One of our most popular events is back!
Our Practically AI Lightning Talks return for another evening of short, practical talks from engineers building with AI. Rather than spending an hour on a single topic, you'll hear multiple perspectives from people applying AI to real software engineering challenges.
From production AI products and developer tooling to evaluation, misinformation and the way AI is changing how we think, this is a great opportunity to discover new ideas, learn from fellow practitioners, and meet Manchester's growing community of software engineers working with AI.
Each speaker has around 15 minutes to share something they've built, learned or discovered, followed by a few minutes for questions before we move on to the next topic.
Confirmed Speakers
Esly Lescano - AI Products That Solve Real-World Problems: The Journey of Refurb AI
Building an AI product users trust takes far more than connecting to an LLM. Using Refurb AI as a case study, Esly will share the practical lessons learned building a production-ready multimodal AI application, covering prompt engineering, structured outputs, workflow automation, and designing user experiences that make AI genuinely useful.
Charles Oduk - to Build a WhatsApp Fact-Checking Bot
WhatsApp has become a major source of news around the world—but it's also a major source of misinformation. Charles will demonstrate how he built a WhatsApp bot to help verify claims and reduce the spread of misinformation, sharing the engineering decisions behind the solution.
Abdullah Ola Mudathir - Stop Trusting. Start Measuring: Putting AI Code Reviewers on Trial
Many teams are adopting AI code reviewers, but how do you know they're actually helping? Abdullah explores practical techniques for evaluating AI reviewers by measuring what they catch, what they miss, and where more sophisticated prompting stops providing value.
Robin Roy - Who's Doing the Thinking?
As AI becomes embedded into our daily workflows, how is it changing the way we solve problems? Robin explores whether AI is augmenting our thinking—or gradually replacing parts of it—and what that means for software engineers.
Who Should Attend
Software engineers, engineering managers, platform engineers, technical leaders and anyone interested in how AI is being applied in real software development. Whether you're already using AI every day or just beginning to explore what's possible, you'll leave with practical ideas you can take back to work.
Why It's Worth Attending
Lightning talks are one of the best ways to discover new tools, techniques and perspectives in a single evening. You'll hear from engineers solving very different problems with AI, ask questions, and connect with Manchester's growing community of practitioners building real AI-powered software.
Agenda
18:30 – Doors, pizza & networking
18:50 – Welcome + AI Spotlight
19:00 – Lightning Talks
Building AI Products That Solve Real-World Problems – Esly Adan Lescano Lescano
How to Build a WhatsApp Fact-Checking Bot – Charles Oduk
Stop Trusting. Start Measuring – Abdullah Ola Mudathir
Who's Doing the Thinking? – Robin Roy
20:15 – Open discussion & networking
20:30 – Close
Entry
Upon arrival at Matillion: Venue, please check in at reception and you'll be directed to the meetup.