Decision. Spend 30 min on pre-flight (accounts, wifi, billing) before participants arrive — the workshop dies on logistics, not pedagogy. Plan for one AI provider going down: have a second IDE/key ready. Cut scope ruthlessly; one shipped tiny app beats a half-built ambitious one [1][2].
Pre-flight checklist (do before doors open)
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Test wifi from a laptop | Venue wifi often blocks new MACs or rate-limits — discover it now, not at minute 5 [3] |
| Pre-create accounts list | Email, GitHub, Cursor/Claude, Vercel sign-ups eat 20+ min of live time [4] |
| Top up API credits | Anthropic free-tier is 5 req/min, paid is per-org — assume one shared key will rate-limit [5] |
| Have a backup model | If Claude is down, Cursor’s GPT/Gemini fallback keeps the room shipping |
| Print the agenda | Visible on the wall — sets stage and pace, the single biggest workshop hygiene win [1] |
Failure modes ranked by frequency
| Mode | Trigger | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Setup eats the session | Sign-ups, installs, wifi onboarding done live | Send pre-work email 48h ahead with accounts to create and a 5-line “if you only do one thing” install [3] |
| Overloaded agenda | Facilitator wants to cover everything | One outcome only: a deployed URL. Cut the rest [1] |
| Lecture creep | Facilitator dominates the room | Hard rule: < 25% of clock is facilitator talking; the rest is hands on keyboards [2] |
| AI provider down / rate-limited | Shared key, Cursor outage, Anthropic 529s | Second provider configured in-IDE; tell participants to switch model dropdown, not call support [5] |
| One stuck participant blocks the room | Facilitator drops into 1:1 debugging | Co-facilitator handles individual blockers; lead keeps cohort moving |
| Fizzle ending, no artefact | Out of time before deploy | Build in deploy-by minute T-30; demo round is non-negotiable [6] |
| No follow-up → no retention | 43.5% of facilitators report no post-session contact | Send recap email same day with URL list, next-step prompt, and “ship one more thing this week” challenge [7] |
Timing skeleton (150 min)
| Block | Min | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome + agenda | 0–10 | Show the final artefact you’ll all ship; set the bar [1] |
| Tool tour + prompt | 10–30 | One live build by the facilitator, narrated |
| Build block 1 | 30–80 | Cohort builds; co-facilitator floats |
| Break | 80–90 | Non-negotiable — skip it and engagement collapses [1] |
| Build block 2 | 90–120 | Deploy starts here, not at the end |
| Demo round | 120–145 | Each person shares URL; 90 sec each |
| Wrap + follow-up | 145–150 | Recap email going out today; one homework prompt [7] |