BNB STL Retreat
The robots are coming.
June 16, 2025
BNB kicked off retreat season with a visit to St. Louis, MO. Matt Ian, and myself all have roots inSTL, although I am the only one still calling it home. When the decision was made to make a "BNB IRL STL" happen, we all were very excited to plan an itinerary showcasing our city.
The theme of this trip was to gather and discuss AI. Of course we have all heard the buzz about Vibe Coding, but how do we as a software company really feel about it? How are we currently using it? Is all the hype overblown? Is AI coming for our jobs?
Day 1
While the team was trickling in Sunday afternoon, we had a choose your own adventure across town. Nate and his son, Dez, went to the Gateway Arch and made it all the way to the top.
Some others went to the Missouri Botanical Garden where a rare corpse flower was in full bloom!
Once everyone arrived, we met up for dinner to celebrate some BNB Work-iversaries. All of the following were hired on June 1:
- Will - 10 years
- Jace - 4 years
- Ian - 3 years
- Ted - 3 years
Following dinner, we went for a nightcap at the historic Fox & Hounds Tavern where we enjoyed catching up with one another.
Day 2
Monday morning we met early at the St. Louis Central Library for our first AI roundtable.
We split into teams of two and read, then presented a summary of, different articles regarding AI. The discussions were great, and one of the takeaways from the morning was that AI is an incredible tool for boosting productivity and tackling complex problems, but there's something uniquely satisfying about crafting code with your own hands that AI just can't replicate.
The challenge we will need to navigate is how to harness AI's power for efficiency while preserving the creative joy and personal fulfillment that comes from solving problems ourselves.
Post-round table we had lunch and then headed to the City Museum. The City Museum is about impossible to explain, but it's essentially an old-warehouse-turned-adult-sized-playground with tunnels, slides, oversized ball pit, giant underwear (??), an airplane (!!), and a school-bus on the roof (!?!??).
We all agreed that the City Museum was the highlight of the whole trip.
That evening we met friend-of-BNB Chris Oliver, and his wife Brooke, for dinner. Chris is a St. Louis native, international Rails celebrity, founder of GO RAILS, and all around awesome guy. We use several of the open source ruby-gems he has authored and it was great getting to catch up with him.
That evening we went to the Golden Hoosier for a quick night cap and then called it a night.
Day 3
Tuesday morning we met at a coworking space for our second AI roundtable.
We again split into teams of two to tackle some AI articles, but the real highlight was Will's presentation of an article that was rather bullish on AI. This led to the declaration of WIBSWAB which stands for "Will Is Bullish So We Are Bullish" (a play on the Ruby Community's MINASWAN.)
After the roundtable and a quick lunch we headed to our final stop of the trip: a tour of the Anheuser Busch brewery.
Most of the jobs and buildings in early St. Louis were built around the brewery. Nowadays, they offer a great tour showcasing this history as well as giving an in-depth overview of the brewing process from grain to glass.
Afterwards, they give out free beer! The brewery was the conclusion of the trip, and we said our goodbyes and headed for home.
St. Louis showed us a great time, and of course the best part was getting to be together. Here's to the rest of 2025!
Remember... the robots are coming:
