Its inaugural edition takes place at Parkview in Woodstock, Cape Town on 18 and 19 September 2026. The event brings together a 24-hour hackathon and a programme of fireside conversations with leaders from across design, technology, product and business.
Pre-registration is now open, with early bird entries available until 21 August.
Builders Table was created in response to a shift being felt across the industry. For most of the past decade, there was a clear divide between the people who designed digital products and the people who built them. That divide is disappearing.
With the tools now available, a designer can ship working software. A strategist can prototype an idea instead of writing a deck about it. A founder can take something from thought to product without waiting for an entire team to form around it. The roles may look familiar, but how far one person can carry an idea has changed completely.
That shift is what Builders Table is named for and built around. AI is not simply a topic to be discussed from a stage. It is the reason bringing this kind of room together now matters: everyone at the table can build.
The hackathon puts that idea into practice. One hundred participants, working in teams of up to five, will have a single day and night to take an idea from concept to functioning prototype before presenting it to a panel of judges.
There is a R50,000 prize pool, and every team retains full ownership of what they build.
“Everyone at the table can build now, and that is a genuinely new situation,” said Matt Thompson, founding partner at MakeReign. “The tools stopped being the constraint, but much of the industry is still working out what that means inside their own companies. Builders Table gives people the space to work that out together by making something real.”
“This is not an event we intend to run once. It is a platform, and the hackathon is where it starts. We could have made our tenth anniversary about us, but it feels far more useful to make it about what people can build next.”
South Africa produces exceptional builders, but there are still very few rooms created for them. Designers, developers, product leaders, strategists and founders largely work inside their own organisations, then meet at conferences where they sit and watch.
Builders Table is designed to change that by putting them in one place, under real pressure, with something at stake.
Running alongside the build will be a programme of talks and fireside conversations with senior leaders from some of South Africa’s most recognised companies. The conversations will explore how teams are adopting AI in practice, what it changes about the way products are designed and shipped, and what it takes to build for African markets and conditions.
Speakers, mentors and judges will be announced shortly.
“The first decade was about proving what MakeReign could build,” said Luke Engel, Chief Commercial and Growth Officer at MakeReign. “The next is about creating the conditions for more people to build. We want builders in the room, not just an audience.”
MakeReign started in 2016 with three brothers and a single deadline they could not afford to miss. Ten years later, it works across brand, product and marketing from Cape Town, Ireland and Amsterdam, with specialist teams spanning product design, art direction, motion, web experience, creative technology, copy and strategy.
Its international work includes long-standing partnerships with Collinson Group and Priority Pass, alongside work for some of South Africa’s most recognised brands, including Woolworths, Virgin Active, KFC, Santam and DStv.
Pre-registration for Builders Table is open now at builderstable.net. Early bird entries close on 21 August 2026.
MakeReign is a digital experience agency working across brand, product and marketing from Cape Town, Ireland and Amsterdam. It partners with leading international and South African brands to build digital products, platforms and experiences that perform.
