A jam session.
Not a hackathon.
GDG Coding Jams transform standard tech meetups into vibrant, hands-on community sandboxes where developers actually build together. Two hours, a slice of pizza, Google’s AI stack — and a real prototype walking out the door.
Four beats, and you’re out with a working app.
No prep required. No prior project. Drop in to any track on any week.
Bring a laptop. No prep, no prior project. The room handles the rest.
Your chapter has one for the week, or you bring your own idea. Two minutes of deciding what you're making.
AI does the typing; you direct it. Everyone's building at once, so the person next to you is the fastest way past a wall.
Two minutes each, screen-shared from your seat. Then it goes on the showcase — half-finished is welcome.
A jam, not a hackathon.
Think of a musical jam or an after-work pottery class. Instruments out, a creative prompt, two hours of making something tangible alongside friends. We bring that energy to software.
No sit-and-listen tech talks. No 48-hour competitive hackathon grind. Just blueprints, tech access, and collaborative space.
Developers learn Google's AI tools best when they're actively building. We remove the blank-page syndrome.
Materials, timelines, and goals provided. Organizers book a room and bring the snacks.
Collaborative problem-solving builds a deeper network than passive networking ever does.
Two hours, four movements.
Predictable, fast-paced, engaging. We keep the talking short and the building long. Organizers act as facilitators, guiding the room through a unified creative process.
The goal in the room is always to ship the core feature in 45 minutes — the one thing that proves the concept. Push toward the polished version on your own time.
- 0:00 – 0:15Intro
Grab a name tag and a slice, say hello to the instructor, and meet the people either side of you — you'll be asking them things later, so it pays to know their names now. Low pressure, high creativity, ship something messy. Then a quick word on what the room is building tonight, and you're off.
- 0:15 – 0:30Credits & setup
The instructor shares the Google Cloud credits with the room. Everyone gets their environment ready — whichever tool they brought. Nobody should be installing anything once the build starts.
- 0:30 – 1:35Build
Heads down, and enjoy it — this is the part everyone came for. The agent does the typing; you decide what it's making. Ask the room when you get stuck; someone two seats away hit the same wall ten minutes ago. Want more structure? The codelab walks the spec-driven route — Setup → Plan → Review → Build → API → Verify — but nobody has to follow it.
- 1:35 – 2:00Share & submit
Show the room what you made — two minutes, screen-shared from your seat. Half-finished is welcome; the wobbly ones are usually the most interesting. Say what surprised you along the way, and cheer for everyone else while you're at it. Then submit your build before you leave. This is the one thing not to skip — it's what puts your name and your chapter on the showcase, and it takes about two minutes.
Set your own topic. Or borrow one of nine.
The organizer running the room decides what it builds. Point at your own dataset, take on something your city actually needs, or write a brief from scratch — the format holds either way, because the two hours are what make it a jam, not the subject.
No idea where to start? Take one of the nine built-in topics instead. Eight are complete, drop-in projects that ship in two hours, brief and starter repo already written; the ninth is an open canvas for a room that wants to invent its own thing. They don’t depend on each other — pick whichever sounds most fun for your community and go.
- 01–02 Image-gen pair — same tech, different prompt patterns
- 03 The turn — from pretty things to organizing your life
- 04–08 Language-driven utility
- 09 Open canvas — bring your own idea
- 01Glow Up — Selfie + a hairstyle → see the new you.
- 02Avatar Studio — Photo (you OR your pet) + pick a style → one stylized avatar.
- 03Year in Poetry — Tell AI your meaningful dates → a year calendar you can read like a poem.
- 04FridgeChef — Type what's in your fridge → one recipe (with food photo).
- 05Mood Jar — Type how you're feeling → a little token drops into your jar.
- 06My Corner — Name + bio + 3 things → a live URL you can text your mom.
- 07BulletProof — Paste resume + paste job → tailored bullets.
- 08Character Chat — Define one character → chat with them.
- 09Your Own Idea — No menu. No template. The thing you've been daydreaming about.
Ready to jam?
Open any track and ship a working app in the next 45 minutes. Or grab the kit and host a jam in your city.