Business Development Near Me

Your First AI Game Plan

In this first meetup, small business owners with little or no AI experience will build a simple AI strategy for their company. We will map where work is getting stuck, pick one primary focus area for the next six months, and choose 1–3 practical use cases that can actually get done. You will leave with a one-page AI strategy for your business covering tools, time, data you need, guardrails, and a few metrics to track along the way. No technical background is required—just a real business problem and a willingness to write it down. After the session, you are welcome to stick around for an optional mixer at the Old Bag of Nails Pub across the street to socialize and compare notes with other local business owners. ***October 13th Agenda*** **6:30-7:30pm** Building your first AI Strategy **7:30-8:30pm** Happy Hour at the Upper Arlington Old Bag of Nails Pub - Upper Arlington (directly across from the Bob Crane Community Center)

Dublin, OH

Growth Through Grants: 2-Day Grants Boot Camp

Develop Competitive Grant Proposals & Funding Strategies Winning grants requires more than finding opportunities, it requires a strategy. The **Growth Through Grants 2-Day Boot Camp** is an immersive, two-day training designed to help participants understand the grant process from beginning to end. You'll learn how to identify funding opportunities, develop stronger proposals, and position your organization for long-term funding success. Whether you're applying for your first grant or refining your current approach, this boot camp will equip you with practical tools and proven strategies you can immediately put into action. During the Boot Camp You'll Learn ✔ How to identify grant opportunities that fit your mission ✔ How funders evaluate applications ✔ Building a competitive grant strategy ✔ Writing stronger grant proposals ✔ Budget and narrative best practices ✔ Common mistakes that reduce funding chances ✔ Building long-term relationships with funders ✔ Preparing your organization for future funding Featured Instructors **Dr. Erika Pryor**Founder, EPIC Learning Today **Tiffany Nobles**T. Noble Grant Consulting Who Should Attend * Small business owners * Non-profit leaders * Community organizers * Social entrepreneurs * Creative consultants * Executive Directors * Program Managers **Investment: $497** **Your registration includes:** * Two full days of live instruction including breakout sessions and independent working sessions to customize your Proposal Tool Kit * Workshop and Interactive activities so you customize your Proposal Tool Kit as you go * Networking opportunities with business owners, grant makers and capital providers * Exclusive access to the invite only ***The Capital Access Mixer*** to connect with funding and capital access partners that can support your growth. **Event Details** 📅 October 23–24, 2026 🕛 12:30 PM–5:00 PM 📍 Location: **Columbus Metropolitan Library – Martin Luther King (MLK) Branch** Seats are limited to encourage an interactive learning experience. Reserve your spot today and start building a stronger grant funding strategy. **[Official Registration Site --> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/growth-through-grants-2-day-boot-camp-registration-1992583572103?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/growth-through-grants-2-day-boot-camp-registration-1992583572103?aff=oddtdtcreator)** **Join our FREE Growth Through Grants Series: Grant Makers Panel** webinar to hear from grant experts, ask questions, and continue building your grant funding strategy before and after the Boot Camp. ➡️ **Register for the FREE webinar here:** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992584008408?aff=oddtdtcreator Purchases are non-refundable.

Evolve Synergy: Westerville Chapter

At Evolve Synergy Sessions, you'll be part of a supportive mastermind where we share challenges, brainstorm solutions, and inspire one another to take bold steps in our businesses. Grow your network, gain fresh perspectives, and build meaningful relationships with like-minded women who are committed to success. Whether you’re looking to move the needle in your business or simply need a space to connect and recharge, this is the perfect place to fuel your entrepreneurial journey. [Add Event to Calendar](https://evolvecolumbus.eventcalendarapp.com/) \*\* Please note, we will be arriving around 8:15a for open networking! Get there early and get connected! Contact Alexis Morley at [alexis.morley@edwardjones.com](mailto:alexis.morley@edwardjones.com) or Terri Lawson at [terri.lawson@e-merge.com](mailto:terri.lawson@e-merge.com) for more information.

Grants Boot Camp: Part 2

Hosted by Smashing Your Sales Goals, featuring Tiffany Nobles a 2-day interactive boot camp to get you grant ready.

General Business Networking - Columbus

**PLEASE BUY TICKETS THROUGH EVENTBRITE. RSVP THROUGH MEETUP IS NOT A TICKET PURCHASE CONFIRMATION.** Strive welcomes you to 'General Business Networking', Columbus' hottest networking event! We are set in the perfect central location in Downtown for all to join. Are you interested in business? Want to elevate your career? Meet Consultants, Analysts of all types, Bankers, Software Engineers, Entrepreneurs, and more who are active in the space or are eager to get started. **\*\*This will be a multi-vertical event\*\*** **There will be professionals with backgrounds in the arts, finance, tech, real estate, healthcare, and more. Come with an open mind, and leave with connections that wouldn't be possible otherwise!** Pack some business cards and come with an open mind! Meet your future business partners, employers, coworkers, investors, and friends. You don't want to miss this opportunity to expand your network and create a brighter future. We will have a space for our event to check-in. The event will go from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (feel free to come at any point in this timeframe). Name tags will be provided. Business casual dress code. Job fair attire. **Remember, it's not who you know, it's who you meet tomorrow!** We look forward to meeting you at the event! Sincerely, Strive Networking Team *Refund requests are permitted up to 24 hours after purchase, so long as we are not within 48 hours before the event start time. Refunds will be made in full and repaid to your method of payment. Note that we are unable to reimburse PayPal fees.* *Disclaimer: By attending Strive Networking events you agree to photos/videos taken during the event being used to promote future events.*

Grants Boot Camp: Part 1

Hosted by Smashing Your Sales Goals, featuring Tiffany Nobles a 2-day interactive boot camp to get you grant ready.

Beyond the Screen: Designing Products for the Spatial Computing Era

For decades, product teams have translated a three-dimensional world into two-dimensional interfaces. We’ve gotten incredibly good at taps, clicks, menus, and scrolls—but what if the screen was never the destination? **ProductTank Columbus welcomes Omari Hitson, VP Lead Product Designer: Emerging Technologies at JPMorgan Chase and President of the Ohio Chapter of the VR/AR Association, for a practical look at what changes when digital products move beyond the screen and into the world around us.** Omari Hitson designs where emerging technology meets real-world product problems. He has experience designing and prototyping across the evolution from traditional mobile and desktop experiences to spatial computing—all within a regulated enterprise environment where new technology has to solve an actual problem, not simply generate excitement. He also serves as Chapter President of the VR/AR Association of Ohio and hosts the OhioXR conferences, putting him at the center of Ohio’s growing XR community. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

Evolve Elite: Worthington Chapter

Evolve exists to connect women entrepreneurs connect with one another, serve one another, and help one another overcome challenges in marketing, sales, networking, and professional development. **[Add to Calendar](https://www.evolvewomensnetwork.com/columbus-oh.html)** **What to Expect:** \~ Welcome team to greet you, introduce you to others, and make sure you feel a part of the group from your very first meeting \~ Welcome & Introductions: 15 second introductions \~ 15 Minute Speaker Spotlight: Member speaker who shares a bit of her story, how she got to doing what she does, and a tangible tip she uses to gain success in her business. No hard selling...no expectations. Simply giving the group an opportunity to get to know her and her journey. \~ 20 Minute Break Out Sessions: Small groups is where we connect best. Extroverted and Introverted alike get the opportunity to share on a deeper level and learn from one another. \~ Take Aways: Hear what the other groups talked about and share resources to grow yourself and your business \~ Grow Time!: Do you need a specific connection to a person, company, or industry? Share it with us! We love to open our networks to one another and grow together! For more information, contact Mentor Director, Anne-Claire Van Aken at anneclaire.evolve@gmail.com Guests are always welcome. We'd love to meet you!

< $200 /Month, Ready for Infinity: Modernizing CRM with Claude + AWS in 90 Days

What happens when a fast-growing business outgrows a CRM built to handle 100–200 customers a year? In this session, I'll walk through how I used Claude and AWS to modernize the entire operation in just three months, scaling it to handle an unlimited number of customers for under $200 a month. We'll start with the foundation: a serverless sync that pulls CRM data into RDS Postgres every hour during business hours, plus on demand when key operations happen. This gives the business fast, flexible reporting without overloading the CRM. From there, we'll look at how leads from multiple sources now flow through a single Lambda function, and how new front-end and back-end tools transformed lead handling, sales pipeline visibility, and company-wide reporting. You'll also get the behind-the-scenes examples that made this pace possible: * CI/CD pipelines that let you deploy quickly and often * Using code reviews as the main quality gate for every release * Tips for writing a CLAUDE.md file that maximizes your workflow * A shared STYLE.md that keeps standards consistent across projects * Splitting and combining projects with separate CloudFormation templates so they stay easy to update and simple to maintain Whether you're a solo developer, a consultant, or part of a lean team, you'll leave with practical patterns for building scalable, low-cost systems on AWS, and for getting the most out of AI as a development partner. **SPEAKER BIO** Angelo Mandato is an AWS Columbus User Group leader, AWS Community Builder, and Certified Solutions Architect - Associate who has been developing solutions on AWS since 2007. https://angelo.mandato.com **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: [https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/](https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/) **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: [https://www.veeam.com/](https://www.veeam.com/) **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Evolve Elevate (Virtual)

Evolve is all about creating an Authentic Community, Deeper Connections, and Confident Growth. We are a group of entrepreneurial women who connect personally and professionally. We welcome every guest to experience our authentic community with no cliques and no judgment. Come as you are! There's a seat waiting for you. Elevate is an action-oriented connection experience designed to help women entrepreneurs move beyond surface-level networking and into meaningful growth, collaboration, and courageous action. Each session centers around a focused business or personal development topic, followed by intentional breakout discussions that encourage deeper conversations, real relationship-building, and practical next steps. Unlike traditional networking events, Elevate is designed to create momentum. Women are encouraged not only to share ideas, but to actively support one another through accountability, collaboration, brainstorming, and action-based growth. Every meeting is an opportunity to build authentic connections, gain fresh perspective, and leave with a clear action step to implement before the next session. This is a space where women rise together — not through competition or hustle culture, but through encouragement, courage, consistency, and intentional community. \*\*Evolve Women's Collective is a membership based professional women's group. You can find more information at [www.EvolveWomensCollective.com](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.EvolveWomensNetwork.com&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw0UekYvD4PoVa7WUlFFVHyp). Feel welcome to be our guest anytime! [Join the Call](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://zoom.us/j/7894682064&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw127u1EMKvrsjTOPRaLUJ51)

Lewis Center Networking Lunch

Join us for lunch and meet our very successful group. We are each others sales team...always looking for referrals for our members. If you are looking for new clients, let us help you out! Bring your business cards and brochures to share with us. We have a speaker each week so that we can learn about their business. Because we have only one member per business, we have many of the spots filled. However, we are specifically looking for an estate attorney, a handyman/electrician, and an event planner. We have referrals for you! All visitors are welcome. Any questions contact [pmarchio@farmersagent.com](mailto:pmarchio@farmersagent.com)