Sunday - April 12, 2026
6:00 pm - 8:00 PM - VIP Plus KICKOFF PARTY & Meet the Speakers
VIP Plus ticket holders can attend a pre-Summit gathering at The Green Squirrel (Nelnet’s Cafe) at the southwest corner of 13th & O Street. You must have a VIP Plus ticket to attend.
MONDAY - April 13, 2026
8:30 am - 9:00 am / Registration & networking @ Sheldon
The fun begins at 8:30 with registration and a chance to meet and mingle in the Sheldon’s Great Hall.
FIRE CODE RESTRICTIONS - NO BAGS ALLOWED IN AUDITORIUM
Due to fire code restrictions, no backpack or bags over 10”x10” are allowed in the auditorium. There are limited number of storage cubbies available, but we’d encourage folks to leave their large laptop bags behind for this event.
9:00 am - 9:10 am / Brian Ardinger (InsideOutside.io)
The Art & Science of Innovation
Get prepared to get the most out of IO2026. Start the day with a preview of the speakers and sessions to come, plus learn what it takes to navigate a new world of innovation.
9:10 am - 9:30 am / David Bland (Precoil)
Test Before You Invest
Great investors don’t just fund ideas, they fund evidence. Learn how startups and corporations can test assumptions quickly to reduce risk and make smarter investment decisions.
9:30 am - 9:50 am / Robyn Bolton (Mile Zero)
What Would You Do If You Were Certain?
When disruption hits, most leaders search for better strategies, smarter tools, and more information — but certainty was never out there to begin with. This talk reveals the three questions that unlock clarity and certainty, giving leaders a clear path to protect what's working, adapt what isn't, and create what's next.
9:50 am - 10:10 am / Ted Ullrich (Tomorrow Lab)
Innovation in Shape: Empowering Visionary Product Teams
Discover how Tomorrow Lab co-founder has spent over 15 years turning bold ideas into real, market-changing physical products, navigating complexity, pivoting through failure, and scaling innovation across remote teams and AI-driven workflows. In this 20-minute keynote, Ted will unpack four hard-won lessons from iconic projects like Jump Bikes, Dadi, and Teralytic that reveal why simplicity is earned, not mandated. Walk away with a new framework for empowering your hardware product teams to build smarter, adapt faster, and innovate without limits.
10:10 am - 10:30 am / Dan Hassenplug (Hudl)
Faster at What? Why Customer Obsession Is the Real AI Strategy
AI is making every company faster. But faster at what? Dan Hassenplug, VP of Design at Hudl, names the growing gap between how fast teams can build and how well they understand who they're building for. He'll share how Hudl is doubling down on customer closeness because of it.
10:30 am - 11:00 am / Networking Break
11:00 am - 11:20 Am / Virtual Fireside Chat Eric Ries
Becoming Incorruptible: Virtual Fireside Chat with Eric Ries
Join us for a virtual fireside chat with Eric Ries about his new book, Incorruptible, and the challenge of building companies where mission is embedded in the operating system, rather than added as an afterthought. Together, we’ll unpack the principles, practices, and history behind building organizations that stay true to their purpose.
11:20 am - 12:00 Pm / Gallery of Innovation Presentations
Watch 5-minute rapid fire presentations showcasing the following Gallery of Innovation participants:
LUNCH CAFE
12:00 pm - 1:30pm / lunch Cafe @ JOHNNY CARSON Center for EMERGING MEDIA ARTS
Join us for lunch and…
Book Signing with David Bland
Gallery of Innovation Presentations
Emerging Media Arts Showcase
AFTERNOON SESSIONS At the Sheldon
1:30 pm - 1:50 pm / Elliott Parker (Alloy Partners)
The Atomic Unit of Innovation
Most companies pour resources into innovation programs that are structurally destined to fail — not because of bad culture, but because of physics. In this keynote, Elliott Parker introduces the "atomic unit" of breakthrough innovation: the entrepreneur inside a startup, wired with ownership, autonomy, and personal risk that no corporate structure can replicate. The real competitive advantage isn't building innovation from within — it's learning how to access the atoms that already exist.
1:50 pm - 2:10 pm / Julie Ann Crommett (Collective Moxie)
Shaping the Future Through Storytelling
Julie Ann Crommett explores how storytelling can shape the future while also helping stories travel further, connect deeper, and succeed across audiences and markets. Drawing from her experience leading multicultural audience engagement at Disney, spearheading initiatives at Google and NBCUniversal, and advising brands, studios, and creatives through Collective Moxie, she offers practical insights on what makes stories resonate in a rapidly changing world. Audiences will learn how to build narratives that feel culturally grounded, commercially strong, and adaptable across platforms, industries, and global audiences. With a focus on innovation, relevance, and audience connection, this conversation reveals how stronger storytelling can drive impact, expand reach, and position ideas for long-term success.
2:10 pm - 2:50 pm / Gallery of Innovation Presentations
Watch 5-minute rapid fire presentations showcasing the following Gallery of Innovation participants
2:50 pm - 3:20 pm / Networking Break
3:20 PM - 3:40 PM / Josie Schaffer, PhD (UNO)
The Innovation Economy in Nebraska
Innovation fuels economic development by generating new businesses, quality jobs, and long-term prosperity. In this session, we analyze a broad range of key economic indicators in context to demonstrate how innovation drives growth and to evaluate Nebraska’s current performance and competitive position.
3:40 PM - 4:00 PM / Tristan Kromer (Kromatic)
How to Predict the Future
Startups live in extreme uncertainty. They might be worth a billion or they might be worth nothing. But that doesn't mean you can't predict the odds and make smart bets to maximize your chances. Learn how to bring data into your decisions on day zero.
4:00 PM - 4:20 PM / Erin Stadler (Boomtown)
Earning the Room: The Relational Art of Innovation
The innovation industry has spent thirty years perfecting the science. The frameworks, the playbooks, the measurement systems. And the rooms where real innovation should happen are still full of people performing priorities rather than sharing them. This talk makes the case that the art of innovation has always been relational and that the gap between activity and impact is not a framework problem. It is a foundation problem. And the foundation has to be built before any framework can do what it was designed to do.
4:20 PM - 4:40 PM / Jacob Ward (The Loop / The Rip Current)
AI: The Potential & the Peril
A.I. has the potential to improve human life — but not if we just deploy it at random. There’s a narrow path to walk between our scientifically proven psychological vulnerabilities to A.I. (mania for efficiency, anthropomorphism, the desire to outsource tough choices) and the ways it might help us be better versions of ourselves. From protecting your people against the deep unhappiness of working with A.I. to deciding what human skills to protect at your company, there might be a way to use this stuff well...if you act fast.
4:40 PM - 5:00 PM / Closing
Tuesday - April 14, 2026
8:30Am - 10:00 AM - VIP Plus Breakfast
VIP Plus ticket holders can attend a post-Summit gathering at The Green Squirrel (Nelnet’s Cafe) at the southwest corner of 13th & O Street. You must have a VIP Plus ticket to attend.