Are you ready to thrive and succeed in life, school, and work? In this engaging and informative keynote, Dr. Jermaine shares practical tips to help you recharge, stress less, and beat burnout. You’ll discover how to reimagine your professional brand, increase your personal influence, and successfully communicate up, down, and across your organization. Get ready to walk away energized, equipped, and ready to level up as you position yourself to flourish in all areas of your life. Get ready to laugh, learn, and have fun with Dr. Jermaine as you learn how to thrive from the inside out.

Dr. Jermaine M. Davis is a bestselling author, award-winning professor, and keynote speaker who helps organizations build high-performing teams and thriving workplace cultures. As Founder of the Dump The Slump Institute, he specializes in two areas: building high-trust teams using his 3 C’s Framework (Communication, Cooperation, and Collaboration), and helping people recover and rise stronger after setbacks.

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As AI continues to redefine industries, the biggest opportunity isn’t replacing people. It’s empowering them. This session will explore how organizations are equipping their workforce for the AI era, how teams are successfully integrating AI into their daily work, and how professionals can use AI to amplify their productivity, creativity, and influence. Attendees will leave with practical insights on staying competitive, building an AI-enhanced personal brand, and positioning themselves for success in the future of work

Jess Teske, Vice President of Operations, has 20 years of Information Technology Recruiting, Sales and Human Resources experience.

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Fear is universal — but it doesn’t have to be a roadblock. This interactive 45-minute session equips professionals with the mindset, science, and practical tools to take bold action even when fear shows up first.
Grounded in research from thought leaders, participants will explore how fear works in the brain, why staying comfortable carries its own risks, and how courage is a skill — not a personality trait. Through reflection activities, real-world scenarios, and hands-on exercises, attendees leave with concrete strategies they can apply immediately.
What you’ll walk away with:
1) A new understanding of fear as a growth signal, not a flaw
2) Practical tools including micro-bravery, fear-setting, and courage anchors
3) A personal commitment to one brave action this week
Whether you’re leading teams, navigating change, or simply trying to speak up more — this session will challenge you to feel the fear and do it anyway.

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Generative AI is everywhere — but most products fail to deliver real value, and customers are tired of being forced to use chatbots that add friction instead of solving real problems. Drawing from firsthand experience, including both successful deployments and costly missteps, this session explores why some AI products succeed while others crash and burn. Attendees will learn how to:Identify problems that GenAI can actually solve — not just hype
Evaluate product-market fit for AI solutions
Assess whether their data, infrastructure, and model constraints can support a GenAI product
Prioritize AI investments using a structured innovation framework. This talk equips attendees with practical tools to critically assess GenAI opportunities, ensuring their next project delivers measurable value instead of becoming another chatbot no one wants to use.

Katherine Taylor is a Senior Customer Solutions Manager at AWS and a 2025 Grace Hopper speaker. She’s worked in both early-stage startups and FAANG, designing and bringing GenAI products to market.

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In this session, Vallie will take attendees inside that unforgettable day, sharing firsthand details of the flight, the water landing, and the dramatic rescue that followed. More than a survival story, her experience became a turning point — and she’ll share the key learnings that reshaped her perspective, hopefully inspiring and motivating everyone to treasure each and every day. After all, as Vallie puts it, “every day is a lucky day!”

Back by popular demand as an encore from last year’s expo, Vallie will also share the life lessons she made a point of passing on to her kids — moments and messages she’s grateful she never missed the chance to share.

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As both a keynote speaker and panelist, Misty Mayes shares insights from her journey as a founder and leader in today’s evolving business landscape. She addresses the challenges and opportunities women face in entrepreneurship, emphasizing resilience, strategic growth, and leading with purpose. Misty also explores what it means to lead with authenticity and impact, highlighting the importance of adaptability, courage, and empowering teams to drive innovation and meaningful change.

Misty D. Mayes is the Founder and CEO of Management Solutions, LLC, with more than 30 years of experience delivering mission-critical solutions across energy, national defense, and technology-driven programs. Under her leadership, MSLLC has managed programs exceeding $36 billion across all 50 states, providing mission assurance, project delivery, and independent assessments for government and commercial clients. She specializes in strengthening portfolio execution, improving operational effectiveness, and implementing data-driven, scalable solutions aligned to mission needs. Misty has led major initiatives such as the $3.5 B Department of Energy’s entire IT portfolio including AI and Cyber security and her company was also just awarded for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) $1.5B project to manage the entire technology portfolio across all 45 Districts and over 90 countries.

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Real talk. Real strategies. From moms who are living it right now — and lived to tell the tale.

You’ve color-coded the calendar, set three alarms, and still somehow forgot it was pajama day. Sound familiar?

Join four powerhouse working moms — spanning every stage of the chaos — as they pull back the curtain on the systems, hacks, and hard-won wisdom that help them show up fully at work and at home. Whether you’re surviving the toddler years on caffeine and courage, navigating the school shuffle, holding on tight through the high school sprint, or rediscovering yourself in the quiet of an empty nest — there’s something in this conversation for you.

No judgment. No perfect answers. Just practical tools, honest moments, and the kind of advice you’d get from a friend who’s already been there.

Allie Carlisle is a Business Analyst at Pilot Company, where she has spent the past two and a half years supporting areas including sales, marketing, loyalty, digital, internal technology, and guest services. She especially enjoys the visual side of analytics — building dashboards and reports that are clean, organized, and visually appealing. Allie’s path into tech was not traditional; her interest in data started at a virtual bookkeeping company, where she discovered how much she enjoyed taking detailed information and organizing it in a way that felt clean and easy to follow. Outside of work, Allie is a mom of two — a 6-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son — and is currently in her “finding hobbies again” era.

Alison Jones is a Senior National Enterprise Account Manager at Comcast Business, where she partners with national organizations to solve complex technology and connectivity challenges. Throughout her career, she has learned that success is built on strong relationships, curiosity, and showing up consistently, even when things do not go as planned. Outside of work, Alison is a wife and mother of two (ages 6 and 17) and is actively involved in her community through service on her neighborhood HOA Board and with the Junior League of Knoxville. Like many working parents, she balances customer meetings, school schedules, family responsibilities, and the occasional “Mom, I forgot…” phone call or unexpected sick day. She believes leadership is not about achieving perfect balance but rather adapting, giving yourself grace, and finding joy along the way.

Lisa Porterfield – Lisa has spent most of her 30+ year career with CGI, a global IT and business consulting firm. With roots as a software developer, over the years she moved through various leadership roles, ultimately bringing her to her current Vice President position, overseeing one of CGI’s strategic accounts in the Southeast. She is the proud mother of 2 women and lives with her husband in an empty nest in Chapel Hill, NC.

• The AI Filter: How to spot the difference between overhyped AI fluff and tools that actually remove friction and deliver measurable value.
• Workplace Time-Savers: Practical hacks to automate mundane administrative tasks, fight approval fatigue, and protect your focus.
• The “Life Hack” Playbook: Brilliant, real-world ways to use AI outside of work to manage household logistics, family schedules, and fun.
• Brain Spa Tips to Overcome AI Fatigue: Tangible boundaries and neurological resets to help you shut down the screen, de-stress, and fully wash the AI sludge off your brain at the end of the day.
• Local Inspiration: Real insights from our own WiT community members who are already using AI to change the game.

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