Building Brisbane’s AI Community: Ella Ferreira is Turning Developers Into Builders 🇦🇺

<h2>Learning by Doing, Not Just Listening </h2><p>Ella’s journey started with a simple but powerful idea: learning AI is best done by building together.</p><figure><img height="1497" width="1290" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Lt3N!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb50315b3-c235-4c8c-b62b-053c6bd601f1_1290x1497.jpeg"><figcaption>Ella, Build Club Brisbane City Lead</figcaption></figure><blockquote><p><em>“I wanted to create a space where developers could learn AI together through hands-on building rather than just talks. Coming from a traditional software engineering background and transitioning into AI, I saw how powerful collaborative learning could be. My journey has been incredible, from organising my first automation night to running monthly workshops for 30-45 people, and watching our community grow into a space where people genuinely help each other build!”</em></p></blockquote><p>Balancing logistics, workshop content, and community growth has been a challenge, but seeing developers share knowledge and build together has made it immensely rewarding.</p><h2>Moments That Made the Effort Worth It </h2><p>Ella’s proudest moment came when attendees started bringing their own ideas to the workshops:</p><blockquote><p><em>“Seeing attendees come back month after month and start bringing their own project ideas showed our events were creating real connections and opportunities, not just one-off learning sessions.”</em></p></blockquote><p>To keep the community inclusive, she focused on accessibility, preparing starter projects and documentation, and structuring workshops so people of all skill levels could participate and learn at their own pace.</p><h2>Making Workshops Fun, Practical, and Collaborative ✨</h2><p>Ella believes that engagement comes from practical building and collaboration:</p><blockquote><p><em>“Every event centers on building something tangible. We tie workshops to practical use cases and create space for collaboration with shared work sessions, encouraging attendees to help each other debug, and staying after events for informal conversations.”</em></p></blockquote><p>This approach has made workshops both educational and enjoyable, encouraging sustained participation and stronger community bonds.</p><h2>Sponsorships That Actually Make Sense 🤝</h2><p>When approaching sponsors, Ella emphasizes the <strong>quality of the community</strong> over raw attendance numbers:</p><blockquote><p><em>“Starting with articulating the value proposition not just attendance, but the quality of our community, devs actively building AI applications has helped secure meaningful support for our events.”</em></p></blockquote><h2>Big Plans Ahead for Brisbane </h2><p>Looking ahead, Brisbane’s Build Club plans to deepen technical engagement with more MCP workshops and possibly a series on building production-ready AI applications. Collaborations with local communities and opportunities for regular attendees to lead workshops are also part of the vision.</p><p><em>“Long-term, I’d love to see some of our regular attendees present their own projects or lead workshops, growing community leadership beyond just me.”</em></p><h2>Ella’s Advice for Future City Leads 💬</h2><blockquote><p><em>“Start small and stay consistent. Build genuine relationships. Take time to learn what your community members need. And most importantly HAVE FUN!!”</em></p></blockquote><p>With Ella leading the charge, Brisbane’s Build Club is turning curiosity into creation where developers learn, experiment, and build AI together.</p><p>👉 Connect with Ella on <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-ferreira-3959aa82">LinkedIn</a> and keep an eye out for more Mumbai events here!</p><h2><strong>Community Events</strong></h2><p>Want to get in on the action our city leads are running?, Build Club has launched in several new cities around the world, including: Singapore, New York, San Francisco, Wollongong, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.</p><p>Explore our global events calendar: <a href="https://lu.ma/buildercommunityanz">https://lu.ma/buildercommunityanz</a></p><h2><strong>Get access to our platform</strong></h2><p>We have begun to take 100 people off our waitlist every week. You can bypass this by joining here as a newsletter subscriber if you are not in the waitlist ;)</p><p>See you next time!</p><p>Build Club Team!</p>