BeyondConf Detroit

08/31/2026

Speaker Spotlight: Dave Todaro on Leading AI Adoption Without Slowing Innovation 🛠️

When it comes to Generative AI, adopting tools is easy—but integrating AI into how your organization manages risk, makes decisions, and creates lasting value is much harder.

We’re thrilled to feature Dave Todaro at BeyondConf 2026!

In "Everyone Is Using AI. Now What? Leading AI Adoption Without Slowing Innovation," Dave will explore why AI adoption is primarily a leadership challenge. Drawing on over a decade advising executive teams on digital transformation, he’ll share a practical framework for aligning leadership, enabling responsible experimentation, and building guardrails that accelerate innovation rather than slow it down. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Dave’s session on November 5 in downtown Detroit.

🎟️ View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/28/2026

Speaker Spotlight: Erik Wesslen on Building the Agentic Software Factory 🛠️

When it comes to AI development, the next wave won't be another chat interface—it will be agentic systems that plan, execute, tool-call, and carry state across real workflows.

In "After the Chatbot: Building the Agentic Software Factory," Erik will look at where AI development is headed over the next 12–24 months. Drawing from real-world examples at Meijer and other organizations, he’ll separate near-term reality from science fiction and share patterns for redesigning software work around trustworthy delegation. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Erik’s session on November 5 in downtown Detroit.

👉 View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/26/2026

BeyondConf 2026 Speaker Spotlight: Madhavi Pasumarthi on Model Context Protocol & Agent Architecture 🛠️

When it comes to building AI applications, tools often start tightly coupled—making agentic systems difficult to scale, maintain, and evolve without standardized contracts.

We’re thrilled to feature Madhavi Pasumarthi at BeyondConf 2026!

In "From Tools to Agents - Agents Need Tools. MCP Gives Them a Contract," Madhavi will share real-world lessons from building production MCP servers and agentic platforms. She’ll walk through practical architecture patterns, clear trade-offs, and how to decide whether your project needs an MCP server, an agent, or both. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Madhavi’s session on November 5 in downtown Detroit.

🎟️ View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/24/2026

BeyondConf 2026 Speaker Spotlight: Katelyn Jones on AI & Social Impact 🛠️

When it comes to measuring AI success, relying solely on efficiency gains and cost savings misses a critical dimension—how do we ensure benefits are shared equitably while minimizing harm?

We’re thrilled to feature Katelyn Jones at BeyondConf 2026!

In "AI and Social Impact: Expanding What We Measure and Why," Katelyn will challenge leaders to expand their metrics beyond standard productivity gains to include social impact as a core measure of success. She’ll share practical strategies for centering communities, lived experiences, and long-term outcomes directly within AI strategy and project metrics. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Katelyn’s session on November 5 in downtown Detroit.

👉 View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/21/2026

Calling all Detroit Tech Leaders & IT Organizations! 🛠️

Detroit's engineering landscape is evolving rapidly—from enterprise AI adoption to modern software architectures. On November 5, 2026, BeyondConf brings together senior engineers, software architects, and technical leaders right here in downtown Detroit for a day of deep technical deep-dives.

We have some sponsorship opportunities for companies looking to connect with top-tier local tech talent and show their commitment to the Michigan developer ecosystem.

Whether you're looking to showcase your engineering culture, recruit experienced developers, or position your brand alongside regional tech leaders, we’d love to partner with you.

📍 Location: Downtown Detroit

🗓️ Date: November 5, 2026

👉 Interested in becoming a sponsor or reviewing our prospectus? Send us DM or check out the details here: https://www.beyondconf.com/

A working conference for practitioners ready to focus on what actually works in AI. November 5, 2026 · Hudson's Detroit.

08/19/2026

Important Update: New Date for BeyondConf 2026 🗓️

Due to some logistical challenges, we are shifting the date for BeyondConf 2026.

📍 New Date: Thursday, November 5, 2026
📍 Location: Hudson's Downtown Detroit

While the date is changing, our mission remains exactly the same: bringing you real-world, technical deep dives from top industry practitioners—with zero sales pitches. Our full speaker lineup and schedule remain intact, and we can’t wait to bring everyone together this November!

🎟️ Got questions or need to grab your ticket? Head over to our site for updated details: https://www.beyondconf.com/

Thank you for your understanding and continued support—see you on November 5th!

A working conference for practitioners ready to focus on what actually works in AI. November 5, 2026 · Hudson's Detroit.

08/12/2026

BeyondConf 2026 Speaker Spotlight: Satish Chandra Guruvelli on Scaling Enterprise AI to $30M ROI 🛠️

When it comes to enterprise AI, many organizations struggle to move past the pilot phase—but scaling AI systems requires clear ROI, model routing, and FinOps discipline.

In his session, "From AI Pilots to $30M ROI: Scaling Enterprise AI in Production," Satish will share real-world lessons from deploying six enterprise AI systems supporting 270 data centers. He’ll walk through how tiered model routing cut inference costs by 74%, how document processing delivered a 35:1 ROI, and how autonomous remediation handled 35k+ vulnerabilities. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Satish’s session on September 10 in downtown Detroit.

👉 View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/11/2026

Speaker Spotlight: Chris O'Connor on Clean Code Practices for AI Agents 🛠️

When it comes to AI-assisted development, soft prompts often fall short—reliable agents require the same engineering discipline we teach human developers.

In his session, "Don’t Prompt It. Teach It: Clean Code Practices for AI Agents," Chris will share hard-earned lessons from over 300 AI-assisted dev sessions, 19k+ messages, and 30+ repositories. He’ll break down why vague prompts fail and how applying SOLID, TDD, HARD BLOCK rules, and version-controlled skills turns AI into a dependable development partner. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Chris’s session on September 10 in downtown Detroit.

👉 View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/10/2026

Speaker Spotlight: Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan on Restructuring the Product Org for AI 🛠️

When AI drastically accelerates software delivery, the biggest bottlenecks are no longer technical—they're the processes and layers designed around slow work.

In his session, "When Delivery Gets Cheap, the Org Chart Gets Expensive: Restructuring the Product Org for AI," Cheezy will explore why AI-driven delivery forces a redesign of traditional product organizations. Drawing on his experience helping teams make this shift, he’ll lay out what the new product org structure looks like when coordination meetings take longer than the actual development. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Cheezy’s session on September 10 in downtown Detroit.

👉 View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/

08/07/2026

Speaker Spotlight: Eric Heikkila on Clean Code Practices for AI Agents 🛠️

When it comes to AI-assisted development, the theory sounds great on paper—but what does it actually look like when scaled across thousands of commits and dozens of repos?

In his session, "Don’t Prompt It. Teach It: Clean Code Practices for AI Agents," Eric will share hard-earned lessons from over 300 AI-assisted dev sessions, 19k+ messages, and 30+ repositories. He’ll break down why vague prompts fail and show how teaching agents human engineering discipline—SOLID principles, TDD, HARD BLOCK rules, and version-controlled skills—turns AI into a reliable teammate. No sales pitches—just the real blueprint from the technical trenches.

Don't miss Eric’s session on September 10 in downtown Detroit.

👉 View the full schedule & get your tickets: https://www.beyondconf.com/