Agentic Think Tank | San Diego AI for Business Meetup Agentic Think Tank

You know AI matters. Nobody's shown you how to make it profitable.

Agentic Think Tank is the monthly room where that changes: free, in person, San Diego.

Monthly In-Person Live Build Free To Attend

Next Session

Reservation Required
Date
Third Thursday
Time
5:30 – 9:00 PM
Location
Downtown Works, PB

Third Thursday. Every month. Same room, same time: so you can actually plan around it.

Reserve Your Seat

The Real Problem

Everyone thinks they need more AI. They already have it. They're still the bottleneck.

You watch the demos. You sign up for the tools. You hear about agents and automations, and you know something real is there. Three months later your business runs exactly the way it always did, because nobody showed you what to build first for your specific situation.

1

A different tool every week

Everyone teaches a different shiny thing. You accumulate information without ever getting clarity on what to build first. The problem was never how much you knew about AI. It was that nothing you learned got you out of the loop.

2

Advice built for someone else's business

AI tutorials are made for developers, or for a business nothing like yours. You need answers built around your actual tools, your team, your bottlenecks: not a template that fits nobody.

3

You get stuck and nobody is there

You hit a wall in setup, there's no one to ask, and the whole thing stalls. The system never gets built. The week keeps draining.

4

You're building this alone

Figuring out AI for your business solo takes months and hundreds of hours. The people who build fastest build alongside others who've already done it. That's not a shortcut. That's how systems get built.

Why This Room Exists

Every shift like this produces two kinds of business: the ones who wait, and the ones who build while the window is open.

The businesses that wired their buildings for electricity early didn't just keep up. They pulled away.

AI is the same kind of shift.

01

Right now everyone is fighting for your attention on social media, while almost nobody is fighting for the local room.

02

Search "AI meetup San Diego" and you'll find two kinds of rooms. One is a coding workshop: bring a laptop, learn a framework, leave with syntax. The other is a webinar you watch alone, muted, in a browser tab. Neither one touches the actual job: turning AI into a system that runs your business without you standing over it.

Agentic Think Tank is the third room. In person. Business-outcome first. Built for people who run a business, a team, or a P&L. This is for people who demand ROI from AI.

The Honest Options

Three paths in front of you. Only one of them leaves you able to run it.

You already know AI needs to be in your business. The question is how you learn it. Here's what the paths honestly look like, not the sales version.

Door One: figure it out alone

You watch videos. You tinker. You ask around in a group chat where nobody really knows. This works if you have months of spare time and don't mind building the wrong things first. Your time is worth more than being your own research department.

Door Two: pay someone to build it

You hire a consultant or an agency. It works until it doesn't, and then you have no idea why. You can't train it, maintain it, or fix it yourself. You're renting intelligence instead of owning it.

The Format

Doors at 5:30. One system built live. Room clear at 9:00.

Same run of show, every month, so the room knows exactly what it's walking into.

5:30 – 6:00 PM
Doors & Welcome

Name tag, coffee or a local pour, open floor. Half the value happens before anyone's on mic. Come straight from work.

6:00 – 7:30 PM
The Live Build
Signature

The whole night runs through one build. It opens with the One Rule: nothing gets pitched, everything gets used. Then one real bottleneck from the room (an intake process, a follow-up sequence, a reporting nightmare) becomes one working system, built live: actual screen, actual prompts, actual failure points. It closes with the Monday Recap: three moves you run the next morning. This is the reason people come back.

7:30 – 8:30 PM
Open Floor

Structured programming ends at 7:30 sharp. Real conversation starts. A full hour of it, on purpose: this is why people stay.

Doors at 5:30 PM. Program 6:00 to 8:30 PM. Room clears at 9:00 PM. Nothing here gets filmed or replayed. This room runs live: if you're not in it, you miss that month.

Who This Is For

Built for people who run a business, a team, or a P&L, not just people who code one.

You own the outcome.

You run a business, a team, or a P&L, and AI has to earn its keep against revenue: not just novelty.

You want systems, not tabs.

You're done bookmarking fifteen tools you'll never open twice. You want one thing that runs without you.

You'd rather build with people than watch a stream.

You want a room, not a recording. You want to ask the obvious question out loud and get a real answer.

No tool checklist required. No résumé to submit. Just show up and bring a real problem.

Who this isn't for: if you want a deep technical session on model architecture, or a room of engineers trading code, San Diego has other groups built for that. This is the business-outcome room.

What You Leave With

Not inspiration. Meaningful Implementation.

  • A working system or workflow you can put to use Monday morning: not a stack of ideas.
  • A room of San Diego operators solving the same problems you are, in the same three hours.
  • A clear next step for the exact bottleneck you brought, decided before you leave the room.
  • A standing invite to the next one. Same night, same room, every month.

Where

Downtown Works, Pacific Beach.

10,000 square feet of hospitality-inspired coworking, right off Ingraham and Hornblend: meeting rooms, an outdoor patio, and a kitchen that pours local coffee and craft beer. Downtown Works shares the building with a handful of other businesses (Ocean Cafe, The Yoga Studio, The Hair Salon, and more), which matters for exactly one thing: parking.

  • 4438 Ingraham St, San Diego, CA 92109

    Corner of Ingraham & Hornblend, Pacific Beach.

  • Street parking only, not the building lot

    The parking lot at the building is reserved for the other businesses there (Ocean Cafe, The Yoga Studio, The Hair Salon, and more), not Agentic Think Tank attendees. Cars left in that lot park at their own risk, including the risk of getting towed. Use free street parking on Ingraham or the surrounding blocks instead. Bus routes 8 and 30 stop at Ingraham & Grand if you'd rather not drive.

  • Fiber wifi, on-site A/V

    Fast wifi and a real display for the Live Build screen-share. Nothing in this room gets filmed or recorded.

Get Directions

Good To Know

Do not park in the building's parking lot. Those spaces belong to the other businesses sharing the building (Ocean Cafe, The Yoga Studio, The Hair Salon, and more), not event attendees, and cars left there risk getting towed at the owner's own expense. Use street parking on Ingraham or the surrounding blocks instead.

Doors at 5:30 PM. Program 6:00 to 8:30 PM. Room clears at 9:00 PM sharp. No dress code, no laptop required.

No pets. This is a working session for people, not animals: please leave yours at home.

The room is free, but it's not first-come: reserve ahead and check in at the front desk by QR code. No reservation, no seat, including plus ones.

Hosted By

Travis Houston

Travis Houston

Travis has spent 20+ years in direct response marketing and funnel architecture before turning that work toward AI systems that have to survive inside a real business. He runs on one rule: Simple Scales, Complex Fails.

Agentic Think Tank is where that belief gets tested live, once a month, in front of people who'll push back.

Questions

Before you reserve a seat.

"I'm not technical. Will I be lost?"

No. This room is built for people who run a business, a team, or a P&L, not developers. If you can use a web browser, you can follow the whole night. The Live Build happens in plain language, in tools you already recognize. You're not here to learn to code. You're here to learn what to build first.

"Is this really free? What's the catch?"

Yes, free. No ticket, no hidden pitch at the end. Every seat is reserved, not claimed at the door: register with your name and email, then check in at the front desk by scanning your QR code. The only real catch: the room only works if people show up and bring real problems. Free doesn't mean casual.

"I've tried AI tools before and nothing stuck."

That's not a tool problem. That's a bottleneck problem. Most tutorials teach you which button to click without ever telling you what to build first for your actual business. You didn't fail. Nobody pointed you anywhere. Bring the thing that stalled, and we work it live, in front of the room.

What time does it actually start and end?

Doors at 5:30 PM. Program 6:00 to 8:30 PM. Room clears at 9:00 PM sharp: Downtown Works needs it back for the night. Plan your exit around 9.

What happens if I'm running late?

You can still check in and join Open Floor later in the night, but the Live Build doesn't pause and it doesn't repeat itself for latecomers. The room runs on the clock, not on when you show up. If the 6:00 start matters to your problem, be in your seat by 5:45.

"Do I need to bring a laptop?"

Not required. Some people like to follow along or take notes, but it isn't necessary to get value from the session.

Is this a one-time event or does it repeat?

It repeats every month, third Thursday. Doors at 5:30 PM, program 6:00 to 8:30 PM, room clears at 9:00 PM. Same room. Come to one or come to all of them.

Can I bring my own problem to the Live Build?

That's the point. Bring a real bottleneck (an intake process, a follow-up sequence, a reporting mess) and you might be the one on the hot seat that night.

Is this a sales pitch for some tool?

No vendor pitches, no affiliate links, no "sign up through my code." If a tool comes up, it's because it solved the actual problem in front of the room.

"Can I bring someone with me?"

Yes, but there's no walk-in plus one. Anyone joining you reserves their own seat with their own name and email, and checks in with their own QR code at the door.

Where do I park?

Do not park in the building's parking lot. Downtown Works shares the building with other businesses (Ocean Cafe, The Yoga Studio, The Hair Salon, and more), and that lot is reserved for their customers, not event attendees. Cars left there park at their own risk, including the risk of getting towed. Use free street parking on Ingraham or the surrounding blocks, or take bus routes 8 or 30 to Ingraham & Grand.

Will the session be recorded?

No. Nothing is filmed, and there's no replay. This room runs on live problem-solving, in the moment, not content for later. If you can't be in the room, you miss that session: that's by design, not an oversight.

What kind of people are actually in this room?

People who run a business, a team, or a P&L, who came to work, not to browse. This isn't a networking mixer with an AI theme bolted on. If you show up without a real problem, you get less out of the room, and so does the person sitting next to you. Reserve your seat like it costs something. It does: it costs everyone else in the room their time.

What if I register and don't show up?

Your seat goes to someone on the waitlist. Every time. That's not a punishment, it's just math: an empty chair is a seat somebody else didn't get. Update your RSVP the moment your plans change, and you're always welcome back next month.

What if I can't make it this month?

Update your RSVP as soon as you know, so your seat opens up for someone on the waitlist. There's no recording and no makeup session: miss the room, miss the month. The next session is the third Thursday of the following month. Same room, same time.

One Room, Every Month

The window doesn't stay open for everyone.

Every third Thursday, one more system gets built in this room and one more business pulls away from the ones still waiting to see what happens. The room is free. The seats aren't unlimited.

Third Thursday · Every Month

One seat. One room. One system built live.

This room runs twelve times a year. Miss one and you're not behind by a night. You're behind by a system.

01
Reserve

Name and email. Thirty seconds.

02
Check in

Your QR code at the front desk is your seat.

03
Bring the bottleneck

The one task that eats the most hours of your week. That's what gets built.

Downtown Works · Pacific Beach · Doors 5:30 PM, room clears 9:00 PM · Free

Reserve Your Seat