DMV Member Introductions | Say Hello! 😃

[Anton_Lagergren]

DMV Community Member Introductions
If you’d like to find other members to connect with, or would like others to be able to connect / find you — then you’re in the right place.

• This forum is for DMV Databricks Community Members to introduce themselves.
• Feel free to respond to this post with whatever info you’d like to share about yourself.

Examples:

• Name / Company / Position
• Professional Interests
• Hobbies / Fun Facts
• Contact Info (LinkedIn / Email / Discord / etc.)
• Or anything else you’d like to share! 

 

[Anton_Lagergren]

🌟Welcome to all the new members that joined today! 🌟

I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone — so to kick off the introductions I’ll start 🙂

My name is Anton Lagergren, and I started this DMV Databricks Community group in order to bring people together to network, share ideas, learn and grow.

I am a long time DMV resident and am excited to meet others in the area, but even if you’re not local — this group is open to all!!!

Professionally, I am focused on GenAI applications across industries.  I’d love to discuss use cases, architectures, etc — with anyone who would like 🙂

I can be reached via:

• Discord:  antonlagergren
• antonlagergren@gmail.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonlagergren

I look forward to hearing from everyone! 🌟 

— Anton 

[PXL]

Thanks for starting a local community for DMV. I work remotely but am physically located NoVA. My organization is using databricks for analytics, ETL pipelines and recently some LLM projects. They're a microsoft shop, but I'm cloud agnostic and interested to get disparate datasets connected across systems. 

I'm interested in connecting with folks solving challenging problems and building things with Databricks.

[Anton_Lagergren]

Good to meet you @PXL 🌟 

[nayan_wylde]

@PXL Sounds good. We are planning for a meetup soon. @Anton_Lagergren 

[Goo]

I'm looking to see who in the DMV area participates in this group and if we should create an official/unofficial HH somewhere 🍹

• Name / Company / Position: Michael Goo, Databricks, Solution Architect
• Professional Interests: Vibe Coding
• Contact Info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgoo/

[nayan_wylde]

 @Goo I am definitely in for it  Also if we can create a DMV User Group and have some sessions scheduled that would be great. Looking forward to talk to you soon.

[Goo]

Let's talk more about it. I will definitely need some assistance if it hasn't been established before.  goo@databricks.com is my email. 

[nayan_wylde]

@Goo are you free this week to discuss the next steps for User Group creation

[jadepech]

I can't seem to reply to your comment above, but @nayan_wylde  and @Goo , I would be interested in participating in this. I am new to Databricks, but I lead 2 user groups (one local DMV) and one virtual federal government for another software. 

[Goo]

I will engage our events team to set up a registration page. I was thinking of our first meeting in mid-February. If we schedule a 3:00 PM time slot with 1-2 hours of content from various presenters or subject areas, then we can follow up with a happy hour. We can also look for sponsors (Location, Food, Drinks).

Alternatively we can just do a happy hour social for networking. What are y'all's thoughts?

[jadepech]

While building a more consistent user group, the first things we are going to run into is a location where we can have space set up. Second getting sponsors I hadn't had much luck (but also hadn't put too much effort into securing sponsorships) getting food/drinks. 

I personally think it would be best to do a happy hour to start to gauge the size of people who would be interested in participating in person and go from there. That will inform the size and location that would be suitable. An in-person place in the DMV area needs to be metro accessible and I have a handful of places in mind that have been successful for happy hour networking vibes vs. presentation style meetings. 

Are you guys going to the Databricks AI Summit on 12/11? We could meet up then and get some discussion going.

[Goo]

No, I wasn't planning on going. They typically limit the number of employees to save space for customers and partners. Would love to get a list of venues that you have past experience with. 

[nayan_wylde]

@jadepech Yes I will be attending the Databricks World Tour in Dc on 12/11

[nayan_wylde]

That's an excellent idea @Goo. I know there are a lot of Databricks users in DMV area and only group that is active is in Baltimore area. We can easily get lot of people attending in the NOVA area.