AI for the rest of us is on a mission to make AI easier to understand.

AI is ready for everyone. No matter who you are. No matter what your role.

We promise no hype, no jargon and no confusing terminology. We're a warm and inclusive community where we meet you where you are, and help get you where you want to be!

Join us for our next in-person meetup in London on Thursday June 19th

At this event we have two amazing speakers who will provide unique perspectives on the Human benefits and impacts of AI. Azahara Corrales (AI Digital Transformation Leader) will be speaking about how AI can be a tool that empowers people and Rob Price (Founder, Futuria) will be reflecting on Digital Responsibility when delegating work to multi-agent teams.

Where and When?

• Thursday, June 19th
• Doors open at 18:00
• Talks start at 19:00
• Adaptavist, 28 Scrutton St, London EC2A 4RP

Talk 1: AI, Made Human: What You Really Need to Know (Azahara Corrales, Digital Transformation Leader)

In a world where AI can feel distant, overwhelming, or even threatening, this talk brings it back to the human level. Azahara Corrales breaks down what AI really is (and isn’t), and shows how anyone, regardless of background, can start using it today to improve productivity, creativity, and confidence. It's not about replacing humans; it’s about empowering them.

Azahara Corrales is an international public speaker and award-winning AI strategist, known for helping brands and professionals embrace artificial intelligence to drive meaningful transformation. With a background in digital marketing and a passion for closing the tech gap, she empowers organisations and individuals, especially women, to confidently navigate the future of work with AI.

Talk 2: Digital Responsibility with Multi-Team, Multi-Agent Agentic AI (Rob Price, Founder of Futuria)

Rob founded the global Corporate Digital Responsibility movement and brings that knowledge and experience to the domain of multi-agent teams. As we innovate with AI agents we are constantly asking ourselves the questions of "what work do we delegate to teams of AI agents?" and importantly "what does that mean for us?"

Massive thank you to our sponsors DevRev.ai and Kolteki who host our meetups! Without their support this would not be possible!

Code of Conduct This event has a code of conduct that you can review here.

Talk Title: "Under the Hood of LLM"

Description: In this talk we unveil the inner workings of Large Language Models (LLMs), explore the architecture of Transformers and how chatbots and AI agents works underneath. This talk also dives into the concept of Model Context Protocol (MCP), the limitless potential that it offers and how it differs from RAG and other protocols like A2A. Join us for an in-depth look at how these powerful AI models that you already use on daily basis really work, how they process data, generate responses and redefine and push the boundaries of artificial intelligence.

Speaker/Bio: Radovan Kavicky Radovan Kavicky \| President & Principal Data Scientist @ GapData Institute https://www.linkedin.com/in/radovankavicky/ & https://radovankavicky.substack.com/

Radovan currently works as President & Principal Data Scientist at GapData Institute/GDI Institute and is an expert in XAI (Explainable AI), i.e. the field of scientific research at the intersection of mathematics and artificial intelligence, he also works as a AI Consultant (AI IXX/Dubai, UAE) for the implementation of AI and Data Science knowledge in business, economics and public administration

- in April 2025 he successfully completed the prestigious AI Connect program (nominated in 2024 as the only Slovak) under the auspices of the US Department of State (Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy) and the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center\, which aims to help countries such as Slovakia transfer technology and knowledge in the field of AI towards responsible and successful implementation in public administration and the economy

- in April 2024 he was invited (keynote) to represent the CEE region and Europe as the historically first Slovak at the Global AI Show 2024 in Dubai (with 10k+ attendees one of the world's largest AI events)

- previously a member of Slovak.AI and until May 2024 also worked as Data Science & AI Evangelist at AIslovakIA - National Platform for the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Slovakia and in cooperation with MIRRI/MIRDI (Ministry of Investment\, Regional Development and Informatics of the Slovak Republic) led a mission of Slovak AI researchers at University of Cambridge

- Radovan is a member of several international and European professional and professional organizations in AI and data science\, such as: British Computer Society (Member\, #BCS)\, Slovak Economic Association (SEA)\, IEEE Computer Society (Member\, #IEEE)\, Slovak.AI (#SlovakAI)\, CLAIRE/CAIRNE\, European AI Alliance & TAILOR network\, AAAI\, EurAI\, AI4SK\, ELLIS\, AIDA

- selected lectures from past: @Global AI Show (Dubai\, 2024\, Keynote) @WeAreDevelopers (Berlin\, 2023) @TAILOR (Brussels\, 2023) @CODECON (Bratislava\, 2023\, main talk) @DATAcated (New York\, 2022) @PyData (Hamburg\, 2022) @ML Prague (2023\, 2022) @Data Science Summit (Warsaw\, 2021) @PyData (Hong Kong\, 2021) @ODSC Europe (London\, 2021) @WeAreDevelopers (WeAreDevsLIVE\, 2021) @Data Science Conference (DSG 5.0\, 2019) @H2O.ai (Prague\, 2019) @PyCon LT (PyData track\, Vilnius\, 2019) @VDSG (Linz\, 2019) @TechSummit (Bratislava\, 2017 & 2019) @PyData (Berlin\, 2017)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/radovankavicky/

Registration:

@Meetup.com group's event here (https://www.meetup.com/pydata-slovakia-bratislava/events/307439940/) & @Eventbrite registration here (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pydata-slovakia-ba-meetup-29-radovan-kavicky-under-the-hood-of-llm-tickets-1335453710999). +our event you can find also @Facebook here (https://www.facebook.com/events/2193597837725593/) and LinkedIn here (https://www.linkedin.com/events/7320847136919564288/about/).

[Disclaimer: If you just mark "going" @Facebook event we can't guarantee your seat]

Language of the event: English

PyData Bratislava [Python Data Enthusiasts and Users, Data Scientists & Statisticians of all levels from Slovakia]

-- PyData is a group for users and developers of data analysis tools to share ideas and learn from each other. We gather to discuss how best to apply Python tools, as well as those using R and Julia, to meet the evolving challenges in data management, processing, analytics, and visualization. PyData is organized by NumFOCUS.org, a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States.

The PyData ​Code of Conduct​ governs this meetup. To discuss any issues or concerns relating to the code of conduct or the behavior of anyone at a PyData meetup, please contact the organizer or NumFOCUS Executive Director Leah Silen (+1512-222-5449; [email protected]).

Our Facebook group you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1813599648877946/

Our Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/PyDataBA

Our LinkedIn group here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13506080

Organizers: GapData Institute (https://www.gapdata.org/) (GDI) is a nonprofit nonpartisan research institution harnessing power of data & wisdom of economics for public good.

\|\| Data. Think. Change. \|\|

NumFOCUS (http://www.numfocus.org/) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports and promotes world-class, innovative, open source scientific computing. The mission of NumFOCUS is to promote sustainable high-level programming languages, open code development, and reproducible scientific research.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you once again for your amazing support throughout 2024 and for joining us at our last event in October – it was a fantastic turnout!

We’re thrilled to announce that Meet-Up #6 is now confirmed for Wednesday 26th March (our first event for 2025)! 🎉

Join us at our London HQ, 100 Liverpool Street, for an evening packed full of insightful talks, great conversations and plenty of opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper meet-up without pizza and refreshments to keep the energy high all night! 🍕🥤

🕕 Doors open for networking at 18:00 🎤 The first talk kicks off at 18:30 🚪 Wrapping up at 20:30

We can’t wait to see you there!

#1 Maryam Aidini \| Principal Product Manager @ Mesh-AI "Building Smarter Data & AI Products with Lean Experimentation" Maryam is a Principal Product Manager with a passion for building innovative, data-driven products. With over 12 years of experience, she has led high-performing teams and helped companies craft smart, effective product strategies that align with both business goals and customer needs.

Currently working at an AI and data consultancy, Maryam focuses on using AI and advanced technologies to enhance decision-making, streamline processes, and create scalable, customer-centric solutions. She’s a strong advocate for data-driven product management, believing that the best products come from a mix of strategic thinking, deep user understanding, and the right use of technology.

Beyond her work in product management, Maryam is also a course creator and presenter with O’Reilly, where she helps upskill product managers in AI, data, and product strategy. She is passionate about teaching and mentoring, sharing practical insights to help product professionals stay ahead in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

#2 Rebecca Vickery \| Senior Leader of Customer Insight & Targeting @ EDF Energy "SmartGuard: Optimising Smart Field Engineering with AI" Rebecca is the Senior Leader of EDF's Customer Insight & Targeting team, a Data Science and Research team dedicated to driving better customer engagement through data insights. With over 16 years of experience in the field of Data Science Rebecca mentors and leads her team to develop models for segmentation, targeting and personalisation. Passionate about technology and improving customer experiences she is currently leading a project to embed a new Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) that will streamline and improve customer communications across the organisation.

Outside of her day job Rebecca is a strong advocate for improving gender diversity in the data and tech fields. She also regularly publishes articles designed to help people break into the field of Data Science on her blog hosted on Medium.com.

#3 Zoe Higgins \| Data Analytics Manager @ Santander "Am I valued or just a metric?"

In this talk, I’ll explore the intersection of data, culture, and inclusion in STEM, drawing from my experience as a data scientist and my recent work in human resources. With access to the numbers and drivers shaping workplace culture, we’ll uncover what truly influences representation and belonging. Beyond the statistics, we’ll reflect on overcoming imposter syndrome, challenging stigmas, and ensuring that women in AI and data are not just counted—but truly valued.

Zoe Higgins is a Data Analytics Manager at Santander, with six years of experience leveraging data science to drive insights and innovation. Holding a Bachelor of Science in Data Science, she has built deep expertise in analytics, strategy, and problem-solving working on global projects from UK, Spain and Poland. Beyond her technical work, Zoe is a passionate advocate for equitability within STEM industries, working to create more inclusive opportunities. She brings her insights on data-driven decision-making and the importance of fostering diversity in tech and leveraging data to build the right culture.

March edition!

We’re excited to announce that OPUSRS (Opus Recruitment Solutions) is graciously hosting our March meetup!

Talks

- Cursor IDE to build a comedy booking app in django htmx by Samuel Joseph

Samuel has been coding for 40 years in many languages. Now leading the AI team at Qualis Flow and doing LLM comedy research in my spare time

- Building GraphQL APIs with Django by Yosuf Ali

An introduction to GraphQL and an example API built with Django.

Yosuf Ali is a Senior Software Engineer working as a contractor. Enjoys building full stack products usually with Python, Django and React. Sometimes with Golang.

-------- To propose a talk for our events, fill in our speaker form.

Agenda: • 6:15pm Doors open, socialising • 6:30pm Food and drinks offered by our sponsor • 7:00pm Doors close ** • 7:15pm Introduction, News, Talks • 8:30pm Socialising • 9:30pm Fin

** Please make sure to arrive between 6:15 PM and 6:55 PM. **

Our meetups are governed by a Code of Conduct. Please take a few minutes to read it. This meetup is sponsored by:

• Opus Recruitement Solution: OPUSRS is an award-winning, global recruitment specialist in the IT, technology, and engineering sectors. Their innovative approach and deep industry knowledge help them connect top talent with exciting, game-changing opportunities.
• Kraken Tech (Octopus Energy Group): "Kraken is a revolutionary energy tech platform built with predominantly Python & Django. We Serve 54 million households worldwide and have 38GW of contracted capacity."
• JetBrains: "We make professional software development a more productive and enjoyable experience."

Website: https://djangolondon.com Github: github.com/djangolondon BlueSky: @djangolondon.com Open Collective: opencollective.com/the-london-django-meetup-group

** Important**: Due to building security and capacity, It's REQUIRED to register on the event website for admission. )

Welcome to the GenAI meetup in London. Join us for deep dive tech talks on AI, GenAI, LLMs and machine learning, food/drink, networking with speakers and fellow developers.

Speakers/Topics: Stay tuned as we are updating speakers and schedules. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: Submit Topics

Venue: Veracode, 36 Queen St, London EC4R 1BN

Sponsors: We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 15,000+ AI developers in London or 450K+ worldwide.

Local and Global AI Community on Discord Join us on discord for local and global AI tech community: - Events chat: chat and connect with speakers and global and local attendees; - Learning AI: events\, learning materials\, study groups; - Startups: innovation\, projects collaborations\, founders/co-founders; - Jobs and Careers: job openings\, post resumes\, hiring managers;

S1 Ep#30: From Engineering to Data Strategy: Driving AI and Decision-Making The Data Product Management In Action podcast, season 1, is brought to you by Soda and executive producer Scott Hirleman, is a platform for data product management practitioners to share insights and experiences. Our guest this week is Theo Bell, a data product manager. She chats with host Nick Zerviudis and shares her transition from mechanical engineering to roles at Goldman Sachs and Palantir, emphasizing the importance of data integration in strategic decision-making. She discusses how Palantir helped a manufacturer prioritize client orders during raw material shortages and explores the challenges of convincing stakeholders to adopt new data models, advocating for production-ready pilots over proof-of-concepts. Theo also offers insights on fostering AI adoption within organizations, using a news summarization tool for a CEO as an example. She recommends the GTD framework and Surrounded by Idiots for enhancing productivity and communication. About our Host Nick Zervoudis: Nick is Head of Product at CKDelta, an AI software business within the CK Hutchison Holdings group. Nick oversees a portfolio of data products and works with sister companies to uncover new opportunities to innovate using data, analytics, and machine learning. Nick's career has revolved around data and advanced analytics from day one, having worked as an analyst, consultant, product manager, and instructor for startups, SMEs, and enterprises including PepsiCo, Sainsbury's, Lloyds Banking Group, IKEA, Capgemini Invent, BrainStation, QuantSpark, and Hg Capital. Nick is also the co-host of London's Data Product Management meetup, and speaks & writes regularly about data & AI product management. Connect with Nick on LinkedIn and through his newsletter, Value from Data & AI. About our Guest Theo Bell: Theo is the Head of AI Product at Rimes, where she leads the company’s efforts to leverage AI technology in order to provide cutting-edge data management solutions to clients. Previously, Theo held key roles at Palantir Technologies and Goldman Sachs, where she enabled various industries to leverage data through AI/ML-driven software, notably Airbus' Skywise platform, the NHS, and the UK Ministry of Defense. Theo is dedicated to using AI and technology for global challenges, particularly in improving health, enhancing society, and fostering sustainable businesses. She holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.  Connect with Theo in LinkedIn. All views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect their employers or anyone else.  Join the conversation on LinkedIn.  Apply to be a guest or nominate someone that you know.  Do you love what you're listening to? Please rate and review the podcast, and share it with fellow practitioners you know. Your support helps us reach more listeners and continue providing valuable insights!    .

This event is an open discussion around creating a collaborative and inclusive future in technology. We have a brilliant panel of 4 guests, who are all in leadership roles, and will be sharing their experiences.

This event is for everyone to come together and discuss allyship, inclusivity, and how we should treat each other in the wonderful world of technology.

There is a particular focus around DevOps and AI.

Huge thanks for Avanade for sponsoring this event, and to Civo Tech Junction for hosting! Massive thank you to Magda for co-organising too.

Format of the meetup event will be as follows:

6pm – 6:30pm - Networking on arrival coupled with some snacks provided by ReVybe IT and Avanade.

6:30pm - 7:10pm - Panel discussion

7:10pm -7:20pm - 10-minute break

7:20pm - 7:50pm - Q&A - We strongly encourage the audience to get involved in this!

7:50pm -8:50pm - Pizza, refreshments, and networking.

8:50pm - Event close - networking continues at "Angel London EC1", a GastroPub round the corner.

Session Abstract:

- Career growth in the DevOps space - Inclusivity in DevOps teams - Future of Women in DevOps - Challenges in AI Development - How to foster an inclusive culture within tech businesses - Personal experiences and advice - Why allyship is crucial in building an inclusive environment - Navigating leadership in tech as a women.

Panel Host:

Magdalene Amegashitsi - Data and AI Senior Manager @ Avanade

Magda is a multi-award winner and senior leader in Tech, helping Companies realise their Data ad AI ambitions by developing Strategies and driving impactful and complex digital and data transformations. She is an advocate for Women looking to build a career in Tech and values leadership greatly. Magda is a co-chair for the Women’s Employee Network across Avanade Europe and the Middle East. Furthermore, Magda is the Founder of the Global Queens Community, a Charity which aims to bridge the gap for the underrepresented and inspire women to discover the next best version of themselves.

Panelists:

#1 - Prathy Kamasani - Director @ Avanade

Prathy Kamasani, a Director at Avanade and 7X Microsoft MVP who specializes in Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and Azure data solutions. With extensive experience in MSBI and the Power BI platform, she crafts custom, high-quality BI systems that empower organizations to make informed decisions.

Her approach is both design-centric and user-focused, ensuring that her BI solutions are not only functional but also visually appealing. Prathy collaborates with clients across diverse sectors, helping them harness the power of data.

Beyond her professional role, Prathy is an active member of the BI community. She shares her insights through her blog, prathy.com, where she delves into topics related to Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and more. Her passion extends to community engagement, including participation in the London Fabric User Group and speaking at industry events like SQLBits, the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference, and Microsoft Business Applications Summit.

#2 - Valentina Vacca - Director of Technology

Valentina held senior leadership positions at several renowned organizations, including, 8x8, Currencycloud, Inmarsat, and Ladbrokes Coral. Her expertise in cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and enterprise architecture, combined with a deep understanding of companies' needs has made her a very effective technology leader

Beyond the technical acumen, Valentina has 10+years of experience in building and leading high-performing teams. She has a proven track record in coaching and developing talent, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and preparing the next generation of technology leaders.

#3 - Samer Naqvi - Principal Consultant @ GlobalLogic

Samer is an international speaker with over 16 years of comprehensive experience as a Test Architect, specializing in refining QA practices and empowering teams to achieve excellence through cutting-edge tools and methodologies. Beyond Samer's professional pursuits, she is deeply passionate about advocating for Women in Tech. Through speaking engagements at colleges, organizations, and prominent conferences, she actively raises awareness and motivates the next generation of young women to embrace and excel in the dynamic field of technology.

P.S. Please provide full name and email address for access to the Civo Tech Junction building

Address: First Floor, 32-37 Cowper Street, London, EC2A 4AW

** Important RSVP HERE (Due to limited room capacity, you must pre-register at the link for admission).

Welcome to the AI meetup in London. Join us for deep dive tech talks on AI, GenAI, LLMs and machine learning, food/drink, networking with speakers and fellow developers.

Tech Talk: Data science models for Infectious Diseases Speaker: Alex Glaser (AIG Tech) Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented global crisis, a seismic event that shook our world in ways we’re still grappling with today. As a member of the UK Health Security Agency's Infectious Disease Modelling team, I had the unique opportunity to dive deep into the data and dynamics of the virus, and help to predict its spread and impact. In this talk, I’ll take you behind the scenes, to give you a whistle-stop tour of the models we used, the logic driving our decisions and the insights we uncovered about the virus. For those eager to dive deeper, I’ll also point you toward the key papers that document this work in greater detail.

Tech Talk: AI in the workplace: legal and ethical issues Speaker: Alex Mizzi (Howard Kennedy LLP) Abstract: In this session I will discuss: a) the employment and privacy law issues surrounding AI in recruitment and the employee lifecycle; b) opportunities created by anticipated changes to UK employment law; c) practical aspects of workplace AI e.g. employee engagement.

Speakers/Topics: Stay tuned as we are updating speakers and schedules. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: Submit Topics

Venue: Veracode, 36 Queen St, London EC4R 1BN

Sponsors: We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 15,000+ AI developers in London or 400K+ worldwide.

Community on Slack/Discord

• Event chat: chat and connect with speakers and attendees
• Sharing blogs, events, job openings, projects collaborations *

Hello Data & AI London community, Merry Christmas and Happy new year to you all! We will be kicking off our first meet up of 2024 with a bang.... As the New Year resolutions kick in and dry Janners dry jan I thought March would be best to get the ball rolling with meet ups... and what a line up it is!

Enda Ridge \| Product Analytics and Google shopping @ Google Putting Algorithms into the Business - war stories and success stories Better Algorithms, Sophisticated Cloud Services, More Data. Improvements to the tools at our disposal continue at pace. Demands of the business for the latest innovations outpace our supply. We know that accelerating algorithm automation will decelerate business decline. We know that less time on manual process means more time on great user journeys and customer service. But what is simple in principle proves surprisingly difficult in practice.

In this talk, I will take us through what makes it hard to put data science and algorithms into action in a business. We’ll talk about the operational, people, process and technology blockers I’ve encountered and tips for how I (sometimes) overcame them.

About me Enda is the author of "Guerrilla Analytics – a practical approach to working with data". His teams have helped the world's largest Big Tech companies, FTSE 100 retailers and global consultancies maximise their cost savings and opportunities using data, analytics and machine learning. He currently leads the EMEA product analytics team in Google Shopping, helping understand how millions of merchants are receiving value from the billions of their offers on Google Search and Shopping using experimentation and data driven hypotheses. His PhD is in algorithm tuning. He is a bad runner, a good folk dancer and a great cat dad.

Hudson Mendes \| Ex Machine Learning Manager @ Peloton Challenges & Learnings when optimising a Classier for a Class-Imbalanced Multimodal Dataset Multimodal Deep Learning Classiers are known for being hard to optimise. They are computationally hungry and can't be trained on CPUs. Class-imbalanced datasets also force you out of the comfort of using Cross Entropy, which is convex, as your objective function. In this talk, we investigate aspects of a Multimodal Dataset (MELD) based on the Friends series as well as its separation challenges, the struggles and workarounds when training with PyTorch on TPUs and GPUs (over Google Colab), issues regarding the different scales of using embeddings from different modalities & the application of the Dice & Focal Losses as alternatives to Cross Entropy for class-imbalanced datasets.

Please aim to arrive at 6pm. The talks will start around 6.30pm (give or take a few mins) and there will be pizza and refreshments as always on arrival :)

Look forward to seeing you all soon!

Venue: Riverbank House, 2 Swan Ln, London EC4R 3AD - IMPORTANT: LOCATION UPDATED! Please note:

1. 🚨🚨🚨A valid photo ID is required by building security. 🚨🚨🚨
2. This event follows the NumFOCUS Code of Conduct, please familiarise yourself with it before the event.

If your RSVP status says "You're going" you will be able to get in. No need to show your RSVP confirmation when signing in.

If you can no longer make it, please unRSVP as soon as you know.

Code of Conduct: This event follows the NumFOCUS Code of Conduct. Please get in touch with the organisers with any questions or concerns regarding the Code of Conduct.

As always, there'll be free food & drinks, generously provided by our host, Man Group.

Main Talks

Building the single-source-of-truth: developing a system for large-scale entity resolution — Ludvig Wärnberg Gerdin

Entity matching is a challenge to all multi-source database systems and therefore relevant to all small- to large-scale software projects.

Not only is the process by which the entity resolution is conducted a hard problem (for example, not all records can be compared against each other but have to be blocked in an efficient manner for comparison) but there are also an abundance of methods to do the comparison of records (for example, are we using exact-search of keys of records or maybe a deep learning approach).

The future of AI: Opensource LLMs — Kehinde Richard Ogunyale

The rapid advancement in the field of Large Language Models (LLMs) has ushered in a new era of technological possibilities and challenges. This talk focuses on the future trajectory of AI with a specific emphasis on open-source LLMs. We will explore how the democratization of AI through open-source models is reshaping the landscape of innovation, accessibility, and collaboration in the field. The talk will address critical aspects such as the impact of open-source LLMs on various industries, including education, healthcare, and technology, while also discussing the potential for fostering a more inclusive and diverse AI community.

The talk also addresses the broader implications for policy, regulation, and the global AI landscape, emphasizing the need for collaborative, ethical development of AI technologies. This session aims to highlight both the opportunities and responsibilities associated with open-source LLMs in shaping a sustainable AI future.

⚡ Lightning Talks

Asking the right question (and measuring the right things) — Adam Kells

As data scientists, we often find halfway through a project that we are asking a slightly wrong question. In this talk, I will cover some common pitfalls I see with formulating data science projects and defining metrics.

Logistics Doors open at 6.30 pm (get there early as you have to sign-in via building security), talks start at 7 pm, drinks from 9 pm in the bar. We will have reduced capacity for this event but there will be plenty of people to discuss data science questions with!

Please unRSVP in good time if you realise you can't make it. We're limited by building security on the number of attendees, so please free up your place for your fellow community members!

Follow @pydatalondon (https://twitter.com/pydatalondon) for updates and early announcements.

Join us for an insightful evening at the London Bioinformatics Meetup, dedicated to unravelling challenges in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within the realms of AI, Data Science, and Genomics.

🗓 Date: Thursday, 29th February 🕖 Time: 19:00 - 20:00 📍 Location: C2.12 - Large Lecture, New Cavendish Campus, University of Westminster

AGENDA 19:00 - Welcome and Introduction Start the evening with a brief overview of the event's purpose and goals, setting the stage for an evening of learning and discussion.

19:05 - Dr Manuel Corpas: "The Missing Ancestry Problem: Quantifying Biases in Global Genome Data and Analyses" Dr Corpas, a renowned bioinformatician and lecturer at the University of Westminster, will explore the systemic underrepresentation in global genomic datasets. Discover the impact of these biases on personalised medicine and healthcare outcomes.

19:20 - Prof Nitasha Kaul: "Social Justice and AI" Delve into the ethical dimensions of AI with Nitasha Kaul, as she discusses the intersection of AI, equity, and social justice. Understand the societal implications of AI-driven decisions and the importance of conscientious AI development.

19:35 - Prof Louise Thomas: "Deciphering the UK Biobank: A Journey in Data Analysis" Gain insights from Louise Thomas's experiences in analysing the UK Biobank. Learn about the challenges and triumphs in handling large-scale datasets, and the critical role of diversity in genomic research.

19:50 - Open Discussion and Q&A Engage with our speakers in a lively Q&A session. Share your thoughts, ask questions, and contribute to a meaningful dialogue on ensuring inclusivity and equity in AI and genomics research.

20:00 - Closing Remarks and Networking Conclude the evening with a networking session, where you can connect with fellow attendees, exchange ideas, and foster collaborations.

DISCUSSION POINTS

• Systemic Underrepresentation: Explore the extent and implications of data underrepresentation in genomics.
• Diversity in Datasets: Evaluate the alignment of dataset representation with global population diversity.
• Workforce Diversity: Assess the impact of diversity within research teams as a measure of inherent biases and inequities.

Join us for a night of groundbreaking insights and spirited discussions, as we strive to ensure that the benefits of AI and Data Science are universally applicable and inclusive.

RSVP Secure your spot for an enlightening evening that promises to bridge the gap between technology and humanity.

We look forward to seeing you there! 🌐🧬🖥️

Our first London DevOps Society event has arrived! We are delighted to be partnered with our hosts Broadcom (who recently acquired VMware), with a trio of really exciting speakers lined up. Format of the meetup event will be as follows: 6pm – 6:30pm - Networking on arrival coupled with pizza and drinks provided by ReVybe IT. 6:30pm – 7:40pm – 3X 20 mins speakers with a 10-minute break in-between 2nd and 3rd speaker. 7:40pm onwards – Networking and event close. We are delighted to welcome 3 speakers to our first event. #1 – Vahid Mojtahed – Group Director of Data and Insights Vahid is a pioneer in the world of Data, with a specialism in AI/ML. He has led teams throughout his career, with a focus on innovation and collaboration. Accolades include: 2023 Invited Speaker at Data + AI World Tour by Databricks 2018 Recognized as Exceptional Talent by the British Academy for innovative work on fraud analytics and solution 2016 Invited speaker at Italian Academy of Science Title: Think Like a Machine, Win Like a Human: How AI & ML are Transforming Businesses Across Industries Vahid Mojtahed will kick start the evening by giving us an insight into how data, AI, and ML are empowering businesses and revolutionizing various industries. He will present examples of fraud detection in agri-food industry, financial forecasting in a global enterprise and accelerating property transaction using natural language processing. #2 – Fernando Villalba – DevOps/DevEX/Platform Engineer Fernando has over a decade of miscellaneous IT experience. He started in IT support ("Have you tried turning it on and off?"), veered to become a SysAdmin ("Don't you dare turn it off") and later segued into DevOps type of roles ("Destroy and replace!"). He has been a consultant for various multi-billion-dollar organizations helping them achieve their highest potential with their DevOps processes. Title: Platform engineering must kill RTFM Fernando Villalba will be speaking on how platform engineering must kill “read the f*ck!ng manual”. “It doesn't matter how great your documentation is or how much you tell developers to read the manual, if your design and user experience is terrible, you will get poor performance. In this talk we will explore how and why placing an emphasis on documentation at the expense of design is a bad practice, and we will also explore how this relates to your cloud provider and your internal developer platform. Whether you are looking to build your own platform or find a compass to pick better tooling for your developers, this talk may be helpful for you.” This talk is based on the following blog posts: https://nandovillalba.medium.com/platform-engineering-please-kill-rtfm-72de6f01075e https://nandovillalba.medium.com/ux-on-platform-engineering-1c7ecfaddea7 #3 – Chris Hurford – Strategic Customer Success Manager – Broadcom Chris is a senior technical leader who has a blend of technical and leadership skills, with a push towards agile software delivery and delivery management in recent years. He is passionate about developing and supporting high quality software products and systems, whilst motivating teams using agile methodologies. Chris has over 25 years of experience in the technology space, starting off as a software developer before moving into management. Title: An overview of the Tanzu software portfolio and Tanzu Lab's Platform Engineering services Lastly, we have Chris Hurford, a senior figure within the Broadcom engineering team, delivering a talk on Tanzu, which helps platform engineers accelerate application development and delivery so that developers can focus on building great apps. Tanzu Application Platform is a modular Kubernetes-based platform that allows you to build quickly and ship fast.

We are excited to welcome Simon Whiteley and Terry McCann for our November meetup.

Fabric Notebooks for the Power BI Professional

Microsoft Fabric combines the worlds of Power BI and Data Platforms, and there is a huge array of powerful tools at your now at your fingertips - but if you've never written python, how do you even begin to use the Notebook experience? What is a DataFrame and how do you use them? How can you avoid Python and use SQL instead?

In this session, we'll take a look at how the Spark engine is surprisingly similar to Power Query. We'll load some files into our OneLake, write some PySpark to read the data, transform it a little, and save it as a Lakehouse table that we can then use datasets, warehouses and more. We’ll look at some of the tips and tricks for using a little bit of Spark to speed up your data curation, as well as some of the neat new tools that come in the Fabric experience.

Finally, we'll discuss using notebooks as part of your end-to-end data process, and answer your Fabric design questions!

Simon Whiteley

Data Platform MVP. Databricks Beacon. Cloud Architect, Nerd

Director of Engineering for Advancing Analytics Ltd, Microsoft Data Platform MVP and Databricks Beacon. Simon is a seasoned solution architect & technical lead with well over a decade of Microsoft Analytics experience, who spends an inordinate amount of time running the Advancing Spark YouTube series. A deep techie with a focus on emerging cloud technologies and applying "big data" thinking to traditional analytics problems, Simon also has a passion for bringing it back to the high level and making sense of the bigger picture. When not tinkering with tech, Simon is a death-dodging London cyclist, a sampler of craft beers, an avid chef and a generally nerdy person.

Terry McCann

Microsoft MVP & CEO

Microsoft MVP. CEO & Owner of Advancing Analytics. A consultancy who helps businesses advance their analytics and better understand their data. Frequent speaker at events across the globe. Organiser of the Global AI Bootcamp London, Data Science user group in Exeter, UK and previous co-organiser of SQL Saturday Exeter, UK.

OPEN DATA CHALLENGE: Before our main session we are bringing back the Open Data Challenge. Your opportunity to showcase your talent to the audience. This month's challenge is Women's Football World Cup 2023 data from StatsBomb.

https://statsbomb.com/news/statsbomb-release-free-2023-womens-world-cup-data/

You'll have the opportunity to present a short (max 5 minute) presentation to show road report and and other aspects of Microsoft Fabric used in creating your solution.

Please bring a laptop to present, or contact us in advance.

VENUE: We will meet at the Nigel Frank Offices at 60 Great Tower Street. If you've not been there before, it's just a little further up the street from Brewdog. Google Maps link to help you find the building: https://goo.gl/maps/GRZWr5LfScZhApu6A

Welcome to our in-person AI meetup, in collaboration with Google Developers Group. Join us for deep dive tech talks on AI/ML, food/drink, networking with speakers & peers developers, and win lucky draw prizes.

Pre-registration is required, Complete your RSVP here: https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2023100310

Description: This meet-up is a unique opportunity to connect with fellow AI enthusiasts, industry practitioners, and researchers in a dynamic and interactive setting. Whether you are a seasoned AI professional or just curious about the latest advancements in NLP, LLMs and ChatGPT, this meet-up is for you! Join us for an insightful and thought-provoking discussion on the forefront of AI innovation.

Agenda : * 6:00pm\~6:30pm: Checkin, Food/Snacks/Drink and networking * 6:30pm\~6:45pm: Welcome/community update * 6:45pm\~7:45pm: Tech talks * 7:45pm: Open discussion & Mixer

Tech Talk 1: AI and Audio, Speaker Diarization at News UK Speaker: Adam MacVeigth @News UK Abstract: Discerning and distinguishing between multiple speakers in an audio stream has always presented a unique challenge. This talk dives into how the AI team solved this problem and how the newsroom can use the outputs to superpower their products.

Tech Talk 2: Building a computer vision based object identification and tracking service Speaker: Nageela Yusuf @Cerebriam Studio Abstract: Creating a tracking service for a consumer video editor can be challenging since you have to consider user input and creativity, the accuracy and robustness of tracking, the cost and speed of compute, and the aesthetics of the output video. In this talk we’ll be talking about how we built the person tracking service for the Cerebriam Studio online editor, and in doing so we’ll cover our R&D with yolo5 and yolo8, how we managed the rules of composition for videography, as well as how we kept costs down.

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• Speakers: If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: https://forms.gle/JkMt91CZRtoJBSFUA
• Sponsors: We are actively seeking sponsors to support our community. Sponsors will receive speaking opportunities at our meetups, sponsor recognition, and post-event emails to our vast membership base of 10k+ in London or 250K+ developers in global.
• Community Manager: Additionally, we are looking for passionate community managers and volunteers who are enthusiastic about nurturing tech communities. Join us in planning and hosting events, and let's collaborate on developing the local AI/ML developer community.

🎙️ Speaker: Maximilian Goebel \| ⏰ Time: 2 pm UTC / 7 am PT / 10 am ET / 4 pm Berlin

Inspired by the asset-pricing literature, the Soccer-Factor-Model (SFM) is an attempt to determine a soccer player's "alpha", i.e. his/her inherent skill. In this application, "skill" is defined as a player's probability to score a goal after accounting for factors that are actually to be attributed to his team's out- or under-performance vis-à-vis the opponent. In that way, the SFM answers the question, of whether a player's observed goals are an over- or understatement of his "true" skill.

Content: 👉 Discourse Post for more details and discussion: https://discourse.pymc.io/t/12453 🎙️Max’s Interview: https://youtu.be/IkVoZUfCkt4 📝 Notebook: https://github.com/maxi-tb22/SFM/blob/main/PyMCon/SFM_redacted.ipynb

📜 Outline of Talk / Agenda:

• 5 min: Intro to PyMCon Web Series and Speakers
• 40 min: Live Talk
• 15 min: Q&A

💼 About the Speaker:

• Maximilian Goebel Max is a Post-Doc at Università Bocconi, specializing in finance/economics. With research interests in climate econometrics, machine learning, macroeconomic forecasting, and asset-pricing, Max combines expertise in these areas to drive innovation and uncover valuable insights.

🔗 Connect with Max: 👉 Website: https://www.maximiliangoebel.com 👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximilian-göbel-188b0413a/

🤝 Sponsor: We thank our sponsors for supporting PyMC and the PyMCon Web Series. If you would like to sponsor us, contact us for more information. As the place where the future of AI gathers, ODSC works to bring together the global data science community to encourage the exchange of innovative ideas and the growth of open source software." or as well you can use the short sentences like "The future of AI gathers here", "Build AI better". The upcoming events include ODSC Europe (June 14-15, in-person (London) and virtual), Generative AI Summit (July 20, virtual), ODSC APAC (Aug 22-23, virtual), ODSC West (Oct 31-Nov 3, in-person (San Francisco) and virtual).

📖 Code of Conduct: Please note that participants are expected to abide by PyMC's Code of Conduct.

🌐 Connecting with PyMC 📺 PyMCon Web Series: https://pymcon.com/ 👥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pymc/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/pymc_devs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pymc-devs 🤝 Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/pymc-online-meetup/ 🐘 Mastodon: https://bayes.club/@pymc 💬 Discourse, Q&A/Discussion: https://discourse.pymc.io 🐙 GitHub: https://github.com/pymc-devs/pymc

We are thrilled to invite you to our second in-person meetup in London for 2023 in collaboration with Wipro!

Kong makes connecting APIs and microservices across today’s hybrid, multi-cloud environments easier and faster than ever.

We power trillions of API transactions for leading organizations globally through our end-to-end API platform and service offerings.

When June 28, 18:00 - 21:00 BST

Where Wipro Limited, Victoria House, Level 6, Bloomsbury Square London, WC1B 4DA

Agenda 18:00 - 18:30 Everyone gathers, drinks & snacks, networking 18:30 - 19:15 Talk 1 Govern the Sprawl of Your Microservices with Ease Using Kong Service Mesh by Andrew Klitovchenko (Senior Solutions Engineer at Kong) 19:15 - 20:00 Talk 2 Impact of Generative AI in the Integration Landscape by Pramod Nair (Global Head of AECS-Integration and Europe Head of Enterprise Architecture at Wipro) 20:00 - 21:00 Networking, food & drinks

Talks Talk 1 Govern the Sprawl of Your Microservices with Ease Using Kong Service Mesh On the journey of splitting monolith, organisations often face the challenge of governing their newly built microservices. How can they ensure their microservices are secure, observed etc., at scale? In this meetup, we will speak about the following:

• What service mesh is and why we need it
• How Kong is different to other service meshes

We will demonstrate how Kong Service Mesh can help you easily observe, secure, and traffic-control your microservices.At the end of the session, we will look into the future of API and Service connectivity with Kong.

Talk 2 Impact of Generative AI in the Integration Landscape Generative AI came into reckoning rapidly over the last two quarters. This is a technology that has immense potential and Enterprises all over are trying to grapple with the exponential growth of this technology. It is assumed that in a short while there will be a proliferation of models in the market leading challenges in manging the models, connecting to the models (API based Connectivity) and training models with adequate data without compromising security. The talk aims at looking at emergence of Large Language model based Generative AI’s and what kind of connectivity and management platforms enterprise needs to think about to manage influx of such models. This presentation also explores how Wipro and Kong can work together to create a Large Language Model Gateway proposition for our customers.

Speakers Andrew Klitovchenko (Senior Solutions Engineer at Kong) Andrew Klitovchenko is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Kong, the cloud connectivity company. Andrew helps organisations modernise their API and Service Connectivity governance journeys and make their API and Service Connectivity strategies a competitive advantage. Before his current role, in similar positions, he helped large enterprises with their data streaming and analytics, data privacy and application performance monitoring use cases. Outside of work, Andrew likes playing football, hiking, 3D printing, travelling and exploring new countries and cultures.

Pramod Nair (Global Head of AECS-Integration and Europe Head of Enterprise Architecture at Wipro) Pramod Nair leads Wipro’s Intelligent Business Integration Practice Globally, and he also heads the European arm of Wipro’s Enterprise Architecture Practice. Pramod has more than 20 years of industry experience in various business and technology domains. In the past he played the roles of CTO, Chief Architect and Practice Head for Wipro. Pramod is a Graduate from London Business School and currently pursuing his Masters in Artificial Intelligence.

🎙️ Speaker: Ricardo Vieira \| ⏰ Time: 2 pm UTC / 7 am PT / 10 am ET / 4 pm Berlin

Many people have heard of (or at least used) automatic differentiation, a set of routines that allow programs to compute partial derivatives from numerical functions. This innovation allowed a large class of users to benefit from gradient-based algorithms without having to understand or manually implement their own gradient functions.

PyMC grabbed this idea and applied it to a completely novel context: automatic probability. With it, we can automatically derive and evaluate probability expressions from user-specified random functions. Similar to automatic differentiation, this allows users to create rich generative models and exploit probability-based algorithms (e.g., NUTS) without having to manually implement their own probability functions.

In this talk, we present this new foundation of PyMC and how it can (and is already) used to construct specialized classes of models, from arbitrary variable transformations to mixture distributions, censoring processes, and highly structured timeseries.

The goal is to understand what makes PyMC a true probabilistic programming language and how you can exploit it!

📢 Note: This session is exclusively for Q&A. We kindly request you to watch the recording before joining the event. For additional information and further discussion, please refer to this Discourse post.

Content: 👉 Discourse Post for more details and discussion: https://discourse.pymc.io/t/12274 🎙️Ricardo’s Interview: PyMCon Web Series - Meet Ricardo Vieira 🎥 Async Talk: PyMCon Web Series - Automatic Probability 📒 Slides: Automatic Probability - Google Slides 📝 Notebook: Automatic probability.ipynb · GitHub

📜 Outline of Talk / Agenda:

• 5 min: Intro to PyMCon Web Series and Speakers
• 55 min: Q&A

💼 About the Speaker:

• Ricardo Vieira Ricardo Vieira is a PyMC developer and data scientist at PyMC Labs. He spent several years teaching himself Statistics and Computer Science at the expense of his official degrees in Psychology and Neuroscience.

🔗 Connect with Ricardo: 👉 Website: https://ricardov94.github.io/posts/ 👉 GitHub: https://github.com/ricardoV94

🤝 Sponsor We thank our sponsors for supporting PyMC and the PyMCon Web Series. If you would like to sponsor us, contact us for more information.

As the place where the future of AI gathers, ODSC works to bring together the global data science community to encourage the exchange of innovative ideas and the growth of open source software." or as well you can use the short sentences like "The future of AI gathers here", "Build AI better".

The upcoming events include ODSC Europe (June 14-15, in-person (London) and virtual), Generative AI Summit (July 20, virtual), ODSC APAC (Aug 22-23, virtual), ODSC West (Oct 31-Nov 3, in-person (San Francisco) and virtual).

📖 Code of Conduct: Please note that participants are expected to abide by PyMC's Code of Conduct.

🌐 Connecting with PyMC 📺 PyMCon Web Series: https://pymcon.com/ 👥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pymc/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/pymc_devs 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pymc-devs 🤝 Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/pymc-online-meetup/ 🐘 Mastodon: https://bayes.club/@pymc 💬 Discourse, Q&A/Discussion: https://discourse.pymc.io 🐙 GitHub: https://github.com/pymc-devs/pymc