An unplanned evening in Geneva, building software in plain language

A welcome slide for Swiss AI Weeks glowed at the front of the room, and laptops stood open on rows of white tables. We were at Impact Hub Geneva, on Rue Fendt, on a Monday evening in September, for a workshop of Swiss AI Weeks. None of it was planned. A trip at short notice had taken in CERN and left us in the city that evening.

Its title, Vibe Coding x ODD, promised an AI initiation for small and medium-sized firms. Vibe coding means describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI tool write the software. The listing asked for no programming background, only a laptop. Impact Hub Geneva organised the session with XpertIA, PanoramIA/SAND and Young AI Leaders, in French and English.

As the organisers described it, small groups would each use AI tools to prototype an answer to a real business challenge, a brief that sits close to the work of our software practice, which builds websites and internal tools for the firms we advise. For a small firm, its own software can now begin as a sentence in plain language.

Their plan closed the evening with a round of live feedback over drinks. We took part, and we presented to the English-speaking attendees. An evening we had not planned became a working one.

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