A new conference arrived on the spring slate in the Triangle this week, with NC TECH hosting its inaugural “Tech Fest North Carolina” event at The Armory and The Durham Convention Center in Downtown Durham.
The event was spread across two days (Wednesday and Thursday), with a full program encompassing keynote addresses, topical speakers, sponsor and startup showcases, and a pitch competition.
Here’s our look back at what went down….
DAY 1
Speakers, expo, and receptions
Tech Fest North Carolina got underway in the early afternoon on Wednesday with registration and some opening sponsor remarks at The Armory. Attendees had plenty of time to settle in, get their bearings, and enjoy coffee and snacks before the focus shifted to the Durham Convention Center and, primarily, what the agenda referred to as Tech Expo Time.
Tech Fest’s Expo took up a large portion of the main room at the convention center and was comprised of booths showcasing a wide range of companies. Attendees had the run of the space to interact with a combination of sponsors, service providers, larger companies, and startup founders. (As those of you who were at Tech Fest may have noticed, this is also where Team GrepBeat had a table.)
Startups with placement in the Expo included Pellucid Network, Akronim Forge, and the newly launched (but soon-to-be featured at GrepBeat? 👀) RDU Labs. Media Cutlet was also on hand offering professional headshots.
While the Expo floor was open, far at the other end of the main event space, a few speakers took the stage. First up was Jeremiah Radabaugh of Richmond-based IT and business consulting provider CGI. Radabaugh spoke about city AI implementation, and, drawing on Richmond’s own journey in the space, specifically how AI can improve a city’s water supply.
Following Radabaugh’s presentation, WalkWest’s own Greg Boone—who wound up as something like an unofficial emcee for the conference as a whole—took to the main stage. He gave a talk titled “AI At The Speed of Trust,” encouraging trust in reasonable and strategic use. To a degree, this talk also functioned as a secondary kick-off of what would ultimately be a two-day event.
After a few hours of open Tech Expo, the conference once again migrated across the street to The Armory for an opening reception featuring a buffet, a bar, live music from ’90s cover band Dead City Radio, and a celebration of NC TECH’s “NEXT TECH Awards” winners (you can see the full list of those winners here).
For those who stayed beyond the awards celebration, there was also a dinner followed by “Late Night with NC TECH hangouts at West End Billiards, Pour Taproom, and Velvet Hippo in Durham.
DAY 2
Keynote, breakout sessions, startup showcase
Day 2 at Tech Fest NC got started with a keynote presentation by Phaedra Boinodiris, IBM Consulting’s Global Leader for Trustworthy AI.
This was a different sort of keynote than most in that, following some introductory remarks, Boinodiris approached it almost like a professor in front of a class. She spoke broadly about AI as it has settled in the public consciousness, all the while touching on ominous claims from the industry’s ultra-wealthy leaders, analysts’ takes on business impact, and—with some interactive components—recognizing common mistakes in applications.
Ultimately it was a session designed more to update (if not reset) thinking about AI at this precise moment in 2026, rather than one making a specific argument.
This opening keynote gave way to a short break (during which the Expo space was open) followed by a multi-pronged breakout session featuring the following talks on AI, cybersecurity, culture/talent, and tech-in-NC:
(AI Track)
- AI Across Industries: Innovating, Disrupting, and Transforming the North Carolina Landscape
- From AI Pilots to Enterprise Value: What NC’s Economy Has at Stake
(Cybersecurity)
- Words Matter: Communicating Cybersecurity Readiness, Risk and Reality Panel
- Making AI Defensible, Auditable and Compliant
(Culture/Talent)
- Building a Data Driven Culture (Not Just A Data Team) Panel
- Apprenticeships, Early Careers, and AI‑Ready Skills: How NC Is Building Its Next‑Gen Tech Workforce Panel
(Tech in NC)
- AgTech in North Carolina
The ensuing lunch session, too, included speakers on a variety of topics—specifically, marketing AI as an ever-shifting technology (talk by Brandon Walker of HOAi); the “forgotten economy” representing an enormous opportunity in AI education and implementation (Mark Bavisotto, RDU Labs); and human access as the future of tech (John Samuel, Ablr).
From there it was on to the Startup Showcase (aka pitch competition), which featured five startups from across North Carolina:
Fixxr (Charlotte, presented by Founder Colton McComas)
Fixxr is offering AI-driven automotive repair solutions specifically aimed at restoring trust between drivers and shops. The platform educates drivers on the repairs they need and connects them with shops ready to take on specific jobs.
NexStratus (Cary, presented by Founder & CEO Grant Kaley)
NexStratus is built around a flagship platform, Deep-SKAI, that uses AI to unify data, implement predictive modeling, and bring about decision-making intelligence largely in industries (like healthcare) with complex logistics and regulation.
Nuream (Wilmington, presented by Co-Founder Nathan Munton)
Nuream (which this same week secured a $50K SEED grant from NC IDEA and over $1M from NCInnovation) is pioneering fabric-as-a-sensor technology. Through this, they’re designing pillowcases adn other fabrics fitted with material that can generate sleep-supporting and potentially disease-preventing sleep insights.
Nuream (Raleigh, presented by Co-Founder & CEO Paul Rava)
As Rava concisely defined it early in his pitch, Roboro is an AI-native platform that delivers personal, predictive, and actionable policy intelligence. Specifically, the startup does this with an aim to help legal entities, lobbyists, and others understand and influence legislation as it changes.
Tesslate (Charlotte, presented by Founder Manav Majumdar)
Tesslate is bettering the process of enterprise AI implementation by marrying creativity and governance. Broadly, the startup’s platform helps employees build with AI at the same time that it helps organizations oversee what’s built and ensure compliance.
Each founder gave a three-minute pitch, followed by a brief Q&A session with a judging panel comprised of Jim Roberts (of the Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington / WALE), Yash Mehta (CED), and Linwood DeBrew (SAS).
A brief panel and a closing happy hour (complete with live jazz) later, and it was a wrap on NC TECH’s inaugural Tech Fest NC!
