Midwestcon: Day Zero: AI for Community, Creatives and Small Businesses.
Seating is limited. This is free but Registration is required. Registration closes when we're full.
Day Zero: Zero to AI: Learning & Building for Community, Creatives & Small Business
Bring your laptop this is hands on learning, not a lecture.
Most people are already using AI. They're just using it randomly, a prompt here, a chatbot there, no method, no repeatable result. You'll learn an intentional framework for working with AI, and you'll learn how to build with it yourself.
Day Zero opens MidwestCon 2026 before the paid conference begins. It is built for: small business owners, nonprofit and arts leaders, students, creatives, and anyone in Cincinnati who keeps hearing "AI is going to change everything" and wants to know what that actually means for their work on Monday morning.
No technical background required. Start at zero, leave knowing the art of possible.
What you get
1. Understand what's actually possible. A clear, hype-free picture of what AI can and can't do for a small business, a nonprofit, a classroom, or a creative practice.
2. Trade random AI use for an intentional framework. You'll learn a repeatable way to work with AI: how to decide what's worth handing over, how to direct it clearly, how to check its work, and how to run it the same way again next week.
3. Learn how to build hands on, on your own laptop. You'll apply the framework live to real work from your own business, org, or practice.
4. Learn directly from community and industry leaders. Practitioners, founders, university researchers, and community builders in the room with you.
Presented in partnership by
Minority Business Assistance Center Cincinnati https://mbaccincy.com/
University of Cincinnati — host venue, 1819 Innovation Hub
Tweeds Foundation
Cincinnati AI Catalyst
Cincinnati AI For Humans (Cincy AI)
Disruption Now
Choose The Experience That’s Best For Your Role
2:00–4:15 PM · Community AI Training: Local Business & Individuals — Main Room Led by Dr. Josette Riep, with Rob Richardson co-teaching. The hands-on core of the day: the intentional framework, then practical AI implementation for local businesses and organizations — applied live to your own work. Laptop required for this track.
2:00–4:15 PM · CincyAI for Humans Meet-Up — Concurrent Curated by Helen Todd. Cincinnati's people-first AI community, in its own room. Come for the conversation, the peers, and the honest questions.
2:00–4:15 PM · Community Talks — Concurrent Anchored by Dr. Kelly Cohen (University of Cincinnati). Short talks from local practitioners doing the work — research, application, and what they've learned the hard way.
4:15–4:45 PM · Protecting Human Purpose in the Age of AI — Main Room Daniel Tweedall (Tweeds Foundation) on guardrails, ethical decision-making, and Cincinnati's arts ecosystem — including how to get involved with a new ethics-based arts nonprofit.
4:45–5:00 PM · Session Close & Community Call to Action — Main Room Carl Fraik (Cincinnati AI Catalyst) closes the day and connects you to what happens next.
5:00–6:30 PM · Artistic Intelligence Mixer — Reception Hosted by Rob Richardson. Creatives, technologists, founders, and community leaders in one room. Where AI meets art — and where the day's connections turn into something real. Sponsored by Makers Mark