Now booking: keynotes, workshops, and AI advisory engagements for Q4 2026 → start the conversation

Speaking

Here's what we actually built.

That phrase is in every talk I give, because the industry has enough theory. I tell stories from production: real systems, real teams, real tradeoffs, told in language any audience can follow. Storytelling mode, concrete examples, zero buzzword bingo.

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Mike Onslow speaking

What I speak about

vCons: the PDF for conversations

Why conversations need a portable, standard container, what the vCon standard actually specifies, and what becomes possible once your calls, chats, and meetings are data instead of exhaust.

Production AI with the team you already have

The honest playbook for shipping AI with the team you already have: teaching and coaching the people in the building, including non-engineers, to build the tools that automate their own work. What we built, what broke, and why leveling people up beat hiring a research department.

From vibe coding to value

AI-assisted development is real and it is also not magic. How to take the energy of vibe coding and turn it into systems a business can actually run on.

Automating the mundane with n8n and generative AI

Where workflow automation meets generative AI: wiring n8n into the boring, repetitive work so your team gets its time back. Practical builds, not toy demos, drawn from automations running in production.

AI adoption inside a real company

Training non-engineers, building an ambassadors program, governing without strangling, and what actually changes day to day when a whole company starts working with AI.

Empathy in the virtual code review

Code review is a conversation between people who cannot see each other's faces. How conversational technique makes distributed engineering teams kinder and better at the same time.

Selected talks

  1. March 2026 · Dallas, TX

    Spring '26 vCon Conference

    • “Fraud Has a Pattern. vCons Have the Signal” Solo talk on surfacing fraud signals from conversation data with vCons

  2. December 2025 · Washington, DC

    Fall '25 vCon Conference

    • “The Conversational Code Review: Fostering Empathy in a Virtual World” Solo talk
    • “Lessons Learned: Building & Deploying vCon Apps & Services” Panel with Eugene Tcipnjatov (Phound) and Thomas McCarthy-Howe (Vconic), moderated by Andy Abramson

  3. October 2025 · Detroit, MI

    Data in the D

    • “From Vibe to Value” Conference talk introducing vCons to Detroit's data community

  4. July 2025 · Detroit, MI

    VibeCoding Meetup

    • “Building Voice-Enabled Apps with AI” Live demo, later covered by The Barefoot Dev

  5. April 2025 · Cape Cod, MA

    Spring '25 vCon Conference

    • “Enhancing Business Intelligence with Voice: Practical Applications of vCons in Franchises and Call Centers” Solo case study

  6. March 2025 · Pontiac, MI

    Michigan Technology Conference (MITechCon)

    • “Automating the Mundane with n8n + Generative AI” Solo talk on wiring n8n and generative AI into real workflow automation
    • “The Impact of AI on Software Development” Birds of a Feather conversation co-hosted with Onorio Catenacci, co-organizer of Detroit TechWatch

  7. January 2025 · Michigan .NET community

    MIDOTNET

    • “Build Custom GPTs and Assistants with OpenAI” Hands-on developer talk on building custom GPTs and assistants

Podcasts and media

Need a speaker who ships?

Conferences, executive offsites, meetups, and podcasts. Tell me about your audience and I'll bring a story they can use on Monday.

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