I’m excited to announce my first series of public-facing workshops and AI Power Hours through Build First, my new AI workshop and training business.
The first three events include:
Date: Aug 7, 3 p.m. ET
Co-Host: Sara Chipps
Cost: Free
Go from 0 to MVP in just 60 minutes. This AI Power Hour hour features developer evangelist and community leader Sara Chipps, cofounder of Girl Develop It and most recently a senior engineering manager at LinkedIn. Whether you’re inspired by classic arcade games or just want to see what’s possible, Sara will kick us off on a vibe coding adventure to build your own side-scrolling game.
Date: Aug 14, 3 p.m. ET
Co-Host: Julia Gitis
Cost: Free
Go from 0 to MVP in just 60 minutes. In this AI Power Hour, Julia Gitis, founder of SF Good Neighbor Walk and the Community News Lab will inspire us to think beyond the commercial into community-first uses for AI. Whether you’re stepping up as a leader in your neighborhood, curious about civic impact, or looking to level up your volunteer game with AI-first enablement, join this Power Hour to build something for your community.
Date: Aug 21, 2 - 5 p.m. ET
Cost: $250
Find and build an AI-enabled use case to build something to dramatically improve your at-work workflows in just 3 hours. In this intensive 3-hour session, you'll go from concept to deployed application, building a custom tool that your team can actually use.
In this paid workshop, we’ll go deeper into setting up your builds for success with an introduction session on AI-shaped problems and design thinking with AI. Then you’ll get guided coaching to build your first MVP with a no-code prototype like ChatGPT and ultimately pull your AI workflow into a no-code builder tool (like Replit) to instantly build a front-end interface.
You can read more about these events and sign up directly here: https://buildfirst.ai/eventsOne of the things that I’ve learned about myself over the past several years is that I learn best by doing, and that I reinforce that learning by teaching. This method — do the thing, then teach others how to do the thing — has been the undercurrent to my success throughout nearly a dozen job changes while working fractionally over the past four years.
Learning how to use AI in novel and useful ways is the single-greatest upskilling event of our generation. If you’re not used to learning as an adult at a rapidly accelerated pace (let’s be real…who is?) then it can feel impossible to catch on, let alone keep up. Being AI-forward is not the same as being AI-fluent.
But don’t get discouraged.
Learning how to use AI is just like learning how to ride a bike, or learning a new language…you just need a little practice. That’s why all of these sessions and workshops start from place of building something first. I think you’ll be surprised to learn what you can do.
Hope to see you at one of these sessions or a future workshop!
By the way, if you’re looking for a deeper immersion with a team or corporate setting on some of these Build First principles and frameworks, drop a line to set up a workshop for your team this fall or learn more at buildfirst.ai.
