San Diego AI Showcase #9 (North County) October 2026 (Main theme: Sales)
Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 6:00 PM PDT – 8:30 PM PDT
11988 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA 92130, USA
Hosted by Pactto
Note: we are charging $10 just to help with food and drinks, we already have an awesome space. If you don't feel like paying, please choose the INVITEE ticket (free). Thanks! San Diego AI Showcase (North County) A Homebrew-style night for AI experiments and demos. Just sharing and learning. This is a monthly, in-person gathering for San Diego founders who are actively building with AI, and who are willing to show their work before it’s perfect. Inspired by the original Homebrew Computer Club, where builders like Steve Wozniak casually shared what they were experimenting with, this is a space for real demos, early prototypes, bold ideas, and honest lessons. No polished pitch decks. No sales. No pressure. This is about learning in public, helping each other think sharper, and accelerating progress through thoughtful feedback. The San Diego AI Showcase is designed to grow a tight, curious, builder-driven founder community in the region. What you’ll see • Early AI products, tools, agents, workflows, and experiments • Things that are half-working, just launched, or still a little rough • Lessons from what didn’t work (often the most valuable part) • Live demos, screen shares, short walkthroughs Format • 5–10 founders present for 10 minutes each • 3-minute Q&A and group discussion after every presentation • Hang out, meet other builders, and keep the conversation going Who this is for • Founders actively building with AI (pre-seed to growth) • Engineers, designers, and product leaders experimenting hands-on • People who value curiosity, humility, and substance over hype What this is not • Not a pitch night • Not an investor demo day • Not a sales event Just builders helping builders. 📍 Event Details When: October 6 (Tuesday), 2026, from 6 pm to 8:30 pm 🚨🚨🚨 NEW TEMPORARY LOCATION ⬇ Where: 11988 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA 92130 Organizer: Demian Borba, Founder and CEO of Pactto (Stanford StartX S25, ex-Adobe, Intuit, PayPal, BlackBerry) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demianborba/ If you’re interested in presenting, attending, or shaping the future of this meetup, please email Demian at demian@pactto.com. The goal is to create something long-lasting for San Diego — a place where meaningful work gets shared early, and momentum compounds over time. Presentations: 6:30 pm Cammie Clay, Investor, Co-founder, Freedom With AI https://www.linkedin.com/in/cammieclay/ Title: State of AI - Investing Overview of how investments are flowing into the whole AI stack. 6:45 pm Ben Dalziel, CPO, Trash Panda https://www.linkedin.com/in/bendalziel/ Title: CLIP As a Gateway to Aisle Scanning A simple project turned into a new capability 7 pm Katrina, Founder, Fruitly www.linkedin.com/in/katrinarg Title: Fruitly - The Marketplace for Backyard Produce An app where you can buy, sell, trade, or give away fruits, veggies, or anything you grow in your backyard. 7:15 pm Ahmet O. Basar, Ai7Stack https://www.linkedin.com/in/aobasar/ Title: MindMapAI New features, practical use case demo 7:30 pm Quincy Hildreth, Brand Designer and Founder of Milky Minds Creative https://www.linkedin.com/in/quincyd3s1gn Title: Brand Enterprise An AI-assisted brand review system that helps creative and marketing teams evaluate campaigns, assets, and messaging against brand guidelines and campaign objectives. A live demo using a real campaign would show how it reviews multiple assets together, identifies inconsistencies in design, messaging, and execution, and provides actionable feedback similar to a creative director’s campaign review. 7:45 pm Nic Flores, Lead Brand Designer - Consensus Cloud Solutions https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-flores-7a706179 Title: Coffee Filter: Filtered, Not Rated Every coffee shop online is a 4.6. Star ratings capture one visit on one day, and they bury the small shops that deserve to be found. Coffee Filter ranks shops by the only review that can't be faked: whether people come back. We'll demo the app live, show how we use AI to build and verify a map of independently owned shops, and share what's working, what's still rough and what didn't work at all.