☀️ PS/NExT Vibe-a-thon · June 22–23, 2026 · Palm Springs Convention Center

Visit Greater Palm Springs
Showcase

Two teams. One problem. Built in 24 hours.

PS/NExT Vibe-a-thon · June 22–23, 2026

The Challenge

Visit Greater Palm Springs (VGPS) uses Basecamp to manage projects, assignments, and cross-department collaboration — but its built-in reporting has a critical blind spot. Two independent teams tackled the same problem at the Vibe-a-thon and built fully working tools in 24 hours.

Team 1
☀️ VGPS Pulse
Visit Greater Palm Springs · Destination Management & Economic Development
VGPS is the region's official DMO, driving tourism, conventions, and economic development across the greater Palm Springs area. Their ~60-person staff coordinates across Marketing, Convention Sales, Communications, Operations, Tourism Development, and more — all through Basecamp.

⚠️ The Problem

Basecamp's only overdue view is a single undifferentiated list combining every late item across all departments and projects. Managers wanting overdue-by-department, aging breakdowns, or unassigned task visibility had to run manual person-by-person reports — creating blind spots and extra hours of work every week.

🔨 What Was Built

A live Basecamp intelligence dashboard — VGPS Pulse — connected directly to the VGPS Basecamp account via API. Built with 10 modules in 24 hours.

Organization Overview
Organization Overview · live AI pulse
Department Scorecards
Department Scorecards · 10 depts tracked
Custom Report
Custom Report · any dept combination
Weekly Summary
AI Weekly Summary · copy as email or PDF
Notifications
Scheduled Briefs · morning + evening alerts

📈 Business Impact

3–5 hrs

Saved per manager / week

No more manual person-by-person Basecamp report runs

51

Overdue items surfaced

Of 78 live to-dos across 3 projects; 21 are critical at 30+ days. Invisible in Basecamp's default flat list.

10+

Departments tracked

Every sub-department gets its own scorecard — something Basecamp never provided

<10 sec

Custom report generation

What took an hour of manual pulling now takes a few clicks

2× daily

Proactive manager briefings

Morning + evening briefs delivered automatically — no login required

Early

Bottleneck detection

Aging buckets & reason codes let leadership intervene before escalation

🗺️ What's Planned Next

Live Email Delivery

  • Wire scheduled briefs to email (SendGrid / Mailgun)
  • Personalized reports per manager scoped to their depts
  • Direct Basecamp deep-links in every report item
  • Unassigned task alerts with suggested owners

Trend & Pattern Intelligence

  • Week-over-week tracking per person, project & dept
  • Identify repeat bottleneck owners & recurring delay reasons
  • Workload balance view — over vs. under-assigned
  • Cross-department collaboration dependency graph

Full Deployment

  • Multi-user login with role-based dept access
  • Slack integration for real-time overdue alerts
  • Executive summary auto-sent every Monday
  • Historical archive for retroactive review
Team 2
🌴 BasecampPulse
Visit Greater Palm Springs · Basecamp Reporting Intelligence
Same organization, same Basecamp data — a second independent team built a lightweight Python automation app connected directly to the VGPS Basecamp account, with an AI layer powered by Claude (Anthropic) that converts raw task data into executive-ready briefings.

⚠️ The Problem

Basecamp's built-in reporting only shows a single undifferentiated list of all overdue to-dos across every project and department. No way to view overdue items by department, identify aging tasks at a glance, or surface unassigned to-dos — creating blind spots and hours of manual report-building every week.

🔨 What Was Built

BasecampPulse — a Streamlit dashboard deployed on Railway, pulling live data from the Basecamp 3 API with Google sign-in authentication and an AI manager briefing toggle powered by Claude.

Live Dashboard
Live dashboard · snapshot, due status & aging
AI Briefing
AI Briefing (Claude) · dept hotspots & actions
Six Views
Six views · one click each
What managers see
Output · 78 tasks tracked, 51 overdue, 21 critical
AI Briefing detail
Claude briefing · raw data → manager memo

📈 Business Impact

78

To-dos tracked instantly

Across 3 projects and 10 departments — pulled live from Basecamp API

51

Overdue items surfaced

21 critical (30+ days) — invisible in Basecamp's default flat list

6

Unassigned tasks flagged

Including two overdue by 173 & 159 days with no owner assigned

6

Dashboard views built

Overview, By Dept, Trends, My To-Dos, Risk Lists, Monthly & Weekly

15 min

Data cache + live refresh

Auto-cached with one-click refresh for up-to-the-minute reporting

AI

Plain-language briefing

Claude converts structured task data into executive memos — no chart-reading needed

🗺️ What's Planned Next

Scheduled Email Delivery

  • Auto-send weekly briefings to department heads
  • PDF export of full AI briefing memo
  • Email allowlist expansion beyond pilot group

Trend Tracking

  • Store weekly snapshots to chart improvement over time
  • Flag departments trending worse week-over-week
  • Per-person overdue load trend lines

Production Handoff

  • Transfer to VGPS IT for ongoing hosting & maintenance
  • Expand people directory to all staff
  • Integration with VGPS internal comms channels
Team 1 · Dashboard Deep Dive

☀️ VGPS Pulse

A live Basecamp intelligence dashboard built directly on the VGPS Basecamp account. 10 modules, built in 24 hours, deployed and live at the summit.

Organization Overview
Organization Overview · live Basecamp data
Feature 1

Organization Overview

The command center. At a glance: total open to-dos, completions this week, overdue count, and on-time delivery rate across the entire organization. An AI-generated Organization Pulse narrative summarizes the week in plain language — which department is healthiest, which needs attention, and the most common reason work is slipping.

  • Real-time counts pulled directly from Basecamp API
  • AI narrative names the top bottleneck reason org-wide
  • "What Changed This Week" delta tracking
  • Highlights the department most at risk
Department Scorecards
Department Cards · the view Basecamp can't give you
Feature 2

Department Scorecards

The view Basecamp was never built to provide. Every department gets its own card showing open to-dos, overdue count, completions per week, completion rate, and a health score. Status labels (Steady / At Risk) surface which teams need attention before the manager has to go looking.

  • 10 departments tracked: Digital & Web, Marketing, Convention Sales, and more
  • Color-coded health scores (0–100) per department
  • Completion rate progress bars for instant visual comparison
  • Click any department to drill down into individual to-dos
Weekly Summary selector
Weekly Summary · department selector with export options
Feature 3

AI Weekly Summaries

Auto-generated department performance reports, ready to copy or export. Select any department and get a full narrative brief: accomplishments, at-risk items with owner and days-overdue, throughput trends, and the person carrying the heaviest overdue load.

  • Plain-language AI digest per department
  • Accomplishments vs. At Risk / Overdue side-by-side
  • Names the top performer and the person needing support
  • Copy as email · Print / PDF · Export all departments
Custom Report
Custom Report · any department combination, in a few clicks
Feature 4

Ad Hoc Custom Reports

Pick any combination of departments and generate an on-demand overdue report in seconds. The report breaks down overdue counts by department, surfaces every overdue item with its owner, aging bucket (7/14/30+ days), and reason code — and exports to Excel.

  • Toggle any department in or out with one click
  • Instant breakdown: 51 overdue, 21 critical (30+ days), 2 missing due dates
  • Each item shows owner, project, reason tag & days overdue
  • Export to Excel for leadership presentations
Notifications
Notifications · morning brief + evening recap on your schedule
Feature 5

Scheduled Briefs & Alerts

Managers don't need to remember to check — Pulse comes to them. Configure a morning brief and evening recap, on any days of the week. Snooze everything during time off. Get instant alerts when new items go overdue.

  • Morning brief at 8 AM · Evening recap at 5 PM
  • Toggle by day of week (M–F default)
  • Alerts for new overdue items and activity needing attention
  • Vacation snooze — pause all briefs until a return date
End-of-Day Recap neural brain
EOD Recap · the org's "brain" lighting up as work ships across an 8 AM to 6 PM day
Feature 6 · Signature

The End-of-Day "Neural Brain"

The whole organization rendered as a brain: every open to-do is a neuron, clustered into department lobes across two hemispheres. Press play and a day clock runs 8 AM to 6 PM, firing each neuron as its task gets sent out, so leadership can watch the org light up and see which teams carried the day.

  • One neuron per real Basecamp to-do, grouped into department lobes
  • Deterministic day replay (8 AM to 6 PM) with a scrub bar and 1x / 2x / 4x speed
  • End-of-day recap: items sent out, peak hour, and the most-active department
  • Honest by design: tasks, owners and links are live; completion timing is modeled and clearly labeled
Live AI Digest · real Claude output
"All 11 overdue Corporate Communications items sit with one owner, Julie Sinclair — 7 of them 30+ days late."
What happened: 15 open items and zero completions this period, 11 now overdue. Every overdue item is assigned to Julie Sinclair; 7 are more than 30 days late, the oldest a newsletter subject line at 165 days.
Root cause: load concentration on a single owner with nothing reassigned, plus a stalled COH event whose RFP chain (venue, photographer, entertainment) has not moved.
Recommended action: triage 1:1 with Julie to redistribute the COH RFPs and lingering newsletter subject lines with fresh due dates; confirm whether the COH event is still live.
Feature 7 · AI

Grounded AI Digests

Every department gets a weekly digest written by Claude, grounded only in a structured facts envelope (counts, aging buckets, owner load) computed from the live pull. The model is explicitly instructed never to invent numbers, names, or causes, so the prose stays defensible. The example at left is verbatim output from the live VGPS data.

  • Headline · What happened · Root cause · Recommended action, per department
  • Each overdue item auto-classified into one of 8 reason codes (or "Unclear")
  • Runs on Claude (claude-sonnet-4-6) via API, or the Claude CLI over OAuth
  • Deterministic fallback so a digest always renders, even with no AI key
Under the Hood

Implementation

A five-stage, read-only pipeline from the VGPS Basecamp account to a manager-ready dashboard. The one thing Basecamp can't give you, the department dimension, is built by rolling every to-do up to its owner's department from the VGPS org chart.

1

Sign in

"Sign in with Basecamp" OAuth on Vercel serverless functions, gated to the VGPS account only.

2

Pull

Official Basecamp CLI (read-only) pulls every to-do and normalizes it, with a deep-link per item.

3

Roll up

Each to-do maps to its owner's department and sub-department from the VGPS org chart.

4

Enrich

Claude writes per-department digests and classifies overdue reasons from a facts-only envelope.

5

Deliver

React dashboard, weekly snapshots for trends, and Excel / PDF / copy-as-email export.

The Stack
React 19 TypeScript Vite Tailwind v4 Recharts · charts lucide-react · icons SheetJS (xlsx) · Excel Basecamp 3 API · official CLI (read-only) Anthropic Claude · claude-sonnet-4-6 / CLI Node.js · pull + enrich scripts Vercel · serverless + hosting
VGPS Pulse navigation
The Full App

10 modules built in 24 hours

Overview · Departments · Overdue Analysis · No Due Date · Trends · Collaboration · EOD Recap · Weekly Summary · Custom Report · Notifications — all live-connected to Basecamp, all deployed and running at the summit.

69
commits
10
modules
~15k
lines of code
24h
vibe-a-thon build
Team 2 · Dashboard Deep Dive

🌴 BasecampPulse

Automated, department-aware weekly reporting for Basecamp — turning a flat overdue list into an executive-ready digest. Live at visitps-dev.up.railway.app

BasecampPulse hero
BasecampPulse · Automated, department-aware weekly reporting
What we built
Summary · What was built
The blind spot
Problem · The blind spot in Basecamp
A lightweight Python automation
Solution · Lightweight Python automation
What managers see
Output · What managers see at a glance
Output

What Managers See

A clean, at-a-glance dashboard surfacing everything that matters — overdue items bucketed by department and aging tier, due-status breakdowns, and risk lists that highlight what's about to slip next.

  • 78 total to-dos tracked across all departments
  • 51 overdue items · 21 critical (30+ days) · 6 unassigned · 2 missing due dates
  • Overdue breakdown by dept and aging bucket (1–7, 8–14, 15–30, 30+ days)
  • Due-status view — items due today, this week, upcoming
  • Risk lists with direct Basecamp deep-links for immediate follow-up
  • My To-Dos view — personalized per signed-in user
  • AI-written executive briefing + export to PDF / Excel / CSV
Six views
Dashboard · Six views, one click each
Dashboard

Six Views, One Click Each

Every view the VGPS team needs — organized so managers can jump straight to what matters without wading through a flat Basecamp list.

  • Overview — snapshot KPIs, due-status & aging breakdown org-wide
  • By Department — every team expanded with task, project, list, date, aging, owner & Basecamp link
  • Trends — week-over-week snapshots tracking whether overdue work is improving or slipping
  • My To-Dos — personalized; the signed-in user sees only their own tasks
  • Risk Lists — unassigned overdue and critical 30+ day items isolated for immediate escalation
  • Monthly & Weekly — period rollups with charts and a downloadable Excel workbook
Live dashboard
Live dashboard · snapshot, due status & aging buckets
AI Briefing live
AI Briefing live · dept hotspots, urgent items & actions
AI Briefing · Claude

From Raw Data to a Manager's Memo

Toggle on the AI manager briefing and Claude reads the structured to-do data and writes a plain-language executive brief — no chart-reading required. A live example from the current VGPS account:

  • Situation: 65%+ of tracked to-dos overdue; heaviest backlogs in Corporate Communications, Comms-PR & Destination Experiences
  • Urgent (30+ days): 21 items past a month — oldest are 172, 165 & 158 days overdue
  • Top contributors flagged for 1:1s: Julie Sinclair (11), Rob Osterberg (8), Colleen (7)
  • Recommended actions: assign the 6 unassigned tasks today, add due dates to 2 undated items
AI Briefing detail
AI Briefing · from raw data to a manager's memo
AI Briefing · Claude

The Briefing in Detail

Claude generates a structured executive memo broken into clear sections — no interpretation needed. Managers get actionable intelligence the moment they open the dashboard.

  • Department Hotspots — which teams have the heaviest overdue loads
  • Urgent — 30+ Day Items — the most critical by person and days overdue
  • Unassigned Tasks — Ownership Risk — accountability gaps surfaced explicitly
  • Recommended Follow-Up Actions — concrete, prioritized next steps
Under the Hood

Implementation

How it works
Implementation · 5-step pipeline from OAuth to delivery
The tech stack
Tools used · The stack
The Stack
Python 3.13 Streamlit · UI Basecamp 3 API Anthropic Claude · AI Authlib / OIDC · Google sign-in pandas · data shaping requests-oauthlib · OAuth2 PyYAML · dept config Jinja2 + pdfkit · HTML/PDF Railway · deploy & hosting GitHub · source & CI

PS/NExT Vibe-a-thon · June 22–23, 2026 · Palm Springs Convention Center

Visit Greater Palm Springs · visitgreaterpalmsprings.com