3 Day-One Trends from the Oregon AI Conference
Organized and launched in an impressive 40 days, the inaugural Oregon AI Conference took place on February 1 and 2 in the coastal city of Newport—showcasing both the speed at which modern technology can bring people together and the depth of possibility AI holds for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Hosted over a weekend, the event also featured an on-site mobile application, built in just four hours using Glide, underscoring how agile development and AI-driven innovation are fast becoming cornerstones of today’s tech ecosystem.
TechArena was among the enthusiastic participants drawn to Newport to witness firsthand how AI, once seen as a specialized tool reserved for large corporations, is now accessible and highly relevant to SMBs across sectors. From real-time demos of advanced language models to candid discussions of data privacy risks, attendees explored numerous facets of AI’s present and future. The conference highlighted practical examples—from automating repetitive tasks to democratizing analytics.
Several notable speakers, including professors, startup founders, and enterprise managers, offered compelling insights. Dr. Donna Z. Davis, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, and Andrew Hallberg, Co-founder of HirelyAI and Lead Program Manager for AI at Nike, underscored both the promise of AI and the caution required for its implementation. By the end of the first day, three themes had clearly emerged: a hopeful environment for SMBs, the rapid evolution of AI tools (with particular attention to DeepSeek), and AI’s capacity to foster collaboration and trust.
- A Hopeful Environment for SMB Leaders
“AI is not replacing creativity and strategy—it’s scaling them.”
– Andrew Hallberg
A recurring message throughout the conference was that individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses are poised to benefit enormously from AI. Several speakers—including Andrew Hallberg, who leads AI initiatives at Nike and is a co-founder of AI staffing firm HirelyAI—emphasized that the technology’s greatest strength is in augmentation rather than replacement. Hallberg and others highlighted how AI tools can automate repetitive tasks, free up employees for more strategic work, and amplify human creativity in surprising ways.
Dr. Donna Z. Davis, professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, shared how she uses AI to summarize her lectures and encourages students to do the same—provided they remain vigilant about verifying accuracy. Drawing parallels with Wikipedia as a reference source, Dr. Davis reminded attendees that human oversight and critical thinking still matter in every AI-powered workflow. She drove the point home by asking ChatGPT to produce a biography of herself—it hallucinated that, although she was standing in front of the crowd speaking, she had died in 2017.
From streamlining report generation to building efficiencies in structuring data, many sessions stressed that real-world AI applications need not be limited to tech giants. Dr. Davis summarized it well by saying that “there’s an AI tool for just about anything you’re trying to do.”
- The Rapid Evolution of AI Tools, with a Focus on DeepSeek
“There’s the good, the bad, and the terrifying” – Donna Z. Davis
If there was a single AI product on everyone’s minds, it was DeepSeek. Remarkably, although their R1 chatbot launched just a few weeks prior to the conference, countless references—both praising its capabilities and highlighting potential hidden costs—filled the sessions.
In a discussion of security implications of AI, Janet Lee Johnson of the AI Governance Group pointed out that DeepSeek’s terms of service include provisions for an advertising platform that could potentially leverage user data for marketing. This point drove home a larger theme among speakers that users should be wary of supplying private data into publicly available models.
Meanwhile, Andrew Hallberg spoke to the ways in which HirelyAI is already using DeepSeek within their internal teams. For a product that was released so recently, its rapid adoption showcased how fast the AI market is evolving, and how critical it is for businesses to stay informed.
Yet the very fact that DeepSeek’s name surfaced in nearly every talk highlighted the AI industry’s heightened pace of innovation; building a long-term, actionable framework for SMB leaders to think about AI was a hallmark of the event.
- AI as an Enabler of Collaboration and Trust
"With textual interfaces at the center of generative AI, writers become even more important creative collaborators." – Nick Parish, Director of Writing Content and Strategy, Work & Co.
Nick Parish shared a personal anecdote about building a machine learning model using TensorFlow based on his own writing, long before ChatGPT became mainstream. The model replicated his voice, generating endings to incomplete pieces, foreshadowing the AI-driven creative tools used today. He used this example to stress that writers and creators are more vital than ever. His closing message urged attendees to stay mindful of their AI usage, reminding them, "Your influence can determine the path any technology takes."
Throughout discussions and panels, speakers shared the common prediction that AI tools will facilitate new modalities of connection between businesses, and help to build trust between teams and their partners.
As day one of the Oregon AI Conference came to a close, the 40-day journey of organizing the event itself stood as a testament to how quickly AI initiatives can take off—and how accessible these tools now are to smaller businesses.
In our day-two summary, we discuss how conference leaders guided participants through practical implementations, from data-privacy best practices to shaping internal AI policies. These workshops reaffirmed the day-one point that embracing AI is no longer just for Silicon Valley heavyweights—SMBs can leverage these rapidly evolving tools to stay competitive, spur innovation, and cultivate an environment where technology and human creativity flourish side by side.
Organized and launched in an impressive 40 days, the inaugural Oregon AI Conference took place on February 1 and 2 in the coastal city of Newport—showcasing both the speed at which modern technology can bring people together and the depth of possibility AI holds for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Hosted over a weekend, the event also featured an on-site mobile application, built in just four hours using Glide, underscoring how agile development and AI-driven innovation are fast becoming cornerstones of today’s tech ecosystem.
TechArena was among the enthusiastic participants drawn to Newport to witness firsthand how AI, once seen as a specialized tool reserved for large corporations, is now accessible and highly relevant to SMBs across sectors. From real-time demos of advanced language models to candid discussions of data privacy risks, attendees explored numerous facets of AI’s present and future. The conference highlighted practical examples—from automating repetitive tasks to democratizing analytics.
Several notable speakers, including professors, startup founders, and enterprise managers, offered compelling insights. Dr. Donna Z. Davis, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, and Andrew Hallberg, Co-founder of HirelyAI and Lead Program Manager for AI at Nike, underscored both the promise of AI and the caution required for its implementation. By the end of the first day, three themes had clearly emerged: a hopeful environment for SMBs, the rapid evolution of AI tools (with particular attention to DeepSeek), and AI’s capacity to foster collaboration and trust.
- A Hopeful Environment for SMB Leaders
“AI is not replacing creativity and strategy—it’s scaling them.”
– Andrew Hallberg
A recurring message throughout the conference was that individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses are poised to benefit enormously from AI. Several speakers—including Andrew Hallberg, who leads AI initiatives at Nike and is a co-founder of AI staffing firm HirelyAI—emphasized that the technology’s greatest strength is in augmentation rather than replacement. Hallberg and others highlighted how AI tools can automate repetitive tasks, free up employees for more strategic work, and amplify human creativity in surprising ways.
Dr. Donna Z. Davis, professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, shared how she uses AI to summarize her lectures and encourages students to do the same—provided they remain vigilant about verifying accuracy. Drawing parallels with Wikipedia as a reference source, Dr. Davis reminded attendees that human oversight and critical thinking still matter in every AI-powered workflow. She drove the point home by asking ChatGPT to produce a biography of herself—it hallucinated that, although she was standing in front of the crowd speaking, she had died in 2017.
From streamlining report generation to building efficiencies in structuring data, many sessions stressed that real-world AI applications need not be limited to tech giants. Dr. Davis summarized it well by saying that “there’s an AI tool for just about anything you’re trying to do.”
- The Rapid Evolution of AI Tools, with a Focus on DeepSeek
“There’s the good, the bad, and the terrifying” – Donna Z. Davis
If there was a single AI product on everyone’s minds, it was DeepSeek. Remarkably, although their R1 chatbot launched just a few weeks prior to the conference, countless references—both praising its capabilities and highlighting potential hidden costs—filled the sessions.
In a discussion of security implications of AI, Janet Lee Johnson of the AI Governance Group pointed out that DeepSeek’s terms of service include provisions for an advertising platform that could potentially leverage user data for marketing. This point drove home a larger theme among speakers that users should be wary of supplying private data into publicly available models.
Meanwhile, Andrew Hallberg spoke to the ways in which HirelyAI is already using DeepSeek within their internal teams. For a product that was released so recently, its rapid adoption showcased how fast the AI market is evolving, and how critical it is for businesses to stay informed.
Yet the very fact that DeepSeek’s name surfaced in nearly every talk highlighted the AI industry’s heightened pace of innovation; building a long-term, actionable framework for SMB leaders to think about AI was a hallmark of the event.
- AI as an Enabler of Collaboration and Trust
"With textual interfaces at the center of generative AI, writers become even more important creative collaborators." – Nick Parish, Director of Writing Content and Strategy, Work & Co.
Nick Parish shared a personal anecdote about building a machine learning model using TensorFlow based on his own writing, long before ChatGPT became mainstream. The model replicated his voice, generating endings to incomplete pieces, foreshadowing the AI-driven creative tools used today. He used this example to stress that writers and creators are more vital than ever. His closing message urged attendees to stay mindful of their AI usage, reminding them, "Your influence can determine the path any technology takes."
Throughout discussions and panels, speakers shared the common prediction that AI tools will facilitate new modalities of connection between businesses, and help to build trust between teams and their partners.
As day one of the Oregon AI Conference came to a close, the 40-day journey of organizing the event itself stood as a testament to how quickly AI initiatives can take off—and how accessible these tools now are to smaller businesses.
In our day-two summary, we discuss how conference leaders guided participants through practical implementations, from data-privacy best practices to shaping internal AI policies. These workshops reaffirmed the day-one point that embracing AI is no longer just for Silicon Valley heavyweights—SMBs can leverage these rapidly evolving tools to stay competitive, spur innovation, and cultivate an environment where technology and human creativity flourish side by side.
