Schedule

8:00 – 8:30 🍩 Registration / Breakfast
8:30 – 8:50 Kickoff
8:50 – 9:30 Session 0
9:30 – 4:50 All day
Networking Lounge
Minnestar Uptowner

Community & DEI

Mega Minne Multi Indie Mini Arcade
Beth Korth, Minnestar

Wildcard

Newbie Table
Minnestar, Meg Steuer

Other

UX Office Hours
Bryce Howitson, Rothanak Chhoun, Elle Yesnes, Homer Rutledge, Alexis Logsdon, Joe Lencioni

Startups Design Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Other

9:45 – 10:25 Session Block 1
📡🕸️ Preppers & Comrades Unite: Building a Decentralized Mesh Network for Resilient Communication
Chris Wodicka Theater

Development Emerging Tech Design Wildcard

Build a Business that Isn't Soul Sucking
Beth Elliott Harriet

Startups Careers & Talent Marketing & Sales

More... "Diagrams to Get your $hit together"
Jade Barker Nokomis

Startups Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent Wildcard

Only Amiga Makes It Possible: Discovering the Future in a Computer from 1985
Benjamin Ortega Minnetonka

Development Emerging Tech Wildcard

Cybersecurity Warnings 😳
John Benninghoff Proverb-Edison

Development Design Product Management Other

You Are a Superhero. Let's Discover Your Superpower So You Can Use It for Greatness
Michelle Smeby Learn

Community & DEI Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Editing Photos On Your Phone with No Apps
John Wilson Discovery

Design Other

LinkedIn Isn’t Broken...Your Strategy Is 😳 A LinkedIn growth workshop for founders who want leads-not likes 🙌
Colin Hirdman Stephen Leacock

Startups Soft Skills & Personal Growth Marketing & Sales

From CAD to Injection-Molded Parts in 12 Hours
Dagmawe Mamo Tackle

Development Startups Emerging Tech Design Community & DEI

Well Dontcha Know: The National Center for Autonomous Technologies is in Northern Minnesota
Marty Wetherall Texas

Emerging Tech AI & Machine Learning Careers & Talent

Every Engineer Sucks at Job Hunting Until They Learn This
Tyler Dane California

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Sol LeWitt, Combinatorial Enumeration, and Rogue
Mark Gritter Oregon

Wildcard

DefineTheBox Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Joe Slaughter Pennsylvania

Development Startups Design Marketing & Sales

10:40 – 11:20 Session Block 2
What tech lessons should we learn from the ICE invasion?
Paul Cantrell Theater

Development Product Management Wildcard

Don’t Blame the User—Fix the Design: The UX of Streets and Cities
Mel Bernstein Nokomis

Design Wildcard Other

Boldly You: Showing Up to Your Life’s Purpose
Alan Fernald Minnetonka

Development Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

What the Heck is a Qubit?
Scott McKuen Proverb-Edison

Emerging Tech Wildcard

Building A Profitable Independent Newsletter
Rick Ellis Learn

Startups Wildcard Other

When Disability Is Misread: Safety in High-Stress Systems
Sharyn Morrow Gandhi

Wildcard Soft Skills & Personal Growth Community & DEI

Business Partners and Co-Founders: The Good, the Bad, the Weird
Richard Chandler, MA, LPC, Grant Chandler Tackle

Development Startups Soft Skills & Personal Growth

How To Talk With Your Team About Best Practices (a new way of efficiently discussing and prioritizing the best practices that matter most to your team)
Xandra Best Louis Pasteur

Development Design Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Wildcard

Livin' the Solo Founder Dream. I'll share learnings from building my second Consumer app. Open to participation!
larry bieza Texas

Development Startups Design Marketing & Sales

🛜 The Community Connection: Strategic Marketing, Outreach, and PR for Community Leaders
Juan LLerena Florida

Startups Community & DEI Soft Skills & Personal Growth Marketing & Sales

Project Vanguard - Veterans in (or interested in) Energy Networking opportunity
William Hossain Georgia

Community & DEI Careers & Talent Other

Normalize Your Team: Working Genius IS the Primary Key
Mitch Bliven Oregon

Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Decoding Your Equity Compensation: Stock Options & RSUs with AMA
Trevor Ausen Pennsylvania

Careers & Talent

Medtech & Med Device Meetup [Networking Lounge]
Hillary Drake Uptowner

Community & DEI

11:20 – 12:30 🍕 Early Lunch
11:35 – 12:15 Session Block 3
What the fuck are passkeys and why are they everywhere now?
Dan Lew Theater

Development Emerging Tech

I Learned How to Tell Stories in This Building — Here's What Most Techies Miss
Meredith Clause Harriet

Startups Soft Skills & Personal Growth Marketing & Sales

The Future of Energy and the 30X Problem
David Koerner Nokomis

Emerging Tech

Writing the Video Game Narrative
Savannah Boedigheimer Proverb-Edison

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent Wildcard

Resume Refresh: Ready for AI, Designed to Impress
Angela Peterson Zeke Landres

Careers & Talent

Cannabis! Building a cultivation, R&D, manufacturing and dispensary business in the Twin Cities.
Mary MacCarthy Challenge

Startups

Bootstrapping Your E-Commerce Empire Side Hustle With No Money
Jonathan Spaulding Discovery

Startups Design Marketing & Sales

Multiplayer Interactive Fiction on the Elixir VM
Brent Anderson Gandhi

Development AI & Machine Learning Wildcard Other

Early Stage Funding in Minnesota
Sean E. Williams Stephen Leacock

Startups Community & DEI Marketing & Sales

End-to-end tests considered harmful (securing credentials for E2E and synthetic testing)
Katie Kodes Louis Pasteur

Development Design

💥We Blame the Dogs, But...Have You Seen the Humans!: Designing Behavior Where Pressure Builds.
Air Gustafson Texas

Design Product Management Community & DEI

The Five Poisons of Business: Transforming the Patterns That Hold Us Back
Deborah Peteler Florida

Community & DEI Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

What’s a Second, and why do they matter?
Ryan Schafer Oregon

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Speed Networking #1 [Networking Lounge]
Hillary Drake Uptowner

Community & DEI

12:15 – 1:25 🍕 Regular Lunch
12:30 – 1:10 Session Block 4
Why is tech sexist? A farming perspective
Emily Rhoades Bde Maka Ska

Emerging Tech Community & DEI Wildcard Other

A weather station, plant monitors, buttons, and other smart home fun
Jachin Rupe Minnetonka

Development

Gopher Supercomputing: Past, Present, and Future
Matt Meshulam Proverb-Edison

Wildcard Other

How I Use Notion to Run my Publishing Company
Jeff Eddy Learn

Startups Emerging Tech Design

Growing a Social Media Community: What’s Working Right Now
Rayen Inostroza Discovery

Startups Community & DEI Careers & Talent Marketing & Sales

The UX of Being Human: A Usability Assessment of You
Janel Anderson Stephen Leacock

Design Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Why Your Third COO Just Quit (And Why Recruiting Won't Fix It)
Kaitlin Strand Nevada

Startups Careers & Talent

More Than a User: Bringing Unreasonable Hospitality into IT Support
Tyler Moen California

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Influence Through Alignment: Technology Enablement in a Matrixed Organization
Ben Wadsworth Florida

Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

The Minnesota First Check Playbook: How Early-Stage Capital Really Flows
Minnestar, Meg Steuer Oregon

Startups

1:25 – 2:05 Session Block 5
The Parts You Didn't See: A Collective Account of Operation Metro Surge
Eryn O'Neil Theater

Community & DEI Wildcard

✨ Let’s animate! ✨ An Introduction to Rive.app
Shalanah Dawson Nokomis

Development Design

3D Printing: Getting Started
Cameron MacDonald Minnetonka

Wildcard

Capture the Flag
Robert Boedigheimer Proverb-Edison

Development Emerging Tech Wildcard Other

When Before What: Practical prioritization for leaders and builders
Phil Ensminger Zeke Landres

Startups Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Other

Venture Capital: What It Is, How It Works, and When to Walk Away
Stephanie Rich Challenge

Startups

From Uncle Sam to Civic Tech: Rebuilding Civic Engagement for Gen Z Using Design Thinking
Samhita Krishnamurthy Learn

Emerging Tech Design Community & DEI

Pricing Office Hours: How (and How Much) Should You Charge.
garrick van buren Discovery

Startups Product Management Marketing & Sales

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Defeating the Loneliness Epidemic!
Max G Gandhi

Community & DEI Other

Shared Success Agreements: Stop Selling Your Time. Start Investing It.
Zack Steven Nevada

Careers & Talent Marketing & Sales

Building Elite Teams - Forgotten Lessons from the Ranger Battalion
Craig Vosper Florida

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Growing Up "Vid Kid"
Rawson Stovall Georgia

Careers & Talent Other

How To Sell Your Neighbor's Wi-Fi, For Fun and Bitcoin!
Stephen Gornick Oregon

Emerging Tech

Migration Engineering: Automating Security & Tech Stack Upgrades
Brad Broulik Pennsylvania

Development Emerging Tech

Speed Networking #2 [Networking Lounge]
Hillary Drake Uptowner

Community & DEI

2:20 – 3:00 Session Block 6
Play Well With Others: Creativity Through Collaboration
AnnMarie Thomas Theater

Design Product Management Community & DEI Soft Skills & Personal Growth

50 Ways to Leave Your Company in Ruins
Ian Young Harriet

Development Startups Product Management

Solar and Battery Storage: What the process of getting a microgrid looks like.
Shree Pandey Nokomis

Emerging Tech Other

Lessons from Two Decades of Angel Investing
Rob Weber Bde Maka Ska

Startups

I'm Disabled & You Will Be, Too
Jenn Czeck Minnetonka

Development Design Community & DEI Soft Skills & Personal Growth

50 Years of Consoles, Computers, and Handhelds: The Convergence of the Steam Deck
Peter Lonnquist Proverb-Edison

Other

Catan, Clean Energy, and Code: Can You Prove That Wind Farm Actually Generated Electricity?
Rob Davis, John Peacock Zeke Landres

Development Emerging Tech Product Management Marketing & Sales

Everything in Time: The Ultimate Guide to Android Date and Time Programming
Andrew Haisting, David Perez Gandhi

Development

🔥😌 Calm in the Chaos: Real-World Incident Management (and the Stuff We Don’t Talk About)
Sara Heitkamp Stephen Leacock

Wildcard Development Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Lowering Anxiety for Product & UX/UI Designers (or anyone!) -or- How Language and Perspective Shape Work Dynamics
Marta Daehn Texas

Design Soft Skills & Personal Growth

🥳 Landing you First Software Engineering Job 101 (You vs AI)
Fuad Jeet Florida

Development Startups Careers & Talent

Women in Tech Meetup [Networking Lounge]
Hillary Drake Uptowner

Community & DEI

3:15 – 3:55 Session Block 7
The Good Years: Formative Tech Companies in the Twin Cities
Matt Decuir Theater

Development Startups Careers & Talent

Leverage Your Experience: How to Land Your First Advisory Role
Loran Gutt Nokomis

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

3D Printing: One step closer to the home replicator?
Cary Christopherson Bde Maka Ska

Emerging Tech Wildcard Other

The Work That Holds Teams Together: Stop Blaming the Person. Fix the System.
Meghan Gencev Zeke Landres

Product Management Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent Wildcard

Building a Tech Community
Mike Benkovich Challenge

Startups Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Join our quest to throw a ring into a volcano
Jon Wilson Gandhi

Community & DEI Development Emerging Tech

Don't Rip and Replace: how to avoid the shiny upgrade pitfall in long-term systems
John Eckhardt Stephen Leacock

Development Product Management Other

Build A Bridge with Interactive Art
Kelly Anderson Tackle

Development Startups Design Community & DEI Marketing & Sales

Entrepreneur Panel: Maximizing Value from a Mentor
Mark Capaldini, Nick Gawreluk, Michael Petersen, Daniel Metcalf California

Startups

Convincing Energy - The thing you couldn't name that's been defining your company's growth potential
Nathan Young Florida

Startups Marketing & Sales Other

Exploring Six Types of Decisions Orgs Make When Working with Test Automation Frameworks That Often Lead to Trouble
Trevor Wagner Georgia

Development Other

How to Go Public in 2026 Using an Initial Crowd Offering
David Duccini Oregon

Startups Other Emerging Tech Marketing & Sales Wildcard

Crafternoon
Jenn Czeck Cabin

Community & DEI Other

4:10 – 4:50 Session Block 8
Managing Your Tech Career v17 – (Why do recruiters suck so bad?)
Paul DeBettignies Theater

Careers & Talent

You’re Not Leading. You’re Reacting.
Paul Cramer Harriet

Product Management

MN Indie Gamedev Microtalks 2026
Martin Grider, Chip Pedersen, Samuel Fletcher, Andy Olson Nokomis

Development Wildcard Other

No One Has the Full Picture (Especially in Complex Systems)
Tom Harren Bde Maka Ska

Development Soft Skills & Personal Growth

Photogrammetry to Furniture - Designing for the real world in Blender
Paul Carroll Minnetonka

Design Wildcard Other

Code, cloth, and your hands: How engaging in textile craft makes you a better technologist
CJ Jensen Proverb-Edison

Development Design Community & DEI Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent

Questions to ask during a transition... and who can help.
Samantha Young Zeke Landres

Soft Skills & Personal Growth Careers & Talent Other

Canary in a Gold Mine: De-risk Your Product with Quick & Dirty Experiments
Jamie Ryan Discovery

Development Startups Design Product Management

From Founder to Marketing Department of One: What Actually Works When You're Doing It All
Sofiia Hohunska Louis Pasteur

Startups Marketing & Sales

💡Get finance to say YES to your idea: The other side of the dashboard
Mena Duarte Nevada

Community & DEI Careers & Talent Marketing & Sales

The Startup Was a Financial Success. I Am Not Building It That Way Again.
Jonathan Anderstrom California

Startups Careers & Talent Marketing & Sales

Horror Movie Survival: Protecting Yourself From Airborne Pathogens
Jason Hsu Oregon

Other

Fire up yourself and your teams with Snowflake usage
Nadir Doctor Pennsylvania

AI & Machine Learning

Start Social Hour Early — Networking in Sandy’s
Minnestar

Wildcard

4:50 – 7:00 🍻 Social Hour