Usability

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

This meetup is for people that want to play table games: board games, strategy games, episodic RPGs, eurogames, card games and co-operative games. NOT A GAMER BUT WANT TO LEARN? We teach them all... We are open minded on all games. Games we plan to teach and play include Ascension, Azul, Azul Summer Pavillion, Splendor, Magic The Gathering, Melee/Wizard, Backgammon, Castallan, Chess Variants, Compounded, Dead of Winters: Crossroads, Dixit, Dominion, Exploding Kittens, Flux, GravWell, Ghost Stories, Hanabi, Heroquest RPG, Hive, House Divided, House on the Hill, Illuminati, Ingenious, King of Tokyo, Lost Cities, Machi Koro, Munchkin, Pandemic, Pirate Dice, Ogre/GEV, Qwirkle, Race for the Galaxy, Roll Through The Ages, Ricochet Robot, RoboRally, Settlers of Catan, Sagrada, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Splendor, Spot-It, Sushi-To-Go, Takenoko, Ticket to Ride, Tsuro, Up Front, Yahtzee, Advanced Wizards Card Game, etc.

**NOTE THE EARLIER 9:30 AM START TIME!** **THIS HAS THE NEW START LOCATION AT THE SOUTH END OF BLUEMONT PARK** **++++++++++++++++++++** **The Ride: Summary** **(Must Read)** **++++++++++++++++++++** * RIDE NAME: The Koffee Klatch Ride: Gustave's * START LOC: **[Bluemont Park Playground](https://www.google.com/maps/place/38%C2%B052'07.6%22N+77%C2%B007'55.7%22W/@38.868786,-77.132133,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d38.868786!4d-77.132133!5m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMwOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)** * **BEST ACCESS FROM RTE 50** * Start GPS: [38°52'07.6"N 77°07'55.7"W](https://www.google.com/maps/place/South+Bluemont+Parking+Area/@38.868907,-77.1342983,16z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x89b7b50016fd88fd:0x8afb6bdf9318a324!8m2!3d38.8689029!4d-77.1317234!16s%2Fg%2F11xgvpr5kw!5m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D) ARRIVAL: 9:30am * SPEECH: 9:40am * ROLLING: 9:45am * LEVEL: Medium * DISTANCE: 17 mi * PACE: 11-13 mph (Social Pace) * TERRAIN: Trail / Street / Cycle path * RIDEWITHGPS ROUTE: **CBG_KOFFEEK_SIMSOCV_2026** [ https://ridewithgps.com/routes/55111546](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/55111546) **Notes:** * This ride is organized "lean" * Pump your tires on the morning of the ride, please. * It is strongly suggested that you become a NoVA CBG RidewithGPS club member and download the route posted for each "Klatch". * Loading the route onto your Garmin (or other Nav device) is also acceptable. * **NoVA CBG has a turn by turn RideWithGPS club account that's free. [https://www.meetup.com/novacbg/events/271742916/](https://www.meetup.com/novacbg/events/271742916/)** **++++++++++++++++++++** **The Ride: Detail** **++++++++++++++++++++** Welcome to The Koffee Klatch! These rides are normally based off the Arlington Loop, where we visit different area coffee shops or bakeries for a cup and/or treat if desired but you don't have to drink or even like coffee to participate. This week we will head to the east side of Vienna. The ride is a 17 mile flatish medium level ridden at a social pace (11-13 mph). We will get on the W&OD from the Bluemont **SOUTH** Parking Area out to the Adahi RD SE wormhole (2nd left after mm 10), through the neighborhood to the Vienna Simply Social in the Cedar Park Shopping center at mile 8.4. We will cross Cedar to Bowling Green and Cottage Grove heading back to the W&OD. We will take neighborhood streets back through Falls Church **+++++++++++++++++++++** **The Meeting Spot:** **+++++++++++++++++++++** **South** Bluemont Parking 329 N Manchester St Arlington, VA 22203 GPS: [38°52'07.6"N 77°07'55.7"W](https://www.google.com/maps/place/38%C2%B052'07.6%22N+77%C2%B007'55.7%22W/@38.868786,-77.132133,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d38.868786!4d-77.132133!5m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMwOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D) We will meet in the parking lot. * This location has Restrooms * Next to the Playground and Disc Golf Course **+++++++++++++++++++++** **The Koffee Within The Ride:** **+++++++++++++++++++++** **[Vienna Simply Social Coffee](https://simplysocialcoffee.com/eat-vienna/)** 260 Cedar Ln SE, Vienna, VA 22180 **+++++++++++++++++++++** **Ride Level Chart** **+++++++++++++++++++++** NoVA CBG tries to accommodate all levels of cyclists by offering different types/levels of rides. We just ask that you come to the ride that suits your current riding ability the best. * Introductory Level: If you haven't ridden a bike in a number of years (or are uncertain of your abilities on a bicycle). * Beginner Level: You can ride for 10+ miles at a pace of 10+ to 12+ mph with potentially minor hills involved. * Medium Level: You can ride for 20+ miles at a pace of 13+ to 15+ mph with potentially moderate hills involved. * Advanced Level: You can ride for 20++ miles at a pace of 15+ mph with potentially major hills involved. Both Medium and Advanced Levels might require handling various challenges such as reading cue sheets, using a Garmin or navigation app, night riding, out of town travel, or any other odd cycling situations. **+++++++++++++++++++++** **The Fine Print:** **+++++++++++++++++++++** An RSVP of 'YES' is your digital signature and means you have read and understood [MEETUP.com](http://meetup.com/)'s: * "Terms of Service : Section 6. Release" found at [https://www.meetup.com/terms/](https://www.meetup.com/terms/) * NOVA-CBG's "Assumption of Risk Agreement" found @ [https://www.meetup.com/novacbg/pages/1942951/NOVA-CBG_Waiver/](https://www.meetup.com/novacbg/pages/1942951/NOVA-CBG_Waiver/) * NoVA CBG's "COVID Policy" found @ [http://bit.ly/2021_NoVACBG_COVID19_POLICY](http://bit.ly/2021_NoVACBG_COVID19_POLICY) Helmets are required to participate in all NOVA-CBG rides. All riders ride at their own risk and with the understanding that cycling is an inherently dangerous activity. When coming to the meetup you do so voluntarily and are ready and able to participate in the ride as described under the conditions of the day. Be on time for the "pre-ride" preparation. If you do not attend the pre-ride preparation you will not be allowed to participate on the ride. There are NO exceptions to the above.

Here is the event information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/theater-lost-my-way-saskia-norman-elisabeth-halikiopoulos-tickets-1987935950943 Its a free event, but you have to register in advance, cos the tickets will run out.

Bring a friend, bring family, and bring that neighbor that you kinda know... Come one, come all for some free table tennis. Note: Because we have been playing regularly for years, members tend not to RSVP. If there are any questions, feel free to message.

Whether you’re coming solo or with friends, Divino is the perfect place to gather. Enjoy live music, handcrafted dishes, and a warm, social atmosphere. FREE PARKING GARAGE

NOTE CHANGE IN VENUE! GM Anne will be running a session of Dolmenwood. Dolmenwood is a fantasy adventure game set in a lavishly detailed world inspired by the fairy tales and eerie folklore of the British Isles. Like traditional fairy tales, Dolmenwood blends the dark and whimsical, the wondrous and weird. We’ll be starting with level 2 characters. New players welcome! No prep needed! If you want to familiarize yourself with the system and/or roll up a character, free resources can be found here: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/dolmenwood-free-resources **Where**: Belle Pre Apartment Building, Alexandria VA (public conference room) Looking for a place to play in-person RPGs and make new friends? Burnt out on internet D&D? Interested in trying games like Shadowdark and Dungeon Crawl Classics? Look no further than DMV RPG - Open Table! Whether you're a seasoned player or just getting started with tabletop role-playing, our group offers a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all gamers to gather and embark on epic adventures together. From Dungeons & Dragons to sci-fi sagas, there's something for everyone here. Join us for regularly scheduled meetups, make new friends, and unleash your imagination in a fun and collaborative setting. Let the games begin! **Rules**: always teachable at the table **Gaming is for everybody**: Welcoming, inclusive, and safe **Pregens**: the GM will have pre-made characters so you can jump right in **Game**: Old School & New School, but likely lightweight **Multiple GMs**: We run games in a rotating GM format, so come to play and make friends, but we'll be looking for your interesting one shots and mini-campaigns to try.

**NEW MEMBERS or 1st TIME EVENT GO-ERS** Before attending your first event, please take a moment to understand how our dinners work and what we ask of members. → **[Learn how DC Metro Dining works](https://tinyurl.com/Landing-Page-DC-Metro-Dining)** → **[Ensure Group Notifications are Setup (Announcements + In on Waitlist/Attending List)](https://app.tango.us/app/workflow/Enable-Meetup-Email-Notifications-3a85109614fc4907940503d096331392)** **RSVP CUTOFF (i.e. Final Change Your Mind if Registered YES)** → **RSVP Cancellation Cutoff for this Event is Sunday 10a, 5/24**. (*Late Cancel applies after this, repeat occurrences can impact membership*) Let’s explore an upscale dining experience that blends West African tradition with modern culinary innovation. We are heading to **Elmina** in Shaw, from Top Chef finalist and Food Network personality Eric Adjepong, known for bringing modern Ghanaian cuisine into a refined dining setting. **FOOD**: Elmina blends traditional West African flavors with modern technique, with a menu that highlights depth, spice, and layered composition. Dishes frequently called out include the jollof duck pot and egusi stew dumplings, both reworking classic Ghanaian staples into more refined presentations. You will also find grilled meats with suya-style seasoning, seafood dishes with balanced heat and acidity, and rotating plates that reflect regional influences. The menu leans bold and savory, with options across meat, seafood, and some vegetarian-friendly selections. Cocktails often incorporate tropical and spice-forward elements that align closely with the cuisine. Most members should expect total spend to land roughly in the 55 to 85 dollar range, depending on beverage participation. → **Explore Elmina's menu:** **[https://www.elminarestaurant.com/menu](https://www.elminarestaurant.com/menu)** **SPACE**: Stylish, modern dining room with a warm, intimate layout. Expect a lively but controlled atmosphere with moderate noise levels, especially on a Sunday evening. → **Visit the restaurant site (scroll half way down to la carte menu)**: **[https://www.elminarestaurant.com/](https://www.elminarestaurant.com/)** * Tax/Tip combo is our required 30% tax/tip policy (see the FAQs for more details). * Limited to 8 slots. See you there! JoeN **CLOSEST METRO**: \***U Street–African-Amer Civil War Memorial–Cardozo station** (Green, Yellow) is the closest stop. Walk east along Florida Ave NW. The walk is about 12–15 minutes \*For directions using the Metro, try using the Plan a Trip feature at the WMATA website ([click on your preferred Metro station](https://www.wmata.com/rider-guide/stations/index.cfm) then at the Station page level click "Plan a Trip". **PARKING**: Street parking in this area can be difficult on weekend evenings. Several paid garages are located within a few blocks along 14th Street and nearby side streets. Plan accordingly. ***Attendance Notes:*** -\* **If you RSVP “YES,” please commit to showing up**. *With 5,400+ members and limited seating, we can’t afford no-shows. It’s not fair to other members or to our relationship with the restaurant.*\* -\*\* New Members / 1st Timers: **Trying to get a slot? Join the Waitlist and check back frequently: spots (*often open up before Noon on the day of the event. You may also receive midweek confirmation emails to reconfirm your RSVP, so please check your Meetup DMs inbox).*** -\* Billing Reminder - Add 30% for tax and tip to your food and drink total.\*\*\* This is part of our group’s expectations and helps smooth out service with the restaurant. Looking forward to dining with you! JoeN

Ausarian Tantra Yoga is a practice that infuses the spirit and power of enlightenment through synchronizing breath, movement, meditation, and silent affirmation. Ausarian Tantra Yoga incorporates postures that reflect some of the principles of the Kemetic culture. It is a practice wherein gradual and deliberate movement allows moments for the mind, body, and spirit to connect and express oneness. **Please reserve your spot at www.piesfitnessyoga.com**. The session is offered both InStudio and OnLine. The Zoom link for the OnLine session will be emailed 15 minutes before class starts to those who are registered at www.piesfitnessyoga.com. **Sign up for sessions must be made at least 2 hours prior to class.** The address is 1322 Prince St Alexandria, VA 22314. Our entrance is located on the side of the building, parallel to West St. **Street parking is available and additional parking is located at Shiloh Baptist church, spaces 36,37,38,39.** The church is located across the street from the studio, on the corner of Duke St. and West St. Discount is available to seniors, teachers, students, emergency responders, and military. All can save by purchasing class packs.

Our first Technoverts meetup had a great turnout, so we're doing it again, this time with an optional conversation theme: **How people are actually using AI in everyday work and life**. This is not a panel or presentation, and I do not have a fixed agenda, it's just a relaxed coffee conversation for people in tech (or tech-adjacent fields) who are curious about practical AI use cases, useful tools, workflow hacks, weird experiments, and what's generally helping people right now. *Topics might include:* * AI tools people actually use at work * Productivity and automation * Prompting successes and failures * Writing, coding, research, analytics and creative use cases * What feels overhyped vs. genuinely useful. No expertise is required. It's completely fine to come mostly curious, skeptical, or just interested in meeting thoughtful people in tech. *What to expect:* * Low pressure conversation * A mix of tech talk and normal conversation Location: (Subject to change as I do more research) High Point Pub Tyson's Whole Foods, 1635 Boro Pl. (This is the cafe space on the second floor of the Whole Foods at the Boro, Tysons. Parking is free in the garage with validation). Time: 11 am (this is when the cafe opens). Everyone covers their own coffee/snacks. I'll arrive early and grab a table and will post details about location in the event discussion. Address: 1635 Boro Pl. Whole Foods 2nd Floor Cafe

Join us for the first gathering of **DC Digital Minds**, a new meetup for people interested in AI, consciousness, digital minds, the human-AI relationship, ethics, policy, and the strange new questions emerging at the frontier. This kickoff will be casual and friendly: no lecture, no homework, no need to arrive with settled views. Come get to know other curious people over Greek food at **Zorba’s Cafe,** share what drew you to the topic, and bring ideas for future meetups. Whether you’re a researcher, technologist, policy person, philosopher, writer, student, or just someone who keeps thinking “wait, what *are* these systems becoming?”, you’re welcome. We’ll use this first gathering to meet each other, compare interests, and start shaping what this group can become. **What to expect:** Informal conversation, introductions, food/drinks available for purchase, and a chance to suggest future topics and formats. **Where to find us:** Your group organizer, Jessie, will be upstairs and to the right as you reach the top of the stairs.

Weekly Saturday group ride, starting at Handy Bikes Retail Showroom. Come ride with locals in the area! This group ride is for average folks who want to go for an average ride. It's not quite a coffee ride, but it's definitely not a race! Routes will vary around the area, with an average speed around 14 mph (minimum of \~10 MPH) for around 15-30 miles. We'll be on pavement so bikes with smooth tires are encouraged, **helmets are mandatory**. Open to any riders who are willing and able to ride with a group including Class 1, 2, and 3 e-bikes. No speed demons please! Good group ride etiquette is a requirement. Shop opens at 10:00 am Show up and sign in by 10:15 am Roll out 10:30 am Please RSVP in advance, so that the ride leaders can prepare for the group's size. [Handy Bikes on Strava](https://www.strava.com/clubs/737920/leaderboard) [Handy Bikes on RideWithGPS](https://ridewithgps.com/organizations/14675-handy-bikes)

Today we are Steve's Lab. RSVP and you'll be sent the location. It's in Silver Spring. ***Join us for an evening in an electronics lab where we will attempt to run clean scans of graphene and gold samples, and then clean up that data with post processing.*** This is a high sensitivity experiment, and we do not plan on being successful so early. But we've had promising results lately - so we will be putting in the time. We are NOT meeting at our usual location, but rather at Steve's house/lab. If you RSVP, you will get a DM with the address but it's located in Silver Spring. We will attempt full, clean lab - clean tip repeated scanning tests to see what we can learn and improve. We will experiment with online attendees, but if all possible showing up in person is strongly encouraged. Online join link is: - [https://meet.jit.si/mocomakers](https://meet.jit.si/mocomakers) Our community is building (and documenting for other teams) how to build a scanning tunneling microscope using a mix of common and 3D printed parts. This will allow us to scan and visualize a single atom - an ambitious we are doing over the course of a few months. The MoCo Makers community is one of the most innovative and competent groups in Maryland, and we've done everything from [publishing cancer research](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38136356/), to [launching products](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gotim/cozy-curvy-multi-contour-pillow), [winning grants](https://covidinfocommons.datascience.columbia.edu/awards/2014255), and inspiring thousands. Now our biggest challenge yet has appeared. We are building a Scanning Tunneling Microscope, that will allow us to scan and visualize single atoms. To get a better idea of what we are doing, see our reference project here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N3OqTEq08g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N3OqTEq08g) All starting CAD, code, and reference files should exist. However, let's be the first Maker community to document the build process and share it with learners around the world. We will be publishing our work here -[ https://hackaday.io/project/202816-qt-panda](https://hackaday.io/project/202816-qt-panda) If you need a ride, let us know.

Customer identity resolution becomes increasingly complex as organizations scale across multiple systems, regions, and data formats. Traditional rule-based approaches often fail to keep up with data variability, require constant manual tuning, and struggle with real-time processing needs. This session presents a practical approach to building a scalable identity resolution pipeline using AWS services and modern AI techniques. The architecture combines data ingestion through Amazon S3 and AWS Glue, transformation pipelines using Spark on EMR, and machine learning models deployed via SageMaker for entity matching and standardization. Graph-based relationship modeling is implemented using Amazon Neptune to improve resolution accuracy by incorporating household and shared attribute context. We will walk through how machine learning models can be used for name and address normalization, how intelligent blocking strategies improve matching efficiency, and how feedback loops can be introduced to continuously improve accuracy. The session also highlights how serverless components such as AWS Lambda can be used for orchestration and real-time processing. **SPEAKER BIO** Mosaic Syed is a Senior Data Engineering and Cloud Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performance data solutions across global enterprise environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mosaic-basha-syed-92300856 **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: [https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/](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/](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

Try new games, meet new people, and find out what story games are all about! Explore the reaches of space! Witness kingdoms rise and fall! Create and explore tragedies! All within a single game night. We play story games like Fiasco, Kingdom, Polaris and Microscope that encourage everyone at the table to participate creatively. We also have one-shots of indie, OSR, and narrative-focused RPGs such as Apocalypse World, Dread, Lady Blackbird, and Old School Essentials! Everybody's welcome! It doesn't matter if you've never tried story games before or never played roleplaying games at all! Just bring your brain and a good attitude and come try it out! *** **IMPORTANT** * When you arrive look for the marked Story Games Columbus Tables. Each table will have a separate game. Seating is on a first-come-first-serve basis. * If all tables are full, look for a Facilitator. We will find a way to get you into a game! * There is a flat $3 cover charge for events at Tabletop. *** **Facilitators!!** Please arrive early so that we can get you set up with a table. Please reach out to me ASAP if you would be willing to help facilitate. You can reach me on the SGC Discord here - https://discord.gg/jUTvWUu

**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.

By popular demand, the group wanted to read and discuss the semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roche, that inspired the Truffaut movie we watched last year. The book is available through the Columbus Library's interlibrary loan system. They reported there are twenty-eight copies available in the state of Ohio. If you have a library card, you can file an interlibrary loan request here: https://www.columbuslibrary.org/library-services/ . There are also used copies available on Amazon and eBay for under twenty dollars. You may want to rewatch the movie after reading the book, so we can compare and contrast in our discussion. The Columbus Library has four copies on DVD, and it's streaming on HBOMax.

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** TBD **YouTube Link** TBD

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