Meet the 2026 Cincy AI Leadership Award Winners
Meet the recipients of the Cincy AI Leadership Awards at Cincy AI Week 2026.
Cincy AI Week 2026 Recap
The Top Rated Sessions from Cincy AI Week 2026
Cincy AI Week brought thousands of professionals to Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, Ohio from June 9 to 11, 2026 for three days of AI education, enablement, and ecosystem building. Here are the sessions attendees rated highest across our stages, based on engagement data from the official event app.
June 9 to 11, 2026 Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio Produced by the Enterprise Technology Association
Cincy AI Week 2026 was one of the largest artificial intelligence conferences in the Midwest this year, anchoring the national AI Week series produced by the Enterprise Technology Association, a nationally recognized organization based in Greater Cincinnati. Across five stages, attendees explored AI leadership, enterprise AI adoption, hands-on AI training, agentic workflows, prompt engineering, and AI policy.
After every event, we look at the data. The rankings below come from the official Cincy AI Week event app. The first number is the overall session score. The second is how many attendees marked that session as their favorite of the entire event. Together they are a useful signal of what the Cincinnati AI community, and the broader Ohio and Midwest tech ecosystem, wants more of: practical builders, honest enterprise lessons, and real skills people can use the day they get back to work.
The Top Rated Sessions
1
How Operational Agents Go From Process to Production AI for Enterprises
Presented by Chris Thomas
1,720 score, 228 favorites
2
Beyond LLMs: Applications and Entrepreneurship AI Leadership
Presented by Tyler Mantel and Dinesh Maheshwari
1,686 score, 159 favorites
3
Building AI Powered Enterprises and Ecosystems AI Leadership
Presented by James Carman
1,661 score, 167 favorites
4
How To Train Your Agents: Claude Code Featured Session AI Learning Lab
Presented by Chris Thomas
1,657 score, 145 favorites
5
Master Prompting and Customizing AI in 45 Minutes AI Learning Lab
Presented by Greg Goshorn
1,580 score, 129 favorites
6
Building the Intelligence Layer AI Leadership
Presented by Ben Darpel
1,497 score, 144 favorites
7
Women in AI and Business Breakfast AI Leadership
Hosted by Women in AI and Business, welcoming more than 200 attendees
1,493 score, 143 favorites
8
The State of AI Policy, Privacy, and Compliance in the United States AI Leadership
Presented by Zachary Heck
1,445 score, 159 favorites
9
Building Ohio's AI Super Sector AI Leadership
Presented by Payal Thakur
1,395 score, 164 favorites
10
It's Not the Technology: Why Most Enterprise AI Isn't Paying Off, and What Leaders Can Do About It AI for Enterprises
Presented by James Carman
1,320 score, 183 favorites
What the Ratings Tell Us
Three themes stand out from this year's top rated sessions in Cincinnati.
Builders won the week. Chris Thomas's top ranked session on taking operational agents from process to production, Tyler Mantel and Dinesh Maheshwari's session on applications and entrepreneurship beyond large language models, and James Carman's two appearances on this list all show that attendees came to learn how AI gets built, deployed, and made profitable inside real organizations, not just to hear about the technology in the abstract.
Hands-on AI training is in demand. Chris Thomas placed two sessions in the top four, including the highest rated session of the entire event, and the AI Learning Lab stage also delivered Greg Goshorn's 45 minute prompting and customization workshop. Together they confirm that practical, skills-first AI education is exactly what professionals in Ohio and across the Midwest are looking for.
Policy and place matter. Zachary Heck's national overview of AI policy, privacy, and compliance, and Payal Thakur's session on building Ohio's AI super sector, both drew strong ratings. The Cincinnati AI community is thinking about responsible adoption and about Ohio's position as a national AI hub, a thread that runs through AI Ready Ohio and the broader work happening across the state. The Women in AI and Business Breakfast, which welcomed more than 200 attendees, was another standout, reflecting the strength of the community building happening alongside the main stages.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Cincy AI Week 2026?
Cincy AI Week 2026 took place June 9 to 11, 2026 in the Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati, Ohio.
What was the top rated session at Cincy AI Week 2026?
How Operational Agents Go From Process to Production, presented by Chris Thomas on the AI for Enterprises stage, earned the highest overall session score of the event at 1,720, and 228 attendees marked it as their favorite session of the entire week.
Who produces Cincy AI Week?
Cincy AI Week is produced by the Enterprise Technology Association, a nationally recognized organization based in Greater Cincinnati focused on AI education, enablement, and ecosystem building. Learn more at joineta.org.
What other AI Week events are coming up in 2026?
The AI Week series continues with Columbus AI Week September 8 to 10, Tampa AI Week October 13 to 15, and Great Lakes AI Week November 10 to 12. Cincy AI Week will return in June 2027.
How can I attend or speak at the next AI Week?
Visit cincyaiweek.com for agendas, speaker information, and registration for upcoming events.
Thank You to Our Headlining Sponsors
Cincy AI Week 2026 was made possible by our headlining sponsors: the Enterprise Technology Association, JobsOhio, Microsoft, and Callibrity. Their support powers AI education, enablement, and ecosystem building across Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Midwest, and helps keep world-class AI programming accessible to the professionals, students, and organizations who attend.
Join Us at the Next AI Week
Thank you to every speaker, sponsor, partner, and attendee who made Cincy AI Week 2026 possible. The conversation continues in Columbus, Tampa, and the Great Lakes region this fall, and Cincy AI Week will return in June 2027.
