You are the conductor,
not the expert.

Setup Checklist

  • Sticky notes (yellow, large) on tables
  • Dot stickers (3 per person) in your pocket
  • Markers (thick, dark) on tables
  • TV: jedrzej.com/cnx, test arrow keys
  • Screen 1 visible (title slide)
  • Phone timer ready: 5, 2, 3, 10 min
  • Phone on silent (except timer)
Mindset
Nobody shows up? 5 is great. 3 is a masterclass.
You freeze? Read the screen. Every screen has one instruction.
It goes badly? It won't. The structure does the work.
15:00 · Opening · 15m

Greet. Small talk. Let people settle.

"Welcome to Past the Prompt. I'm Jed."
→ Advance TV to S1 (title)
Warm-up (5m)
"Turn to your neighbor: when did your AI lie to you?"
→ Advance TV to S2 (warm-up)

Let them talk 2 min. Then collect 2-3 stories from the room.

Theme
"Better prompts won't save you. Catching the lie will."
→ Advance TV to S3 (theme)

Pause. Let it land. This is the anchor for the whole session.

"Think of AI as a confident junior dev. It writes fast, sounds sure, and sometimes introduces bugs with a straight face."
Contract (3m)
"Five rules. Thumbs up if you're in."
→ Advance TV to S4 (contract)

Read each rule. Wait for thumbs.

15:15 · Pair Work · 24m
"Pair up. If odd number, make a trio."
→ Advance TV to S5 (pairs setup)
→ Advance TV to S6 (pair prompts)
Round 1 (10m)
5m BELL: "Feedback time"
2m BELL: "Discuss together"
3m BELL: "Switch! Person B talks."
Round 2 (10m)
5m BELL: "Feedback time"
2m BELL: "Discuss together"
3m BELL: "Wrap it up"

Walk slowly. Hands behind back. Listen only.

Sticky transition (4m)
"Write down your topic. One sentence."
→ Advance TV to S7 (sticky)

Collect stickies on a wall/board. Group similar ones.

15:39 · Group Discussion · 36m
Voting (5m)
"3 dots each. Vote on what matters. Stack all 3 on one if you want."
→ Advance TV to S8 (voting)

Natural stretch break. Let them move. Count dots. Rank top 3. Read aloud.

Hot Topics (~11m each)
→ Advance TV to S9 (hot topics)
1m Pair restates their sticky
1m "Anyone else hit this?"
4m Your PROCESS take (verification angle)
5m "What's worked for you?"

Strict 11 min per topic. If hot:

"Great energy. Let's park that for the buffer. Next topic."

Pacing: If 3 topics take less than 30 min, open the floor: "Anything else from the stickies?"

16:15 · Closing
"Write down one thing you will do differently this week."
→ Advance TV to S10 (closing)

5 sec silence. Don't rush.

"Thanks to 4Seas. You did the work today, not me."
"If useful, we'll do more. I'm at 4Seas regularly."

No pitch. No links. No QR codes.

"Group photo. Come up front."
→ Advance TV to S11 (thanks)
Buffer behavior

Stay. Don't pack up. Stand near drinks, be approachable. Real connections happen now.

Follow-up ask: "DM me on LinkedIn." Consulting ask: "Coffee this week."

No sell IS the sell.

Cheat Sheet

Rescue Phrases

Frozen
"What's worked for you?"
Lost thread
"Let me check the time."
Don't know
"That's a deep one. Anyone dealt with this?"
Someone dominates
"Great point. Let's hear from someone else."

Ed. 2 Stuck Points

"AI says fixed but nothing changed"
Read the diff. If you can't explain what changed in one sentence, it didn't fix it.
"I don't know how to verify"
3 layers: read the diff, run the tests, click through the UI. Skip any layer = risk.
"AI keeps going in circles"
Stop. Write 3 bullets of what you actually want. Then prompt. Plan turns AI from random generator to executor.
"It works locally but breaks in production"
Three things: env vars, error handling, deploy config. AI doesn't know your production setup.
"Codebase too big for context"
Break it down. Smaller files. README or CLAUDE.md = AI's map. Same as onboarding a junior dev.
"I trust it too fast on small changes"
Small changes are the most dangerous. One-line CSS fix? AI might move the wrong property. Read. Every. Diff.
"Debugging AI code takes forever"
Copy the WHOLE error. Full stack trace. Expected vs actual. "It doesn't work" is not a bug report.
"Multiple files break at once"
Orchestration. Plan on paper. Execute in order. Test after EACH step, not at the end.
After the Event

Wrap-up Checklist

  • DM 2-3 people for feedback
  • Write down voted topics + key insights
  • LinkedIn post: photo + 3 sentences
  • WhatsApp group: share with attendees
  • Note: what to change for Edition 3
  • Re-enable DNSSEC for jedrzej.com