Speaking
I give talks that keep their head in the clouds and their feet on the ground: an ambitious view of what AI makes possible, tied to what people can try the next day.
The rooms range from packed sessions at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo to a senior center, a K-12 staff room and a bookstore workshop for children. Below are 37 of them, including 9 at Gartner and 3 as a judge.
Formats
Keynote
An ambitious view of what comes after AI, tied to what your people can do next week.
Workshop
A half day with live demonstrations, and your people trying things on their own laptops.
Panel
As a panelist, or as the moderator who keeps the conversation moving.
Executive roundtable
A small room of leaders working through one hard question together.
To invite me, email two lines: the date and city, who will be in the room, and what you want them to leave with.
Highlights
Executive roundtables on mainframe modernization
Can AI coding agents modernize critical mainframe systems?
Executive Next Practices Institute, UC Irvine
The agentic operating system and the new AI stack
CEO roundtable, UC Irvine
AI strategy: from productivity to imagination
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, Orlando
The market for AI coding assistants; top software engineering trends
Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit
Talent density over talent mass; the Stockdale Paradox; generative AI for invention
Executive Next Practices Institute ReINVENT Work Summit, UC Irvine
Humans commanding fleets of AI agents
Code Freeze 2024 (sold out)
Survive and thrive in the age of generative AI
University of Minnesota Three Minute Thesis final
Graduate research communication across 11 colleges
All appearances
2026
- Cyber Security Summit, MedTech seminar · Invited speaker (via Stone Arch)
The checkpoint that isn't: when human-in-the-loop fails silently - Minnesota STEM Book Festival · Moderator
Can AI replace human friendship? With philosopher Valerie Tiberius - Student data science competition · Judge
Forecasting food-shelf need - K-12 school staff workshop (via Stone Arch) · Workshop leader
Making AI work for teachers: privacy, invented citations, fair grading - AI Leadership Academy for Minnesota school and district leaders (via Stone Arch) · Instructor, with the Collective
Workflow redesign and custom AI assistants for school leaders - University AI program for medical-device teams · Instructor
AI foundations; designing and building trustworthy AI - Executive roundtables on mainframe modernization · Moderator
Can AI coding agents modernize critical mainframe systems? - CADSCOM, Minnesota State University, Mankato · Judge and industry panelist
Where AI is heading: student research - Executive Next Practices Institute, UC Irvine · Panelist
The agentic operating system and the new AI stack - CEO roundtable, UC Irvine · Discussion leader
AI strategy: from productivity to imagination - Gyro Club · Invited speaker
The rapid evolution of generative AI, with a live autonomous-shop demo
2025
- Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, Orlando · Speaker, two sessions
The market for AI coding assistants; top software engineering trends - Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit · Speaker, three sessions, and workshop leader
Talent density over talent mass; the Stockdale Paradox; generative AI for invention - Executive Next Practices Institute ReINVENT Work Summit, UC Irvine · Panelist
Humans commanding fleets of AI agents - CoreNet Global Midwest Chapter · Panelist
AI in corporate real estate - Minnesota STEM Book Festival · Moderator
Between algorithms and people: demystifying AI - Children's AI sticker workshop, The Thinking Spot · Workshop leader
Kids aged 5 to 10 designing stickers with AI - Software product engineering panel · Panelist
Careers, AI readiness and high-performing organizations - University business and engineering classes · Guest lecturer
AI for future business leaders; reimagining innovation; technical communication
2024
- Code Freeze 2024 (sold out) · Invited speaker
Survive and thrive in the age of generative AI - University of Minnesota Three Minute Thesis final · Judge
Graduate research communication across 11 colleges - Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit (2,300+ attendees) · Speaker, workshop leader and panelist
Top strategic software engineering trends; AI across the software life cycle - Gartner webinar · Speaker
The Magic Quadrant for AI code assistants - Applied AI, Twin Cities · Invited speaker and panelist
From code monkeys to AI whisperers: developer jobs and AI - Edina Senior Center · Invited speaker
Cooking with AI: everyday help from ChatGPT and Gemini
2023
- AI Town Hall, Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce · Panelist
Everyday AI: fear, hope and hype - Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit · Speaker, three sessions
Male allyship in software engineering; a staff-plus technical career track; generative AI for code - Gartner webinar · Speaker
Generative AI for happier, more productive software developers - Applied AI Conference, Twin Cities · Speaker
Foundation models
2022
- Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo · Speaker, two sessions
Patterns and pattern languages for a volatile world - Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit · Speaker, two sessions
Building a continuous interface for digital applications
2021
- Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo · Speaker
Modernizing your software engineering team's skills
2019
- medfuse · Speaker and workshop leader
Can complex-systems science help healthcare? - HALIcon · Panelist
STEAM, empathy and the humanities in AI
2018
- Twin Cities Startup Week · Speaker
Optimizing products and services with systematic innovation - MinneAnalytics Big Data Tech and medfuse · Speaker
Graphs and machine learning in healthcare - Minnebar · Session speaker
Insights on AI
Invite me to speak
Keynotes, invited talks, workshops with live demonstrations, and panels as speaker or moderator.