Will Taubenheim
PDF

Keynote Speaker

AI keynotes from the engineer who actually builds it.

Most AI speakers are one of two things: engineers who cannot hold a room, or professional speakers who have never built anything. Will is both. 4x NASA award winner, founder of Lost Frame Ventures, and Managing Member at Next Pillar Capital. His flagship talk is The Age of Adaptation: a personal, motivational keynote about surviving the shift and staying in the work you already love. Operator rooms get a different cut. A plan they can execute Monday.

Download the one-sheetBook Will

Recent keynote at Illuminate 2026, The Ion, Houston. Also trusted by chambers of commerce, trade associations, entrepreneur networks, and defense conferences.

Will Taubenheim delivering a keynote on stage
On stage at Full Sail University

The Keynotes

Two rooms. Two talks.

Launch events and general audiences get a story they recognize. Operator rooms get a plan they can run.

Flagship · Illuminate 2026

The Age of Adaptation

AI is not here to replace the work you already love. It is how you keep doing it. A TED-style keynote: personal, motivational, life story first. Then a first-principles map built around Kodak, the builders who adapted, and the sentence that sinks a company from the inside. He opens with the audience, not a résumé. Delivered at Illuminate 2026 at The Ion in Houston.

15 to 20 minutes · TED-style · Launches, summits, universities, general audiences

The room walks away with

  • A first-principles map for adapting people, process, and product before the window closes
  • Permission to keep the work they already love, and a reason to change the tool
  • The Kodak lesson: companies lose to a sentence about themselves, not to technology
  • A personal story that makes the shift feel survivable, not abstract
  • A close that asks the room which side of the shift they are on
Operator Keynote

The AI Mindset: How to Think About AI So Every Decision Gets Easier

Most AI talks hand the audience a tool list that expires in two weeks. This keynote hands them a mental model that does not. Where AI actually is, where it is going over the next five years, the use cases beyond marketing, the security threats that are already here, and a 90 day plan to act on all of it.

45 to 60 minutes plus Q&A · Non-technical audiences welcome · Adapts to any industry

The room walks away with

  • A mental model for evaluating any AI tool or vendor from this point forward
  • A plain language picture of where AI is actually heading, grounded in Will's 248,000 word State of AI report
  • Specific, non-marketing AI applications attendees can trial the same week
  • A security checklist covering deepfakes, shadow AI, and hard data boundaries
  • A concrete 90 day action plan: three decisions, two pilots, one metric

The One-Pager

The Speaker One-Sheet

The whole pitch on one page. Download it, print it, or forward it to your events committee.

Speaker One-Sheet

Will Taubenheim

Keynote Speaker. AI Engineer. Managing Member, Next Pillar Capital.

Will Taubenheim

Will pairs frontier engineering with an operator's grasp of business. He is a 4x NASA award winning AI engineer and defense contractor who spends his weeks as a founder, fractional CTO, and Managing Member at Next Pillar Capital. His flagship talk is The Age of Adaptation, a personal keynote delivered at Illuminate 2026 in Houston. Operator rooms get The AI Mindset: a plan they can execute the next morning.

4x NASA Award WinnerU.S. DoD AI ContractorMeta Partner (Quest 3)Epic Games MegaGrantGoogle Gemini Team PartnerTechnical Lead, Escape the Backrooms

4x

NASA awards

Prototype track and People's Choice, 1,200+ teams

20+

AI systems shipped

Healthcare, finance, real estate, the trades, defense

Weeks

from concept to production

Deployed AI, not decks and roadmaps

248,000

words of AI research

Self-published State of AI report

Signature Talks

  • The Age of Adaptation

    The flagship TED-style keynote. A builder's story, then a first-principles map for staying in the work you already love.

  • The AI Mindset

    A mental model for AI that makes every tool and vendor decision easier. The operator keynote.

  • Scaling Your Business with AI

    From concept to deployed in weeks. Real playbooks from live enterprise deployments.

  • Protecting Your Business in the Age of AI

    Deepfakes, shadow AI, and the one page policy every company needs.

  • AI & Geopolitics

    Chips, energy, and the arms race that will define the next decade.

  • AI & The Future of Human Work

    What automation actually displaces, what it creates, and how to be on the right side of it.

Why Rooms Book Will

  • He speaks both languages. A working engineer who also builds and runs companies. Technical depth, delivered in business terms.
  • Nothing to sell. No software, no vendor pitch. Rooms trust the talk because it is educational first.
  • He opens with the audience, tells a real builder's story, then hands the room a map they can use. Motivational without the fluff.
  • Operator rooms still leave with a plan: a 90 day roadmap, a one page AI policy, and three questions to ask any vendor.

Within 24 hours of the summit, I used some of his examples to streamline tasks I'd been dreading for months. That one win alone made the summit worth attending.

Maggie Uravich, Immanuel · Brookfield Chamber AI Summit attendee

Recent & Upcoming Stages

  • Illuminate 2026, The Ion, HoustonThe Age of Adaptation. TED-style keynote at Lumino's public launch · August 27, 2026
  • Greater Brookfield Chamber AI SummitOpening keynote, half-day summit in Brookfield, Wisconsin · June 30, 2026
  • Entrepreneurs' Organization, Washington D.C.Chapter keynote on AI strategy
  • I/ITSEC Defense ConferenceDefense simulation and training technology
  • Not an Accident PodcastAI, automation, and the future of work
  • IRgA Workshop: AI and Repro, NashvilleConference keynote and workshops at Hyatt House Vanderbilt · October 15 to 16, 2026

Bookingwill@lostframe.aiwilltaubenheim.com/speaking

Portfoliowilltaubenheim.comLinkedInlinkedin.com/in/william-taubenheim

Based in Tampa Bay, Florida. Speaks nationwide.
Pre-event attendee survey and prep call included with every booking.

Download this one-sheet as a PDF

The Difference

Most AI speakers describe the frontier. Will builds on it.

He tells a story the room recognizes

The Age of Adaptation is not a tool list. It is a builder's life, then a first-principles map. Rooms leave clearer, more willing to move, and still themselves. Delivered at Illuminate 2026 at The Ion in Houston.

He speaks engineer and owner

Most AI speakers are one or the other: technical people who cannot hold a room, or professional speakers who have never shipped software. Will is a working engineer who also builds and runs companies. He explains AI the way an owner thinks about it: cost, capacity, risk, and return.

He builds what he talks about

Four NASA awards, including the LunaRecycle prototype track and People's Choice, AI for the U.S. military, and production systems inside wealth management firms, healthcare practices, real estate companies, and the trades. When your audience asks hard questions, they get engineering answers, not talking points.

Nothing to sell

No software, no vendor pitch, no commissions. Organizers can promote the event honestly: no products, just an engineer telling the room what is real. That positioning filled the Brookfield summit.

Built for your room

Before the event, Will surveys your attendees on the tools they use and what worries them most, then builds the examples and live demos around their answers. A room of contractors sees permitting automation. A room of advisors sees document intelligence. Nobody gets a recycled deck.

The room leaves with a plan

Every attendee walks out with a 90 day action plan, a one page AI policy template, and three questions to ask any AI vendor before spending a dollar. At Brookfield, attendees were executing within 24 hours.

The talk keeps working after the event

Keynotes can ship with a recap packet and a companion microsite that includes an AI assistant trained on the actual talk, so attendees keep getting answers for weeks. No other speaker offers this. See the Brookfield Summit Report below.

You are the moat. I can't start a wealth management firm or a plumbing company. You have the domain knowledge, the relationships, and the trust. AI only accelerates what you are already doing.

Will, on stage at the Brookfield AI Summit

Testimonials

What organizers and audiences say

The Brookfield Chamber's AI Summit was one of the most valuable professional development events I've attended. The opportunity to learn from Will Taubenheim, whose accomplishments include receiving two NASA awards for innovation, was incredible. This was not a generic presentation on AI. It was an opportunity to learn from someone who has been recognized at the highest levels for applying innovation and technology to solve real-world challenges. The insights Will shared were fascinating, practical, and immediately applicable. I left with ideas I can use in my day-to-day work as a Treasury Management Officer at First Business Bank. As AI continues to transform the way businesses operate, understanding how to leverage these tools is becoming increasingly important for organizations that want to stay competitive and identify new opportunities. The Brookfield Chamber delivered tremendous value by providing access to a speaker of this caliber and creating an opportunity for local business professionals to learn from one of the industry's leading voices. The investment of both time and money was well worth it. Kudos to the Brookfield Chamber for continuing to create opportunities that help businesses learn, grow, and stay ahead of emerging trends.

Christen Meyer

Vice President, Treasury Management, First Business Bank

Greater Brookfield Chamber AI Summit attendee

Eye-opening! The Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce's AI Summit featuring Will Taubenheim was eye-opening! I can't believe how much I've been missing out on. Will's presentation was practical, engaging, and immediately actionable. I started taking notes the moment he began, and I haven't stopped applying what I learned since. Within 24 hours of the summit, I used some of his examples to streamline tasks I'd been dreading for months. AI helped me build a PTO tracking spreadsheet for our 80+ employees, saving me from keeping a paper trail I'd relied on for years. That one win alone made the summit worth attending. We've also been inspired to write a formal AI policy for our organization, which we plan to roll out at our all-staff meeting in August. If you're on the fence about attending one of these summits, don't be. You'll leave with tools you can put to work immediately.

Maggie Uravich

Immanuel Lutheran Church

Applied the keynote within 24 hours

I wanted to thank the Brookfield Chamber for putting together such a great day. The session on AI for business was genuinely one of the most informative I've been to, and the curiosity in the room made it even better. It's clear how much work went into making it happen.

Tony Meister

Chameleon Communications

Greater Brookfield Chamber AI Summit attendee

We have received overwhelming positive feedback on the AI Summit! THANK YOU!

Carol White

President & CEO, Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce

Summit host, June 2026

The Talks

More Keynote Topics

Scaling Your Business with AI

The real playbook for implementing AI that generates ROI. Not chatbots, but full-stack systems that automate core operations and create defensible competitive advantages. Built from live deployments across healthcare, finance, real estate, and the trades.

CEOs, founders, operators

AI & Geopolitics: The Arms Race

The U.S. and China AI competition, the chip supply chain, the energy wall, and what it all means for business. The geopolitical map is being redrawn by algorithms and compute.

Business leaders, investors, policy audiences

Protecting Your Business in the Age of AI

AI is being weaponized by competitors and bad actors. Deepfake fraud, shadow AI, and data leakage are present tense problems. This talk includes a live demonstration your audience will not forget.

Executives, security professionals

The Autonomous Revolution

Lessons from building autonomous systems for NASA and the U.S. military that every business leader needs to understand. What production AI means when the stakes are real.

Technology leaders, engineers, defense professionals

The AI Founder Playbook

A first-principles look at building AI companies: structuring for defensible IP, selling to enterprises and government, and building at 90% margins with AI-assisted engineering.

Founders, VCs, accelerators, universities

AI & The Future of Human Work

A grounded, technically informed take on what AI automation actually displaces, what it creates, and how individuals and organizations position themselves on the right side of the shift.

General audiences, HR leaders, chambers of commerce

Every talk adapts to your audience and format, from 15 minute TED-style keynotes to half day summits.

Proof

Recent stages

Illuminate 2026

The Age of Adaptation, The Ion, Houston

On August 27, 2026, Will keynoted Lumino's public launch at The Ion. Fifteen minutes. TED-style. He opened with the audience, told a builder's story, then handed them a first-principles map: AI is not here to replace the work you already love. It is how you keep doing it.

He came off stage to the read he wanted: the story was relatable. That is the talk he is booking now for launches, summits, universities, and rooms that need more than a tool list.

15 min

TED-style keynote

The Ion

Houston, August 27, 2026

Launch

Lumino public debut

Story

then a map they can use

Case Study: The Brookfield AI Summit

Half-day

keynote, Q&A, panel, and hands-on workshop

62.5%

of members surveyed said knowledge was their #1 AI barrier

24 hrs

until the first attendee reported a result

7

sponsors backed the event

The event

In June 2026, the Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce built a half day AI summit around Will: opening keynote, extended Q&A, a panel of local businesses, and a hands-on workshop. The Chamber's pre-event survey showed 62.5% of members felt they lacked the knowledge to use AI at all. Will built the keynote and live demos directly around the attendees' survey answers, covering real case studies, AI economics, a live deepfake demonstration, and a one page AI policy every business could take home.

The outcome

The Chamber reported overwhelming positive feedback and began planning follow-on programming. One attendee used the keynote's examples to automate a PTO tracking process for 80+ employees within 24 hours, and her organization started drafting a formal AI policy the same week. After the event, every attendee received a recap packet and a companion microsite with an AI assistant trained on the full keynote and Q&A, so the talk kept answering questions long after the room emptied.

Explore the Summit Report companion site

For Organizers

Bio & Media Kit

Copy-ready introductions and bios for your program, press release, and event page, plus downloadable assets.

Will Taubenheim professional headshot

Will Taubenheim

Keynote Speaker · AI Engineer · Managing Member

Download headshotDownload one-sheet PDFState of AI report

Stage introduction (read aloud)

Please welcome Will Taubenheim: a four time NASA award winning AI engineer, defense technology contractor, founder of Lost Frame Ventures, and Managing Member at Next Pillar Capital. He keynoted Illuminate 2026 in Houston with The Age of Adaptation. He has built AI for NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and businesses across the country, and he is one of the few AI speakers who actually builds the systems he talks about.

Short bio (event marketing)

Will Taubenheim is a 4x NASA award-winning AI engineer, serial tech founder, defense technology contractor, and founder of Lost Frame Ventures. He is also Co-founder and Managing Member, Technology & Capital at Next Pillar Capital, where he architects the firm's proprietary AI stack and leads technical diligence and AI-driven value creation for acquisitions. He has engineered autonomous AI systems for NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, built software played by millions of people worldwide, and helped businesses across healthcare, finance, real estate, and the trades deploy AI that generates real ROI. His signature talk is The Age of Adaptation, delivered at Illuminate 2026 at The Ion in Houston. He also speaks on AI strategy, implementation, and the future of work.

Full bio (program & press)

Will Taubenheim is a frontier AI engineer, serial entrepreneur, and keynote speaker at the intersection of artificial intelligence, national security, and business strategy. He is the founder and CEO of Lost Frame Ventures, a technology firm that has built and deployed AI systems across some of the most demanding environments in the world. Will is also Co-founder and Managing Member, Technology & Capital at Next Pillar Capital, an AI-enabled acquisition platform focused on established service businesses. He architects the firm's proprietary AI stack, leads high-trust investor relationships, and oversees technical diligence and AI-driven value creation across the acquisition lifecycle. His work includes four NASA awards, among them the LunaRecycle prototype track and People's Choice at NASA's largest Centennial Challenge, with more than 1,200 competing companies and teams. He also holds a DoD contract for AI-integrated ballistic missile defense aboard U.S. Navy destroyers, and autonomous wildfire suppression systems for the U.S. military under a NAWCTSD and SERDP award. He has delivered AI solutions across healthcare, finance, real estate, the trades, and enterprise software, consistently going from concept to production in weeks rather than years. Will has been recognized by Epic Games (MegaGrant recipient), Meta (Presence Platform Grant, flown to Meta HQ for Quest 3 development consultation), and works closely with the Google Gemini team as a trusted technical partner. He served as technical lead at just 16 years old on Escape the Backrooms, a co-op horror game with 130,000+ "Very Positive" Steam reviews and millions of players worldwide. As a keynote speaker, Will brings rare credibility: he has operated at the frontier of AI in environments where failure has real consequences. His flagship talk, The Age of Adaptation, is a personal, motivational keynote about surviving the shift and staying in the work you already love. He delivered it at Illuminate 2026 at The Ion in Houston. Operator rooms get a different cut: The AI Mindset, the half-day format behind the Brookfield Chamber AI Summit. He speaks on: the Age of Adaptation, AI strategy and implementation, practical AI for business, security and risk, the future of work, and building AI-first organizations.

Press Photos

Will Taubenheim delivering a keynote on stage at Full Sail University
Keynote, Full Sail University
Will Taubenheim professional headshot
Professional headshot
Will Taubenheim recording a podcast interview
Podcast & interviews

Formats

Ways to work with Will

TED-style keynote

15 to 20 minutes. The Age of Adaptation format. Story, then a map. Built for launches, summits, and rooms that need a story they recognize.

Keynote

45 to 60 minutes plus Q&A. The AI Mindset format. Adapts from 20 minute conference slots to full length openers.

Half-day summit or workshop

Keynote plus live demos, table exercises, and a strategy canvas. The format behind the Brookfield AI Summit.

Executive briefing

60 to 90 minutes with a leadership team or board. Closed door, direct answers, specific to your business.

Panels, podcasts & media

Moderated conversations and interviews on AI strategy, security, geopolitics, and the future of work.

Based in Tampa Bay, Florida. Speaks nationwide. A pre-event attendee survey and prep call are included with every booking.

Booking

Put Will on your stage.

The Age of Adaptation is the talk he is booking now. Tell him about your event, your audience, and your date. You will get a direct answer from Will, not an agency.

will@lostframe.aiBook a call instead

Or connect on LinkedIn and see the full portfolio at willtaubenheim.com.