Auckland AI Meetup

Build for Auckland: Build Night with Base44 🚀

Tue, Oct 13 · 5:15 PM NZDT

125 St Georges Bay Rd, 125 Saint Georges Bay Road, Parnell, Auckland 1052, New Zealand, Auckland, NZ

What can you build for Auckland in one evening?
Join Auckland AI Meetup, Startup Club NZ, and the wider Auckland startup community for a hands-on evening where we turn real problems into working apps and AI agents.
This is not an evening of sitting through talks. You’ll actually build something.
Whether you're a developer, designer, founder, student, product person, AI enthusiast—or simply someone with an idea—you’re welcome. The top five teams will pitch their solutions on stage, and the top three teams will share a NZ$1,200 prize pool.

👉 Important: Please register through the official event page to secure your place.
RSVP here: https://www.aucklandstartupweek.com/programme-2026/build-for-auckland-base-44-build-night

💡 How it works
You do not need to arrive with a team or even an idea.
We'll have real Auckland challenges submitted by the community. Pick a problem you care about, meet other participants, and form a team of up to four people.

Choose a challenge → Form a team → Build → Demo → Pitch
Teams will receive a short challenge brief and a starting Base44 prompt, then use Base44 to rapidly build a working app or AI agent.
Industry mentors will be around during the evening to help you develop the idea, solve problems, and turn your prototype into something compelling.
There will also be a short workshop exploring an important question:

You've built a prototype. Could this become a real, sustainable business?
🏆 Build it. Pitch it. Maybe keep building it.
At the end of the build session, teams submit their prototypes for judging.
The top five teams will pitch their solutions on stage, and the top three teams will share a NZ$1,200 prize pool.
🥇 NZ$600
🥈 NZ$400
🥉 NZ$200
But we don't necessarily want the journey to end when the build night finishes.

🚀 From prototype to startup — IgniteAI Founder Coaching
For members of the winning teams who want to take their idea seriously, we're also offering the opportunity to book a founder video coaching session with IgniteAI.

IgniteAI ( https://igniteai.nz )is a New Zealand not-for-profit startup community founded by the organisers behind Auckland AI Meetup. Its mission is to help AI-driven startups find product-market fit and then build their products faster, better, and cheaper, creating the foundations for sustainable growth.
The coaching session is an opportunity to step back from the build-night prototype and explore questions such as:

Is there a real customer for this? What problem are we actually solving? What should we build next? Could this become a startup?
If you've built something promising during the evening, or you got other ideas, IgniteAI can help you think about what comes next.
So the goal isn't only:
Idea → Prototype → Prize
It could become:
Idea → Prototype → Customers → Product → Startup 🚀

🎟 What your $10 ticket includes

• 🍣 Sushi
• 🛠 One month of Base44 Builder — NZ$80 value
• 🤝 Mentors, builders, founders and potential new teammates
• ⚡ A chance to go from an idea to a working prototype in one evening
• 🎤 An opportunity to pitch your creation
• 🏆 NZ$1,200 prize pool for the top three teams
• 🚀 IgniteAI founder video coaching opportunity for winning team members who want to keep building

⠀👥 Who should come?
Anyone interested in AI, startups, building products, or solving real problems.
You don't have to be an experienced programmer. Developers, designers, founders, students, product people, business professionals, creatives, and curious first-time builders are all welcome.
AI has dramatically lowered the barrier between having an idea and actually building it.
This evening is about experiencing that for yourself.

📍 When & Where
Tuesday, 13 October 2026 · 5:15 pm – 9:00 pm
Icehouse
Level 4, Textile Centre
125 St Georges Bay Road
Parnell, Auckland 1052

💻 What to bring
Bring your laptop.
You don't need a team. You don't need an idea. You don't need a startup.
Just come ready to build, experiment, meet people, and see what you can create in a single evening.

👉 Important: RSVP'ing on Meetup does not replace the official Auckland Startup Week ticket. Please register through the official event page to secure your place. RSVP here:
https://www.aucklandstartupweek.com/programme-2026/build-for-auckland-base-44-build-night