AI is a human transformation, not a tech upgrade.

Onat Vural

Workshop

Founder, Beta Space Studio

Yesterday

I'm beyond exhausted today, but really happy with what we built. We hosted a Claude Impact Lab in Istanbul: 7 teams and 33 participants spent a full day working on our city's biggest risk, the earthquake. The fear from the August 17, 1999 earthquake is still with us. Today, on August 15, almost exactly 27 years later, we spent the whole day building solutions instead of just living with that fear. We didn't wait for the government, NGOs, or any officials to take action. We stepped up ourselves, as volunteers, and built tools for the risk we all share. The most amazing part is how close problem and product have become with Claude. Teams went from an idea to a working demo in just a few hours. Two years ago this would have been impossible in such a short time. Thanks Anthropic for sponsoring this event. Thanks QNBEYOND hosting us. And thanks Said Sürücü, Elif Yıldırım, PhD, Nurullah Açıkgöz organizing this event with me.

Onat Vural

Conference

Founder, Beta Space Studio

2 weeks ago

Our Claude for Legal event turned out to be genuinely productive: 240 people joined us, pushing the venue well beyond its capacity for a record turnout. (We will share the video recording with the other 395 people who wanted to attend.) I have to admit some parts made me nervous... What does the data traffic to AI models, meaning outside of Turkey, actually look like? Can your AI conversation be subpoenaed as evidence in court? Discussing topics like these with so many lawyers in the room, and moderating that conversation, was honestly a challenge for me :) But at the end of the day, thanks to everyone who attended and found it useful, and for all the positive feedback. And of course, thanks to QNBEYOND for hosting us and to Anthropic for making all of these gatherings possible.

Onat Vural

Workshop

Founder, Beta Space Studio

1 months ago

Today I volunteered on a ferry to support 20 bright high school students on their entrepreneurship journey. It was a genuinely enjoyable day for me. Among these young people there were some who understand investing, long and short positions. There were plenty of moments that surprised me, like a student from Edirne who built his own small AI model from scratch. Omer Erkmen, the entrepreneurs' 'Ömer abi', was also there listening to the students' projects and giving them feedback. Thanks to Türkiye İş Bankası, and to the AI Startup Factory and Workup İş Bankası teams for organizing this lovely program. Ertuğrul Gazi Sürenkök, Sezer Sevgin

Onat Vural

Workshop

Founder, Beta Space Studio

2 months ago

Yesterday we hosted our Claude Code for Beginners workshop to help non-technical users finally feel comfortable. We covered how it differs from web AI, plus our top features, tips, and tricks. The energy was great, and attendees left ready to build! Thank you Anthropic and QNBEYOND to make this event happen 🫶. More workshops are coming. Mark your calendars: → June 11: Claude Code MCP Workshop (QNBEYOND) → June 20: Claude Meetup for Everyone (Ankara)

Onat Vural

Announcement

Founder, Beta Space Studio

2 months ago

Met with Boris Cherny today, the creator of Claude Code, and someone who I think has genuinely put a dent in the universe. Claude Code didn't just change how software gets built. It gave every other industry a role model for what AI really can do and how it can transform an industry. I believe in 50 years this laptop would become a museum item 👌🏻

Onat Vural

Workshop

Founder, Beta Space Studio

3 months ago

Watching a non-designer ship a working design system in one evening reframed something for me. Last night at QNBEYOND, we ran a Claude Design workshop. People designed webpages, handed them off to Claude Code, built design systems, and put together slides. All in one room, in a few hours. The energy was different from a meetup. Less listening, more building. Less "interesting talk," more "wait, can I try that?" That's the signal we needed. More workshops, fewer panels. Thanks to Anthropic for making this possible, and to QNBEYOND for getting this much talent into one room 🫶

Onat Vural

Conference

Founder, Beta Space Studio

3 months ago

Yesterday we saw it very clearly. After coding, the finance world — full of text and numbers — is also going through a major transformation. Emre Pabuçcu first shared the transformation he lived through himself, and gave a striking talk on how, without action, white-collar finance professionals will find themselves in an entirely different world three years from now. Talha Demir then shared how he manages his investment account with Claude using MCPs. And Muharrem Akpınar talked about how, in three months in his new position, he stood up every Excel from scratch and wrote his own finance dashboards. In short, at the Claude for Finance event, 248 people from banks to investment firms came together to listen to the stories and presentations of finance professionals using Claude in their work. We had plenty of conversations. Thanks to Anthropic, who made it possible for Said Sürücü and me — as Turkey's Claude ambassador — to organize this event together. And thanks to Özlem Derici Şengül for hosting us at Istanbul Bilgi University.

Said Sürücü

Meetup

Co-Founder, Beta Space Studio

4 months ago

Yesterday we held our fourth official Anthropic Claude Meetup. This time the topic was the use of Claude in academia. After Onat's introduction, Dr. Burak Gökalp, PhD shared how he uses Claude for social media data analysis in the social sciences; Dr. Tugce Tuccar talked about what she has done with Claude to find a common language within a multidisciplinary team in microbiology; and Dr. Yusuf Surucu, MD explained how he got help from Claude while processing visit data from 400,000 patients who received home healthcare services in Turkey. I took the photos this time, so I forgot to photograph myself :) Thanks to QNBEYOND for hosting us.

Said Sürücü

Workshop

Co-Founder, Beta Space Studio

4 months ago

We said let's gather 50-60 people for a workshop on how to use Claude with personal data masking using local LLMs, and even run a demo with the powerful GPUs at Estanbul Esports and Gaming Center. Then we realized 840 people had registered for the event; 518 accepted, and over 300 attended. :D We normally prefer smaller groups with plenty of interaction, away from the presenter-listener hierarchy. But since the topic generated so much curiosity, we transformed the event into a conference format. The need here is crystal clear: Organizations subject to data privacy regulations want to freely use cutting-edge AI models and services like Claude. In this meetup, after Onat's introduction, we heard from Av. Elif Eryılmaz on legal compliance, yours truly on data masking with local models and building secure workflows, M. Ali Bayram on local model training, and Alican Kiraz on local model inference. Special thanks to the Estanbul team, especially Cengiz Selçuk and Hasan Bera Aksay for their incredible effort throughout this process.

Onat Vural

Conference

Founder, Beta Space Studio

5 months ago

10,000 patient records are provided. Some of them will develop cancer in the future. Let's see if the teams can detect these patients in advance. When Ariorad Moniri asked me "Would you be a speaker at this hackathon?" I said yes without hesitation. On Friday, when I took the stage at Acıbadem University Healthcare Innovation Hackathon, I faced a young audience of medical professionals and software developers in a large auditorium. I gave a presentation titled "What Will AI Transform in Healthcare?" We discussed what successful AI projects in organizations do right and what the unsuccessful ones miss. Touching vital areas like medicine and supporting work in this field always makes us happy at Beta Space Studio.

Onat Vural

Announcement

Founder, Beta Space Studio

5 months ago

Shifting gears. We'll be working more closely with the Claude Anthropic team :) Anthropic has selected us as one of the official Turkey ambassadors. Thank you!

Onat Vural

Meetup

Founder, Beta Space Studio

5 months ago

We'll be doing these events more often. Last night we discussed what you can do with Claude using 'skills'. We listened to volunteer participants explaining how they handle their expertise or daily tasks, met lots of new faces, and helped people connect with each other. Thanks for the great interest — we've already started planning the next one with Said Sürücü. Hope everyone who came enjoyed it. Thanks to Anthropic for the sponsorship, Extra thanks to QNBEYOND for hosting us.

Said Sürücü

Workshop

Co-Founder, Beta Space Studio

6 months ago

Last weekend, I participated as a trainer alongside my valued partner Attorney Esat Erbil Tavus in the AI and Technology Usage for Lawyers training organized in partnership with Ankara Bar Association's Law and Internship Academy and Ankara Bar HUBİTEM. In our training, I presented the tools I developed such as Yargı MCP (Judiciary MCP) and Mevzuat MCP (Legislation MCP), while Esat shared his experiences on how cutting-edge products like Gemini and Antigravity can be used in legal practice. We also gave a small demo of how our jointly developed Süper Stajyer (Super Intern) application works. I was very happy to receive my plaque from Ankara Bar Association President Mr. Mustafa KÖROĞLU. I thank everyone who contributed, especially Attorney Cenk Levent Eroğlu and Attorney Özge Evci Eralp for their kind invitation.

Onat Vural

Meetup

Founder, Beta Space Studio

7 months ago

We hosted the first Claude Code Istanbul meetup sponsored by Anthropic - everyone said they had a great time. Our secret sauce here is simple: Get people to interact. In the first half, Karen Z. from the Claude Code team along with Gözde Sarak, Emin Can Oguz, and J. Emir shared their experiences through presentations. Afterwards, we created a structure where everyone met each other and formed circles around common topics. We had wonderful moments like seeing 3 people in the same conversation - one from a Neuroscience startup, one working in Political Science, and one developing a local LLM. This is how this ecosystem will grow. More to come… Together with Said Sürücü, we also decided to focus on work that touches individuals as well as organizations at Beta Space Studio in 2026. Finally, I want to thank Aykut Balıkcı and his team for the amazing hosting at Paribu Art.

Onat Vural

Conference

Founder, Beta Space Studio

8 months ago

Oh no, people will be exhausted by the time they listen to me! That was my first thought about my afternoon talk at last week's Alive conference. But after listening to the speakers before me, I was glad I came on after them. All the speakers throughout the day delivered the same message: "Look how I made my job 5x easier with AI." Following them was advantageous - it amplified our bottom-up approach at Beta Space Studio. AI transformation in organizations doesn't succeed through top-down C-level or IT director decisions. It succeeds through the initiatives of team leaders, managers, and employees who individually try to make their work more effective and efficient. Transformation always succeeds from bottom-up, not top-down. AI is no exception. Let me tell you this clearly… Organizations that don't see AI as a human transformation rather than a technology transformation will continue to spin their wheels. Special thanks to Brick Institute for hosting us with their excellent curation at this conference.