Virtual Reality (VR)
Meet other local people interested in Virtual Reality (VR): share experiences, inspire and encourage each other! Join a Virtual Reality (VR) group.
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50+ Filmmakers/Actors Gather Every Wednesday - Join Us!
Join us every **Wednesday at 5 PM** at the Emporium food court (located behind Grill’d Burger Restaurant in the CBD, not near Melbourne Station) for a dynamic networking event tailored for filmmakers, actors, and film enthusiasts. Afterward, we continue the evening with Happy Hour drinks at a nearby bar and a chance to grab dinner together. Understanding that schedules vary, feel free to join at any time that suits you. Rain or shine, our community has gathered every week for the past year, maintaining a consistent and welcoming environment.
Our group has grown remarkably, with a **weekly turnout of over 50 participants**, blending newcomers with regulars to create a vibrant, diverse community. Feel free to bring friends interested in filmmaking; it’s a great way to introduce new faces to our expanding network.
Whether you’re a writer, actor, animator, or independent filmmaker, come share your experiences, discuss current projects, or chat about favorite films. This event fosters connections among like-minded individuals, encourages friendships, and opens doors for collaboration.
At **7 PM**, we move to The Carlton Club, a five-minute walk away, where we continue networking in a more formal rooftop setting over drinks and food. This change of venue offers an ideal environment to keep conversations flowing.
**RSVP** to help us gauge attendance and become part of a growing network of film professionals and enthusiasts. Though the event begins in the afternoon, the relationships you build here can last well into the night and beyond.
**What to Expect:**
*Our Wednesday meetup is primarily a large networking event for industry professionals. There’s no set theme, workshop, or speaker. It’s a relaxed gathering where filmmakers, actors, and creatives can connect, discuss projects, share needs, and learn from each other. Conversations flow freely around the table, fostering an environment of growth and camaraderie. Beyond Wednesdays, we also host exclusive events such as table reads, cinematography workshops with Panasonic, member screenings, and more. Each week brings fresh dialogues—some participants discuss their weekend shoots, others exchange insights with seasoned producers and directors, and a few engage in filmmaking exercises. It’s a space designed for creative engagement without strict structure or formal oversight.*
*Note: Our community emphasizes collaboration, friendship, and goodwill rather than promotional activities. If you wish to promote a workshop, course, screening, or similar event, please contact the organizers first. Promotional privileges are generally reserved for trusted, long-standing members.
GDG Melbourne June'26 Meetup!
RSVP on our GDG community platform -> https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-melbourne-presents-gdg-melbourne-june26-meetup/
This event is hosted at the Mantel Group Office, with the recording of the talks to be shared afterwards on YouTube if you can't make it.
There will be food, networking and some surprise swag!Agenda:
6:20 - Intro
6:30 - Talks
8:00 till late - networking & chat (& drinks optional)Speakers and Talks:
Talk 1: Olga Mirensky - Senior Staff Site Reliability Engineer @ Ping Identity
Olga and Her Agent Attended AI Engineer Conference. Lessons Learned
What happens when you let an experimental Stand-In Agent run loose against a live conference environment? To follow the fast-paced sessions of an AI Engineer conference, I built an agent while at the conference. The agent monitored talks and distilled what actually mattered to me - filtering for high-value signal and turning it into specs ready to implement or articles I should read.
I started with a different platform, but pivoted to an ADK agent deployed to GCP Agent Platform. Identical system prompt, different platform architecture, different LLM - completely different outcomes.
This talk is a transparent look at what happens when agentic experiments meet reality, including an architectural runaway bug that burned 1M tokens per minute.
We look past the hype and focus on the real engineering rigour required to build purposeful agents, with four key takeaways:
* The Purpose Filter: Why does your agent care about this specific talk? If it’s not highly unique, you’re just automating noise.
* Architecture > Hype: The gap between what you expect and what actually happens at runtime and why.
* The Personalised Flywheel: High-signal distillation requires deep context about you, your team, and where you are in your journey.
* Clear Goal Setting: Moving from “autonomous” to “purposeful”.
In the replay demo I’ll walk through my flywheel showing how the agent filtered the content in real-time, picked up on tech I am interested in, turned it into an implementable spec, and how AI tools can close the loop to further automate the entire implementation, testing, and release cycle.
Talk 2: Sahil Bahadur Devkota - Full Stack Developer
Beyond LLMs: why RAG is equally important
In this talk, I'll break down how RAG works, why is it really important in real-world and it's popular architectural pattern. We'll look at the core components of a RAG pipeline, discuss it's implementation approach, and cover some of the key things to think about when building an AI applications with RAG.
Whether you're working with AI or building application that need accurate responses, you'll leave with a practical understanding of when RAG make sense - and when it doesn't.
Talk 3: Abhijeet Kumar - AI & Automation | Cloud enthusiast
Beyond RAG: Building an Agentic "Second Brain" with FastAPI, pgvector, and Gemini
Move beyond static note-taking apps. This talk explores Project NeuralFortress—a custom, Python-built knowledge management system designed to actively synthesize information. We’ll walk through evolving a basic RAG script into an agentic pipeline using FastAPI for routing, Neon PostgreSQL (pgvector) for vector storage, and Google Gemini for cognitive processing.
In Development (Sneak Peek):
A brief look at experimental features currently in testing to make the system fully autonomous:
GraphRAG: Mapping multi-hop relationships beyond standard vector distance.
MCP Integration: Native database queries directly from your code editor.
Async Watchers: Autonomous background web scraping and data ingestion.
How to find us:
Doors open at 5:45 PM at our host the Mantel Group, Level 2/452 Flinders St, Melbourne. Message via Meetup or Slack if you are arriving after 6:00, as the lifts won't let you up.
This is an in-person only event. If you have any accessibility requirements, please reach out via the Meetup or Slack to the organiser group to discuss, and we will do our best to help you out.
Agenda
---
Hosted By
Katie Barnett, GDE Android / GDG Organiser
Katie is passionate about all things Android. She has taken on a wide variety of challenging projects including in the live event, media and travel space. Her favourite thing is to see someone having a delightful experience using something she has worked on. Katie is very active in the development community, she is a Google Developer Expert for Android, one of the organisers of GDG Melbourne and is a Women Techmakers Ambassador. She frequently runs events, speaks on technical and non-technical topics and enjoys writing blog posts to share her experience with others. Katie is based in Melbourne, Australia but loves to travel the world and outside of tech she enjoys boardgaming and attempting to finish many craft projects.
Suesi Tran, Senior Flutter Developer
Google Developer Expert in Dart, Flutter & Firebase, Women Techmaker Melbourne ambassador, GDG Melbourne & Flutter Melbourne co-organiser.
In short: Flutter is love, and mobile is life.
Poornima Sivakumar, GDG Organiser
Lovee Jain, GDG Organiser
Lovee is a Software Engineer at Prezzee, a GDG Melbourne Organiser and also a Women Techmakers Ambassador. A tech inquisitive philomath, she loves problem solving and solution design. She has worked at a city council where she developed a lot of useful system integrations and while at Prezzee she develops and works on multiple gift card solutions to cater the B2B2C market.
Zach Jensz, GDG Organiser
Passionate about the web, seamless UX and accessibility. I love attending meetups, find me and come say hi!
Ujjawal Raj, GDG Organiser
Bramley Turner-Jones, GDG Organiser
Yuba Raj (UV) Panta, GDG Organiser
Kartik Arora, Android Engineer
Google Developer Expert in Android
Android Engineer @ Bilue
Carolyn Ai Chi Wong,
Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-melbourne-presents-gdg-melbourne-june26-meetup/.
Who wants to be a f***ing leader?
Since 2019 Amir and David have been catching up for what they term 'shit sandwiches', exchanging professional and personal trials and successes, sharing sympathy and occasional advice. Should I leave my job; how do I handle a difficult report; how do I get buy in; and do you know a good osteo you could recommend, my back is killing me.
They’ve have turned our catch up sessions into a live, high stakes gameshow for the product community's amusement.
They will be borrowing from the 'who wants to be a millionaire format' and we will share stories that will hopefully inspire people to step up and lead (when required) in this messy and uncertain world we find ourselves in.
Get ready to have some fun and hopefully learn a thing or two.
Our Speakers:
Amir Ansari: With over 25 years’ of experience in the field of design and design leadership, Amir has worked across the private and public sectors, in-house and agency, managing design practitioners and leaders to build long-lasting and impactful products and services. Amir is passionate about democratising the craft of design and sharing my learnings - doing it with a smile and a hug.
David Bacon: After graduating from Monash with a Bachelor of Science, David worked as a penguin keeper in England which somehow lead to a career spanning marketing, behaviour change, innovation and human-centred design. David has experience delivering digital products and services in financial services, healthcare, retail, government. He has the goal of weaving humanity into technology. He still dreams about penguins.
GDG Melbourne June'26 Meetup!
RSVP on our GDG community platform -> https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-melbourne-presents-gdg-melbourne-june26-meetup/
This event is hosted at the Mantel Group Office, with the recording of the talks to be shared afterwards on YouTube if you can't make it.
There will be food, networking and some surprise swag!Agenda:
6:20 - Intro
6:30 - Talks
8:00 till late - networking & chat (& drinks optional)Speakers and Talks:
Talk 1: Olga Mirensky - Senior Staff Site Reliability Engineer @ Ping Identity
**Olga and Her Agent Attended AI Engineer Conference. Lessons Learned**
What happens when you let an experimental Stand-In Agent run loose against a live conference environment? To follow the fast-paced sessions of an AI Engineer conference, I built an agent while at the conference. The agent monitored talks and distilled what actually mattered to me - filtering for high-value signal and turning it into specs ready to implement or articles I should read.
I started with a different platform, but pivoted to an ADK agent deployed to GCP Agent Platform. Identical system prompt, different platform architecture, different LLM - completely different outcomes.
This talk is a transparent look at what happens when agentic experiments meet reality, including an architectural runaway bug that burned 1M tokens per minute.
We look past the hype and focus on the real engineering rigour required to build purposeful agents, with four key takeaways:
* The Purpose Filter: Why does your agent care about this specific talk? If it’s not highly unique, you’re just automating noise.
* Architecture > Hype: The gap between what you expect and what actually happens at runtime and why.
* The Personalised Flywheel: High-signal distillation requires deep context about you, your team, and where you are in your journey.
* Clear Goal Setting: Moving from “autonomous” to “purposeful”.
In the replay demo I’ll walk through my flywheel showing how the agent filtered the content in real-time, picked up on tech I am interested in, turned it into an implementable spec, and how AI tools can close the loop to further automate the entire implementation, testing, and release cycle.
Talk 2: Sahil Bahadur Devkota - Full Stack Developer
**Beyond LLMs: why RAG is equally important**
In this talk, I'll break down how RAG works, why is it really important in real-world and it's popular architectural pattern. We'll look at the core components of a RAG pipeline, discuss it's implementation approach, and cover some of the key things to think about when building an AI applications with RAG.
Whether you're working with AI or building application that need accurate responses, you'll leave with a practical understanding of when RAG make sense - and when it doesn't.
Talk 3: Abhijeet Kumar \- AI & Automation \| Cloud enthusiast
**Beyond RAG: Building an Agentic "Second Brain" with FastAPI, pgvector, and Gemini**
Move beyond static note-taking apps. This talk explores Project NeuralFortress—a custom, Python-built knowledge management system designed to actively synthesize information. We’ll walk through evolving a basic RAG script into an agentic pipeline using FastAPI for routing, Neon PostgreSQL (pgvector) for vector storage, and Google Gemini for cognitive processing.
In Development (Sneak Peek):
A brief look at experimental features currently in testing to make the system fully autonomous:
GraphRAG: Mapping multi-hop relationships beyond standard vector distance.
MCP Integration: Native database queries directly from your code editor.
Async Watchers: Autonomous background web scraping and data ingestion.
How to find us:
Doors open at 5:45 PM at our host the Mantel Group, Level 2/452 Flinders St, Melbourne. Message via Meetup or Slack if you are arriving after 6:00, as the lifts won't let you up.
This is an in-person only event. If you have any accessibility requirements, please reach out via the Meetup or Slack to the organiser group to discuss, and we will do our best to help you out.
Agenda
***
Hosted By
Katie Barnett, GDE Android / GDG Organiser
Katie is passionate about all things Android. She has taken on a wide variety of challenging projects including in the live event, media and travel space. Her favourite thing is to see someone having a delightful experience using something she has worked on. Katie is very active in the development community, she is a Google Developer Expert for Android, one of the organisers of GDG Melbourne and is a Women Techmakers Ambassador. She frequently runs events, speaks on technical and non-technical topics and enjoys writing blog posts to share her experience with others. Katie is based in Melbourne, Australia but loves to travel the world and outside of tech she enjoys boardgaming and attempting to finish many craft projects.
Suesi Tran, Senior Flutter Developer
Google Developer Expert in Dart, Flutter & Firebase, Women Techmaker Melbourne ambassador, GDG Melbourne & Flutter Melbourne co-organiser.
In short: Flutter is love, and mobile is life.
Poornima Sivakumar, GDG Organiser
Lovee Jain, GDG Organiser
Lovee is a Software Engineer at Prezzee, a GDG Melbourne Organiser and also a Women Techmakers Ambassador. A tech inquisitive philomath, she loves problem solving and solution design. She has worked at a city council where she developed a lot of useful system integrations and while at Prezzee she develops and works on multiple gift card solutions to cater the B2B2C market.
Zach Jensz, GDG Organiser
Passionate about the web, seamless UX and accessibility. I love attending meetups, find me and come say hi!
Ujjawal Raj, GDG Organiser
Bramley Turner-Jones, GDG Organiser
Yuba Raj (UV) Panta, GDG Organiser
Kartik Arora, Android Engineer
Google Developer Expert in Android
Android Engineer @ Bilue
Carolyn Ai Chi Wong,
Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-melbourne-presents-gdg-melbourne-june26-meetup/.
(In-Person) Savings with AI-Assisted Performance Testing
Dear STAG members,
We are back with **🚀STAG In-Person Meetup!**
**Topic: Calculating the Savings with AI-Assisted Performance Testing Using LoadMagic and JMeter**
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming the way performance testing is performed, but how much time and cost can it actually save?
Join us for an engaging and practical session with **[Renard Vardy](https://www.linkedin.com/in/renard-vardy/)**[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/renard-vardy/)as we explore how AI-assisted automation can dramatically reduce the effort and technical complexity involved in creating and maintaining JMeter performance test scripts.
In this session, Renard will demonstrate how **LoadMagic** can automatically correlate a JMeter script, showcasing how AI-assisted scripting can simplify and accelerate this process through a live demonstration.
📅 **Date:** Wednesday, 24 June 2026
🕕 **Event** **Time:** 5.30 PM - 7.30 PM
🕕 **Speaker** **Time:** 6 PM - 7 PM
📍 **Format:** **In-Person Meetup**
📍**Venue**: Level 3, 271 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
**Thanks to our Event Sponsor : [Easygo](https://easygo.io/)**
287 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000
***Food & drinks will be provided.***
🤝 **Networking** before and after the event.
Join us from **5:30 PM** for pre-event networking and stay after the session until approximately **7:30 PM** to connect with fellow testing professionals.
**About the Speaker – Renard Vardy**
Renard Vardy is a highly experienced Software Quality and Performance Testing specialist with more than 25 years of industry experience helping organisations improve the reliability, scalability, and performance of critical software systems. Throughout his career, he has worked across government, enterprise, and large-scale digital transformation programs, with a strong focus on Performance Engineering, Test Automation, and emerging AI-driven testing practices.
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/renard-vardy/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/renard-vardy/)
If you need any further info, please email at [stag@test-fast.com.](http://stag@test-fast.com./)
Join [STAG mailing list](https://test-fast.com/community/stag/membership-for-stag) to not miss any notification & also join the [STAG premium membership](https://test-fast.com/community/stag/premium-membership-for-stag-members) today and unlock a world of exclusive benefits designed to propel your career in software test automation to new heights. [Sign up now](https://test-fast.com/community/stag/premium-membership-for-stag-members) and take advantage!
Also, join us on:
[Subscribe STAG on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRu6aED3NQbkBW5SxfAF_Lg) (for recordings)
[Follow STAG LinkedIn Page](https://bit.ly/3x4mWog)
[STAG LinkedIn Group](https://www.linkedin.com/groups/6967675/)
STAG [WhatsApp channel](https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VagLSlQDTkKBtPYfCi1W)
We look forward to seeing you there and making this event a memorable and valuable experience for everyone.
**Why Attend?**
* **Networking Opportunities**: Meet and interact with like-minded professionals in the software test automation field.
* **Knowledge Sharing**: Engage in insightful discussions and share your experiences and challenges.
* **Collaboration**: Discover potential collaborations and partnerships within the community.
Thanks & Regards,
**STAG**
*{Empowering Test Automation}*
Dinner & Board Games Fortnightly CBD (We Play Board Games Melbourne)
Hi everyone, Stella & Tarrant here 😃
It's board game and dinner time every 2nd Wednesdays! Everyone's welcome, new or experienced board gamer. Let's play board games together, meet new friends if you want, and also supporting local restaurant buying their food and drink, coz the event is free.
𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐑𝐒𝐕𝐏, 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐨 𝐬𝐨 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝, 𝐜𝐨𝐳 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝
Meetup will be in the separate room at the back of their venue!
𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘: 6pm - 10pm (but the pub is open till later if you want to stay around)
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧: Meetup for dinner & drink while playing board games. Here's a one page PDF document explaining how it works - https://loom.ly/hTHo2cM. Basically, find some friends or make some new ones.
𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚: Bring your own games or play our growing board games library, teach others or join others games. We have flag system to help you find people to play with you. Here is the list of our growing games library, categories and with short description - https://loom.ly/fOKuaM4
𝗙𝗘𝗘: Zero. Nada. It's a casual get together, we're helping facilitating the meetup. All I asked is to please order food & drink from the venue, don't bring your own food and eat there, as the venue is a pub, they are providing the venue for free So please help local business 😃
𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗘: Feel free to post in the comment if you have games you want to bring and teach others, try to organise people to play. Or if you want to join other people's game. We have a group via Aftergame (app/website) where you can organise a game as well here - https://aftergame.app/groups/we-play-board-games-melbourne-meetup-by-meeple-university-1386
𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗢 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘: Melbourne Central, level 3. Melbourne Central station underneath.
There are various public carpark Wilson 300 LaTrobe and Secure Parking in the city. Or the Wilson carpark under Melbourne Central, entry is a set price after 5pm (at the time of writing).
And then plenty of public transport in the city 🙂
To connect more to fellow board gamers, you can join the Facebook group that started the event here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/WePlayBoardGames
Thank you and hope to see you all then!
Stella & Tarrant
Virtual Reality (VR) Events This Week
Discover what is happening in the next few days
How the mind works
The optimum computing machine is a subject many of us have studied. If you were building one how would you design it?
First the computer should be able to compute with perfect accuracy on any problem in the universe and produce answers which were always and invariably right.
Second the computer would have to be swift, working much more quickly than the problem and process could be vocally articulated.
Third the computer would have to be able to handle large numbers of variables and large numbers of problems simultaneously.
Forth, the computer would have to be able to evaluate its own data and there would have to remain available within it not only a record of its former conclusions but the evaluations leading to those conclusions.
Fifth, the computer would have to be served by a memory bank of nearly infinite capacity and would have to be available to the analytical portion of the computer in the smallest fractions of a second.
Sixth, the computer would have to be able to rearrange former conclusions or alter them in the light of new experience.
Seventh, the computer would need no exterior director, but would be entirely self determined about its programing guided only by the necessity –value of the solution which it itself would determine.
Eight the computer should be self servicing and self arming against present and future damage and would be able to estimate future damage.
Ninth the computer should be served by perception by which it could determine necessity –value.
Tenth ,the memory bank should store perceptions as perceived ,consecutive with time received with the smallest possible time divisions between perception .It would then store in color-Visio (moving),tone audio (flowing),odor ,tactile and self sensation ,all of them cross –coordinated .
Eleventh, for the purposes of solutions, it would have to be able to create new situations and imagine new perceptions hitherto not perceived and should be able to conceive these to itself in terms of tone –audio ,color-visio ,odor, tactile, and self sensation –and should be able to file anything so conceived as imagined ,labeled “memories”
Twelfth, the entire machine should be portable.
It might be somewhat astonishing at first to conceive such a computer .But the fact is, the machine is in existence .There are billions of them in use today and many ,many more billions have been made and used in the past .
In fact you’ve got one .for we are dealing with the human mind.
L.RON .HUBBARD
Do you want to learn how the mind works?Then do not miss this meetup.
RSVP now !!
Coffee & Dreams: Share Freely Over a Cup
☕ Let’s grab coffee and talk about what really matters our dreams.
Whether it’s something you’re working on, something you’ve been scared to start, or just a curious thought… this meetup is a safe space to share freely.
No pressure. No judgment. Just meaningful conversations with kind people.
🧠 Why come?
• Share your dream (or just listen!)
• Connect with thoughtful people
• Maybe get inspired to start something too
Bring: Yourself, a smile, and a dream.
Sunday Gaming Meetup & Social by Respawn
Welcome to Respawn’s Gamers Citadel! 🛡️
Come hang out, meet fellow gamers, and enjoy a chill vibe with great food and drinks. 🥤
Entry is $3.5 or buy yourself a drink or food. 🍲
At the “Gamers Citadel”, we provide the consoles for you and have two multiplayer (2-4 player) game stations (A, B, C and D). For our board games area you are allowed to BYO! 😯 ♟️
Currently available are: Switch, PS1, PS2, SNES, N64, Cardfight!! Vanguard, Yu-Gi-Oh! and more! If you’re bringing anything, please DM us so we can accommodate. ❤️
Conditions of entry are to either purchase any food or drink of your choice and we will provide you a reusable badge to show that you’re one of us! ✌️
Whether you’re a casual player or a hardcore fan, this is the place to be. Don’t miss out on the fun! 🤩
Our games list is below! 👇
Game Station A - ??? - Taran:
1st Game: ???
2nd Game: ???
Game Station B - ??? - Dean:
1st Game: ???
2nd Game: ???
Game Station C - ??? - Michael
1st Game: ???
2nd Game: ???
Game Station D - TCG + Board Games:
Pokémon TCG
YU-Gi-OH! TCG
UNO
JENGA
BYO available!
You can bring your own board games, controllers, equipment etc. 👍
Follow us on Instagram: @respawn.social 📱
Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/phscMtBqpW 🎧
Find Respawn on Facebook: https://facebook.com/events/s/respawn-gaming-social-club-lau/940165205164472/ 🔗
Visit our website for all info: https://intermingle.au/respawn/ 👩💻
Philosophy Roundtable: What is Real?
Join us for an informal round-table on some of philosophy's oldest questions lead by Sean Crowley: What is a thing? Where do identities begin and end? Is perspective a limitation on reality, or a fundamental feature of it? And what might it mean to speak of an Absolute beyond all finite distinctions?
Drawing on Spinoza, David Bohm, Carlo Rovelli, George Spencer-Brown, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Sean will give a condensed introduction to Groundless Perspectival Realism — a metaphysical framework that questions absolute intrinsic identity, exploring reality instead through relation, perspective, and wholeness.
We will meet at the Captain Melville at 2pm for a 2:15pm start sharp. **Please note the new $5 mandatory donation entry fee** (cash or transfer on day) to help with MeetUp subscription costs, venue costs, etc.
There is no pre-requisite preparation necessary, nor a philosophical background, all that is required is a curious mind. These discussions are both a Socrates Cafe style discussion and lively metaphysical dojo, in the spirit of learning and friendly debate, so please feel free to challenge assumptions and be prepared to have your own assumptions challenged.
This event is also posted to the Socrates Cafe group.
Topics include:
* Identity & thinghood
* Perspective & observation
* Relationality and continuity
* Truth & reality
* The nature of the Absolute
Sean Crowley is the author of the forthcoming book The Infinite Now and host of The Infinite Now with Sean Crowley, exploring metaphysics, consciousness, science, and the philosophical implications of non-duality.
Hope to see you there!
Toy Story 5 vs Backrooms
Hello,
Oops! Sorry for reposting the film from the previous meetup and any existential confusion it may have caused. Instead, this week it's a choose your own adventure. The contrast in genres doesn't get much greater with the options being Toy Story 5 and Backrooms. Toy Story 5 is screening in cinema 5 at 6:45pm and Backrooms in cinema 4 at 7pm. Look out for us in the usual meeting place from 6:35pm. I will be seeing Backrooms so will remain in the meeting place until 6:55pm. If you miss us there then catch us after the film. Please read on if you have any questions about tickets, where to sit and where to meet before and after the film.
See you Friday!
**Meeting Spot**
Outside the clothing store Black Orange. It is inside Lygon Court next to Brunettis. Join the group at the meeting spot 10 minutes before the start time or see us in the cinema, or the bar afterwards.
**The Films**
TOY STORY 5
Your favourite childhood toys are back in TOY STORY 5 as they take on technology in the latest series instalment from Oscar-winning Pixar regular Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo).
Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the rest of the gang have suddenly found their existence challenged with the introduction of Lilypad (Greta Lee), an electronic tablet. With Bonnie (Scarlet Spears – Wicked: For Good) now addicted to screens, Jessie reaches out to Woody (Tom Hanks) for help, reuniting the trio to take technology head on. But as Lilypad refuses to depart own disruptive ideas about what is best for Bonnie, the gang must tackle a threat to playtime they’ve never dealt with before.
Rating: G
Consumer Advice: Very mild bullying themes and violence
Genre: Animated
Running Time: 1h 43m
BACKROOMS
Based on the web series which took the world by storm, Kane Parsons makes his feature debut with BACKROOMS, a psychological horror set in a world on the edge of reality.
Furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is on the brink of closing his business when he accidentally discovers a hidden doorway deep in the building basement. Entering an expansive interior space that defies all logic, he recruits his staff to help him explore. Venturing deeper and deeper into the liminal space before returning to the showroom with more questions than answers, his therapist (Renate Reinsve) becomes convinced that Clark's descriptions might be more than the delusions of a damaged soul.
Rating: M
Consumer Advice: Sustained threat, violence and coarse language
Genre: Horror
Running Time: 1h 51m
**Tickets**
Everyone will need to buy their own ticket online and in advance. If you want to sit with other group members, there's a tendency for us to pick seats in the back two rows. Those who feel comfortable can catch up in Nova's bar afterward.
**Afterwards**
We meet in Nova's bar after the movie. Look for us in the area to the left as you go down the steps. Share your thoughts about the film with the group over a drink of your choice.
If the bar is closed we typically head across the road to the Wolf's Lair which is out the back of Jimmy Watson's.
The Great British Pub Crawl
For the Brits who love and miss a good pub crawl 😜.
We’ll be moving to a new venue every hour or two so keep a note of the venues and times below:
6pm - Wonderland, 37 Chapel Street
8pm - Union Hotel, 90 Chapel Street
10pm - Bayou 124 Chapel Street
11pm - The Wolf, 154 Chapel Street
Arrive early at Wonderland to take full advantage of their happy hour prices 🍺🍸🍹.
Engineering Machine Consciousness Monthly Meetup
The discussion topic for this meetup will be identity and whether or not history is a necessary condition for consciousness as Dretske proposed.
James
Virtual Reality (VR) Events Near You
Connect with your local Virtual Reality (VR) community
(Cross-Posting) From Joints to Gestures: Reading Hands in Unity
Do **NOT** sign up to this one and sign-up at https://www.meetup.com/columbusjs/events/313386504/
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A hand tracker gives you joints, not a gesture.
This talk shows how you get from raw joints to a "thumbs-up" in Unity: the pipeline that cleans up the data, how a gesture becomes a few 0-to-1 values within tolerance, and why orientation matters as much as finger shape.
Includes a live demo of tuning gesture thresholds.
Food and drinks will be available.
**LOCATION:**
6515 Longshore Loop, Suite 300, Dublin, OH 43017
**FREE PARKING:**
6725 Longshore Street, Dublin, OH 43017
Rays Of Light Spiritualist Church Service
Rev. Steven Clevenger is an ordained spiritualist minister with over 40 years experience as a Spiritual Healer, Clairvoyant and Spiritual Teacher, educated and trained at the White Lily Chapel.
Rev. Siobhan Wolf Shaffer is an ordained spiritualist minister and certified medium and healer with over 20 years experience. She began her development in 1988 in Pennsylvania and continued when she moved to Ohio in 1998 where she studied at Rays of Lights Church with Rev. Steven Clevenger.
Our full worship services consist of an inspirational lecture, healing meditation, and messages from the spirit world that serve to demonstrate evidence of eternal life.
Please visit our Official Church Website (http://raysoflightchurch.com) for more information.
Game Dev Meetup (@Improving In-Person)
PLEASE NOTE!!!
This event will be In-Person for our 2nd Improving collab! If you know the [Columbus Unity group](https://www.meetup.com/columbus-unity-user-group/) location, we'll be at the same place. This is our 2nd event at this location so bare with us as we grow into this space.
There's paid street parking on Saturdays but you can also pay to park in any of the local garages. See image of [parking map here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mr9_LFIggbs-0_Zd3AJTGNqEhgMf2TzQ/view?usp=sharing).
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On the last Sunday of the month, we're having our usual end-of-the-month social gathering with our GameDev Meetup meeting. There will be announcements and presentations followed by some social networking Let's continue the conversations with good vibes and friends.
All are welcomed from all ages and backgrounds to this public event. If we can, we'll be streaming or uploading the video later via our COGG YouTube channel here:
[https://www.youtube.com/@TheCOGG/streams](https://www.youtube.com/@TheCOGG/streams)
(Also please do subscribe if you have not done so!)
No game development experience required!
If you are interested in doing a 20 minute game development related presentation, please fill out our form online here:
[https://goo.gl/forms/lVdTJZiNJewlPJuj1](https://goo.gl/forms/lVdTJZiNJewlPJuj1)
Or e-mail us at [info@thecogg.com](mailto:info@thecogg.com)
with the following:
Your Name, Company/Affiliation, Name of Your Game/Topic, Description, Tech Needs, and Your Contact.
Be sure to check out our Discord for real time news updates:
[https://discord.gg/NrBhuNQ](https://discord.gg/NrBhuNQ)
Annual Glow Party - Latin City Wednesday
It's Our Annual Glow Party on the next Latin City Wednesday. We will provide the glow and you just need to bring yourself and friends to dance to the best selection of Salsa, Bachata, Merengue and Cha Cha. Food and Refreshments will be provided. Feel free to bring your own enticing drinks.
Viva Dance Columbus(2809 Festival Lane Dublin, OH 43017)
830pm-930pm Cuban Salsa (Rueda De Casino) Intermediate Level
930pm-Midnight Open Latin Dance Party
15 With the Lesson
10 Open Dance Party Only
Free Parking, No Need to Bring a dance partner, No Sandals Please and Plenty of Space to Move on the Dance Floor.
Customize the IDE: Building Extensions for Visual Studio Code - Alan Barber
**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**
*Customize the IDE: Building Extensions for Visual Studio Code*
Visual Studio Code is one of the most widely used development environments today, and much of its flexibility comes from its extension ecosystem. Extensions allow developers to customize the editor with new features, integrations, and workflow improvements tailored to their needs.
In this session, we’ll cover what extensions are and the different types available, including full extensions written in TypeScript or JavaScript, along with lighter-weight extensions such as color themes, language packs, language support, code snippets, and keymaps. We’ll also look at practical reasons a developer might create an extension, from automating repetitive tasks to adding custom tooling.
The session includes a hands-on walkthrough of creating a new extension, testing it locally, and understanding the basic project structure. We’ll close with a brief overview of how extensions are packaged and published to the Visual Studio Marketplace and other distribution options.
**YouTube Link**
TBD
Picnic with a Purpose: Real Estate Networking That Actually Pays Off
(Note: RSVPing here on meetup does NOT reserve your seat. To do that, you’ll need to register at our website, [HERE](https://www.coreerocks.com/Events.aspx?ID=Picnic-with-a-Purpose-Real-Estate-Networking-That-Actually-Pays-Off-14-7-7-2026).)
Real estate is a proven wealth-builder—it has been for generations.
But it’s not a solo sport.
You need PEOPLE—who can advise you, partner with you, bring you deals, and buy deals from you.
We’re all about bringing you the best, most active, most got-your-back people in Central Ohio, which is why our July meeting is all about real conversations with real investors at our annual Picnic with a Purpose.
This is where:
* Deals get discussed
* Partnerships get formed
* Funding relationships start
* Problems get solved faster
Bring your family. Build your network. Strengthen the relationships that actually move your business forward.
Members and first-time guests are free. Returning guests are $35.
Location is a local park and will be shared after registration.
Space is limited, so you’ll want to secure your spot now.
Remember, to actually reserve your seat, you
have to go [HERE](https://www.coreerocks.com/Events.aspx?ID=Picnic-with-a-Purpose-Real-Estate-Networking-That-Actually-Pays-Off-14-7-7-2026) and register on our website!






























