The Digital Transformation Summit (STL TechWeek 2026)

Join us for the 4th Annual STL TechWeek from April 13 - 17 with 5 full days of free events at venues all across St. Louis!

Digital Transformation Summit

A Featured Conference of STL TechWeek

Organizations across every industry are facing the same challenge: how to successfully integrate new digital tools, automation, and AI into everyday operations. The Digital Transformation Summit brings together the region’s top technologists, agency leaders, and industry practitioners for a full day focused on real-world implementation of modern technology solutions.

Hosted at Webster University inside the School of Business & Technology, this one-day conference features a jam-packed lineup of technology experts, keynote speakers, and hands-on trainers exploring how digital transformation is reshaping agencies, companies, nonprofits, and growing organizations across the Midwest.

Event Details
📅 Wednesday, April 15, 2026
🕘 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
📍 Webster University School of Business & Technology (545 Garden Ave, Webster Groves, MO, 63119)
🎟️ Free to attend, lunch provided

Parking is available across the street from the School of Business in the parking garage.

Summit Agenda

9:30 AM Doors Open

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (ISB Auditorium) Keynote: "10 Years of Change in 6 Months" by Kevin Grossnicklaus, CEO of ArchitectNow & Alex Will, CTO of ArchitectNow

ArchitectNow has spent years reshaping itself into an AI-first company. We thought we were ahead of the curve. Then the last six months happened -- the tooling, the capabilities, and the entire industry leapt forward so fast that even a company built around AI had to pivot to keep up. What we had been doing was no longer enough. What worked last quarter was already obsolete.

This keynote is the honest account of what that acceleration looked like across every part of the business -- operations, sales, marketing, development, client delivery. Kevin Grossnicklaus and Alex Will will name the specific tools, walk through specific use cases, and share what actually worked and what didn't. Where AI delivered value we never anticipated. Where the human factor turned out to matter more than the technology. And where we got it wrong in ways we are still correcting.

As a technology services provider working across industries and company sizes, we also have a unique vantage point into how organizations beyond our own are adopting AI -- and the uncomfortable truth is that most are not realizing the value they hoped for. The reason usually has nothing to do with the technology. It has to do with how people work, how leadership communicates, and whether anyone was willing to change the actual operating model or just bolt a new tool onto the old one.

Whether you are leading an AI initiative, evaluating where to invest next, or trying to figure out why your current efforts are not delivering -- this session will give you real tools, real use cases, and real lessons you can take back to your organization and apply immediately. No theory. No hype. Just what we have learned by doing it.

11:00 AM - 11:45 AM (ISB Auditorium) Keynote: "The Future of Autonomous AI Enterprises - Reimagining Autonomy in the age of intelligence" by Prakash Kajuluri, AVP at YASH Technologies

From defining todays True Autonomous AI Enterprise to making bold predictions based on outlook, this keynote session offers forward-looking perspectives into the evolution of enterprise AI, its core pillars, agentic operating models that reimagine enterprise functions and redefine economic and workforce impact driven by sustainable AI. This session also focuses on the roadmap for how future would be looking like in fully autonomous loops versus todays AI augmented workflows.

11:45 - 1:00 PM Lunch in Edward Jones Commons

1:00 PM - 1:45 PM Breakout Sessions 1

• Track A: From Idea to Impact: How to Build AI That Actually Delivers Results, by Nia Joseph, Senior Growth Product Lead (Marketing - AI), Microsoft
• Track B: From Cloud Native to Multi-Cloud Native: Write Once, Deploy Anywhere, by Sandeep Pal, Principal Engineer, Salesforce
• Track C: GitHub Copilot - My OMG! moment, by John Baluka, Software Development Consultant
• Track D: Your Jira Board is Perfect: Your Kid's Science Project is Due Tomorrow, by Angela Virtudazo, Senior Learning Strategist
• Track E: 10 Tips to Become the Accessibility SME in Your Dev Shop, by Chad Hester, Vice President, Barrier Break

2:00 - 2:45 PM Breakout Sessions 2

• Track A: Enhance Your Business Productivity With Microsoft Copilot and Agents, by Becky Bertram, Owner, Savvy Technical Solutions
• Track B: Pressed: The Cost of Constant Stimulation, by Ashley Rene Casey, Founder, Presence over Pixels
• Track C: From Hype to Impact: How We Build AI Products That Deliver, by Larry McLean, Chief Growth Officer, McLean Forrester LLC
• Track D: Build Your Own AI Coworker, by Joshua Johnson, CTO of TREE Industries
• Track E: Stop building bridges. Start building teams., by Julia Pitlyk, Sr. Director Digital Transformation Nestlé Health Science and James Nippert, VP Consulting Solutions, Sketch Development Services

3:00 - 3:45 PM Breakout Sessions 3

• Track A: The Generative Enterprise Operating Model: How Work, Roles, and Value Creation Change, by Jeromey Farmer, Chief Data & AI Officer & EVP, 3Cloud
• Track B: Reframing Resistance in Digital Transformation, by Rebecca Solano, Senior Organizational Change Manager, Technology & Business Transformation, Crowe
• Track C: Swimming with Sharks, by Kirk Damman, Patent Attorney, Lewis Rice
• Track D: Radical Accessibility: Why Inclusive Design Is the Next Frontier of Innovation, by Pamela Williams, Assistant Professor of Practice for OLID, SIU
• Track E: From Spreadsheets to Sentinels: Building Real-Time Property Intelligence for Local Government, by Dave Messner, Managing Partner, New Legacy Development Partners