The AI Collective Chicago | Vectorize: Intro to Agent Memory 🧠| IBM: Build A Weather App🌤️
​Join The AI Collective Chicago for an evening of hands-on demos and deep technical talks at Microsoft Chicago Office. Thanks to Vectorize for sponsoring the event.
First up, Chris Latimer from Vectorize will explain why RAG alone isn't enough for autonomous agents and dive into agent memory systems—how they fix inconsistency, context rot, and hallucinations, and how Hindsight (an open-source agent memory system) uses biomimetic data structures to achieve strong long-memory performance. Chris will walk through the research and engineering choices that make agent memory practical for production use.
Next, Aaron Ploetz from IBM will demo a real-world build: a weather station web app powered by an AI agent created in Langflow. He’ll show how to define tools for the agent, integrate it into a Java application, interpret the agent’s outputs, process National Weather Service data, and render a usable frontend—highlighting the practical trade-offs you’ll face when adding agents to modern apps.
​Both talks include live demos and time for questions, so come ready to see working systems and leave with concrete ideas you can apply.
AGENDA (CST / GMT-6) *approximate as there could be unforeseen technical obstacles
​​5:30-6:00 Social networking / Refreshments
​​6:00-6:12 Intro & Announcements
​​6:13-6:15 A word from our Venue Sponsor: Microsoft Chicago
​​6:15-7:15 Featured Presentation by Chris Latimer/Vectorize
​​7:15-7:30 Q&A (with Chris)
​​7:30-8:00 Technical Demo by Aaron Ploetz/IBM
​​8:00-8:15 Q&A (with Aaron)
​​8:15 Post-event social networking
​​8:45 Lights out
​As always, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!
​​Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!
​The AI Collective is a global non-profit community uniting 150,000+ pioneers – founders, researchers, operators, and investors – exploring the frontier of AI in major tech hubs worldwide. Through events, workshops, and community-led research, we empower the AI ecosystem to collaboratively steer AI’s future toward trust, openness, and human flourishing.
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