How to stay calm and credible in an AI-accelerated world
PRESENTED BY
Hunter Milligan
Developer-Turned Productivity Coach for Devs & Leaders
A few months ago you had a decent handle on what your team was building — or you were building it yourself. Knowing things is how you got here, and it still matters. But everything your team touches is moving faster than your ability to fully audit it, and the output is coming faster than anyone can fully evaluate. Some days that's exhilarating. Other days your team looks to you for answers — and you're not sure you're the right person to ask anymore.
This session gives you practical skills to stay functional and credible when the answer isn't there yet — not as a workaround, but as something you can build and rely on. You can use them in the 90 seconds before you walk into a conversation, or in the moment someone asks you something you can't answer yet.
Through real scenarios and honest conversation with the people around you, you'll leave with something steadier than certainty — the ability to lead clearly in the moment, even when the answer comes later.
Technical leaders and developers are under more pressure than ever — tighter deadlines, shifting priorities, and now an AI landscape that's moving faster than anyone can fully keep up with. When the pressure is constant, even sharp, experienced people start reacting instead of leading. That's where Hunter comes in.
As a former developer and Fortune 500 consultant turned performance coach, Hunter works with technical leaders and developers who are done running on fumes. For 15+ years he's helped analytically-minded professionals stay clear-headed under pressure, lead with steadiness instead of adrenaline, and actually get more done — without the grind that burns people out.
When not traveling the states or the rest of the world, Hunter enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, and practicing tai chi—often in unexpected places.
The scope keeps expanding. The team still needs direction. Leadership wants more output. And the AI landscape is moving faster than anyone can fully keep up with. For a lot of technical leaders, somewhere along the way the job quietly shifted from leading to just keeping up. Decisions get made from whatever state you happen to be in when the next thing lands — and it's been costing you focus, clarity, and probably sleep. Most leadership training addresses what to do. Less often does it address the skill of staying clear-headed while you're doing it — under real pressure, in real time, with a team and boss looking to you for answers. This full-day workshop is built around that gap. You'll work through real pressure situations — the kind you actually face — and develop practical skills for staying grounded when they spike, so you can lead with steadiness instead of reaction. You'll learn as much from the honest conversations in the room as from the content itself.
AI has increased what your team can produce. Which means more output to review, more decisions to make, more places where everything runs through you. The leverage is real — and so is the growing pile of work that was supposed to be off your plate. Part of that is systems. But a bigger part is the pull to just do it yourself — because it's faster, because it's easier than explaining it, because if something goes wrong you want to have been the one who touched it last. That pull is costing you. Not just time — the kind of work you actually want to be doing, and the headspace to do it well.
Does your life feel like non stop motion with never a moment to chill, as if you're always reacting to shifting priorities? You’re not alone, and it’s time to bring your A-game beyond the code. In this groomed talk, you'll learn how to use similar concepts—roadmaps, backlogs, and more—from your professional life in analogous ways to bring order to your everyday life.
As a Tech Leader, you’re expected to deliver, support your team, and respond to stakeholders — often all at once. But if everything is a yes, your priorities disappear. This interactive workshop gives you the practical skills to say “no” with clarity, confidence, and respect. You’ll learn how to use William Ury’s Positive No framework to assert boundaries without damaging relationships — whether you're pushing back on a teammate’s last-minute request, a product manager’s scope creep, or a VP’s unrealistic timeline.
You've basically stopped writing significant amounts of code. AI does it — you check it, direct it, and sign off on it. The leverage is real and so is the uneasy feeling that comes with it. You're now responsible for output you didn't fully produce, at a volume you can't fully review, while leadership pushes for more speed. And nobody — not your org, not the industry — has figured out yet who's actually on the hook when something goes wrong.
Insightful sessions, inspiring ideas, and meeting your peers — the skills and methods that take your organization to the next level.