News
Owning the Inference Layer: When and How to Run your Own Models
March 12, 2026
Hosted model APIs make it easy to get started, but as your workloads scale out, questions around cost, control, and performance become harder to ignore. This talk explores when it makes sense to run your own models and how smaller models and modern inference stacks are making self-hosted AI more practical than ever. It’s not…
Community is Infrastructure in the Age of AI
We’re living in a moment where anyone can build with AI. You can launch faster than ever. Automate more. Work from anywhere. If speed is no longer the differentiator, what is? The most successful companies in the Triangle weren’t built by lone visionaries. They were built in community. In conversations that turned into partnerships. In…
Building AI Champions: How Executive Fluency and Ground-Level Expertise Create Lasting AI Capability
February 25, 2026
The biggest AI breakthroughs inside enterprise organizations are coming from a handful of people who’ve never written a line of code. They’re called AI Champions. AI Champions are non-technical subject matter experts who already know how to reach a goal without AI. They know which tasks lead to an outcome, which steps actually matter, and…
Community Impact Focus @ NPower
February 23, 2026
As AI continues to transform the future of work, I believe the most important question we can ask is: Who gets to participate in that future? In less than 8 minutes, I’ll share how NPower is expanding early‑career tech education to ensure that underrepresented and historically excluded talent can access the opportunities emerging in an…
WTF AI
January 29, 2026
AI is a scary topic for most people. The average person wants to learn how it works and how it can save them time and money. This session cuts through the noise. Write. Think. Flow. is a human-centered crash course for people who want AI to actually make their lives easier so they can use…
Human in the Loop: Comedy for AI Builders
January 28, 2026
AI is incredible. It gives us extra fingers, imaginary imports, and citations to works that are yet to be written. It’s helping us improve every workflow. And the biggest benefit of all? The laughs! Join Evan Wimpey for some comedy engineered specifically for AI audiences. I mean, engineered for humans working in AI. The comedy…
AI Deep Thoughts
January 23, 2026
AI Deep Thoughts deliver rapid-fire insights from practitioners, builders, and leaders on the front lines of AI transformation. Named for the legendary supercomputer in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, these lightning talks cut through the noise and get straight to what matters. Big ideas. Bold perspectives. No filler—just the answer.
Open Source Meets AI —Navigating Increased Patent Litigation Vulnerabilities
January 13, 2026
As Open Source & AI converge, organizations are navigating not only unprecedented innovation, but new dimensions of governance, accountability & Intellectual Property (IP) risk. By 2025, the global AI market is projected to reach $750 billion (USD). , This growth is driven by Open Source technologies — 60% of companies rely on Open Source for…