AAPI Trailblazers: Owning Our Stories in the Age of AI

The Serica Initiative holds its AAPI Trailblazers Conference on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, from 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM at 135 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, in Midtown. The title on the host page is Owning Our Stories in the Age of AI. Check-in starts at 11:30. Lily Xu, who runs startup programs at Amazon Web Services, is the lunch keynote. Jeannette M. Wing, Columbia University's executive vice president for research and a computer science professor, opens the afternoon on trustworthy AI. Paul Cheung, president of Committee of 100, closes before cocktails. Serica lists more than 10 speakers and says it expects more than 120 people.

Serica already ran a Trailblazers conference and gala in 2025. This edition is a seated lunch, two panels, a workshop, a short performance, and a reception the host calls Conversations, Culture and Cocktails. Ngoc Cindy Pham, a Brooklyn College professor who founded the BRIDGE AI Lab, leads the workshop on using AI at work. One panel asks who leads in AI. The next asks who tells AAPI stories when generative tools start drafting what people read and watch. Poet Sasha Stiles performs in the late afternoon. Qin Gao, the Columbia social-policy professor who directs the school's Asian American Initiative, is on the speaker list. The timed agenda does not give her a slot, so do not arrive for a Gao talk that has not been scheduled.

This is right for people in tech, media, research, and the arts who want a Midtown afternoon on AI and do not need to pretend they work in a lab. The host says no AI expertise is required. Skip it if you need a law-firm reception, a procurement match, or a flight to Cambridge for the NAAAP summit the next morning. Bring one question about how AI is already changing the job you have. The panels are not a hiring room.

Through October 16 at 6:00 PM, the full day is the $219 early bird. The $250 full package goes on sale October 17. VIP preferred seating is $350. Conference plus cocktails, from 1:00 PM and without lunch, is $150. The lunch-only ticket is $110, for a 12:00 to 1:00 luncheon, and does not include the afternoon. Checkout adds a service fee of a few dollars on each of those prices. Madison Avenue at midday is a walk from the 6 train. Re-check the floor on the Serica page the week of the event.