It’s been a busy spring at Build First. We have workshops, build days, book talks, and two full weeks of tech festival events coming up. Here’s the full rundown, ranging from everything from intensive hands-on two hour builds to free open forum sessions where we’re remixing the complete works of William Shakespeare with Claude Code.
Pick what fits, and I’ll see you there.
APRIL
📍 Build Your Personal Operating System with Claude Code
Mon, April 14 | 10:00 – 10:45 AM PT | Virtual | Free
With: AI Snack Club
A quick primer on building a personal command center with Claude Code. I’ll show you “how it started” and “how it’s going” with the OS that runs Build First… then help you get started on yours. Great if you’ve been curious about AI coding tools but haven’t known where to start.
Register: https://luma.com/ug1puw0e
📍 localhost:3000
Tue, April 15 | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM ET | In-Person · NYC | Free
One of my favorite formats is a full-day build sprint where you go from idea to working prototype. If you’ve been spending too many hours alone with your AI’s, we invite you to join us for an all-day builder coworking day where you have 8 hours to build something real among peers. Show it at the end.
Spaces limited. Register at https://luma.com/uaf3o92y
📍 From 0-MVP: Build a MiniApp For Your Business
Thu, April 16 | 1:00 – 3:30 PM ET | Virtual | $250
A hands-on afternoon workshop where you stop waiting for the perfect tool and build a small, working one instead. We’ll take a real problem from your work and build something functional around it, starting simple (with a chatbot) and building up (to a frontend interface). You can think of this like a cooking class for building: Once you know the right way to organize your ingredients and start cooking, you’ll be able to do it again on your own.
Register: https://buildfirst.ai/events/zero-to-mvp
📍 AI Studio Build Day: Turn Your Data into a Custom Web App
Mon, April 27 | 4:00 – 8:00 PM ET | In-Person · DUMBO, Brooklyn | $25
With: Studio Rodrigo
Bring a spreadsheet. Leave with a working web app. No coding experience required, just a dataset and something you want to make sense of. We’ll work together for a couple of hours on our independent builds, then invite you to do a real-time demo following to show off how far you got — and what you intend to build next.
Register: https://luma.com/8z3azdxj
📍 From Localhost to Live: Ship Your First App with Claude Code
Wed, April 29 | 3:00 – 4:30 PM ET | Virtual | $60
With: Megha Torpunuri
You’ve got something running locally. Now it’s time to ship it. This Build First co-facilitator, Megha Torpunuri, is an experienced founder, product leader, and builder who now runs her own flower business through a backend infrastructure she built herself. In this session, she’ll show you how to take any project from your machine to a real, live URL.
Register: https://luma.com/a7ihryr1
MAY
📍 Building with the Bard: Remixing Shakespeare
Fri, May 15 | 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET | In-Person · NYC
AI Week NY Official Event
We’re downloading the complete works of Shakespeare and feeding them into Claude Code. What comes out is up to you. Try a chatbot who speaks in iambic pentameter, a modern-day retelling of a classic plot, an interactive visualization across the whole canon. Come find out.
Register: https://luma.com/vjihrr24
JUNE
📍 Design Thinking Meets AI: A Book Talk and Live Build
Mon, June 1 | 5:00 – 7:30 PM ET | In-Person · DUMBO, Brooklyn
NY Tech Week Official Event · With Louise Macfadyen and Studio Rodrigo
Louise Macfadyen, the author of Designing AI Interfaces (a new O’Reilly release), joins me for a conversation about what it actually means to design AI-native systems. Then we build something live. Copies of the book will be available at the event.
Register: https://partiful.com/e/N7nJMJdM3bIOtaUWfcmN
📍 The One-Person Operating System: Build Your AI-Powered Business Brain
Thu, June 4 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET | In-Person · NYC
NY Tech Week Official Event · With: Lightswitch
In this lunchtime builder session, I’ll pull back the curtain on the custom operating system I built (with AI) to run Build First (from deal tracking to client ops to daily priorities). Then Sunny Israni (Co-Founder & CTO, Lightswitch) takes you inside Claude Code with a hands-on engineering primer. Together, we’ll build through two mini-sprints and mini-lessons. You’ll leave with the foundation of your own one-person OS.
Register: https://partiful.com/e/EhOH3OE5AVVA5aFrUrWR
📍 Building with the Bard: Remixing Shakespeare
Fri, June 5 | 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET | In-Person · NYC
NY Tech Week Official Event
A second run of our Shakespeare build session, this time as part of NY Tech Week. Same format, fresh energy.
Register: https://partiful.com/e/Mt1yixuqsZw3l7qHMq3T
Want to build something else?
We’re looking for partner organizations for summer and fall programming. If you’re looking to bring a Build First workshop to your network or community, give a shout at bethany@buildfirst.ai. See all events: https://buildfirst.ai/events