A hands-on mini-hackathon where you'll leave with a PhD-level AI chief of staff living on your own cloud server. Gentlemen please wear a collared shirt & blazer, ladies please be chic. Laptop highly recommended.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is the open-source AI agent that's taken the world by storm. 247K+ GitHub stars. Recently transitioned to an independent open-source foundation (think Apache, Mozilla) after its creator joined OpenAI — with a commitment to stay open forever.

It runs locally on your machine, connects to your real tools — email, calendar, Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, your file system — maintains memory across sessions, and executes tasks autonomously on your behalf. It can also spin up sub-agents when the workload demands it.

We are leaving the age of Chat and entering the age of Do.

The goal of this hackathon: everyone leaves with a live and secure agent.

This is a working session. We'll walk through setup together, troubleshoot in real time, and make sure every person on the call has their own OpenClaw agent running by the end.

Schedule (times are NYC time)

17:00 — Welcome + quick intros
18:00 — OpenClaw overview: what it is and why it matters
18:20 — Guided setup: get your agent live (hands-on walkthrough)

19:00 — Connecting tools: email, calendar, messaging, skills

19:30 — Q&A + show & tell

20:00 — hangs until 21:00

Already set up?

We'll have a breakout room for advanced users — agent orchestration, custom skills, multi-agent workflows, and power-user strategies.

Hosted by Playa AI

Playa AI explores how AI can be developed in alignment with human flourishing, using Burning Man principles as a lens for governance, creativity, and community. This hackathon is part of an ongoing series bringing builders together to learn, build, and push the boundaries of agentic AI.

Support the foundation here

About the National Arts Club:

The National Arts Club (NAC) is a historic private members' club gounded in 1898, established to foster public interest in the arts and was notable for admitting women as full members from its inception. On this historic occasion of our hackathon we will for the first time ever be admitting lobsters.

Less Chat, More Do: A Playa AI Hackathon to Give Birth to Your Own Agentic AI Creature - Please note the dress code