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• The Colab Team

300+ Registrations in 5 Days: NZ's Appetite for AI is Real

#Claude Code#meetup#Auckland#community#Anthropic

Five days ago, we posted about our first Claude Code meetup on LinkedIn.

We’d planned for 75 people. A casual evening at a local venue. Some demos, some networking, maybe pizza.

Then the registrations started coming in.

300+ people have now signed up — for an event happening a week before Christmas, announced with barely any lead time.

This wasn’t supposed to happen

Let’s be honest: mid-December is when New Zealand winds down. People are finishing projects, booking holidays, mentally checking out. The last thing we expected was for hundreds of developers, founders, and tech leaders to clear their Wednesday evening for a meetup about AI tooling.

But here we are.

2degrees stepped up

When it became clear we’d blown past our original capacity, we needed a bigger venue — fast.

2degrees came through. They’ve opened up their Auckland head office on Fanshawe Street to host the event. It’s the kind of partnership that makes you proud of the NZ tech community — a major telco backing a grassroots AI meetup with just days’ notice.

What this tells us

The response isn’t really about us. It’s about where New Zealand is with AI right now.

People are hungry. Not for theory or hype — for practical knowledge. How do you actually use Claude Code? What are people building with AI agents? How do you go from “playing with ChatGPT” to shipping production systems?

That’s the gap we’re trying to fill.

What to expect on December 17th

For those who’ve registered (and made it through the waitlist), here’s what we’re planning:

  • 5:00 PM — Doors open, food and drinks
  • 5:45 PM — Presentations, live demos, and Q&A
  • 7:00 PM — Networking
  • 8:00 PM — Close

We’ll have live demos of Claude Code in action, perspectives from local builders, and a Q&A session. Anthropic is sponsoring the event and dialling in to answer questions directly.

This is just the start

Auckland is first. Wellington and Christchurch are next. We’re building something here — a proper community of people who are actually shipping AI, not just talking about it.

If you missed the Auckland event, sign up for future meetups around NZ. We’ll let you know when we’re coming to your city.

And if you’re one of the 300+ joining us next Wednesday — see you there.

Claude Code Meetups NZ are sponsored by Anthropic.

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