Fireside: AI with Prod Data - Hype vs Reality

Hi new friends and old! Pull up a chair, it's fireside chat time! 🔥 Everyone's building with AI, but what actually happens once it leaves the demo and meets real users? We've gathered three seasoned folks who've been there to tell us honestly: the wins, the war stories, and the things they wish they'd known sooner. 📍 We're very grateful to Quantspark for kindly hosting us at their venue for the evening! 🎙️ AI with Production Data: Hype vs Reality A relaxed, honest conversation (no slides, no sales pitches!) covering: 🚀 Getting it live: what it really takes to go from prototype to production 💥 When it breaks: surprising failures, and how they caught them 📏 Knowing it works: testing, evaluation and keeping quality up over time 💷 Worth it?: costs, trade-offs, and when not to use AI at all Then it's over to you: bring your burning questions for the Q&A! 🙋 👥 Meet the speakers Constantin Petrescu PhD, Machine Learning Engineer Lead at Hurdle Currently developing an AI-powered Health Insights Engine for healthcare companies to autonomously review personalised health risk scores for patients and prevent diseases. Nnamdi Odozi, Actuarial AI Strategist at AvE Consulting Works where actuarial science meets machine learning. Has built and deployed AI-driven actuarial, investment and risk models for pension schemes and insurers. Troy Culley, Data & Analytics Manager at FMCGPricing and experimentation specialist. Has built demand-forecasting models, dynamic pricing and large-scale A/B testing programmes that delivered multi-million-pound revenue gains. Hosted by DL Lim, Founder and Organiser of The Friendly Data Meetup During the day, DL specialises in deploying production-grade data platforms, agentic AI and analytics solutions specifically for actuarial applications in the insurance industry, through his independent consultancy, Lunox Group. Who it’s for Anyone working with AI or Data who wants the honest story behind getting it into production. That includes engineers, data scientists, product managers and team leads. You don’t need to have shipped an AI product yourself, but you’ll get the most out of it if you’ve worked on data or software projects and want to know what really happens once the demo is over. 🌄 On that evening 🕖 7:00pm 📅 26th November 2026 📍 230 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NW When you arrive at the venue, show your Luma QR code, and say you're going to Quantspark for the Friendly Data Meetup. 7:00pm - Doors open, grab a drink and say hello 7:15pm - Fireside chat begins 8:15pm - Audience Q&A 8:35pm - Mingle with the speakers and each other 9:00pm - Building closes, and on to a nearby pub! 📒IMPORTANT NOTE To attend, please sign up on Luma. You will be required to show your QR code at the reception. See you by the fire*! 🔥 *no physical fires are present throughout the event for the health and safety of the organisers and participants of the event. 🤝 Code of Conduct:The Friendly Data Meetup welcomes all genders, nationalities, ethnicities, backgrounds, identities etc. There is a strict no discrimination policy in adherence to our code of conduct and our guiding principles. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for hateful or antisocial behaviour. In short, be kind to others. Do not insult or put down others. Behave professionally, don't make others feel uncomfortable. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for The Friendly Data Meetup. 🌱 Donations, Volunteers and Patrons Welcome:The Friendly Data Meetup is completely volunteer run and not for profit. Donations and ideas are very welcome to fund more exciting activities! Buy us a coffee or come and chat with us. Support us: https://friendlymeetup.com/support