“Talk Tech, Speak Human” is a session designed for technologists who want to bridge the gap between technical depth and clear, impactful communication. We will go over the fundamentals of effective communication and provide actionable strategies to:
Don’t let communication be the bottleneck to your success. Join us and start turning technical knowledge into meaningful conversations that drive results!
Unlock the potential for a more positive and human-centered AI by grounding your Large Language Model (LLM) development in positive psychology.
This session will demonstrate how incorporating principles like optimism and empathy into your prompting strategies can shape the output and cultivate a more constructive and supportive AI persona. Learn how to intentionally design your personal LLM to foster well-being and contribute to a more positive digital environment.
Tired of container image vulnerabilities? Software bed bugs keeping you up at night? Scared of those monsters in our supply chain closet? Vulnerability Management is a complex topic that consumes the time of teams, developers, and everyone. Some of us hate vulnerabilities so much that we try to ignore them and hope that they just automagically vanish. This is a short time sigh of relief, but it’s not a good long term strategy.
This talk will discuss how we can make Vulnerability Management easy. We will discuss how to tackle the issue of minimizing those CVE’s ( Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) by shifting left and actually solving the problem of Vulnerability Management.
Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing industries, but breaking in can feel impossible, especially without a degree or years of experience. I know because I’ve been there. At 18, I landed my first tech job as a System Analyst at a Fortune 500 company, and it took me two years to land my first cybersecurity role as an SOC Analyst at 20.
Cybersecurity can be overwhelming with so many different niches, certifications, and career paths. Without a clear plan, it’s easy to feel lost and unsure of where to start. In this session, I want to share my untraditional path and help you understand how to create your own plan. I’ll break down the exact steps needed to land a cybersecurity role, from identifying the right skills to gaining hands-on experience, so you can move forward with confidence.
I’ll also share how networking and building my presence on LinkedIn single-handedly opened doors I never thought were possible, along with different ways to gain experience without having a role, whether through labs, content creation, or open-source projects.
In this talk, I reveal how to unlock the potential of high-performing technical teams—even without being the expert. With proven strategies and real-world success, I will empower leaders to build trust, drive innovation, and deliver extraordinary results.
“But I’m not the expert…” This common statement echoes as we venture into uncharted territory where others have more expertise than we do. How can you build and lead a high-performing technical team when you’re not the subject matter expert?
This session explores the strategies and mindset needed to effectively manage and empower a team of specialists in cutting-edge fields. Drawing from real-world experience leading technical experts to achieve significant outcomes under tight deadlines, I’ll share how to leverage leadership principles, foster collaboration, and build trust to drive success.
For years, privacy was seen as a legal hurdle or a cybersecurity afterthought. But as artificial intelligence reshapes how we collect, analyze, and act on data, privacy is stepping into a new role. Today, privacy is strategic, centered on trust, and a social justice necessity in communities like ours.
This session traces privacy’s evolution from a sidelined obligation to a critical part of building trustworthy, AI-powered systems. We will explore core privacy principles like data minimization, transparency, and fairness, and explain why these can no longer live only in policy documents. They need to be built into code, into models, and into the way teams think and work.
You will learn how privacy strengthens security, supports responsible AI, and helps organizations protect user trust. We will examine real-world examples where weak privacy design led to backlash, bias, or harm, particularly in Black communities. We will also share practical ways teams can shift from reactive compliance to proactive privacy leadership.
From cybersecurity to product, whatever you do in tech, this talk will help you see privacy not as a checkbox, but as a foundation for building ethical, resilient tech.
As AI adoption soars, organizations need an end-to-end security strategy. Eddie James Williams III shows how to weave Cybersecurity, governance, HUMINT-inspired human checkpoints, and threat-resilience into every phase of building, buying, and defending AI.
Organizations are racing to harness AI, building custom agents and integrating COTS tools. As they face unprecedented security challenges, from data poisoning in their own pipelines to AI-driven threats like deepfakes, AI-powered phishing, and adversarial model evasion, their defenses need more than code.
In this session, Eddie James Williams III, a Strategic Cybersecurity Executive and former HUMINT operator, will guide you through an “end-to-end AI Security Blueprint”.
Walk away with a practical playbook to secure your AI strategy and defend against the full spectrum of AI-driven threats.
As technology reshapes industries, fashion is undergoing a revolutionary transformation through 3D virtual reality. This session will showcase how VR fashion shows & immersive retail experiences are redefining how brands engage customers, create interactive shopping experiences & drive innovation.
I will share real-world applications, industry trends, and strategies for professionals looking to stay ahead of the curve. Whether you’re a designer, retailer, or tech enthusiast, this session will open new doors to the future of fashion and commerce.
Through a live demo of a cutting-edge 3D virtual fashion show, attendees will experience firsthand how VR is breaking geographical barriers, reducing production costs, and fostering sustainability by minimizing waste in fashion presentations.
Key takeaways include:
I didn’t start in tech through the “traditional” path. I came in as an adult learner via am apprentice programs. Years later, as VP of Engineering at an insuretech startup, I found myself facing a challenge I knew well from the other side of the table: how do you build a high-performing, collaborative team in a competitive hiring market?
Our company experimented with several different ways to grow talent and over time the efforts evolved into a full apprenticeship and onboarding program.
This talk shares what we learned along the way: how we built the program, what mistakes we made, and how we adapted through company shifts.
Whether you’re scaling fast, struggling to hire, or trying to retain your values as you grow, this talk offers a story-first perspective and a flexible framework for building your own internal talent pipeline.
Think you need to deploy to the cloud to build for the cloud? Think again. In this talk, we’ll explore how to fake the cloud locally and why doing so is actually a power move. From serverless workflows to pre-signed uploads and event-driven madness, we’ll walk through how to simulate complex AWS services right from your dev machine.
No waiting on deployments. No surprise bills. No more blind debugging. You’ll walk away with practical patterns for mocking cloud behavior, speeding up your feedback loop, and building resilient, testable apps without ever touching AWS. See it all in action with a serverless meme game that runs entirely off the cloud.
Customer success is at the forefront of transforming how organizations leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data. No longer just a reactive support function, customer success teams are playing a critical role in shaping the way these advanced technologies are developed and applied to improve customer experiences.
In this session, we will explore how customer success teams are integrating AI and ML tools into their workflows to proactively engage customers, predict needs, and optimize the customer experience. By using AI-driven analytics and big data insights, CSMs can identify at-risk customers, personalize interactions, and boost customer retention, all while freeing up time for higher-value tasks.
In this talk, attendees will learn how to harness AI, ML, and Big Data to:
Drive proactive customer success by predicting needs and behaviors before they arise.
Leverage AI-driven tools to improve efficiency, reduce churn, and personalize the customer experience.
Feeling stuck, overlooked, or unsure of your next career move in tech? You’re not alone and you’re definitely not powerless. In this high-impact session designed for Black professionals in tech, we’ll break down what it means to Always Be Applying, not just for jobs, but for growth, visibility, and purpose.
You’ll walk away with a bold new framework to project-manage your career like a product, identify your unique value (aka your superpowers), and apply consistent pressure toward your next role, promotion, or pivot. Whether you’re mid-level and ready to level up, or early in your journey and looking to make your mark, this session will equip you with actionable tools, real talk, and a strategy to own your story and show up like the resource you already are
Calling all small business owners! Join this interactive session to transform your small business into a scalable company. Discover how to break free from the day-to-day grind and build a business that operates seamlessly without you.
We will take actionable steps using industry-specific strategies to systematize your business operations. Whether you’re in retail, services, or e-commerce, this talk will equip you with the tools to automate processes, foster growth, and create a sustainable, future-proof business model.
Don’t just work in your business—work on it. Join us and take the first step on the road to freedom, growth, and entrepreneurial success!
In this session, participants will learn to create advanced Figma prototypes and convert them into native mobile apps without relying on developers. This workshop bridges the gap between design and implementation, empowering UX designers to bring their visions to life.
This workshop equips participants with cutting-edge techniques to create high-fidelity, functional prototypes, accelerating the design-to-product pipeline and fostering innovation in the rapidly evolving tech landscape
Curious about running large language models (LLMs) on your own machine without wrestling with complicated setups? In this session, Docker Captain Steve Buchanan will introduce Docker Model Runner, a new feature in Docker Desktop that makes it easy to run LLMs locally. Whether you’re a dev experimenting with AI, building offline apps, or just want full control over your models, this session will show you how to get started in minutes.
This presentation explores the critical role of soft skills in two seemingly distinct fields: government relations and cybersecurity. While technical expertise and policy acumen are needed for both domains, success often hinges on interpersonal and communication abilities. The session will highlight how skills like active listening, good manners, and relationship building are indispensable in fostering trust, influencing decisions, and mitigating conflicts.
Using real life examples, such as coalition building for legislative advocacy and stakeholder buy-in for mitigating cybersecurity risk, attendees will gain actionable insights into the shared skills required to navigate office politics, virtually or in person. Participants will also practice strategies to enhance their skills, empowering them to become effective leaders in environments that demand listening and stakeholder management skills. This interdisciplinary perspective offers a unique lens on leveraging human-centric skills that drive impact and security services—with a human touch.
As AI agents become integral to modern software systems, the need for standardized communication and integration mechanisms has intensified. The Model Context Protocol (MCP), developed by Anthropic, offers a universal interface for AI models to access external data sources and tools, streamlining context provision and tool integration . Complementing this, Google’s Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol facilitates seamless communication between autonomous AI agents, enabling collaborative task execution across diverse platforms.
This talk delves into the architectures, functionalities, and practical applications of MCP and A2A. Attendees will gain insights into how these protocols can be leveraged to build interoperable, efficient, and scalable AI-driven systems.
This session explores how AI is reshaping expertise through what is known as “The Perspicacity Effect.” While AI acts as a powerful amplifier for experts—giving them a “jetpack” to accelerate insight and productivity—if used improperly it simultaneously presents beginners with “blindfolds,” creating a false sense of competence without foundational understanding. Attendees will gain clarity on the widening gap between experts and novices, the risks of over-reliance on AI for beginners, and practical strategies to close the gap with frameworks and “ideas that change the world” to ensure AI serves as a tool for genuine learning and growth rather than superficial noise.
