It is a great timing to explore this trending topic — OpenClaw is hot right now (100K+ GitHub stars in its first week, January 2026).

🦞 What if your AI assistant could actually do things while you sleep — check your inbox, monitor deadlines, automate your workflows — and you owned every bit of it?

That's OpenClaw. It's an open-source personal AI agent you run on your own machine, connected to the messaging apps you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord — pick your favorite). No subscriptions, no vendor lock-in, no data leaving your control. You bring an API key; OpenClaw brings the agent loop. https://ollama.com/blog/openclaw

At this month's meetup, we're not just demoing it — we're building with it.

• Speakers confirmed for OpenClaw workshop: Tyler Bea and Charlie Amadeus

• Lightning talk by Alex Davis presenting his new book coming out in September, "Kobuk the Destroyer: And Other Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering".

Here's how the evening goes: 

We'll walk through what OpenClaw is and how it works, then the community pitches a couple of ideas for what to actually build. We pick the most interesting ones and get to work — together, in the room, shipping real prototypes before the night is over.

No experience required to show up. If you can install a tool and follow a tutorial, you're ready. If you've already been playing with agents, bring your ideas — we want your brains at the table.

What you'll walk away with:

• A working understanding of how AI agents actually work under the hood

• A prototype you helped build (or watched get built in real time)

• Connections to other builders in the Hudson Valley who are figuring this out alongside you

Bring: Your laptop. An API key if you have one (OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google all work — we'll help if you don't have one yet).

📅 Wednesday, May 13 📍 Kingston Library, NY 🕖 6-7:30 PM 🎟️ Free — just RSVP here

Part of the monthly HVTech / GDG community meetup series. All skill levels welcome.

Want more?

• Join HVTechFest Slack

• Join our HVTech Meetup here

• Join our OpenHub's ecosystem 

• Ongoing 2026 call for speakers is available for your submission. Feel free to add as many talks as interested. These talks will be considered for our community meetups and can lead to your speakers engagement with our annual DevFests and Hackathons.