Presented by Arch Grants for
New Conference Aims to Prepare St. Louis Workforce to Transform Into A.I. Tech Hub
Prepare.ai's goal is to establish St. Louis as a regional and national hub of AI innovation. The serial entrepreneurs behind it are so excited about the potential of AI in the region, they're launching an annual conference.
Among the legends within the St. Louis’ entrepreneur community, David Karandish and Chris Sims, have launched a non-profit called Prepare.ai dedicated to driving the City forward in workforce development to become a tech talent hub for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Their first annual conference, which is presented in association with Arch Grants, is designed to accelerate and educate the City’s growth as an AI tech hub, launches next week, on Tuesday May 8th (9am start) at the Eric P. Newman Education Center. Tickets are available now.
Emotionally Intelligent Motivations
The founders of Answers.com, which according to the St. Louis Business Journal, sold for a rumored $900 million in 2014, has invested their returns in a new venture, AI Software.
However, aligned with their mission to develop robust artificial intelligence products, they intend to give something back to the city that has helped them succeed, through their sister non-profit. Prepare.ai’s goal is to establish St. Louis as a regional and national hub of AI innovation.
“I love St. Louis,” Karandish told Wash U, in an interview on How To Build a Tech Giant. “I think it’s underrated in many respects. The talent pool here is phenomenal. You don’t have the competitive situation of Silicon Valley or New York, where people hop from company to company all the time.”
What To Expect From The Event
Next week’s AI conference in St. Louis will focus on exploring, understanding, and influencing how AI will impact our lives and businesses.
So, for $299, you can participate in a series of great panels discussions and talks with speakers from Amazon, IBM Watson, IDEO, Nvidia, Showtime, University of Washington, Washington University, SLU, Maritz, WWT, Express Scripts, and more. The format of the conference will be 30- to 60-minute sessions with applied, digestible content.
Expect experimental results, live demonstrations, infographics, lessons learned, and best practices, and networking with a diverse group of professionals, developers, scientists, executives, professors, and students from all walks of business and academia.
AI Conference Agenda
Experts and newcomers alike will find valuable resources, insights, and networking opportunities. There are over 25 different sessions over three conference tracks. Some highlights from the Prepare.ai conference agenda include:
- “Best Practices in Structuring a Team to Build Conversational AI Solutions” – Ellen Kolstø, IBM Watson
- “From Experimentation to Insights: Building an End-to-End Deep Learning System” – Tony Paikeday, NVIDIA
- “Creating Compelling AI That Isn’t Science Fiction, Today” – Lawrence Humphrey, IBM
- “AI, Law & Society” – A panel discussion with representatives from Skejul, Inventr, Juristat. Moderated by Prof Fred Niederman.
- “Model Serving for Deep Learning” – Hagay Lupesko, Amazon Web Services
Needs-based scholarships available through the generous donations of the conference sponsors, Nvidia, WWT, Express Scripts, Maritz, Lewis & Clark Ventures, Multiply, Lockerdome, and Bryan Cave. Reach out to them if you know someone who might be eligible.
