# Rooms That Changed the Work

Public community events, the idea carried forward from each one, and the public build it influenced.

## Singapore FinTech Festival

2025-11 · Singapore EXPO · East · Expo

**Chapter:** Look wider

**Moment:** AI looks different when the room speaks finance.

**Lesson:** Experience in banking shifts the question from whether a demo works to whether provenance, permissions, ownership, and difficult-day operations are clear.

**Carried into:** [Nexus Bank, a fictional banking demo](https://banking-demo-production.up.railway.app/)

## AI and Finance Conversations

2025-11-13 · ByteDance · Raffles Quay · Marina · CBD

**Chapter:** Listen closely

**Moment:** The useful idea often arrives between the slides.

**Lesson:** A conversation can reveal the missing constraint faster than another hour of polishing.

**Carried into:** [What banking taught me about shipping AI](/blog/banking-shipping-ai)

## OpenClaw Singapore

2026 · AWS · IOI Central Boulevard Towers · Marina · CBD

**Chapter:** Test the edges

**Moment:** Agents become real when permissions become real.

**Lesson:** Autonomy is useful only when memory, tools, permissions, and hand-offs are visible.

**Carried into:** [The harness matters](/blog/harness-matters)

## AI Engineer Singapore

2026-05-16 · Capitol Theatre · 15 Stamford Road · Civic · City Hall

**Chapter:** Keep showing up

**Moment:** I went to learn. The paper became part of the evidence.

**Lesson:** The value was being in a room where practitioners were building, questioning, and learning in public.

**Carried into:** [A public journey connecting events, lessons, and builds](https://www.mfa.gov.sg/newsroom/press-statements-transcripts-and-photos/minister-for-foreign-affairs-dr-vivian-balakrishnan-s-speech-at-ai-engineer-singapore--16-may-2026/)

**Primary source:** [Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's Speech at AI Engineer Singapore, 16 May 2026](https://www.mfa.gov.sg/newsroom/press-statements-transcripts-and-photos/minister-for-foreign-affairs-dr-vivian-balakrishnan-s-speech-at-ai-engineer-singapore--16-may-2026/), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore

**Photo note:** Tanveer Riaz is among the attendees in the group photograph. This does not imply a personal meeting with the minister.

## Build with Gemini Hackathon

2026-08 · Lorong AI · one-north · West · one-north

**Chapter:** Build for someone

**Moment:** A six-hour room became a reason to ask who technology can help people become.

**Lesson:** The strongest prototype was not the one with the most AI. It was the one where consent stayed visible and the AI stepped back once two people could talk.

**Carried into:** [87K Windows](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7497166785465659392/)

**LinkedIn:** [View the 87K Windows build story](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7497166785465659392/)

## 65labs Unconference · Value-Maxxing

2026-08 · Carousell Campus · West · innovation corridor

**Chapter:** Spend intelligence well

**Moment:** The useful question moved from which model is smartest to which model is reliable enough for the job.

**Lesson:** Use frontier intelligence to explore, capture what worked as a repeatable skill, then move repeatable work down the cost curve.

**Carried into:** [Model-routing and reusable skills practice](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7496185885101658112/)

**LinkedIn:** [Read the Value-Maxxing notes](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7496185885101658112/)

## Code with Claude

2026 · Grab · one-north · West · one-north

**Chapter:** Build together

**Moment:** A good workflow remembers what the team learns.

**Lesson:** Reusable skills, clear intent, and inspectable review make useful discoveries survive the individual session.

**Carried into:** [The public Skillz library](https://github.com/tanveerriaz/Skillz)

## Agent Forge Hackathon

2026 · National University of Singapore · West · NUS

**Chapter:** Forge the workflow

**Moment:** A room full of agents made the hand-offs more interesting than any single prompt.

**Lesson:** Agent systems become dependable when roles, evidence, review and failure states are designed as one workflow.

**Carried into:** [Agent workflow and orchestration experiments](/classic#projects)

## ChatGPT Sites Hackathon

2026-09 · Singapore · Singapore · build floor

**Chapter:** Start with a conversation

**Moment:** Benny and I started talking about how ordinary work breaks could help coworkers meet beyond their usual circles.

**Lesson:** The idea became clearer as we talked, built it, explained it and brought it into the discussions around the room.

**Carried into:** [SideSpark](/blog/sidespark-started-with-a-conversation)