Chicago Tech Mixer 2026

Data in a Dive is a casual meetup for Chicago’s data community, co-hosted by DataHub and MotherDuck. Engineers, developers, analysts, and anyone else who spends an unreasonable amount of time thinking about data are welcome. No talks. No panels. No forced networking. Just drinks, good people, and a chance to get out of the office for a couple hours. We’ll be hanging out at Monk’s Pub. Come by after work, grab a drink on us, and stay as long as you like.

⭐️ This month's meetup is sponsored by Tray.ai, the enterprise orchestration platform for data and AI. \-\-\- 📌 Automation, MCP, and vibe coding: what gets built vs. what gets shipped with Stephen Stouffer As a Solutions Engineer at an AI company, I build alongside teams every week. I've seen what works, what actually gets adopted, and what dies after the pilot. In this session I'll share how AI adoption has really played out from the front lines. Where it started, where it stands today, and where it's headed. We'll walk through real use cases, real agents, and a couple of apps that show how teams are using AI in ways you probably haven't seen yet. It won't be all slides! I'm bringing an agent or two along with me, and we'll put them to work live! \-\-\- If you're interested in speaking at an upcoming meetup, please email Bennett at bhansen@bitovi.com.

RSVP HERE \- only RSVPS via Luma will be allowed in: https://luma.com/p6nyjn29 Chicago Code & Coffee is teaming up with the AI Collective and Superoptimal for a hands-on workshop with engineers from AWS, Relativity, and Qdrant on building AI agents you can trust. We'll cover real failure modes in high-stakes AI, including missing or outdated sources, weak retrieval, and conflicting evidence. Bring your laptop and prepare for an incredible evening! Food, drinks, and networking included! Space is limited, so register early at !👉 RSVP HERE: https://luma.com/p6nyjn29

Join a Claude Community Event, organized by local enthusiasts for everyone who loves building with Claude! Fable 5.1 Build Day, Chicago. Anthropic shipped Fable 5.1 at the start of September. Bring a laptop and build on it while the rest of the world is still reading about it. The night opens with a short look at what's new in the model and two live demos, and then you build for about ninety minutes, on your own or in a team of two to four. There are three tracks and you pick yours on the night. Delight, something surprising or beautiful or fun that you couldn't have made this good this fast before Breakthrough, a problem the last model couldn't handle, brought back to see how far this one gets Everyday, something that solves a real problem in the work you already do At 8:00 PM everyone who built something shows it, two minutes each, and a panel of local judges scores the demos. Bring a laptop, a charger, and an account at console.anthropic.com. Everyone with a confirmed spot gets $100 in Anthropic API credits for the session. Credits attach to a Console organization, and a personal Claude.ai login won't take them, so create the organization before you arrive and you'll save yourself time at the door.