The Oxford Agentic Coding Bootcamp

AI can write the code for you now. What most people are missing is everything around it - getting it online, making it save information, and knowing it actually works. This is the day you learn how software actually gets built, explained in plain English.

The Oxford Agentic Coding Bootcamp is a practical, hands-on day for people with an idea they'd like to build - a tool for their team, or a product they want to test. You don't need any coding experience or technical background. Think of it as sitting next to a senior engineer who does the typing, and explains what's happening as they go.

You'll build all day, with AI writing the code and three of us in the room to help. Every session is show, then do: one of us builds the step on the big screen, then you do it on your own laptop with help on hand. The aim is your own website live on the internet by lunch, and a first working version of your own idea by the close - and whatever you build is yours to keep working on.

What we'll cover

Telling the AI what you want - writing a clear brief, and getting it to plan before it builds anything

Your toolkit - the same tools developers use, and why they're less scary than they look

Claude Code and Codex - what they are, and choosing the right AI for each job

An undo button for your work - saving versions, so you can try things without worrying about breaking them

Going live - putting your work on the internet, and updating it safely

From idea to app - turning your problem into a plan, then adding what it needs, like saving data, a login or its own AI

Checking it works - simple automatic tests, and checking what the AI actually wrote

You'll leave with

A real understanding of how software gets built, and everything you built on the day, in accounts you own.

Your hosts

Drummond Gilbert, who tutors in AI in Management at Saïd Business School and runs Oxford's Practical AI meetup, together with Jonathan Waddingham (CPO, ex-JustGiving) and Mike Bailey (CEO, Coppice Labs).

Quotes from previous bootcamps

Kirsten Samuel (CEO, Kamwell) - "Best, most practical AI session I have attended to date - highly recommend it!"

Lu Yan (DfE) - "I walked away with a fully functional agentic workflow and a concrete plan to roll it out."

Gareth English - "Make sure you don't miss this next time it's on."

Dr Zeynep Hizir - "I left with more than ideas. I left with something I could apply the following week."