The data scientist is dead--long live the data science conductor 

Join us for a delightfully themed evening as the Bluegrass, Southeast Michigan and Chicagoland IIBA Chapters come together to celebrate what makes both life and agile work a little sweeter — simplicity, community, and the joy of the things we love. We will celebrate Homemade Pie Day, Love Your Bookshop Day and Simplify Your Life Week. In the spirit of Homemade Pie Day, we're honoring the art of making something from scratch. Just like a perfectly crafted pie, great business analysis requires the right ingredients, patience, and a willingness to iterate until you get it just right. We'll also be building our very own Community Cookbook! Bring your favorite pie recipe to share, use the link below to submit your pie recipe ahead of the event to be included in our community cookbook. Come ready to share your best slice of wisdom, whether it's flaky, creamy, or somewhere in between. Inspired by Love Your Bookshop Day, we'll celebrate the knowledge-sharing culture at the heart of our BA community. Independent bookstores thrive by knowing their customers deeply, curating with purpose, and building loyal communities — sound familiar? We'll discuss how business analysts can channel that same energy to champion their stakeholders and deliver real value. And in honor of Simplify Your Life Week, We'll put our agile skills to work with a hands-on technique designed to help us cut through the noise and focus on what delivers the most impact. Light on ceremony. Heavy on connection. Always better together. Free and open to all. This promises to be a fun and interactive event, one You Won't Want to Miss! Hosted by Bluegrass, Southeast Michigan and Chicagoland IIBA Chapters

Kick off the SDLC Simulation with a pre-meeting introduction on August 6, 2026, from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Eastern. This session will introduce participants to the SDLC project framework, outline the key roles and deliverables, and set expectations for the upcoming simulation. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of how teams coordinate tasks, communicate, and prepare for real-world project challenges.

GUARANTEED TO RUN | Early Bird Pricing Ends July 24th | Are you looking to expand your skills in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform your business analysis and become a leader in leveraging emerging technologies? The future of business analysis lies at the intersection of human creativity and technological leverage. Our AI for Business Analysis course is an immersive and interactive journey to prepare experienced BA professionals for the AI-empowered future. Through real-world exercises with leading AI agents and tools, gain first-hand experience planning initiatives, analyzing requirements and devising solutions. You will learn methods of “prompt engineering” for using generative AI agents to produce key BA artifacts, research new subject matters, evaluate work, and conduct interviews with subject matter experts. Whilst balancing AI’s power to create content with human judgment, you will discover AI dialog techniques that will enable iterative and incremental analysis and development. This course qualifies for 14 PDHs/CDUs for all IIBA® certifications. This course will contribute 14 PMI® PDUs (12 Ways of Working and 2 Business Acumen) towards your chosen certification. | Get EEP level training at IIBA Chapter pricing! | Wednesday, August 12 - Friday, August 14, 2026; 12:00 PM - 4:30 PM EDT | Virtual training course | 3 sessions | 14 PD Hours/CDUs | This course is sponsored by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter This course is delivered by SoftEd US

Join us on Thursday, August 13, 2026, from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Eastern Time for a special recruiter roundtable featuring experienced recruiting professionals from leading staffing and talent organizations across the United States. Discover current hiring trends, the most common resume mistakes candidates make, and practical strategies professionals can use to stand out in today's competitive Business Analysis, Project Management, Data, and Technology job market. Whether you're actively job searching, considering a career transition, or simply planning your next professional move, this session will provide valuable insights directly from the people who hire talent every day.

What if you left tonight's chapter meeting already knowing how to use AI as a BA tool? The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter is dedicating an entire meeting to one of the most transformative shifts in the business analysis profession — and you won't just watch it happen. You'll do it yourself. This is a live, hands-on workshop led by Van Miller, CBAP, built around a real-world healthcare scenario: creating a patient portal. Van will guide you through a series of ready-to-use prompts that you'll type into GenAI yourself, in real time, to tackle the kinds of tasks business analysts face every day. No prior AI experience required. We hand you the prompts — you run them, see the results, and learn exactly what GenAI can (and can't) do for your BA practice. Presented by: Van Miller, CBAP | Wednesday, August 19, 2026; 6:00 PM EDT | Virtual presentation | | Hosted by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

Join the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter for an engaging lunch hour focused on enhancing your business analysis toolkit! Our expert-led session will feature a hands-on demonstration of a practical BA technique you can apply to your work immediately. How many projects have you seen pour months of effort into building the right solution to the wrong problem? It happens more often than anyone likes to admit—and it almost always traces back to a problem domain that was never fully understood before the work began. Join us for this Lunch 'n Learn as Peter Lutz explores one of the most foundational—and most overlooked—disciplines in the business analyst's toolkit: knowing your problem domain before you dive into the details of analysis. A clear grasp of the problem domain is what keeps teams from racing toward solutions before they understand what they're actually trying to fix. Presented by: Peter Lutz, CBAP, CSPO, AAC, Senior Agile Business Analyst | Thursday, August 20, 2026; 12:00 PM EDT | Virtual presentation | Hosted by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

The second SDLC pre-meeting session on August 20, 2026, from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Eastern builds on the initial introduction, diving deeper into project deliverables and team interactions. Participants will refine their understanding of SDLC roles, review simulation expectations, and prepare for collaborative exercises that mirror real-world software development challenges.

SDLC Experience Workshop 2026 – Registration is Now Open! The IIBA Bluegrass and Tampa Bay Chapters are excited to announce that registration for the 2026 SDLC Experience Workshop is now LIVE! Do you know someone looking to transition into tech, strengthen their understanding of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), or advance their career in Business Analysis, Product Management, Project Management, Quality Assurance, UX/UI, or other technology-related fields? This immersive, hands-on workshop is designed to provide participants with practical experience by working through a real-world case study in a collaborative Agile environment. Throughout the program, participants will gain valuable exposure to key SDLC phases, industry best practices, and professional collaboration while building confidence and practical skills.