What do you want to see at Startup Week Louisville?
Upvote the ideas and speakers you’d love — your votes shape the agenda in order to create the most impactful event possible.
Sessions people are asking for.
Building with AI
I would love to attend a session about non-technical or moderately-technical founders creating products using AI. As a founder, I am solely using AI to develop my platform, and so far it's gone amazing with some drawbacks (of course AI is constantly developing). There are so many AI driven tools, ideas, and workflows out there to make founders lives easier and help them stay lean for as long as possible (if that's what they wanted). It would be great to see if we have any experts in the community to speak on it or activities surrounding AI for founders!
MCP and actual easy to understand agents for AI
It should stay high level on how to get agents to automate small things for you. or big things. who knows.
AI Agents
Incorporating AI Agents into workflow
- Bill Henderson from RedTag
Spoke at Venture Connectors- great at articulating practical uses of AI
Creative Reset
Startup Week is full of incredible sessions about building businesses, raising capital, product strategy, marketing, and growth. This session is intentionally different. Creative Reset is a hands on art activity designed to help founders, builders, technologists, and community members reconnect with creativity without needing to produce a pitch, solve a problem, or optimize an outcome. Through a simple, playful art exercise, participants will have space to loosen up, experiment, and tap into the kind of imagination that often gets buried under deadlines, strategy, and execution. Additional idea is that this is not a session but an installation - meaning it is up all week at one of the venues and attendees can walk by and spend a few minutes to complete the artwork/task. This interpretation would be less focused but allow more participation, quicker, and everyone has time to stop by and create something. Also creates a useful artifact to share out after.
AI Everywhere enables more humans to be better humans, human to human
AI could have written this and then I could talk with you more
Who the community is nominating.
Dr. Shawn L. Gardner Ph.d
Dr. Shawn L. Gardner, Ph.D. is a TEDx speaker, licensed therapist, educator, author, and nonprofit leader with more than 15 years of experience teaching conflict management. He brings expertise in leadership, resilience, motivation, and team development, combining academic training with extensive professional and lived experience. Through his theBLUEPRINT conflict-management system, Dr. Gardner gives leaders practical tools for recognizing and managing conflict before it damages communication, relationships, and performance. His experience working with workplaces, universities, schools, and communities makes him well suited to engage Startup Week Louisville’s entrepreneurs, founders, and emerging leaders.
Jay Smith
Jay is a builder and a visionary who works with nonprofits and many in Louisville. A great community voice and unique skillset. He also is a great speaker!!
Dalton Powell
great start up that could teach people about MCP and agents
Eric Gunderson
Eric Gunderson has spent more than 30 years helping businesses navigate the ever-changing world of marketing. As CEO and co-founder of Louisville-based High10 Digital, Eric is an entrepreneur himself who understands the challenges of building a business, adapting to change, and making smart decisions with limited time and resources. Throughout his career, he has worked with organizations ranging from startups and family-owned businesses to national brands, helping them navigate changing consumer behavior and an increasingly complex digital landscape. Eric's presentation can center on practical lessons entrepreneurs and business leaders can apply to their own organizations. Drawing on real client case studies, he can explore how established businesses have modernized their marketing, how technical and industrial companies have built thought leadership, and how smaller organizations can compete effectively through consistent, integrated marketing strategies. He can also share insights on topics shaping today's business environment, including AI, the evolution of search, and changing customer expectations. Rather than focusing on the latest trends, Eric emphasizes practical frameworks, real-world examples, and lessons learned that can help attendees better understand today's marketing landscape and confidently navigate what's next.
Nicolee Burks
I don't know Nicolee personally but her story is really inspiring and shows the true nature and journey from dream to entrepreneur. I'd be really interested to have her speak on the grind and mental tenacity needed to work through set backs and keep betting on yourself. We often separate food/hospitality from tech/startups but they are very similar and require the same amount, if not more, of time and grind. It would be really great to learn from her. And added bonus is her shop is in the Nulu area, which is where the conference will be located!
Every idea lands on the organizing team’s board — community input determines which real sessions.