Victorian Government Open Data
Transport, health, environment, education and public safety. The broadest pool of Victorian government data available to builders.
Inaugural APAC · Melbourne 2026
Building for Melbourne, in a single day.
On Saturday 23 May 2026, ~60 builders gathered at Inspire9 in Richmond for the first Claude Impact Lab in APAC, building on real Australian data with Claude Code.
Inaugural APAC · Melbourne 2026
Building for Melbourne, in a single day.
~60 builders. Three civic-data tracks. One Saturday at Inspire9 in Richmond, with Claude Code.
Inaugural APAC · Melbourne 2026
Building for Melbourne, in a single day.
On Saturday 23 May 2026, ~60 builders gathered at Inspire9 in Richmond for the first Claude Impact Lab in APAC, building on real Australian data with Claude Code.
What happens when you use the magic of Claude and connect it to real Melbourne community issues…
Claude
Saturday 23 May 2026 · Melbourne
Create real impact for Melbourne, solve genuine local problems, improve people's lives. Make no mistakes.
⌘⏎ to start building
Not like this…
but like this:
We started by bringing together some , with , some , , and some .
Incredible people
Demand outstripped capacity by almost 7×.
~400 applied for ~60 seats. The inaugural APAC Impact Lab, in a single Saturday at Inspire9, Richmond.
400+
Registrations
60
Confirmed seats
6.7×
Oversubscribed
8
Teams
Incredible experience
Senior operators across Australia's tech ecosystem.
13
Founders / CTOs
Envato · Heumans · Slate · Wibci · Real Minds AI · Seed Blocks
7
Senior engineering leads
Zendesk · Foxtel · Clarity · Harmony Intelligence · Versent
5
AI / ML specialists
CBA · BMW Financial · Cairn AI · Helfie AI · Defence
12
Engineers / developers
MongoDB · Linktree · Twilio · Sitemate · MYOB · MCRI · Canva
8
Designers (Product/UX)
MYOB · UpGuard · Westpac · JET Charge · Telstra Health
6
Students / early career
Monash · Melbourne · Sydney · Swinburne · IAG
3
Consultants / generalists
Independent · M&A consulting · PuntyAI
6
Other
MCG (data) · marketing · Team Topologies (APAC)
Incredible mentors
The people who made it run.
Speakers, mentors and judges who gave their Saturday to the room, rotating through every team on the hour, unblocking and pushing the work further.
Rye Smith
Claude Ambassador & organiser
Anthropic
Gary Williams
Organiser
Dominik Fretz
Speaker
Claude Code Ambassador
Matthew McKinlay
Organiser
Liz Blink
Speaker · Platform PM
ex-Block
Dave King
Speaker
Radical Intelligence
Ben Flint
Speaker
Supernormal Systems
Matthew Morgan
Speaker
Government & public sector
Jeanette Cheah
Mentor & judge
HEX
Luke “Marshy” Marshall
Mentor
Pointer
Lucy Lin
Mentor
Stephen Johnstone
Mentor
Geremy McKay
Mentor
Real local data
Custom local data, built for the day.
Teams didn't start from a blank page. Building was grounded in real, public Australian datasets from partners who opened their data specifically for the Lab, so prototypes pointed at how Victoria and Melbourne actually move, live and work.
City of Melbourne Open Data
Pedestrian counts, planning and urban services, with the Lord Mayor's office invited onto the judging panel.
Glow sustainability data
Sustainability demand signals provided specifically for the Impact Lab. A bespoke dataset for the day.
Good coffee
This is Melbourne, after all.
∞
Food and coffee flowing all day, because people build better when they're fed. With Hectors right next door, nobody went short. This is Melbourne, after all.
And then add some extra ingredients: a , a , a , and a .
9:00 AM · The day opens
A few words from Anthropic.
Martine Nilsen, from the Claude Code community team at Anthropic, joined remotely to welcome the room and frame the day.
Martine welcomed the room with a milestone worth marking: this was the first Claude Impact Lab in the Southern Hemisphere.
A guide from Rye & Gary
Why Impact Labs matter.
Rye framed the Impact Lab model: build genuinely useful tools on real public data, for the community. Gary welcomed the room to Melbourne and set the spirit for the day.
The modelOne-day, community-run, sponsored by Anthropic through the Ambassadors Program. Impact over prizes.
The momentumSan Diego, Mexico City, Miami, Santiago, and now APAC.
The spiritCollaborative, curious and pointed at the city. Make something real, and have a good Saturday doing it.
A custom admin dashboard
A portal for the day, built with Claude.
Rye built a custom Melbourne Impact Lab portal at claudecommunity.com.au/impact-lab, built to run the day end to end and help everyone navigate it.
Participant check-inGated entry that organisers open when the doors do, so participants, mentors and judges each get their own view.
Run the daySchedule, teams and tracks in one place, with an organiser sign-in behind the scenes.
And the essentialsCoffee vouchers included, because no Melbourne build day runs without them.
A specific problem to choose from
Pick a problem worth solving.
Three civic-data tracks on the board. Teams chose the problem that pulled at them, then turned a dataset into something a Melburnian could actually use.
Heat & liveabilitySmarter green space, canopy and public amenity for the people most exposed.
Transport & accessSafer, fairer, more sustainable movement — wherever you live.
Community & citizen initiativesResilience built from the ground up by residents and communities.
Teams locked · clock started
Time to go for it.
Three civic-data tracks on the board. Teams voted, locked a direction, and got building. The room chose community & citizen initiatives: how might residents and communities drive their own solutions — from circular economy models to local resource sharing — that build resilience from the ground up?
The day
Six sprints, heads down.
Teams worked through six sprint blocks across the day, focused on talking and building, then submitted their ideas and pitched them at 5pm.
The outcomes
What teams built.
By late afternoon, every team took the stage for a strict, timed pitch in front of a judging panel that included the Lord Mayor's office. Eight teams, eight civic problems — here's what they built.
★ Demo day
“Melbourne has a waste problem.”
Each team brought its own local angle, and didn't just pitch an idea. Every one demoed a working prototype, built on live data.
8 teams pitched
Judged on real-world impact
Safety & mobility
CityStride
Live “comfort” walking routes that score every Melbourne street by how alive it feels right now — pedestrian sensors, lighting, tree canopy and venue density — then route you by Lively, Accessible or Shortest.
8 builders · Live demo ↗
Circular economy
Ecoblock
Tackling Melbourne's hard-waste problem with a circular-economy approach — keeping usable material out of landfill and back into the community.
10 builders · GitHub ↗
Belonging
spacd
A map-based platform that helps international students and new residents beat isolation — surfacing low-pressure community events at public BBQs, gardens and shared kitchens, with AI onboarding and RSVPs.
7 builders · Live demo ↗
Waste & reuse
The Loop
A circular-resource router that intercepts the moment of disposal and finds the nearest place to reuse, repair or recycle an item — ranked by impact, with an honest impact receipt and a Claude Desktop MCP server.
7 builders · GitHub ↗
🏆 Winner
Good Sh*t
The day's winning build — a map that makes local businesses' civic and sustainability work visible. Shops publish their good deeds and earn “Heart Points” while Melburnians browse, applaud and follow a public leaderboard.
5 builders · GitHub ↗
Newcomers
Tapestry
An AI concierge that helps relocating families settle and belong — building personalised practical and cultural transition plans, and routing newcomers into existing community groups.
7 builders · GitHub ↗
Wellbeing
Neighbourhood Pulse
A voice-enabled check-in companion that helps isolated seniors find nearby support, paired with a privacy-safe council dashboard that surfaces community-connection gaps across suburbs.
7 builders · GitHub ↗
Green space
Finding Common Ground
Helps neighbours turn forgotten urban green spaces into community gardens — checking site feasibility on sunlight, soil and water, then auto-generating permit applications and signage.
9 builders · Pitch deck ↗
And now for the winners
And now for the winners!
Judged on real-world impact by a panel that included the Lord Mayor's office. Final names and write-ups dropping in here soon.
🏆 Winner
Overall impact
Good Sh*t
The standout build of the day: a map that turns local businesses' invisible civic and sustainability work into something Melburnians can see, follow and reward — shops earn “Heart Points” for good deeds and climb a public leaderboard.
Built by the Good Sh*t team · 5 builders · GitHub ↗
The inaugural edition
The first Claude Impact Lab in the Southern Hemisphere.
8 teams · ~60 builders · 3 civic-data tracks · one Saturday.
Melbourne · Inaugural Edition · May 2026
Thanks, Melbourne
Until next time
Thank you, Melbourne.
Thank you, Melbourne.
We're just getting started.
Want to be at the next Impact Lab, or any Claude event in Melbourne? We'd love to have you in the room.
Organised by Claude Community Australia · Sponsored by Anthropic
Sponsors Divergent Kind & Real Minds AI · Hosted at Inspire9, Richmond