How a lunch in Cleveland turned into a Vegas invitation

I drove to DigiMarCon Great Lakes in Cleveland. I was not on the speaker list. The lanyard said attendee. I wanted two days of conversations about where AI and marketing are actually heading.

What I did not expect was how much of my own time I would spend showing people the thing on my screen: the Obsidian vault I use as a second brain, wired to AI agents. One question became a walkthrough. Then lunch with Dennis Yu. We talked about how I use Claude day to day — agents on the busywork, me as the person who decides.

By the end of lunch, Dennis asked if I would bring it to a bigger stage.

That stage is DigiMarCon World in Las Vegas, 4–6 November 2026, Luxor. He invited me to share how I actually use Claude — the system, not a demo. I will update this page when I am on the official speakers list. Until then I will not call it a keynote. An invitation is not a listing.

Dennis wrote his version at dennisyu.com/alex-iltchev-digimarcon-cleveland. Same lunch. Same photo.

One of Dennis’s AI Builders

I am part of a group of young builders Dennis coaches — people who ship, not just talk. My lane is healthcare and answer-engine work. If that is your world, start at AI Builder Spotlight. The longer program page is localservicespotlight.com/ai-builder-program.