April 7, 2025 • 48 mins
Ever wondered what makes a city truly tech-forward? Nick Serfass, CEO of RVA Tech, takes us on a compelling journey through Richmond's evolving technology landscape and explains why Virginia's capital is positioning itself as "Tech's Most Creative City."
Serfass reveals how Richmond's diverse ecosystem – spanning from FinTech giants like Capital One to emerging biotech startups and advanced manufacturing – creates a unique environment where innovation thrives across multiple sectors. Under his leadership, RVA Tech supports approximately 200 tech-related businesses through advocacy, community building, and talent development initiatives designed to make Richmond a premier destination for tech professionals.
The conversation explores how artificial intelligence is transforming both established enterprises and startups in distinctly different ways. For larger companies, AI provides operational efficiencies while simultaneously enabling entirely new business models and service offerings. For entrepreneurs, AI serves as a democratizing force, lowering barriers to entry and providing powerful tools to tackle complex problems in innovative ways.
What distinguishes this episode is Serfass' forward-looking perspective on AI integration. Rather than viewing artificial intelligence as a separate specialty, he envisions AI becoming fully integrated into the technology stack within a decade – a shift that will require upskilling across all professional roles, not just dedicated tech positions. His practical advice for developing AI skills through hands-on experimentation rather than formal training alone offers listeners actionable insights they can implement immediately.
Richmond's collaborative "big-small city" culture creates the perfect environment for this evolution, enabling rapid connections and knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries. Serfass' passion for building Richmond's tech presence is infectious, leaving listeners with a compelling vision of how mid-sized cities can become vibrant technology hubs through intentional community building and strategic innovation.
Ready to become part of Richmond's tech renaissance? Subscribe to Inspire AI for more conversations with the innovators shaping our technological future.
Want to join a community of AI learners and enthusiasts? AI Ready RVA is leading the conversation and is rapidly rising as a hub for AI in the Richmond Region. Become a member and support our AI literacy initiatives.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome RVA to Inspire AI, where we spotlight
companies and individuals in theregion who are pioneering the
development and use ofartificial intelligence.
I'm Jason McGinty from AI ReadyRVA.
At AI Ready RVA, our mission isto cultivate AI literacy in the
greater Richmond region throughawareness, community engagement
(00:24):
, education and advocacy.
Today's episode is madepossible by Modern Ancients
driving innovation with purpose.
Modern Ancients uses AI andstrategic insight to help
businesses create lasting,positive change with their
unique journey consultingpractice.
(00:44):
Find out more about how yourbusiness can grow at
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And thanks to our listeners fortuning in today.
If you or your company wouldlike to be featured in the
Inspire AI Richmond episode,please drop us a message.
Don't forget to like, share orfollow our content and stay up
(01:07):
to date on the latest events forAI Ready RVA.
Welcome to Inspire AI, thepodcast that brings you dynamic
conversations at the crossroadsof technology, innovation and
leadership.
I'm excited to introducetoday's guest, nick Surface.
I'm excited to introducetoday's guest, nick Surface, the
CEO of RVA Tech.
(01:27):
With a robust backgroundspanning architecture, design
and organizational leadership,nick has a unique ability to
unite diverse communities arounda common goal harnessing
technology to sparktransformative change.
Before taking the helm at RVATech, nick served in prominent
leadership positions in thearchitecture and design world,
(01:49):
where he championed progressivethinking and the development of
future industry leaders.
In his current role, he appliesthe same forward-focused
mindset to Richmond's thrivingtech ecosystem.
As the CEO of RVA Tech, nick isat the forefront of empowering
local startups, established techfirms and the community
(02:10):
stakeholders to collaborate,innovate and shape a more
inclusive and dynamic technologylandscape.
Nick's passion for education,community building and strategic
partnerships has made him anotable figure in Richmond's
broader economic developmentscene.
Under his guidance, rva Techhas expanded its reach, launched
(02:32):
new initiatives and cultivateda powerful network of tech
professionals who are dedicatedto making Richmond a premier hub
for tech talent and creativesolutions.
A premier hub for tech talentand creative solutions.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Please join me in welcoming Nick to the show.
Thanks, jason, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Looking forward to our conversation Outstanding,
and thank you for joining ustoday.
So can you start us out bytelling us a little bit about
yourself, your business and yourinterest in AI?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Sure Thanks, jason.
So my name is Nick Surface andI run the Richmond Technology
Council.
We are a local tradeassociation spanning about 175
to 200 businesses, all withtech-related or tech-adjacent
capabilities or focuses orrelated to tech in some way.
(03:26):
We do our best to build thebest tech community.
We can create the most vibranttech ecosystem here in Richmond
as possible, and we really dothat through three pillars.
The first is by advocating forthe tech sector through policy
and advocacy.
The second is by building techcommunity through events and
(03:47):
programs.
The third is by fostering atech talent pipeline, mostly
through our foundation,professional development
workshops, programming, thingslike that, all with the North
Star and the goal of creating amore vibrant and high profile
tech town for the city ofRichmond, creating a more
vibrant and high-profile techtown for the city of Richmond
Outstanding.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
And you've been with the organization for what?
Six years?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, I've been here a little over six years now and
I have a background not only inarchitecture and design from my
early days but as an associationprofessional running
associations.
My previous role was verysimilar to RVA Tech in terms of
the size and scope of theorganization, working with
architecture students on anational scale to put on
programs and do some of thesesame pillars that we do at RVA
(04:38):
Tech.
But when I came to RVA Techabout six years ago it was an
opportunity to level up theorganization.
I came to RVA Tech about sixyears ago it was an opportunity
to level up the organization.
The organization had builtitself pretty robustly from its
start in about the early 90s andhad built some programs, had
built a great women in techconference, had a very sizable
awards, gala golf tournament,all those kind of typical
(05:01):
association elements.
They were looking to go to thenext level and kind of expand
programming and impact.
And that's what I kind of camein to do and it was an exciting
challenge and it continues to bebecause tech continues to
evolve.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, definitely.
I love hearing about the earlystages of organizations and
seeing how leaders kind of kickinto overdrive and find new
areas of opportunity, a lot ofopportunity for AI.
I feel like you're at the helmin the time of great advancement
of technology.
(05:34):
This is going to be an excitingpath forward for us all.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, it's a great time to be in tech.
It has been as long as I'vebeen here, I think, tech we used
to say every company is a techcompany when I first started,
but now that's started to evolveinto.
At one point it was everycompany is a cyber company
because you needed thatcapability company to a degree
(06:07):
and that continues to evolve andchange and grow and that's just
exciting to see and it meansthat there's always something
unique and interesting for us towork on and to build.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Absolutely so.
I understand that Richmond hasa mix of established enterprises
and emerging startups.
In your view, how is AIuniquely helping these two
sectors?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, I think they provide unique opportunities for
both large enterprise companiesas well as startups.
For us at RVA Tech, we'recertainly more ingrained with
the enterprise side of thingsand we're seeing those companies
really invest in a coupledifferent angles.
The first prong is just moreefficiencies in their own
(06:48):
processes, procedures and theway that they conduct their own
business.
So automation is alwayssomething that these companies
have been working on and workingto perfect since they started
(07:09):
and since they grew.
But now with AI, that's justscaled up to another level where
the impact of those automationsare even more significant.
Almost on a week-to-week basis,I'm hearing stories about how
companies are just changingprocedures and processes
literally almost weekly ormonthly, if not.
So we're seeing those companiesget better at what they're
doing and get more impactful andmore efficient.
(07:30):
The second prong of that sideof the equation is we're seeing
them spin up new businessprocesses or new business value,
new business elements.
They're doing things that maybethey weren't doing in the past
or weren't capable of doing sopotential new services for their
(07:53):
customers, potential newproducts and new offerings.
So these businesses that haveobviously built to a large scale
are now poised to continue tobuild, which I think is exciting
for them and certainly is greatfor Richmond as a whole in our
ecosystem.
Exciting for them and certainlyis great for Richmond as a
whole in our ecosystem.
On the startup side, we're justseeing the reduction of another
barrier to entry here forstartups.
(08:14):
I think with AI there's a newelement to add value or to bring
a unique value proposition tothe table.
Companies are starting up notjust with an idea, but with an
idea tied to tech, meaning wewant to change a particular
problem or solve a particularproblem, and now we have a new
tool to do that.
So it's not just we're a newfintech company or we're a new
(08:38):
biotech company, we're a newbiotech AI company that
automates a particular processor procedure or, you know,
provides a value that didn'texist before.
So it's a whole new kind oftool in the toolbox for
entrepreneurs and provides, youknow, kind of the floodgates of
opportunity, so to speak, tocreate new companies.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, yeah, as you were explaining some of those
various layers of change foreach of the sectors pointed out,
I think I feel like we're at amoment where of resetting their
business approach in discerningwhat it is they should be doing
(09:31):
with their products and servicesand how they can leverage these
technologies and very easilyseeing themselves go from mature
back to innovative states ofchange.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, absolutely we're.
We're seeing that that bigstrategic question asked across
the board of you know, should webe using this?
And you know the answer isusually yes.
And then, if so, how and atwhat stage of our process?
Are we just trying to elevateour legacy systems a little bit
better or, like you said, are wetrying to go kind of go back to
(10:06):
square one and innovate and say, you know, if we were to wipe
everything clean and start fromscratch using this technology,
where would we go?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
100%.
Yeah, that sends chills,Honestly.
I've been thinking about thisfor a long time and I think all
companies are at the moment offiguring out what to do, and the
world is their oyster right now, especially with the fact that
politics, in the state that theyare, are not taking advantage
(10:35):
of the regulatory operations andthey're allowing the innovation
to proceed uncut right Raw.
Let's see what we can make ofthese technologies and don't
stifle innovation.
So now's the moment for everysingle company out there, I
think.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, jason, you make a great point with the
regulatory side, because wespent a lot of time, especially
in the early part of the year,with the General Assembly, and
you're right.
And you're right.
The last couple of years havebeen the wild wild west,
certainly for AI and.
But we're starting now to seemore and more legislation start
to peek through.
(11:13):
The number of bills and thenumber of pieces of legislation
that we're tracking and involvedin either supporting or
opposing has exponentiallyincreased just in the last two
years.
But it's still not figured outthere isn't one universal piece
(11:35):
of legislation in any particularstate.
That is kind of the North Starfor anybody.
So it still is very much thewild, wild West which, like you
kind of were starting tohighlight, creates opportunity.
It means innovation can happen.
Right now there's not a lot offramework or a lot of regulation
.
At the same time, you know,there's the conversation around
ethics and are we paying enoughattention to the results and the
(11:58):
ramifications of what we build?
Build which you know I thinkit's been some of the critique
of social media and algorithmsand machine learning.
You know that we've seen throughsocial media over the last, you
know, five to 10 years.
Those things are so mature nowthat we're starting to see the
some negative impact and it'slike oh, why didn't you think of
that 10 years ago or five yearsago?
(12:20):
You should have been thinkingabout that.
And as technologists, I think alot of times we're head down in
building the product, notnecessarily envisioning all the
philosophical and ethicalramifications five to 10 years
down the road.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Got a lot of a lot of room toimprove the way we think about
these technologies for sure.
So let's move to how do youthink AI is changing the job
landscape over the next three tofive years?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, it's a great question.
I think it's probably thenumber one question that I get.
I think even more so than howshould I use AI?
What tools should I use?
Is my job at risk?
How does my workforce change?
How do I change how I manage myhuman capital and so forth?
Do I change how I manage myhuman capital and so forth?
(13:08):
And I'll tell you from ourperspective at RVA Tech, with
our 200 members, I think techtalent is probably the number
one most significant elementconcern item that is on their
docket.
Are we attracting the righttalent to town?
Are we upskilling the talent wehave?
Are we building the pipeline wehave?
And now, with AI, thatconversation continues, but now
(13:32):
with a whole new lens of thisnew technology, which is a more
democratized or accessibletechnology than anything we've
ever seen.
And I think you and I know thatthat's probably what's causing
a lot of this increase orexplosion in AI is that
(13:52):
everybody can use it, from anelementary school kid up to a
grandparent, and it's just soeasy to use.
And when you look back and youlook at the roadmap here and you
look at some of the othertechnologies that at one time
were emerging and unknown thingslike search engines or just the
internet itself, or then mobilephones and then evolution of
(14:15):
different types of mobile phones, where we got to voice and then
we started to get to AI withSiri and some of those things,
and those were all very unknownpieces of tech that got
democratized or accessiblereally quickly and then we're
able to skyrocket and becomejust part of the average tech
lexicon of any individual on anygiven day.
(14:36):
And I think that's where we'regoing with AI and also why the
job question is so critical,because AI is going to be just
part of the tech stack inanything we work on.
I think we're trying to segmentit right now or maybe we're not
trying.
It's being segmented as its owntopic or its own subject matter
expertise, when in reality, Ithink in 10 years, it's just
(15:00):
going to be part of tech.
It's going to be a piece ofeverything we do, similar to
cyber and security.
We've got to keep our new techsecure.
Whatever that tech is, whateverapplication we're building In
10 years, whatever applicationwe're building, we'll have to
have a machine learning and anAI component, and the smarter it
(15:20):
is, the more impactful and themore business value it's going
to have.
So job roles are going to needto have this expertise
incorporated into it At almostevery level, from not just deep
tech software engineers andcoders, but, you know, to
marketers and managers andproduct project managers and
product designers, anybody who's.
(15:42):
Yeah, I mean, it's going tocapture 360 degrees of the
workforce, and it's just amatter of how quickly we can get
everybody to that point quicklywe can get everybody to that
point.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, we have this debate regularly in AI Ready
RVA's leadership community abouthow technical do we need to
consider the future workforce,whether they believe themselves
to be tech or not.
You know, I think there's anevolution here that it's only
seen by certain job familiesunless you have a bigger macro
(16:20):
view of the role of technologyin the job market.
And what I'm saying here isthink about what you said a few
minutes ago about companiesbecoming more tech capable.
Said a few minutes ago aboutcompanies becoming more tech
capable.
(16:40):
So six years ago, that was whenyou were seeing companies say,
okay, I want to be a techcompany and starting to make big
shifts in strategy to become atech company.
And then you said companies,because they're leveraging more
tech.
They need to mitigate the riskswith leveraging the
technologies.
So now they're cyber-frontedcompanies, so you have a tech
cyber company.
(17:00):
And then now we have AI comingin all directions.
We are now becoming AIcompanies and, like you said, I
think you're more than alludingto the fact that you're speaking
to it and I'd love to doubleclick on people in all of these
various roles that are nottechnically tech related roles.
(17:22):
They need to upskill.
What would you say to themabout thinking about their
future?
How do you feel we areembracing the opportunity to
upskill the technologists whodon't necessarily see themselves
as technologists, but are goingto be technologists whether
(17:42):
they see themselves or not.
Like if you agree to that, I'dlove to hear your opinion.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I do agree, and I think there'sa couple different angles to
the upskilling in terms ofpotential.
Sure, there is the standard weneed to upskill our work.
Let's say I'm a manager at acompany, I need to upskill my
workforce, and so I'm going toput them through standard
training and that type of thing.
(18:07):
And that's always going toexist and always has.
You can always send people toworkshops, you can do degree
programs, certificate programs,all that good stuff.
I think what's different herewith AI is because it's so
accessible and democratized isthat there's more of an ability
for anybody to upskill theirtech capability on their own in
(18:28):
this particular sector, meaningthey don't necessarily need to
go to a degree program or acertificate program or any
particular formal training toget some useful skill and
ability to provide businessvalue in a job.
And I'll use an example ofsomething I said at a panel at
(18:49):
VCU recently.
You recently, one of thequestions was what would you
suggest to students in terms ofhow to learn AI or come out of
the door upon graduation with aportfolio of AI skills?
And what I highlighted was thatI don't think you need to just
go to your business school orengineering school and take a
bunch of AI courses.
(19:09):
I think what would be even morevaluable to students or anybody
else is just to start applyingAI to particular projects that
you're working on and say, youknow, deliberately and
intentionally to yourself onthis new project I have, I'm
going to try to implement an AI,you know, platform or
technology of some nature tojust learn, to just figure out
(19:31):
how it could work, and maybethat's as simple as hey, I have
a content plan for social media,I'm a marketing manager, I'm
going to use a particularplatform to generate at this
time, and you start to do thesethings and all these different
projects, and maybe you do thatfor six months and then you look
back and you're like you startto realize that you're going to
(19:52):
be able to tell your people,your co-workers, oh hey, look
back and you're like you startto realize that you're going to
be able to tell your people,your coworkers, oh hey, you can
use this for that, you can dothis for that, or I tried this
for this particular problem andyou start to develop your own
portfolio of skills just by, youknow, experimenting on your own
, and that is a unique elementof AI that I don't think we've
had in tech.
You know, to a degree that'sthis accessible in a long time
(20:16):
and the average person can't goexperiment with cybersecurity
technology on the backend andsay they can't build a project
management Excel sheet and say,okay, how do I protect this?
But they can implement AIelements.
Implement AI elements.
And there's so many tools andplatforms in AI now that there's
(20:37):
literally there's somethingcustomized for almost every
business problem.
Where we're getting to thatpoint and so, yeah, it's
something I enjoy.
Doing myself is just, throughoutdifferent projects, saying you
know, what can I apply here?
Is there an AI element that Ican just test?
And you know we're a smallcompany where we're just five
(21:00):
people, a nonprofit.
But you know we're looking atautomation and how to aggregate
our data better and analyze ourdata better and execute our
processes better so that ourfive people are more impactful
and can be scaled up to.
You know what 10 people used tobe able to do.
But the only way we're doingthat is by testing and
(21:20):
experimenting on our own.
You know there's no, there'snot necessarily a class or a
certificate that says, hey, nick, here's how to run RVA tech
better with AI.
You know, in a two-week course,but I can spend two weeks
trying to, you know, to build AIinto our new CRM in some way
and figure out how to automateinvoicing or put a plan for
(21:43):
conference programming togetheror checklists or customer
service draft emails, thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So yeah, as you're explaining, your five person
company approach and leveragingAI makes me think that you know.
What I've heard recently isbillion dollar companies can be
run by one or two people thesedays because of the ability of
of these automations to work toour advantage.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So yeah, I believe it and keep going.
Man, there's so much there.
There may be a contraction onone side with, hey, we don't
need 100 people to do thisparticular thing anymore, but
with all these tools andcapabilities, it would be sweet
to have 100 people over herejust innovating and driving
forward some new productdevelopment, some new
(22:46):
innovations and things like thatto build a business.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Totally.
Yeah.
I believe that vision is goingto steer companies away from the
risk of chopping roles for thesake.
That's what we must do with thegrowing opportunities in this
new economy of ours.
So, yeah, I want to spin backto the three pillars that you've
been talking about and discussa little bit more about the RVA
(23:32):
tech strategy and supporting thecommunity through your
technology innovation andhelping individuals and
businesses embrace the change.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, yeah, thanks, jason.
I appreciate the chance to talkabout RVA Tech a little bit
more from what I said last timeand say that really are kind of
one of our main goals throughwhatever we do, whether it's
programs or strategic pillars orjust day-to-day processes our
(24:02):
North Star is to try to buildRichmond into the best tech town
it can be, and what that is andhow that's defined is different
for different people, butultimately we know that we'll be
successful.
If there's a higher profile ofRichmond nationally as a tech
town, there's more people comingto town to take jobs here.
(24:23):
When recruiters call peoplefrom outside of town, they have
a sense of what Richmond is andthey have a little bit of a
brand around Richmond that theycan identify with.
And if they don't know anythingabout Richmond, that we have
resources to point them to, tosay, hey, look, look at all the
cool things that happen here inRichmond and why it's such an
attractive place to live, work,play and build technology.
(24:44):
And so that's ultimately whatwe're trying to do is, you know,
build Richmond to the best techtown it can be.
And so how we do that and howwe get there along the way is
kind of the evolving strategyand also dictates what tactics
we put into place.
But we have three essentialstrategic pillars and the first
(25:06):
and foremost is communitybuilding in terms of all of our
events and programs andmembership and building a
community of technologists thathave one place to gather
together, where they know theycan go to for tech programming,
for tech networking, for techcommunity, for connections if
they need help with something.
(25:27):
Or a lot of times you guysprobably get it too.
I get tons of new ideas oh, itwould be cool if RVA Tech did
this, did this, did this.
So we're one central hub thatcan kind of vet all those things
and say, oh yeah, like thiswould be great, we could do that
or no, that doesn't make sensefor Richmond, or vice versa, and
(25:48):
we can really, you know, kindof pick programming and try to
build things that advance ourcommunity.
So the tech community is thefirst part.
The second is the tech sectoritself, which here in Richmond,
one of the things I alwayshighlight is the diversity of
sectors we have here in town,which I don't think a lot of
people outside of Richmondreally know that there's FinTech
(26:11):
with Capital One and all thebanks, but there's also a great
biotech scene and there's ahealth tech scene with.
Vcu Insurance has a bigpresence here, with Kinsale
Insurance and with Markel wehave advanced manufacturing.
A lot of people don't even knowthat Sabra Hummus has a big
plant down in Colonial Heights.
We have Lego coming to townvery soon.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Really that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, I mean we have an entire center for advanced
manufacturing just in SouthRichmond that is poised to just
build capability and economicdevelopment around that sector.
And then you look at justtechnology itself.
You look at companies likeCoStar who own apartmentscom and
homescom, and they're buildingan internet, a set of internet
properties.
You look at CarMax, which, yeah, it's retail to a degree, but
(27:03):
that retail now is almost asignificant percentage is online
.
We're not going to the parkinglot to shop for cars as much as
we used to and the onlinepresence has to be robust and
support that retail component.
So CarMax is very much a techcompany itself and I know I
mentioned Capital One in theFinTech space, but really
(27:25):
they're almost just all tech ina lot of ways that just happened
to, you know, ultimately buildit around the financial sector
and we're seeing new companiesevery day.
You've highlighted a handful oftimes the startup scene here is
really robust and interesting.
There's all kinds of new thingshappening from things that are
deep tech.
There's a company calledNearsense that's doing
(27:46):
bioinformatics for the militaryand for soldiers.
There's a great company calledBrandify that's doing cosmetics
and democratizing high-endcosmetics in a subscription
service.
There's all kinds of reallycool, really wild, very diverse
things happening here inRichmond.
And so as we build the techsector, it's important to know
(28:09):
that that sector is more thanjust Capital One, it's more than
just CarMax.
It also includes stategovernment, which is you know, a
lot of people I don't thinkalways think at the forefront of
spending.
That government is one of thebiggest spenders, you know, in
the state and in the country,and so that's a business that a
lot of people serve.
(28:31):
So we do our best to elevate thetech sector, whether that's
bringing companies to town orcreating a healthy environment
for companies to exist and tooperate here, and we do that
through relationships withgovernment, being at the General
Assembly and then working onpolicy both locally and
statewide throughout the year.
So the tech sector is pillarnumber two, and then pillar
(28:54):
number three for us is techtalent, meaning that we want to
build, attract and retain astrong workforce here in
Richmond and technology and youknow at the early stages, that's
our K through 12 programming,and so we have a specific
foundation here in town thatraises money just to support K
through 12 initiativesfoundation here in town that
raises money just to support Kthrough 12 initiatives they're
(29:15):
happening here in the city,they're happening in all the
different counties and we'realways kind of surveying the
landscape to see where we caninfuse support to help build
those programs and then aspecific name to that program.
It's called the RichmondTechnology Foundation OK, so our
501 C3.
And so it works to fundraisedonations and put on events to
(29:39):
raise money to support K-12initiatives Very cool.
And then with attractionretention, it's a little bit of
creating a great community herebut also speaking out and
promoting Richmond as a city,and we do that through our brand
platform called Richmond,virginia Tech's Most Creative
City, and so we've spent thelast few years really developing
(30:02):
this brand platform to helppeople understand that Richmond
is a very creative town.
That's an element andcharacteristic that is authentic
to Richmond.
It exists in the tech sector,but it also exists in the arts
and culture around town.
It exists in food and beverage,it exists in the music scene.
There are countless elements ofcreativity that have a
(30:25):
foundation here in Richmond,particularly if you look at VCU
or the Brand Center and some ofthose things.
Art and culture and creativityhave always been core to
Richmond, and so we're trying tolet people know that that's
also infused in the tech sectorand that that's a kind of a
brand for Richmond that we wanteveryone to know.
So you add those up togetherthe community, the sector and
(30:47):
the town and hopefully we arebuilding a higher profile.
You know state for RichmondVirginia.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Okay, okay, very nice .
So this is kind of off the cuffhere, thinking about your tech
talent pillar, and you haveuniquely identified the creative
community to support them inthe tech talent initiatives.
Do you have other directives oris it really just solely about
(31:19):
raising our K-12 technologistsof the future and our creatives,
making Richmond Tech's mostCreative City?
I love that.
Honestly, I wouldn't considermyself a creative, but I am
exploring the means ofsupporting local businesses with
creatives as my partners, andthey have a wonderful
(31:42):
perspective, honestly.
But is it really just those twothat you've summarized or is
there more to it?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, there's certainly more to it.
So certainly at theinstitutional level, with VCU,
with the University of Richmond,with our extensive community
college system, which includesReynolds Community College,
bright Point Community Collegenot only helping them build and
advise them on curriculum andprograms, but partnering with
those programs for workforcedevelopment initiatives.
(32:11):
So we always have our eye ongrant opportunities and other
programs kind of in that spacethat can help support workforce
development at the collegiatelevel.
So that's something that we'realways looking for partnerships
with.
We're also looking to highlightsome of the apprenticeship
programs, mentorship programs,mid-career, transitional
(32:34):
training programs, things likethat, that exist around town to
really move people over to tech.
And there's a lot of theworkforce that comes to tech,
not just from the pipeline Kthrough 12 and collegiate, but
they come from careertransitions, and so there's a
handful of great mentorshipprograms and apprenticeship
programs and even companies herein town that support those
(32:56):
types of things.
One in particular is MaxPotential here in town, where
their entire business model isbuilt upon, simultaneously
bringing in private projects andclients and pairing them up
with apprentices that they train, that are kind of mid-career,
uh, you know, uh, professionalsthat are transitioning into tech
(33:18):
.
So there's a little bit of allof that, and then you couple
that with economic development,um, as well.
So, whether it's pure economicdevelopment, with the greater
Richmond partnership, virginiaEconomic Development Partnership
, and then the counties in thecity as well and their
departments, anytime there's atech company that's thinking of
coming to town we're generallyin those conversations which is
(33:40):
always a fascinating place to be, and it's an opportunity to
sell Richmond, and the morecompanies and the bigger and
more diverse tech sector we have, the more talent is going to be
attracted to be Richmond, andthe more companies and the
bigger and more diverse techsector we have, the more talent
is going to be attracted to behere.
We always tell people you maycome here for a job at Capital
One or CarMax or something, butif you're in your late 20s or
(34:03):
early 30s, you may not be thereforever, so you need to know
that there will be other optionsfor you as well, as your career
moves and grows, and so that'swhat we try to highlight about
Richmond is the reason you comehere may not be the reason you
stay here.
There's lots of reasons to stay, so oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
All right, OK.
So, Nick, how can localbusiness leaders and
technologists collaborate toensure Richmond stays
competitive in the AI space?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, so there's a few angles here where leaders
and technologists can kind ofcome together in Richmond, and
one of the great things aboutRichmond is that it's a big,
small city, so the communityhere is very collaborative city,
so the community here is verycollaborative.
A lot of us see each other atsimilar events and similar
(34:54):
places around town and haverelationships or know each other
, and whether that's a leader oreven somebody who's new to the
technology community, the paceand speed at which you can kind
of come up to speed on aRichmond network is pretty quick
.
And, with that said, one of thebest ways I think to kind of
really advance this AI space isjust bringing people together
for conversations, where they'reconnected, where leaders have a
(35:18):
chance to talk to thetechnologists and vice versa,
where, when they come to, let'ssay, an RVA tech conference we
just had our data and AI summita couple of weeks ago there are
sessions there where we haveC-suite leaders sitting in the
audience that are listening to apanel of people who are putting
together the backend of machinelearning on a day-to-day basis
(35:42):
and they're not necessarilytaking away technical coding and
that type of thing they'relooking for.
What do I need to keep in mindwhen I'm building my tech stack
or managing my tech team.
What kind of questions do Ineed to ask?
And that's what they'relearning from technologists, and
vice versa.
Technologists are hearingleaders on the stage talking
(36:03):
about what their main challengesare, what their opportunities
are, what they see in thelandscape ahead, what their
visions might be, and that helpstechnologists start to go back
to their desk and think, oh gosh, I heard that this is the real
problem, or I'm so head downbuilding a particular component.
I'm not thinking about what theultimate goal is here, and
(36:25):
that's been one interestingelement of AI overall.
Is that these conversationshelp with?
Is that there's so muchpossibility with AI, but you
can't do everything, or noteverything makes business sense.
You know it's like you've got toprioritize.
Just because it's an AIopportunity doesn't mean you
should take it, and so that'sone of the unique or the
(36:49):
necessary elements ofcollaboration between leaders
and technologists.
There has to be an opendialogue between the two,
because it's really easy as aleader to see something that see
an article, see, attend asession and say, oh gosh, I need
to institute this in my company.
Or vice versa a technologistlearns a new capability and
(37:10):
wants to apply it, but reallythey've got to come together and
figure out if it makes businesssense, because it's going to
take time away from somethingelse you might be working on.
So, yeah, those collaborationsneed to happen.
Certainly, rva tech events orAI ready RVA events are great
places, but also just in theworkplace and you know, day to
(37:30):
day, being in the office or inboardrooms, having those
conversations aboutprioritization and understanding
both the deep tech and thestrategic tech, you know will
help make good choices.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yes, yes.
When you first set out todescribe those collaborative
moments, the environment that weneed to build and take
advantage of, I thought about AIReady, rva's cohorts.
The cohort scene is starting toestablish itself pretty
(38:02):
prominently in the community andI feel like there's definitely
opportunity for us to just keepgoing in that realm of
exploration and just build,build, build.
Have you become aware of ourcohort scene and is there any
specific advice you would giveto us overall around how to
(38:23):
manage and keep theconversations going through our
cohorts?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, jason, I think your cohort model is the most
fascinating element of what youall do, to be honest, I mean, ai
is certainly, as a topic, atthe forefront of almost every
programmatic thing I see aroundtown these days, whether it's
ACG, rva, tech, ai Ready, rva,even just academic panels and
(38:50):
programs.
Everybody is trying to figureit out or understand it.
But I do think your model ofthe cohorts is really
interesting because it createscommunity at a different level
that doesn't exist right now, ata more intimate, close,
collaborative level.
Going back to the previousquestion about getting business
leaders with technologists um,uh, you know that's, a cohort is
(39:14):
a really intimate um place todo that.
You also are able to do morefrequent hits along the way.
You know, I don't know if it'smonthly that you're doing or
bi-monthly or what have you, butuh, either way, those those
types of you know frequent, youknow rhythmic opportunities to
gather together, I think arereally compelling and important.
(39:35):
And that's how we look at ourconferences in a certain way.
Those are certainly biggernodes throughout the year, but
we see them in a similar fashionof okay, you know, once every
month or two, you know, there'sa conference where our community
can come together and there's adifferent angle each time and
there's a different focus toeach conference.
But it isn't a big note on thecalendar.
(39:57):
That you know is repetitivethroughout the year and you all
kind of have that, you know, ata more intimate scale with the
cohort.
So I think it's it's reallyinteresting and fascinating.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
On the flip side.
You asked about.
You asked about things to watchout for.
So when I first came on boardat RVA Tech, we had one
conference it was the Women inTech Conference and then, over
the course of the last six years, we've both grown and
contracted those conferences.
At one point we had seven alongthe way and it just became too
difficult to do everything wellalong the way and it just became
(40:33):
.
It became too difficult to doeverything well and we started
to get into areas where maybeweren't our core competency or
didn't have a big enoughaudience to really create a
critical mass.
There just wasn't a demand forit.
So at one point we move up toseven.
We're now down to five and wemay even contract or or, you
know, blend some things furtherto four to make sure that we're
putting on quality programmingas best we can, you know, for
(40:58):
the portfolio we have.
So we are, we are trying todouble down on on quality over
quantity as we we move forward,and so but that's something that
you know we've learned andtested over the last six years
and there are programs that wehave that we wouldn't have if we
didn't test and grow, and sobut not everything works, so you
(41:20):
just got to be able to cut baitand you know, trim down when it
makes sense and figure outwhat's working and what's not,
and then double down on what'sworking.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Quality over quantity .
Yep, that sounds great.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Richmond, like I said , is a big, small town and so
it's a lot of the same community, a lot of the different things,
and so understanding how eachorganization you know has a
unique value proposition andwhat that value proposition is
and what it does differentlyfrom others is critical.
You know that's a lot aboutcommunication and marketing and
being, you know, clear andtransparent about what
(41:53):
everyone's doing.
But I think collaboration, orhighlighting that collaboration
exists and that we're allworking together, really
provides the most benefit andthe most bang for your buck,
because I think we all havesomething to offer.
But they're different scales,they're different, maybe a
little bit different angle, adifferent audience or something
where if everyone workedtogether a little bit more
(42:17):
seamlessly, we could probablyscale things quicker and have a
bigger impact.
And there are otherorganizations in town, not just
you and I, but Startup Virginiais part of the conversation,
greater Richmond PartnershipChamber, RVA, and certainly you
know, key local governmentleaders the mayor is obviously
critical, you had him at youropening, you know, power of
(42:38):
Possibility event.
Other industry leaders, c-suitefolks at Capital One and CarMax
and Dominion and CoStar and ondown the line, whether it's big
companies and startups, and sobringing people together and
making sure everyone knows thatwe're here for collaboration, I
think is the biggest opportunity.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Yep, as you said, a unified front within the
community, absolutely All right.
So, looking ahead, how do youenvision RVA Tech evolving its
AI related programs and how canthe broader community get
involved in shaping that future?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Sure, well, we are a small association that is
volunteer led and volunteerdriven, so we are always looking
for volunteers in allcomponents of our organization,
whether it's the differentconferences, whether it's policy
, whether it's the foundationand workforce.
So encourage people tovolunteer online and get
(43:40):
involved with RVA Tech ifthey're not, because we are
always evolving and growing andexpanding what we're trying to
do.
You mentioned related to AIprograms.
It's been interesting over thelast few years because, as our
volunteer committees look to puton programming whether it's our
cyber conference or a dataconference or our product
(44:01):
conference the last couple ofyears have been all about AI.
Whether it's an AI track or anAI lens, an AI subheading, it's
all.
Even our data summit has becomethe data and AI summit.
Our cyber con has now has a anAI lens almost to everything it
(44:21):
puts on on the stage.
Product Fest is doing the same,and so there are AI components
in everything we do, and I thinkthat just speaks to the fact
that it's just becoming part ofthe technology stack.
And, as we look at RVA techprogramming, we are trying to
create large kind of evergreen,sustainable catch-all, you know,
(44:44):
umbrellas that then, you know,allow for emerging tech to
change and evolve over time, andso, hopefully, our data and AI
summit will stay that way, andthe tech behind it and the AI
that changes and the machinelearning that changes will be
lumped into the programming.
Same with cybersecurity, thesame with product Women in tech
(45:05):
is certainly demographic-based,but that will be sustainable and
evergreen and it's just whatthey choose to highlight
underneath it, and so that's howwe look at.
Our programming is what can wecreate that's sustainable and
evergreen and allows for theevolution of tech?
Because we started in the early90s and tech is very different
(45:28):
today from where it was then,and so we want to make sure that
we can accommodate the topicthat we look to, you know, to
showcase.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Yep, sounds like we just made a full circle, nick.
Back to AI is everywhere.
Ai is impacting everything andwe need to be thinking about it
as such.
So all right, nick, it's beenan awesome interview so far.
I have one last question foryou.
If you could have anysuperpower, what would it be and
(45:58):
why?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Jason, this is really easy and it's probably going to
be a very unusual superpower.
But if I had the ability tobring a professional sports team
to Richmond Virginia, that'swhat I would do.
Ability to bring a professionalsports team to Richmond
Virginia, that's what I would do.
I think everything we do at RVATech and you guys do at AI
Ready RVA is a step in the rightdirection to help Richmond.
But if there could be one bigbang for buck thing that could
(46:21):
transform this town and put iton the map a little bit, I think
it's a professional sports team.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Which type of sport Nick sports team.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Which type of sport, Nick?
I'd probably go a little.
Look, we're a big, small town.
We're a community-basedorganization.
I keep it to something that'sfamily-friendly, that is
accessible.
I keep it to hockey or baseball, something that's fun that you
go to as an experience.
We certainly have baseballalready with the Squirrels that
do pretty well.
I love for hockey to come backto Richmond because it's just
something that is accessible,it's democratized, it's fun for
(46:55):
families, a lot of differentcreative, cool things you can do
with it and the scale is alittle bit different than NFL or
something like that.
Yeah, I'd love to see hockeyback in town.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
The old Richmond Renegades yes sir.
Oh my gosh, that takes me back.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Well, it's been a fantastic time with you today,
Nick.
I really appreciate all of yourvaluable insights.
I know the community will enjoythis episode and I really am
excited about the partnershipbetween RVA Tech and AI Ready
RVA going forward.
There's so much synergy here tobe had.
It really gets me excited and Iam very much looking forward to
(47:39):
the next year or two down theroad where we really start
ramping up and helping Richmondbecome the tech community that
it can be.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Awesome Thanks, jason , and I hope more people come to
Tech's Most Creative City.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Excellent, All right man Take care.
All right, and thanks to ourlisteners for tuning in today.
If you or your company wouldlike to be featured in the
Inspire AI Richman episode,please drop us a message.
Don't forget to like, share orfollow our content and stay up
(48:14):
to date on the latest events forAI Ready RVA.
Thank you again and see younext time.
Welcome RVA to Inspire AI, where we spotlight
companies and individuals in theregion who are pioneering the
development and use ofartificial intelligence.
I'm Jason McGinty from AI ReadyRVA.
At AI Ready RVA, our mission isto cultivate AI literacy in the
greater Richmond region throughawareness, community engagement
(00:24):
, education and advocacy.
Today's episode is madepossible by Modern Ancients
driving innovation with purpose.
Modern Ancients uses AI andstrategic insight to help
businesses create lasting,positive change with their
unique journey consultingpractice.
(00:44):
Find out more about how yourbusiness can grow at
modernagentscom.
And thanks to our listeners fortuning in today.
If you or your company wouldlike to be featured in the
Inspire AI Richmond episode,please drop us a message.
Don't forget to like, share orfollow our content and stay up
(01:07):
to date on the latest events forAI Ready RVA.
Welcome to Inspire AI, thepodcast that brings you dynamic
conversations at the crossroadsof technology, innovation and
leadership.
I'm excited to introducetoday's guest, nick Surface.
I'm excited to introducetoday's guest, nick Surface, the
CEO of RVA Tech.
(01:27):
With a robust backgroundspanning architecture, design
and organizational leadership,nick has a unique ability to
unite diverse communities arounda common goal harnessing
technology to sparktransformative change.
Before taking the helm at RVATech, nick served in prominent
leadership positions in thearchitecture and design world,
(01:49):
where he championed progressivethinking and the development of
future industry leaders.
In his current role, he appliesthe same forward-focused
mindset to Richmond's thrivingtech ecosystem.
As the CEO of RVA Tech, nick isat the forefront of empowering
local startups, established techfirms and the community
(02:10):
stakeholders to collaborate,innovate and shape a more
inclusive and dynamic technologylandscape.
Nick's passion for education,community building and strategic
partnerships has made him anotable figure in Richmond's
broader economic developmentscene.
Under his guidance, rva Techhas expanded its reach, launched
(02:32):
new initiatives and cultivateda powerful network of tech
professionals who are dedicatedto making Richmond a premier hub
for tech talent and creativesolutions.
A premier hub for tech talentand creative solutions.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Please join me in welcoming Nick to the show.
Thanks, jason, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Looking forward to our conversation Outstanding,
and thank you for joining ustoday.
So can you start us out bytelling us a little bit about
yourself, your business and yourinterest in AI?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Sure Thanks, jason.
So my name is Nick Surface andI run the Richmond Technology
Council.
We are a local tradeassociation spanning about 175
to 200 businesses, all withtech-related or tech-adjacent
capabilities or focuses orrelated to tech in some way.
(03:26):
We do our best to build thebest tech community.
We can create the most vibranttech ecosystem here in Richmond
as possible, and we really dothat through three pillars.
The first is by advocating forthe tech sector through policy
and advocacy.
The second is by building techcommunity through events and
(03:47):
programs.
The third is by fostering atech talent pipeline, mostly
through our foundation,professional development
workshops, programming, thingslike that, all with the North
Star and the goal of creating amore vibrant and high profile
tech town for the city ofRichmond, creating a more
vibrant and high-profile techtown for the city of Richmond
Outstanding.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
And you've been with the organization for what?
Six years?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, I've been here a little over six years now and
I have a background not only inarchitecture and design from my
early days but as an associationprofessional running
associations.
My previous role was verysimilar to RVA Tech in terms of
the size and scope of theorganization, working with
architecture students on anational scale to put on
programs and do some of thesesame pillars that we do at RVA
(04:38):
Tech.
But when I came to RVA Techabout six years ago it was an
opportunity to level up theorganization.
I came to RVA Tech about sixyears ago it was an opportunity
to level up the organization.
The organization had builtitself pretty robustly from its
start in about the early 90s andhad built some programs, had
built a great women in techconference, had a very sizable
awards, gala golf tournament,all those kind of typical
(05:01):
association elements.
They were looking to go to thenext level and kind of expand
programming and impact.
And that's what I kind of camein to do and it was an exciting
challenge and it continues to bebecause tech continues to
evolve.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, definitely.
I love hearing about the earlystages of organizations and
seeing how leaders kind of kickinto overdrive and find new
areas of opportunity, a lot ofopportunity for AI.
I feel like you're at the helmin the time of great advancement
of technology.
(05:34):
This is going to be an excitingpath forward for us all.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, it's a great time to be in tech.
It has been as long as I'vebeen here, I think, tech we used
to say every company is a techcompany when I first started,
but now that's started to evolveinto.
At one point it was everycompany is a cyber company
because you needed thatcapability company to a degree
(06:07):
and that continues to evolve andchange and grow and that's just
exciting to see and it meansthat there's always something
unique and interesting for us towork on and to build.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Absolutely so.
I understand that Richmond hasa mix of established enterprises
and emerging startups.
In your view, how is AIuniquely helping these two
sectors?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, I think they provide unique opportunities for
both large enterprise companiesas well as startups.
For us at RVA Tech, we'recertainly more ingrained with
the enterprise side of thingsand we're seeing those companies
really invest in a coupledifferent angles.
The first prong is just moreefficiencies in their own
(06:48):
processes, procedures and theway that they conduct their own
business.
So automation is alwayssomething that these companies
have been working on and workingto perfect since they started
(07:09):
and since they grew.
But now with AI, that's justscaled up to another level where
the impact of those automationsare even more significant.
Almost on a week-to-week basis,I'm hearing stories about how
companies are just changingprocedures and processes
literally almost weekly ormonthly, if not.
So we're seeing those companiesget better at what they're
doing and get more impactful andmore efficient.
(07:30):
The second prong of that sideof the equation is we're seeing
them spin up new businessprocesses or new business value,
new business elements.
They're doing things that maybethey weren't doing in the past
or weren't capable of doing sopotential new services for their
(07:53):
customers, potential newproducts and new offerings.
So these businesses that haveobviously built to a large scale
are now poised to continue tobuild, which I think is exciting
for them and certainly is greatfor Richmond as a whole in our
ecosystem.
Exciting for them and certainlyis great for Richmond as a
whole in our ecosystem.
On the startup side, we're justseeing the reduction of another
barrier to entry here forstartups.
(08:14):
I think with AI there's a newelement to add value or to bring
a unique value proposition tothe table.
Companies are starting up notjust with an idea, but with an
idea tied to tech, meaning wewant to change a particular
problem or solve a particularproblem, and now we have a new
tool to do that.
So it's not just we're a newfintech company or we're a new
(08:38):
biotech company, we're a newbiotech AI company that
automates a particular processor procedure or, you know,
provides a value that didn'texist before.
So it's a whole new kind oftool in the toolbox for
entrepreneurs and provides, youknow, kind of the floodgates of
opportunity, so to speak, tocreate new companies.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, yeah, as you were explaining some of those
various layers of change foreach of the sectors pointed out,
I think I feel like we're at amoment where of resetting their
business approach in discerningwhat it is they should be doing
(09:31):
with their products and servicesand how they can leverage these
technologies and very easilyseeing themselves go from mature
back to innovative states ofchange.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, absolutely we're.
We're seeing that that bigstrategic question asked across
the board of you know, should webe using this?
And you know the answer isusually yes.
And then, if so, how and atwhat stage of our process?
Are we just trying to elevateour legacy systems a little bit
better or, like you said, are wetrying to go kind of go back to
(10:06):
square one and innovate and say, you know, if we were to wipe
everything clean and start fromscratch using this technology,
where would we go?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
100%.
Yeah, that sends chills,Honestly.
I've been thinking about thisfor a long time and I think all
companies are at the moment offiguring out what to do, and the
world is their oyster right now, especially with the fact that
politics, in the state that theyare, are not taking advantage
(10:35):
of the regulatory operations andthey're allowing the innovation
to proceed uncut right Raw.
Let's see what we can make ofthese technologies and don't
stifle innovation.
So now's the moment for everysingle company out there, I
think.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, jason, you make a great point with the
regulatory side, because wespent a lot of time, especially
in the early part of the year,with the General Assembly, and
you're right.
And you're right.
The last couple of years havebeen the wild wild west,
certainly for AI and.
But we're starting now to seemore and more legislation start
to peek through.
(11:13):
The number of bills and thenumber of pieces of legislation
that we're tracking and involvedin either supporting or
opposing has exponentiallyincreased just in the last two
years.
But it's still not figured outthere isn't one universal piece
(11:35):
of legislation in any particularstate.
That is kind of the North Starfor anybody.
So it still is very much thewild, wild West which, like you
kind of were starting tohighlight, creates opportunity.
It means innovation can happen.
Right now there's not a lot offramework or a lot of regulation
.
At the same time, you know,there's the conversation around
ethics and are we paying enoughattention to the results and the
(11:58):
ramifications of what we build?
Build which you know I thinkit's been some of the critique
of social media and algorithmsand machine learning.
You know that we've seen throughsocial media over the last, you
know, five to 10 years.
Those things are so mature nowthat we're starting to see the
some negative impact and it'slike oh, why didn't you think of
that 10 years ago or five yearsago?
(12:20):
You should have been thinkingabout that.
And as technologists, I think alot of times we're head down in
building the product, notnecessarily envisioning all the
philosophical and ethicalramifications five to 10 years
down the road.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Got a lot of a lot of room toimprove the way we think about
these technologies for sure.
So let's move to how do youthink AI is changing the job
landscape over the next three tofive years?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, it's a great question.
I think it's probably thenumber one question that I get.
I think even more so than howshould I use AI?
What tools should I use?
Is my job at risk?
How does my workforce change?
How do I change how I manage myhuman capital and so forth?
Do I change how I manage myhuman capital and so forth?
(13:08):
And I'll tell you from ourperspective at RVA Tech, with
our 200 members, I think techtalent is probably the number
one most significant elementconcern item that is on their
docket.
Are we attracting the righttalent to town?
Are we upskilling the talent wehave?
Are we building the pipeline wehave?
And now, with AI, thatconversation continues, but now
(13:32):
with a whole new lens of thisnew technology, which is a more
democratized or accessibletechnology than anything we've
ever seen.
And I think you and I know thatthat's probably what's causing
a lot of this increase orexplosion in AI is that
(13:52):
everybody can use it, from anelementary school kid up to a
grandparent, and it's just soeasy to use.
And when you look back and youlook at the roadmap here and you
look at some of the othertechnologies that at one time
were emerging and unknown thingslike search engines or just the
internet itself, or then mobilephones and then evolution of
(14:15):
different types of mobile phones, where we got to voice and then
we started to get to AI withSiri and some of those things,
and those were all very unknownpieces of tech that got
democratized or accessiblereally quickly and then we're
able to skyrocket and becomejust part of the average tech
lexicon of any individual on anygiven day.
(14:36):
And I think that's where we'regoing with AI and also why the
job question is so critical,because AI is going to be just
part of the tech stack inanything we work on.
I think we're trying to segmentit right now or maybe we're not
trying.
It's being segmented as its owntopic or its own subject matter
expertise, when in reality, Ithink in 10 years, it's just
(15:00):
going to be part of tech.
It's going to be a piece ofeverything we do, similar to
cyber and security.
We've got to keep our new techsecure.
Whatever that tech is, whateverapplication we're building In
10 years, whatever applicationwe're building, we'll have to
have a machine learning and anAI component, and the smarter it
(15:20):
is, the more impactful and themore business value it's going
to have.
So job roles are going to needto have this expertise
incorporated into it At almostevery level, from not just deep
tech software engineers andcoders, but, you know, to
marketers and managers andproduct project managers and
product designers, anybody who's.
(15:42):
Yeah, I mean, it's going tocapture 360 degrees of the
workforce, and it's just amatter of how quickly we can get
everybody to that point quicklywe can get everybody to that
point.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, we have this debate regularly in AI Ready
RVA's leadership community abouthow technical do we need to
consider the future workforce,whether they believe themselves
to be tech or not.
You know, I think there's anevolution here that it's only
seen by certain job familiesunless you have a bigger macro
(16:20):
view of the role of technologyin the job market.
And what I'm saying here isthink about what you said a few
minutes ago about companiesbecoming more tech capable.
Said a few minutes ago aboutcompanies becoming more tech
capable.
(16:40):
So six years ago, that was whenyou were seeing companies say,
okay, I want to be a techcompany and starting to make big
shifts in strategy to become atech company.
And then you said companies,because they're leveraging more
tech.
They need to mitigate the riskswith leveraging the
technologies.
So now they're cyber-frontedcompanies, so you have a tech
cyber company.
(17:00):
And then now we have AI comingin all directions.
We are now becoming AIcompanies and, like you said, I
think you're more than alludingto the fact that you're speaking
to it and I'd love to doubleclick on people in all of these
various roles that are nottechnically tech related roles.
(17:22):
They need to upskill.
What would you say to themabout thinking about their
future?
How do you feel we areembracing the opportunity to
upskill the technologists whodon't necessarily see themselves
as technologists, but are goingto be technologists whether
(17:42):
they see themselves or not.
Like if you agree to that, I'dlove to hear your opinion.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I do agree, and I think there'sa couple different angles to
the upskilling in terms ofpotential.
Sure, there is the standard weneed to upskill our work.
Let's say I'm a manager at acompany, I need to upskill my
workforce, and so I'm going toput them through standard
training and that type of thing.
(18:07):
And that's always going toexist and always has.
You can always send people toworkshops, you can do degree
programs, certificate programs,all that good stuff.
I think what's different herewith AI is because it's so
accessible and democratized isthat there's more of an ability
for anybody to upskill theirtech capability on their own in
(18:28):
this particular sector, meaningthey don't necessarily need to
go to a degree program or acertificate program or any
particular formal training toget some useful skill and
ability to provide businessvalue in a job.
And I'll use an example ofsomething I said at a panel at
(18:49):
VCU recently.
You recently, one of thequestions was what would you
suggest to students in terms ofhow to learn AI or come out of
the door upon graduation with aportfolio of AI skills?
And what I highlighted was thatI don't think you need to just
go to your business school orengineering school and take a
bunch of AI courses.
(19:09):
I think what would be even morevaluable to students or anybody
else is just to start applyingAI to particular projects that
you're working on and say, youknow, deliberately and
intentionally to yourself onthis new project I have, I'm
going to try to implement an AI,you know, platform or
technology of some nature tojust learn, to just figure out
(19:31):
how it could work, and maybethat's as simple as hey, I have
a content plan for social media,I'm a marketing manager, I'm
going to use a particularplatform to generate at this
time, and you start to do thesethings and all these different
projects, and maybe you do thatfor six months and then you look
back and you're like you startto realize that you're going to
(19:52):
be able to tell your people,your co-workers, oh hey, look
back and you're like you startto realize that you're going to
be able to tell your people,your coworkers, oh hey, you can
use this for that, you can dothis for that, or I tried this
for this particular problem andyou start to develop your own
portfolio of skills just by, youknow, experimenting on your own
, and that is a unique elementof AI that I don't think we've
had in tech.
You know, to a degree that'sthis accessible in a long time
(20:16):
and the average person can't goexperiment with cybersecurity
technology on the backend andsay they can't build a project
management Excel sheet and say,okay, how do I protect this?
But they can implement AIelements.
Implement AI elements.
And there's so many tools andplatforms in AI now that there's
(20:37):
literally there's somethingcustomized for almost every
business problem.
Where we're getting to thatpoint and so, yeah, it's
something I enjoy.
Doing myself is just, throughoutdifferent projects, saying you
know, what can I apply here?
Is there an AI element that Ican just test?
And you know we're a smallcompany where we're just five
(21:00):
people, a nonprofit.
But you know we're looking atautomation and how to aggregate
our data better and analyze ourdata better and execute our
processes better so that ourfive people are more impactful
and can be scaled up to.
You know what 10 people used tobe able to do.
But the only way we're doingthat is by testing and
(21:20):
experimenting on our own.
You know there's no, there'snot necessarily a class or a
certificate that says, hey, nick, here's how to run RVA tech
better with AI.
You know, in a two-week course,but I can spend two weeks
trying to, you know, to build AIinto our new CRM in some way
and figure out how to automateinvoicing or put a plan for
(21:43):
conference programming togetheror checklists or customer
service draft emails, thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So yeah, as you're explaining, your five person
company approach and leveragingAI makes me think that you know.
What I've heard recently isbillion dollar companies can be
run by one or two people thesedays because of the ability of
of these automations to work toour advantage.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
So yeah, I believe it and keep going.
Man, there's so much there.
There may be a contraction onone side with, hey, we don't
need 100 people to do thisparticular thing anymore, but
with all these tools andcapabilities, it would be sweet
to have 100 people over herejust innovating and driving
forward some new productdevelopment, some new
(22:46):
innovations and things like thatto build a business.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Totally.
Yeah.
I believe that vision is goingto steer companies away from the
risk of chopping roles for thesake.
That's what we must do with thegrowing opportunities in this
new economy of ours.
So, yeah, I want to spin backto the three pillars that you've
been talking about and discussa little bit more about the RVA
(23:32):
tech strategy and supporting thecommunity through your
technology innovation andhelping individuals and
businesses embrace the change.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, yeah, thanks, jason.
I appreciate the chance to talkabout RVA Tech a little bit
more from what I said last timeand say that really are kind of
one of our main goals throughwhatever we do, whether it's
programs or strategic pillars orjust day-to-day processes our
(24:02):
North Star is to try to buildRichmond into the best tech town
it can be, and what that is andhow that's defined is different
for different people, butultimately we know that we'll be
successful.
If there's a higher profile ofRichmond nationally as a tech
town, there's more people comingto town to take jobs here.
(24:23):
When recruiters call peoplefrom outside of town, they have
a sense of what Richmond is andthey have a little bit of a
brand around Richmond that theycan identify with.
And if they don't know anythingabout Richmond, that we have
resources to point them to, tosay, hey, look, look at all the
cool things that happen here inRichmond and why it's such an
attractive place to live, work,play and build technology.
(24:44):
And so that's ultimately whatwe're trying to do is, you know,
build Richmond to the best techtown it can be.
And so how we do that and howwe get there along the way is
kind of the evolving strategyand also dictates what tactics
we put into place.
But we have three essentialstrategic pillars and the first
(25:06):
and foremost is communitybuilding in terms of all of our
events and programs andmembership and building a
community of technologists thathave one place to gather
together, where they know theycan go to for tech programming,
for tech networking, for techcommunity, for connections if
they need help with something.
(25:27):
Or a lot of times you guysprobably get it too.
I get tons of new ideas oh, itwould be cool if RVA Tech did
this, did this, did this.
So we're one central hub thatcan kind of vet all those things
and say, oh yeah, like thiswould be great, we could do that
or no, that doesn't make sensefor Richmond, or vice versa, and
(25:48):
we can really, you know, kindof pick programming and try to
build things that advance ourcommunity.
So the tech community is thefirst part.
The second is the tech sectoritself, which here in Richmond,
one of the things I alwayshighlight is the diversity of
sectors we have here in town,which I don't think a lot of
people outside of Richmondreally know that there's FinTech
(26:11):
with Capital One and all thebanks, but there's also a great
biotech scene and there's ahealth tech scene with.
Vcu Insurance has a bigpresence here, with Kinsale
Insurance and with Markel wehave advanced manufacturing.
A lot of people don't even knowthat Sabra Hummus has a big
plant down in Colonial Heights.
We have Lego coming to townvery soon.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Really that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, I mean we have an entire center for advanced
manufacturing just in SouthRichmond that is poised to just
build capability and economicdevelopment around that sector.
And then you look at justtechnology itself.
You look at companies likeCoStar who own apartmentscom and
homescom, and they're buildingan internet, a set of internet
properties.
You look at CarMax, which, yeah, it's retail to a degree, but
(27:03):
that retail now is almost asignificant percentage is online
.
We're not going to the parkinglot to shop for cars as much as
we used to and the onlinepresence has to be robust and
support that retail component.
So CarMax is very much a techcompany itself and I know I
mentioned Capital One in theFinTech space, but really
(27:25):
they're almost just all tech ina lot of ways that just happened
to, you know, ultimately buildit around the financial sector
and we're seeing new companiesevery day.
You've highlighted a handful oftimes the startup scene here is
really robust and interesting.
There's all kinds of new thingshappening from things that are
deep tech.
There's a company calledNearsense that's doing
(27:46):
bioinformatics for the militaryand for soldiers.
There's a great company calledBrandify that's doing cosmetics
and democratizing high-endcosmetics in a subscription
service.
There's all kinds of reallycool, really wild, very diverse
things happening here inRichmond.
And so as we build the techsector, it's important to know
(28:09):
that that sector is more thanjust Capital One, it's more than
just CarMax.
It also includes stategovernment, which is you know, a
lot of people I don't thinkalways think at the forefront of
spending.
That government is one of thebiggest spenders, you know, in
the state and in the country,and so that's a business that a
lot of people serve.
(28:31):
So we do our best to elevate thetech sector, whether that's
bringing companies to town orcreating a healthy environment
for companies to exist and tooperate here, and we do that
through relationships withgovernment, being at the General
Assembly and then working onpolicy both locally and
statewide throughout the year.
So the tech sector is pillarnumber two, and then pillar
(28:54):
number three for us is techtalent, meaning that we want to
build, attract and retain astrong workforce here in
Richmond and technology and youknow at the early stages, that's
our K through 12 programming,and so we have a specific
foundation here in town thatraises money just to support K
through 12 initiativesfoundation here in town that
raises money just to support Kthrough 12 initiatives they're
(29:15):
happening here in the city,they're happening in all the
different counties and we'realways kind of surveying the
landscape to see where we caninfuse support to help build
those programs and then aspecific name to that program.
It's called the RichmondTechnology Foundation OK, so our
501 C3.
And so it works to fundraisedonations and put on events to
(29:39):
raise money to support K-12initiatives Very cool.
And then with attractionretention, it's a little bit of
creating a great community herebut also speaking out and
promoting Richmond as a city,and we do that through our brand
platform called Richmond,virginia Tech's Most Creative
City, and so we've spent thelast few years really developing
(30:02):
this brand platform to helppeople understand that Richmond
is a very creative town.
That's an element andcharacteristic that is authentic
to Richmond.
It exists in the tech sector,but it also exists in the arts
and culture around town.
It exists in food and beverage,it exists in the music scene.
There are countless elements ofcreativity that have a
(30:25):
foundation here in Richmond,particularly if you look at VCU
or the Brand Center and some ofthose things.
Art and culture and creativityhave always been core to
Richmond, and so we're trying tolet people know that that's
also infused in the tech sectorand that that's a kind of a
brand for Richmond that we wanteveryone to know.
So you add those up togetherthe community, the sector and
(30:47):
the town and hopefully we arebuilding a higher profile.
You know state for RichmondVirginia.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Okay, okay, very nice .
So this is kind of off the cuffhere, thinking about your tech
talent pillar, and you haveuniquely identified the creative
community to support them inthe tech talent initiatives.
Do you have other directives oris it really just solely about
(31:19):
raising our K-12 technologistsof the future and our creatives,
making Richmond Tech's mostCreative City?
I love that.
Honestly, I wouldn't considermyself a creative, but I am
exploring the means ofsupporting local businesses with
creatives as my partners, andthey have a wonderful
(31:42):
perspective, honestly.
But is it really just those twothat you've summarized or is
there more to it?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, there's certainly more to it.
So certainly at theinstitutional level, with VCU,
with the University of Richmond,with our extensive community
college system, which includesReynolds Community College,
bright Point Community Collegenot only helping them build and
advise them on curriculum andprograms, but partnering with
those programs for workforcedevelopment initiatives.
(32:11):
So we always have our eye ongrant opportunities and other
programs kind of in that spacethat can help support workforce
development at the collegiatelevel.
So that's something that we'realways looking for partnerships
with.
We're also looking to highlightsome of the apprenticeship
programs, mentorship programs,mid-career, transitional
(32:34):
training programs, things likethat, that exist around town to
really move people over to tech.
And there's a lot of theworkforce that comes to tech,
not just from the pipeline Kthrough 12 and collegiate, but
they come from careertransitions, and so there's a
handful of great mentorshipprograms and apprenticeship
programs and even companies herein town that support those
(32:56):
types of things.
One in particular is MaxPotential here in town, where
their entire business model isbuilt upon, simultaneously
bringing in private projects andclients and pairing them up
with apprentices that they train, that are kind of mid-career,
uh, you know, uh, professionalsthat are transitioning into tech
(33:18):
.
So there's a little bit of allof that, and then you couple
that with economic development,um, as well.
So, whether it's pure economicdevelopment, with the greater
Richmond partnership, virginiaEconomic Development Partnership
, and then the counties in thecity as well and their
departments, anytime there's atech company that's thinking of
coming to town we're generallyin those conversations which is
(33:40):
always a fascinating place to be, and it's an opportunity to
sell Richmond, and the morecompanies and the bigger and
more diverse tech sector we have, the more talent is going to be
attracted to be Richmond, andthe more companies and the
bigger and more diverse techsector we have, the more talent
is going to be attracted to behere.
We always tell people you maycome here for a job at Capital
One or CarMax or something, butif you're in your late 20s or
(34:03):
early 30s, you may not be thereforever, so you need to know
that there will be other optionsfor you as well, as your career
moves and grows, and so that'swhat we try to highlight about
Richmond is the reason you comehere may not be the reason you
stay here.
There's lots of reasons to stay, so oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
All right, OK.
So, Nick, how can localbusiness leaders and
technologists collaborate toensure Richmond stays
competitive in the AI space?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, so there's a few angles here where leaders
and technologists can kind ofcome together in Richmond, and
one of the great things aboutRichmond is that it's a big,
small city, so the communityhere is very collaborative city,
so the community here is verycollaborative.
A lot of us see each other atsimilar events and similar
(34:54):
places around town and haverelationships or know each other
, and whether that's a leader oreven somebody who's new to the
technology community, the paceand speed at which you can kind
of come up to speed on aRichmond network is pretty quick
.
And, with that said, one of thebest ways I think to kind of
really advance this AI space isjust bringing people together
for conversations, where they'reconnected, where leaders have a
(35:18):
chance to talk to thetechnologists and vice versa,
where, when they come to, let'ssay, an RVA tech conference we
just had our data and AI summita couple of weeks ago there are
sessions there where we haveC-suite leaders sitting in the
audience that are listening to apanel of people who are putting
together the backend of machinelearning on a day-to-day basis
(35:42):
and they're not necessarilytaking away technical coding and
that type of thing they'relooking for.
What do I need to keep in mindwhen I'm building my tech stack
or managing my tech team.
What kind of questions do Ineed to ask?
And that's what they'relearning from technologists, and
vice versa.
Technologists are hearingleaders on the stage talking
(36:03):
about what their main challengesare, what their opportunities
are, what they see in thelandscape ahead, what their
visions might be, and that helpstechnologists start to go back
to their desk and think, oh gosh, I heard that this is the real
problem, or I'm so head downbuilding a particular component.
I'm not thinking about what theultimate goal is here, and
(36:25):
that's been one interestingelement of AI overall.
Is that these conversationshelp with?
Is that there's so muchpossibility with AI, but you
can't do everything, or noteverything makes business sense.
You know it's like you've got toprioritize.
Just because it's an AIopportunity doesn't mean you
should take it, and so that'sone of the unique or the
(36:49):
necessary elements ofcollaboration between leaders
and technologists.
There has to be an opendialogue between the two,
because it's really easy as aleader to see something that see
an article, see, attend asession and say, oh gosh, I need
to institute this in my company.
Or vice versa a technologistlearns a new capability and
(37:10):
wants to apply it, but reallythey've got to come together and
figure out if it makes businesssense, because it's going to
take time away from somethingelse you might be working on.
So, yeah, those collaborationsneed to happen.
Certainly, rva tech events orAI ready RVA events are great
places, but also just in theworkplace and you know, day to
(37:30):
day, being in the office or inboardrooms, having those
conversations aboutprioritization and understanding
both the deep tech and thestrategic tech, you know will
help make good choices.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yes, yes.
When you first set out todescribe those collaborative
moments, the environment that weneed to build and take
advantage of, I thought about AIReady, rva's cohorts.
The cohort scene is starting toestablish itself pretty
(38:02):
prominently in the community andI feel like there's definitely
opportunity for us to just keepgoing in that realm of
exploration and just build,build, build.
Have you become aware of ourcohort scene and is there any
specific advice you would giveto us overall around how to
(38:23):
manage and keep theconversations going through our
cohorts?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, jason, I think your cohort model is the most
fascinating element of what youall do, to be honest, I mean, ai
is certainly, as a topic, atthe forefront of almost every
programmatic thing I see aroundtown these days, whether it's
ACG, rva, tech, ai Ready, rva,even just academic panels and
(38:50):
programs.
Everybody is trying to figureit out or understand it.
But I do think your model ofthe cohorts is really
interesting because it createscommunity at a different level
that doesn't exist right now, ata more intimate, close,
collaborative level.
Going back to the previousquestion about getting business
leaders with technologists um,uh, you know that's, a cohort is
(39:14):
a really intimate um place todo that.
You also are able to do morefrequent hits along the way.
You know, I don't know if it'smonthly that you're doing or
bi-monthly or what have you, butuh, either way, those those
types of you know frequent, youknow rhythmic opportunities to
gather together, I think arereally compelling and important.
(39:35):
And that's how we look at ourconferences in a certain way.
Those are certainly biggernodes throughout the year, but
we see them in a similar fashionof okay, you know, once every
month or two, you know, there'sa conference where our community
can come together and there's adifferent angle each time and
there's a different focus toeach conference.
But it isn't a big note on thecalendar.
(39:57):
That you know is repetitivethroughout the year and you all
kind of have that, you know, ata more intimate scale with the
cohort.
So I think it's it's reallyinteresting and fascinating.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
On the flip side.
You asked about.
You asked about things to watchout for.
So when I first came on boardat RVA Tech, we had one
conference it was the Women inTech Conference and then, over
the course of the last six years, we've both grown and
contracted those conferences.
At one point we had seven alongthe way and it just became too
difficult to do everything wellalong the way and it just became
(40:33):
.
It became too difficult to doeverything well and we started
to get into areas where maybeweren't our core competency or
didn't have a big enoughaudience to really create a
critical mass.
There just wasn't a demand forit.
So at one point we move up toseven.
We're now down to five and wemay even contract or or, you
know, blend some things furtherto four to make sure that we're
putting on quality programmingas best we can, you know, for
(40:58):
the portfolio we have.
So we are, we are trying todouble down on on quality over
quantity as we we move forward,and so but that's something that
you know we've learned andtested over the last six years
and there are programs that wehave that we wouldn't have if we
didn't test and grow, and sobut not everything works, so you
(41:20):
just got to be able to cut baitand you know, trim down when it
makes sense and figure outwhat's working and what's not,
and then double down on what'sworking.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Quality over quantity .
Yep, that sounds great.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Richmond, like I said , is a big, small town and so
it's a lot of the same community, a lot of the different things,
and so understanding how eachorganization you know has a
unique value proposition andwhat that value proposition is
and what it does differentlyfrom others is critical.
You know that's a lot aboutcommunication and marketing and
being, you know, clear andtransparent about what
(41:53):
everyone's doing.
But I think collaboration, orhighlighting that collaboration
exists and that we're allworking together, really
provides the most benefit andthe most bang for your buck,
because I think we all havesomething to offer.
But they're different scales,they're different, maybe a
little bit different angle, adifferent audience or something
where if everyone workedtogether a little bit more
(42:17):
seamlessly, we could probablyscale things quicker and have a
bigger impact.
And there are otherorganizations in town, not just
you and I, but Startup Virginiais part of the conversation,
greater Richmond PartnershipChamber, RVA, and certainly you
know, key local governmentleaders the mayor is obviously
critical, you had him at youropening, you know, power of
(42:38):
Possibility event.
Other industry leaders, c-suitefolks at Capital One and CarMax
and Dominion and CoStar and ondown the line, whether it's big
companies and startups, and sobringing people together and
making sure everyone knows thatwe're here for collaboration, I
think is the biggest opportunity.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Yep, as you said, a unified front within the
community, absolutely All right.
So, looking ahead, how do youenvision RVA Tech evolving its
AI related programs and how canthe broader community get
involved in shaping that future?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Sure, well, we are a small association that is
volunteer led and volunteerdriven, so we are always looking
for volunteers in allcomponents of our organization,
whether it's the differentconferences, whether it's policy
, whether it's the foundationand workforce.
So encourage people tovolunteer online and get
(43:40):
involved with RVA Tech ifthey're not, because we are
always evolving and growing andexpanding what we're trying to
do.
You mentioned related to AIprograms.
It's been interesting over thelast few years because, as our
volunteer committees look to puton programming whether it's our
cyber conference or a dataconference or our product
(44:01):
conference the last couple ofyears have been all about AI.
Whether it's an AI track or anAI lens, an AI subheading, it's
all.
Even our data summit has becomethe data and AI summit.
Our cyber con has now has a anAI lens almost to everything it
(44:21):
puts on on the stage.
Product Fest is doing the same,and so there are AI components
in everything we do, and I thinkthat just speaks to the fact
that it's just becoming part ofthe technology stack.
And, as we look at RVA techprogramming, we are trying to
create large kind of evergreen,sustainable catch-all, you know,
(44:44):
umbrellas that then, you know,allow for emerging tech to
change and evolve over time, andso, hopefully, our data and AI
summit will stay that way, andthe tech behind it and the AI
that changes and the machinelearning that changes will be
lumped into the programming.
Same with cybersecurity, thesame with product Women in tech
(45:05):
is certainly demographic-based,but that will be sustainable and
evergreen and it's just whatthey choose to highlight
underneath it, and so that's howwe look at.
Our programming is what can wecreate that's sustainable and
evergreen and allows for theevolution of tech?
Because we started in the early90s and tech is very different
(45:28):
today from where it was then,and so we want to make sure that
we can accommodate the topicthat we look to, you know, to
showcase.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Yep, sounds like we just made a full circle, nick.
Back to AI is everywhere.
Ai is impacting everything andwe need to be thinking about it
as such.
So all right, nick, it's beenan awesome interview so far.
I have one last question foryou.
If you could have anysuperpower, what would it be and
(45:58):
why?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Jason, this is really easy and it's probably going to
be a very unusual superpower.
But if I had the ability tobring a professional sports team
to Richmond Virginia, that'swhat I would do.
Ability to bring a professionalsports team to Richmond
Virginia, that's what I would do.
I think everything we do at RVATech and you guys do at AI
Ready RVA is a step in the rightdirection to help Richmond.
But if there could be one bigbang for buck thing that could
(46:21):
transform this town and put iton the map a little bit, I think
it's a professional sports team.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Which type of sport Nick sports team.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Which type of sport, Nick?
I'd probably go a little.
Look, we're a big, small town.
We're a community-basedorganization.
I keep it to something that'sfamily-friendly, that is
accessible.
I keep it to hockey or baseball, something that's fun that you
go to as an experience.
We certainly have baseballalready with the Squirrels that
do pretty well.
I love for hockey to come backto Richmond because it's just
something that is accessible,it's democratized, it's fun for
(46:55):
families, a lot of differentcreative, cool things you can do
with it and the scale is alittle bit different than NFL or
something like that.
Yeah, I'd love to see hockeyback in town.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
The old Richmond Renegades yes sir.
Oh my gosh, that takes me back.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Well, it's been a fantastic time with you today,
Nick.
I really appreciate all of yourvaluable insights.
I know the community will enjoythis episode and I really am
excited about the partnershipbetween RVA Tech and AI Ready
RVA going forward.
There's so much synergy here tobe had.
It really gets me excited and Iam very much looking forward to
(47:39):
the next year or two down theroad where we really start
ramping up and helping Richmondbecome the tech community that
it can be.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Awesome Thanks, jason , and I hope more people come to
Tech's Most Creative City.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Excellent, All right man Take care.
All right, and thanks to ourlisteners for tuning in today.
If you or your company wouldlike to be featured in the
Inspire AI Richman episode,please drop us a message.
Don't forget to like, share orfollow our content and stay up
(48:14):
to date on the latest events forAI Ready RVA.
Thank you again and see younext time.
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