AI in Action

AI in Action · Cincinnati

AI for the Conscious Capitalist.

A private, invitation-only working session for leaders who want AI to strengthen their business — without losing sight of the people who make it successful.

You will not just hear about AI. You will bring a real business challenge, map where AI creates leverage across Revenue, Operations, Talent, and Innovation, and leave with a prioritized roadmap and a working prototype you built in the room.

Request an InvitationSeating is limited.

Event Details

Date
Thursday, January 28, 2027
Time
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET
Location
Cincinnati, OH · Venue to be announced
Led by
David Nilssen & Montoya Hawthorne

The venue is being finalized and will be shared with confirmed attendees.

Built for impact, not the biggest room.

This session is limited to selected CEOs, owners, and senior executives so the room stays relevant, practical, and useful. Bring a key operational leader with you — implementation continues after the workshop. Every attendee is reviewed before a seat is confirmed.

Invitation-onlyLimited seatingHands-on workshopIn person · Cincinnati
What happens in the room

Bring a real business challenge — and the leader who owns it.

You do not need to arrive with a technical idea. You need a challenge your business keeps working around: a manual process, a slow decision, scattered data, repetitive work, or a workflow that has not scaled with the company.

We map where AI creates leverage across Revenue, Operations, Talent, and Innovation, prioritize by impact and effort, and then build. Bring a key operational leader or direct report with you — a roadmap is far easier to execute when two people were in the room for it.

View the Curriculum
Why this workshop is different

You will leave with work product, not notes.

Most AI events hand you a landscape survey and a reading list. This one hands you a roadmap for your business, built by you, in the room.

A workshop, not a keynote.

You spend most of the day building. The briefings are short and the working sessions are long, because nothing changes in a business until someone actually builds something.

Built for the people who decide.

The room is executives and leadership teams, so the conversation stays at the altitude where AI decisions actually get made — and funded.

Implementation over theory.

No survey of the AI landscape. You work on your business, with your constraints, your data, and your team — and leave with something you can start on immediately.

Conscious Capitalism, applied.

Higher purpose, stakeholder value, conscious leadership, and culture are not a closing slide. They shape which AI initiatives make your shortlist and which ones you walk away from.

Governance built in, not bolted on.

Data privacy, security, and responsible use are part of the working session — so your roadmap is defensible before it is deployed, not after someone asks a hard question.

Real deliverables, completed in the room.

A prioritized roadmap, a ranked shortlist, and a working prototype. Finished during the session, not promised in a follow-up email.

Agenda

How the day runs

  1. 8:30 AM

    Doors Open · Coffee & Introductions

    Meet David, Montoya, and the other leaders in the room.

  2. 9:00 AM

    Leading People and Intelligent Systems

    A short, direct brief on how the job of leadership changes when AI enters the org — and why the companies that pair technology with people-first leadership pull ahead.

  3. Map the Opportunity: Revenue, Operations, Talent, Innovation

    Work your own business across four lenses to find where AI creates real leverage right now — and where it would only add noise.

  4. Prioritize by Impact and Effort

    Rank what you found, pressure-test it against your values and your capacity, and pick the one initiative worth building today.

  5. 11:45 AM

    Lunch

    Hosted lunch with peer CEOs, owners, and senior leaders.

  6. Build a Working Prototype

    Take your top-ranked workflow and build something real, live in the room, alongside people who do this for a living.

  7. Governance, Data, and the Humans in the Loop

    Set the guardrails before you scale: what data goes where, which decisions stay human, and how you bring your team with you.

  8. 2:00 PM

    End · Your AI Roadmap

    Leave with a prioritized roadmap you can start on Monday.

Come prepared to work on your business.

Bring

One real challenge — and one key leader.

A business challenge, workflow, or process you believe AI could improve, plus the operational leader who owns it. No technical background required — just a problem worth solving and the authority to act on it.

Leave With

A roadmap you can start on Monday.

A prioritized AI roadmap across Revenue, Operations, Talent, and Innovation, a working prototype you built in the room, and a governance frame for data, security, and where human judgment stays human.

Human-centered AI

AI should strengthen your people, not replace them.

The leaders who win the next decade will not be the ones who adopt AI fastest. They will be the ones who adopt it deliberately — pairing intelligent systems with intentional, people-first leadership. That thinking is built into the day.

Protect what is yours to protect.

Sensitive company and customer data does not belong in the wrong tool. We cover the practical guardrails before you scale anything.

Keep humans in the loop.

Judgment, creativity, and consequential decisions stay with people. AI drafts, proposes, and accelerates — leaders decide.

Prevent strategic drift.

Every initiative gets tested against your purpose and your values, not just your margin. Efficiency that erodes trust is not a win.

Invest in capability, not just tooling.

Organizations have a responsibility to reskill and empower their teams as the technology moves. That belongs in the roadmap, not in next year's budget conversation.

Create capacity, don't just cut cost.

The highest return on AI is people freed to do higher-value work — not a smaller headcount producing the same output.

Treat every team member as a team member.

Global and outsourced talent are part of the organization, not a transactional line item. How you lead them is the clearest test of whether the principles are real.

Speakers

Led by David Nilssen and Montoya Hawthorne.

David brings the CEO and scale lens — two companies built from nothing, a 1,000-person distributed workforce across six countries. Montoya brings the people lens — 15+ years turning people-first values into systems that hold under pressure.

David Nilssen

LinkedIn

Workshop Lead

David has built two companies from nothing into category-defining businesses — Guidant Financial helped 30,000+ entrepreneurs secure $7 billion across all 50 states, and DOXA Talent now runs a 1,000-person distributed workforce across six countries with no headquarters and no office space.

A six-time Inc. 500/5000 honoree, two-time TEDx speaker, and SBA National Young Entrepreneur of the Year, David brings a builder's perspective to scale, culture, and the future of work.

Montoya Hawthorne

Host & Speaker

Montoya Hawthorne, SHRM-SCP, is a people-first talent strategist with 15+ years helping organizations scale through clear leadership and practical people systems. She has partnered with founders, C-suite executives, and senior leaders across high-growth SaaS, Fortune 500, and privately held companies through growth, acquisition, and change.

In this session she helps leaders connect AI, people, and operating rhythms — improving performance without losing the humanity that makes teams effective.

Meet the Speakers

By The Numbers

Results from our live sessions in July.

In July, we welcomed over 200 CEOs and executives to our AI in Action live tour.

9.4/10

Average attendee rating.

Request an Invitation

Request your invitation for Cincinnati.

This is not an open registration event. Attendance is reviewed to ensure the room is relevant and valuable for selected CEOs and senior executives.

Cincinnati · January 28, 2027

Build an AI roadmap that fits your people, your strategy, and your values.

This private, invitation-only session is capped at 50 seats and reviewed before confirmation — built to stay practical and valuable for the leaders in the room. The venue will be announced shortly.

Request an InvitationView All Events

Invitation-only · 50 seats · Attendance reviewed before confirmation