LinkedIn 101: Building a Strong Professional Profile is a practical session designed to help you optimize your LinkedIn presence. Learn key strategies for crafting a compelling profile, showcasing your skills, and expanding your professional network. Whether you're job searching, networking, or building your personal brand, this session will equip you with the tools to stand out on LinkedIn.

Aaron Brown graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in Economics from Morehouse College in 2016. He is currently a Recruiter at Microsoft, recognized for his expertise in motivating and closing deals with top talent. Prior to Microsoft, Aaron was a Consultant at Deloitte, implementing cloud ERP/EPM software. At Oracle, he served as an Account Manager and Business Development Consultant, advising clients on cloud strategies. Aaron also interned for Congressman John Lewis, where he managed casework and drafted federal grants. He is the Blacks at Microsoft Worldwide Talent Acquisition Lead and an active member of Toastmasters International.

Bharti Gupta is a talent enthusiast passionate about connecting people with the right opportunities. With over a decade in tech recruiting, she has built high-performing teams across corporate and agency settings. At Microsoft, Bharti leads hiring for Cloud Infrastructure & Innovation (CO+I), bringing in top technical talent. Beyond hiring, she is deeply committed to mentorship, career growth, and creating pathways for non-traditional talent in tech. She believes everyone deserves a fair shot at success and actively drives initiatives to make tech careers more accessible. For Bharti, recruiting isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about building relationships, creating impact, and empowering people to grow.

The job market is rapidly changing with the rise of AI, and the best way to learn and upskill beyond the classroom is to learn-by-doing. From prepping for job interviews, updating resumes, to building an AI projects portfolio - get hands-on with our co-instructors in this workshop, and learn different ways AI can support and enhance your learning and your work both in and out of the classroom. This workshop is interactive. You'll experiment and test out prompts and LLMs alongside your co-instructors during the workshop & hopefully walk away with some powerful new tools and use cases for your own personal and professional goals.

Taught by leaders of Women Defining AI, an organization working to level the playing field for women in tech and enabling a new generation of builders.

Helen Lee Kupp is the co-founder and creator of Women Defining AI, a community of female leaders tackling the biggest topics of understanding today's generative AI widespread adoption through experimentation, support, and community learning. She takes a practical approach towards helping leaders navigate the biggest changes in work — both from AI/technology, and the flexible/hybrid work revolution. She is the co-author of WSJ Bestselling book “How The Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives”, an experienced technology operator and executive (former Slack/Salesforce, Thumbtack, Bain). She believes in closing the gender technology gap - starting with women at work - to create a future of work that looks and feels fundamentally different for her two kids and the women she mentors.

Vaishali Mittal is a health tech innovator and product leader with a biomedical engineering background. She’s spent 10+ years working on innovative life-saving technology from algorithms for coronary artery disease to breakthrough mechanical thrombectomy devices to AI/ML co-pilots for clinicians delivering real-time clinical insights. Currently, she is developing next gen surgical robots at Intuitive Surgical. Vaishali is passionate about closing the gender gap and supporting early career individuals. She’s held leadership positions at MedTechWomen and WDAI and serves on the external advisory board for UC Davis’ Biomedical Engineering Department, bridging cutting-edge research with real-world applications.

In today’s job market, a resume alone won’t cut it. This workshop dives into the real skills and strategies you need to succeed—building a professional network, gaining hands-on experience, and upskilling continuously. Whether you’re a student, career-changer, or re-entering the workforce, ADA Developers Academy will show you how to take charge of your career journey, embrace lifelong learning, and confidently navigate the tech industry.

Tina-Marie Gulley is a dynamic professional with an impressive 15-year career dedicated to fostering growth and innovation across community organizations, corporations, and startups, successfully generating over $40 million in revenue. Recognized as one of Adweek’s Rising Brand Stars, she is celebrated for her entrepreneurial spirit and leadership. As the CEO of Ada Developers Academy, she skillfully navigates transitions while focusing on future growth. Her extensive expertise in tech marketing and STEM nonprofit leadership, combined with her dedication to fostering inclusive communities and workplaces, drives her mission forward.

AI is changing the workplace before you even get hired. Explore how businesses use AI to recruit, hire, and manage employees, and what you can do to adapt in an evolving job market.

Aaron Terrazas is an independent macro and labor economist with a decade experience across the tech sector. He was previously Chief Economist at the online review website Glassdoor, Director of Economic Research at the trucking marketplace Convoy, and a Senior Economist at the real estate portal Zillow. Before his tech career, he was an economist in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Economic Policy. He was educated at Georgetown University and at Johns Hopkins University.

AI is everywhere—but what’s real, and what’s just buzz? In this session, we’ll break down what AI is (in simple terms) and explore real-world case studies from leading companies like Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce. Learn how AI is driving innovation across industries and what it means for the future of work.

Praful Konduru is a senior software engineer with over a decade of experience at leading technology companies, including Meta, Amazon, PayPal, Venmo, Dell, and Salesforce. He specializes in AI-driven automation, scalable distributed systems, cloud computing, and high-performance engineering solutions.

Beyond his corporate roles, Praful is an active mentor, advisor, and startup judge, helping early-stage companies refine their technology strategy, product scalability, and AI adoption. Passionate about innovation and emerging technologies, he frequently speaks at industry conferences, sharing insights on AI, MLOps, and software development best practices. His expertise lies in bridging cutting-edge technology with real-world applications, ensuring businesses can scale effectively while embracing the future of AI and cloud computing.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming how products are designed, built, and scaled across industries. From AI-powered search and recommendation engines to fraud detection, content generation, and autonomous decision-making, AI is driving efficiency, automation, and intelligent user experiences.

This session explores the AI development lifecycle, covering data collection, model training, MLOps, and real-world deployment. We will discuss key AI-driven products, including chatbots, personalized recommendation systems, predictive analytics, and generative AI tools, along with the challenges of scaling AI in production, ensuring model fairness, and optimizing performance.

Attendees will gain practical insights into how AI is integrated into product development, best practices for deploying AI-driven solutions at scale, and the future trends shaping AI-powered innovation. Whether you’re an engineer or AI enthusiast, this session will provide actionable takeaways on building and scaling AI-driven products.

Praful Konduru is a senior software engineer with over a decade of experience at leading technology companies, including Meta, Amazon, PayPal, Venmo, Dell, and Salesforce. He specializes in AI-driven automation, scalable distributed systems, cloud computing, and high-performance engineering solutions.

Beyond his corporate roles, Praful is an active mentor, advisor, and startup judge, helping early-stage companies refine their technology strategy, product scalability, and AI adoption. Passionate about innovation and emerging technologies, he frequently speaks at industry conferences, sharing insights on AI, MLOps, and software development best practices. His expertise lies in bridging cutting-edge technology with real-world applications, ensuring businesses can scale effectively while embracing the future of AI and cloud computing.

Discover how artificial intelligence is reshaping our world—and our sense of self. In this session, we’ll explore emerging AI-driven breakthroughs revolutionizing entire industries, examine ethical considerations, and delve into how shifts in technology will influence our identity at work and beyond.

Steven Maheshwary is a business and technology leader with a passion for AI and a background spanning public and private sectors. He formerly served as Governor Inslee's Technology Sector Lead, chartered with growing Washington's $100B tech and AI economy, and has been a spokesperson on responsible and ethical AI development (years before the advent of gen AI). Steven is currently a product strategy and growth leader with a background in commercializing and scaling billion-dollar tech businesses across his time at Amazon, Microsoft, and startups prior. In addition, he serves as an advisor to AI-native startups and civic tech organizations, including formerly chairing Seattle's Technology Advisory Board and serving as a board director for the Washington Technology Industry Association.  He is an AI-empowered father, husband, Harvard alum, and Fulbright Scholar and hails from Houston, TX.

Join us for a hands-on workshop where you will learn about the capabilities of generative AI using Microsoft Copilot. Bring your personal creativity and passion to dream up a novel destination and create the content to help tell its story.

Meet Liz Butowicz, tech enthusiast and oyster farmer. Founder of Black Dog Black Cat, a Microsoft Training Services Partner, Liz brings her extensive expertise and an agile team of professionals to empower educators and institutions with the essential knowledge to effectively teach artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and productivity technology skills.

Through virtual and in-person training Black Dog Black Cat increases the number of faculty and educators who are well-prepared to deliver Microsoft AI skills to students. Faculty and educators can then empower students with the tech skills needed to succeed in an AI-driven job market.

With over 10 years as an education consultant and 20 years of industry experience at Microsoft, Liz has made a positive impact on thousands of students and educators worldwide. Her education initiatives enable teachers to confidently teach technology skills in the classroom. In her free time, Liz grows oysters on Whidbey Island, Washington.