Name: Flower City AI 2026
Start: 2026-12-02
End: 2026-12-02
Location: The Little Theatre

Tickets now available

All tickets are for the full day of the conference including coffee and lunch.

General Admission: $40 Currently open as a 2 for 1 sale!
Sponsor: $200 For those who wish to help fund the event.
Students: $10 We're happy to offset the cost if you require.

Speakers

Max Irwin

MAX.IO

Max is the founder of MAX.IO LLC, Lumi.RE, and Flower City AI. Max has 25 years of experience in tech leadership and 10 years of experience in AI. As Chief Everything Officer, he builds and sells AI products to businesses that need predictable and scalable solutions. We develop state of the art AI agents, knowledge discovery solutions, and help companies incorporate AI in their customer facing products.

Brian O'Keefe

Neo4j

Brian O'Keefe is the Solutions Engineering Manager for the Neo4j Startup Program. He helps AI startups design, launch, and scale on graph technology. Brian has more than two decades of experience in software architecture and research roles, including at major companies such as Thomson Reuters and Amazon Web Services. He has spoken at major conferences, hosts a monthly video podcast, and founded Rochester Alternative Baseball, a nonprofit that serves the local community. He is a proud westsider from Ogden.

Tim Giles

Eigenlabs

Tim Giles is a life-long engineer and maker. He has led experiments with generative AI technologies since 2023, focusing on using local inference with proprietary data sets to get real work done. Tim has over 20 years of experience engineering unique solutions with Rochester, NY based defense companies and holds 5 patents. He currently splits time between engineering cutting edge solutions with Eigenlabs LLC (a Rochester, NY startup focused on free space optics, quantum sensing, embedded systems, and physics-based modeling) and TnK Innovations LLC (a design and technology company he founded with his wife, Kyla). Tim is also an active member of the 'It Begins in Brockport' makerspace in Brockport, NY where he is fostering a community of AI-savvy makers.

Clint Dovholuk

NetFoundry

Clint Dovholuk has spent over 20 years developing applications at the forefront of connectivity. Initially working for a Tier 1 telecom, he then migrated over to the M2M and IoT space before eventually landing with NetFoundry and focusing on truly zero-trust, programmable networks. Clint has a passion for enabling developers and spends much of his time with a sharp focus on the users of the software he helps create.

Kseniya Kalaur

Butler/Till

Kseniya Kalaur is a Senior Media Automation Specialist at Butler/Till, where she was hired as the agency's first automation specialist. She has an MS in AI in Business from the Simon Business School and focuses on building agents and automation across major ad platforms.

Elina Kokorotsis

In The Worx

Elina Kokorotsis is an HR Tech and People Operations leader, and the founder of In The Worx, HR Consulting. With nearly two decades of experience in HR technology, people operations, learning and development, and organizational strategy, she helps business leaders, HR professionals, and organizations turn complexity into clear, practical action. Her work focuses on connecting - and translating between - people, systems, and processes to strengthen employee experience, improve operations, and prepare organizations for the future of work.

Nick Koziol

University of Rochester

Nick Koziol is the Business Engagement and Communications Manager for the University of Rochester’s Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CoE-DSAI) and the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI). In this role, he works at the intersection of industry, academia, and applied AI, building partnerships that connect New York State organizations with University expertise, students, and resources to solve real-world challenges and drive economic impact. His work includes supporting collaborative AI and data science projects across a broad range of industries, including healthcare, and helping organizations explore how emerging technologies can be implemented thoughtfully and effectively. He is particularly interested in the opportunities and challenges surrounding responsible AI adoption, including how organizations balance innovation with ethical considerations, risk, and the needs of the people affected by these technologies. Nick brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education, nonprofit leadership, communications, fundraising, mentoring, and community engagement. He holds a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from SUNY Buffalo State and a bachelor’s degree in English from SUNY Fredonia. He is currently pursuing his EdD at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education. Nick lives in Bliss, New York, with his wife and four children.

Jyotbir Lamba

Simon Business School

I am a product manager and founder building AI-powered tools for the Indian watch community and experimenting with small, AI-first products. I have 6+ years of experience building products across AI, fintech, and e-commerce in India. As part of the founding team at DatingAI.pro, I worked across product and strategy, helping lay the groundwork that took the product to 700,000+ users. At Kotak Neo, one of India’s largest digital brokerages, and myDukaan, an Indian Shopify competitor helping businesses build and manage their online stores, I’ve solved problems for millions of customers and merchants across both B2C and B2B products. I’ve also led city chapters and organized 15+ events for a 200,000+ member volunteer-driven product community (The Product Folks), giving me a firsthand perspective on the role that community, events, and human connection play in building products and brands. Eternally curious about everything, I love solving problems for a living and am a startup and technology nerd. I am currently an MBA student at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School, exploring how the next generation of AI-first products are being built for humans and agents.

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Parking

The Little Theatre has a free parking lot off of Winthrop Street, directly behind the historic Theatre 1.

There is additional free parking further down Winthrop Street, in the lot between RDG and Redd Rochester.

On-street parking (paid) is available nearby on Winthrop Street, East Ave, Union Street, Pitkin Street, and Charlotte Street, to name a few.

Additionally, the East End Garage (paid) is just a short walk from the Theatre.

Registration 8AM-9AM	Coffee and Networking Meet in the lobby of Theater #1, get registered, enjoy some coffee, and meet your fellow attendees.
Morning 9AM-9:30AM	Keynote: Flower City AI 2026 Max Irwin
9:35AM-10:20AM	The missing layer in your AI stack Brian O'Keefe Most AI applications find information by similarity, which works well until a question depends on how things relate. Brian O'Keefe, Solutions Engineering... Most AI applications find information by similarity, which works well until a question depends on how things relate. Brian O'Keefe, Solutions Engineering Manager for the Neo4j Startup Program, will introduce graph databases to a general audience and explain how they store data as connected entities and relationships. He will show how graphs sit at the center of three of the hottest topics in AI: agentic memory, explainability, and GraphRAG. Organizations across Rochester's healthcare, education, business, and research communities hold data where connections matter: patients and care pathways, courses and prerequisites, suppliers and products, studies and citations. When an AI system cannot see those connections, it returns plausible answers that it cannot explain. This session will make the case that connected data gives AI agents durable memory, gives users traceable answers, and gives retrieval the context that vector search alone lacks. You will leave with a clear mental model of how graphs fit into an AI architecture and an understanding of where they improve accuracy, explainability, and reasoning. You will also take away a short list of use cases to evaluate in your own field. No prior experience with graph databases or AI development will be required.
	15 minute break
10:35AM-11:20AM	Sim Agent: Building an AI Assistant for a Scientific Simulator Tim Giles Building a scientific simulator to quantify light’s behavior for quantum-sensing is hard. Operating this type of software as a user can be even harder! At... Building a scientific simulator to quantify light’s behavior for quantum-sensing is hard. Operating this type of software as a user can be even harder! At Eigenlabs, we developed an optical quantum-sensing simulator that is usable without requiring a PhD in quantum physics. To achieve this, we developed "Sim Agent:" a dual-workflow system that pairs a standard web user interface with an embedded LLM agent. The agent understands all the capabilities of the software and can configure, run, analyze, document, and discuss complex physics simulations. This talk breaks down the architecture and lessons learned from building our domain-specific scientific assistant. We will explore key technical strategies, including crafting system prompts for strict behavioral boundaries, agent tools for deterministic math to eliminate hallucinations in precision calculations, and designing robust agent loops. We will also cover an innovative self-monitoring capability which enables the agent to automatically log edge-case failures or self-submit feature requests with full simulation parameters for instant developer reproducibility. Attendees will gain a practical blueprint for embedding AI assistants into domain-specific software. You will learn how to: balance agent autonomy with deterministic precision, handle strict domain constraints, and implement automated feedback loops that turn agent failures into new features.
11:25AM-12:10PM	Why Does Your AI Agent Have Your Keys? Clint Dovholuk Two years ago I was copying code from an AI chat window into my editor. That was pretty great. Now I have agents running commands, making commits and calling... Two years ago I was copying code from an AI chat window into my editor. That was pretty great. Now I have agents running commands, making commits and calling tools. I don't really write code anymore, but getting here was a journey. I work in zero trust, so I naturally think about least privilege: what access does this thing actually need? The productivity I get from using AI can't be overstated, but I refuse to let the agent run as me. I can't give it my SSH keys, my GitHub token, and the like. I found myself building increasingly strict and complex hooks to stop it from doing what I didn't authorize. This talk follows my attempts to put better boundaries around that access: hooks that blocked too much, a separate Windows account launched with runas, and Git rules that let agents commit without letting them push. I'll compare hooks in Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode, including how mine grew into sounds, tab titles and alerts. I'll also show how MCP Gateway, built on OpenZiti, lets agents reach tools without exposing them to the public internet. Expect things that broke, guards that missed, and the daily annoyances of giving your agent its own account. You'll leave knowing how to give your agent its own account, which hooks are worth writing, and what it costs you day to day. I'm on Windows, but the ideas carry over to macOS and Linux.
Lunch 12:10PM-1:15PM	Lunch will be provided Along with more networking!
Afternoon 1:20PM-2:05PM	After Automation Kseniya Kalaur Most conversations about AI and jobs stay stuck at the "before": predictions, percentages and headlines about which roles will disappear. This talk is about... Most conversations about AI and jobs stay stuck at the "before": predictions, percentages and headlines about which roles will disappear. This talk is about the "after". As the first Media Automation Specialist at a media agency, I was hired to automate campaign activation, and now I teach Activation Teams AI. Drawing on that firsthand experience building automation and AI agents across platforms like DV360, CM360, Meta and others - I'll walk through what really changed once tedious manual workflows started running on their own: which tasks vanished, which roles shifted and what new work showed up that nobody planned for. The goal is to move the perspectives away from the false choices between "AI will take every job" and "nothing will change". In reality, automation rarely deletes a job. It removes tasks, and that reshapes roles. How organizations handle that shift decides whether people end up being displaced or doing more meaningful work. Attendees will leave with a practical way to separate automatable tasks from the roles that hold them, a clear picture of how jobs evolve once automation is in place, and a playbook for running AI enablement that brings teams along instead of leaving them behind.
2:10PM-2:55PM	The Human Backlog: When AI Agents Start Waiting on Us Elina Kokorotsis What happens when AI agents can complete work faster than humans can review, approve, and manage it? As AI shifts from assisting employees to executing work on... What happens when AI agents can complete work faster than humans can review, approve, and manage it? As AI shifts from assisting employees to executing work on their behalf, we're heading toward a workplace where everyone becomes a manager of agents. But our leadership practices, organizational structures, and decision-making processes aren't designed for this new reality. The "human-in-the-loop" may soon become the "human-backlog". This forward-looking session explores the next productivity paradox, the changing role of human leadership, and why unlocking AI's potential will require more than better technology. It will require fundamentally rethinking how humans and intelligent agents work together.
	15 minute break
3:10PM-3:55PM	Navigating the Job Market with the Threat of AI Nick Koziol As artificial intelligence continues to transform the workforce, students and emerging professionals face an increasingly competitive and uncertain job market.... As artificial intelligence continues to transform the workforce, students and emerging professionals face an increasingly competitive and uncertain job market. With AI-generated resumes, evolving employer expectations, and concerns about automation replacing traditional roles, how can the next generation of talent truly stand out and secure meaningful career opportunities? This talk explores the evolving relationship between AI, higher education, and the workforce, challenging assumptions from both the student and employer perspectives. Drawing on real-world experiences connecting University of Rochester students with New York State businesses through the Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CoE-DSAI), we'll examine how companies and organizations can tap into often-overlooked opportunities to access emerging talent while providing students with valuable hands-on experience. We'll also explore how innovation, practical experience, and professional networking can help students distinguish themselves in a competitive job market while strengthening the talent pipeline between higher education and industry. We'll also examine the disconnect between what businesses think they need from AI and data science and the expertise required to implement these technologies effectively. From navigating the hiring process and developing practical skills to building professional relationships and recognizing opportunities beyond traditional career paths, attendees will gain a broader perspective on preparing for a workforce increasingly influenced by AI.
4:00PM-4:45PM	What 700,000 Users Taught Me About Dating, AI, and Being Human Jyotbir Lamba It’s early 2023. As new people start coming in, I get pushed into another passenger and happen to glance at his screen. He’s taking a screenshot of a Bumble... It’s early 2023. As new people start coming in, I get pushed into another passenger and happen to glance at his screen. He’s taking a screenshot of a Bumble chat and putting it into ChatGPT. After apologizing for looking over his shoulder, I strike up a conversation with him and it gives me an insight I already knew, but suddenly saw differently: Men don’t know how to talk on dating apps, especially those from an engineering background. After talking to more than 80+ people across genders, we built DatingAI.pro, an AI assistant designed to help people get better at dating. We went viral across social media, got featured in leading journals and reached 700,000+ users in just a few months. Along the way, we learned that people don’t necessarily want AI or need it, they want an outcome; that trust is a product feature, especially when technology enters deeply personal experiences; that personalization should make people feel understood rather than simply observed; and that too much automation can sometimes remove the intentionality that makes human experiences meaningful. I want to take the audience through this journey to come to the realisation and explore the broader question: as AI makes it easier than ever to build, what should we actually be building? The answer isn’t simply more automation or smarter AI. It is better human experiences.
4:50PM-5:00PM	Closing Remarks Max Irwin
Evening 5PM-8PM	After Party

Flower City AI

Wednesday December 2, 2026 - The Little Theatre

Agenda