Seeing is Believing: A Hands-On Tour of Vision-Language Models

​Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are transforming how AI sees, understands, and explains the world. From image captioning to multimodal reasoning, they power the next wave of intelligent applications.

​In this live session, we’ll:

• ​Break down the fundamentals of how Vision-Language Models process both text and images

• ​Showcase lightweight VLMs (SmolVLM, MiniCPM-o, Qwen-VL, etc.) that can run on modest hardware

• ​Demonstrate real-time examples: image captioning, visual Q&A, and multimodal retrieval

• ​Compare open-source VLMs with larger commercial ones, and discuss where small models shine

• ​Share tips on deploying VLMs for startups, apps, and research projects

​🔹 Format: Demo-driven walkthrough + interactive Q&A
🔹 Who’s it for: AI engineers, product managers, researchers, and builders curious about multimodal AI
🔹 Takeaway: A working understanding of VLMs, access to demo notebooks, and ideas for real-world applications