Session I

Gene Jones, Executive Director, Southern Waste Information eXchange, Inc. 

Gene Jones serves as Executive Director of the Southern Waste Information Exchange (SWIX), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which has been operating since 1981 assisting businesses and municipalities with their waste management and remediation issues. 

With over 40 years of experience, Gene specializes in building strategic relationships with waste and remediation firms.  He brings a vast knowledge of various  environmental sectors from organizing and managing conferences such as;

•  the PFAS Forum,

•  the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Conference & Trade Show, 

•  the Waste Conversion Technology Conference & Trade Show, 

• the Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, 

• the New Life for Closed Gas Stations Conference and Exhibition, 

•  the International Symposium on the Redevelopment of Manufactured Gas Plant Sites, 

•  the National Conference on Waste Exchange and Resource Reuse, and 

•  Florida Remediation Conference.

as well as in managing associations such as:

•  Florida Agricultural Plastics Recycling Cooperative

•  Florida BioFuels & BioEnergy Association, Inc., 

•  Recycle Florida Today, Inc.,

•  International Society of Technical & Environmental Professionals, Inc., 

•  Florida Brownfields Association, Inc., and

•  Keep Florida Beautiful, Inc.

Vincent Hunt, Founder & CEO, The Bureau of Creative Intelligence

Vincent Hunt is a Frontier Technologist and Author whose work lives at the intersection of technology, human creativity, and the future. For over two decades, he has explored the edges of innovation—where imagination meets machines, and possibility becomes practice.
 

Recognized for his human-centered, future-facing approach to complexity, Hunt helps leaders and the organizations they serve expand, amplify, and preserve their creative capacity in a time of rapid technological change.
 

Whether delivering keynotes that inspire bold thinking, facilitating immersive experiences that unlock creativity, or writing works that illuminate the path ahead, his mission is clear: to safeguard and scale human creativity in the age of machines.

The Bureau of Creative Intelligence

At The Bureau of Creative Intelligence, we believe creativity is one of humanity’s most vital resources — and that in the age of machines, its expansion, amplification, and preservation are more important than ever. We partner with organizations that recognize two truths: that creativity is the soul of innovation, and value creation, and that AI, when embraced as a partner, can strengthen rather than weaken that soul. Whether serving creative teams seeking to safeguard their genius or human-centered organizations building cultures of creativity, we help leaders demystify AI, build confidence in symbiotic creativity, and unlock the capacity and confidence needed to thrive in the future.

Tagline
Expand. Amplify. Preserve.

The Bureau of Creative Intelligence

• Creativity is one of humanity’s most vital resources.
• Creative intelligence is both sacred and strategic.
• The future must be designed, not drifted into.
• Imagination is limitless—and it must be expanded, amplified, and preserved.

Peter Lakanen, President, Platinum Web Development

Peter Lakanen began his career building and leading the IT and software development team at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Waste Management.

As the founder of Platinum Web Development, over the last 30 years, he has built and managed large, complex data-driven projects for a wide range of clients, including:

• Southern Waste Information eXchange
• Hopping Green & Sams
• State Library and Florida Archives
• Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
• Florida Center for Public Management

A lifelong artist, Peter has been working with AI art systems since 2021 when he was using VQGAN to write his first prompts. As a pseudonymous AI artist, his work was selected to be shown at the Superchief Gallery in Los Angeles in 2022 and he was chosen to be an official NFT NYC 2025 Artist with work shown in Times Square. Additionally, he is one of Silicon Valley tech evangelist Robert Scoble's 3,500 AI artists in the world to watch.

Peter is currently using AI for his clients in a number of ways:

• Creating AI videos for social media marketing.
• Using AI as a force multiplier for coding and development.
• Incorporating AI into database searches for client systems to enable imperfect matches for complex data.
• He is also actively exploring the use of AI agents for office automation tasks.

Ting Zhang, Head of Business Development, Glacier

Ting Zhang is the Head of Business Development at Glacier, a recycling startup building AI and automation to help recyclers, brands, and governments measure and improve recovery rates for their highest-priority recycled commodities.    Glacier works with dozens of innovative recyclers across the US, major brands including Amazon and Colgate-Palmolive, and municipal and government agencies including the City of Phoenix and Michigan Department of Environment. Glacier's circularity work has been featured in several leading publications, including Recycling Today, Packaging World, Waste Dive, CBS, NBC, Fortune, and TechCrunch.    Ting is passionate about advancing circularity and fostering long-term partnerships in the recycling industry. Before joining Glacier, Ting built a career at the intersection of finance and technology, and delivered market-defining strategies for both pioneering startups and global leaders like J.P. Morgan and Moody’s.

Aoife Duna, Head of Revenue, Visia

Aoife Duna is a data-driven technology leader with deep expertise in artificial intelligence, analytics, and go-to-market strategy. She is currently the Head of Revenue at Visia, a machine learning intelligence platform transforming the recycling industry through real-time material visibility and AI-powered insights. At Visia, Aoife leads revenue strategy across sales, customer success, and partnerships—driving growth through data-centric decision-making and operational excellence.    Her career spans over a decade in AI and data-focused companies, including key leadership roles at Labelbox, where she served as Head of Global Customer Experience and Director of Workforce Technology. Prior to that, she led data strategy and analytics as Senior Director at StrongArm Tech, a company applying AI to improve workplace safety through wearable technology. Earlier, she held operational analytics roles at Sama, a pioneer in ethical AI training data, where she worked on scaling machine learning pipelines for some of the world’s largest tech companies.

Daryl Arias, CEO & President, Nix Waste

To be submitted.

Jordan Wyrick, East Coast Sales Manager, Machinex Technologies

Jordan Wyrick is the East Coast Sales Representative with Machinex Technologies, specializing in Material Recovery Facility (MRF) design and optimization across the eastern United States. With a focus on helping municipalities and private operators improve recovery efficiency, Jordan combines technical insight with a practical understanding of plant operations.