Podcast

41. Create With Conference DEBRIEF! 🚀 Top Moments, AI Behind the Conference & What's Next

Name: Create With Conference 2024: Building Events with AI and No-Code
Uploaded: 2025-06-04T15:45:06+00:00
Description: How Create With built a sold-out tech conference using Bubble, n8n, and AI. Learn about custom mobile apps, AI matchmaking, and scaling with a small team.

Create With4 June 2025068 views

Summary

James and Kieran from Create With debrief their successful 2024 conference, discussing the expansion from one day to three days with workshops, the technical infrastructure they built using AI and visual development tools, standout talks including Jonas (Monzo co-founder) on innovative AI uses, and their plans for international expansion with Season 2. They share how a small team used tools like Bubble, n8n, and AI to create a custom conference app with matchmaking features, and reflect on the community connections made across 90% of attendees.

What You'll Learn

A Small Team Building Big: The Create With Conference Technical Breakdown

Running a three-day tech conference with workshops, multiple stages, custom mobile apps, and AI-powered networking might sound like a job for a large production team. But the Create With Conference 2024 proved that with the right combination of visual development tools and AI, a skeleton crew can deliver a professional event experience that attendees actually want to use.

James and Kieran, the hosts behind Create With, recently debriefed their conference journey — and the technical decisions behind it are worth examining for anyone building events, community platforms, or complex multi-user systems without traditional development resources.

From One Day to Three: Scaling Conference Operations

The 2024 conference represented significant growth from the previous year. What started as a single-day event expanded to three full days:

Day 1 (Wednesday): Four workshops focused on AI agents, held at the Plex venue with expert instructors teaching paid attendees — some of whom weren't even attending the main conference.

Day 2 (Thursday): The main conference featuring three simultaneous stages (main stage, bleaches, and partner stage), with opening remarks from Jonas, co-founder of Monzo, who discussed paying $10,000 monthly for GPT-o3 access and the advantages of voice-mode interaction for higher bandwidth communication with AI.

Day 3 (Friday): Post-conference networking including a sponsored boat party on the canal, creating space for attendees, speakers, and sponsors to connect in a relaxed environment.

The conference sold out for the first time, with doubled attendance compared to the previous year and a notably diverse mix of founders, agency professionals, and enterprise representatives.

The Conference Tech Stack: Visual Development as Event Infrastructure

The most striking aspect of the Create With Conference wasn't just what they built — it was *how* they built it. The entire technical infrastructure was created using visual development and AI tools, operated by a team of just two core organizers plus volunteers.

The Custom Mobile App

Ninety percent of attendees used a custom-built mobile app available on both iOS and Android. This wasn't a white-label solution — it was built specifically for the conference using Bubble, the visual development platform.

Key features included:

Session bookmarking and scheduling: Attendees could favorite talks and build their personal schedule across three simultaneous stages
Attendee directory: Full visibility of other participants with messaging capabilities
AI matchmaking: Intelligent suggestions for connections based on attendee profiles and interests
Real-time updates: Schedule changes and announcements pushed directly to attendees

The app addressed specific feedback from the previous year about scheduling difficulty and helped solve the perennial conference problem of meaningful networking in a crowd.

The Conference

Key Learnings

1 Building custom event apps with visual development platforms like Bubble can deliver 90% attendee adoption rates when focused on solving real problems like scheduling and networking

The Create With Conference built a custom iOS and Android app using Bubble that 90% of attendees actively used. The key was addressing specific pain points from previous years — session scheduling across multiple stages and facilitating meaningful connections. By building custom rather than using white-label solutions, they could integrate AI matchmaking and create a seamless experience tied directly to their event infrastructure.

Learn more about Bubble

2Small teams can run large-scale events by treating tools like n8n, Tally, and Kit as components of an integrated 'operating system'

Rather than hiring a large production team, Create With connected multiple specialized tools into a cohesive system. n8n handled workflow automation between systems, Tally collected structured data from attendees, Luma managed event listings, and Kit powered email communications — all flowing through Bubble as the central hub. This approach allowed two core organizers plus volunteers to manage workshops, three stages, and hundreds of attendees.

Learn more about n8n

3GPT-o3 voice mode enables higher bandwidth AI interaction worth premium pricing for power users

Jonas from Monzo revealed he would pay $10,000 monthly for GPT-o3 access, primarily using it through voice input for higher communication bandwidth. This insight suggests that voice interfaces aren't just accessibility features — they're productivity multipliers for users who need to process complex information quickly. The voice modality allows for continuous thought flow without the friction of typing, making it valuable for strategic thinking and rapid iteration.

Learn more about ChatGPT

4Conference feedback implementation drives year-over-year improvement and demonstrates community listening

Create With systematically reviewed all feedback from the previous year's event and made specific improvements: upgrading the sound system on the bleaches stage (which had no amplification the prior year), changing food options, and building better scheduling tools. This feedback loop creates trust with the community and ensures each iteration addresses real attendee needs rather than assumed problems.

5The most valuable conference outcome isn't talks — it's the cross-pollination of ideas between diverse attendee types

Despite having three stages of expert talks, the organizers emphasized that attendee conversations and connections were the primary value driver. By deliberately attracting founders, agency professionals, and enterprise representatives, they created conditions for idea exchange across different contexts. The pre-party and boat afterparty weren't afterthoughts — they were core components of the value proposition.

6Workshops on emerging topics like AI agents can generate standalone revenue beyond conference tickets

The Wednesday workshops on AI agents attracted paid participants who weren't attending the main conference, demonstrating demand for structured learning experiences. This creates a business model where conferences can generate revenue from multiple streams: main event tickets, workshop fees, and sponsorships — while also serving different audience segments with varying levels of commitment.

7Selling out a conference requires addressing the natural sales curve where most purchases happen near the event date

James noted the anxiety of early ticket sales and how much tends to happen closer to the event. Understanding this pattern is crucial for cash flow planning and marketing strategy. The first-time sellout validated their marketing approach and pricing, but also required trust in the process during the slow early period when commitment is uncertain.

8Visual development and AI tools enable 'practicing what you preach' — building with the same stack you're teaching about

By building all conference infrastructure using the tools and approaches they advocate (Bubble, n8n, AI integrations), Create With created proof-of-concept for their community. This wasn't just symbolic — it demonstrated that visual development and AI can handle real-world complexity at scale, which is more persuasive than any talk could be.

Resources Mentioned

Bubble - Visual Programming Platform

The primary platform used to build the Create With Conference mobile app, website, and central data hub connecting all conference systems.

Visit

n8n - Workflow Automation

Open-source automation tool used to connect Tally forms, email systems, and Bubble database for seamless conference operations.

Visit

Create With YouTube Channel

Official Create With channel featuring conference talks, tutorials, and podcast episodes about building with AI and visual development.

Visit

Tally Forms - Free Form Builder

Form solution used for attendee data collection, workshop signups, and feedback gathering throughout the conference.

Visit

ChatGPT by OpenAI

AI platform discussed extensively including GPT-o3 model and voice mode usage for high-bandwidth AI interaction.

Visit

Xano - Backend as a Service

Sponsor and no-code backend platform that sponsored the conference boat afterparty and supports visual development workflows.

Visit

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Create With build a mobile app for iOS and Android without a development team?

They used Bubble, a visual development platform, to create a custom conference app that worked on both iOS and Android. The app included session scheduling, attendee directory with messaging, and AI-powered matchmaking features. By using visual development instead of traditional coding, they avoided the expense and complexity of hiring mobile developers while still delivering a native-feeling experience that 90% of attendees adopted.

What tools did Create With use to automate conference operations?

The conference ran on an integrated stack of no-code tools functioning as an 'operating system.' n8n handled workflow automation between systems, Tally collected attendee information through forms, Luma managed event listings, Kit powered email communications, and Bubble served as the central database and app platform. This allowed a team of two organizers plus volunteers to manage workshops, three simultaneous stages, hundreds of attendees, and multiple events across three days.

Why would someone pay $10,000 per month for AI access?

Jonas, co-founder of Monzo, revealed he would pay this amount for GPT-o3 access because of the value it provides through voice mode interaction. Voice input offers higher bandwidth communication compared to typing, allowing for continuous thought flow and rapid iteration on complex problems. For strategic decision-making and high-stakes work, this speed and fluidity justifies premium pricing for power users who can translate AI insights into significant business value.

How can a small conference compete with larger tech events?

Create With focused on community connection and practical learning rather than scale. They deliberately created intimate environments (workshops, speaker dinners, boat afterparty) that facilitated real conversations between diverse attendee types — founders, agency professionals, and enterprise representatives. By building their tech stack with the same tools they teach about, they demonstrated credibility. The result was an event where 90% used the custom app and attendees consistently cited connections and ideas gained as the primary value.

What's the business model for a conference beyond ticket sales?

Create With generated revenue from multiple streams: main conference tickets (which sold out), separate paid workshops on AI agents (including non-conference attendees), and sponsorships from tool companies like Bubble, Xano, Zapier, Glide, and others who wanted to engage directly with the no-code and AI development community. This diversification reduces risk and allows different pricing tiers for varying levels of commitment.

Topics

no code visual development ai development ai agents automation saas startups

Tools Mentioned

n8n

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