Protect What You Build: US Patent & Trademark Office + Adaptive Leadership

This week, we’re tackling leadership in AI practice, management, and patents and trademarks!

Things kick off with the Connection Collider, running all evening and featuring Storyfave this week, a voice-first platform turning memories and photos into illustrated storybooks in seventy-four languages. Right alongside it, at 4:40 PM, How to Venture Café gives newcomers a quick, friendly rundown of how to make the most of the night.

Working on your own story for your startup? Chuck Goldstone is holding office hours from 5 PM – 6 PM. These are twenty-minute conversations that might be just the nudge your pitch or resume needs, first come, first served after the early online slot fills.

At 5 PM in the Havana Room, Brandon Leshchinskiy of MIT returns with an expanded Adaptive Leadership: How to survive and thrive when there are no easy answers. No longer a Roundtable discussion, this session walks you through the Harvard Kennedy School framework for tackling problems that don’t have tidy answers. If you’re a manager, operator, and leader in general, this session is for you.

For those actively building in AI, concurrently in the Santo Domingo Room, join Kris Mondlane of Agentic Highway for AI in Practice: A Skill Share for Professionals. It’s an opportunity to informally share your skills with your peers. Bring your laptop! This is for anyone using AI at work, building prompts, a workflow, or a problem, and swapping notes with the group; no experience required.

At 6 PM, join Straight from the Source: USPTO Benefits and Tips for Founders with Elizabeth Jackson of the US Patent and Trademark Office. Plan for a plain-language walkthrough of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, plus learn about free USPTO resources most founders never know exist.

However far along you are, celebrating a launch, plotting a pivot, or just showing up to see what this is about, you belong in this professional room.

We can’t wait to see you there.