The AI Power User Playbook (w/ The AI Collective)

Inside the event

Join Hartford's growing AI community for our monthly gathering. Connect with AI practitioners, builders, and curious minds. Network, learn, and be part of the conversation shaping AI in our region. Doors open at 5:00 PM for networking. Featured Talks at 6:00 PM.

This Month's Talk: The AI Power User Playbook Practical tools, real workflows, and security guardrails for professors and executives

82% of enterprise leaders now use generative AI weekly. 93% of executives admit to using AI tools their organization never approved. Adoption is outpacing governance, and the people who get ahead of that gap are power users who pair capability with control. Carol Thorney will walk through the four habits that separate power users from casual ones, a practical toolkit organized by use case, and the security blind spots that get even experienced users burned. She'll also cover concrete guardrails for two groups specifically: faculty working with student data and research, and executives handling confidential business information. Speaker: Carol Yvette Thorney, MBA Carol is a senior executive with expertise in leading corporate growth strategies and transformation initiatives and focused on consulting as CEO of Thorney Advisors (TA Solutions Global). A trusted advisor helping clients navigate emerging markets; and evolving technologies with impacts to risk management, business intelligence, data strategy & cloud adoption and engaging smart strategic partnerships. She also works with private equity, venture capital and angel investors to explore emerging markets and technologies. Carol is an accomplished graduate and active alumni of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, oldest technological research university in the U.S., and embodies the vision, "Why not change the world?" which is not just a tagline; it is our mission at Thorney Advisors.

Who should come: You belong here if you're: Using AI tools regularly and want to get more out of them A faculty member navigating AI in teaching or research An executive responsible for how your organization adopts AI Curious about the security side of AI use, not just the productivity side Looking for a local community of thoughtful AI practitioners All levels welcome. As always, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided! Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!

The AI Collective is a global non-profit building the human layer for the AI era. We unite 200,000+ leaders, builders, and stakeholders across 100+ forums worldwide to democratize the frontier, build trust, and coordinate how society navigates the rapid acceleration of technological progress. All attendees and organizers at events affiliated with The AI Collective agree to our privacy policy and are subject to our code of conduct.