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.

This month Rob Wise is back, with a hands-on session on voice AI — from talking to ChatGPT and Claude, all the way to building a voice agent that can answer and make real phone calls.

• Voice mode in the apps, how to use voice in ChatGPT and Claude, what it's good for, and where it hits its limits.
• Building a voice agent, how to create a voice agent in ElevenLabs for your business or personal use, and how to build them for others.
• Extending it,  connecting your agent to Twilio for a real phone number, plus MCP servers, connectors, calendar, and tool calls, so it can answer and make calls hooked into your systems.

Want to follow along live? Bring your laptop and code along, and try get it working for yourself. Not required to attend, and we are happy to help at the end.

We will also have the big screen up, and anyone can present anything cool they've found or project they have been working on.

 

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. Feel free to bring your own talk!

• 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.

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!

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.