frAIdays Vol. 05: Folsom AI Lunch Series Preview
frAIdays Vol. 05 is the October 16, 2026 frAIdays session at Granite City Workspaces in Historic Downtown Folsom, running from 11:45 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific for founders, operators, and business owners who want practical AI help. If you work in Folsom or along the Hwy 50 AI Corridor and want a clearer way to choose the right room, this volume is built to make that decision easier. This session keeps the monthly AI lunch series format, adds a one-time fourth breakout room, and introduces a new ski-style rating system so people can pick a session they can actually use the next day.
frAIdays is a monthly AI lunch series, free to attend, with lunch available for purchase at $15 if reserved ahead of time or $20 on-site. On October 16, lunch and networking begin at 11:45 AM, the simultaneous breakout sessions start at 12:45 PM, and open office hours run from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. frAIdays is operated by FollowThrough Works LLC, hosted at Granite City Workspaces in Historic Downtown Folsom, and presented by Granite City Workspaces, FollowThrough Works, and FYC Labs.
What is frAIdays Vol. 05, exactly?
frAIdays Vol. 05 is the October edition of the monthly frAIdays series, hosted at The Commons at Granite City Workspaces, 705 Gold Lake Dr, Ste 150, Folsom, CA.
This volume matters because the format is slightly different from the usual one. Standard frAIdays programming runs three simultaneous rooms. Vol. 05 runs four breakout rooms as a one-time exception, which gives people a narrower fit between the room they choose and the problem they are trying to solve.
The setting also matters. Granite City sits in Historic Downtown Folsom, near a district known for Sutter Street, Historic Folsom Plaza, the railroad turntable and depot, the Truss Bridge over the American River, and Folsom's Gold Rush roots, as described by the City of Folsom's Historic Folsom walking tour.
If you want background on how frAIdays fits into Granite City's local AI programming, read our overview of frAIdays in Historic Folsom.
What do the new ski-style levels mean, and why did the format change?
The new levels are there to help people choose the right room faster. For Vol. 05, breakout rooms use a five-tier ski-difficulty system: Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert Only.
That change replaces the earlier Spark, Flame, and Forge naming for this seasonal edition. The seasonal line for this volume is exact and simple: "Same town. New rush." The point is not cosmetic. It is operational. A rating system that signals difficulty more plainly helps people avoid a common mistake: picking the room that sounds the most advanced, then leaving with notes they cannot use. For more on why a repeatable local format keeps gaining traction here, read our post on the Hwy 50 AI Corridor.
That is the real failure mode to avoid at frAIdays. The wrong room is not the one that looks basic. The wrong room is the one that is too far ahead of your current workflow. If your team still needs better prompting habits or a cleaner tool stack, an Expert Only session may be interesting but not immediately useful. In a monthly series, the better move is often to pick the room that matches your next practical step, then come back next month ready for the harder session.
Which breakout room should you pick on October 16?
Pick the room that matches the work you need to do next week, not the room with the most intimidating title. Vol. 05 is built so each session serves a different stage of adoption.
| Session | Level | Session lead |
|---|---|---|
| One Tool Isn’t a Strategy: Prompting, MCPs & Building Your Own | Easy / Intermediate | Kyle + Scott |
| Idea to MVP: Build Your Own Business Tool (No Developer Needed) | Intermediate | Matt Loughran |
| Building Grok Bots: Automate a Real Workflow in Your Business | Advanced | Sedale |
| The AI Calls You Can’t Afford to Get Wrong Right Now | Expert Only | Justin Fortier |
The Kyle and Scott session is the right fit if you know one tool is not enough but you have not yet built a clear system around prompting, MCPs, and your own setup. Matt Loughran's session is for people who have a business problem in mind and want to turn that problem into a usable MVP without waiting on a developer.
Sedale's room is a better fit for operators who already know the workflow they want to automate and are ready to build around that workflow directly. Justin Fortier's session is intentionally marked Expert Only, which is useful because it gives advanced attendees a room that does not need to slow down for basics.
If you are unsure where you fit, choose the room whose output you can apply first. That is usually the session with the shortest path from notes to action. For founders and operators building locally, our post on why Folsom entrepreneurs build at Granite City speaks to the same pattern: progress compounds faster when the format matches the stage you are actually in.
What is the GCEF Founders Table, and how do you book it?
The GCEF Founders Table is the open office hours block that runs from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM after the breakout sessions. It is informal one-on-one support for people who need help applying what they heard to a real business question.
This matters because not every useful conversation belongs in a room full of people. Sometimes the bottleneck is narrower: choosing a workflow, sorting out a prompt, deciding whether a business process is worth automating, or pressure-testing what to do next. The GCEF Founders Table gives October attendees a clearer path for that follow-up.
Booking does not happen through a separate scheduling link. It happens through the registration form question about individual support from the GCEF Founders Table. Walk-ups may be accommodated at check-in depending on availability, but the cleaner move is to request support during registration so the team can plan around demand.
How do you get there and why does the Folsom location help?
You register through the frAIdays portal, then plan your day around Historic Downtown Folsom and the October schedule. The local setup makes the event easier to treat as a working session instead of a full-day production.
Granite City Workspaces is at 705 Gold Lake Dr, Ste 150, Folsom, CA, in Historic Downtown Folsom. The City of Folsom notes that SacRT operates public transit and light rail service in Folsom, which helps attendees planning around a broader Sacramento-area workday.
That convenience matters because frAIdays works best when it becomes a recurring habit rather than a one-time drop-in. If you treat frAIdays as a standing checkpoint for your business tools, your room choice, follow-up questions, and office-hours conversations get sharper over time.
How should you register for frAIdays Vol. 05?
Register through the frAIdays portal and use the form carefully, especially if you want time at the GCEF Founders Table. That is the one next step most readers need.
To save your spot, register through the frAIdays portal for Vol. 05.
What else should you know before you RSVP?
Is frAIdays Vol. 05 free to attend?
Yes. frAIdays is free to attend, and lunch is available for purchase at $15 reserved ahead of time or $20 on-site.
Do I need to book the GCEF Founders Table separately?
No. Booking happens through the registration form question about individual support from the GCEF Founders Table, not through a separate scheduling link.
Is the October 16 format the usual frAIdays setup?
No. Vol. 05 uses four breakout rooms as a one-time exception, while the standard frAIdays format uses three simultaneous rooms.
How do I know which skill level to choose?
Choose the session that matches the work you can apply next, not the most advanced label. The new Beginner through Expert Only ratings are there to help you make that call more honestly.