Rockford Dev September Meetup - Attention is All You Need

The Rockford Dev September Meetup is just around the corner! The month's event will take place on Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 at 6:00 PM at Maker Lab in the Rockford Public Library.

Last month’s conversation about how we build websites took a fascinating turn—into the world of AI and large language models (LLMs). The group was so energized that we decided to tackle the paper that started it all: “Attention is All You Need.”

This month, we’ll come together to discuss the ideas behind the Transformer architecture, the foundation of modern LLMs like GPT. Don’t worry if the topic sounds intimidating—this won’t be a lecture. Instead, it will be an open, group discussion where we break down the concepts, share insights, and help each other make sense of how these systems actually work.

💡 What we’ll talk about:

• What the “Attention is All You Need” paper introduces
• How LLMs build on this idea
• What they do well, and where their limitations are
• How this technology is shaping the future of software and beyond

This is a space for all skill levels—you don’t need to be a machine learning expert to join. If you’ve skimmed the paper, read a blog post, watched a video explainer, or just want to learn by listening in, you’ll fit right in.

📚 Pro tip: If you want a head start, give the paper a quick read (or find a summary). But don’t stress—come with your questions, curiosity, and perspective.

Join us for an evening of exploration, conversation, and community as we dig into one of the most important ideas in modern AI.

Host or Publisher Nabil Alsharif