Your instructions

What could we create?

Two hours, phones out, hands on. You will spend the afternoon building with ChatGPT. Everybody gets an individual challenge and every table builds together. We’ll end the session with everyone voting for four awards.

By the end

What you will walk out with

Something of your own that runs, built from nothing in twenty five minutes.
Something your table took further than any of you would have alone.
Something you would actually open again next week.
At least one thing you did not know was possible, whether you found it or watched somebody else present it.
Bragging rights for the best of the day, and tens of dollars in prizes.

In this order

Eight tasks, start to finish

Work down the list. We will call each change of task from the front, so you do not need to watch the clock.

1
Get set up
Do this first · 3 minutes
- Open ChatGPT on your phone, either the app or your mobile browser.
- Sign in with your work email, not a personal login.
- Tap your profile and check you are in your organisation's workspace.
Open chatgpt.com App Store Google Play
Your own phone is fine, and it works on the venue wifi rather than needing the corporate network.
2
Engage
Solve the mystery challenge
13 minutes · as a table
- We will put something in front of you.
- Individually work it out with ChatGPT rather than guessing. Reason it through, photograph what is in front of you, and get it to do the arithmetic.
- As a table share your answers, then refine them together.
- Three rounds, two clues. One answer per table after every round.
- Closest answer wins the prize.
A problem easy enough for a child to guess, but would challenge a university professor.
3
Follow your curiosity
5 minutes · on your own
- Decide what you want to build. This is your idea, not your table's.
- What are you curious about? What would you build if nobody handed you a brief? It does not have to be about work.
- If nothing comes to mind, the Challenge Cards on the table are there to ignite your curiosity.
What the Challenge Cards look like
4
Explore
Build your own, on your phone
25 minutes · on your own
Go big rather than safe: something ambitious that half works beats something small that works perfectly. You keep whatever you make.
- In ChatGPT, find Projects and create a new one.
- Name it after your idea.
- Write its instructions: what it is, how it should behave, what it must never do.
- Start a chat inside the project and try to use it for real.
- Paste your instructions back into ChatGPT and ask it to improve them. Ask what it would cut.
- Rewrite and test again.
Projects work on a phone. GPTs come later, on a laptop. One each, not one per table.
5
Explain
Show your table what you made
10 minutes · as a table
- Everyone shows theirs, briefly. Say what you were going for and what it actually did.
- Choose one to carry forward.
- Or pick up a card nobody at your table used, or start something new.
6
Elaborate
Build it properly as a team
25 minutes · on a laptop
- Assign team roles, e.g. project manager · product manager · software engineer · domain expert · designer · presenter. One person needs to pitch the GPT for two minutes.
- Create a custom GPT on a laptop.
- Rebuild the chosen idea using what each of you learned building alone.
- Stop at the three minute warning and get it onto the machine that presents.
What wins an award
Worth knowing before you choose
Nobody is marking you. The whole room votes at the end, and they will remember the build that made them think, not the one that was tidiest.
- I'd Actually Use This something a person would genuinely open again next week.
- The One I'd Show Someone the one you would pull out your phone to demonstrate to a friend.
- Wait, You Can Do That? the clearest demonstration of something people did not know was possible.
- Best Overall idea, build and pitch together.
7
Evaluate
Demonstrate to your group of tables
2 minutes each
- Your table is grouped with two other tables.
- All three demonstrate, two minutes each, hard timer.
- A facilitator picks which of the three goes to the front.
8
Finals, then everyone votes
3 teams · 2 minutes each
- Three teams present to the room.
- Show it running rather than describing it.
- Cover three things: what you wanted it to do, what actually happened, and one thing you learned.
- Then everyone votes on screen.