Getting Started with Vibe Coding

This is a hands-on, beginner-friendly workshop for founders, students, community builders, product managers, creatives, educators, nonprofit leaders, and curious professionals who want to understand how generative AI can help them turn an idea into working software. In this two-hour session, participants will learn the basics of AI-assisted coding and how today’s specialized AI coding tools differ from general-purpose tools like ChatGPT or Claude. We will compare regular LLM-based tools, which are excellent for brainstorming, prompting, explanation, and code snippets, with agentic coding environments such as Replit, Cursor, Google Antigravity, and Lovable, which can work across files, run code, debug errors, and move a project forward more like a junior development team. The workshop is based on material I teach in my generative AI course at the University of Calgary. The core learning objective is to help participants move beyond “one-line prompting” and learn how to communicate a software idea clearly enough for an AI coding agent to act on it. Participants will learn how to develop a Product Requirements Document, or PRD, that defines the user, problem, features, constraints, user experience, and success criteria for a small software product. The session will then move from planning to building. Participants will draft a first PRD for their own app idea and use Google Antigravity to begin turning that PRD into a working prototype. No coding background is required, but participants should be comfortable experimenting with AI tools and thinking through a product idea. By the end, attendees will understand the new workflow of AI-augmented software creation: describe clearly, review critically, iterate intentionally, and stay responsible for the product vision. What does the attendee walk away with? Attendees will leave with a practical understanding of how AI coding agents work, when to use them, and how to prompt them more effectively. Each participant will create a first-draft Product Requirements Document for a small app, tool, website, or workflow they want to build. They will also begin implementing that idea in with an AI coding platform like Replit or Google Antigravity, giving them hands-on experience with the process of turning a plain-language product concept into running code. This is both immediately applicable and intentionally framed as a first build. Participants will not leave with a polished commercial product after two hours, but they will leave with the foundation needed to continue: a clearer product idea, a reusable PRD structure, a working development environment, and a repeatable workflow for using AI to plan, build, test, and improve software. For founders and small teams, this can accelerate early prototyping. For career switchers and nontechnical professionals, it provides a low-barrier entry point into product development. For students and builders, it offers a new way to learn by making.-----------------------------Built Here. Backed Here. Calgary Innovation Week is the city-wide moment that brings Calgary’s innovation ecosystem into full view. Across the week, founders, industry, investors, talent and community organizations come together to share what they’re building, make connections, and show the strength of what’s being built here – and backed – here. By registering for this event, you acknowledge that Platform Calgary (the organization), as well as third-party organizations hosting activities in the shared public spaces of Platform Innovation Centre (the venue), may capture photos, audio, and video recordings. These materials may include your image or likeness and may be used for promotional purposes, including marketing, social media, and other communications by the respective organizations. Since the event is held in a public space with multiple users, complete exclusion from photography or recording cannot be guaranteed. Additionally, your name and contact information may be shared with select event sponsors for the purpose of post-event engagement. This is intended to enhance your event experience and provide relevant follow-up from participating partners. The collection and use of personal information complies with Alberta’s PIPA and Canada’s PIPEDA. For more details on how we handle personal information, please see our Privacy Policy.