Indy·Init_AI Builders Hackathon & Conference
One day to push AI to the edge and prove a repeatable process
for turning vibe-coded work into production-grade software.
Sat, Nov 7, 2026Launch Fishers, Fishers IN
AI Did Not Change What
Production Demands
Designers are opening pull requests, people who never wrote code professionally are starting tech companies, and engineers are moving at breakneck speed. The constraint on who can build software is gone.
The bar production sets has not moved. Secure, scalable, observable, resilient, affordable at volume. AI-generated work usually arrives with no answer for any of them, so every piece needs technical oversight, and that’s where it piles up.
Getting AI-generated work trusted is an engineering problem, which makes it a solvable one.
The AI Builders Hackathon & Conference
One day on what it takes to trust what AI builds. Teams answer by building. Sessions answer by showing what already works. Three tracks run through both:
Building with AI
Handing off between tools without losing the thread, where state lives, what each step needs.
Deciding what the model sees and what it shouldn’t. Retrieval, compaction, token budgets.
Reviewing what you didn’t write, at volume. Property tests, spec-driven generation, trust.
Building the Factory
The scaffolding a whole team codes against, shared context files, structure, conventions.
Knowing a regression happened before a person does. Tests and evals that earn the trust.
Secrets handled properly, and tracing a failure through code nobody on the team authored.
Building an AI Career
What hiring managers actually look for now, and how those signals have shifted.
How teams are reshaping around what the tools absorbed, and which roles are growing.
Shipping alone what used to take a team, and where that stops being true.
These sessions are still being booked, and the call for speakers is open until October 15, 2026. Apply to speak
The Hackathon Challenge
One day, a blank repo, and one ridiculously fun way to spend a day. Here’s what you’ll be doing:
Use AI to Build a Production-Grade App
Pick your app, build the software factory that ships it, and defend the technical decisions behind it. Every team demos the machinery, not just the product.
Solve a problem that matters.
A clearly defined problem, an app that works end-to-end in the demo, and technical decisions you can defend.
Free to Attend
A whole day with people as into AI as you are. Ideas move fast in a room like that, and everyone leaves with new techniques and new friends.
Compete
1 to 4 people and a blank repo. Everyone ships code, every team demos, and you take the repo home.
Learn
Come to learn, share, and meet people. Three tracks run all day, sit in on any of them.
Doors 8:30 AM · runs to 9:00 PM
12175 Visionary Way, Fishers, IN 46038
Free, plentiful parking on-site · Directions
- 8:30 – 9:00 AM
Doors open & check-in
Coffee, networking, and getting situated.
- 9:00 – 9:30 AM
Welcome remarks
The challenge, the rules, and how the day runs.
- 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Hackathon build
Teams work, mentors float, and the sessions run alongside. Dip in and out.
- 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Conference sessions
Building with AI, Building the Factory, Building an AI Career. Open to every ticket.
- 5:00 – 6:00 PM
Demos, judging & awards
Every team demos live and defends the architecture behind it.
- 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Social happy hour
Toast the builds, talk shop, and meet the people behind them. Open to the entire community.
Skills sessions run throughout the build window. Teams dip in and out, and conference attendees can come just for those.
Hosted by Indiana’s largest technical community
Indy Hackers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community with a mission to help Indiana-based programmers, makers, and tech enthusiasts grow by fostering community connections and celebrating individual successes.
- 2008
- grass roots founded
- 3,000+
- total members
- 500+
- companies