Inspire AI: Transforming RVA Through Technology and Automation
Our mission is to cultivate AI literacy in the Greater Richmond Region through awareness, community engagement, education, and advocacy. In this podcast, we spotlight companies and individuals in the region who are pioneering the development and use of AI.
Inspire AI: Transforming RVA Through Technology and Automation
Ep 20 - Tech's Most Creative City: A Conversation with RVA Tech CEO Nick Serfass
Ever wondered what makes a city truly tech-forward? Nick Serfass, CEO of RVA Tech, takes us on a compelling journey through Richmond's evolving technology landscape and explains why Virginia's capital is positioning itself as "Tech's Most Creative City."
Serfass reveals how Richmond's diverse ecosystem – spanning from FinTech giants like Capital One to emerging biotech startups and advanced manufacturing – creates a unique environment where innovation thrives across multiple sectors. Under his leadership, RVA Tech supports approximately 200 tech-related businesses through advocacy, community building, and talent development initiatives designed to make Richmond a premier destination for tech professionals.
The conversation explores how artificial intelligence is transforming both established enterprises and startups in distinctly different ways. For larger companies, AI provides operational efficiencies while simultaneously enabling entirely new business models and service offerings. For entrepreneurs, AI serves as a democratizing force, lowering barriers to entry and providing powerful tools to tackle complex problems in innovative ways.
What distinguishes this episode is Serfass' forward-looking perspective on AI integration. Rather than viewing artificial intelligence as a separate specialty, he envisions AI becoming fully integrated into the technology stack within a decade – a shift that will require upskilling across all professional roles, not just dedicated tech positions. His practical advice for developing AI skills through hands-on experimentation rather than formal training alone offers listeners actionable insights they can implement immediately.
Richmond's collaborative "big-small city" culture creates the perfect environment for this evolution, enabling rapid connections and knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries. Serfass' passion for building Richmond's tech presence is infectious, leaving listeners with a compelling vision of how mid-sized cities can become vibrant technology hubs through intentional community building and strategic innovation.
Ready to become part of Richmond's tech renaissance? Subscribe to Inspire AI for more conversations with the innovators shaping our technological future.
Welcome RVA to Inspire AI, where we spotlight companies and individuals in the region who are pioneering the development and use of artificial intelligence. I'm Jason McGinty from AI Ready RVA. At AI Ready RVA, our mission is to cultivate AI literacy in the greater Richmond region through awareness, community engagement, education and advocacy. Today's episode is made possible by Modern Ancients driving innovation with purpose. Modern Ancients uses AI and strategic insight to help businesses create lasting, positive change with their unique journey consulting practice. Find out more about how your business can grow at modernagentscom. And thanks to our listeners for tuning in today. If you or your company would like to be featured in the Inspire AI Richmond episode, please drop us a message. Don't forget to like, share or follow our content and stay up to date on the latest events for AI Ready RVA.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Inspire AI, the podcast that brings you dynamic conversations at the crossroads of technology, innovation and leadership. I'm excited to introduce today's guest, nick Surface. I'm excited to introduce today's guest, nick Surface, the CEO of RVA Tech. With a robust background spanning architecture, design and organizational leadership, nick has a unique ability to unite diverse communities around a common goal harnessing technology to spark transformative change. Before taking the helm at RVA Tech, nick served in prominent leadership positions in the architecture and design world, where he championed progressive thinking and the development of future industry leaders. In his current role, he applies the same forward-focused mindset to Richmond's thriving tech ecosystem.
Speaker 1:As the CEO of RVA Tech, nick is at the forefront of empowering local startups, established tech firms and the community stakeholders to collaborate, innovate and shape a more inclusive and dynamic technology landscape. Nick's passion for education, community building and strategic partnerships has made him a notable figure in Richmond's broader economic development scene. Under his guidance, rva Tech has expanded its reach, launched new initiatives and cultivated a powerful network of tech professionals who are dedicated to making Richmond a premier hub for tech talent and creative solutions. A premier hub for tech talent and creative solutions.
Speaker 2:Please join me in welcoming Nick to the show. Thanks, jason, good to be here.
Speaker 1:Looking forward to our conversation Outstanding, and thank you for joining us today. So can you start us out by telling us a little bit about yourself, your business and your interest in AI?
Speaker 2:Sure Thanks, jason. So my name is Nick Surface and I run the Richmond Technology Council. We are a local trade association spanning about 175 to 200 businesses, all with tech-related or tech-adjacent capabilities or focuses or related to tech in some way. We do our best to build the best tech community. We can create the most vibrant tech ecosystem here in Richmond as possible, and we really do that through three pillars. The first is by advocating for the tech sector through policy and advocacy. The second is by building tech community through events and programs. The third is by fostering a tech talent pipeline, mostly through our foundation, professional development workshops, programming, things like that, all with the North Star and the goal of creating a more vibrant and high profile tech town for the city of Richmond, creating a more vibrant and high-profile tech town for the city of Richmond Outstanding.
Speaker 1:And you've been with the organization for what? Six years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been here a little over six years now and I have a background not only in architecture and design from my early days but as an association professional running associations. My previous role was very similar to RVA Tech in terms of the size and scope of the organization, working with architecture students on a national scale to put on programs and do some of these same pillars that we do at RVA Tech. But when I came to RVA Tech about six years ago it was an opportunity to level up the organization. I came to RVA Tech about six years ago it was an opportunity to level up the organization. The organization had built itself pretty robustly from its start in about the early 90s and had built some programs, had built a great women in tech conference, had a very sizable awards, gala golf tournament, all those kind of typical association elements. They were looking to go to the next level and kind of expand programming and impact. And that's what I kind of came in to do and it was an exciting challenge and it continues to be because tech continues to evolve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. I love hearing about the early stages of organizations and seeing how leaders kind of kick into overdrive and find new areas of opportunity, a lot of opportunity for AI. I feel like you're at the helm in the time of great advancement of technology. This is going to be an exciting path forward for us all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great time to be in tech. It has been as long as I've been here, I think, tech we used to say every company is a tech company when I first started, but now that's started to evolve into. At one point it was every company is a cyber company because you needed that capability company to a degree and that continues to evolve and change and grow and that's just exciting to see and it means that there's always something unique and interesting for us to work on and to build.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. I understand that Richmond has a mix of established enterprises and emerging startups. In your view, how is AI uniquely helping these two sectors?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they provide unique opportunities for both large enterprise companies as well as startups. For us at RVA Tech, we're certainly more ingrained with the enterprise side of things and we're seeing those companies really invest in a couple different angles. The first prong is just more efficiencies in their own processes, procedures and the way that they conduct their own business. So automation is always something that these companies have been working on and working to perfect since they started and since they grew. But now with AI, that's just scaled up to another level where the impact of those automations are even more significant. Almost on a week-to-week basis, I'm hearing stories about how companies are just changing procedures and processes literally almost weekly or monthly, if not. So we're seeing those companies get better at what they're doing and get more impactful and more efficient. The second prong of that side of the equation is we're seeing them spin up new business processes or new business value, new business elements. They're doing things that maybe they weren't doing in the past or weren't capable of doing so potential new services for their customers, potential new products and new offerings. So these businesses that have obviously built to a large scale are now poised to continue to build, which I think is exciting for them and certainly is great for Richmond as a whole in our ecosystem. Exciting for them and certainly is great for Richmond as a whole in our ecosystem.
Speaker 2:On the startup side, we're just seeing the reduction of another barrier to entry here for startups. I think with AI there's a new element to add value or to bring a unique value proposition to the table. Companies are starting up not just with an idea, but with an idea tied to tech, meaning we want to change a particular problem or solve a particular problem, and now we have a new tool to do that. So it's not just we're a new fintech company or we're a new biotech company, we're a new biotech AI company that automates a particular process or procedure or, you know, provides a value that didn't exist before. So it's a whole new kind of tool in the toolbox for entrepreneurs and provides, you know, kind of the floodgates of opportunity, so to speak, to create new companies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, as you were explaining some of those various layers of change for each of the sectors pointed out, I think I feel like we're at a moment where of resetting their business approach in discerning what it is they should be doing with their products and services and how they can leverage these technologies and very easily seeing themselves go from mature back to innovative states of change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely we're. We're seeing that that big strategic question asked across the board of you know, should we be using this? And you know the answer is usually yes. And then, if so, how and at what stage of our process? Are we just trying to elevate our legacy systems a little bit better or, like you said, are we trying to go kind of go back to square one and innovate and say, you know, if we were to wipe everything clean and start from scratch using this technology, where would we go?
Speaker 1:100%. Yeah, that sends chills, Honestly. I've been thinking about this for a long time and I think all companies are at the moment of figuring out what to do, and the world is their oyster right now, especially with the fact that politics, in the state that they are, are not taking advantage of the regulatory operations and they're allowing the innovation to proceed uncut right Raw. Let's see what we can make of these technologies and don't stifle innovation. So now's the moment for every single company out there, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jason, you make a great point with the regulatory side, because we spent a lot of time, especially in the early part of the year, with the General Assembly, and you're right. And you're right. The last couple of years have been the wild wild west, certainly for AI and. But we're starting now to see more and more legislation start to peek through. The number of bills and the number of pieces of legislation that we're tracking and involved in either supporting or opposing has exponentially increased just in the last two years.
Speaker 2:But it's still not figured out there isn't one universal piece of legislation in any particular state. That is kind of the North Star for anybody. So it still is very much the wild, wild West which, like you kind of were starting to highlight, creates opportunity. It means innovation can happen. Right now there's not a lot of framework or a lot of regulation. At the same time, you know, there's the conversation around ethics and are we paying enough attention to the results and the ramifications of what we build? Build which you know I think it's been some of the critique of social media and algorithms and machine learning.
Speaker 2:You know that we've seen through social media over the last, you know, five to 10 years. Those things are so mature now that we're starting to see the some negative impact and it's like oh, why didn't you think of that 10 years ago or five years ago? You should have been thinking about that. And as technologists, I think a lot of times we're head down in building the product, not necessarily envisioning all the philosophical and ethical ramifications five to 10 years down the road.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah. Got a lot of a lot of room to improve the way we think about these technologies for sure. So let's move to how do you think AI is changing the job landscape over the next three to five years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great question. I think it's probably the number one question that I get. I think even more so than how should I use AI? What tools should I use? Is my job at risk? How does my workforce change? How do I change how I manage my human capital and so forth? Do I change how I manage my human capital and so forth? And I'll tell you from our perspective at RVA Tech, with our 200 members, I think tech talent is probably the number one most significant element concern item that is on their docket. Are we attracting the right talent to town? Are we upskilling the talent we have? Are we building the pipeline we have?
Speaker 2:And now, with AI, that conversation continues, but now with a whole new lens of this new technology, which is a more democratized or accessible technology than anything we've ever seen. And I think you and I know that that's probably what's causing a lot of this increase or explosion in AI is that everybody can use it, from an elementary school kid up to a grandparent, and it's just so easy to use. And when you look back and you look at the roadmap here and you look at some of the other technologies that at one time were emerging and unknown things like search engines or just the internet itself, or then mobile phones and then evolution of different types of mobile phones, where we got to voice and then we started to get to AI with Siri and some of those things, and those were all very unknown pieces of tech that got democratized or accessible really quickly and then we're able to skyrocket and become just part of the average tech lexicon of any individual on any given day. And I think that's where we're going with AI and also why the job question is so critical, because AI is going to be just part of the tech stack in anything we work on.
Speaker 2:I think we're trying to segment it right now or maybe we're not trying. It's being segmented as its own topic or its own subject matter expertise, when in reality, I think in 10 years, it's just going to be part of tech. It's going to be a piece of everything we do, similar to cyber and security. We've got to keep our new tech secure. Whatever that tech is, whatever application we're building In 10 years, whatever application we're building, we'll have to have a machine learning and an AI component, and the smarter it is, the more impactful and the more business value it's going to have. So job roles are going to need to have this expertise incorporated into it At almost every level, from not just deep tech software engineers and coders, but, you know, to marketers and managers and product project managers and product designers, anybody who's. Yeah, I mean, it's going to capture 360 degrees of the workforce, and it's just a matter of how quickly we can get everybody to that point quickly we can get everybody to that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have this debate regularly in AI Ready RVA's leadership community about how technical do we need to consider the future workforce, whether they believe themselves to be tech or not. You know, I think there's an evolution here that it's only seen by certain job families unless you have a bigger macro view of the role of technology in the job market. And what I'm saying here is think about what you said a few minutes ago about companies becoming more tech capable. Said a few minutes ago about companies becoming more tech capable. So six years ago, that was when you were seeing companies say, okay, I want to be a tech company and starting to make big shifts in strategy to become a tech company. And then you said companies, because they're leveraging more tech. They need to mitigate the risks with leveraging the technologies. So now they're cyber-fronted companies, so you have a tech cyber company.
Speaker 1:And then now we have AI coming in all directions. We are now becoming AI companies and, like you said, I think you're more than alluding to the fact that you're speaking to it and I'd love to double click on people in all of these various roles that are not technically tech related roles. They need to upskill. What would you say to them about thinking about their future? How do you feel we are embracing the opportunity to upskill the technologists who don't necessarily see themselves as technologists, but are going to be technologists whether they see themselves or not. Like if you agree to that, I'd love to hear your opinion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I do agree, and I think there's a couple different angles to the upskilling in terms of potential. Sure, there is the standard we need to upskill our work. Let's say I'm a manager at a company, I need to upskill my workforce, and so I'm going to put them through standard training and that type of thing. And that's always going to exist and always has. You can always send people to workshops, you can do degree programs, certificate programs, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:I think what's different here with AI is because it's so accessible and democratized is that there's more of an ability for anybody to upskill their tech capability on their own in this particular sector, meaning they don't necessarily need to go to a degree program or a certificate program or any particular formal training to get some useful skill and ability to provide business value in a job. And I'll use an example of something I said at a panel at VCU recently. You recently, one of the questions was what would you suggest to students in terms of how to learn AI or come out of the door upon graduation with a portfolio of AI skills? And what I highlighted was that I don't think you need to just go to your business school or engineering school and take a bunch of AI courses. I think what would be even more valuable to students or anybody else is just to start applying AI to particular projects that you're working on and say, you know, deliberately and intentionally to yourself on this new project I have, I'm going to try to implement an AI, you know, platform or technology of some nature to just learn, to just figure out how it could work, and maybe that's as simple as hey, I have a content plan for social media, I'm a marketing manager, I'm going to use a particular platform to generate at this time, and you start to do these things and all these different projects, and maybe you do that for six months and then you look back and you're like you start to realize that you're going to be able to tell your people, your co-workers, oh hey, look back and you're like you start to realize that you're going to be able to tell your people, your coworkers, oh hey, you can use this for that, you can do this for that, or I tried this for this particular problem and you start to develop your own portfolio of skills just by, you know, experimenting on your own, and that is a unique element of AI that I don't think we've had in tech. You know, to a degree that's this accessible in a long time and the average person can't go experiment with cybersecurity technology on the backend and say they can't build a project management Excel sheet and say, okay, how do I protect this? But they can implement AI elements. Implement AI elements. And there's so many tools and platforms in AI now that there's literally there's something customized for almost every business problem. Where we're getting to that point and so, yeah, it's something I enjoy.
Speaker 2:Doing myself is just, throughout different projects, saying you know, what can I apply here? Is there an AI element that I can just test? And you know we're a small company where we're just five people, a nonprofit. But you know we're looking at automation and how to aggregate our data better and analyze our data better and execute our processes better so that our five people are more impactful and can be scaled up to. You know what 10 people used to be able to do. But the only way we're doing that is by testing and experimenting on our own. You know there's no, there's not necessarily a class or a certificate that says, hey, nick, here's how to run RVA tech better with AI. You know, in a two-week course, but I can spend two weeks trying to, you know, to build AI into our new CRM in some way and figure out how to automate invoicing or put a plan for conference programming together or checklists or customer service draft emails, things like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, as you're explaining, your five person company approach and leveraging AI makes me think that you know. What I've heard recently is billion dollar companies can be run by one or two people these days because of the ability of of these automations to work to our advantage.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I believe it and keep going. Man, there's so much there. There may be a contraction on one side with, hey, we don't need 100 people to do this particular thing anymore, but with all these tools and capabilities, it would be sweet to have 100 people over here just innovating and driving forward some new product development, some new innovations and things like that to build a business.
Speaker 1:Totally. Yeah. I believe that vision is going to steer companies away from the risk of chopping roles for the sake. That's what we must do with the growing opportunities in this new economy of ours. So, yeah, I want to spin back to the three pillars that you've been talking about and discuss a little bit more about the RVA tech strategy and supporting the community through your technology innovation and helping individuals and businesses embrace the change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, thanks, jason. I appreciate the chance to talk about RVA Tech a little bit more from what I said last time and say that really are kind of one of our main goals through whatever we do, whether it's programs or strategic pillars or just day-to-day processes our North Star is to try to build Richmond into the best tech town it can be, and what that is and how that's defined is different for different people, but ultimately we know that we'll be successful. If there's a higher profile of Richmond nationally as a tech town, there's more people coming to town to take jobs here. When recruiters call people from outside of town, they have a sense of what Richmond is and they have a little bit of a brand around Richmond that they can identify with. And if they don't know anything about Richmond, that we have resources to point them to, to say, hey, look, look at all the cool things that happen here in Richmond and why it's such an attractive place to live, work, play and build technology. And so that's ultimately what we're trying to do is, you know, build Richmond to the best tech town it can be. And so how we do that and how we get there along the way is kind of the evolving strategy and also dictates what tactics we put into place.
Speaker 2:But we have three essential strategic pillars and the first and foremost is community building in terms of all of our events and programs and membership and building a community of technologists that have one place to gather together, where they know they can go to for tech programming, for tech networking, for tech community, for connections if they need help with something. Or a lot of times you guys probably get it too. I get tons of new ideas oh, it would be cool if RVA Tech did this, did this, did this. So we're one central hub that can kind of vet all those things and say, oh yeah, like this would be great, we could do that or no, that doesn't make sense for Richmond, or vice versa, and we can really, you know, kind of pick programming and try to build things that advance our community.
Speaker 2:So the tech community is the first part. The second is the tech sector itself, which here in Richmond, one of the things I always highlight is the diversity of sectors we have here in town, which I don't think a lot of people outside of Richmond really know that there's FinTech with Capital One and all the banks, but there's also a great biotech scene and there's a health tech scene with. Vcu Insurance has a big presence here, with Kinsale Insurance and with Markel we have advanced manufacturing. A lot of people don't even know that Sabra Hummus has a big plant down in Colonial Heights. We have Lego coming to town very soon.
Speaker 1:Really that's exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we have an entire center for advanced manufacturing just in South Richmond that is poised to just build capability and economic development around that sector. And then you look at just technology itself. You look at companies like CoStar who own apartmentscom and homescom, and they're building an internet, a set of internet properties. You look at CarMax, which, yeah, it's retail to a degree, but that retail now is almost a significant percentage is online. We're not going to the parking lot to shop for cars as much as we used to and the online presence has to be robust and support that retail component. So CarMax is very much a tech company itself and I know I mentioned Capital One in the FinTech space, but really they're almost just all tech in a lot of ways that just happened to, you know, ultimately build it around the financial sector and we're seeing new companies every day.
Speaker 2:You've highlighted a handful of times the startup scene here is really robust and interesting. There's all kinds of new things happening from things that are deep tech. There's a company called Nearsense that's doing bioinformatics for the military and for soldiers. There's a great company called Brandify that's doing cosmetics and democratizing high-end cosmetics in a subscription service. There's all kinds of really cool, really wild, very diverse things happening here in Richmond. And so as we build the tech sector, it's important to know that that sector is more than just Capital One, it's more than just CarMax.
Speaker 2:It also includes state government, which is you know, a lot of people I don't think always think at the forefront of spending.
Speaker 2:That government is one of the biggest spenders, you know, in the state and in the country, and so that's a business that a lot of people serve.
Speaker 2:So we do our best to elevate the tech sector, whether that's bringing companies to town or creating a healthy environment for companies to exist and to operate here, and we do that through relationships with government, being at the General Assembly and then working on policy both locally and statewide throughout the year. So the tech sector is pillar number two, and then pillar number three for us is tech talent, meaning that we want to build, attract and retain a strong workforce here in Richmond and technology and you know at the early stages, that's our K through 12 programming, and so we have a specific foundation here in town that raises money just to support K through 12 initiatives foundation here in town that raises money just to support K through 12 initiatives they're happening here in the city, they're happening in all the different counties and we're always kind of surveying the landscape to see where we can infuse support to help build those programs and then a specific name to that program.
Speaker 2:It's called the Richmond Technology Foundation OK, so our 501 C3. And so it works to fundraise donations and put on events to raise money to support K-12 initiatives Very cool. And then with attraction retention, it's a little bit of creating a great community here but also speaking out and promoting Richmond as a city, and we do that through our brand platform called Richmond, virginia Tech's Most Creative City, and so we've spent the last few years really developing this brand platform to help people understand that Richmond is a very creative town. That's an element and characteristic that is authentic to Richmond.
Speaker 2:It exists in the tech sector, but it also exists in the arts and culture around town. It exists in food and beverage, it exists in the music scene. There are countless elements of creativity that have a foundation here in Richmond, particularly if you look at VCU or the Brand Center and some of those things. Art and culture and creativity have always been core to Richmond, and so we're trying to let people know that that's also infused in the tech sector and that that's a kind of a brand for Richmond that we want everyone to know. So you add those up together the community, the sector and the town and hopefully we are building a higher profile. You know state for Richmond Virginia.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, very nice. So this is kind of off the cuff here, thinking about your tech talent pillar, and you have uniquely identified the creative community to support them in the tech talent initiatives. Do you have other directives or is it really just solely about raising our K-12 technologists of the future and our creatives, making Richmond Tech's most Creative City? I love that. Honestly, I wouldn't consider myself a creative, but I am exploring the means of supporting local businesses with creatives as my partners, and they have a wonderful perspective, honestly. But is it really just those two that you've summarized or is there more to it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's certainly more to it. So certainly at the institutional level, with VCU, with the University of Richmond, with our extensive community college system, which includes Reynolds Community College, bright Point Community College not only helping them build and advise them on curriculum and programs, but partnering with those programs for workforce development initiatives. So we always have our eye on grant opportunities and other programs kind of in that space that can help support workforce development at the collegiate level. So that's something that we're always looking for partnerships with. We're also looking to highlight some of the apprenticeship programs, mentorship programs, mid-career, transitional training programs, things like that, that exist around town to really move people over to tech. And there's a lot of the workforce that comes to tech, not just from the pipeline K through 12 and collegiate, but they come from career transitions, and so there's a handful of great mentorship programs and apprenticeship programs and even companies here in town that support those types of things. One in particular is Max Potential here in town, where their entire business model is built upon, simultaneously bringing in private projects and clients and pairing them up with apprentices that they train, that are kind of mid-career, uh, you know, uh, professionals that are transitioning into tech. So there's a little bit of all of that, and then you couple that with economic development, um, as well.
Speaker 2:So, whether it's pure economic development, with the greater Richmond partnership, virginia Economic Development Partnership, and then the counties in the city as well and their departments, anytime there's a tech company that's thinking of coming to town we're generally in those conversations which is always a fascinating place to be, and it's an opportunity to sell Richmond, and the more companies and the bigger and more diverse tech sector we have, the more talent is going to be attracted to be Richmond, and the more companies and the bigger and more diverse tech sector we have, the more talent is going to be attracted to be here. We always tell people you may come here for a job at Capital One or CarMax or something, but if you're in your late 20s or early 30s, you may not be there forever, so you need to know that there will be other options for you as well, as your career moves and grows, and so that's what we try to highlight about Richmond is the reason you come here may not be the reason you stay here. There's lots of reasons to stay, so oh, I love that.
Speaker 1:All right, OK. So, Nick, how can local business leaders and technologists collaborate to ensure Richmond stays competitive in the AI space?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a few angles here where leaders and technologists can kind of come together in Richmond, and one of the great things about Richmond is that it's a big, small city, so the community here is very collaborative city, so the community here is very collaborative. A lot of us see each other at similar events and similar places around town and have relationships or know each other, and whether that's a leader or even somebody who's new to the technology community, the pace and speed at which you can kind of come up to speed on a Richmond network is pretty quick. And, with that said, one of the best ways I think to kind of really advance this AI space is just bringing people together for conversations, where they're connected, where leaders have a chance to talk to the technologists and vice versa, where, when they come to, let's say, an RVA tech conference we just had our data and AI summit a couple of weeks ago there are sessions there where we have C-suite leaders sitting in the audience that are listening to a panel of people who are putting together the backend of machine learning on a day-to-day basis and they're not necessarily taking away technical coding and that type of thing they're looking for. What do I need to keep in mind when I'm building my tech stack or managing my tech team. What kind of questions do I need to ask? And that's what they're learning from technologists, and vice versa.
Speaker 2:Technologists are hearing leaders on the stage talking about what their main challenges are, what their opportunities are, what they see in the landscape ahead, what their visions might be, and that helps technologists start to go back to their desk and think, oh gosh, I heard that this is the real problem, or I'm so head down building a particular component. I'm not thinking about what the ultimate goal is here, and that's been one interesting element of AI overall. Is that these conversations help with? Is that there's so much possibility with AI, but you can't do everything, or not everything makes business sense.
Speaker 2:You know it's like you've got to prioritize. Just because it's an AI opportunity doesn't mean you should take it, and so that's one of the unique or the necessary elements of collaboration between leaders and technologists. There has to be an open dialogue between the two, because it's really easy as a leader to see something that see an article, see, attend a session and say, oh gosh, I need to institute this in my company. Or vice versa a technologist learns a new capability and wants to apply it, but really they've got to come together and figure out if it makes business sense, because it's going to take time away from something else you might be working on. So, yeah, those collaborations need to happen. Certainly, rva tech events or AI ready RVA events are great places, but also just in the workplace and you know, day to day, being in the office or in boardrooms, having those conversations about prioritization and understanding both the deep tech and the strategic tech, you know will help make good choices.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. When you first set out to describe those collaborative moments, the environment that we need to build and take advantage of, I thought about AI Ready, rva's cohorts. The cohort scene is starting to establish itself pretty prominently in the community and I feel like there's definitely opportunity for us to just keep going in that realm of exploration and just build, build, build. Have you become aware of our cohort scene and is there any specific advice you would give to us overall around how to manage and keep the conversations going through our cohorts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, jason, I think your cohort model is the most fascinating element of what you all do, to be honest, I mean, ai is certainly, as a topic, at the forefront of almost every programmatic thing I see around town these days, whether it's ACG, rva, tech, ai Ready, rva, even just academic panels and programs. Everybody is trying to figure it out or understand it. But I do think your model of the cohorts is really interesting because it creates community at a different level that doesn't exist right now, at a more intimate, close, collaborative level. Going back to the previous question about getting business leaders with technologists um, uh, you know that's, a cohort is a really intimate um place to do that. You also are able to do more frequent hits along the way.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know if it's monthly that you're doing or bi-monthly or what have you, but uh, either way, those those types of you know frequent, you know rhythmic opportunities to gather together, I think are really compelling and important. And that's how we look at our conferences in a certain way. Those are certainly bigger nodes throughout the year, but we see them in a similar fashion of okay, you know, once every month or two, you know, there's a conference where our community can come together and there's a different angle each time and there's a different focus to each conference. But it isn't a big note on the calendar. That you know is repetitive throughout the year and you all kind of have that, you know, at a more intimate scale with the cohort. So I think it's it's really interesting and fascinating.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:On the flip side. You asked about. You asked about things to watch out for. So when I first came on board at RVA Tech, we had one conference it was the Women in Tech Conference and then, over the course of the last six years, we've both grown and contracted those conferences.
Speaker 2:At one point we had seven along the way and it just became too difficult to do everything well along the way and it just became.
Speaker 2:It became too difficult to do everything well and we started to get into areas where maybe weren't our core competency or didn't have a big enough audience to really create a critical mass. There just wasn't a demand for it. So at one point we move up to seven. We're now down to five and we may even contract or or, you know, blend some things further to four to make sure that we're putting on quality programming as best we can, you know, for the portfolio we have. So we are, we are trying to double down on on quality over quantity as we we move forward, and so but that's something that you know we've learned and tested over the last six years and there are programs that we have that we wouldn't have if we didn't test and grow, and so but not everything works, so you just got to be able to cut bait and you know, trim down when it makes sense and figure out what's working and what's not, and then double down on what's working.
Speaker 1:Quality over quantity. Yep, that sounds great.
Speaker 2:Richmond, like I said, is a big, small town and so it's a lot of the same community, a lot of the different things, and so understanding how each organization you know has a unique value proposition and what that value proposition is and what it does differently from others is critical.
Speaker 2:You know that's a lot about communication and marketing and being, you know, clear and transparent about what everyone's doing. But I think collaboration, or highlighting that collaboration exists and that we're all working together, really provides the most benefit and the most bang for your buck, because I think we all have something to offer. But they're different scales, they're different, maybe a little bit different angle, a different audience or something where if everyone worked together a little bit more seamlessly, we could probably scale things quicker and have a bigger impact. And there are other organizations in town, not just you and I, but Startup Virginia is part of the conversation, greater Richmond Partnership Chamber, RVA, and certainly you know, key local government leaders the mayor is obviously critical, you had him at your opening, you know, power of Possibility event. Other industry leaders, c-suite folks at Capital One and CarMax and Dominion and CoStar and on down the line, whether it's big companies and startups, and so bringing people together and making sure everyone knows that we're here for collaboration, I think is the biggest opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yep, as you said, a unified front within the community, absolutely All right. So, looking ahead, how do you envision RVA Tech evolving its AI related programs and how can the broader community get involved in shaping that future?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, we are a small association that is volunteer led and volunteer driven, so we are always looking for volunteers in all components of our organization, whether it's the different conferences, whether it's policy, whether it's the foundation and workforce. So encourage people to volunteer online and get involved with RVA Tech if they're not, because we are always evolving and growing and expanding what we're trying to do. You mentioned related to AI programs. It's been interesting over the last few years because, as our volunteer committees look to put on programming whether it's our cyber conference or a data conference or our product conference the last couple of years have been all about AI. Whether it's an AI track or an AI lens, an AI subheading, it's all. Even our data summit has become the data and AI summit. Our cyber con has now has a an AI lens almost to everything it puts on on the stage. Product Fest is doing the same, and so there are AI components in everything we do, and I think that just speaks to the fact that it's just becoming part of the technology stack.
Speaker 2:And, as we look at RVA tech programming, we are trying to create large kind of evergreen, sustainable catch-all, you know, umbrellas that then, you know, allow for emerging tech to change and evolve over time, and so, hopefully, our data and AI summit will stay that way, and the tech behind it and the AI that changes and the machine learning that changes will be lumped into the programming. Same with cybersecurity, the same with product Women in tech is certainly demographic-based, but that will be sustainable and evergreen and it's just what they choose to highlight underneath it, and so that's how we look at. Our programming is what can we create that's sustainable and evergreen and allows for the evolution of tech? Because we started in the early 90s and tech is very different today from where it was then, and so we want to make sure that we can accommodate the topic that we look to, you know, to showcase.
Speaker 1:Yep, sounds like we just made a full circle, nick. Back to AI is everywhere. Ai is impacting everything and we need to be thinking about it as such. So all right, nick, it's been an awesome interview so far. I have one last question for you. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
Speaker 2:Jason, this is really easy and it's probably going to be a very unusual superpower. But if I had the ability to bring a professional sports team to Richmond Virginia, that's what I would do. Ability to bring a professional sports team to Richmond Virginia, that's what I would do. I think everything we do at RVA Tech and you guys do at AI Ready RVA is a step in the right direction to help Richmond. But if there could be one big bang for buck thing that could transform this town and put it on the map a little bit, I think it's a professional sports team.
Speaker 1:Which type of sport Nick sports team.
Speaker 2:Which type of sport, Nick? I'd probably go a little. Look, we're a big, small town. We're a community-based organization. I keep it to something that's family-friendly, that is accessible. I keep it to hockey or baseball, something that's fun that you go to as an experience.
Speaker 2:We certainly have baseball already with the Squirrels that do pretty well. I love for hockey to come back to Richmond because it's just something that is accessible, it's democratized, it's fun for families, a lot of different creative, cool things you can do with it and the scale is a little bit different than NFL or something like that. Yeah, I'd love to see hockey back in town.
Speaker 1:The old Richmond Renegades yes sir. Oh my gosh, that takes me back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been a fantastic time with you today, Nick. I really appreciate all of your valuable insights. I know the community will enjoy this episode and I really am excited about the partnership between RVA Tech and AI Ready RVA going forward. There's so much synergy here to be had. It really gets me excited and I am very much looking forward to the next year or two down the road where we really start ramping up and helping Richmond become the tech community that it can be. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Awesome Thanks, jason, and I hope more people come to Tech's Most Creative City.
Speaker 1:Excellent, All right man Take care. All right, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in today. If you or your company would like to be featured in the Inspire AI Richman episode, please drop us a message. Don't forget to like, share or follow our content and stay up to date on the latest events for AI Ready RVA. Thank you again and see you next time.
