Vibe Thursday
§ NSW Small Business Month 2026

Two mornings on the part of AI that is useful if you run a business

These are official events of NSW Small Business Month 2026, a program run by the NSW Government. Free, in person, and run bilingually in English and Mandarin.

If you came from the NSW Government event page: this is where you register. The form is further down.

The two sessions

Thursday 8 October · 10:30am – 12:00pm

What actually changed for a small business this year, and what is noise

Most of what gets written about AI is written for people who build software. This is the other list: the few things that changed what it costs to find a customer, answer one, or get a quote out — and the much longer list of things that are demos.

Thursday 15 October · 10:30am – 12:00pm

Getting found when your customer asks an AI instead of searching

People increasingly ask an assistant for a recommendation rather than typing into a search box. We work through a real example of what a business needs to have in place before an assistant can name it — and what makes no difference at all.

What the room is like

  • A 15-minute practical talk. Not a product demo.
  • One or two people in the room take five minutes on something they tried in their own business, including what did not work.
  • Open questions, then unstructured time to meet each other — which is what most people come for.
  • English and Mandarin. Questions in either are welcome.

If this is your first one

Vibe Thursday is a Sydney AI meetup that runs every Thursday morning. It has run weekly since August 2026 — eight sessions so far, around twenty people at each. These two October mornings are the ones listed on the NSW Small Business Month calendar: the same format as every other week, pitched deliberately at people who run a business.

No technical background needed, no laptop needed, nothing to prepare.

What will not happen

  1. 01Nothing is presented, promoted or sold — no product, no service.
  2. 02There is no paid follow-on, and no 'try it free then pay' arrangement behind it.
  3. 03Nobody leaves holding a quote.

That is what the NSW Small Business Month terms require, and it is also what we were already doing: this meetup has been free since the first session.

Register

A minute to fill in. It is the only way we know how many chairs to put out.

Both fields are visible only to me, the organiser. Never published, never passed to anyone else, never used for marketing.

What do you most want to take away this time? *

Pick the closest one. Knowing who is coming for what is how we find you the right people on the day.

One line is enough. This is the line most likely to get you helped on the day — the more specific it is, the more likely someone picks it up. It shows on your member card as "This week", and you can change it every week. Leave it blank if nothing comes to mind.

Tick this and your name, what you are working on, and what you want to talk about this week show up at vibethursday.com/members, so people can work out who to find before they arrive. Your email and WeChat ID never appear there. You can edit it or take it down whenever you like.

Want to host a table this time?

The bar is low: it does not have to be finished, there are no slides, and something you are half-way through and stuck on makes for a better table than something that works. You do not even need a product — one question is enough to host a table.

Thursday mornings are working hours for a lot of people. Pick this and you are still on the list — if an evening or weekend one ever happens, this is who I go to.

What other times could you make?

Optional, pick as many as apply. This is the only thing deciding whether a second session happens and when — enough people on one slot and that slot runs.

A few more, all skippable: how you heard about this, which AI you use
Which AI models do you mostly use?

Overseas

China

Optional, pick as many as apply. It tells me how the room splits between overseas and Chinese models — which decides what gets demoed on the day, and whether shared subscriptions or China-hosted APIs are worth a table.

Optional. No need to open a billing page — pick whichever line sounds most like you. This is about how heavily you use the stuff, not about the money. In USD.

These sessions are part of the 2026 NSW Small Business Month program, in partnership with the NSW Government. Hosted by Orris Technology Pty Ltd.

See what a normal Thursday looks like