BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Meetup//Meetup Calendar 1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH NAME:What the Tech, Bend? X-WR-CALNAME:What the Tech, Bend? BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo-outlook/America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event_316781326@meetup.com SEQUENCE:1 DTSTAMP:20261020T172756Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261022T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261022T180000 SUMMARY:Put AI to Work: Become the AI Person on Your Team DESCRIPTION:What the Tech\, Bend?\n**IMPORTANT**: RSVPs here don't hold a seat. We're selling every ticket on Ticket Tailor\, so buy yours there:\n[ https://www.tickettailor.com/events/whatthetechbend/2448081](https://www.t ickettailor.com/events/whatthetechbend/2448081)\n\n**Thurs\, Oct 22 · 3:0 0–6:00 PM · Bend**\n**$65 first 6 tickets or through Monday\, October 1 2th · $85 after · snacks and drinks included**\nYou've tried AI. You ask it a question\, get a decent answer\, and go back to doing the work yours elf.\nMeanwhile\, some people are handing AI whole pieces of their job. It reads their files\, follows their process\, and gets the first draft done while they move on to something else. Most of them aren't engineers. They learned how to set it up\, and the gap between them and everyone else is growing fast.\nThis workshop gets you across that gap and makes you the pe rson your team turns to when AI comes up.\nThe first Put AI to Work sold o ut in August. One attendee told us how helpful it was to go back to the fu ndamentals. Another used what they learned to save thousands of dollars an d more than 10 hours a month\, all within a week of the session.\nThis tim e\, we're adding a section on bringing AI into your workplace\, for teams of different sizes with different security and compliance needs.\n\n## Wha t You'll Walk Out With\n\n1. **The foundations.** How tools like Claude Co work and ChatGPT for Work operate\, where they're most useful\, and how to give them the context and instructions they need to produce professional- quality work.\n2. **A framework for bringing AI into your workplace.** Rol lout looks different at a five-person shop than at an organization with st rict security and compliance requirements. Even if you're not leading the rollout\, you'll know which decisions matter and what questions to ask.\n3 . **Real-world practice.** We'll take repetitive tasks\, break them down f or AI\, and start building AI-assisted versions of those workflows togethe r.\n\nWho It's For\nFounders\, sales and marketing professionals\, product and technology leaders\, operators\, fractional consultants and coaches\, and other knowledge workers who want to get more out of AI than answers t o questions.\nYou don't need to write code or have advanced AI experience. We'll start with the fundamentals and build from there.\n\n## About Ryan Ramirez\n\n[Ryan Ramirez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-ramirez-09219b4 8) is an AI product leader and consultant with a background in product\, U X\, and design\, and a degree in Symbolic Systems from Stanford. He's trai ned teams ranging from early-stage startups to financial institutions mana ging $95 billion in assets.\n\n## What to Expect\n\nThursday\, October 22\ , 3:00–6:00 PM\n\n* Practical presentation and live demonstrations\n* Q& A\n* A framework for evaluating and rolling out AI at your own organizatio n\n* Hands-on workshop time\n* Small-group collaboration and share-outs\n* Snacks and drinks\n\nBring a laptop.\nVenue announced to ticket holders.\ n\n## Tickets\n\n$65 early bird — first 6 tickets or through Monday\, Oc tober 12th\, whichever comes first\n$85 regular\nCapped at 12 people to ke ep the working session hands-on.\nNeed a break on ticket price? Whether yo u're between jobs\, a student\, or have your own good reason\, we've got y ou covered. Contact John McMahon at jpmcmahon@gmail.com to learn about our flex ticket program.\n\n## Want to Support the Room?\n\n**Presented by** … your company?\nSponsoring this event puts your company in the room wit h senior operators\, founders\, investors and fractional leaders actively shaping Central Oregon’s AI future.\nOur sponsors don't buy ads. They be come part of the community.\nThat means recognition at the event and acros s WTT communications\, tickets for your team\, and curated introductions t o the people in the room most relevant to you—not a logo nobody remember s.\nWant in? Let's talk: [jpmcmahon@gmail.com](mailto:jpmcmahon@gmail.com) \n\n## About What the Tech\, Bend?\n\nWhat the Tech\, Bend? is Central Ore gon's premier tech community — 1\,000 members strong\, with an average o f 15+ years of professional experience. We host curated events that bring together the region's most experienced builders\, operators\, and advisors . Bend is the mountain town where serious work happens in an unserious set ting.\n\n## What's Next\n\nGet every WTT event first in our newsletter: we arewhatthetech.com\n\n**IMPORTANT**: RSVPs here don't hold a seat. We're s elling every ticket on Ticket Tailor\, so buy yours there:\n[https://www.t ickettailor.com/events/whatthetechbend/2448081](https://www.tickettailor.c om/events/whatthetechbend/2448081) URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.meetup.com/what-the-tech-bend/events/316781326/ STATUS:CONFIRMED CREATED:20260930T162308Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260930T162308Z CLASS:PUBLIC END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event_316771044@meetup.com SEQUENCE:1 DTSTAMP:20261020T172756Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261028T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261028T200000 SUMMARY:Netflix: Wicked Hard Decisions with Gibson Biddle\, Former Netflix VP of Product DESCRIPTION:What the Tech\, Bend?\n**IMPORTANT**: RSVPs here don't hold a seat. We're selling every ticket on Ticket Tailor\, so buy yours there: ht tps://www.tickettailor.com/events/whatthetechbend/2446501\n\n**Wed\, Oct 2 8 · 5:30–8:00 PM · Embark Coworking\, Bend**\n**$20 first 25 tickets · $25 early bird through Oct 25 · $35 after · food\, drinks and three c urated introductions included**\n\nEvery company has a few decisions that could have sunk it. Netflix had more than most\, and it made some of them badly. In the AI era\, good judgment matters even more when making tough d ecisions about people\, product\, and the business.\n\nGibson Biddle joine d Netflix in 2005 as VP of Product\, during the years the company moved fr om DVDs by mail to streaming. On October 28\, he's walking the Bend commun ity through five of the hardest calls in Netflix's 30-year history and ask ing the room one question each time: **what would you do?**\n\nThis is ins ide baseball. You'll see how Netflix actually weighed strategy\, data\, in tuition and culture when the answer wasn't obvious\, and how much it learn ed from the calls it got wrong on the way to becoming the streaming giant it is today. In the AI era\, when anyone can generate a plan\, judgment is what's scarce. This is a night about judgment.\n\nGib has spoken at What the Tech\, Bend? twice before\, to about 60 people each time. This time we have room for 100.\n\n## What to Expect\n\n**Five "what would you do?" ca se studies**: real decisions about people\, product and the business\, wit h the context Netflix had at the time.\n\n**You vote\, live**: Gib runs th e talk on Slido. Answer from your phone and watch the room's answers land on his slides in real time. Bring a charged phone.\n\n**Curated introducti ons before and after the talk**: the day of the event\, we email you three people to meet and why\, so you walk in knowing who to find during drinks and who to keep talking to afterward.\n\n**Food and drinks** from the mom ent doors open.\n\n## Run of Show\n\n**5:30 PM** Doors open. Food\, drinks and your first curated introductions\n**6:00 PM** "Netflix: Wicked Hard D ecisions" with Gibson Biddle\n**7:00 PM** Q&A with Gib\n**7:10 PM** Round two of curated introductions\, plus more food\, drinks and conversation\n* *8:00 PM** Doors close\n\n## The Curation is the Differentiator\n\nWe use a matching algorithm that reads what each attendee puts on the attendee li st (who you are\, what you're offering\, what you're seeking) to surface t he three most valuable connections for each person in the room. No awkward cold networking. Just better conversations with the right people.\n\nWhat past attendees said about it:\n\n* "I really liked the advance notice of who I should seek out\, and why. It gave rise to a very focused conversati on…"\n* "My really great outcomes came from reconnecting with two folks … I have meetings set with them now."\n\nAfter you buy\, add yourself to the attendee list\, with your name linked to your LinkedIn profile. The l ink is in your confirmation email. Your three introductions land in your i nbox the day of the event\, and the more specific you are about what you'r e offering and seeking\, the better they get.\n\n## Why Attend\n\n* See ho w one of the most successful companies of the last 30 years made its harde st calls\, and how it recovered from the wrong ones\n* Test your own judgm ent against the room\, live\, on five real decisions\n* A decision-making lens you can use on your own people\, product and business decisions the n ext morning\n* Walk away with three targeted introductions to the people m ost relevant to what you're working on\n* Ask your questions directly to a former Netflix VP of Product who's taught at Stanford and INSEAD\n\n## Wh o Should Attend\n\nFounders\, CEOs\, product and engineering leaders\, ope rators\, marketers\, investors\, advisors and anyone who makes decisions w here the answer isn't obvious. You don't need to work in tech or media. If you've ever had to choose between two good options\, or two bad ones\, th is is your room.\n\n## About Gibson Biddle\n\nGib joined Netflix in 2005 a s VP of Product. In 2010\, he joined Chegg\, the textbook rental and homew ork help company that went public in 2014. Since semi-retiring a dozen yea rs ago\, Gib has:\n\n* Taught entrepreneurship at both Stanford and INSEAD \n* Hosted 50 talks\, workshops\, and executive events annually\n* Helped Life360\, NerdWallet\, and Metromile go public as both an "Executive in Re sidence" and board member\n\nToday\, Gib lives in Bend and skis his age in days each winter. In the last ten years\, he has also thru-hiked six thou sand miles with his wife\, Kristen Hege.\n\n## Tickets\n\n**$20 first 25 t ickets**\n**$25 early bird** through Sunday\, October 25\n**$35 regular** from October 25\n\n**Bring someone new.** Buy a "You + a first-timer" pair for $40 during early bird or $55 after\, and bring someone who hasn't bee n to a WTT event yet. They get their own three curated introductions. Limi ted to 20 pairs.\n\nIncludes food and drinks. 100 seats. All sales are fin al\, but tickets are transferable anytime. If you can't make it\, send you r ticket to a friend or colleague. If we sell out\, join the waitlist on T icket Tailor and we'll email you if a seat opens.\n\n**Got a question for Gib?** A week before the talk\, we'll email everyone with a ticket. Reply with the hard decision you'd most like him to weigh in on\, and we'll pass the best ones to him before he takes the stage.\n\n## Need a break on tic ket price?\n\nWhether you're between jobs\, a student or have your own goo d reason\, we've got you covered. Contact John McMahon at jpmcmahon@gmail. com to learn about our flex ticket program.\n\n## Venue\n\nEmbark Coworkin g\, 2843 NW Lolo Dr\, Bend\, OR 97703\, in NorthWest Crossing. Thanks to E mbark\, our venue partner\, for opening its doors to the Bend tech communi ty.\n\n## Know Before You Go\n\n**Parking**: in the lot on the north side of the building\, with street parking nearby if the lot fills\n**Entrance* *: on the north side of the building\n**Arrive early**: the first round of introductions happens before the talk\, so aim to be there by 5:45.\n**Br ing**: a charged phone for live voting.\n\n## Want to Support the Room?\n\ n**Presented by**… your company?\n\nSponsoring this event puts your comp any in the room with senior operators\, founders\, investors and fractiona l leaders actively shaping Central Oregon’s tech future.\n\nOur sponsors don't buy ads. They become part of the community.\nThat means recognition at the event and across WTT communications\, tickets for your team\, and curated introductions to the people in the room most relevant to you—not a logo nobody remembers.\n\nWant in? Let's talk: [jpmcmahon@gmail.com](ma ilto:jpmcmahon@gmail.com)\n\n## About What the Tech\, Bend?\n\nWhat the Te ch\, Bend? is Central Oregon's premier tech community — 1\,000 members s trong\, with an average of 15+ years of professional experience. We host c urated events that bring together the region's most experienced builders\, operators\, and advisors. Bend is the mountain town where serious work ha ppens in an unserious setting.\n\n## What's Next\n\nGet every WTT event fi rst in the monthly newsletter: wearewhatthetech.com\n\n**Five wicked hard decisions\, one former Netflix VP of Product\, and 100 people in Bend deci ding what they would have done.**\n\n**IMPORTANT**: RSVPs here don't hold a seat. Buy your ticket on Ticket Tailor: https://www.tickettailor.com/eve nts/whatthetechbend/2446501 URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.meetup.com/what-the-tech-bend/events/316771044/ STATUS:CONFIRMED CREATED:20260929T222644Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260929T222644Z CLASS:PUBLIC END:VEVENT X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.meetup.com/what-the-tech-bend/events/ical/ X-WR-CALNAME:What the Tech\, Bend? END:VCALENDAR