Now booking 2026 keynotes
Leading the
AI
Revolution
Keynotes, executive sessions, and board briefings that give leaders and their teams the clarity to understand what's happening with AI — and the confidence to act on it.
Trusted by leading institutions since 2011
What a good AI booking looks like
Three things a great AI keynote has to get right.
- [01]Your audience leaves with a clear understanding of what's happening with AI — how it works, how people are responding, and what it means for their business.
- [02]Your speaker can hold the room — and the Q&A — with operators, executives, and skeptics in the same audience.
- [03]The talk lands in the room and keeps working after — quoted in meetings, shared with teams, and driving the decisions that follow.
That's the bar Will is booked to hit.
What your audience walks out with
Specific moves they can make this quarter.
Leadership
How to set direction in an unfinished transition, sponsor the right pilots, and keep your team confident while the ground keeps moving.
Marketing
What to change about your content, SEO, and brand so customers can actually find you in AI search.
Product & revenue
Where AI opens real new offers, pricing, and services — and where the math doesn't work yet.
The organization
What to build internally, who should build it, and what it costs to get moving this quarter.
Leaders leave with a clear read on what's happening, how AI works, how the market is responding, and what it means for their business.
On the mic
Stages Will has spoken from.
Keynote · AI Ready RVA Summit
Hamilton Beach Brands · Board of Directors
Innovation & AI Keynote
VCU International Business Forum
CBS6 · Virginia This Morning
As featured in
Signature keynotes
The keynote
library.
The Invisible Race
How AI Search Is Reshaping Who Gets Found
Where your brand actually stands in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity right now — and the 14 changes that move you up the answer.
Boards · Executive Teams · Marketing Leaders
02AI Ready
Leading Your Organization Through the Intelligence Era
A practical adoption playbook for leaders whose teams are using AI faster than the org can govern it.
Corporate Retreats · Chambers · University Programs
03Build Like a Founder
What Vibe Coding and AI-Native Development Mean for Your Business
A live build, the real cost and time numbers behind it, and a practical view of who inside your company should already be doing this.
Innovation Teams · Founders · Product Leaders
Behind the work
BEHIND THE
KEYNOTE
Will runs four companies through the same AI transition he speaks about. The keynotes are field reports from inside the work — what shipped, what failed, what it cost, what the numbers say.
Xponent21
AI SEO & Digital Marketing Agency / CEO
A digital marketing and AI-search agency working with national brands. Google Partner. HubSpot Solutions Partner. This is where the AI-search keynotes come from — client work, not theory.
AI Ready RVA
Non-Profit / Co-Founder
A nonprofit Will co-founded with civic, academic, and business leaders to help Greater Richmond get fluent in AI. Monthly events, working groups, and resources for owners, operators, and educators.
Will Melton Studio
52 Apps in 2026 / Public Build
A public, year-long build challenge: one production app a week in 2026. 38 shipped so far — available to license, buy, invest in, or partner on. Build sessions are recorded.
Channel RVA
AI-Powered Local Media / Founder & Publisher
A local news and media hub covering the people, companies, and ideas shaping Richmond — built on an AI-native publishing workflow Will designed end to end.
In action
On stage, in the work, every week.
About Will
The work behind the talks.
On stage
The Power of Possibility · Science Museum of Virginia
Will Melton is founder and CEO of Xponent21, a digital marketing and AI-search agency working with brands nationally. He authored The AI SEO Content Accelerator, the 14-step framework his team uses to win placement in Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
He co-founded AI Ready RVA, runs the 52-apps-in-2026 challenge at Will Melton Studio, founded and publishes Channel RVA, and teaches at the University of Richmond. Recent builds include CARL Intelligence, a free Claude-powered assistant his team shipped for the AI Ready RVA community. Virginia Business named him to its 100 People to Meet list; Style Weekly named him Top 40 Under 40.
Every talk is built on work he's still doing — in production, with Claude and Anthropic's tooling, on real client problems.
Leadership
- [01]Founder & CEO, Xponent21
- [02]Co-founder, Acting Board Chair, AI Ready RVA
- [03]Founder, Richmond Water
- [04]Founder & Publisher, Channel RVA
- [05]Board, ChamberRVA
- Leadership Metro Richmond
- Housing Families First
- Economic Development Commission, City of New Haven
- Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen
- Kiwanis Club of Williamsburg
Teaching & Training
- VCU School of Business
- University of Richmond — Robins School
- UR School of Professional & Continuing Studies (Instructor)
- Hamilton Beach Brands — Board of Directors
SCORE · DAMA RVA · ChamberRVA · Greater New Haven Chamber
Recognition
100 People to Meet
Virginia Business
Top 40 Under 40
Style Weekly
Recent reflections
From the field
Jun 2026
The Closing Gap Between Imagination and Reality
Neuroscience says we are connected. AI says we can build almost anything. What happens when those two truths meet — and what does it ask of us?
Read more
May 2026
Confident Leadership Is the Antidote to a World in Transition
A friend called me the other day, frustrated. Not burned out, not lost — just frustrated. She’s a sharp professional with years of experience, and she was venting about something I suspect a lot of people are quietly feeling right now. “We’re having to learn new ways to market. New ways to work. New ways to do our jobs. Our
Read more
May 2026
Teaching Kids to Fear AI Is the Most Dangerous Lesson We Could Give Them
I keep having the same conversation. Someone pulls me aside — at an event, after a presentation, sometimes in a board meeting — and they share their concern. People without critical thinking skills are going to use AI to cut corners. They’re going to coast. They’re never going to develop the ability to think for themselves. The people they’re describing
Read more
Ready when you are
Book a call, or
send the details.
Fifteen minutes is usually enough to know if it's a fit. No fit, no pressure.