Open Hack

Bring your laptop, bring your project, and come build alongside fellow makers at Toledo Tech Loft.

Open Hack is a take on "parallel play" for developers and builders — show up, work on whatever you're building, and enjoy the energy of a room full of people doing the same. Whether you're deep in a side project, learning something new, or just want to write code outside your usual spot, this is your night.

Need inspiration? A couple of community members will be hacking on some awesome projects in the open:

Justin Beaudry will be working on OpenClaw — an open-source personal AI assistant that runs on your own machine and connects through WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, and more. It handles email, calendar, browsing, shell commands, and can even write its own plugins. Think of it as the AI assistant you actually control.

Jeremey Schroeder will be working on Spaceport — a full-stack web framework built on Groovy, Jetty, and CouchDB. It features server-side reactivity, an event-driven architecture, and a unified dev experience that blends multi-page simplicity with single-page fluidity. It's a fresh take on how web apps should be built.

Feel free to ask them questions, peek at their screens, or just vibe in the same room while you do your thing.

What to bring:

Your laptop and charger

A project, a tutorial, an idea — or just curiosity

Headphones if you like to focus with music

Parking

Since the event starts at 6 PM, on-street metered parking nearby is free for the evening (meters are only enforced Mon–Fri, 8–11 AM and 2–5 PM). The Superior Street Garage at 334 N. Superior St is right next door with over 1,000 spots — expect to pay around $6 for the evening. There are also several Kwik Parking lots in the area running $2–$5 for a couple of hours.

Agenda

---

Hosted By

Greg Miller, GDG Organizer

I build equitable apps and websites. I love designing and building interfaces where our implementation and use are planned with no ambiguity. I am a proactive member of teams and tech event organizer for the Toledo GDG.

Vagish Vela, GDG Organizer

Jeremy Schroeder, GDG Organizer

Jeremy is a well-rounded developer who enjoys programming for the web. At work, he's developing next-generation Next.js applications for Fortune 500 companies—offering over 20 years of marketing knowledge, and over 15 years of developer experience (if you don't include his days with Visual Basic for MS-DOS as a 13-year old in the 90's).

Apart from his full-time gig, Jeremy has been working to develop Spaceport, a full-stack web framework that embraces modern JavaScript, CSS, and HTML—wrapped into a server-side workflow that uses Groovy to manage the business logic. He's also developing several SaaS solutions, all using Spaceport.

Justin Beaudry, GDG Organizer

I am a Toledo boomerang. I spent a decade building for high-growth startups and large enterprise in the SF Bay Area and Austin before making the deliberate choice to move back home. I’m here to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley scale and the talent in Northwest Ohio.

What I am doing now:

Directing Engineering: Leading teams at Actual Reality Technologies and EmpoweredAI to build generative AI solutions and high-throughput data systems.

Building Community: I founded Toledo Codes and the AI Collective Toledo Chapter. While I have transitioned out of leading the local chapter, I am now focused on expanding the AI Collective across the Midwest.

I’m always down to talk about the transition from legacy dev workflows to AI-first systems, how we continue making Toledo a destination for world-class tech, and what happens to our relationship with code as we move toward orchestrating complex language and world models.

Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-toledo-presents-open-hack/.