Building Trusted AI on Cloud Native Platforms [Chicago Meetup]

​Chicago tech friends—join us for a free Cloud Native + AI meetup featuring a talk from Kelsey Hightower—renowned technologist, former Distinguished Engineer at Google Cloud, and one of the most influential voices in the open-source community, widely known for his work on Kubernetes.

​We’re bringing together Chicago’s AI & Cloud Native open-source community—platform engineers, SREs, architects, AI practitioners, builders, and anyone working hands-on with modern infrastructure—for a focused, in-person technical gathering.

​No sales pitches. No marketing fluff. No surface-level talks. Just real architectures, practical lessons, and conversations with people building and operating production systems.

​What to expect:
• Meet Chicago practitioners working on AI, Kubernetes, security, and hybrid cloud platforms
• Learn how teams are evaluating AI models privately, reducing CVE noise, and operating Kubernetes at scale
• Exchange real-world design patterns, trade-offs, and lessons learned
• An open, discussion-driven format with time to connect and go deeper

​Why this matters:
Chicago has strong technical talent across many companies, industries, and neighborhoods—but few spaces for deep, practitioner-to-practitioner knowledge sharing. This meetup is about strengthening local connections and raising the signal for how modern platforms are actually built and secured to support your AI & Cloud Native applications.

​Who should come:
Developers, Software Engineers, SREs, Platform Engineers, AI practitioners, Solution Architects and anyone tech-curious who wants to learn, share experiences, and help grow a stronger, more connected Chicago AI and Cloud Native ecosystem.

​Come for the technical depth, stay for the conversation.
Free food, drinks, swag, and complimentary parking tickets included (while supplied last).

​​Agenda (Central Time): 

• ​5:00 - 5:30 pm (Check-in): Networking

• ​​​​​5:30 - 5:45 pm (Talk 1): Private AI Evaluation in the Enterprise, Nutanix

• ​​​​​5:45 - 6:00 pm (Talk 2): Beyond the Patching Treadmill: Automating Zero-CVE Platforms with Runtime Intelligence, RapidFort

• ​​​​​​6:00 - 6:15 pm (Short Break): Networking

• ​6:15 - 6:45 pm (Talk 3): Fire-side chat with Kelsey Hightower, Renowned Technologist 

• ​​​​6:45 - 7:00 pm (AMA): With Kelsey Hightower

• ​7:00 pm: Food and Drinks

• ​7:15-7:30 pm (Talk 4):  One Interface, Any Infrastructure: Architecting a Consistent Hybrid Private Cloud, Nutanix  

• ​​​7:30 - 8:00 pm (Wrap-up): Networking