Civic Producthon 2026
The Civic Producthon is back for a second edition, and this time it runs on AI.
Same weekend energy, same civic focus, with a harder question at the centre: can you build an AI product that someone outside your team can pick up and use?
Three days, four hands-on workshops, one working AI product per team. No AI expertise required! You'll build with models and tools that already exist, with Lovable as our vibe coding partner, so nobody loses a morning to setup.
Over the weekend, you'll:
💡 Build a working AI product end to end, from a first prototype to a tested, usable version
🔍 Learn to prove it works, with eval sets, honest pass rates, and a clear list of what breaks
🎨 Design for the person on the other side, so they know what your product can and can't do
🎯 Get hands-on mentorship from senior product people and AI builders
📁 Leave with a project worth showing in interviews or case studies, plus a way of working you'll keep using
Every team works on a real case study assigned to them, from one of this year's four areas:
📚 Education
🩺 Health
🌱 Sustainable agriculture
🥷 Fighting disinformation
💬 Do I need to be a PM or an AI expert to participate?
Neither! Product managers at all levels, developers, designers, and anyone who wants to work on a civic problem are welcome. What helps most is wanting to build something people can use.
💬 Can I sign up alone, or do I need to bring my own team?
Both options are welcome, and both will get you mentors assigned to help you throughout the event! If you sign up alone, we'll match you with other participants to form a team. If you sign up with your team (max 4 people/team), make sure to add their names and contact details as well in the registration form.
💬 What will I deliver?
By the end of the weekend, your team will have taken one AI product from idea to evidence:
1️⃣ Problem Brief & Persona
2️⃣ Working v1, with a clear fallback for when it can't answer
3️⃣ Evaluation Results: test cases, an honest pass rate, and named failure modes
4️⃣ Improved v2, failing less than the first
5️⃣ UX Prototype & 5-Minute Pitch
Spots are limited, and teams are selected. Applications close on 28 August - apply now and let's build AI that people can use!
AI for people, by people.
This second edition is organised by Product Makers Romania and hosted by eMAG in Bucharest, in collaboration with Innovation Labs Romania, Lovelaice, and Lovable.