Minnebar 18 Session Schedule

Explore the power of investment in shaping our collective future in this keynote talk. Hear about the speakers’ journey and the investments others made contributing to his success. Dive into the Minnesota computer science plan and its role in fostering youth talent, alongside the broader theme of community investment. Discover how organizations in the Twin Cities' tech space are actively supporting individuals at all levels, from youth initiatives to professional development programs, and more.

Join us to uncover actionable strategies for investing in your own success and the success of others, strengthening our community fabric. Together, let's ignite a collective commitment to investing in each other and our communities, forging a path for strong communities and empowered future for all.

Do you crave feedback on your project/product/service/hobby/idea?

Stop by and chat with experts in UX, Product, marketing, and much more.

Topics are open and varied. We're here to provide feedback and answer questions. But be warned, we like to ask "why". You may be challenged to think differently. And we might even discuss unexpected solutions.

If you're asking, "What might I get out of attending?" Past UX office hours have touched on topics like:

• How do I get my users to...?
• Help me identify my audience
• What's the best way to get feedback on my product?
• Do I have product market fit? If so how do I know?
• Would you give me a UX review on my project?
• How do I hire a good designer?
• I haven't identified competitors, do I have a valid service?
• How do I work with my engineering team?
• How do I work with my design team?

Where to find us: The UX Office Hours will be staffed throughout the event. Find us in the B1 building near the "living room", in the pods (small rooms with tables/whiteboards), or nearby. Look for volunteers wearing orange mentor badges.

Stop by to play some locally made games!

This year the arcade will have:

🎮 TVs running a selection of locally made video games

🎲 Tables with locally designed board games

🧠 Information about how to get involved with game development in the Twin Cities, including our chapter of the International Game Developers Association (igdatc)

💪 Volunteers on-hand to talk about all of the above

This thing is going all day long!

Your online data is at peril, subject to the whims of big tech! Where does your personal cloud data live, who has access to it, is it safe, and what is it being used for? These are all very important questions we should be asking ourselves in an increasingly online world. What if I told you that you could take back control of your data into your own hands? Better yet, you don’t need to be a tech wizard or development genius to figure it out; heck, I’m a UX designer!

In this session we’ll cover what some of those perils are, what some of the risks are that are posed by relying too heavily on cloud-based services, and tell you how to get started with self hosting and why you should give it a shot.

As of 2020, nearly 80% of digital tools incorporate some level of AI or Machine Learning. Today that number is even higher and the pitfalls of AI are becoming clearer. I'll share stories and provide real-world examples of algorithms enhancing humanity as a counterpoint to science fiction's HAL or Terminator.

By the end of this session, you'll see points of friction all around you that could be solved with AI and be inspired to create useful tools that make your users better humans.

The past few years have brought a series of catchy phrases that try to put a hipster spin on working for yourself: the creator economy, the influencer economy, the freelance life.

Over the past decade, I've transitioned from a career as a full-time freelancer to someone who had built what I like to describe as "the spoke life." It's a central skill, with a number of jobs and opportunities built around and connected to that hub like the spokes of a big wheel.

In the past six months, I've appeared on a high-profile TV documentary ("Quiet On Set"), been interviewed on more than 50 radio shows, spent ten days in Pasadena interviewing a variety of TV stars and executives, while building a newsletter that now has around 80,000 free subscribers and more than 3,200 paid subscriptions. I am working on my first book and adding additional items of merchandise to sell. And I've just begun what looks to be a new spoke: paid consulting. All of this is built around my core web site, allyourscreens.com.

While every person's skillset and talents are different, I'll walk you through what has worked (and more importantly, not worked) for me. Hopefully I can provide some inspiration and some words of warning.

And don't let your age stand in the way of your dreams. I accomplished all of this at an age where many people are thinking about retirement.

If you'd like to talk at Minnebar but don't want to plan a full session, this is the place to be! Just show up with your topic and up to 3 slides. (Also fine if you have no slides!)

Your topic does not have to be tech-related! Just something you'd like to share with the group.

Previous talks have included: Vegan Cooking, React -> Regret, How to Encourage Open-Source Contributors, Mental Health in Tech, Stock Trading Algorithms, and many other diverse topics.

We will organize lightning talks SHORTEST to LONGEST. So if you just want to discuss one quick thing, you're likely to get in. If you want 10 whole minutes, you might not get a chance, depending on how long the other lightning talks go. The best lightning talks are really quick!

You do not have to sign up in advance! You can just show up. But signing up will help us plan the time better.

SIGN UP SHEET: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ilrR_6dCXqJVG5bN2ykNTq2ronQU-vVoHjFIlwKYJZM/edit?usp=sharing

Is That Job Right for Me? And How Do I Get It?

If you're like most people, even if you have a great job, you wonder if you’re in the right job or career. Maybe you want to use your skills in a new company or to pursue a personal passion. Did you see a job posting that caught your eye, and you're trying to figure out if it's right for you? Or perhaps you found your dream job but your experience isn't right to be considered for it.

If you've thought about any of these, join this session! We will explore ways to think differently about your career, and how to assess if a job is a good fit for your skills, interests, workstyle, and personality. And learn how to get recruiters to notice and talk to you even if you're not the perfect match for the job.

Ever dreamt of building a custom arcade cabinet that can host not just one, but multiple classic games? Building your own might seem like a daunting venture, often simplified in tutorials that leave you guessing. Worry no more!

Join us for an engaging workshop where my 14-year-old son and I will demystify the process of constructing a 4-player arcade marvel. Equipped with top-notch switches and joysticks, our machine runs on a Batocera Linux OS, encapsulating the essence of retro gaming.

From raw materials like 2x4s and MDF sheets, we'll show you the step-by-step transformation into a vibrant, fully operational arcade cabinet—all within about 40 hours in your own garage.

This session will focus on the nitty-gritty of building both the cabinet and the control box. As a special bonus, the completed control box will be available for hands-on exploration. Bring your curiosity and questions, and prepare to dive into the world of arcade creation. Whether you're a novice looking to start your first project or a seasoned builder seeking tips, this talk is your gateway to bringing the arcade experience home.

Sneak Peek: Control Board wiring

Over the past 10 years, I've mentored over 100 people in the realm of cloud/devops/platform engineering, everything from 1:1 and group mentoring, to leading cohorts through AWS certification courses. I'll share the insights I've gained into the struggles they're facing.

This session will be great for those learning and those looking to teach our next wave of cloud-y engineers. Will gladly take questions if time remains.

Joining a startup is in many ways an irrational act - and yet it can be a very rewarding experience. Alex Bangs has been a founder and CTO/CIO across three Silicon Valley startups – and just started another. In this session, he’ll discuss lessons learned from the rollercoaster ride of creating and growing startups, and tips for people who are thinking of joining or founding a startup. Topics will include founding teams, financial realities, timing and luck, nurturing a mission-driven culture, learning and the pit of success, scaling yourself, having a life, and engaging with the community.

Dive into the whirlwind world of AI, where generative models like ChatGPT and LLama dazzle the public and dominate headlines. As these models captivate imaginations and promise revolution, businesses are left pondering how to harness this theoretical prowess for tangible, impactful applications. This session pierces through the spectacle to explore the nuts and bolts of truly optimizing large language models (LLMs) for specific business needs. We will dissect the integration of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), fine-tuning, and their synergistic potential, offering a blueprint for transforming raw AI capabilities into finely tuned tools that can predict outcomes, understand nuances, and drive business performance.

Our journey begins with RAG, a method that enhances model responses by dynamically pulling in information from vast external databases, thus enriching the context and relevance of answers. We will then delve into fine-tuning, a critical process that adjusts pre-trained models to better align with the unique datasets and peculiar challenges of your business, ensuring that the model not only understands general language but speaks the specific dialect of your industry. By combining these techniques, we unlock a new realm of possibilities, empowering technologists to not only follow AI trends but to lead them, crafting bespoke solutions that push the boundaries of what's possible in AI optimization.

If you have a mobile app on Google Play and/or the Apple App Store with ad mediation on Admob, AppLovin, Unity/IronSource, etc. let's trade notes.

In-app purchases strategies are fair game as well.

(Please schedule before 2PM and not during Student Developers if possible.)

In this session, we'll delve into considerations for startups contemplating equity fundraising. Beginning with the fundamental question of whether or not seeking investment is the right path for your venture, we'll explore the advantages and disadvantages of raising capital from angel investors and venture capitalists (and why the distinction between the two types of investors is important). We'll also talk about how to determine the amount of capital to raise, align this with market expectations, and prepare the necessary docs and resources potential investors will be interested in.

There will be lots of opportunities to ask questions. Whether you're new to fundraising or looking to brush up on your knowledge, this session is designed to provide valuable insights into the entire equity fundraising journey.

Your guide through this discussion is Steph Rich, a seasoned professional from the local venture capital firm, Bread & Butter Ventures. With extensive experience sitting on nearly all sides of the investment table, Steph brings a wealth of knowledge and practical advice to those looking to navigate fundraising.

It's 1 week out and I don't see the session I want, so I'll host it!

This will be an informal talk about how I've been using AI tools as a software developer. When I run out of info to share, I'll ask all assembled what they've been doing so we can learn from each other.

At a minimum you'll see a demo of using GitHub Copilot in VS Code to explain code, modify code, and write tests.

If you know something about this topic please stop by and share it!

Ever wonder how people travel the world for pennies on the dollar using frequent flyer miles, credit card rewards, hotel points, and travel rewards? Learn how in this session.

I presented a version of this for the last two years at Minnebar, and I'm reprising it by popular demand.

This will be an introductory session for those curious or starting out in the travel reward game. In this session, we'll cover:

The basics of how travel rewards work. You'll learn the fundamentals of how travel rewards work with an example using Chase Ultimate Rewards, an easy-to-use bank rewards program that offers cash back, travel rewards, and point transfers to airline and hotel partners.

Easy airline transfer partners. I'll show you the airline programs I use most often to find business class international flights and cheap hotel rooms.

An plan to get started. I'll present an actionable plan that you can use to get started collecting and redeeming travel rewards using Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Enhancing your travel experience by buying benefits. Airport lounge access, companion certificates, hotel night certificates. How to think about buying these benefits at a discount with credit cards.

Cards I like. Credit cards I like for travel rewards and travel benefits. I'll share the cards I particularly like for travel rewards and benefits.

We'll reserve some time for a question/answer session at the end. And I'll stick around outside the room afterward to jam about travel rewards.

Aaron Hurd is a credit card and travel rewards expert who has been a paid contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, TIME, Forbes, Nerdwallet, Bankrate, The Points Guy, SFGate.com, and many more recognizable outlets, with over 1,000 published articles over the last decade and a half. His current project is building out Cards and Points, where he gives his own take on credit cards and travel rewards.

Cards and Points - Everything credit cards, miles, and points.

I have been asked by multiple people to revive this talk in the post covid world.

Have you wondered, do we fist bump, shake hands or hug? Who knows, let's figure it out together.

In this session I will go over tips and tricks to networking with humans and creating meaningful connections.

1. Go through Networking 101 - get introduced or re-introduced
2. Events to look out for to further your career.
3. Volunteer opportunities for further connection.
4. How can AI help?

Writing alt text does not need to be complicated and long. This session will go over tips and tricks for writing alt text as well as the difference between alt text and image descriptions.

Don't worry, there will be memes.

Don't Quit Your Day Job! At least not until you have burned up all your vacation or Paid Time Off.

You know you're ready to leave Corporate America and launch your startup when you've used up all your vacation time or Paid Time Off attending meetings with potential CLIENTS -- NOT just potential investors!

If you are prepared to face a week where every day feels like Monday (startup life in a nutshell) and you've embraced the idea of learning to love eating ramen purchased by the pallet then this session is for you!

We're going to SLICE through the top ten myths about the glamorous life of running a startup including :

1. When to actually start
2. When to get an advisory and how they should be compensated
3. Solving problems people actually have, are willing to pay to have solved at a price point above what it costs you to solve it for them.
4. Finding your tribe: "It's more fun with a friend" and how to "outsource your weaknesses
5. Firing Your First Customer : "It's not me it's you" and encouraging others to "find success elsewhere". Say it with me, "No." is a full sentence!
6. Raising capital at any stage : From F/F/F funding to ringing the bell on wall street and everything in between
7. Learning to "ship early, ship often" -- the art of the pivot
8. Recognizing and accepting failure -- and learn to accept that "nobody cares"
9. Celebrating your successes -- and learn to accept that "nobody cares"
10. Not the last train leaving the station: Learning to "Solve Your Today Problems"

Seasoned, as in salty, local technical founder with multiple exits, David V Duccini a serious software nerd with financial technology and financing chops will teach you how to recognize if you're doing something "For Vanity" or "For Profit" and what it takes to move from "Flounder" to "Founder"!

Welcome to "Accessibility Testing 101: Native App Manual Testing" - your crash course in uncovering accessibility barriers in native digital experiences! In this fun and informative session, I'll take a beginner-friendly approach to exploring the fundamentals of manual accessibility testing for native apps.

Whether you're a seasoned pro or just dipping your toes into the world of manual accessibility testing, this session is perfect for anyone looking to learn the basics. I'll break down complex concepts into bite-sized pieces and show you how to get started with manual testing techniques.

Join me as I demystify accessibility testing and dive into the nuts and bolts of manually testing native apps. I'll cover everything from understanding the importance of accessibility to identifying common accessibility issues in digital products.

And hopefully I can teach you some practical tips and tricks for conducting manual accessibility tests! From navigating native apps with screen readers and keyboard navigation to testing dynamic font sizing and landscape designs, you'll gain hands-on experience with a variety of accessibility testing methods.

But don't worry - I'll keep it light and fun! No boring lectures or complicated jargon here. Just a relaxed atmosphere where you can ask questions, share ideas, and learn at your own pace.

So whether you're a developer, tester, designer, or just someone who cares about making apps more inclusive, "Accessibility Testing 101: Native App Manual Testing" is the perfect place to start your journey. Let's roll up our sleeves, dive into accessibility testing, and make the digital world a more inclusive place for everyone. See you there!

Google Sheets + AI, the new Brainstorming, and Custom GPTs

A talk in 4 parts.

Part 1. Lots of AIs in Google Sheets

The blank spreadsheet is sitting there with cell boundaries boxing in the emptiness, the equations still to be written, the data still to be gathered, and the data analysis far in the future. When will your weekend ever begin, you wonder silently...

Just then you look over and see someone chatting with a large language model, smiling, as an AI model does all of their work for them.

Are you feeling left out of the AI Chat game, as a spreadsheet user?

The solution: 1 Google Sheets + 7 AI models

This is easier than you might think, attend to see how to connect multiple AIs to Google Sheets via Apps Script, and that's just the beginning. AppsScript works with Gmail, Drive, Calendar, etc,

Part 2. The New Brainstorming: LLMs as a thought partner (in Sheets)

• LLMs as a problem-solving partner through the "invert, always invert" principle
• NOT forecasting: Backcasting from an idealized future
• Entering 1 input and getting multiple outputs from different LLMs, building off each other, etc
• The New Brainstorming (you won't want to miss this)

Part 3. Custom GPTs

• How to make your own Custom GPT to help you question your assumptions, and to connect it to a third party API
• How I'm learning more by being asked questions (by my Custom GPTs)

Part 4. Will AI do bad things

The potential of AI will be balanced with both practical and theoretical concerns about current large language models.

• Attribution
• Bias
• Copyright
• Ghost work
• Hallucination
• Lack of Transparency

Bonus: Stay to the end to talk with a Custom GPT, live, that can talk to DNS, and maybe we can call a voicebot.

You can host a full stack web application - frontend, backend, database - on AWS for $0/month... but it's flimsy and nonperformant. When you start a new company or are building a prototype, that might be enough. But as your app is adopted by more and more users you will need to upgrade your infrastructure.

This "Evolving AWS Infrastructure" will be the focus of the talk. I'll briefly explain a sample SAAS application (frontend, backend, database, authentication) before launching it into AWS infrastructure costing $0/month with the free tier. I'll then walk you through iterative steps which evolve that infrastructure from its flimsy beginnings into a more secure and reliable system which complies with a variety of data security, retention, and management requirements.

All templates and code will be available on Github after the talk.

I want to discuss how to maximize your tech team ROI. As we all know, tech teams are super valuable and provide some of the key competitive edge for any business. I've been in technology my whole life both as an electrical engineer and marketer and want to share some perspectives. But much of this applies to any team not just tech.

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Some experiences I will draw upon:

** Things I learned on the Goldman Sach's CIO's team to foster collaboration for a large enterprise

** What led to Target's tech turnaround and helped them compete and thrive in a crowded retail space

** Some lessons learned at BacklotCars; how we grew the company 114x in 4 years and sold for $425M

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I want to touch upon:

** Optimal team alignment and structure

** Creating sense of ownership

** Avoiding disaster and keeping a level head personally and professionally when things go off the rails

** Fostering creativity, innovation, and teams

** Blocking and tackling -- what are the basics

Join for a 30-minute discussion about creating a publicly-owned bank in Minneapolis.

Not sure what this means? Come see what steps other cities around the country are already taking to create a more robust financial future for their communities — freeing up capital for affordable housing, climate-related investments, and most importantly, providing access to financial resources where they are most needed.

Kindly attend and add your voice and areas of expertise to what will undoubtedly be a rousing conversation about capital, profit, and the communities we care about.

We will talk about template-driven code generators, when you might use them (pros and cons) and how to customize them for your own use cases. We’ll focus on Nx/Angular as our tools, but the concepts apply to other languages as well. We’ll end with Micro Front Ends as a specific example.

I used to avoid Chromebooks, I thought I had no use for them. That is, until a couple years ago, when I managed to put windows on a Chromebook..

From then on, I have:

• Helped organizations get more use out of their Chromebooks with Windows and Linux

• Through a start-up I work for, Fyra Labs, and with the partnership of the Chrultrabook Project, we have created a tool to make it easier than ever to boot Linux onto a stock firmware Chromebook, and are implementing it into Chromebook images for our distro

• Worked with PostmarketOS to port to mt8192/google-hayato

• Connected with other Linux distributions in regard to bringing Chromebook support to as many distros as possible

• Become the first person to boot an OSTree-based Linux image onto a stock Chromebook, seen here

In this session, we will discuss:

• My journey with Chromebooks over the years, from how I got started to the topics above
• Live demonstration of our tool used to boot Linux on Chromebooks
• Demos of custom ROM (corebooted) Windows and Linux Chromebooks, and custom ARM and OSTree-based installs
• 'Interesting' (to say the least) ways to use modded ChromeOS devices (Pi-Hole, drawing tablet..)
• How you can get involved
• Different ways to view non-standard hardware

While this may seem like a more technical session, I aim to make a simple, easy to understand session for people of all technical knowledge. To help with this, my little brother will be assisting me with live demos.

How can technologists and designers in Minnesota use their expertise for the common good in government work? In this conversation, Liz Tupper and Mathias Rechtzigel will share stories, pathways, and resources about the Civic & Gov Technology movement and how you, too, can work on some of our nation's largest issues.

We'll also share more about the new Meetup group, Minnesota Digital Services, where you can meet local gov tech experts and learn how their work makes a difference in the lives of everyday Minnesotans.

Hey there! Remember how we talked about some cool AI tools last year? Well, guess what? The game's changed! The world of AI is booming, and there are tons of new tools out there that can totally transform the way we work.

We're talking about going way beyond ChatGPT. This conference session is all about diving into 50+ awesome AI tools that can make your work life a breeze. Imagine getting more done in less time, with the help of intelligent helpers!

Think smart robots taking care of repetitive tasks, or programs that understand your writing and make it shine. These innovative tools are like superpowers for the workplace, freeing you up to focus on the really important stuff.

So, whether you're a boss, a go-getter entrepreneur, or just someone who loves all things tech, this session is for YOU! Join us and discover how AI can help you and your team work smarter, faster, and achieve amazing things. Plus, we can chat about some of the familiar AI tools we already know and use to make this a super interesting discussion. Sound like fun?

Crafting Personalized Resumes and Cover Letters at Scale.

Dive into the future of job searching with me as we explore the power of AI and automation in your job application process. In this cutting-edge session, we'll showcase a bespoke script that leverages Apple Shortcuts, AppleScript, Shell Script, LaTeX, and the OpenAI API to read job postings and customize your resume and cover letter for each application—in just 30 seconds! By integrating Generative AI at four critical stages, we transform the traditionally daunting task of creating a custom application into a quick, strategic, and human-centric journey.

Forget the old way of being just another name in a recruiter's spreadsheet. This innovative approach lets you turn the tables, treating each job as a unique opportunity to be assessed. This workshop will empower you to take the reins of your job search, propelling you to the forefront of today’s competitive job landscape.

You'll leave this session not just as a candidate, but as a discerning job seeker ready to embrace the numbers game and create personalized applications at scale. Join me in revolutionizing your job application process with the latest in AI and automation technology.

Everyone right now has an AI side project or two up their sleeve. This is your chance to show off what you're working on, ask questions, and get inspired!

There is no firm agenda for this session that we are setting in advance. Just bring something AI-related that you'd like to talk about. We'll have a few to discuss in case there's extra time!

In the next decade, it is predicted that the rising energy demands of AI, EVs, and sustainable energy will require millions of new tech workers and thousands of new billion dollar companies. The US power grid is going to need to be almost completely reimagined and rebuilt. New energy sources must be found, developed, and dispatched, and doing so requires hardware, software, and business models that do not exist today.

This is called the 40X problem.

This rapid-fire summary will highlight developments in solar, wind, hydrogen, nuclear, and geo power, suggesting what the future of energy might look like and the enormous opportunity it presents for technologists: founders, engineers, designers, marketers, and policymakers.

Curious about AWS? Not sure where to start? Wondering what things we wish someone told us when we started in AWS? This session will cover some of the AWS services you might want to learn about and use as someone new to the AWS ecosystem. For beginners new to development and people new to AWS! We'll touch on the core functions that many businesses use, and talk about some things to watch out for.

In this engaging 30-minute talk, attendees will discover how fractional executives can provide a cost-effective solution for startups and small businesses to access executive-level expertise and drive growth.

The presentation will cover:

• An introduction to the challenges faced by startups and small businesses, and how fractional CxOs can help address these challenges.
• A definition and explanation of the fractional executive model, along with its key benefits, including expertise at a fraction of the cost, flexibility, scalability, and access to a broad network.
• The significant cost advantage of fractional executives compared to full-time executive salaries, including real-world examples and case studies.
• How fractional executives can lower risk and increase the probability of success by providing strategic guidance, operational expertise, industry knowledge, and connections.
• Best practices for effectively engaging and integrating fractional executives with your existing leadership team.
• Valuable resources and communities to connect with for finding fractional CxOs, such as FRAK 2024, VoyageurU, and Fractionals United (FrUn).
• The power of the fractional network, showcasing how fractional executives can facilitate access to a broader range of expertise and share case studies of fractional teams assembled for specific challenges.
• A conclusion recapping the key points and an opportunity for audience questions and discussion.

By attending this talk, Minnebar participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how fractional executives can be a game-changer for startups and small businesses, providing the expertise and experience needed to drive growth while operating on a limited budget.

Retro-computing and Retro-gaming hobby have been on a rise for last 10-15 years. The hobby stretches from local thrift stores to large community events across US and to other continents in the world. During this session, I will walk through my journey, observations and thought/tips if you get interested in this hobby. This is meant to be fun & interactive talk.

When creating a library for consumers, accurate and accessible documentation is vital. Learn how we go about generating and customizing external docs for our Kotlin libraries. Intended for developers, this talk will involve Kotlin and a little bit of CSS.

A common trope in stupid horror movies is the authority figures who prove to be too clueless and wimpy to protect the people from Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, Leatherface, Ghostface, and the killer dressed like the Gorton's Fisherman.

It turns out that the script writers are smarter than they seem, because the authorities are proving to be too clueless and wimpy to protect the people from COVID and Long COVID. Contrary to popular belief, the COVID-19 pandemic is NOT OVER, and people are still being disabled by Long COVID. Yet the CDC has effectively walked off the job. It's telling people to disregard its previous talking points about breaking the chains of transmission. The CDC has not only stopped supporting vaccine mandates and mask mandates but has also retracted its calls to stay home when sick.

Additionally, so many people have had their immune systems weakened by COVID that flu, RSV, and many other diseases have become more transmissible. People who used to get sick once every 5 years now spend more time sick than not sick.

In my opinion, even a "minor cold" is nasty. I cannot do much of anything if I have even the slightest hint of a fever. I've always hated sneezing, nose blowing, and the sensation of suffocation from a stuffy nose. The pandemic only multiplied my motivation to avoid sickness.

In this session, I will explain the precautions you should take to make yourself and those around you safer. These include not only the most obvious/proven/no-brainer precautions but also additional precautions in the category of "won't hurt but just might help". Topics include vaccines, N95 face masks, mask fit testing, DIY air purifiers (including Corsi Rosenthal boxes), DIY nasal spray, and a healthier diet. You'll get to see what kind of mask I choose to wear when sharing indoor air with lots of people, and you'll get to see some of my DIY air purifiers.

Are you tired of bleeding cash on SaaS tools? In this talk, we talk about our journey from myriad specialized SaaS tools to our adoption of Odoo, an open source ERP. Like many small businesses, we faced the growing costs associated with SAAS tools such as Harvest, Parallax, Docusign, and HubSpot. Odoo is an integrated suite of tools for businesses that can replace many of these expensive offerings.

We will share insights into the transition to Odoo and how it improved our operations and cost efficiency. We will demonstrate some simple workflows that replaced our former tools, share our experiences with customizations that enhanced our workflows, and detail our approach to hosting Odoo Community Edition on AWS. This session is for anyone interested in simplifying their software stack, enhancing operational efficiency, and exploring cost-effective, open-source solutions.

Finally I will encourage a discussion to hear what SAAS tools your business uses. How much do they cost? What is something you wish was out there that would really make a difference to your business?

I enjoy building web applications in a variety of different languages, and within PHP I find myself using the Laravel framework often. The wide and vibrant ecosystem of existing libraries that build on Laravel and the worldwide community of developers who work with it make it a joy to work in.

One essential aspect to many apps, depending on what you're building, is the ability to update information for the user as quickly as possible. There are a few approaches to doing this with Laravel and I'll walk through a few with some live coding demonstrations. Through the curated examples I also hope to show why the Laravel framework might be a great choice for your next project/startup! I plan to draw from and provide updates for a blog article I published over a year ago with some recent developments in that space.

Real life examples/tools from a Startup founder that has to solve absurdly complex things from a living. I'll show you the evolution of my ugly ducklings to stuff thats setting some standards and you can apply to your gig. Things Like;

• How to turn a User Flow into a Swimlane across different entities
• WTF is a Wire-Flow, did you make up that word Jade?
• DIY Heatmap of which things are on fire, when you run 7 things at once
• Likeable is just a 2x2 of Trustworthy vs Credible
• And Some other stuff I poke at frequently

Calling all developers (and designers!) who want —rather, need— to improve accessibility of their websites.

Did you know…

• 90% of all websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities who rely on assistive technology. (AbilityNet)

• 98.1% of website homepages had detectable WCAG 2 failures. (WebAIM)

• EVERYONE, at some point in their lifetime, will be "disabled" and can benefit from websites that are accessible-friendly.

We all know we need to make our sites accessible. So why are 90% of websites inaccessible? It's not as complicated as you may think, I promise you!

In this session, you'll learn how to diagnose where your webpages are failing accessibility tests and how to significantly improve your score by applying basic HTML in a more semantic way. This will be a deep dive into fixing the common coding mistakes and bad habits that lead to inaccessible websites. There's no excuse why every website can't be (more) accessible!

We're not looking for perfection here…we're just focused on improvement. Every little bit helps make the internet more user-friendly for everyone.

And if you're a designer, see what goes on "under the hood" with code (I promise it won't be too over your head!), and how to troubleshoot and QA pages to ensure your designs (and the resulting developed code) pass basic accessibility requirements.

For my 2+ decades helping grow teams one of the most overlooked parts of an effective recruiting function is the role leaders, hiring managers and senior team members play in attracting, interviewing and hiring their new teammates.

While part of my consulting work, I have not done this as a “formal” session and want to debut it at Minnebar.

2/3s presentation and 1/3 group conversation so we all can elevate our role in the recruiting and hiring process.

Who should attend:

Leaders of companies (C-Suite and VP titles) Hiring Managers Team members who interview their future teammates

Topics will include:

• Writing compelling job descriptions including content that most are missing
• Having a presence at community events, meetups
• LinkedIn profiles, content to post and frequency
• Interviewing skills, process and strategy
• Elevating employer and team brand
• Basic to intermediate level sourcing
• Networking and referrals
• Working with your recruiting team as an ally versus a speed bump

*If you don’t or can’t attend, do this one thing in the next weeks: do your own recruiting fire drill (audit) from application through onboarding to be sure you have the best candidate and new team member experience possible.

"Transformer" is a very generic name for a specific machine learning architecture, first published in a paper titled "Attention Is All You Need".

Transformers were conceived to handle text translation, but are surprisingly effective in other (non-text) domains. What was the key innovation that set transformers apart from previous methods?

In this talk we'll look at embeddings, gradient decent, loss functions, and how Transformers learn to pick up on conversational context using matrix multiplication. We'll also take a look at a newer architecture called "Mamba", and how it improved upon some of weaknesses of Transformers.

Sure, you know how to navigate the Elements tab. And maybe you're a wizard in the Console. But have you ever tried to interpret the mysterious, inscrutable output of the Performance tab? Or read the tea-leaves of a Heap snapshot?

In this session we'll explore some of the more esoteric aspects of Chrome DevTools to better understand how our web apps are performing and identify memory bottlenecks before they become a problem.

A conversation that will start with my story and go where it takes us...

When I joined Seth Godin's 'Business of Food' workshop and learned about the disfunction of our food and agriculture system, decided I had to do something about it.

I'll share the journey I went on to create Sauce North LLC - Minnesota's not so hot hot sauce brand that's proud to be a #seedtosauce business in the regenerative space while working in a regular day job as a tech exec.

Some topics I'll touch on: Industrial Ag and the top-soil crisis The food system, the farm bill, and America's obesity problem (you'll be shocked you didn't know this) Fermented foods and humanity Starting a food business | Farmers markets and MN Cottage Foods licensing Websites, fulfillment and kitchens/ garages Why #seedtosauce ? What on earth the idea of 'Minnesota's not so hot hot sauce' is about

There'll be some sauces to taste too...

...and the chance to chat

DevSecOps is an evolution of computing. During this persentation we will discuss how DevSecOps came about and why. And then discuss some Tenants of doing good DevSecOps!

For 50 years, getting computers to work together over the internet has been a constant source of headaches. Modern platforms do their best to smooth out the rough edges, but every once in a while network issues still rear their head to terrorize unsuspecting developers.

Are you a battle-hardened network engineer with years of experience? A cybersecurity expert who knows all the latest vulnerabilities? Can't figure out why that one API call keeps failing and don't know what else to try? Or are you just interested in learning more about the wonderful world of networking? Then this is the event for you!

We'll be having a roundtable discussion where attendees can swap war stories, unravel mysterious bugs, debate best practices and new technology, and get to know other people working on similar problems.

Topics of discussion will be tailored to the interests of everyone in attendance - if there is something you are particularly interested in please leave a comment below!

What even is intelligence?

Accelerationists are sure that artificial general intelligence is just around the corner. Skeptics think machines will never cross the gulf to true self awareness. But how will we know if we've gotten there or not? The more questions we ask about machine sentience, the more we realize just how murky our understanding of our own consciousness is. This talk will explore a brief history of the problem of consciousness and what it might mean for the future of computing.

Topics covered include: Alan Turing, Bladerunner, and what it's like to be a bat. If you're hoping for a technical deep dive on LLMs or want to compare notes on the hottest new services, there are many other talks that may suit you better. If, on the other hand, you'd like to leave doubting everything you thought you knew, you've found the right place.

Keeping up with technology can be harsh on our health whether it be mental or physical. But what is health?

I hope to help people discover what health means to them as individuals. With all of the huge tech and especially AI sessions that are going on, I felt like it would be nice to have a session to look inward to make sure that we are all staying as healthy as we can.

In this session, I will talk about the following.

How to identify health Health means different things for different people so finding what it means to you is very important.

How to chunk your health It can be overwhelming to take on a large challenge all at once, so chunking is key when trying to keep yourself healthy.

How to identify actions to achieve health In line with the first two bullet points the goal is to use your definition of health and chunking techniques to identify actionable steps to reach a healthy state of being.

Title & Main Idea

Overhead ‘irrigation sprinkler’ like autonomous system for Solar Plants Maintenance Operations Rollable solar plants/solar farms maintenance system to maintain the solar panels on-demand based on control center - monitoring system and routine maintenance. Based on the readings about the solar panels' health, directing the rollable system to perform simple to complex tasks as much as possible and rest to get taken care by field maintenance personnel. 'Overhead sprinklers' getting replaced by the slim robotic arms with camera and tools to do simple repairs like fixing the wires/harness/fastening the bolts etc. Making this easy to dismantle and roll back to storage will help with efficient maintenance of the solar plants/farms.

We can think of additional applications based on this idea.

Having scaled down version for building solar panels Having either simple rollable robots with cameras and fixing systems for data centers or achieving same thing with different layouts like have overhead ceiling system which is more user friendly and will help with floor technicians/personnels moving around as comfortable possible. For retail shop planograms organization, prize tags' maintenance, reading for inventory replenishment and doing simple replenishment for human operated stores and more complex inventory replenishment and monitoring for stores like Amazon brick stores.

Finally, listing all the solar plants/farms autonomous needs

Recyling solar panels/batteries to allow for much better reach to more customers. how both renewables/non-renewables resources can be used in balanced ways to achieve the sustainability goals for environmental benefits.

Please refer to the following Power point presentation of the full paper. Please click this link and do 'slide show and press 'enter' to read thru the slides.

https://1drv.ms/p/c/48cc94a5ffdaebaf/EfWFAdXsdhpOq3_oUijFLW8BLBKR9Zfq-xY89NiKEXKcRg?e=GiksQX ---- Latest (4/15/24)

https://1drv.ms/p/c/48cc94a5ffdaebaf/Edzeiirwmk9Psi2tDyt_RtgB0Y_vwJDIvdQIcEu6Qz3DZQ?e=A0ZugL ---- previous version

The brief abstract ends here.

If you are not able to access the above links, please refer to the following from the slides.

======================================================================================================

Slide 1

AUTONOMOUS PLATFORM FOR MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS IN SOLAR PLANTS (SOLAR FARMS) Niraikalai vijay  (Software engineer, currently working at HYVee – retail – VARIOUS JOB ROLES)

Discussion for solution that I submitted(reviewed by Wazoku – A2A (not selected) ) for challenge – Wazoku Innocentive – A2A - Overhead ‘Irrigation Sprinkler’ like autonomous system for Solar Plants Maintenance – December 2023   https://a2a.community.wazoku.com/idea/94957902c4b34d0cb71ecc5b201ef859

Slide 2 ======  Challenge Statement

How to make the maintenance of solar farms easy & efficient Extension to this challenge statement, I like to add how to make the maintenance of roof top solar panels autonomous  Is it possible to have thin solar panels against the walls both exterior and interior .  EPA Launches $7 Billion Competition to Bring Low-Cost Solar Energy to More Hard-Working American Families | Clean Energy | The White House (June 2023 – September 2023) - saw only yesterday (7th April 2024) A Guide to Community Solar: Utility, Private, and Non-profit Project Development (Book), Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) (nrel.gov)

Slide 3

Overhead ‘Irrigation Sprinklers’ like autonomous system for solar plants(farms)

This solution suggests designing/using Autonomous Solar Plants maintenance similar to 'Overhead Irrigation Sprinklers' that are being used in industrial level agricultural farming irrigation needs.       This movable/rollable system with sprinklers replaced with machine vision cameras/brushes/robotic arm that can perform both extended and detailed operations.       If solar farms already built, don't have spacings, this system can be designed to cover end to end of the breadth of the farm that can be moved. But need to be sturdy enough as it is going to be so wide to have a balance. Similar, to industrial robotic arm that can bend/twist under the hood, over the hood, this robotic arm can be designed to be flexible to navigate under the panels to inspect the bolts/wires/harness and perform the repair or send back the required information to control center for the manual repair or sending rollable robot to locate the panel(s) and do the repairs.

Slide 4

Overhead ‘Irrigation Sprinklers’ like autonomous system for solar plants(farms) - continuation

Every sprinkler hanging needs to be slim robotic arm with camera for machine vision to inspect the solar panels to accuracy. Small brush can be part of the robotic arm that can be used to dust the panels clean. This robotic arm can also have robotic fastener to do simple repair work for the solar panels For solar panels’ wires/harness, these robotic arms can be used to do machine vision inspections and report it back to control room. If there are options for land rover robot that can fix the wires/connections, it can be used. Otherwise, wire/connections can be manually repaired on individual basis.

Slide 5

Other applications & Collaboration

Primary collaborator if anyone interested in trying this solution, I like to suggest Analog Devices, my former employer where I worked as Software Engineer. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7176280877562302464-Sh5k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktopn ---- Huge data center can be maintained using robots to fix the systems/wirings including automated systems that can roll between data center stacks of severs . Please refer to the above link. This session can help with discussions related to current technology needs like upcoming new Meta (Facebook) - Datacenter at Rosemont, Minnesota, US. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/facebook-owner-meta-to-build-800-million-data-center-in-rosemount/ar-BB1jTyZX and this paper discussion can identify various other application areas either by direct application or customized application based on my solution for the topic of this paper.

Slide 6

Other Discussion Points....

Extension to this challenge statement, 

      Making maintenance of roof top solar panels autonomous using drone or auto extendable pole with cleaning brush and tool to check the connections and to do repairs    Related Agrophotovoltaic - Wazoku – A2A submissions (not selected)  Mimic Trees/Plants/Crops for Solar PV Structures for bountiful harvesting from Agricultural Land (August 2022) https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7182846388479668224-6Gzp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Ingredients based Optimal Crop Identification with PV structures integrated into agricultural land (August 2022) https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7182847051423006720-kMq8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Slide 7

Conclusion (yet to re-write - as repair/recovery of my final presentation from one-drive location didn't show few of the modifications/additions I did

You want to be a digital Nomad and work while you travel the world! Awesome - the world is your oyster - but you should put some thought into the financial planning before you go!

In this session I'll try to cover some of the financial aspects you've probably haven't thought about but really can be nasty "gotchas".

• How to avoid double taxation (the US is the only major country in the world to tax on GLOBAL income... oh joy!) If the country you are moving to has a tax treaty with the US you may be fine - but you still have to declare and file your taxes correctly... it's not always clear...
• Selling property before you leave... be sure not to get caught out by the FIRTPA withholding for non-US persons (15% of the selling price...)
• Access to US based accounts. FACTA rules increased compliance on US based asset managers meaning only a few will now work with international clients (that means you if you're living outside of the US). You want to make sure your custodian can continue to manage your money if you live outside of the US.
• Currency exposure. Whether your moving a lump sum to purchase a property or have retirement assets in the US but plan on retiring abroad - managing your currency risk needs to be an important consideration as you plan. We'll talk different strategies to help limit risk here.

I'm the founder of Aberdour Investments - a small independent, fee only, fiduciary, financial advisor here in the Twin Cities and until last month (when I was laid off) I was also a Senior Product Manager at Entrust working on FinTech and identity products.

As an expat originally from the UK I've navigated the complexities of a cross-border transition.

Aberdour Investments exists to help others enjoy a global life with peace of mind.

www.aberdourinvestments.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-saxton-940a03298/

"Passkeys are putting passwords out to pasture."

You've probably heard the hype, and there's good reasons for it...

• Passkeys are easier than passwords.
• Passkeys are more secure than passwords.
• Passkeys are more convenient than passwords.
• Passkeys are already here.

So, with companies like Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Intel behind the technology, why aren't we all using Passkeys everywhere yet?

During this talk, we'll dive into the concepts behind, benefits of, and tradeoffs involved with the most common user authentication methods in use today. By the end, you'll understand what Passkeys are, how they work, why everyone says they are better, and the challenges hampering wide spread adoption.

Having attempted the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 2023, I'd love to discuss my experience including planning, tech, logistics, physical issues, psychological strain and anything else people want to talk about. If you're thinking of attempting a thru-hike, have done a thru-hike, or just want hear about losing toe nails, this session is for you!

One of the outcomes of the exciting AI journey we are on is a fundamental change in content. Cracks are already forming in the content marketing landscape. The coming Content Flood and Abstraction Arms Race will change forever how businesses engage prospects.

This creates an opportunity for founders willing to lean in to the coming changes.

This session will describe the coming changes, postulate three likely market scenarios, and propose actions founders and startups can take - starting now - to be well-positioned to take full advantage of the opportunities created by the coming disruptions

Truth... this year I may not have all the answers you are looking for this year. As the economy continues to trudge along I appreciate the angst level about careers, job search, salaries is increasing.

I do have some insights, advice to give along with some crystal ball predictions that while I can't say when, likely come true.

I promise you this, you'll feel a bit more certain/aware about things after we finish.

I’ll start by talking about:

The current state of MN, Midwest and remote jobs and trends

What employers in town are saying, doing and planning for jobs this year

How I am thinking about the economy the next 3, 6 and 9 months

For those planning a job search later this year, I’ll have info to get you started

We’ll talk about LinkedIn profile makeovers and content to post

That’s where we’ll start.

Please bring your questions, thoughts and opinions.

Send them ahead if you like to be sure we get to them => paul@mnheadhunter.com

I love Battlesnake! I was introduced to it a year ago at a convention and since then I've been telling everyone I know about it. You build and host a live web server, your Battlesnake, which responds to calls from a "game board" web server. It's a fun way for folks to engage in programming at a wide range of skill levels, in an entertaining arena with others!

In this workshop I'll provide an overview of how Battlesnake works and jump into a live workshop where you may create and take home your very own Battlesnake if you choose. For those who may have begun working on a Battlesnake or already have one we may be able to host some friendly competitions, but the focus will be collaborating and pairing to build and refine a Battlesnake. If you would like to participate please bring a laptop.

As an entrepreneur preparing to engage in discussions with a potential collaboration partner or prospective client, you will often sign, or be asked to sign, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This session is designed to empower entrepreneurs to make strategic and practical decisions about when to use (or agree to use) NDAs and how and where to focus your review and potential negotiation of NDAs in a fast-moving conversation with a prospective collaboration partner or customer.

Do you make Software?

Are you a Software Engineer, Designer, Architect, UI/UX, BA?

All these skills are transferable all over the world. Take the opportunity to use your skills to live and work in another country .. learn the culture, travel, meet new friends :-)

Chris Macgowan (Me, the presenter - nice to meet you) - Moved to Berlin in 1990 and worked for Siemens until 1992. There is a love story in here somewhere. He then moved back to Berlin again in 2008, until 2012. He'll share his experiences finding work, taking care of work visas and other permits (German only), not finding work, working in film, finding a place to live and more ...

Und vielleicht sprechen wir nebenbei ein wenig Deutsch – es bleibt genügend Zeit für Fragen zur Arbeitssuche, zur Besorgung von Arbeitsvisa und all dem Zeug. Eine Wohnung finden und sich vielleicht verlieben – he he he

Peace &Love Chris

Chris Macgowan http://macgowan.com/ https://gstream.org/

A casual networking meetup for any & all folks who work in (or are exploring) the related disciplines of user experience.

If you're a...

• designer,
• researcher,
• content writer,
• accessibility specialist,
• information architect,
• student,
• team leader,
• manager,
• or [ add your title here ]

... then we hope you'll come by and say hello! We'd ❤️ to meet you!

Hosted by your local chapter of the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF).

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

By the way, there's a related session here at Minnebar called UX Office Hours. Consider dropping by that session too, especially if you're interested in offering advice to developers, entrepreneurs, or hobbyists. The organizer is seeking volunteers from all levels. Click / tap here for details.

Entrepreneurs have great challenges in setting their plan but one thing to learn investors are looking for you!💲Want investors to give you money? Ask. If you want a better financial situation for yourself, there is a surprisingly simple way to do it: Ask for it. 💰Want a lower interest rate on your credit card? Ask. Want bank fees waived? Ask. Want a lower medical bill? Ask.

For a lot of different reasons – culture, habit, anxiety – we do not like asking people for things, especially money. And it is costing you.

Learn how to stop this bad habit and you'll find yourself making and saving more money. Ask yourself do you want a few new ideas or, do you want to continue giving money away or not getting the investment you need? 💵💸 Feel free to contribute, have an idea to share? We can all learn together.

A chance for student software developers, game designers, etc. to meet and share their technology interests.

Parents welcome.

FWIW, my son will start Computer Science and Game Design at Augsburg next fall. As far as I can tell all his coding connections are virtual and global, and perhaps this time slot will help build some local connections for all.

(Please schedule before 2PM if possible)

In this session I will show how public and private keys are used to securely send data over the internet. I won't be using any 3rd packages but instead will actually show the math used from the Diffie Hellman algorithm.

Abstract

In the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence, ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) have captured the spotlight, demonstrating unprecedented potential to transform everyday life through advanced computational capabilities. Our project, MacGPT, harnesses the power of LLMs to specifically address the needs of the Macalester College community. Designed to answer queries related to the college, MacGPT serves students, staff, faculty, and prospective students, providing streamlined access to information and various applications.

This presentation will explore the foundational aspects of LLMs, focusing on the development and fine-tuning processes that underpin the creation of MacGPT. We will discuss the practical implications of this technology in an educational setting and the broader potential impacts on academic communities.

Presenters Tenzin Gyaltsen

Senior Computer Science student at Macalester College. Passionate about software development, Tenzin is deeply intrigued about the integration of AI technologies within educational frameworks to enhance institutional resources and student experiences.

Aalyan Arif Mahmoud

Senior Computer Science student at Macalester College. A tech enthusiast with a keen interest in software development, Aalyan excels in leveraging cutting-edge technologies to solve real-world problems.

Join us at Minnebar to delve into the exciting world of MacGPT and discover how targeted LLMs can revolutionize the educational landscape.

Have you ever inherited a codebase so full of mixed concerns, bloat, and untested code that you couldn’t help but wonder “who are the developers responsible for this spaghetti code hellscape?”

While it may be convenient and even cathartic to blame the faceless, nameless developers responsible for creating the debt-ridden mess you’ve inherited, the better question to ask is “what is the engineering culture that allowed this to happen?”

The truth is, technical debt is less often the result of individual incompetence and more often the result of the engineering culture from which it was allowed to spread.

In this session, we’ll dive into the practical habits and norms of engineering teams that don’t defer work, avoid technical debt, and hold each other accountable to high standards. With the right culture, you can actually make it easy to uphold best practices across your engineering team. Join this session to learn how!

Veteran 20+ year lawyer and technologist Damien Riehl expands upon his TED Talk and his recent SXSW talk, providing three topics — all related to Generative AI:

1. Legal LLMs: How LLMs can turn 50-hour legal tasks into mere minutes — and how that's changing the legal industry, including potential improvements to the judiciary.

2. All The Music: An update on how we copyrighted 471 billion melodies, then placed them into the Public Domain — all to save "you stole my melody" lawsuit defendants. Learn how this All The Music project has helped Katy Perry, Led Zeppelin, and Ed Sheeran (twice).

3. All The Patents: Take all the patents, seeking to push the boundaries of what constitutes an "obvious" invention — all using LLM-backed vector embeddings.

LLMs are transforming legal profession — and rapidly: GPT-4 not only passed the bar exam, it beat 90% of humans. This discussion — led by litigator, coder, and AI-builder Damien Riehl — will explore how AI is already shaping legal practice, as well as ways that the judiciary might use AI to better administer justice. He will also discuss how AI can help close the access-to-justice gap. Join us for this timely talk about how Generative AI will continue improving legal practice and justice.

This talk will be fast-paced. Plus, I'll be trying to break the land speed record for words spoken per minute. Join us!

If you've worked with JavaScript at all, then you've most likely written asynchronous code. JavaScript is well known for handling concurrency with it's single-threaded event loop. It's commonly used to handle asynchronous API requests, reading and writing to files, all without blocking the main thread.

We'll be discussing different ways concurrency benefits web developers outside of common use cases, and we'll also discuss pitfalls when using synchronous I/O methods in Node.js. This presentation will be from the perspective of both frontend and backend development, specifically with JavaScript.

Each member of this panel is currently using a mentor and has found it valuable. They will discuss their experience in a formal mentoring program and will address these issues:

• Why consider having a mentor? • How does a mentor differ from other advisors and investors? • What should you look for in a mentor or in a mentoring program? • What is an example of your mentor’s impact on your decision making? • What does a good mentor do and not do? • How has your mentor changed how you think about your business? • What is your cadence for meeting with your mentor?

A good mentor provides unvarnished, straight guidance and feedback shaped by experience and motivated by a pure desire to see the entrepreneur succeed.

We believe that this discussion will benefit any entrepreneur considering a mentor or mentoring program. We hope it will provide specific and actionable guidance. The panel moderator will conduct an “open Q&A” session for the final 10-15 minutes of the session.

Panelists:

Andrew DeLeeuw, President & CEO, DOCSI, “Transforming Healthcare Supply Chain through Seamless Physician Engagement,” www.docsihealth.com

Mary Kay Ziniewicz, Founder & CEO, Bus Stop Mamas, “On-Demand Workforce Engagement Tool Connecting Businesses with an Untapped Pool of High-Level Talent – Moms,” www.busstopmamas.com

Nick Wassenberg, CEO, Cludo, “Provides Delightful Search and Discovery Experiences to Unlock Mission-Critical Information,” www.cludo.com

Moderator:

Mark Capaldini, is a MESA (Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory) Mentor with extensive B2B SaaS experience.

The growth of AI today brings many new and exiting ideas. What makes an AI experience good for the user? Join Tom and Erik for a conversation about designing for AI based on their own experiences.

We'll discuss:

• designing for trust

• principles of good AI UX

• real world examples

Participants will leave this session with tips, tricks, and things consider when designing for AI.

Healthcare is already heavily regulated. AI technology presents some additional concerns for health-tech companies, and new regulations seek to add to the regulatory burden. This presentation is for companies working with FDA and EU regulators on brining their health-tech products to market.

A humble proposal to create a Cooperative based ridesharing platform! Check out https://rideshare.coop for updates!

This session will share the initial concept and be an opportunity for questions/answers as well as IDEATION. Come tell us what you love and hate about current ridesharing options and your ideas to make it better!

THE VISION

A truly decentralized, peer to peer ride-sharing system based on a cooperative model where riders and drivers mutually agree on the equitable value provided and earned using a real time auction model.

What makes this model different:

• The cooperative governance model means a more democratic method for setting operating standards, provides members with a shared platform of services that could include member benefits. Riders would be required to join the coop and obtain an endorsement before being permitted to ride.
• Drivers could set their own rates or accept local market rates
• Drivers could advertise range and hours to aid in Selection
• Drivers could receive alerts about demand
• Riders could make offers and Drivers could make counter-offers including a reverse-auction bidding system that lets drivers compete for rides, potentially lowering the over all cost to the Rider.

Average trip pricing data would be available to both Drivers and Riders based on historical data and could be calibrated to time of day and location

Endorsements would be based on a “web of trust” model originally envisioned by PGP with riders and drivers digitally signing off on the rating awarded and both parties having access to their own networks rating system. For example, a Rider could see the ratings of their friends on a given Driver to aid in selection.

The system will be designed using an open-source decentralized distributed ledger based on a gossip protocol that can bootstrap from DNS SRV records. Once online nodes would share the ad hoc peer node connection information with connected nodes.

Drivers could remotely control their nodes that would automatically manage their bids/asks and record their transactions and track taxable events including fuel, maintenance and miles. This decentralizes the computing power back to their home network which would have more reliable power and internet.

The coop could provide a branded “spend” credit/debit card that could be plugged into via API to pull and confirm eligible spend transaction data for the Driver and make tax preparation easier.

The coop would be the ideal location to provide small business consulting services and could potentially obtain preferential car loan pricing for its members in addition to potentially having a fleet of vehicles that members could rent.

Riders could run nodes and act as validators and regulators would be encouraged to participate to monitor the system.

The system is NOT designed to operate on a “coin” or a “token” per se but rather on the digital signatures of the participants involved in the transactions and could potentially earn “credits” to be applied to rides or rewards.

Initial reference design suggests deploying nodes on a pre-packaged Raspberry Pi brick and could be a potential nominal source of revenue for the coop.

Get personalized advice on your marketing strategies, branding or digital experience from experienced fractional CMOs.

No sales pitch. Just the chance to leverage decades of experience and use Atomic Elevator's launch methodology to get multiple perspectives in a short time window and to walk away with a transformed view of your positioning and approach.

Atomic Elevator is an entrepreneurial syndicate of experienced marketing talent delivering for clients through an innovative 'un-agency' model and technology that makes knowledge accessible at entrepreneurial speed and scale..

https://bazzite.gg

Topics discussed in this talk:

• Discuss the current state of gaming on PC (and handhelds)
• Why use Bazzite for gaming instead of Windows
• Why Bazzite is the best choice
• Hardware demo of Bazzite running on a Steam Deck and a Home Theater PC (HTPC)

What is Bazzite?

Bazzite is a custom image built upon Fedora Atomic Desktops that brings the best of Linux gaming to all of your devices - including your favorite handheld.

It is built with the intention to make using Linux for gaming as approachable as possible and provide an improved experience of SteamOS that can run anywhere.

Bazzite supports many devices including:

• Desktop, Laptop, and HTPCs
  • Specific Specialized Driver support for:
  • Framework Laptop
  • Surface Laptop
  • ASUS Laptop
• Steam Deck LCD (OLED currently in development)
• Lenovo Legion Go
• Asus ROG Ally
• GPD Devices
• AYN Devices

Why you should come to this talk

We're going to have some fun playing some video games on Linux!

Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to amplify the speed of cloud deployments represents a groundbreaking approach that transforms the traditional methodologies of cloud management, resource allocation, and service delivery. At the heart of this transformation is the strategic integration of AI-driven technologies and processes that enable organizations to anticipate needs, automate complex decisions, and optimize resources dynamically, ensuring that cloud environments are both efficient and scalable.

AI-Driven Predictive Analytics employs sophisticated algorithms to sift through vast amounts of historical data related to cloud usage, application performance metrics, and deployment trends. By harnessing machine learning models, these analytics can forecast future resource demands and identify potential performance bottlenecks before they impact service delivery. The predictive nature of AI not only facilitates a more proactive approach to scaling and resource management but also empowers organizations to make informed decisions, leading to more resilient and responsive cloud environments.

Automated Resource Optimization is another pivotal feature, where AI continuously scans the cloud ecosystem to pinpoint inefficiencies—such as underutilized compute instances or unnecessarily high storage allocations. By intelligently adjusting resources in real-time based on current demands and usage patterns, AI ensures that deployments are not just cost-effective but also tailored to deliver optimal performance. This level of automation reduces the need for manual oversight and allows for a more agile response to changing requirements.

Products and Services in the market in this space

From fundamental interactions in physics to biological neural networks and how these models can help create more efficient conversational systems. By abandoning the traditional definition of “language,” we can create a constructive and pragmatic model of information interaction. Fundamental interactions in physics can be transferred to computer science, and the result is an effective model in which traditional engineering concepts such as “tools”, “work”, “productivity” and “power” acquire specific, measurable meanings and help solve a number of problems in artificial intelligence problems.

This session will be a how-to guide and resources to understand veterans and their resumes better as the tools that we have in the terms of online skills translators are well let's just be honest junk that vets think are so ridiculous and inaccurate to show what they really did in the military.

If you aren't already using AI in your daily life for virtually everything, I get it.

Maybe you have been reading very obvious AI-generated copy in emails and blog posts and thinking to yourself "I can't believe people are really fooled by this soulless drivel."

Or maybe you tried it yourself and it predictably produced the exact soulless drivel you've been reading in those blogs and emails.

Well buckle up, because I'm going to show even the biggest skeptics how to use AI to generate copy, images, video, music, code, and combinations of it all that might just rescue you or your company from that next 5 figure invoice that could've been done with AI in 5 minutes.

We'll dive into real-world examples, trade secrets, and hands-on exercises that will help you rewrite that pesky email, design eye-catching product packaging, write a script for a viral TikTok, automate your social media, build a million-dollar business (seriously), and everything in between.

This will be a casual, interactive session to put AI to the test. So bring some creativity. Or don't. You'll be shocked to see how AI will bring it for us.

This winter, Apple introduced a hardware platform that’s unlike anything they’ve released before: Apple Vision Pro. It’s a high-end virtual reality headset that, along with it’s operating system visionOS, offers a new way of interacting with computers and apps.

In this talk, we’ll provide an overview of the hardware and software that make up Vision Pro and visionOS. You’ll see how interacting with spatial computing apps differs from traditional desktop and mobile platforms. Along the way we’ll share design and coding tips that we’ve learned while developing for Vision Pro.

We've been building software for something like 75 years or so. But if you attempt to judge our ability to produce software by any metrics used by any other industry, it is clear we still suck at it. Why is software product development so notoriously bad at delivering on expectations for time and budget? What are some better ways to do it?

"Dates Are Hard", says the conventional wisdom. "Don't program with Dates". But what then? We have to model dates and times in our software somehow! And, apparently, make the same mistakes again and again.

See some of the corner cases and geopolitical oddities that make date handling hard. Go beyond the superficial lists of falsehoods we programmers supposedly believe about Dates. Learn the One Weird Trick to (almost) always handle Dates right, and clean up the damage The Last Team left for you.

Get ready to boost your resilience with a Resilience Builder Masterclass - learn practical strategies to bounce back after failure.

Learn how to:

1. Fail well
2. Find good stress
3. Take one step toward the top 10% of founders

Join us for a dynamic session where we delve into the pressing questions surrounding remote work environments. In "Remote Rethink," we'll explore together how to effectively navigate the complexities of giving feedback, fostering trust, training new employees, and maintaining company culture—all from a distance. This session isn't just about presenting answers but about creating a space for shared learning and exchange. Whether you are on a remote team, collaborate in digital spaces, or are figuring out how asynchronous work even works, we would like to hear your experiences and insights!

Nerd out with fellow dataviz enthusiasts over Superset's capabilities and potential.

📈📉 It's like Tableau, but free!📉📈

Shallow dive:

• Introduction
• Flashy demos

Deep dive:

• Hosting superset yourself - 8 containers?!
• Superset internals
• Superset plugins

Open topics:

• General Q&A
• Real-world use cases (bring yours!)

~~~

Speakers: Lloyd Dalton - Echo Data Analytics

BYOC - Bring your own craft (knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross stitch, etc)

Meet other crafters and work on your craft.

I had a quantum computing hobby project that needed a certain feature. Nobody supported it. What to do? Much like Jurassic Park, this is one of those projects where you start out wondering if you could, but don't stop to think if you should. On the way, I taught myself the basics of gate-based quantum computing by building a basic quantum circuit emulator; I'd like to share some of the nitty-gritty details with you. Some topics: what's the use of a qubit? What's the use of two qubits? Reversible and irreversible logic! How to use all your RAM handling 4-bit integer comparisons! Curious about these what these very new, very experimental machines are supposed to be doing? Let's take a peek under the hood.

The Net Promoter System has been around now for two decades and the much maligned metric behind it's original adoption, called Net Promoter Score, is often the headline story. Bad implementations of NPS sometimes just measure the score using surveys, treating it like a vanity metric, and can have little to do with improving customer experience.

In reality, asking customers how, what and WHY they feel about your brand can be a transfornational source of design input for your experiences, but also for diverse teams right across your organization including very operational folks like logistics and manufacturing. Flowing customer insights daily to your people can help genuinely instill a love for your customers that will affect the bottom line.

Hugh Murphy is an entrepreneur and marketing leader and previously led the team that created the Customer Experience Improvement System at 3M. This enterprise implementation of Net Promoter was recognized as "doing CX right" and led to transformative increases in customer experience and over 1000 people reading customer feedback daily and acting on it.

Join Hugh for a discussion on how to make CX a game changer for your teams.

Hiring your first dedicated sales professional is often one of most difficult actions a startup will take. Most founders have never hired a sales professional and have heard or experienced many stories of failures. This session will cover why, when, who and how to hire your first salesperson. Understanding the ‘Why’ • Is your business at the right stage to hire? • Is there a clear Go-to-Market Strategy? • How mature is the understanding of the opportunity cycle? Understanding the ‘When’
• Are there enough opportunities? • Are there identifiable targets outside the founder’s network? • What is the right balance between Marketing vs. Sales driven demand? • Is there a good understanding of the costs to building a sales function? • How to transition from Founder lead sales activity? Defining the Right Sales Professional: Who to Hire • Defining the ideal Candidate • Role maturity vs. adaptability • Balancing experience vs Potential • Hire a Sales Leader first? • Business Development Rep (BDR) option How to Hire – Navigating the Hiring Process • DIY vs Recruiters • Cost of hire and delay • Where to source candidates • Implementing a robust hiring process

We will address challenges and risks in sales hiring and will also discuss the importance of an effective marketing function and collaboration with sales. We are looking forward to an open & frank question and answer session, as well.

Kubernetes Event-Driven Autoscaling (KEDA) is recognized as the CNCF-graduated gold standard for Kubernetes autoscaling solutions. It features an extensive catalog of event sources beyond basic CPU and memory metrics, the capability to scale pods to zero, and extensibility. In comparison to third-party adapters such as Prometheus Adapter, KEDA stands out for its unparalleled maturity and completeness.

This showcase presents practical examples of two significant use cases. The first illustrates scaling in response to fluctuating HTTP traffic, essential for APIs. The second demonstrates event-driven architectures and the nuances of scaling based on Kafka consumer lag. Designed for Kubernetes users of all levels, this session demystifies advanced autoscaling techniques to optimize workload efficiency and reduce waste in light of rapidly increasing cloud costs.

Join us at AMF Southtown Lanes for happy hour from 4:30-7pm.

We have the bar area reserved from 4:30-7pm. Be ready to show something to prove you attended Minnebar (a nametag, shirt, etc.), in exchange for a free drink token.

Address

7941 Southtown Ctr Bloomington, MN 55431