Energy, Karma and Groups of People

There's nothing quite like being with your people.

The energy is different in person. Ideas come faster, conversations go deeper, and the work feels urgent in a way that a Zoom grid simply cannot replicate. The past few weeks have reminded me of that in the best possible way.

At SXSW-EDU in Austin, at least two-thirds of the conference was either AI-driven or AI-curious. The sessions, the hallways, the badge lines — especially the lines, which were suspiciously frequent — all of it buzzed with the same questions: what can AI actually do for teaching and learning? What should it do? Where are we headed, and how fast? Every queue became a conversation, and every conversation went somewhere interesting. Not just about K–12 or higher ed, but training, vo-tech, workforce development, all of the places where learning and life intersect and where the gaps are just as real and just as costly.

Back in Pittsburgh, I'm happily getting out of the house by 8:15 AM — which, if you know anything about actual retirement, is not the small thing it sounds like. The PghAI group pulls me out every time. It's always interesting, always encouraging, and reliably enlightening. We veer off occasionally — baseball, medical devices, real estate — but we always find our way back to the heart of it: how are we using AI right now, what are we thinking about trying, where are we stuck, and what's working? There's real wisdom in that room. Progress gets reported. Advice gets given. People laugh. It's exactly what a community of practice is supposed to feel like.

In a few weeks, TED in Vancouver — yes, I know, but it's genuinely terrific. Energizing and fun and full of people who showed up because they want to learn something and connect with someone. And as a bonus, I get to visit my high school friend Morgan and his wife Kate in Victoria, one of the loveliest towns I know, all gardens and sea air and the particular calm that comes from being somewhere beautiful with people you've known forever.

Pittsburgh itself keeps delivering too. Between the universities, the ed-tech community, the entrepreneurs, and the social venture world, there is always something happening and always someone worth talking to. I've been leaning into all of it — and I've nearly sworn off online meetups and virtual conferences entirely. Not out of stubbornness, but because I've been reminded of what you actually get when you're in the room: the sidebar, the serendipity, the conversation that starts while you're waiting for the coffee and ends up being the best one of the day.

Face-to-face. Live. In person. There's nothing like it!