Home › Past VON Events › Spring '26 vCon › March 23: pre-conference

March 23: pre-conference

Spring '26 vCon

Event: Spring '26 vCon
Dates: March 23–26, 2026
Location: Dallas, Texas
Venue: Hilton Garden Inn
Address: 7550 Gaylord Parkway, Dallas, Texas

Archived page. Spring '26 vCon took place March 23–26, 2026 in Dallas, Texas. Registration, tickets and sponsorship for this event are closed; this page keeps the program as it was published.

Pages for this event: Event page Speakers Schedule Monday, March 23 Tuesday, March 24 Wednesday, March 25 Thursday, March 26 March 23: vCon Unconference March 23: vCon Hackathon '26 kickoff About vCon About Jeff Pulver

MARCH 23RD MARCH 24TH MARCH 25TH MARCH 26TH

MONDAY, MARCH 23RD

PRE-CONFERENCE (as of 3-12-26)

Getting Started with AI: From Personal Use to Business Productivity

Joe Mazzeo

This workshop is intended as an introduction for those looking to understand and improve how to get real value out of using AI in their everyday lives. We will explore 3 different AI tools, 15 practical examples of how to use these tools, and the steps you can take after the session to build your expertise within 10 days.

Learning Outcomes:

You will use AI to draw, write, summarize, analyze, travel, plan, build a website, produce a video, increase your personal productivity and most importantly to learn more effectively.

You will be comfortable using real, state-of-the-art AI tools.

You will understand how to become competent and confident using AI daily.

Required tools you will need to get the most out of this session:

A personal computer or a tablet (iPad or ChromeBook)

Access to an account on Perplexity.ai, ChatGPT and Claude (free versions only)

Perplexity, ChatGPT and Claude are all easily accessible from a web browser on a computer. If you use a tablet, you will be better off using apps downloaded from the app store. (Each of the 3 AI apps are available on an iPhone or Android phone but not recommended for this session.)

About Joe Mazzeo:

Joe Mazzeo leverages over 40 years of business experience in computing, telecommunications, and financial systems having served as CEO, CFO, CMO, and CSO of 4 publicly traded companies. Joe has taught more than 6,000 professionals on various topics in Computer Science and he has introduced thousands to AI in the past year. Joe is Founder and VP Biz Dev at Crossfire Consulting, celebrating its 26th year in 2026, and he currently resides in Jackson, WY.

Joe sports an BBA in Management Science, an MS in Investment Management, a Certified Public Accounting certificate and has completed more than 80 credits of doctoral level studies in Computer Science. He is the author of numerous articles on AI and Cybersecurity, a frequent speaker at AI forums and conferences, and currently authors the AI Fastinfo newsletter.

Spring '26 vCon Sponsors

Original source: https://www.vonevolution.com/aiworkshop (preserved 2026-11-11; SHA-256 93fbdeffe5be8022…)