Events

The Ballarat Hackerspace is hosting "Introduction to 3D Printing for Makers and Artists" workshops on the 1st Wednesday of every month. Whether you're an amateur maker, artist, professional product designer/prototyper, or just keen learner of hands-on crafts, this is a casual workshop evening for adults of all skill levels to learn how 3D printers work, go through the workflow from creating/finding artwork and editing/slicing the files, to a small finished product/item that you can take home with you. Absolutely no experience necessary, volunteer members of the Hackerspace will be on hand to show you through the process. We're also doing "Introduction to Laser Cutting" workshops on the 3rd Wedneday of every month. Check our website for more details if you're interested in that. Thanks to the City of Ballarat for helping fund these workshops for the community. Tickets are required for all participants (including members), and bookings close 24 hours before the event so that we can plan appropriately for numbers.   Workshops are 18+ only due to insurance/liability reasons. Tickets are free for existing members of the Hackerspace. If you're currently a member and wish to attend, please make sure you're logged in to TidyHQ and the free ticket below will process for you.

Do you have an unfinished website, or perhaps a few? Are you interested in learning how to build a website from the ground up? Then the Ballarat IndieWeb Meetup is for you. We’re creating a relaxed monthly space for sharing projects, learning from one another, and tinkering with the smaller, stranger and more independent side of the web: a place where you own your identity, publish your own content and have a site to call your own. Come along and meet local people who understand how the pieces fit together, from choosing a domain and setting up DNS to finding hosting and publishing your first page. Whether you’re starting from scratch or have been building websites for decades, there will be people willing to share what they know. There will be no pitches, growth hacking or pressure to turn your hobby into a startup just people making and sharing interesting things and helping one another along. Come along to show off what you've made or just to get some inspiration. Beginners, experienced builders and the merely curious are all welcome. All proceeds from ticket sales go towards keeping Ballarat Hackerspace running. Existing paying monthly or full-time Hackerspace members may attend free of charge, but a ticket is still required so we know you’re coming. Held at Ballarat Hackerspace, 136a Albert Street, Ballarat Central (of course we have our own indieweb website too: indieweb.au)

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other tools explained in plain English Want to learn more about AI, but do not know where to start? Want to use AI in your business, work or community group, but feel unsure which tools are worth your time? Curious about how to use AI safely and practically in everyday life? Join us for a relaxed, guided AI conversation designed for non-technical people who want practical answers, useful examples and a chance to ask questions in a friendly local setting. Each session starts with one practical focus topic, then opens up for discussion, examples and questions from the room. You do not need to be an AI expert. You do not need to know the right question before you arrive. The aim is to help you leave clearer, more confident and with one or two practical things you can try. This month, we will look at a common question: which AI tool should I use? We will compare tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini in plain English, looking at what each one is useful for, where the differences matter and how to choose the right tool for your work, business or everyday tasks. What we can help with: Bring your questions, comments or examples. We can help you think through: how to use AI better in your business, work or community group which tools may give you the best value for your needs when a free tool is enough, and when a paid version may be worth considering how to use AI safely, responsibly and productively where AI can save time, and where it may not be the right fit practical next steps if you are just getting started If you do not have a specific question, you are still very welcome. You can listen, join the discussion and hear what other local people are trying. Hosted By Adrian Holtham from Plainlight, an AI training and consultancy firm based here in Ballarat. Adrian works with local businesses to help them understand AI in plain English and integrate useful tools into their everyday workflows. Rob Layton from BRAIN, the Ballarat Regional Artificial Intelligence Network. Rob has more than 15 years of experience working with AI, leads the Ballarat AI Meetup and is a highly experienced technology trainer. This is a collaboration between BRAIN (www.brain.net.au), Plainlight (https://plainlight.com.au/) and the Ballarat Hackerspace. Looking for something more technical? Experienced with AI, or want the technical deep-dive? Try our AI Tooling Workshops (BRAIN meetup) instead. See the previous session. Tickets are required, see you there.

The Ballarat Hackerspace is hosting "Introduction to Laser Cutting for Makers and Artists" workshops on the 3rd Wednesday of every month. Whether you're an amateur maker, artist, professional product designer/prototyper, or just keen learner of hands-on crafts, this is a casual workshop evening for adults of all skill levels to learn how laser cutters work, go through the workflow from creating/finding artwork and editing/formatting the files, to a small finished product/item that you can take home with you. Absolutely no experience necessary, volunteer members of the Hackerspace will be on hand to show you through the process. We're also doing "Introduction to 3D Printing" workshops on the 1st Wedneday of every month. Check our website for more details if you're interested in that. Thanks to the City of Ballarat for helping fund these workshops for the community. Tickets are required for all participants (including members), and bookings close 24 hours before the event so that we can plan appropriately for numbers.   These workshops are 18+ only due to insurance/liability reasons. Tickets are free for existing members of the Hackerspace. If you're currently a member and wish to attend, please make sure you're logged in to TidyHQ and the free ticket below will process for you.

BRAIN: AI Applications & Tooling Meetup Come share and learn how people are actually using AI in their day-to-day work, whether that's coding, engineering, creative projects, or solving business problems. We skip the "what is AI" basics, focusing more on practical, real workflows, useful tools, and honest experiences. You don't need to be an AI expert, just curious to learn more. This month Dr Rob Layton digs into Jev, a new kind of AI model from TypeSafe AI (founded by ex-OpenAI researcher Diogo Almeida). Where ChatGPT, Claude and other LLMs generate text one token at a time, Jev is what TypeSafe calls a "System One model". You hand it some context and a question, and it hands back a typed decision: a choice, a score, or a yes/no, with a calibrated confidence figure, in roughly 70 to 500 milliseconds. That's 40 to 200 times faster and far cheaper than pressing a chat model into the same job. And because every answer is typed, your software never has to guard against malformed or wrong-type output. Jev can still make a wrong call, but not a type error. The point is to have a model that can do automation, rather than chat. Instead of getting a response, and then parsing it to make a decision, we get the decision as our answer. With these models we can make thousands of small, fast decisions real software and AI agents make constantly: routing a request, classifying a ticket, grading an answer, gating a risky tool call before it runs. We force chat models to do that job today, it is just awkward. Rob will also walk through the open-source projects that have sprung up around the idea in months. The main one is Laya, the open System One model Rob runs now. Others include jevcore, a DeepSeek and MCP implementation, and jev-recipes. What to expect Main talk: a 45-60 minute feature talk on an emerging AI technology or a unique use-case. Lightning talks: stand up for five minutes and show how you use AI day to day, or a project you're excited about. Bring your own. News about BRAIN (the Ballarat Regional AI Network) and future meetups. Who should come: anyone already tinkering with AI or ready to move beyond the basics. Developers, engineers, creators, and business folks are all welcome. Bring your laptop if you want to try things out. Hosted by Dr Rob Layton from BRAIN, the Ballarat Regional Artificial Intelligence Network. Rob has more than 15 years of experience working with AI, leads the Ballarat AI Meetups, and is a highly experienced technology trainer. This is a collaboration between BRAIN (www.brain.net.au) and the Ballarat Hackerspace. We're planning more sessions, so let us know if you'd like to present your own AI workflow at a future meetup. Tickets are required, so grab yours and we'll see you there. New to AI, or after a friendlier intro? Come to the Ballarat AI Exchange instead. See the previous AI Exchange and the next AI Exchange.

The Ballarat Hackerspace is hosting "Introduction to 3D Printing for Makers and Artists" workshops on the 1st Wednesday of every month. Whether you're an amateur maker, artist, professional product designer/prototyper, or just keen learner of hands-on crafts, this is a casual workshop evening for adults of all skill levels to learn how 3D printers work, go through the workflow from creating/finding artwork and editing/slicing the files, to a small finished product/item that you can take home with you. Absolutely no experience necessary, volunteer members of the Hackerspace will be on hand to show you through the process. We're also doing "Introduction to Laser Cutting" workshops on the 3rd Wedneday of every month. Check our website for more details if you're interested in that. Thanks to the City of Ballarat for helping fund these workshops for the community. Tickets are required for all participants (including members), and bookings close 24 hours before the event so that we can plan appropriately for numbers.   Workshops are 18+ only due to insurance/liability reasons. Tickets are free for existing members of the Hackerspace. If you're currently a member and wish to attend, please make sure you're logged in to TidyHQ and the free ticket below will process for you.