After more than 5,000 attendances and 120 hours of learning, All-In, Guernsey’s AI Sprint, has drawn to a close.
For six weeks this autumn, boardrooms, school halls, hotels and offices across Guernsey were turned over to one subject: AI. All-In, Guernsey’s AI Sprint,
closed last night having delivered 57 events and recorded more than 5,000 attendances, in a programme put together by the island’s own businesses, industry bodies and volunteers.
Led by the G8 industry bodies, the Sprint ran from 1 October to 12 November and offered more than 120 hours of learning, discussion and practice across six learning tracks. Every session was open to everyone, for free, with no technical background needed.
The programme was built by the community it was for. Local firms hosted sessions in their own offices, more than 80 speakers gave their time, and organisations from finance, law, health, education and the third sector each took a turn at supporting and leading the conversation.
Alice Gill, Executive Director of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, speaking on behalf of the All-In Working Group, said: “We pulled this off in just five months, from a standing start, and the whole community got behind it.
“Businesses opened their offices, speakers gave their time, and people turned up at breakfast, in their lunch breaks and after work, week after week, to learn alongside one another. Fifty-seven events in six weeks is something no single organisation could have delivered alone. It took the whole island, and we’re hugely grateful to everyone who played a part.
“This is what Guernsey does best. It’s our secret sauce. We’re small enough to move quickly and connected enough to pull together, and that makes us competitive. We’ve proved we can do it. Now we need to do much more of it.”
The aim was to take the island from AI curiosity to AI confidence, whatever a person’s starting point. Sessions ranged from beginners’ workshops and hackathons to board-level briefings, a public debate and the AI Innovation Expo at Beau Sejour. The programme also offered space for the trickier questions, with sessions on security, data protection, governance and AI’s impact on the climate.
Practical, hands-on sessions were the first to fill, many of them within days of booking opening, and the hackathons, workshops and webinars drew the biggest audiences. Organisers say the Sprint reached well beyond the usual business crowd, with people attending from across the island’s sectors.
Katie Inder (pictured), Programme Manager for All-In, said: “When we launched, I said success would be one person going to a session, being inspired by something they had learnt and going on to use it. Over the past six weeks I have watched that happen in room after room, from people writing their very first prompt to teams building something real in a day.
“We also wanted a balanced conversation about AI, so I am glad the questions about risk and data had as much space as the opportunities.
“It has been just as good to see what happened around the sessions. New connections, partnerships and business relationships have formed remarkably quickly between people and organisations who came along. I’m excited to see what everyone now goes on to implement from what they’ve learnt.”
