables for each represented INDUSTRIES/SECTORS/SPECIALIZATIONS and will direct attendees to their respective tables accordingly. All industries are welcome! However we don't guarantee the availability of a partner in that particular field, you would like to exchange experience. PLEASE BRING YOUR SOFT/HARD COPY BUSINESS CARDS.
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 specialize in one or two fields and be willing to engage others and try to accommodate as much as possible\.
4\. If you don't specialize in the other person's required discipline\, LEAVE THEM ALONE\.
5\. Rude or aggressive members are removed from the group at an organizers discretion\.
6\. This is a face\-to\-face 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 greet you and take you to your respective group\.
10\. Don't be shy of your specializations\. We have diplomates assigned to different countries\, who would love to learn more from your experience\.
11. ***Please be patient for the first 30 minutes, up until we form a group with your respective industry/sector.***
***AFTER THE SOCIAL, WE HIT THE DANCE FLOOR! BRING YOUR DANCING SHOES, WE WILL DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY!***
***N.B. : 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](http://info@merevents.com/)).***
Think Tank Events Near You
Connect with your local Think Tank community
Drunken Philosophy: What’s up with all the AI hate?
**Welcome to Drunken Philosophy** a casual, curious social discussion
**Optional topic for this meetup: What's up with all the AI hate?**
A recent survey found that 74% of Americans have a negative view of AI, and I want to know why. Come out and debate whether AI is good or bad.
My hot take: a labor-saving tool that could potentially help cure cancer gets called dangerous because it might raise unemployment or cause a speculative investment bubble, that tells you a lot more about capitalism and the economic system we live under than it does about the tool itself. As a computer programmer, I think AI is a wonderful tool that has increased my productivity by at least an order of magnitude. I'd go so far as to say Claude Code is the best tool I have ever used. Debate me and name a better one.
Is AI potentially dangerous? Yes, but so are a lot of tools. Chainsaws. Steam engines (early ones would occasionally explode and kill everyone in the room). Do you think cavemen sat around debating whether fire could be used as a weapon or for self-harm, and decided not to discover it?
I have two friends who hate AI for opposite reasons: one thinks it's a fad and not useful, and the other thinks it's going to take over everything and cause human extinction.
Come out tonight, have a friendly debate, and make some friends.
No lectures. Friendly crowd. Drop in for one drink and stay if it's fun.
NFT AI ART Columbus
NFT's are here to stay folks!
This is a group for like minded people interested in understanding, leveraging, using, creating for, profiting from, trading too i suppose, NFT's.. everything around them, complexity, fear and exploits, best practices and more.
**PLUS**
This group will talk AI ART tools, techniques, artists, video, audio, prototypes and more in the AI assisted production space- ART specifically, but we can get into any aspect of some of the cooler things happening in AI in general.
Quarterly Community Gathering
Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space.
No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving.
If you’d like to take the stage, message \*\*Chris (the organizer)\*\*with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share.
Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus.
Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformlabs/)
Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/transformlabshq)
Building Momentum: From Ambiguity to Execution
**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.
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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.



















![International Dev't, Affairs and NGOs Networking [AT 5PM AT MARRAKESH DC]](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/d/0/a/highres_469368394.webp?w=640)






