I'll double down on this. If you haven't actually built something with generative AI in the last 3 months, you shouldn't be on stage talking about it.
This field moves too fast for theory. The gap between February and May alone in this space is like a decade in traditional tech. Anything older than 90 days is already legacy content; outdated frameworks, superseded capabilities, and recycled takes from other people's tweets.
We need to gatekeep AI conference stages. Not because we're elitist, but because the industry doesn't reward theoretical knowledge. It rewards hands-on experience. It rewards practitioners who are actively shipping, iterating, and breaking things in production. If this were the case, more industry folks would take the time out to attend.
If your last real experience with generative AI was six months ago or worse longer, you're essentially giving a history lecture, not insights. Your talk might be well-researched, but it's not relevant.
Show me your projects or show yourself out. We need people on stage who can speak from the trenches, not from the sidelines. The only qualification that matters right now is this: What have you built lately?
Adobe Max: Where 80% of people are those who love to fly around and talk about ai and only like 20% of people who actually make stuff with it.