Usability

**Please Note:** This game has limited slots, and you must RSVP. If the event is full, please signup for the Waitlist, and you will be moved up as people update their RSVPs. ***Heat: Pedal to the Metal*** puts players in the driver's seat of intense car races, jockeying for position to cross the finish line first, while managing their car's speed if they don't want to overheat. Selecting the right upgrades for their car will help them hug the curves and keep their engine cool enough to maintain top speeds. Ultimately, their driving skills will be the key to victory! BGG - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/366013/heat-pedal-to-the-metal Light Refreshments are provided. We are right on the NOMA Red Line Metro Stop. Please RSVP so we can account for Snacks.

Washington, DC is about to fill with global founders, investors, and operators for SelectUSA Investment Summit. But here’s the twist… This isn’t just about international companies entering the U.S. It’s also about **U.S. founders expanding outward.** Join us for a special edition of **Cigars & Startups DC**—an **unofficial, independent gathering** designed to connect: 🌍 **International founders** exploring U.S. market entry 🇺🇸 **DC-area startups and operators** looking to expand globally 💼 Investors, advisors, and ecosystem builders bridging both worlds When the conference ends for the day… the real conversations start here. 🔥 Expect: * Cross-border conversations (not just small talk) * Partnerships between U.S. and international companies * Insights on entering new markets—from both sides * A relaxed, off-the-record environment built for real connection 🎯 Whether you're: * Expanding into the U.S. * Taking your company international * Looking for capital or strategic partnerships * Or just want to meet high-quality people outside the conference halls You’ll find your people here. 📍 Location: Casa de Montecristo (DC) 💵 Entry: $25 🥃 Note: Because my company (Zccounting) is a bookkeeping and accounting firm, not a licensed tobacco dealer I will not be selling cigars and your ticket only includes "entry" to the VIP lounge and event, however, I'm super generous and will share as many cigars as you can smoke at the event from my personal collection for no additional fee whatsoever! ⚠️ This is an independent event and is not officially affiliated with or endorsed by SelectUSA.

The last planetarium event went so well let's see a different show. This one is called Stars Tonight. The show brings out the telescope to see the night sky: https://www.apsva.us/planetarium/weekend-programming Tickets are $5 and can only be bought with cash at the door. The show starts at 7:30 but let's meet up at Tortas Y Tacos La Chiquita lll in Arlington beforehand. It isn’t Star Wars themed but that won’t stop us from celebrating Star Wars Day. Free Parking: I attached a picture of a map that shows where some free street parking is. * N Nelson St on the East side of Quincy Park * N Stafford St on the West Side of Washington-Liberty High School * There are a few free street parking spots on N Quincy St across from the planetarium * In addition, the planetarium has a parking lot Metro is also an option. We are between the Ballston and Virginia Square metro stations. The David M Brown Planetarium is at 1426 N Quincy St, Arlington, VA 22207 right around the corner from Tortas Y Tacos La Chiquita lll.

Games night is back! With our favorite local game store opening back up, Games night will come back starting Monday June 7th! We are an lgbt+ games group that’s been going for nearly 3 years now! We welcome anyone in the lgbt+ community to come play board games every Monday with our fun and chaotic crew! If you’re brand new to board gaming and looking to make some friends or if you love playing 4 hour space operas and are looking to make some rivals, we’re the group for you! We are an lgbt+ group that focuses on creating a safe lgbt+ community. Non-lgbt+ individuals are welcome when attending with an lgbt+ friend, family member, or partner. Huzzah hobbies currently follows cdc guidelines, where customers who are vaccinated are allowed to not wear masks indoors. With their current hours on Mondays, they are open until 9pm; if they change hours and remain open later, games night will continue until close. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to message us here!

Doubles Volleyball - A level @Bluemont Park Let's get together to play some fun A level Doubles games at Bluemont. Format: Doubles COST: FREE Court Type: Outdoor grass Minimum Skill Requirements: A level (click [here](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1PojSi4qdlRsv1msCHhvpQ43iDc4FfzQwpWCc3kafVMY/mobilebasic) for details) Attention: 1. This event is not always on a first come, first served basis. Those who can bring a net and ball, may get priority over others on the waitlist. 1. Since skill levels are self-reported, some attendees may not meet the expected level in reality, so we encourage you to choose a partner you can enjoy the game with, and since this is a competitive event, it is okay if you make a strong team and win all the games. 1. Since people arrive at different times, each group of 4. Players will set up and claim a net as they arrive, and may continue playing without rotating until all nets are set. ——— Smiley Social documents: [Group Rules](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1HrG35p_0M08leRvCp8XWG3CMkr_GL928XFabl5T6Dvg/mobilebasic) [Liability Waiver](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1W2mq-7m99lmvd7gdWYaSUFtvVg4UGnzV6koafAbHmco/mobilebasic) [Volleyball Levels](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1PojSi4qdlRsv1msCHhvpQ43iDc4FfzQwpWCc3kafVMY/mobilebasic)

\#\# A low\-cost\, 6\-week beginner\-level Quechua course with the non\-profit organization\, the Global Language Network\. Ready to dive into the world of Quechua? Join our fun and interactive class designed especially for those new to the language. **Details** Quechua Foreigner with Julia Mondays from 7:00pm - 9:00pm ET Apr 6th to May 11th In-person, Farragut Square DC Ready to learn? **Register [HERE](http://%5B%5Bhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D%5D(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D)(%5Bhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform)) "\[\[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform\](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform)\](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform)").** **Additional Information** * GLN classes are open to everyone over 18 years of age. * Have a credit or stipend to apply to your payment? Learn more about our credit, stipend, and refund policy on the [Pricing & Course Levels page.](http://%5B%5Bhttps://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D%5D(https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D)(%5Bhttps://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D(https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels)) "\[\[https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels\](https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels)\](https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels)") **About GLN** We are a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to "Use Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our World." Since 2015 we have been rated #1 Best Language Classes in Washington, DC by Yelp! We are so happy and grateful to have you join our network and we appreciate your support of our mission.

**IMPORTANT! Please register on [Luma page](https://luma.com/klm98cuc)** *Ignore the displayed time — it’s 5:30pm VA time.* AI is making us faster than ever — and at the same time, quietly questioning our place at work. ​We’re all feeling it: tools that boost output in minutes, automate entire workflows, and sometimes… do the job better. So where does that leave the human? ​This conversation dives straight into that tension — no sugarcoating, no generic optimism. Just real perspectives from people working inside the shift. ​ **Speakers:** [Nina Borysova, MBA ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nborysova/?utm_source=luma)**Director, Product Management Technical (PMT), Data Analytics and AI Solutions, Mastercard** **​**[Dr. Volodymyr Tkach ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/volodymyr-tkach/?utm_source=luma) CEO \| Ph\.D\, Associate Professor \| MIT Research Fellow \| Cybersecurity\, Threat Intelligence\, Anomaly Detection\, Artificial **​We’ll unpack:** ​– where AI actually boosts productivity vs. where it replaces thinking ​– which roles are evolving — and which are quietly disappearing ​– how teams are restructuring around AI (and what that means for individuals) ​– how to stay valuable when execution becomes automated ​– what “creative work” even means when AI can generate ideas on demand ​– the psychological side: anxiety, denial, adaptation ​If you’re feeling both excited *and* uneasy about AI — you’re not alone. And you probably shouldn’t ignore either feeling. ​Come for clarity. Leave with a more honest map of what’s ahead.

GM Jason will run an Ultraviolet Grasslands session. Stay with me, here: what would happen if we mashed up Oregon Trail with Dying Earth with Mad Max? Well, UVG answers that question (that nobody ever asked) with this heavy metal psychedelic fantascience pointcrawl game. Please the horned catlords by hitching your lime green fox-ocerous pony to your wagon and heading west to see if you can’t trade all this vampire wine for some profit! None of those words will make any more sense to you after playing, probably, but we’ll have an amazing time exploring! This might be the first session in a mini-campaign, so we will start with rolling up new characters! New players welcome! No prep needed! **Where**: Your Hobby Place in Old Town Alexandria 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-to-three shots to try.

What does it look like when ideas come to life? Join NOVA Scribes and MAFN for a full-day, in-person open house where the public is invited to step inside the world of facilitation. This is a come-and-go experience designed for curiosity, exploration, and conversation. Whether you are new to facilitation groups, you are welcome. The space will be set up as a "theater in the round," (see the image) with facilitators working live around the room. Throughout the day, you will see different techniques, styles, and modalities demonstrated in real time, from visual templates, facilitation tools, and decision-support methods. You can observe, ask questions, and engage directly with the practitioners as the work unfolds. **What you can expect** * Live demonstrations of facilitation techniques * Multiple practitioners working simultaneously, each with their own approach and style * Short, informal demos and tiny teaches that explain how and why specific techniques are used * Opportunities to talk one-on-one with experienced facilitators * A chance to see how facilitation can support sensemaking, alignment, and group dialogue **What you might explore** * Methods and templates for planning, strategy, and reflection * Facilitation methods that support participation and decision making * Tools, materials, and setup considerations for live work This open house is designed to be accessible, hands-on, and inspiring. You do not need to stay all day. Come for 20 minutes or stay for hours. Watch ideas take shape. Notice how facilitation can change the energy in the room. Ask the questions you have always wanted to ask. If you have ever been curious about how facilitation works and supports groups, this is your chance to experience it up close. **Open to the general public. No prior experience required.** We’re not charging for this workshop, but we will be asking for donations!

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.

Join Service Design DC for a community movie night focused on learning, reflection, and connection through two keynote presentations from last year’s Service Design Global Conference. SDGC25 brought the global service design community together around the theme “Business Transformation by Design,” exploring how service design can influence strategy, operations, and customer experience across organizations. For this gathering, we’ll watch 2 selected talks from SDGC25, then open up a casual group discussion about what resonated, what feels relevant for our work now, and what these ideas might mean for service design practice in DC. The 2025 conference centered on service design’s role in helping organizations navigate cross-functional transformation, making these talks especially relevant for practitioners working across systems, teams, and change. **What to expect** * Watch 2 selected presentations from SDGC25 together. * Casual facilitated discussion after each talk. * Time to connect with other service design and adjacent practitioners in the DC area. **Evening Agenda** 6:00 P.M. - Doors Open + Socializing & Networking 6:30 P.M. - First talk highlights + conversation 7:15 P.M. - Second talk highlights + conversation 8:00 P.M. - Wrap up **Many thanks to our host and sponsor, MediaBarn!** *Mediabarn’s customer-centric philosophy defines who we are.* *In its simplest form, we are committed to applying Human-Centered Design (HCD) methods to understand customer needs, collect feedback, and use that feedback to improve services and products. Whether it’s for customers, citizens, or employees, our Experience Design Studio creates research-informed designs to improve the experience of every human involved.*

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.

**The next GeoDC will be held on Wednesday, May 6 from 6-9pm at Sudhouse DC (1340 U St NW, Washington, DC 20009) with the program starting at 7pm.** We’ve got 3 presentations scheduled for the evening– Please check out the program details below. Join us early from 6-7pm to grow your network, socialize and grab a snack. Our host, Sudhouse DC has a solid happy hour menu with reasonably priced food and beverage from 4-8pm. Please remember to [RSVP through the GeoDC Meetup page](https://www.meetup.com/geo-dc/), and we hope to see you in a few weeks. *If you’d like to present or sponsor a future GeoDC Meetup, please complete this [form](https://forms.gle/QbAXPfrDnX12GGaS8).* **Brian Davidson:** **Zero to Map: A 10-Minute Geospatial Speedrun with Gemini** * Think building a functional mapping application requires hours of boilerplate and API frustration? Think again. In this talk, we’ll race against the clock to build a live mapping app from scratch using Gemini and Antigravity. You’ll see how to leverage LLMs to handle everything from a mapping provider integration to complex coordinate rendering in minutes. Whether you’re a seasoned GIS pro or a curious dev, my hope is you'll leave with a better understanding of how to turn your idea into a working map before your coffee gets cold. **Noah Goodman**: **Voyager Solutions** * The Voyager platform has enabled customers to resolve data management issues, such as duplication, lack of governance & metadata. Demos of the Voyager platform capabilities and will discussion of a recent State DOT project. **Dr. Aditya Kapoor: Assessment of Inundation Dynamics in Nebraska Using AlphaEarth Foundations** **Embeddings** * This study demonstrates that AlphaEarth Foundation Embeddings (AFE) provide a highly efficient, "analysis-ready" framework for mapping regional surface water inundation without the computational burden of traditional multi-source data fusion. By applying Random Forest classifiers to AFE data across 901 Nebraska lakes from 2017 to 2025, I found that this method outperformed existing products like Dynamic World, which exhibited estimation errors of up to 43.8%. The analysis revealed a critical environmental trend: a mean inundation decline of over 6,600 m² per year, closely mirroring a regional rainfall reduction of 14.18 mm/year. Ultimately, the findings highlight AFE as a scalable tool for identifying hydrological instabilities, particularly in smaller water bodies, offering significant advantages for real-world water resource planning and flood risk assessment.

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

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

IMPORTANT!!! THE DATE OF THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CHANGED TO SUNDAY MAY 17, 2026!!! A very unusual choice for his group... Unknown Number: High School Catfish is an American [true crime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_crime "True crime") documentary film directed by [Skye Borgman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skye_Borgman "Skye Borgman") and released to [streaming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media "Streaming media") on [Netflix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix "Netflix") on August 29, 2025. The documentary explores the events and investigation into an unknown person [cyberbully](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbullying "Cyberbullying") and [harassing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment "Harassment") teenagers in [Beal City, Michigan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_City,_Michigan "Beal City, Michigan") using an unknown number via insults and sexual claims. It also explores the increasingly great impact of the harassment on the community, the eventual reveal of the culprit, and the trial that followed. IMPORTANT INFO: I strongly suggest not reading anything about it online before seeing it. It's best viewed with no previous knowledge. This documentary contains crude terminology and deals with cyberbullying, which may be a trigger for some folks. Please be ready to discuss the movie by 7PM. Thanks. Unfortunately, it is only available on Netflix. If you would like to attend but do not have Netflix, say so and maybe we can figure something out.

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: Nothing yet. (You should volunteer). What is Cocoaheads (http://cocoaheads.org/)? CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on MacOS X and iOS (including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch). During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. What is BuckeyeCocoa (http://buckeyecocoa.org/)? BuckeyeCocoa is a group of Objective-C/Swift developers/enthusiasts. We host monthly Cocoaheads and near-weekly NSCoder meetings in Columbus, Ohio. The meetings are free to attend. Presentations! Presenters welcome! We are always in need of people willing to present material. Any Swift and/or Objective-C related topic is welcome. Times can be 5 minutes (i.e. lightning talks) to a maximum of 2 hours. Interested? Contact info is on the BuckeyeCocoa website. To volunteer for a presentation contact us at @BuckeyeCocoa on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! @BuckeyeCocoa (https://twitter.com/#!/Buckeyecocoa/) For more information: http://buckeyecocoa.org/

**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.