Cris Vinson logoConversation AI Challenge
Cris teaching builders in a live room
Live hackathon · Sat-Sun Sept 26-27, 2026 · 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM PHT · 100 seats

What if we spend 2 days building a live Conversation AI agent you can ship to local business owners in your area?

It will be like a hackathon.

We'll find a niche.

We'll design the business plan.

We'll build the agent, live, inside your own GoHighLevel account. By Sunday it answers a real message from a real stranger.

And I'll make it free. With a catch.

You just have to invest in the tool we build on. Spoiler: it's GoHighLevel.

4 hoursa day, 9 AM to 1 PM 100seats, both paths $0 or $97depending on GHL 1 agentshipped, verified

Do you have a GoHighLevel account?

This decides your seat. The whole build happens inside GoHighLevel, so there is no third option.

Please fill name, email, and phone.

Free seats are confirmed after you forward your GoHighLevel trial confirmation email to cvinson+ghlai@unwiz.ai. No email by Sept 20 means one message offering the $97 seat instead.

Taught by a working operator, not a course seller
GHL Gold SaaS AwardDIM Two Comma Club, 2×GoHighLevel since 20191,000+ GHL sub-accounts$10M+ client revenue impact3,000+ trainedAuthor, The Bootstrap Entrepreneur GHL Gold SaaS AwardDIM Two Comma Club, 2×GoHighLevel since 20191,000+ GHL sub-accounts$10M+ client revenue impact3,000+ trainedAuthor, The Bootstrap Entrepreneur
GoHighLevel pipeline view from a live Conversation AI install, patient details removed
What a live install looks like

One dental clinic. One agent answering first. Here is the CRM.

₱1,249,414

Started Treatment + Fulfilled pipeline, 42 opportunities. CRM-recorded opportunity value, not cash collected, and not AI-only revenue. The AI held the conversation, the clinic kept confirmation.

20.1s
Median first AI reply
70.7%
Conversations the AI answered first
46.8%
Messages that arrived outside phone hours
71.1%
Appointment rows created by the AI
Let's get the catch out of the way

Free, with a catch. The catch is GoHighLevel.

Everything we build over the two days lives inside a GoHighLevel account. The prompt, the knowledge base, the calendar, the handoff. No account, no agent.

So there are two ways in, and no third one.

Path A · New to GoHighLevel

Start a trial through my affiliate link. Your seat is free.

$0

I earn the recurring affiliate commission for as long as you stay. You get the seat, the full bonus stack, and Local SMS, which I can only switch on for accounts under my link. Forward me the trial confirmation email and you are onboarded.

Path B · Already on GoHighLevel

Keep your account. Pay for the seat.

$97

Credited in full against the Bootstrap MBA if you buy it on Day 2. Same room, same build, same Halibut gate. Local SMS is not included, because it is tied to the affiliate account, not to you.

Sat-Sun, Sept 26-27, 2026 · 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM PHT · 100 seats
The finish line

"Shipped" means a stranger can verify it, not that you sat through the Zoom.

A live agent, inside your own GoHighLevel account, that answers a real inbound message sent from a phone that is not yours. Screenshot, timestamp, done. A room helper can check it in 20 seconds.

That is the thing you leave with on Sunday. It is also the gate for Halibut, and it cannot be faked by sitting quietly for 8 hours.

Six submission points across the two days. Nobody starts from a blank page. Niche comes from a shortlist of 12 with pre-built data packs, and the agent starts from a filled skeleton, not an empty prompt box.

2-day build

Here's what we do each day

Day 1 · Sat Sept 26 · Niche + Build
Turn one real customer conversation into your first working agent.
By the end of Day 1 your agent has sent its first reply from your own account.
  1. 1We pick the niche. From a shortlist of 12 local business types that lose money on missed messages and already pay somebody to answer them. Scored on the 3 Doors test, so you do not pick one you cannot reach.
  2. 2We learn the three layers first. Configuration, knowledge base, prompt. Fix every problem at the lowest layer that can hold it. This is why the agent works on Monday instead of only in the demo.
  3. 3We map the SPINE. Scope, Persona, Intake, Next step, Escalation. A filled skeleton, peer-checked, so a stranger would not mistake your agent for a generic bot.
  4. 4We stand it up in your GoHighLevel and get one reply out of it. Screenshot submitted. That is Gate 2a.
“A rule written in the prompt is a request. A rule enforced in configuration is a fact.”
Cris working through a build with founders at a table
Day 2 · Sun Sept 27 · Test + Ship
Wire it. Break it. Ship it live.
By the end of Day 2 a stranger has messaged your agent and got a real answer.
  1. 1We set the five configuration items no prompt can override. Real calendar, working hours on, business timezone, one follow-up engine, handoff triggers on. Every complaint I have audited in a live clinic traced back to one of these.
  2. 2We write the booking action and the human handoff. Descriptions that say when to fire, not just what they do. The AI never fakes a locked slot. A named human owns the calendar.
  3. 3We break your own agent on purpose. Red Team 10. Read the failure log, fix one thing, prove the fix with a before and after. 7 of 10 plus the 3 criticals to pass.
  4. 4We test it live and you demo it with a price. A stranger messages it. You show the room and say the number out loud. That is the Halibut gate.
“You're not collecting chatbot tips. You're leaving with a thing that answers the phone for a business, and a price for it.”
Builders huddled over laptops during a live session
Built for implementers

Build it for your business. Or sell it as a service.

The qualifying trait is intent, not industry. You want to sell or run an AI agent, and you have never actually shipped one. That is most of the room.

I

Owner-operators

You are the one missing the messages after 6 PM. Build the agent for your own front desk first.

II

Agency owners

Already on GoHighLevel. You want a Conversation AI offer you can install again for clients and price with a straight face.

III

VAs and freelancers

You already do the answering for somebody. Leave with a service you can charge for instead of hours you bill.

IV

Anyone who never started

No niche, so nothing ever shipped. The shortlist and the filled skeleton exist for you.

Not for you if you will not open a GoHighLevel account and will not pay $97 either. There is no watch-only seat.

Cris Vinson on stage
Your host

Cris Vinson

I run Conversation AI for live clinics, then audit the real conversation logs and publish what broke.

Founder of AI Business Hour. Author of The Bootstrap Entrepreneur. Inside more than a thousand GHL sub-accounts. One audit: 3,586 messages, 214 conversations, 1 in 7 bookings wrong because the calendar was synthetic. No prompt wording could fix it. That finding is the reason this challenge leads with configuration and not with prompt writing.

Affiliate disclosure: I am a GoHighLevel affiliate and earn a recurring commission when you start through my link. GoHighLevel does not endorse or sponsor this challenge. It is the platform we build on.

$10M+ client revenue impact 3,000+ trained GHL Gold SaaS Award 2× DIM Two Comma Club Cornell Digital Business Leadership
The bonus stack

What comes with the seat, and which seat

Halibut is the one everybody wants. It is gated on finishing, for both paths, and paying does not shortcut it.

Bonus #1 · Both paths

Halibut

The agent that builds Conversation AI agents for GoHighLevel users. The thing that lets you do this again on Monday for a client without me in the room.

Value $997Gated · attend both days AND ship a verified agent
Bonus #2 · Path A only

Local SMS

Any country, any industry, so you are not blocked by US-only or vertical limits. Only on accounts under my affiliate link, because that is the only place I can switch it on.

Value $497Included with the free seat
Bonus #3 · Both paths

The Bootstrap MBA book

The business-plan side of Day 1, in book form, so the niche and the offer survive after the weekend.

Value $47Included
Bonus #4 · Both paths

50% off the Bootstrap MBA course

Pitched live on Day 2. Path B's $97 seat is credited in full against it.

Up to $248.50 offIncluded
Stack value
$1,789+
Full stack on the free seat. Everything except Local SMS on the $97 seat.

No countdown timer. The only thing that runs out is 100 seats.

Start GoHighLevel through my link →
FAQ

Questions before you pick a path

Saturday Sept 26 and Sunday Sept 27, 2026, live on Zoom, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM PHT both days. Four hours a day, eight hours across the weekend. It is a hackathon, not a webinar, so block the whole window and come ready to build.

Yes. The agent, the calendar, the knowledge base, and the handoff all live inside GoHighLevel. Without an account you cannot build, cannot ship, and cannot unlock Halibut. If you do not have one, start the trial through my link before Sept 26 and the seat is free. Do it early. A trial started the day the invite lands can expire before we begin.

Because the free seat is paid for by the affiliate commission. Someone already on GoHighLevel costs me a seat and contributes nothing back. The $97 fixes that, and it is credited in full against the Bootstrap MBA if you buy it on Day 2.

Your registration stays provisional. The next page asks you to start the trial and forward the GoHighLevel confirmation email to cvinson+ghlai@unwiz.ai. That forward is how we onboard you. If nothing arrives by Sept 20, you get one email offering the $97 seat instead. No silence, no surprise.

Attend both days and ship a verified agent: live in your own account, answering a real message from someone else's phone, screenshot with a timestamp. Same gate on both paths. Paying does not skip it.

Most of the room has never shipped an agent. That is the point. You pick a niche from a shortlist, you start the agent from a filled skeleton, and every block ends in a submission so you cannot drift. Bring a laptop and a GoHighLevel login.

Yes. After you register you get a personal link. 3 signups through it unlock all 12 niche data packs, 5 unlock the VIP upgrade (recordings for life, Cris reviews your agent live, $97 seat refunded), 10 get a signed book, and the top 3 past 10 build their first client agent with Cris. Signups count when they show up on Day 1. Awards go out live at the Day 2 close.

Replays exist for people who attended. They do not count toward the Halibut gate, because the gate is a shipped agent, not watched minutes.

We put Conversation AI in front of a live clinic and audited what broke. Now we build yours.

Two days. Your own account. Until a stranger can message it and get a real answer.

Free through my GHL link, or $97 if you already have one · Sat-Sun, Sept 26-27, 2026 · 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM PHT
P.S. Same room. Same build. Same gate. The only difference between the two paths is who pays for the seat, and Local SMS.