Agenda/Schedule

The central hub for AfroTech badge pick-ups. Attendees can also get assistance with schedule access, venue navigation, and general event questions.

Great ideas don't build infrastructure. Aligned capital, capable partners, and clear pathways to implementation do. How do cities move promising solutions beyond pilots and into financeable, scalable projects that deliver lasting community value?

Join Ryan Taylor, climate technology investor and energy finance expert, and Noble Madu, Partner at Plente Group, with John Payne, Chief Financial Officer at Dream.Org, moderating.

Drawing on experience across utility-scale renewable energy, venture capital, investment management, and institutional partnerships, panelists will explore how public, private, and philanthropic capital can work together to accelerate infrastructure development. From project finance and commercialization to value capture and access to capital, the conversation examines the financial structures, strategic relationships, and investment opportunities needed to move from concept to construction—while ensuring economic returns translate into meaningful benefits for communities.

AI agents are booking meetings, writing code, and making calls on our behalf. So what happens when one goes off-script? Jeff Nelson breaks down what actually goes wrong when autonomous AI misfires, and how to catch it, contain it, and recover fast. 

The creator economy is shifting from brand deals to ownership. In this conversation, Jodie Taylor sits down with Jenee Naylor, founder of 12PM Studios sunglasses, to unpack how she turned influence into equity. They'll break down the shift from monetizing attention to building owned businesses covering capital, partnerships, and scalable brand strategy. Attendees will leave with real frameworks for turning cultural influence into tangible enterprise value.

Meet & Greet with Morgan DeBaun, Founder & CEO of AfroTech and Blavity, and author of Rewrite Your Rules.

See a list of all Official AFROTECH™ Event Partners HERE

Calling all HBCU engineers, past and present. Whether you’re shipping code at a big tech company, building your own thing, or still figuring out your first role, this one’s for you. Swap stories, trade career tips, and talk about what it really takes to grow as an engineer. 

Join Dani Bauer from OpenAI for a live demo of ChatGPT Work and dots, exploring how to bring your next idea to life, from planning content and organzing projects to building something new for your audience. Leave with fresh inspiration and practical ways to support your creative process, scale your impact, and grow your business. 

When disruptions strike, resilience hubs help communities access critical services, connect with loved ones, and maintain stability. Join Nneka Uzoh Kibuule, Founder and CEO of Kino Cove; Dr. Sequoia Riley, Independent Climate Consultant; and Chantel Greene, Chief of Tribal Relations at UnityCloud and Founder and CEO of Xexus Greene Energy, with moderator Jasmine Davenport, Dream.Org’s VP of Program Strategy. Together, they will explore how household preparedness, green infrastructure, Tribal-led solar and storage, and community partnerships strengthen climate adaptation, emergency communications, and continuity of essential services

Who tells a community's story shapes who gets to define its future. As cities evolve through technological innovation, infrastructure investment, and economic development, whose voices are shaping the vision—and whose stories are being left behind?

Join J Paul Johnson, Founder of BlackEverything.com, and Michael Hawthorne Jr., Co-Founder of Klean Energy Kulture, with Sean Wilson, National Director of Organizing and Partnerships at Dream.Org, moderating.

Together, they'll explore storytelling as essential infrastructure—a tool for preserving community history, elevating lived experience, building collective power, and influencing how cities invest and grow. From cultural preservation and climate storytelling to community organizing and economic opportunity, this conversation examines how residents can move beyond being subjects of change to becoming authors of their communities' futures.

Because building smarter cities isn't just about what we build. It's about whose stories, voices, and visions guide the way.

Entrepreneur, political leader, and bestselling author Stacey Abrams on Coded Justice, her Avery Keene thriller set inside a tech company building an AI system poised to revolutionize healthcare. Drawing on her experience co-founding multiple companies and leading in politics, she explores what happens when billions of dollars, a charismatic founder, and a fast-moving technology collide, and the moral boundaries that should govern what we build.

Layoffs in tech hit Black workers first and hardest. AI is accelerating that curve. Meanwhile, the professionals landing board seats, advisor roles, and next jobs before the old one ends all share one thing — a public personal brand they built while still employed. But Black corporate professionals are navigating landmines their peers aren't. Compliance reviews that hit harder. HR policies enforced selectively. The respectability tax. The real, rational fear of retaliation for speaking publicly about work. Roxy built Sloefy — a personal branding platform for corporate professionals — because she lived this. In this session she will walk through the Personal Brand Map framework she uses with clients, show attendees how to extract workplace expertise without crossing compliance lines, and leave them with a 30-day plan they can start Monday morning. This is not a "build your personal brand" talk. It's a leverage strategy for a workforce that needs one before the layoff email arrives.

Cities don't just need more innovation. They need solutions they can deploy. What does it take to move promising technologies beyond the pilot stage and into real municipal contracts, commercial opportunities, and community impact?

Join Kasheef Wyzard, National Director of Economic Opportunity at Dream.Org, and Dr. Reginald Parker, President of Freedmen Green Bank & Trust, as they facilitate the culmination of the Pilot to Profit accelerator.

This showcase features founders developing solutions aligned with real municipal challenges—from energy and infrastructure to resilience, housing, and community well-being. Through direct feedback, strategic connections, and engagement with potential buyers and partners, founders are on a journey to adoption, investment, and scale.

Because the goal isn't simply to showcase what's possible. It's to turn innovation into implementation—and create economic opportunity in the process.

Every team is being asked for more video: marketing, training, internal comms, exec thought leadership, and beyond. The requests keep growing, but the production team doesn't, and most of the work sits in a backlog.

In this hands-on session we’ll take a rough recording to a finished video in real time. Attendees will learn the AI tools in Descript that handle the polish that used to require a professional editor, then use Underlord, Descript's AI co-editor, to apply that same work across a whole project from written prompts. You give the creative direction. The AI does the edits.

Attendees will leave with a repeatable process they can run themselves or hand to their team.

The creator economy is evolving, and so are the opportunities for creators to grow and build their businesses. Join Snapchat's Talent Partnerships team for a conversation about how creators can expand their reach through Spotlight, build deeper connections with their communities through Creator Subscriptions, and explore opportunities to collaborate with their favorite brands on Snapchat. You'll learn practical strategies and discover the tools available to help you grow your presence and business on Snapchat.