Something extraordinary is happening and we want you to see it.
The kinds of tools big tech charges a fortune for can now be built by one person in an evening. For free. Without writing code.
On April 28, we're hosting Vibe Coding for Good at Reimagine Co - a live build night where people use AI to build tools for their communities. Tools for organising, tools for change - not apps for apps' sake. On screen, in real time, in front of everyone. No slides, no theory, just building.
A community org can build a grant tracker in an afternoon. A mutual aid network can spin up a coordination platform over dinner. One person with a laptop can do what used to take a team of five and a budget most grassroots groups will never have.
How the evening works:
- Quick intros and idea round (30 min)
- People build live - solo or in teams, 3+ projects running on screens at once
- You watch, ask questions, throw in ideas, or jump in yourself
- Pizza and good chaos throughout
You'll see people using tools like Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor, and Codex. Even if you've never written a line of code, it will blow your mind - and more importantly, you'll leave knowing these tools are within reach for whatever you're working on.
Now - a few things we want to be straight about.
Last time we announced an AI meetup, we did it without context, and some people rightly pushed back. Here's the fuller picture:
Environmental cost. Big Tech's data centres are a real environmental problem - we're not going to pretend otherwise. We still use centralised models when we need to, but the direction we're building and advocating in is small, local, open-source AI - models that run on modest hardware rather than server farms the size of towns. Tonight you'll see both, and we'll explain why we think the local, open version is where this has to go.
Corporate capture. Most AI is built by and for corporations. But a growing open-source, community-governed ecosystem is building tools that serve people, not shareholders. That's the world we're in.
Why engage at all? Corporate elites and the far right aren't boycotting AI. They're using it to organise, surveil, and consolidate power. While progressives debate whether to touch AI, authoritarians are building the future with it. Abstention isn't the answer. Building better is.
Jobs and artists. Yes, AI is displacing labour - dodging that would be dishonest. But over the long term whether AI replaces workers or replaces bosses is a political question, not a technical one. It depends on who owns the tools and who sets the rules. That's exactly why we want more of us in the room. That's why we want to seize the mean of computation.
Who actually benefits? There's a story going around that AI is a technology of the powerful, by the powerful, for the powerful - and that ordinary people only end up on the receiving end of it. We understand the instinct, but we don't think it's the whole picture. For the first time, a single parent with an idea can build the same kind of software a well-funded startup can. A frontline worker can automate the spreadsheet grind that's eating their week. A small nonprofit can build what they used to have to beg a tech consultancy for. Used carefully, with the right tools, AI can be an instrument of access - and, we believe, of genuine human liberation. That's the version we're showing up for.
We don't have all the answers. We're learning in public. Come sceptical, come curious, come for the pizza. Just come.
Tuesday, April 28, 6–8:30 PM
Reimagine Co, London ON
Free / by donation