Wed, Sept 17th: 'Vibe Coding: Everyone’s a Builder Now' - 6:00 PM, CU Boulder

The Rocky Mountain AI Interest Group (RMAIIG) invites you to an in-person meeting on Wednesday, Sep 17th, at 6:00 PM at CU Boulder on 'Vibe Coding: Everyone’s a Builder Now.'

Vibe coding is opening the door for anyone to become a software creator, whether building in community, scaling for enterprise, or experimenting with new AI-powered tools.

This session will explore the excitement, challenges, and risks of building without code, offering perspectives from those pioneering new companies as well as those who have already learned hard lessons from AI-assisted development.

Attendees will come away with a grounded understanding of what vibe coding makes possible, what hurdles remain, and how this fast-moving trend is reshaping the very meaning of what it means to “be a coder.”

'Vibe Coding: Everyone’s a Builder Now'
CU Boulder East Campus: In-person
Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building (Room 120)
3775 Discovery Dr., Boulder CO 80303
Wed, Sep 17th
6:00 - 8:00 PM - Meeting
5:30 PM Free pizza (thanks to our pizza sponsor, Customer Paradigm!)
Parking: https://www.rmaiig.org/parking

The session will open with Thomas Olson, COO at Imaginary Space, the #1 Lovable Development Partner, who will share how AI is transforming enterprise software while making it possible for anyone to build. He’s built production-ready AI apps for multimillion-dollar brands like Dude Wipes and Betr Health, and previously helped develop Messenger at Meta, now used by billions worldwide. In this session, he’ll showcase real-world results and lead a live build, revealing how AI delivers speed, creativity, and measurable business impact.

Next, Nima Keivan, co-founder and CEO at Durable will discuss the challenges and opportunities in building flexible and reliable software without code for the enterprise today. Before Durable, he was co-founder and CTO of Canvas Technology, a Boulder CO based startup developing vision-based autonomous mobile robots for manufacturing and logistics, which was acquired by Amazon. After Amazon, Nima joined Xplorer Capital helping the team source and assess early-stage startup deals in deeptech, AI, and sustainability. Nima holds a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he researched visual perception and control for agile autonomous vehicles.

Finally, Michael Hedgpeth, Co-Founder at Hedge-Ops Software, will present "What Scares Me About Vibe Coding." As a technical founder who has built the People Work app using AI tools, Michael will share hard-won lessons about what works and what doesn't in AI-assisted development. Drawing from real-world experience, he'll offer practical advice on harnessing AI's power while avoiding its most seductive traps.

At the end of the meeting, we'll assemble all the speakers for a Q&A panel. Bring lots of questions!

We will have free pizza sponsored by Customer Paradigm (customerparadigm.com), a Boulder, Colorado company that specializes in AI integration, application development and digital marketing. Since 2002, Customer Paradigm has been led by founder Jeff Finkelstein, and has worked directly with the AWS machine learning team to build AI tools for eCommerce sites.

Special thank you to Bobby Hodgkinson for arranging the meeting space!

**** PLEASE NOTE - DUE TO CU BOULDER SCHEDULING, THIS MEETING DATE AND LOCATION WON’T BE FINALIZED UNTIL MON, SEP 8TH. AT THAT TIME, WE WILL FULLY OPEN REGISTRATION AND MOVE ALL WAITLIST PEOPLE TO CONFIRMED REGISTRATIONS. ****