Build Sessions: A one-day hackathon

​Context

​3 teams will build 3 products over a couple of hours. By 6pm, every team will have built a working prototype, a short deck, and a demo they can share.

​What you'll come away with

• ​A working prototype of a real product idea

• ​Experience building with AI tools under real pressure

• ​The confidence to do it again

• ​People you'd want to build with again

​The constraints

• ​Time: Teams have one day. Limited time forces clarity in decisions.

• ​Cost: Everything you build with has to be free. No additional spending on the day. Free tools force creativity.

​How the day runs

​Morning - get ready to build

​Setup, environment checks, and a quick scoping session where each team commits publicly to what they're building and what done looks like.

​Afternoon - build

​Six hours of focused building, with support available when you need it. Teams are self-directing; you decide how to divide the work. There will be a 30 minute break for lunch and to catch up with everyone.

​Evening - demo day

​Each team gets 10 minutes: 5 to pitch and demo, 5 for questions from the room. The artefacts (a working prototype and a 1–2 slide deck) are yours to post, share, and keep building.

​After 7pm, we'll head out for dinner or a movie to celebrate.

​Who this is for

​Technical and non-technical builders — engineers, product people, designers, marketers. Every skill matters: who's the user? How does it spread? What's the story? These are product questions, and they're as important as the code.

​Note: Attending the CWT salon on April 15 is strongly encouraged — that's where teams form and the lightning sessions happen. If you can only make one, make the 18th. But make both if you can.