Amazon Web Services

Hi folks! Welcome to our April Cloud Native London meetup! Join us to hear from our three great speakers and network with your fellow techies over pizza and drinks, or alternatively chat and following along on Youtube or LinkedIn! 6:00 Pizza and drinks 6:30 Welcome 6:45 From "Trust Then Verify" to "Verify Then Trust": Securing the AI-Accelerated Software Supply Chain (Meghan McGowan, Cloudsmith) 7:15 Keeping Up: Testing in the Age of AI and Cloud-Native (Ole Lensmar, Testkube) 7:45 Wrap up See you there! Cheryl (@oicheryl) **From "Trust Then Verify" to "Verify Then Trust": Securing the AI-Accelerated Software Supply Chain (Meghan McGowan, Cloudsmith)** With AI accelerating code generation and GitOps driving continuous deployments, testing is under more pressure than ever to keep up. Ole will take a step back to see what’s driving the evolution of testing as adoption of Cloud Native technologies and AI for code generation attempts to drive velocity through the roof. How can engineering and platform teams deliver on the need for continuous testing as a scalable approach to quality assurance across the enterprise? And how can DevOps teams leverage AI in testing pipelines for root-cause analysis, automated remediation and intelligent test scheduling - to help push the AI-infused velocity of their dev teams all the way into production? *Ole started building with XML APIs in the late 90:ies and has since then worked with multiple technologies and startups, most notably as creator of SoapUI in 2004 and Chairman of the Swagger / OpenAPI Initiative in 2015. He joined Testkube at its inception in 2021 and is now entirely focused on ensuring its success at bringing continuous testing to the cloud-native space. When not at his laptop he can be found playing a guitar or riding a bike, but rarely both at the same time.* **Keeping Up: Testing in the Age of AI and Cloud-Native (Ole Lensmar, Testkube)** AI has made software teams faster than ever, but it's also quietly outpacing the security and infrastructure built to support them. Drawing on findings from Cloudsmith's 2026 Artifact Management Report, a survey of 505 engineering practitioners across technology, finance, healthcare, and retail, this session examines the compounding challenges that come with near-universal AI code adoption: expanded attack surfaces, hallucinated dependencies, fragmented AI model governance, and the growing operational tax of manual security remediation on top of aging infrastructure. The session moves from data to diagnosis to direction, challenging teams to rethink a foundational assumption — that you can trust code first and verify it later. At AI scale, that posture is no longer safe. Attendees will leave with a clear picture of where the industry's most critical gaps are, how their peers are investing in 2026, and three concrete questions they can bring back to their own teams to identify where to act first. *Meghan McGowan is Principal Product Marketing Manager at Cloudsmith. Before joining Cloudsmith, Meghan spent nearly a decade in the cybersecurity industry focused on security integrations and automation, helping teams operationalize tooling that actually fits their workflows.* *Based in London, she also worked closely on how threat intelligence can be applied to meet specific regulatory requirements, particularly NIS2 and DORA, giving her a grounded understanding of both the technical and compliance dimensions of modern software security.*
 *About Cloudsmith: Cloudsmith is a fully managed, cloud-native artifact management platform that gives engineering teams a single, secure source of truth for all their software artifacts: packages, containers, binaries, and AI/ML models. Built for the scale and speed of modern software delivery, Cloudsmith provides universal repository support, automated security scanning, and policy enforcement at ingestion needed to meet today's compliance requirements.* *[https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-mcgowan-4b6bb81b/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-mcgowan-4b6bb81b/)* ***Check out [https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon](https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon) if you're interested in speaking or sponsoring.***

Join me for a fun Drama class every Wednesday evening from 6:30 pm- 8:30pm at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham Common. Acting helps with confidence and awareness. In a fun and relaxed atmosphere, you will meet new people and learn all about Acting. No experience is needed. We'll do relaxation exercises, games, improvisations, storytelling, and a bit later on we'll start working on character and text. The year ends with an exciting Showcase where friends and family come and see how all your hard work has paid off :) £10 pounds for the trial class to be paid before or after class. Different payment options if you decide to join. In order to reserve a place, please contact me at catherine@thebrightdaycompany.net. For more info: https://www.thebrightdaycompany.net/about I look forward to seeing you!

Thank you to everyone who has joined the Agentic community so far and thank you to those who attended the launch event in January! Its exciting times as we now gear up for the 2nd meet up of the year once again hosted by the wonderful team over at Vorboss LTD! We have a stellar line up for you again so please RSVP and join us on 1st April! **Odhran O'Donoghue \| Co\-Founder & CTO @ Magentic** **Making AI with Enterprise-level Reliability** Making AI work in critical business use cases requires superhuman-level reliability. Achieving this with AI is non-trivial, and even advanced developers can find themselves chasing the wrong paths to success. This talk covers how to build genuinely reliable generative AI to meet the needs of the world's largest customers, drawing from learnings on real-world deployments covering billions of dollars in spend. Odhran O'Donoghue is CTO of Magentic, the AI agent platform for the world’s supply chains. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, used across a range of Fortune 500 manufacturers. Odhran has previously worked with OpenAI and NASA, and led research at the Francis Crick Institute - Europe’s largest scientific centre. **Anastasia Kundush \| Head of Product @ Alpic** **Beyond the Chatbot: rethinking user flows in the agentic era.** Imagine apps that live directly inside ChatGPT or Claude. Instead of clicking buttons, you interact with agentic interfaces. We'll examine novel use cases where models seamlessly adopt complex roles and merge interactive visualizations with conversational insights. You'll learn how to design for this new paradigm and what doesn't work. Alpic provides the infrastructure and tools to turn your product into an AI-native experience. Our all-in-one MCP hosting platform offers easy one-click deployment, as well as MCP-specific evaluation, analytics, authentication, transport and security. A huge thank you to Odhran and the team at Magentic for sponsoring pizzas and also a big thank you once again to Vorboss for hosting and supplying drinks for all attendees on the night :)

**Looking for a women in business networking event in London?** Join us in Canary Wharf and connect with **women in business, finance and tech** in a calm, lightly structured setting over complimentary drinks. **Why Attend?** * **Connect with like-minded women in business, finance and tech** * **Meet female founders, business owners and professionals** * **Share ideas, experiences and opportunities** * **Build genuine, long-term professional relationships** * **Enjoy a welcoming evening** with complimentary drinks * **Private WhatsApp Group (320+ members)**: Event attendees receive exclusive access to our women-in-business WhatsApp group to stay connected, discover female-led businesses, receive event updates and access special offers. **About the Event** This event is ideal whether you’re already running a business, building your career, or exploring your next step in business, finance or tech. This women-only networking event brings together female entrepreneurs, founders and professionals from business, finance and technology for meaningful, face-to-face conversations in London. The atmosphere is friendly and professional, with optional icebreakers and plenty of space for relaxed networking. **Limited to 30 women. Drinks included.** **Please note:** The physical GMax Card is not included with this early bird free ticket and is available to paid attendees only. **Venue** **Sierra Quebec Bravo, Canary Wharf** A modern business hub in London’s financial district with a calm, low-noise atmosphere - ideal for networking and conversation. Easily accessible via DLR, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines. **Organisers** Organised by female partners of tech startups: * **[GMax Card – Digital business card](www.gmaxcard.com)** * **[Ciitab – AI tool for LinkedIn networking automation](www.ciitab.com)** * **[Getshop Today – UK-based eCommerce platform](www.getshop.today)** **Agenda** **6:00 - 7:15 PM** Informal networking over drinks **7:15 - 7:45 PM** Optional icebreakers. Quick intro round - everyone gets to introduce themselves to all in 30 seconds. **7:45 - 9:00 PM** Continued informal networking **Important Information** * **Women-only event** held in a dedicated, calm section of the venue but other guests may be present in nearby areas * **Dress code:** Smart casual / professional recommended * **Photos & videos:** Media may be captured for promotion. Please let us know if you prefer not to be included * **Please note:** The physical GMax Card is not included with this early bird free ticket and is available to paid attendees only. **Register early - spaces are limited to 30 women!** P.S. And don’t forget to **[join our group](https://www.meetup.com/london-entrepreneur-startup-network-tech-business-ecommerce/)** for future events.

Join us for fun drama games and improv. No experience required. Book here or www.actorverse.co.uk

**👉 [SPACE IS VERY LIMITED, PLEASE REGISTER [HERE](https://luma.com/3no3so3p)]** Join us for the Global Unveiling of the [Official 2025 FoodTech 500 Ranking](https://forwardfooding.com/foodtech500/), hosted by Forward Fooding in London, one of World's most vibrant global AgriFoodTech Hubs. Also dubbed as ‘*The Fortune 500’ of the AgriFoodTech sector*, The FoodTech 500 is the world's definitive list of global entrepreneurial talent at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability. Since 2019, it has become the most recognised and trustworthy ranking of AgriFoodTech companies, and a true benchmark for the industry. This exclusive event offers a unique opportunity to delve into the latest innovations and trends shaping the AgriFoodTech sector. As we reveal the top companies driving change and sustainability in AgriFoodtech, you'll gain invaluable insights into the future of food and agriculture. This gathering is not just about celebrating achievements; it's a chance to connect with industry leaders, innovators, and like-minded professionals who are passionate about transforming our Food System. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, F&B Corporate Executive, or simply curious to deepen your knowledge about the future of food, this event promises to enrich your understanding of the AgriFoodTech Innovation landscape and expand your business network. Don't miss the opportunity to contribute to this pivotal moment for the AgriFoodTech world, as we release the Official Ranking of this year's FoodTech 500. ​For the second year in a row, we will have the pleasure to be joined on stage by our FoodTech 500 sponsor pladis, who will present the second edition of their [Accelerator Programme](https://www.pladisglobal.com/our-impact/pladis-accelerator-programme), powered by Yıldız Ventures and supporting early‑stage companies building the next wave of cleaner, healthier and more sustainable snacking solutions. **Agenda & Speakers**: **17:00 - 18:00** \- Doors open \- Networking & Live showcasing of innovative products and technologies by UK FoodTech companies **18.00 - 18:15** \- Welcome & Intro \- by Alessio D'Antino\, Founding Partner & CEO \- [Forward Fooding](http://forwardfooding.com/) and event co-hosts [ScaleSpace](https://www.scalespace.co.uk/) & [Bezos Centre for Sustainable Proteins](https://bezoscentre.co.uk/) ​**18.15 - 18.30** \- Unveiling the Official Ranking of the 2025 FoodTech 500 & 'State of the Art' of the Global FoodTech Sector \- [Forward Fooding](http://forwardfooding.com/) **18.30 - 18.40** \- Announcing the Official 2025 FoodTech 500 Sponsor \- by Tim Ingmire\, VP \- Global Innovation & Technology \- [pladis](https://www.pladisglobal.com/) **18.40 - 19.30** \- Learn from Entrepreneurs \- Companies presentations \+ Q&A with a selection of international companies form the [FoodTech 500](https://forwardfooding.com/foodtech500/): -Zoe Yu Tung Law, Co-Founder & CEO, [New Wave Biotech](https://newwavebiotech.com/) -Thijs Bosch, CEO, [The Protein Brewery](https://theproteinbrewery.nl/) -Olga Sukhman, VP of Operations & Marketing, [AKA Foods](https://aka-food.com/) -Suzanne Robinson, Chief Commercial Officer, [Kyomei](kyomei.co.uk) *More speakers to be announced soon* **19:30 - 21:30** \- Networking & Live showcasing of innovative products and technologies by a selection of FoodTech 500 companies\. ​**Event Co-hosts** The **[Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein](https://bezoscentre.co.uk/)**, supported by the Bezos Earth Fund, drives the sustainable food revolution and advances microbial food innovation through cutting-edge science, advanced fermentation technologies, and strategic collaboration.​ ​\*\*[ScaleSpace ](https://www.scalespace.co.uk/)\*\*is a launchpad for innovative businesses looking to scale, a dynamic community, born from a unique partnership between **Blenheim Chalcot** and **Imperial College London**, bringing together the best of industry and academia to support the businesses of tomorrow. This event is also run in partnership with **[Global Tech Advocates](https://www.globaltechadvocates.org/),** the only truly international grassroots tech community, uniting the private sector in multiple cities and regions worldwide. We look forward to seeing you there as we taste and discuss the future of food! ​ The Forward Fooding Team

Its Springtime, and the gardens and landscape are bursting into life! To celebrate this in our digital world, 3D London has partnered with ITOOSOFT, the makers of ForestPack, to bring you an evening of 3D horticultural inspiration. **Headline Presentations** * **Paul Roberts**, Training and Content Manager - ITOOSOFT "The Craft of Parametric Thinking" https://www.itoosoft.com/ * **Karen Gazzard**, The Ruby Cube. "How I have taken the skills learnt in arch-vis and applied them to a different industry - visualisation for ecology." https://therubycube.com/ **First-time Presentation** **Alesandros Vounatsos** \- Alvo Headquarters Production Company "Presenting his short film, produced in Blender". https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandros-vounatsos-aa3b3175/ The ITOO team kindly sponsored April's meetup. Thank you! Thanks to our sponsors for supporting our monthly meetups. **[SiNi Software](https://www.sinisoftware.com/)** , **[Chaos](https://www.chaos.com/) , [ITOOSOFT](https://www.itoosoft.com/) , [NTI](https://www.nti-group.com/uk/) , [Heata](https://www.heata.co/)** #3dlondon #monthlymeetup

Script Reading, Improvisation, Voice Projection, Games, Public Speaking and Audition Techniques will be some of the points covered over the coming terms. Drama is ideal for building confidence, helping with articulation and developing presentation skills. ***It is also a lot of fun!*** The classes have built up over the last five years and are run by Mario Renzullo, who was an original member of the famed Anna Scher theatre and made his professional debut in 1970 and went on to have many lead TV, Film and Theatre roles. Mario founded the theatrical agency Smart Management, which has been running for over twenty years. The classes are open to a wide age range and welcome both newcomers to acting and those with professional acting experience. **Typically, between 12 and 20 people join us each week, creating a lively and engaging group dynamic.** **Venue:** **The Angel Church, Chadwell Street EC1R 1XA** **Five minutes’ walk from the Angel tube station.** **Thursday evenings at 7.00 pm – 8.30 pm.** Fee: £10.00 cash per session. For more information, please email your contact details to: smartmanagement@btconnect.com

Welcome to our second London meetup of 2026, where we discuss Gen AI and Kubernetes! Details below: **Location:** Civo Tech Junction, First Floor, 32-37 Cowper St, London EC2A 4AW **Time:** Doors open at 6PM **Drinks, snacks, talks, and networking.** We’re excited to invite you to our second in-person **DevOps Society Meetup** of 2026, proudly **sponsored by Cast AI**. This event is focussed around Gen AI and Kubernetes, with two really exciting speakers lined up for this one in Carly and Kunal. Format of the Meetup: 6:00pm – 6:30pm — Networking on arrival, with food and drinks provided by CastAI 6:30pm – 7:10pm — First speaker + Q&A 7:10pm – 7:20pm — Break for refreshments and networking 7:20pm – 8:00pm — Second speaker + Q&A 8:00pm onwards — More networking at the venue, then at a nearby pub. *Timings can vary slightly depending on Q&A.* We’re excited to welcome everyone to our next DevOps Society London meetup, where we’ll be diving into two incredibly relevant topics in modern infrastructure: observing GenAI applications in production and optimising Kubernetes clusters. We’ll be joined by two brilliant speakers from the ecosystem who are working at the forefront of developer tooling and cloud infrastructure. As always, expect a relaxed evening of technical learning, discussion, and networking with fellow engineers from across the London tech community. *** ## 🎤 Speaker 1 - Carly Richmond **Developer Advocate Lead @ Elastic** ### Observing AI Applications with OpenLit and OpenTelemetry Observability is the ability to measure the current state of a system. With the rapid emergence of LLMs and GenAI applications moving into production, teams now need deeper insight into how these systems behave in real-world environments. In this talk, Carly will explore best practices for observing production AI applications, covering how engineers can capture logs, traces, and metrics to better understand how LLMs interact within their application ecosystem. She’ll walk through a real example of instrumenting an AI agent application written in TypeScript, using OpenLit to generate OpenTelemetry signals. The session will show the types of telemetry data teams can capture to identify usage patterns, detect errors, and troubleshoot issues commonly seen in production GenAI applications. ### About Carly Carly Richmond is Developer Advocate Lead at Elastic, based in London. She’s a UI developer who also writes backend services, a keynote speaker, and a tech writer who is passionate about helping developers build better systems. Outside of tech, Carly enjoys cooking, photography, drinking tea, and chasing after her young son. *** ## 🎤 Speaker 2 - Kunal Kushwaha **Senior Developer Advocate @ CAST AI** ### Optimizing Kubernetes and Unlocking Blockers with Container Live Migration Kubernetes promises automation, yet most clusters run at around **10% CPU utilisation**, leaving large amounts of infrastructure sitting idle. With endless instance types, constantly shifting prices, and the complexity of modern workloads, maintaining efficient clusters can quickly become a full-time job. In this talk, Kunal explores the real-world challenges teams face when running Kubernetes in production. He’ll cover where Kubernetes automation works well, where it falls short, and why optimisation remains difficult for many teams. Topics include: * Why most Kubernetes clusters are underutilised * The realities of autoscaling in production environments * Challenges around instance types and Spot capacity * Common mistakes teams make with HPA and VPA Once these challenges are laid out, Kunal introduces Container Live Migration as a way to overcome some of these long-standing blockers. To bring the concept to life, he’ll run a live technical demo where Pods running a small video game are migrated across nodes in real time, while the audience participates. The game continues running without downtime, demonstrating how live migration can improve cluster efficiency without disrupting workloads. Please register below to secure your spot. Spaces are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. We’re really looking forward to getting the community back together again for our first event of 2026. [Our slack community](https://join.slack.com/t/devopssociety/shared_invite/zt-3mswuylw7-MhJg1IZ70rX_GpJTluG2Cw) \- join in and introduce yourself\! [Our Youtube Channel ](https://www.youtube.com/@DevOpsSociety)for regular podcasts with DevOps professionals + more DevOps content. [Website](https://thedevopsociety.com/) [To partner with us](https://thedevopsociety.com/partnerships) CAST AI website - https://cast.ai/ Thanks! From the DevOps Society team [Ben](https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwhitmarsh/) and [Vytas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vytasdevops/)

**About this event** Whether you've just heard about OpenClaw or you've been running it for a while, come along and meet your people. This is a relaxed, informal get-together for beginners and experts alike — no agenda, no pressure, just good conversation and a shared love of OpenClaw. Bring your laptop, chat with new friends, swap ideas, and build stuff together. **Cost** Free — no tickets, no fees, just show up.

We are excited to announce our upcoming Spring Community Showcase. This event is an opportunity for individuals at all skill levels to come together and share their experiences with Rust. Whether you’re working on a personal project, contributing to an open-source initiative, or teaching a concept related to Rust, we invite you to present your work and insights. Take this opportunity to build your confidence and share what you are doing. Speakers === If you would like to give a presentation, please send Ernest a direct message with your talk title and a brief abstract of approximately 60 words. Each presentation will last about 25 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for questions and answers, for a total of 30 minutes. We have four slots available this month. **Dan Groshev** Okmain Library: You have an image, but you want a colour How do you pick a colour that represents an image but also looks good? Dan will talk about his Okmain library, colour science, auto-vectorisation, SIMD, and his experience building it in Rust and PyO3. **Jérôme Étévé** Mockapot: A percolator library in Rust Jérôme is the author of the Mokcaccino library, which started as a way to marry my interests for Rust and for search technology. He will discuss the design, the tricky aspects of Rust he learned along the way, and how Rust and Python complement each other. **Evadne Wu** JavaScript Sandboxing using Deno on top of Elixir & Erlang/OTP. Intelligent AI agents can write code that calls existing APIs in secure sandboxes, allowing higher token efficiency, better performance, and lower per-turn latency. Deno’s primitives in Rust can be integrated into such an agent harness, utilising the Elixir programming language and the Erlang/OTP runtime, which allows you to construct agentic systems that are massively concurrent and fault-tolerant.

Join fellow product people at The Product Group London on **Thu 2nd April** for an evening of learning, sharing and networking. **Topic of the Night: Product Outcomes Over Outputs** Product management is changing to be much more focused on achieving quantifiable outcomes over outputs and hitting dates. So how do product people make the shift and stay in the outcomes lane? On the night, we’ll explore what this really means incl. the important outcomes to focus on; making the culture shift to outcome focused; adjusting success metrics; using outcomes to drive product strategies, roadmaps, discovery and delivery; getting stakeholders onboard with a different way of thinking, and much more. **Featured Guest: Phil Hornby, Global Product Lead, ZF Group** Phil is a product leader, coach and technologist with over 20 years of experience across SaaS, IoT and Automotive. His career has spanned development, sales and operations, but product management is where he found his home, focusing on solving complex customer problems with scalable solutions. Today, Phil works as Global Product Lead at ZF, leading a tier 1 commercial vehicle diagnostics platform. As a senior IC, he works across multiple product teams to shape cohesive products that combine commercial thinking with deep technical expertise. He also founded a ZF community of practice to connect and grow digital product professionals. Alongside his ZF role, Phil continues to coach product leaders and teams, having supported thousands of individuals across hundreds of companies. He is known for helping people think clearly, make better decisions and take action that drives real impact. Phil is also a regular speaker and co-host of the Talking Roadmaps podcast. **About The Product Group London** The Product Group London is a monthly meetup designed to bring product people of all levels together for topical discussions, as a group and with our guest speakers. With attendees from startups to large enterprises, there is no shortage of opportunities to network and make new connections. And whilst the focus is on product management, we welcome product designers and engineers to join for some friendly and lively discussions. **A word about our sponsor and host, BrainStation** [BrainStation](https://brainstation.io/london) is a global leader in digital skills training, empowering businesses and brands to succeed in the digital age. Established in 2012, BrainStation has worked with over 500 instructors from the most innovative companies, developing cutting-edge, real-world digital education that has empowered professionals and some of the largest corporations in the world.

**eCommerce & marketing course in London. Build your online store free.** By Getshop Today, Tide Bank & Temu. In-person expert training. This isn't just a course. It's a launchpad and Opportunity. Learn how to build and market an online business, and if you decide to move forward, we'll set everything up for you - at no cost. **Who's Teaching This?** The people behind this course actually built the tools you'll use: * **Getshop Today** \- a UK\-based eCommerce platform that builds your independent online store * **Brand Backie** \- an AI marketing tool that helps you promote your products We're not just instructors. We built the technology. **In official partnership with:** * **Tide Bank** \- providing smart banking solutions tailored for new eCommerce businesses\. * **Temu** \- unlocking complimentary Temu shop access for 12–18 months to accelerate your launch\. **Two Afternoons. Real Results.** **Day 1 \- Saturday\, 4\-7 PM \| Intro Training** Learn the foundations: how online stores work, dropshipping vs. selling your own products, multi-platform selling, and how to market effectively. Includes live demos. At the end, you choose whether to take up the **Opportunity**. **Day 2 \- Sunday\, 4\-7 PM \| Implementation Masterclass** For those who join the **Opportunity** only. We go deeper - advanced setup, marketing strategy, and a step-by-step launch plan. We start building your store live. *** **The Opportunity** By the end of Day 1, you’ll decide whether to take the leap. If you’re in, we’ll help you open a Tide business account right then and there - equipping you with the legal and financial foundation to launch and run your store immediately. As part of this, you’ll deposit a small initial amount (typically around £100) into your own account to get your business operational (this is not a fee and remains your money). **This unlocks 2 Options for you:** **Option 1 - Sell Your Own Products** We build your independent store, set up your Temu seller account, and train you to manage and market everything using Brand Backie. ✅ 12 months free independent online store ✅ 18 months free Temu shop ✅ Full marketing training **Option 2 - Dropshipping** We build your store and integrate it with eBay and TikTok Shop, then train you to market and scale across platforms. ✅ 12 months free independent online store ✅ 12 months free Temu shop (no dropshipping here) ✅ eBay & TikTok Shop integration ✅ Full marketing training *** **What You Get** Proprietary UK-built technology, 12–18 months of tools for free, multi-platform setup, and direct access to the founders. A real business, built from day one - not theory. **Bring your laptop. Basic computer skills needed. Arrive on time** \- sessions are step\-by\-step and build on each other\. **Spaces are limited. Register now!**

**Looking for a high-quality business networking event in London** to connect with founders, entrepreneurs, and professionals? Join us in the elegant **Sycamore Bar at the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel, Covent Garden,** where real business connections happen**.** Co-hosted by London tech startups **GMax Card, Ciitab and Getshop Today.** **Why Attend?** * A more polished, higher-quality alternative to typical casual networking events * Build valuable business connections in a premium environment * Exchange ideas and uncover new opportunities **Who You’ll Meet:** * Founders and entrepreneurs * Tech, digital, and product professionals * Business owners, consultants, and senior decision-makers * Professionals in finance, banking, and investment * International professionals based in London **Hosted by founder-built tech startups:** * **[GMax Card](www.gmaxcard.com)**[ - premium digital and contactless business cards](www.gmaxcard.com) for modern networking * **[Ciitab](www.ciitab.com)**[ - AI-powered LinkedIn networking](www.ciitab.com) and outreach * **[Getshop Today](www.getshop.today)**[ - UK-built ecommerce platform](www.getshop.today) for independent online stores **What to Expect** Expect a relaxed, high-quality atmosphere with space for natural introductions and open business networking. Hosts are available on arrival to help facilitate introductions. **Venue** **Sycamore Bar, Middle Eight Hotel**
 A refined, design-led bar inside the 5-star Middle Eight Hotel.
Located in the heart of Covent Garden, within walking distance of Holborn, Covent Garden, and Tottenham Court Road stations. **Note re contactless cards:** Free RSVP includes event access only. [Contactless GMax Cards](http://www.gmaxcard.com/shop) are included with paid tickets (when available). **Dress Code:** Business / smart. This is a business networking event in a 5-star hotel rather than a fully informal gathering in a local pub. **Important Details** * **Age & ID: 18+.** ID may be required for bar purchases. * **Photos & Video:** The event may be filmed or photographed by [CineEye Audiovisual Production](www.cineeye.co.uk) for promotional use. Please inform the organisers on arrival if you do not wish to appear. * **Dress Code:** Smart or business attire only. * **Contactless Cards:** Free RSVP does not include a contactless business card. * **Liability:** Attendance is at your own risk. Organisers and venue do not accept any responsibility for loss, injury, or damage to you or your property. **Limited spaces available - early booking recommended.** You’re also welcome to join [our Meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/london-entrepreneur-startup-network-tech-business-ecommerce/) and [follow us on LinkedIn](http://linkedin.com/company/gmax-card) for future events.

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

Join us for **Ben Frain**'s talk ... Ben's book "Responsive Web Design With HTML5 and CSS" caught my attention (and should interest you as well). Find it here: [https://rwd.education/](https://rwd.education/) ***Bring your laptop and expect to write some (non-AI generated) code!*** Food and drinks will be available. **LOCATION:** 6515 Longshore Loop, Suite 300, Dublin, OH 43017 **FREE PARKING:** 6725 Longshore Street, Dublin, OH 43017

Topic to be announced! **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/ **THANK YOU** *Leading EDJE* for hosting our meetup! Leading EDJE specializes in helping organizations innovate and solve complex problems. EDJE does this with their "A" player team of professionals using agile methodologies and SCRUM management techniques to give organizations a competitive advantage that sets them apart. Learn more at https://www.leadingedje.com/ **THANK YOU** *Amazon Web Services* for sponsoring pizza! Learn more at https://aws.amazon.com/. **DIRECTIONS** 6515 Longshore Loop, Suite 300 Dublin, OH 43017 (3rd floor) **FREE PARKING** at the Endres Garage across the street, 6540 Riverside Dr, Dublin, OH **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab for a future meetup?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

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

**PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT NOTES:** 1. The dates listed for this series are about 95% reliable. We are completing our 2026 schedule as we speak, so minor adjustments are still occurring. 2. Each class in this series has an attendance fee, though this first offering is free on a first-come, first-served basis. 3. Each class, from BOTH a sign-up and fee perspective, is a separate entity. **Introduction:** HTML5 is the foundational technology for modern web development, serving as the standard markup language for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. Developed through a collaboration between the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), HTML5 provides a robust system of elements (tags) that tell a browser how to display text, images, and multimedia in a clear and meaningful way. It works in concert with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for presentation and JavaScript for interactivity, forming the core technology stack for virtually all websites and many web applications today. One of the significant advancements of HTML5 is the introduction of powerful new features and elements designed to improve functionality and simplify development. Key additions include native multimedia support via the \ and \ tags, allowing developers to embed media without third-party plugins. It also offers new form controls for better user input, such as date and email types, and introduces web storage capabilities to store data offline for enhanced performance. These features streamline the process of building rich, interactive web experiences. A significant focus of HTML5 is enhanced semantics and better structural organization of content. New semantic elements like , , , , and \ provide meaningful structure to documents, which aids in search engine optimization (SEO) and improves accessibility for assistive technologies. These elements define different parts of a webpage (e.g., a header for the top, a nav for navigation links, a footer for the bottom), making the code more readable and understandable for both developers and machines. This emphasis on clear structure helps in creating more logical and maintainable websites. Developing websites in today's competitive environment requires taking advantage of every technique you can to get the maximum exposure possible. Our HTML5 class will not only show you what's new in the HTML specification, but also the best way to develop optimized web pages that get the attention your client and/or company requires. **The breakdown of the four-class series is as follows:** **Class 1: Introduction to Web Structure and Basic HTML5** This class introduces the core concepts of web development, the history of HTML, and the fundamental structure of an HTML5 document. * **Topics**: * **Web Architecture Overview**: How browsers, servers, and web pages interact. * **HTML Fundamentals**: Understanding elements, tags, and attributes. * **Basic Document Structure**: Using !DOCTYPE html, html, head, and body. * **Text Formatting**: Headings (h1 to h6), paragraphs (p), and text-level semantics (e.g., strong, em, br). * **Lists and Links**: Creating ordered (ol) and unordered (ul) lists, and linking between pages using anchor tags (a). * **Activity**: Students create a basic personal webpage containing text, a list of hobbies, and a link to an external website. **Class 2: Semantic HTML5 and Multimedia Integration** Class 2 focuses on modern HTML5 elements that provide meaning (semantics) to content, improving accessibility and search engine optimization. It also covers adding images and multimedia. * **Topics**: * **Semantic Elements**: Understanding and implementing elements like header, footer, nav, section, and article. * **Images**: Adding images using the img tag and attributes like src, alt, width, and height. * **Multimedia**: Embedding audio and video content using the audio and video tags. * **File and Folder Structure**: Best practices for organizing project files and managing file paths. * **Activity**: Students refactor their Class 1 project to use a proper semantic layout and add an image and a link to a video file. **Class 3: Forms and User Input** This session is dedicated to building interactive HTML5 forms, which are essential for capturing user data and input. * **Topics**: * **Form Basics**: Using the form element, action and method attributes. * **Input Types**: Exploring various input types (e.g., text, password, checkbox, radio, date, submit). * **Form Elements**: Utilizing label, textarea, select, option, and button. * **Client-side Validation**: Implementing HTML5 validation attributes like required, minlength, and pattern. * **Activity**: Students build a complete contact form with different input fields, radio buttons, and basic HTML5 validation. **Class 4: Introduction to CSS3 and Basic Styling** The final class introduces Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to style the HTML content and make the web pages visually appealing and accessible. * **Topics**: * **CSS Fundamentals**: The role of CSS, selectors, properties, and values. * **Integrating CSS**: Using inline, internal, and external style sheets. * **The Box Model**: Understanding margin, padding, border, and content for basic layout. * **Basic Styling**: Changing colors, fonts, and text alignment. * **Accessibility Basics**: Identifying principles of web design usability and accessibility, including ARIA labels. * **Activity**: Students apply an external CSS file to their Class 3 form project to style the layout, colors, and fonts, culminating in a well-structured and styled webpage.

Pay attention! We’re delaying a week for those of you who may be on Spring break and/or celebrating the holiday. Ok, no pancakes, but waffles-a-plenty. Join the local UX and Digital Design community for a casual monthly breakfast. Look for us upstairs!

**PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT NOTES:** 1. The dates listed for this series are about 95% reliable. We are completing our 2026 schedule as we speak, so minor adjustments are still occurring. 2. Each class in this series has an attendance fee, though this first offering is free on a first-come, first-served basis. 3. Each class, from BOTH a sign-up and fee perspective, is a separate entity. **Introduction:** HTML5 is the foundational technology for modern web development, serving as the standard markup language for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. Developed through a collaboration between the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), HTML5 provides a robust system of elements (tags) that tell a browser how to display text, images, and multimedia in a clear and meaningful way. It works in concert with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for presentation and JavaScript for interactivity, forming the core technology stack for virtually all websites and many web applications today. One of the significant advancements of HTML5 is the introduction of powerful new features and elements designed to improve functionality and simplify development. Key additions include native multimedia support via the \ and \ tags, allowing developers to embed media without third-party plugins. It also offers new form controls for better user input, such as date and email types, and introduces web storage capabilities to store data offline for enhanced performance. These features streamline the process of building rich, interactive web experiences. A significant focus of HTML5 is enhanced semantics and better structural organization of content. New semantic elements like , , , , and \ provide meaningful structure to documents, which aids in search engine optimization (SEO) and improves accessibility for assistive technologies. These elements define different parts of a webpage (e.g., a header for the top, a nav for navigation links, a footer for the bottom), making the code more readable and understandable for both developers and machines. This emphasis on clear structure helps in creating more logical and maintainable websites. Developing websites in today's competitive environment requires taking advantage of every technique you can to get the maximum exposure possible. Our HTML5 class will not only show you what's new in the HTML specification, but also the best way to develop optimized web pages that get the attention your client and/or company requires. **The breakdown of the four-class series is as follows:** **Class 1: Introduction to Web Structure and Basic HTML5** This class introduces the core concepts of web development, the history of HTML, and the fundamental structure of an HTML5 document. * **Topics**: * **Web Architecture Overview**: How browsers, servers, and web pages interact. * **HTML Fundamentals**: Understanding elements, tags, and attributes. * **Basic Document Structure**: Using !DOCTYPE html, html, head, and body. * **Text Formatting**: Headings (h1 to h6), paragraphs (p), and text-level semantics (e.g., strong, em, br). * **Lists and Links**: Creating ordered (ol) and unordered (ul) lists, and linking between pages using anchor tags (a). * **Activity**: Students create a basic personal webpage containing text, a list of hobbies, and a link to an external website. **Class 2: Semantic HTML5 and Multimedia Integration** Class 2 focuses on modern HTML5 elements that provide meaning (semantics) to content, improving accessibility and search engine optimization. It also covers adding images and multimedia. * **Topics**: * **Semantic Elements**: Understanding and implementing elements like header, footer, nav, section, and article. * **Images**: Adding images using the img tag and attributes like src, alt, width, and height. * **Multimedia**: Embedding audio and video content using the audio and video tags. * **File and Folder Structure**: Best practices for organizing project files and managing file paths. * **Activity**: Students refactor their Class 1 project to use a proper semantic layout and add an image and a link to a video file. **Class 3: Forms and User Input** This session is dedicated to building interactive HTML5 forms, which are essential for capturing user data and input. * **Topics**: * **Form Basics**: Using the form element, action and method attributes. * **Input Types**: Exploring various input types (e.g., text, password, checkbox, radio, date, submit). * **Form Elements**: Utilizing label, textarea, select, option, and button. * **Client-side Validation**: Implementing HTML5 validation attributes like required, minlength, and pattern. * **Activity**: Students build a complete contact form with different input fields, radio buttons, and basic HTML5 validation. **Class 4: Introduction to CSS3 and Basic Styling** The final class introduces Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to style the HTML content and make the web pages visually appealing and accessible. * **Topics**: * **CSS Fundamentals**: The role of CSS, selectors, properties, and values. * **Integrating CSS**: Using inline, internal, and external style sheets. * **The Box Model**: Understanding margin, padding, border, and content for basic layout. * **Basic Styling**: Changing colors, fonts, and text alignment. * **Accessibility Basics**: Identifying principles of web design usability and accessibility, including ARIA labels. * **Activity**: Students apply an external CSS file to their Class 3 form project to style the layout, colors, and fonts, culminating in a well-structured and styled webpage.