Moving
Beyond
the AI Hype.
A working conference for leaders, technologists, and practitioners who are ready to stop speculating and focus on what actually works.
One focused day. Zero filler.
One opening conversation, then 4 rooms of parallel sessions, all on the 3rd floor.
The Department at Hudson's Detroit.
A brand-new, purpose-built event space in the heart of downtown Detroit. Everything happens on the 3rd floor, with skyline views and walking distance to every major downtown hotel.
The Department at Hudson's
1000 Nick Gilbert Way
Detroit, Michigan 48226
Valet is available. If you prefer self-parking, or valet is at capacity, several public garages are a short walk away:
- One Campus Martius GarageClose by, around Campus Martius / Farmer St
- Z Deck / Z ParkVia Gratiot Ave and Library St
- 1001 Woodward Garage35 State St
Two stations are nearby:
- Broadway Station
- Cadillac Center Station
Find any staff member, or email hello@beyondconf.com. Our Code of Conduct applies to everyone.
Practitioners, not pitch decks.
Our confirmed 2026 lineup — Check back for updates!
Built for people doing the real work with AI.
Every session comes from someone who has shipped, scaled, or stopped an AI initiative. No vendor pitches. No hand-waving demos. Just the lessons that came from actually doing the thing.
Signal over hype
Speakers are vetted for real-world experience — they've launched, scaled, failed, or fixed. You leave with patterns you can apply on Monday, not vendor talking points.
Deeper than a keynote
Three focused tracks let you go wide or deep. Ethics & Compliance for the risk folks. Foundations for teams just starting. From Experience for teams already in production.
Detroit, on purpose
Hudson's in downtown Detroit is the venue — a brand-new space built for working events, not hotel-ballroom energy. Capped at 250 so the hallway conversations actually happen.
Pick the one that sounds like your week.
Every ticket gets access to all four. Jump between them all day. Each session is 45 minutes — easy to drop into mid-track.
Ethics & Sustainability
If you care about doing this right.
- Bias & fairness in deployment
- The real environmental cost of inference
- Labor impact & responsibility
- Internal AI policies people follow
How It Works
If you want the mechanics, not the metaphors.
- Tokenizers & context windows
- How attention actually works
- Embeddings in plain English
- What an eval really measures
From Experience
If it's already in production.
- Agentic systems in the wild
- RAG pipelines at scale
- Retrospectives: projects we killed
- Post-launch iteration patterns
Looking Forward
If you want to know what's next.
- Agents that actually execute
- Models that reason out loud
- Multimodal workflows in practice
- Where we think this lands in 2027
Backed by companies that get it.
Sponsorship packages available now. Get in front of 250 AI practitioners, engineers, and decision-makers.
- Main Stage Branding
- Attendee List (Post-Event)
- 45 Minute Speaking Session
- Premium Location
- Booth SizeCustom
- Logo PlacementAll marketing channels
- Swag Bag Opportunity
- Complimentary Passes8
- 2 Minute Sponsor Welcome
- Main Stage Branding—
- Attendee List (Post-Event)
- 45 Minute Speaking Session—
- Premium Location
- Booth SizeLarge
- Logo PlacementWebsite/Keynote Slide Deck
- Swag Bag Opportunity
- Complimentary Passes4
- 2 Minute Sponsor Welcome—
- Main Stage Branding—
- Attendee List (Post-Event)—
- 45 Minute Speaking Session—
- Premium Location—
- Booth SizeStandard
- Logo PlacementWebsite
- Swag Bag Opportunity
- Complimentary Passes2
- 2 Minute Sponsor Welcome—
- Main Stage Branding—
- Attendee List (Post-Event)—
- 45 Minute Speaking Session—
- Premium Location—
- Booth Size—
- Logo PlacementWebsite
- Swag Bag Opportunity
- Complimentary Passes1
- 2 Minute Sponsor Welcome—
Put your brand in front of 250 decision-makers.
Sponsor packages from $1,000 — community tier through visionary partner. Download the prospectus →