AI on Tap

Back in 2012, a few of us started meeting in a Peterborough pub because we were curious about a new way of building software. It started with a handful of people round a table. Before long, the back room of The Brewery Tap was full on a Wednesday night, and people who'd written the books and built the tools were travelling to Peterborough to share the stage with local developers, designers, teachers and the plain curious.
The lesson I remember most is that the best ideas rarely came from the front of the room. They came from the questions, the debates over the bar and the "oh, you can do that?" moments shared between strangers who became friends.

Its been quiet for a while - adventures took everyone to new places.

Then AI arrived, we found ourselves back where we started: excited, overwhelmed, and trying to work it all out on our own late at night, and whilst my mind is blown by what I've seen from you lot recently, I'm not so sure I like the whole AI Vampire schting, even if I secretly also live it sometimes. Anyway, It turns out night owling can sometimes be the hardest/slowest way to learn anything, and certainly least fun.

So we're coming back. Same room, same spirit, new topic, we got AI in our sights, and we want to hear from you. We've been busy building and are keen to share the stuff we've built but in a world of citizen developers everyone is a software engineer now so by my measure we just blew up our target audience.

AI on Tap is for everyone. You don't need to be technical. If you run a business, teach a class, look after a church, clean offices, write code, or just want to understand what everyone's talking about, there's a seat for you. You don't need to know anything yet. That's what the evening is for.
How the night works

• The spark: two speakers, one with a technical view and one with a story of using AI in everyday life. We'll announce them very soon.
• The conversation: a break to talk it through and try things together at the tables, with people on hand who know the tools.
• The question: an open session for whatever you came wondering about. Write it on a card and we'll get to it.

No jargon. No pitch. No stupid questions.
Wednesday 4 November, 7pm, The Brewery Tap, Westgate, Peterborough.
Free to attend.

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Talk one
Headcount: One
Subtitle - Lessons from the trenches of running a business with AI
Abstract
EventCatalog is used by engineering teams at companies around the world, and it’s run by one person. Sales, support, code, contracts and strategy all land on the same desk.
In this talk, David Boyne opens up how he uses AI to run a business of one. You’ll see the tools and techniques he relies on every day, from AI agents that manage his customers and inbox to the way he writes, reviews and ships code. He’ll also share what went wrong along the way, and the guardrails he’s learned to put in place.
Whether you’re curious about AI, or you want to level up how you use it in your own day-to-day work, you’ll leave with ideas you can try straight away. No hype, just lessons from the trenches.

Talk 2
Title: BubbaAI
Subtitle - coping with BubbaAI 1.0 - Lessons of running sustainable(ish) AI

Tokens cost and if you love learning its conflicting - how can we learn if we cant fail safely and freely!!

Build a home AI, obvious answer. Process my own tokens and only pay for the power....... Smart AI, running at home, privately, and cheap...... In this talk I'll cover the approach, the AI how it went, what failed and what didn't. We fought, we hurt, we laughed and maybe even we became friends. I call it Bubba and we love shrimps.

If you came along to Agile Peterborough over the years, we'd love to see you again. And bring someone who's never been to a meetup before; they're exactly who this is for.
Speakers will be announced soon, so RSVP to hear first. And if there's something you'd love to share at a future evening, however small, leave a comment, send us a message or fill in the form here.
See you in the back room.