BRAIN - AI Applications and 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'll skip the "what is AI" basics and focus on practical stuff: real workflows, useful tools, and honest experiences. You don't need to be an AI expert - just curious about doing more than asking ChatGPT questions.

What to expect:

• Main Talk: A chosen presenter will give a 15-30 minute feature talk on an emerging AI technology or a unique use-case in their industry.

• Lightning Talks: Any participants are welcome to stand up for 5 minutes and talk/show how they use AI day to day, or a project they're excited about.

• Info about BRAIN (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, business folks - all welcome. Bring your laptop if you want to try things out.

This is a collaboration between BRAIN (www.brain.net.au) and 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.

Main Talk: Scott Weston, Ballarat Hackerspace President.

Local AI at the Hackerspace: Code, Systems, and Live Demos

Join us for a deep-dive into how the Hackerspace is experimenting with running AI models locally on our own hardware and integrated into our own systems.

Topic's covered: Text, image and audio generation. Software used. System architecture breakdown. Live demos.

If you’re a developer, engineer, or curious technologist, this session is a hands-on look at running and integrating local LLMs into real-world environments

Tickets required - see you there!