Doors Open & Registration

(Leadership Track) 1A: Getting Your First 100 Customers

During this interactive workshop, Kristie will share how to: -Embrace Your Role as the First Sales Rep: Accept this critical role and dive in with confidence. -Target Your Friendly Market First: Forget trying to conquer the entire TAM right away. Focus on getting early customers from your network first. -Master Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy: Develop a robust plan to take your product to market effectively. -Leverage Your Unique Strengths: Identify and play to your differentiators to stand out. -Create a Powerful Value Proposition: Craft a compelling message that clearly communicates your value to customers. -Prioritize Process Over Prospects: Establish a solid process before chasing prospects to ensure sustainable growth. -Commit to the Process: Follow through with your process rigorously. -Be Ready to Pivot: Stay agile and be prepared to adjust your strategy. -Know When to Step Back: Recognize the right moment to hand over your startup to experienced leaders or new management.

(Tech Track) 1B: Foundational Technology for Every Stage of Growth

Is your company’s technology a help or a hindrance? This presentation delves into the critical intersection of business growth and technology infrastructure. Drawing from his extensive experience, Scott will guide you through the essential IT strategies tailored for each phase of your business journey – from Startup/Launch to Growth/Scaling to Maturity/Expansion. Attendees will walk away with expanded understanding of core investments for scalable growth, cybersecurity measures to protect you at every phase, and expert guidance to thrive in a technology-driven landscape.

(AI & Cyber Track) 1C: Cyber Resilience Workshop: Defending Against Next-Gen Threats

Join this session to build cyber resilience, develop a clear action plan, and better secure your business against the next wave of digital threats. Ideal for professionals eager to stay ahead in an increasingly digital world.

Transition Break

(Leadership) 2A: What's In a Pitch? Decoding & Storyboarding Your Startup Pitch

Creating a powerful pitch is a skill every founder must master. Whether you’re presenting to investors, partners, or customers, your pitch is often the first (and sometimes only) opportunity to make a lasting impression. But what goes into a successful startup pitch? This workshop breaks down the key components of a compelling pitch, showing you how to storyboard your narrative and deliver a presentation that resonates.

(Tech Track) 2B: Effective Business Scorecards - Identifying the Metrics That Matter

A business-focused, non-technical discussion about best practices for identifying which measures/metrics matter. We'll compare and contrast the value of leading and trailing indicators, real-time data vs. data trends, and discuss how even simple measurements if thoughtfully chosen, can impact performance and productivity for individual contributors. This session will not dive into the implementation of scorecards in solutions. Instead, it will focus on the critical work that precedes development, i.e., picking what to measure, why, and how to measure it in the first place.

(Cyber & AI) 2C: The Business Value of Agentic AI - A Real World Case Study

Come to this jam-packed session and get the lessons learned from integrating AI as well as an in-depth overview of the tools involved.

Transition Break

(Leadership) 3A: The Silver Tsunami and The Future of "The Agency"

This isn't just a wake-up call-it's a roadmap for agencies to future-proof their businesses and redefine what success looks like in a new era.

(Tech Track) 3B: Inside the MarTech Stacks of the World's Best Startups

Disruption is great when you're talking about an industry, but not so great when you are talking about your Go-To-Market strategy. You want smooth sailing to reach your target audience and that all starts with a foundation of marketing technology (MarTech). In this session you'll get a peek behind the curtain at the MarTech Stacks you can use to drive your business forward.

(Cyber & AI) 3C: Who Goes There? Actively Detecting Intruders With Cyber Deception Tools

Intrusion detection works best when you can discover the attacker while they are still in the system. Finding out after the fact does little to protect your systems and your data. Ideally, you would want to set an alarm that an attacker would trigger while limiting the damage to your environment. We can use these behavioral patterns to our advantage by engaging in defensive cyber deception. You might already be familiar with the concept of honeypots, false systems, or networks meant to lure and ensnare hackers. There is a subclass of honeypots, called honeytokens, that require almost none of the overhead, are simple to deploy, are used by many industries, and lure attackers to trigger alerts while they are trying to gain further access. Takeaways: - Analysis of recent breaches for common attack behaviors - A history of cyber deception and the evolution of honeypots in defensive strategies. - Understanding how honeytokens work - Maximizing the impact of honeytokens

Transition Break

(Leadership) 4A - Pivot and Propel: Strategic Pivots for Tech Leaders and Innovators

In the rapidly changing tech industry, the key to success isn’t just about adapting—it’s about proactively pivoting and propelling forward to achieve more. This panel will explore how individuals and businesses in the tech world can harness the power of signals, shifts, and trends to not only survive, but thrive. Our expert panelists will share how they’ve leveraged pivots to fuel accelerated growth, create new opportunities, and drive innovation. Whether it’s transforming your career trajectory, reinventing business models, or seizing emerging market opportunities, this session will provide practical insights on how to pivot strategically and propel toward greater success.

(Tech) 4B - How to Build a Killer MVP App

We’ll be discussing the essential ingredients required for building a successful MVP app, as well as point out what hazards to avoid along the way. We’ll also answer any specific questions that you may have about building MVP apps. It will be an educational and collaborative event!

(Cyber & AI) 4C - Quality Assurance Testing

Review the different types of testing and best practices for implementing testing plans in regards to software development, app development, and/or new websites. Attendees will gain best practice knowledge to ensure their own systems are thoroughly tested prior to a launch thus eliminating costly fixes.

Transition Break

(Leadership) 5A - 6 Ways to Doom Your First Fundraise

These 6 (or maybe more) common ways prevent funding, or even blow up your startup before it has a chance. Taught by David Weaver, Startup Attorney who supports early-stage companies nationwide, from inception through sale, funded both locally and by some of the largest VCs in the US

(Tech) 5B - Bootcamps at Urban League Center for Entrepreneurship

(Cyber & AI) 5C - Introduction AI + Grow with Google

An Introduction to AI, taught by Keisha Mabry Haymore, Grow with Google