8:30 AM - 9:15 AM - Badge Pickup / Coffee / Networking

Description: Healthcare innovation is accelerating—AI, cloud platforms, and digital communications are transforming care delivery—but trust is fragile and the stakes are high. This panel brings together security and risk leaders from a major health system and a major payer, plus a secure healthcare communications platform leader, to share what it takes to scale HealthTech safely. Learn how healthcare organizations prioritize threats, manage third-party risk, approach AI governance, and build secure-by-design technology ecosystems that protect patients while enabling progress.

Speakers: Moderator: Bethany Young Holt, PhD, MPH Founder of CAMI Health
Panelists: Michael Mosier — Interim Chief Information Security Officer, Sutter Health, Loretta Hall — Director of Information Security (IT Risk Management), Blue Shield of California, Mike Stowe - RingCentral, Healthcare Division

Description: Healthcare decisions often happen in crisis, under time pressure, and with limited information—especially in behavioral health and senior care. This panel features founders building real HealthTech infrastructure: an AI-powered marketplace for crisis response and trauma-informed care, a transparent platform for finding senior living and care, and a pharmacist-led model aligning health and wealth for longevity. Learn how these platforms earn trust, solve marketplace challenges, build partnerships across the care ecosystem, and measure real-world impact.

Speakers: Moderator: Evelyn Milani, President — Avanti Recruitment Solutions
Panelists: Chris Stambaugh — Founder & CEO, HOPELY, Christina Bremner — Founder & CEO, Purple Door Finders, Dr. Sarah Almilli — Founder & CEO, EverMint Health

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Catered Lunch

Description: HealthTech is evolving fast—but the winners will be the solutions that improve outcomes, experience, and equity in the real world. Join technology leader Trinh Ngo and a panel of health innovators spanning managed care transformation, AI-powered nutrition and prevention, and addiction medicine to explore what's working in behavioral health, how to build trust and engagement, and how to measure impact that matters. Expect practical insights you can apply whether you're building, buying, or scaling HealthTech.

Description: Your business has systems. Your health and habits should too.

In this highly interactive 60-minute workshop, Jeromy Zajonc — founder of Running Water Coaching — will guide you through a powerful personal reset design session where you'll build your own 75-Day Health + Habit Reset.

This session is built for driven entrepreneurs who want to:

If your business is growing but your personal performance feels inconsistent, this workshop is your structured reset point.

This is not theory. It's a working blueprint and you'll love it.

Bring a friend, business partner, or spouse — shared accountability accelerates results.

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM - Coffee, Networking, Welcome address

Description: Modernizing government services and industrial infrastructure isn't just a technology challenge—it's a delivery challenge. This panel brings together leaders in enterprise scaling, public sector digital transformation, and industrial automation to explore what works when upgrading complex systems: moving from pilots to platforms, optimizing procurement, integrating legacy tools, and driving adoption across stakeholders. Expect real-world lessons, scalable frameworks, and practical steps for building smarter, more resilient communities and operations.

Speakers: Moderator: Taryn Grows
Panelists: Tony Fortenberry - Open Solutions For Government, Maulik Datanwala - CEO Convey, Kevin McClusky - Chief Technology Architect - Inductive Automation

Description: Government services should be easy to access, simple to understand, and usable by everyone—including people with disabilities and families navigating complex needs. This panel explores how accessibility, modern UX, and human-centered leadership combine to create better public experiences. Learn practical steps to embed accessibility into content, design, and procurement—and hear real-world perspectives on what the public actually needs from GovTech.

Speakers: Moderator: Tiffany K. Martin
Panelists: Amy Jacobs-Schroeder - CEO of Happy Ladders, Andrea Nguyen - Design Director Koi Studios, Jeff Adams - Vice President, Accessibility Operations UsableNet

Description: Government technology is improving, but too many initiatives still get stuck in procurement, pilot purgatory, or low adoption. This panel brings together a transformation expert, a local government modernization leader, a GovTech founder working directly with agencies, and an AWS partner leader who supports thousands of software providers. Learn what’s working in GovTech right now, what needs to change to deliver faster and better services, and the practical steps agencies and vendors can take to make innovation stick—responsibly, securely, and with real operational value.

Speakers: Moderator: Michael Lopez
Panelists: Robby Gill - Manager, Emerging Technology Partnerships AWS, Jessica Crone - Management Analyst II - City of Rancho Cordova

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Catered Lunch

In this casual format Matt Winans discusses the various stages and challenges facing technology companies from infancy through exit, welcoming audience participation, and questions. Discussion topics include: Your idea becomes a reality – Choosing an entity: pros and cons and long-term considerations. Discuss §1202 Qualified Small Business Stock benefits and quirks: why it’s so popular and where it can go sideways. Equity Based compensation: Why the small details matter. Research and Development: Monetizing your research spend to help mitigate payroll taxes Turning on Revenue and key considerations. Expanding into a foreign marketplace: This calls for careful consideration and a tempered approach. Scaling pains: Keeping the house in order amid chaos. Capital fundraising: Important items to keep on your radar. Ready, set Exit! What it looks like, what to do and what not to do. In this session you will: Better understand navigating the lifecycle of a technology company and the often-overlooked areas that can cause significant pain points down the road. You will come away better equipped to mitigate taxation and maximize your exit value.

Description: From PLCs to LLMs: The Next Evolution of Intelligence in Industrial Automation
Artificial Intelligence isn’t new—but its impact on industrial automation is entering a transformative phase. We’ve moved from early AI concepts to machine learning and deep learning, and now to large language models (LLMs). While ML already drives value through anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and advanced analytics, LLMs add something fundamentally different: natural-language reasoning across complex systems with real-time context.

With Ignition’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), live operational data, metadata, and system structure can be securely exposed to LLMs—enabling conversational diagnostics, contextual root-cause analysis, and decision support grounded in plant data.

In this keynote, we’ll cover two high-impact use cases in Ignition: (1) accelerating project development so teams can build dashboards and applications faster, and (2) connecting MCP to LLMs to deliver contextual intelligence that helps engineers and operators make smarter, faster decisions.

This isn’t about replacing people—it’s about empowering them. AI is a force multiplier that augments expertise, speeds insight, and helps teams solve problems at a new scale. The shift from connected systems to intelligent systems is here—and Ignition is helping lead the way.

Description: AI is showing up everywhere—from music and coaching to computer vision and startup products. This panel showcases real AI use cases across creativity, business, and industry, with practical breakdowns of how they work, what problems they solve, and the guardrails needed for responsible adoption. Expect clear examples, plain-English explanations, and take-home ideas you can apply immediately.

Speakers: Moderator: Alex Sanders - Award-winning, Billboard-charting producer
Panelists: Renata Bell - CoFounder Your360AI, Oliver Chen - CTO/co-founder of Neural Labs, Justin Fortier - Founder of Fractal Group

Description: AI is everywhere—but most SMBs aren't seeing results yet. This panel cuts through the hype and shows what actually delivers ROI: the workflows to automate first, how to measure impact, and how to implement AI systems that save time, reduce costs, and increase revenue without disrupting your team. You'll hear practical playbooks from operators, growth leaders, and performance marketing experts focused on real-world SMB outcomes.

Speakers: Moderator: Matthew Loughran, EMBA - Founder ZenRank.co
Panelists: Jeff McLeod - Founder/CEO of 10x Solutions, Ulysses Alvarado - Founder of Vintel A.I., Nicholas Haystings - Founder of Suite Fleet Virtual Assistants

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Catered Lunch

Description: AI is changing education faster than policies can keep up. This panel brings together leaders from community college AI programs, K–12 and workforce pathway builders, and human-centered AI research to explore what AI literacy should look like now, how to use AI tools responsibly in classrooms, how to preserve academic integrity without stalling innovation, and how to ensure equitable access for all students. Expect real examples, practical frameworks, and clear next steps.

Speakers: Moderator: Luciano Oviedo - Lead Researcher - LearnHaus AI
Panelists: Dr. Suha Aljuboori - CCCCO AI Fellow; Chair of Artificial Intelligence Department at Folsom Lake College, Donna “BasicTaq” Walters - Founder/Executive Director of College Esports, Allison Schiffmaier - Computational Cognitive Science student at UC Davis

Location: Movement Brewing - Rancho Cordova

Speakers: Moderator: JP Morgan, Chief Innovation Officer, Human Machine Collaboration Institute (HMCI)
Panelists: Greg Connolly, Founder/CEO, Kora Power, James Regan, CEO, Clutch, Ashraf Abdelwly, Head of Corporate Services- Corp. Real Estate, Workplace Experience, Construction, Facilities Operations, EHS & Security, Solidigm

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: Granite City Town Hall

AI-powered tools have moved far beyond text prompt and response. Now you can create websites, mobile apps, automation programs, video games, or AI agents using a text prompt interface.

Attend this mini-workshop to see and learn:

We will find out in this workshop with a live demonstration! We will pick someone's idea from the audience to build it right in front of you!

Sponsor: Micro Biz Launchpad
www.microbizlaunchpad.org

About Micro Biz Launchpad:
MBL traces its roots to the first Folsom Tech Week in February 2025. This nonprofit empowers community members and entrepreneurs across California to take charge of their future by launching micro businesses powered by AI and automation. These intensive events deliver hands-on tools, fresh inspiration, and high-quality relationships with some of the most inspiring people in the no-code, vibe coding and tech entrepreneurship worlds. Their next Launchpad Weekend is March 14 & 15, 2026, in both Sacramento and Orange Counties.

Location: Granite City Nook

Founders & Funders Breakfast is a casual, high-signal morning meetup on Startup Day where entrepreneurs connect with investors, advisors, and ecosystem leaders over coffee and breakfast. Come build relationships, swap insights, and kick off the day with the people helping fund and scale the next wave of startups.

Description: Ready to raise—but not sure where to start? This session breaks down the real funding stack (bootstrapping, grants, accelerators, angels, VC, and venture debt) and how to use entrepreneur programs to compress time and unlock access. Hear what funders look for in the first few minutes, what kills deals in diligence, and what you need to have prepared before you start taking meetings. You'll leave with clear next steps and a 90-day fundraising prep roadmap.

Speakers: Moderator: Graham Peck - Technology investor/operator; Venture Partner at Cultivation Capital
Panelists: Eva Shepherd-Nicoll - Executive Director ChicoSTART, Monty Montgomery CEO of MontPac, Cameron Law Executive Director, Carlsen Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Description: The startup playbook has changed. Today’s founders can build faster with AI-native tools, finance growth through new models like venture studios and community-driven capital, and launch with GTM systems that blend brand, distribution, and execution from day one. Join designer and community builder Dennis Delgado with Growth Factory leaders Ali Mackani and Rick Spencer, plus FirstGen Agency founder Raheel S. Malik, for a tactical breakdown of what the “modern startup” really looks like—and what to prioritize in your first 90 days to earn traction and win.

Speakers: Moderator: Dennis Delgado - CEO- SyncFab
Panelists: Rick Spencer — Managing Partner, Growth Factory, Ali Mackani — General Partner, Growth Factory Ventures, Jarrett Hult - Founder & Principal Advisor - HK Advisory

Description: A startup doesn't scale because the product is "good"—it scales when you build a repeatable go-to-market motion and the right team to execute it. In this panel, founders and GTM leaders break down how to go from early traction to predictable growth: choosing the right GTM strategy, tightening messaging, hiring the first critical roles, and building a simple revenue system that doesn't fall apart as you grow. Walk away with practical frameworks and the most common "scaled too early/too late" mistakes to avoid.

Speakers: Moderator: Brian Hammond — VP Sales - FYC Labs
Panelists: Jennifer Pinter — Head of Growth, Jennifer Pinter Consulting, Heather Wilson — Revenue Enablement Manager, Pavilion, Igor Goldenberg— CEO, Podium Teams

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Catered Lunch

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | Location: Granite City Town Hall

Artificial intelligence is transforming how we build, design, and communicate but what happens when we use it to create culture?

In this hands-on workshop, Billboard-charting producer and creative technologist Proptheproducer (Alex Sanders) explores the creative side of AI through music. Participants will learn how to use AI tools like Suno to generate original songs, experiment with prompting techniques, and understand how human intention shapes machine output.

This session goes beyond pushing buttons. It demonstrates how AI becomes an instrument and how the quality of your ideas determines the quality of the result.

Participants will have the opportunity to generate original songs that may be showcased during Friday evening's free community concert, highlighting how AI can empower everyday creators.

This workshop is designed for creatives, technologists, educators, entrepreneurs, and curious community members who want to understand not just what AI can do, but how to use it intentionally.

Close out the week at Zittel Amphitheater with a high-energy closing concert featuring a couple of live performers—plus AI-generated music created just hours before showtime. Then keep it going at the afterparty at Uncle Charlie's Firehouse & Brew for drinks, hangouts, and one last night with the community.

530PM - We Kick off with Lyric Michelle Fernandes is a dynamic vocalist making waves in the Northern California music scene. Known for her captivating stage presence and soulful voice, Lyric has built a strong following through performances throughout California including the Tahoe/Reno area. Her talent extends beyond performance—she is also an accomplished songwriter, frequently traveling to Nashville to share her original music with wider audiences. With a blend of heartfelt songs and powerful vocals, Lyric continues to leave a lasting impression wherever she performs.