Lydia Benham grew up in Oklahoma City, attending Classen SAS and graduating from the University of Oklahoma. She’s an entrepreneur at heart and by temperament, and so it was no surprise that by 2016 she was running her own tech company. For sundry reasons, including the less-than-robust tech cult ure in the state a decade ago, she headed for San Francisco, building a business in the heart of America’s tech destination. Lydia Benham Like many Oklahomans, she returned, but to Tulsa, where she’s raising her two kids while running TierAxis, the company of which she is founder and CEO. According to their own literature, TierAxis is an “Oklahoma-based partner acceleration firm that helps software and technology companies grow through strategic alliances, marketplace revenue, technology support, and co-sell execution.” As such, they’ll be participating in OKC’s upcoming Tech Week (Oct 19-24) but not as official partners. Like many firms and individuals that week, Benham and TierAxis will host a series of events in conjunction with Tech Week, perhaps adjacent to is a better way to put it. “Tech Week in OKC gives our community a chance to come together around the people, companies, and ideas shaping what comes next,” Benham said. “For TierAxis, it is an opportunity to help surface emerging companies that deserve greater visibility and connect them with the leaders, investors, and technology partners who can help accelerate their growth.” Benham said tech firms aren’t centrally located in Oklahoma City and Tulsa like they are in larger tech-centric cities, so Tech Week is an opportunity to bring professionals together to collaborate, share ideas, seek out new partnerships, learn about the tech environment in the metro, and event scout for jobs or projects.” “We also see Tech Week in OKC as a way to strengthen Oklahoma’s ability to attract larger partnerships and new opportunities,” Benham said. “By bringing founders, established organizations, and community leaders into the same rooms, we can create relationships that extend beyond a single event and build stronger bridges across our technology ecosystem.” TierAxis is launching their inaugural event series October 22 and 23 in downtown OKC. Per a TierAxis press release, “The series will bring together founders, investors, enterprise leaders, and technology partners from Oklahoma and across the country. The goal is simple: build new partnerships, spark fresh ideas, and help great companies accelerate.” “We want people to understand that Oklahoma is a place where things are happening,” Benham said. “We know we’re dealing with some people who think you only land in Oklahoma if you fall out of the plane, but we believe if we get them here using these large-scale events, they’ll be able to see all that is happening here in technology.” There are two central events that are open to the public with registration required, an AI pitch competition and a Future of AI panel. Six Oklahoma companies have already registered for the pitch competition, and Benham said they are all already revenue generating companies, not just startups with an idea. The competition is designed to answer a question: Which companies are building the AI solutions worth paying attention to right now? Selected founders will pitch live to a panel of investors, operators, and technology executives, putting emerging ideas directly in front of people who can recognize potential, challenge thinking, and help create momentum, per Benham. The Future of AI panel will feature founders, investors, and technology leaders having what Benham called thoughtful conversations from different voices.“I know data centers are an important topic, but it seems like it the only topic I hear right now, and there is so much more to be discussed,” Benham said. “There are many opportunities in AI that don’t get discussed, and we want to highlight those. I think the best way to phrase it, for me, is that AI is happening, and we want to be at the table when decisions are being made, not have decisions made for us.” More information about OKC Tech Week is at their website The post The AI Conversation appeared first on Oklahoma Gazette. ...read more read less