January 2024 - Retrieval Augmented Generation & Turning Your Servers Inside Out

Join us for another edition of the Waterford Tech Meetup on Thursday, January 11th, at 7pm at the Waterford Treasures Museum (X91 K10E).

Dive into an evening filled with thought-provoking discussions, networking opportunities, and a chance to engage with experts in the field. Enjoy food, drinks, and the chance to win spot prizes as our speakers share their insights into innovative technologies and industry advancements.

Speaker 1: Richard Rodger from Voxgig

Richard Rodger, the founder of Voxgig and a seasoned tech entrepreneur, blends his passion for coding with business acumen to address challenges in event management. With a career marked by achievements such as co-founding nearForm and authoring influential tech books, Richard has continuously pushed the boundaries in the tech world. At Voxgig, he leads efforts to streamline event management processes using innovative tech solutions.

Tech Talk: How We Made Our Podcast Interactive Using Retrieval Augmented Generation

In this engaging talk, Richard will delve into the fascinating process of enhancing podcast interactivity at Voxgig. He will explore the journey from using machine learning tools for audio preparation to developing the required code in TypeScript. The talk will cover the nuances of prompt engineering and tackle practical aspects such as managing query times, balancing costs, and aligning with user expectations. Richard's insights promise a comprehensive look into the innovative use of AI in modern podcasting, offering valuable lessons for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and media.

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Speaker 2: Conor Maher from fourTheorem

Conor’s areas of interest are security, infrastructure as code and serverless technologies.

With over a decade of experience using AWS, Conor has become a self-professed “cloud wrangler,” and loves working with teams and organisations of all sizes to help them get the most from the cloud.

Conor runs the AWS User Group in the South East and enjoys knowledge sharing and events.

Tech Talk: Turning Your Servers Inside Out - From Pets to Cattle

Serverless is great for greenfields projects, but can look daunting when you have a well-established serverfull platform that's paying the bills! This talk is a journey from pets (servers you know by name and care about) to cattle. Conor is going to demonstrate some approaches for decomposing these systems, allowing you to reap the operational wins of serverless without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. By the end of this talk, you’ll know some strategies that will allow you to tackle your legacy server(s) and take your first steps into serverless using infrastructure as code.