A few weeks ago I reconnected with an old friend of mine, Orta Therox and we both discussed how Claude Code completely changed how we approach building software, and that we both have trouble thinking about anything else. Out of this conversation came an idea, and we created a new meetup format, Claude Code Anonymous.
There were quite a few people who wanted to join this event but were not in London, so in High-Agency-Style, I encouraged them to start their own chapters in their cities, and now we have events in London, Vienna, Berlin, Cologne, San Francisco, Delft, and more cities coming soon. The first London meetup was such a success that we’re doing another one on October 13th.
What is Claude Code Anonymous
Over the last few months I noticed that not everyone gets hooked the same way with this new way of building software. There’s a certain category of people, full-breadth developers, folks with both technical and product capabilities, that seem to adopt this the fastest, and I’m jokingly calling them the black eye club, since these people usually have trouble sleeping.
Claude Code Anonymous is the wordplay on this phenomenon. We wanted to create a space for people to be able to talk through their experiences, and understand that for some it’s hard to speak publicly about using AI / LLM tooling. Talks are not recorded, nor is there a live-stream. The recipe is simple: get a group of like-minded people together, provide a space, drinks, pizza, and focus on the social aspect.
Meetup Structure
These meetups are structured as a series of lightning talks, ~5m long with talks which start along the lines of: “I was X when Claude Code Y”. So, “I was impressed when Claude Code figured out a bug I had been…”, “I was disappointed when Claude Code deleted my production database” etc.
Intro + Talks should be one hour sharp, so there’s 2-3h left for social and talking. I’ve been in too many meetups where the talks were too long and people left right after the talks - the goal of Claude Code Anonymous is to meet likeminded people more than watching long talks. And the 5m limit is there so that there’s more people who can show off their work, and it’s a good starting point for a talk later on.
Why Claude Code and not X?
Don’t take the name too literal. We’re open for any agentic work. We just picked the name Claude Code to target builders and not marketing or HR folks. Calling it “agentic engineering” would attract a different kind of audience. Of course you can talk about any tool you like, be it codex, opencode, Cursor or whatever!
IMO Claude Code is the defining agent that really started the revolution, so I made it the proprietary eponym. Like Jacuzzi or Tupperware. If you wanna be neutral, call it Agents Anonymous 🕵️♂️
How do I start a meetup?
It’s really quite simple: Find a space, organize some drinks and spread the word. We’ve been using Luma as event platform, and I suggest to let people apply with some questions such as “What are you building” and their social profile.
So far every event had far more interest than space available, so we’ve been reviewing people to make sure that builders are there - this is not a space for folks who just look to hire or market their product. Same rules apply to lightning talks. Show us what you learned, not what you sell.
As Code of Conduct we’ve been using the CocoaPods one which can be summarized as: “Don’t be a Jerk”
What Now?
Do you want to see Claude Code Anonymous in your city? Make it happen! I’m happy to help with outreach via Twitter, just email or DM me.