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.

Raghav Mecheri, CEO, Visia

Raghav Mecheri is the Founder and CEO of Visia, the first general-purpose physical intelligence platform for the heavy economy. Since founding in 2022, Visia has deployed curated, low-error, AI-powered solutions across a broad range of sensors, focusing on optimizing specific, high-value segments of facility operations. The company has partnered with 30+ public and private operators spanning waste, recycling, metals, energy, and materials to drive on-site efficiency through AI-driven operations playbooks, including Material Controls (detection of batteries, tanks, and unwanted materials), Audit Automation, and Process Optimization. Visia has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Fast Company's World Changing Ideas and Cemex Ventures' Top 50 ConTech Startups of 2025. Raghav holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University, where he focused on the development of Intelligent Systems.

Daryl Arias, CEO & President, Nix Waste

With over 15 years in the recycling and commodities industry, Daryl Arias has built and operated recycling supply chains across the Americas and Europe, specializing in recovered fiber and plastics. His career spans sourcing, trading, logistics optimization, and quality risk management for municipalities, MRFs, and industrial generators.

In recent years, Daryl has transitioned into AI-driven system design, applying artificial intelligence to real world recycling challenges contamination reduction, material identification, operational efficiency, and ESG-grade data reporting. He focuses on deployable AI, not theory, helping organizations modernize legacy operations and unlock new economic value from waste streams.

His work bridges the gap between industrial reality and emerging technology, proving that AI can be both profitable and sustainable when built by people who understand the ground truth.

David Marcouiller, Executive Vice President Sales Engineering, Machinex Technologies

As Executive Vice-President Sales Engineering, David applies his extensive expertise in sorting system design to ensure Machinex solutions meet the highest quality standards and adapt to evolving market needs. He oversees every stage of project realization, from layout development, proposal preparation, and contract negotiation to coordination with R&D and project management teams, ensuring all systems are delivered on time and to specification.