The AI Movement with Brooke
The AI Movement with Brooke, explores how entrepreneurs, founders, creatives, and leaders are navigating the rapidly changing world of AI.
Through real conversations with people building, experimenting, pivoting, and growing with AI, Brooke goes beyond the latest tools to uncover how this technology is changing the way we work, make decisions, build businesses, create, and define success.
The AI Movement with Brooke
Building Miami's AI and Tech Ecosystem | Melissa Medina, eMerge Americas
Miami's tech scene took years of deliberate work to build. Melissa Medina, CEO and Co-Founder of eMerge Americas, joins Brooke to share how a conference created to fill a gap became a year-round platform for founders, investors and emerging technology.
Season 2 opens with a conversation about what deserves attention now. Melissa explains how she looks past AI branding to find real customer traction. She also shares why quantum deserves more attention and why first-time adopters should begin before they feel ready.
If AI still feels like a room where everyone else knows more than you, this episode is for you.
In this conversation:
- How Melissa and her father built eMerge Americas
- What helped Miami grow into a global technology hub
- How investors separate meaningful AI companies from trend-chasing
- Why Melissa is bullish on quantum and deep tech
- The growing connection between technology and national security
- How the eMerge Global Startup Accelerator supports early-stage founders
- Melissa's advice for people who feel intimidated by AI
About Melissa
Melissa Medina is the CEO and Co-Founder of eMerge Americas and a Partner at Medina Ventures. She has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, community leader and philanthropist.
Under her leadership, eMerge Americas has grown into a global technology conference that attracts more than 20,000 attendees from over 50 countries. The organization also supports South Florida's technology community throughout the year with summits, startup programs, workshops and investment resources.
Connect with Melissa
Mentioned in this episode
- View eMerge Americas events and startup programs
- I’ll be attending the Miami AI Summit. Learn more and register to join me there.
Listener offer:
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How I AI is now The AI Movement with Brooke.
LinkedIn: Brooke Gramer
Website: TheAIMovementPodcast.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only, not legal, financial, medical, business, technical, or other professional advice. Guest views are their own. Information may change, and accuracy, safety, or results are not guaranteed. Verify information and consult a qualified professional before acting. To the fullest extent permitted by law, The AI Movement, Brooke Gramer, and EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC disclaim liability arising from reliance on this content.
We host weekly workshops. We arm them with digital tools. We arm them connecting with investors and corporate partners. And at the end of the day, if they succeed or they make valuable connections, that's the positive snowball effect that we want. We want them to succeed. They're going to hire talent, they're going to raise funds. So for us, it's critical to give support and resources to these founders.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the AI Movement Podcast. The space where modern entrepreneurs and founders come to stay current and navigate their next move with AI together. I cover the conferences, sit with the people leading this shift, and I bring it all here. Broken down, without the hype, whether you're building something, pivoting your work, or trying to keep ahead ethically. You are in the right place. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome back. I'm your host, Brooke Gramer. Before we get into today's conversation, I want to take a few minutes because this episode is a special one. This is the first episode of season two. And if you've been listening since season one, you probably noticed something pretty major. The podcast has a new name. How I AI is now becoming the AI Movement Podcast. There was a practical reason behind the name change because when I started How I AI, the question I was really obsessed with was simple. How are people actually using this stuff? I wanted to talk to real individuals and professionals in the industry about what tools they were trying, what was working, what wasn't, and explore how AI was showing up immediately in their businesses and personal lives. But we're in a different place now. AI isn't this new thing we're all standing around trying to understand anymore. Most of us have experimented with LLMs, we've tried different tools, different models, and we're living inside the change here and now. And that's what I want season two to be about. I'm more interested in asking, what are we doing differently as a culture because AI exists? What are entrepreneurs changing about the businesses that they're building? What happens when something you spent years learning can suddenly be done differently? What happens to creativity when we can generate almost anything from AI? What about trust, privacy, the environment, the ways companies are hiring, the kinds of businesses people are actually starting? And what are the things that we shouldn't be outsourcing to AI just because we technically can? Some of these conversations this season are going to still be extremely practical. We'll talk about things like building products, utilizing AI agents, and what founders are successfully implementing. But I also want to have more conversations around pivoting your career, your identity, embracing creativity, balancing ethics, judgments, our relationships, and what all of the societal change is asking from us. Because I don't think we need more hype around AI, and I don't think we need more fear around it either. The interesting story here is what are we doing as a culture in response to the AI movement? Who are the people building something new? The people changing direction, those that are creating the resources in the communities around this. Who are the people doing great work in our own cities? Which brings me to today's guest, Melissa Medina. And honestly, I can't think of a better person to kick off season two of the show. I recorded our conversation live at eMerge Americas here in Miami. One of the first things I told Melissa when we sat down is that she is genuinely one of the reasons why I continue to live here. And I meant that. Because when people talk about Miami becoming a major tech hub, it's easy to talk about it like it just happened. That suddenly people moved here, investors showed up, startups started popping up out of nowhere, tech events started appearing consistently. But ecosystems don't just magically happen. People build them. And Melissa Medina has been doing that work here in Miami for more than a decade. She's helping build the ecosystem where new companies, technologies, investors, and ideas actually have somewhere to come together. She's the CEO and co-founder of eMerge Americas, which she founded with her father, Manny Medina. And what I love about their story that she shares today is that eMerge really came from this combination of love of Miami and frustration with what was missing here. Flash forward to today, eMerge has become a year-round platform for Miami Techs community with events like an annual AI summit, frequent workshops, startup programs, investor connections, and of course the massive annual conference. Today we get into what Melissa's paying attention to right now and what she thinks founders should be thinking of as all this continues to change around us. So get cozy. Welcome to season two. Welcome to the AI Movement Podcast. Let's dive into my conversation with Melissa. Melissa, thank you so much for being here. It's an honor and a privilege. Thank you for the opportunity. We are day one, Emerge 2026. Opening day. Yes. And I really um wanted to share with you that you're a big part of why I continue to live in Miami. Oh, thank you. The tech ecosystem and everything that has been built within this city and the innovative nature and spirit for entrepreneurs is just it's a very tough place to be right now. So thank you for all of your work. Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to share more of the story. And for those who are unsure about what eMERGE is, or if you can even just take the time to share a little bit about yourself and how you founded eMERC, co-founded eMERGE.
SPEAKER_01So um eMERGE was essentially born from two emotions. It was a place of passion. My father and I co-founded it, and we're very passionate about this community in particular. My father was born in Cuba and came here at a young age, and we really felt that we landed in, you know, the city of opportunity. And so this is why we're so passionate about this community. And then we were also very frustrated. So having worked in a technology company prior to founding this, uh, co-founding this with my father, it was very difficult to evangelize Miami as a tech hub. It was very difficult to hire talent or entice talent to come and work with us at a company that was focused on IT infrastructure and cloud computing services. So kind of bottling up that frustration and passion, we said, is there anything we could do to help foster, help foster a tech ecosystem here? And in studying thriving tech ecosystems around the world, we realized that there was a common element of a convening that brings together all these stakeholders under one roof. And at the time here in Miami, that there just wasn't one. So we found a void in the market and took us two years to plan the first one. We opened in May 2014, and here we are 12 years later. This is certainly sort of the culmination of what we do year-round. But it is a full year-round platform now, and you know, we're using multiple elements to continue to help grow this ecosystem.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and when it comes to the Emerge Conference in particular, since my podcast is primarily focused on artificial intelligence, I'd love to hear how you selected the talks for this year. What is something that has staying power?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so hence the name Emerge. Uh, we are always looking at emerging technologies and what's next, you know, what's going to transform not only our professional lives but our daily lives. So we, you know, and the content team works really hard at what we should focus on and how we could inspire, you know, our attendees that are here with speakers from all over the world with different points of view, views, and we this year landed on four key verticals. So deep tech, which is AI and quantum. I mean, if you're not talking about AI, you know, you're missing the boat. And quantum is is very rapidly becoming that that important as well. So we felt that we should really concentrate on that. And then fintech, fintech happens to be the industry in our state that has the most venture dollars. Um, so we're kind of tracking that data. Health tech is right behind fintech, so that's our third um pillar and and vertical, and then very importantly, a new kind of pillar that we started three years ago is national security and the importance that technology plays in the safety of our country.
SPEAKER_00I want to pull on that thread of national security because it seemed to us, it seems like you expanded on those stages this year.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it has its own dedicated stage this year for the first time. And what's the thought process behind that? So it's just something that we feel is extremely important right now. I think there are multiple countries that are racing to be uh, you know, the most advanced when it comes to technology, and we feel that this is just something that's critical for us to focus on. Um, it's also a massive opportunity, in our opinion. You know, kind of the convergence of technology, innovation, dual use and defense technology. So we don't only focus on defense tech, we also focus on those technologies that can be used in the private and public sector. So there's a lot of common threads between the other verticals that we're focusing on here too, and we feel that this one is critical that we continue to grow.
SPEAKER_00When it comes to government partnerships, how do you keep that cohesive nature and how does it prevent the tech and innovation from slowing down?
SPEAKER_01I think that, you know, historically, I think people think of oh, the government is not as advanced, or they are maybe it's not that they're not as advanced, but they are a little bit more uh cautious yet in adopting technology, which is understandable, right? They want to be sure, they want to test things over and over. But I think what we're realizing with uh government agencies that we work from from the local, state, and even federal level, um, I think across the board they're realizing the importance of focusing on entrepreneurship, innovation, and you know, exploring more options within that space. And so I think that that's really happening now. So it's changing, that dynamic is changing.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for elaborating on that. They say that whatever we're experiencing, the government has been using for 10 years at least. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_01That's right. They take their time, but it understandably makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Um, my next question for you is if you could share a bit about growing the tech and startup communities here. As you mentioned, you're supporting these communities all year round. Yes, is starting eMERGE. And can you share a bit about that process of like how you've had the staying power last through the whole year?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so thankfully, an amazing team that comes up with amazing ideas of how we can continue to engage our network, how we continue to grow our network. So we it's very um, you know, we throw, we whiteboard a lot, but we're also very thoughtful in making sure that everything we're doing year-round kind of threads and culminates here today. So you'll see throughout the year we have 30 or 40 other events. There'll be one that'll be only focused on national security. There'll be another one that's just focused on health tech. We do a fairly large um event called the Miami AI Summit, really focused on deep tech and some like technical workshops, and we bring in thought leaders just around that space. It's just continuing the conversation year-round, and technology changes so much. So I think for us to only do something once a year would not really be in our community and ecosystem's best interest. Absolutely. So, how can we continue the conversation, and that's why we're doing stuff year-round.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for that. I attended the Miami AI Summit and I loved it. Yeah. Are you doing it again? We are. We absolutely are. Excited. Absolutely. My next question for you, since you're an investor as well, correct? So, how has AI changed what feels worth investing to you versus what is just trendy?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think, you know, we have to be careful because now AI is so democratized, which is great, right? Um, but it also, you know, it's also a part of every single pitch or company now. So weeding out, you know, how are these applications or solutions being used, what's the customer traction, what are they saying about this AI application? So it's a lot of discovery, a lot of conversations, and kind of weeding out what's real, uh, what is really streamlining um efforts and doing a lot of due diligence. Because every company now has some sort of AI element, every single one.
SPEAKER_00What I'm just starting to learn about myself is quantum.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Do you invest in quantum or okay? We do very early now. Uh I think quantum is something that we see as a as a massive emerging technology, and at some point we'll be as available as AI is. So we're yes, we're tracking it very carefully. Uh, we've made a couple investments so far, and it's something that we believe is gonna kind of revolutionize a lot across verticals. So, yes, we're very, very much bullish on the entire sort of deep tech vertical.
SPEAKER_00Are there any other facets within tech or AI that aren't getting enough attention right now?
SPEAKER_01Meaning verticals or I think uh there are probably sub-verticals under the national security vertical that I think are now getting more traction, for example, specifically across Florida, the aerospace. You know, we have you know one of the states that has the most rocket launches, and I think you're gonna see more and more of that, and I I want people to pay more attention to that. I hear they do a lot of testing in St. Pete in the water. St. Pete. Yes. We have Homestead Air Force Base uh down here, down south, too, um, where they're talking about doing some um aerospace technologies out of there too. I think it's something that we're gonna hear a lot more of, but not just Cape Canaveral, which is where it is now. I think uh you're gonna see a much more statewide effort and then regionally as well. Exciting.
SPEAKER_00I'm really looking forward to your talk with Tim Tebow.
SPEAKER_01Oh, tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00Even though I'm a null. That's okay. It's okay. I'll still be there. Thank you. And what made you want to bring the conversation of, you know, purpose and staying grounded at a tech conference?
SPEAKER_01So, you know, entrepreneurs need resilience, they need grit, they also need inspiration. And I think who better than, you know, legendary athlete like Tim Tebow that not only is an amazing person on and off the field, so much to learn from him, but has also continued his business career. He's an investor, he's an entrepreneur, he's focusing a lot right now on combating child uh trafficking. Wow. And I and he's using a lot of tech in that as well. So there is um, you know, a number of reasons why it made sense to host him as a keynote here, and I, you know, I genuinely genuinely feel like our audience is gonna leave uh very inspired, and that's what we want.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful. My final question for you is just to share any key takeaways that you want to leave for listeners. My audience is traditionally first-time users, first-time adopters and founders in the AI and tech space.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I would say specifically for first-time adopters and users, uh, and I I'm definitely no expert, you know, I'm still learning myself, but I would say not to be afraid to join an event like this, or join a master class, which we do as well, or just continue to absorb the information, uh, you know, just virtually, digitally, because it's something that is gonna transform whether it's the company that you're building, your personal life, and so I would say not to be afraid to just kind of dive in, dig in. There's so many resources, but it is a little scary and intimidating at first. I'm not an engineer, I'm not a developer. Yeah, and so when I first started started learning more about AI, it's it's a little nerve-wracking. Yeah. Like, how do you even get started, you know? Um, so I'd say not to be afraid to just start learning more about it.
SPEAKER_00It really was a chance of luck that I received a complimentary pass to this event from a friend last year. Oh wow. And I had just started my podcast, and I remember feeling a little nervous. Of course. But I walked through and everybody that I met and and got to even see the Startup Accelerator program. My favorite program.
SPEAKER_01It's the heart and soul of our work.
SPEAKER_00Do you want to share a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01Sure. So the Global Startup Accelerator, we've been doing as long as we found it emerged, so 12 years. And it's specifically an accelerator program that helps founders pre-seed Cedar Series A. It's a six-week program. We host weekly workshops. We arm them with digital tools, we arm them connecting with investors and corporate partners. And at the end of the day, if they succeed or they make valuable connections, that's the positive snowball effect that we want. We want them to succeed. They're gonna hire talent, they're gonna raise funds, they're you know. So for us, it's critical to give support and resources to these founders. And they're so passionate, they're so excited, and it's just amazing to talk to them and hear what they're building. And so, yeah, that to me is one of my favorite parts of e-merge.
SPEAKER_00I can't wait to check out all the startup booths today. Thank you, and this has been such a roll rand a year later, and I really do credit everyone. Thank you for coming back, Bill. I appreciate that. And um, the ecosystem here is so approachable, yeah, and everybody is so welcoming and warm. So I thank you so much. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of the day. Thank you. That's a wrap on this episode of the AI Movement Podcast. If this conversation sparked something for you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're loving the show, a writing or review means everything. It helps more founders and career pivoters find their way here. Want to partner with us or bring the AI movement to your next event? Reach out. I'd love to connect. Until next time, stay curious, keep adapting, and move accordingly. If you're tuning into this podcast, you're most likely an AI advocate. And you may have also wondered how to support your body against the invisible stress of EMFs. Think Wi-Fi, cell towers, or hours in front of your laptop. Leela Quantum products are lab tested and triple blind studies and are proven to help harmonize and neutralize EMF signals. Their products are the few things I felt a real energetic shift from. And I personally wear their quantum energy necklace daily. And if you're someone who cares about optimizing your energy and nervous system like I do, you can explore their offers with my affiliate link in the show notes below.
