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Curious Beats Certain, Every Time
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about leading right now: the ground keeps moving, nobody has it all figured out, and the leaders who pretend otherwise are quietly falling behind.
JBITS is where the region's top leaders are asked to set certainty aside and get genuinely curious—learning from and speaking with globally recognized experts about AI, their margins, their people, where markets are actually headed. Show up with an open mind, open ears, and a willingness to question everything. Leave sharper, steadier, and equipped to adapt with purpose, on purpose.
Balancing innovation and security in a rapidly evolving digital world requires know-how, sensitivity and constant vigilance. From streamlining operations to enhancing customer experiences, Theresa shares strategies for driving transformation while safeguarding your organization's critical assets. With compelling case studies and easily-understood, actionable takeaways, Theresa will show you how to future-proof your organization and lead confidently in the age of relentless cyber threats.
Theresa Payton, Former White House CIO
AI can make your team faster. It can also make them dependent.
This panel tackles the leadership tension most companies won’t name: the difference between using AI to extend human judgment—and using it to replace it. We’ll unpack “human-in-the-loop” in plain terms: where oversight is essential, where it’s wasteful, and how to design workflows that keep accountability, accuracy, and decision quality intact.
What you’ll leave with:
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A clear way to define where humans must stay involved
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How to reduce errors without creating bureaucracy
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The leadership habits that make AI adoption healthy (not chaotic)
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Jarad Johnson, Mostly Serious
High revenue looks great on a slide, but it doesn’t pay the bills if your costs are rising faster than your growth.
Inspired by ITR Economics’ concept of Profitless Prosperity, this session addresses the dangerous phase where business is booming but the bottom line is bleeding. We’ll break down how to protect your margins in an era of fluctuating input costs, wage pressure, and AI-driven price transparency. You’ll learn how to identify "hollow growth," audit your true cost-to-serve, and make the difficult decisions necessary to ensure that every dollar of revenue actually contributes to your net income.
What you’ll leave with
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How to spot the warning signs that your growth is outstripping your gains.
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Strategies for passing on costs and defending your value without losing your best customers.
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Why doing less might be the key to earning more in the next fiscal year.
Derek Stanley, ITR
Your buyers aren’t searching the way they used to.
They’re asking questions—and letting answer engines and generative engines decide which companies get recommended. This session breaks down what AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) mean for revenue teams in 2026: how trust signals, clarity, structure, and authority determine whether your brand shows up… or disappears.
What you’ll leave with
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The new rules of “being findable” in an AI-shaped market
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What content gets surfaced, summarized, and cited—and why
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How sales and marketing can align around discoverability that converts
TBD
Every AI talk tells you things are changing fast. You know that already. Brian Evergreen does something more useful: he gives you a way to build an actual AI strategy. It comes down to four parts. Start with a vision for your business before you pick any tool. Put that strategy in a form your team can see and follow. Understand the pieces around the decision you are making. And get your people on board, because a plan no one buys into goes nowhere. Brian ran this work at Microsoft with senior leadership teams, where the test was whether the AI ran in production and earned its keep, not whether the strategy looked good on paper. You walk out with a vision and a starting plan you can use with your team next week.
Brian Evergreen, Author, Developer, & Top 50 AI Creators You Need to Know
If your data is messy, your AI won’t be “a little off.” It’ll be confidently wrong.
This session makes data readiness practical for executives: what “healthy data” actually looks like, how to spot the gaps that sabotage outcomes, and how to prioritize improvements without triggering a giant multi-year overhaul. You’ll also see how clean, structured, secure data changes what’s possible with JMARK’s AI solutions.
What you’ll leave with
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A plain-English definition of “AI-ready data”
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The highest-leverage fixes most organizations miss
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Why governance isn’t red tape—it’s performance protection
Ike Ellis, Crafting Bytes
The "Great Resignation" is a memory, but the "Great Reconfiguration" is just beginning. In 2026, the challenge isn’t just finding people, it’s finding the right skills for a world where AI has rewritten every job description.
This session moves past HR theory into the tactical realities of managing a modern workforce. We’ll explore why "skills-based hiring" is replacing the traditional resume, how to build an internal upskilling engine that actually works, and the new retention drivers that keep high-performers from jumping ship in a volatile market. It’s about building a team that doesn't just survive the next 12 months but thrives because of them.
What you’ll leave with
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Why pedigree matters less than "AI-adaptability" and how to spot it.
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How to identify which roles are at risk and move people into high-value positions before the gap widens
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Practical strategies for retention that go beyond salary—focusing on flexibility, purpose, and clear internal mobility.
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Plenty of leaders have an AI “strategy.” Fewer have results they can point to without squinting.
This panel goes past the buzzwords and into the decisions that separate meaningful adoption from expensive experimentation. You’ll hear how organizations are choosing the right use cases, getting buy-in across teams, managing risk, and turning AI into measurable performance—without turning their business into a science project.
What you’ll leave with
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The real-world patterns behind successful AI rollouts
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How leaders decide what to automate vs. what to protect
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The most common missteps that quietly kill ROI
TBD
Adapting is no longer enough to stay even. It is how you pull ahead. In this keynote, Thomas H. Douglas lays out the five things every business has to get right over the next ten years: a finance structure that gives you room to move, leadership that holds steady under pressure, a culture that survives change, an organization built to adapt on purpose, and a plan for AI and automation that grows your people instead of replacing them. He pulls from real companies that went from survival mode to growth, and from his own work running JMARK. You leave with a clear read on where your business stands today and the first moves to make it stronger.
Thomas H. Douglas, JMARK
One Full Day
Spend October 22 away from the noise, working through AI, security, and growth with leaders who run companies like yours. One day, set up to pay off.
Hear From People Who Have Done It
National keynote speakers and regional leaders share what worked, what failed, and what they would do again. Real decisions, not theory.
Sessions You Can Use
Every session ends with something you can act on. You leave with steps to run with your team the next week, not a stack of notes.
Thomas H. Douglas
CEO, JMARK
Theresa Payton
Former White House CIO
Brian Evergreen
Founder, CEO, & Podcast Host
Jarad Johnson
Founder & CEO, Mostly Serious
Derek Stanley
Economist, ITR
Ike Ellis
Managing Consultant, Crafting Bytes
Christopher
Cross Discipline Engineering
Brian
Student
Geoff
The Stephens Group
2025 Attendee
Banking Industry
JMARK Client
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