Friday, October 2, 2026 is not a Miami tech party you “swing by” if the calendar is empty. It is FIU Business’s AI 305 Conference at the Graham Center on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus — a full day of panels, hands-on workshops, vendor engagement, and a late Sip and Sync reception — aimed at people who run organizations, not people who collect badge selfies.
This Gazette package is an owner-prep map for Broward and Palm Beach operators who will drive south for one focused day. It is not a conference recap. It does not invent a single ticket price beyond what Eventbrite’s public offer shows. It tells you which rooms earn a seat for a shop that already has payroll, customers, and a messy tool stack — and which rooms you can skip without FOMO.
Primary sources for this pull (Sept. 14, 2026): the official FIU Business AI 305 page, the FIU Calendar listing, and the live Eventbrite registration (on_sale / InStock). ai305.fiu.edu redirects to the FIU Business page. Re-check those URLs the week you buy — inventory and fees move.
Why Broward and Palm Beach owners should care about a Miami Graham Center day
South Florida’s AI literacy map is already stacking for small operators: free public rungs in Broward (Library labs, SCORE webinars, CareerSource paths), chamber breakfasts in Delray, incubator apply maps in Boca and Fort Lauderdale. Those are the weekly habit rooms — literacy, accountability questions, and “where does this earn a place in my shop?”
AI 305 sits above that ladder for one day. The published program mixes big-room panels (economy, infrastructure, healthcare, hospitality, responsible systems) with hands-on workshops that name tools owners actually hear about on Slack — Claude automation, Meta AI for business — plus a Florida SBDC at FIU footprint on the private Meta luncheon. If your Broward or Palm Beach shop already did the free literacy hours and still needs a denser peer room, a scholarship-supporting day at FIU, and a chance to hear Memorial Healthcare System’s CMIO on the same campus as Meta and Visa speakers, this is the escalation day — not a replacement for the free ladder.
If you have never sat through a basic AI literacy session, do that first. A Graham Center badge will not fix a shop that has no written rule about pasting customer data into a consumer chatbot. Use the Broward Library–SCORE ladder map as the free baseline; treat Oct. 2 as the paid intensifier only when you already know which process you would test.
What AI 305 is — and what it is not
FIU Business frames the day around profit, performance, and societal impact. The public copy promises connection with tech leaders, industry experts, and FIU AI faculty, while supporting student scholarships. Theme tracks published on the page include AI in business and South Florida’s economy, healthcare, hospitality and entertainment, the future of work, cybersecurity, and unlocking ROI.
Verified clock (as published):
- Date: Friday, October 2, 2026
- Registration / breakfast / vendors: 8:00–9:00 a.m., Graham Center Main Lobby
- Program block: roughly 9:00 a.m. through late afternoon panels and workshops
- Sip and Sync networking reception: 5:30–7:30 p.m., Graham Center Main Ballroom and Faculty Club (hosted by the FIU ATOM Think Tank)
- Eventbrite window on this pull: start 9:00 a.m., end 7:30 p.m. Eastern
Venue as published: Graham Center / Graham University Center, FIU MMC. The business page lists 10955 SW 15th Terrace, Miami, FL 33199; the calendar card uses the campus address at 11200 SW 8th Street. Put the Graham Center in your maps app the morning you leave Broward or Palm Beach, and follow day-of FIU signage for parking and ballroom entry — do not invent a lot number this Gazette does not have.
What this day is not: a free SBDC consulting engagement, a guaranteed buyer matchmaker, an invite-only executive retreat for the whole building, or a “we’ll automate your company by Monday” clinic. The Conversations with Meta AI Private Luncheon is explicitly by invitation only and sponsored by Florida SBDC at FIU — see that section below. Public registration is through Eventbrite for the conference ticket, not through a private portal.
Ticket and registration path (verified, with soft-flags)
Registration path that works on this pull:
- Open business.fiu.edu/biz/ai305/ or follow the redirect from ai305.fiu.edu.
- Use the navbar Register control that points to Eventbrite: AI 305 Conference tickets.
- Complete checkout on Eventbrite. Screenshot the confirmation. A calendar hold is not a ticket.
Verified sales status (Eventbrite, Sept. 14, 2026 pull): event status: live; salesStatus: on_sale; schema.org AggregateOffer with availability: InStock; sales window from July 31, 2026 through October 1, 2026 (availability ends before the event day — buy before that cutoff, not at the door unless FIU staff tell you otherwise in writing).
Verified public price path (do not invent tiers): Eventbrite’s public AggregateOffer lists lowPrice $136.12 and highPrice $524.74 USD. Those figures are the published offer range on the live ticket page. This Gazette will not invent a “general admission” dollar, a student rate, an early-bird delta, or a group total that is not printed as a named tier on a page we can quote. Confirm the exact line item and fees at checkout before you budget.
Soft-flags owners should treat as real:
- The FIU Business page still shows an “EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT — Register by February 15” banner on this pull. For an October 2, 2026 event, that February date is stale or mismatched copy. Do not plan a budget around a February discount the Eventbrite offer does not separately prove on this pull. Trust checkout, not the banner.
- At least one on-page Register button uses a dead
href="#"while the menu Register correctly opens Eventbrite. Use the Eventbrite URL above if a button goes nowhere. - The FIU Calendar card for 2026 does not reprint a single dollar cost the way the 2025 calendar card printed $149. Do not recycle 2025 pricing as 2026 fact.
- Contact for organizers (soft-flag / clarification only, not a substitute for Eventbrite): atom@fiu.edu · 305-348-2830.
If Eventbrite flips to sold out or sales ended between this pull and your click, believe the ticket page. Email ATOM only to ask about waitlist or day-of policy — do not invent one.
Who should buy a seat — and who should stay on the free ladder
Strong fits:
- Broward or Palm Beach owners / operators with a real payroll who already tried free literacy hours and need denser peer signal in one day.
- Shops weighing workflow automation (intake, quoting, follow-up, in-house knowledge) and ready to sit in a named Claude workshop with a notebook of their processes.
- Operators who want Meta’s business-facing AI conversation in a workshop room, not a consumer tip thread.
- Healthcare-adjacent practices and vendors who need to hear how a major Broward system’s CMIO frames agentic tools — Memorial Healthcare System is on the published speaker slate.
- Owners who want the South Florida economy panel for policy and community context, then the SBDC relationship for what happens after the conference.
Skip or send a deputy:
- Solo operators who still need a free first literacy night — start with the public ladder, not a multi-hundred-dollar range ticket.
- Teams hunting only capital intros or incubator admit — use FAU Runway / Levan apply maps; AI 305 is not those programs.
- Anyone expecting the Meta private luncheon as part of a public ticket — it is invitation-only.
If you go, go as a decision-maker or send the person who owns the process you might change. Sending an intern to “collect AI notes” wastes the badge.
Owner schedule: three rooms that earn the drive
The published agenda has hard conflicts. You cannot be in the main ballroom and Graham Center 140 at the same minute. Build your day around one morning choice, one afternoon workshop, and one late panel or fireside — then protect Sip and Sync for people, not slides.
1) Automate Your Business With Claude (hands-on) — or the economy panel
When: 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Workshop: Hands-On Workshop – Automate Your Business With Claude, Powered by CloudHesive — Graham Center 140
Conflict: Same hour as Panel 3 – Powering South Florida’s Economy: How AI Is Transforming Business, Government, and Communities (Main Ballroom; sponsored by the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy) and a separate ground-robotics workshop in the Game Room.
Owner rule: If your shop’s bottleneck is repetitive text-and-tool work — proposals, SOPs, inbox triage, knowledge base drafts — take Claude in 140 with three of your real workflows written down. If your bottleneck is understanding how agencies, big employers, and community systems are framing AI in the region, take Panel 3 and catch tool practice another week on the free ladder. Do not try to “half-hear” both from the hallway.
Walk into the Claude room with: (a) one process you would automate this quarter, (b) one process you would not automate this year, (c) a one-line data rule (what may never leave the building). Leave with a test plan, not a logo sticker.
2) Powering South Florida’s Economy panel — when context beats a tool demo
Same 11:30–12:30 window, Main Ballroom. Published framing: how AI is transforming business, government, and communities. For Broward and Palm Beach owners who sell into Miami-Dade, bid public work, or sit downstream of county and city tech decisions, this is the context hour. Pair it with afternoon Meta workshop time if you still need hands-on.
Listen for: who owns data in public–private pilots, where small vendors actually get invited, and what “ROI” means when the speaker is a government or hospital system versus a 12-person shop. Translate every applause line into a Monday task for your company.
3) Meta AI for Business Workshop — afternoon hands-on
When: 4:00–4:55 p.m.
Where: Graham Center 243
Conflict: Same hour as hospitality/entertainment panel (140) and critical-industries ROI panel (150).
Owner rule: If Meta apps, WhatsApp business threads, ads, or on-platform customer contact already touch your revenue, take 243. Bring one customer-facing workflow and one in-house workflow. Ask — out loud if the format allows — what stays on-platform, what trains whose model, and what a small shop can turn off. This Gazette names Meta as a published workshop host/sponsor presence on the page; it does not endorse a product.
Earlier the same afternoon (3:00–3:55), owners in regulated or care-adjacent work should weigh Panel 5B – From Passive Scribes to Agentic Partners: Transforming Healthcare for the Future (Graham Center 243) against the responsible-systems panel in 140. You cannot do both; pick the risk profile that matches your shop.
Memorial Healthcare System on the slate — why Broward ears should perk up
The published speaker list includes Jennifer Goldman, VP and Chief Medical Information Officer, Memorial Healthcare System — a Broward-rooted system name on a Miami campus stage. For owners in medical practices, health vendors, benefits, facilities, and care-adjacent services, that ID matters more than another generic “AI in healthcare” headline.
Use her sessions and any healthcare panel time to listen for: human-in-the-loop expectations, documentation risk, and how a large system defines “agentic” without handing the badge to a vendor. Do not treat a conference appearance as a Memorial endorsement of any tool you buy the next week. Take notes you can show your compliance person.
Other published names on the page (factual IDs, not endorsements) include keynote Fred Voccola (Simpro Group / Kaseya; FIU Trustee), Visa’s Maribel R. Diz, Coral Gables innovation lead Raimundo Rodulfo, and Meta’s Kara Sutton Riney among a longer roster. Scan the live speaker grid before you go — FIU may add or move people without a press release.
Florida SBDC at FIU angle — and the Meta private luncheon soft-flag
Verified on the schedule: Conversations with Meta AI Private Luncheon — 1:00–2:00 p.m., Graham Center 316, marked By invitation only | Sponsored by Florida SBDC at FIU. The sponsors section also labels Florida SBDC at FIU as the Conversation with Meta Private Lunch Sponsor.
Owner rule: A public Eventbrite ticket does not, on the published page, equal a luncheon invite. Do not plan your afternoon around GC 316 unless you have a written invitation. If you want SBDC relationship value from this week, use the conference to meet Florida SBDC at FIU people in public spaces, then follow up on client registration and longer consulting paths after Oct. 2 — including the separate AI Student Teams / capstone consulting track for eligible firms (that program has its own eligibility floors; it is not the conference ticket).
Same lunch window also runs Panel 4 – Powering What’s Next: AI, Infrastructure and Business in the Main Ballroom and general lunch/vendor engagement. Most SMB owners should eat, walk vendors with a short question list, and skip mourning the invite-only room.
How to build an owner day (sample paths)
Path A — Automation operator (recommended default for 5–50 shops):
Breakfast/vendors → opening remarks → one early big-tech or robotics panel if useful → Claude workshop 11:30 → lunch/vendors with three written asks → skip invite-only luncheon → keynote → healthcare or responsible AI at 3:00 based on your risk → Meta AI workshop 4:00 → optional short fireside → Sip and Sync.
Path B — Policy / market-context owner:
Breakfast → opening → Panel 3 Powering South Florida’s Economy at 11:30 → lunch/vendors → keynote → responsible AI or healthcare → hospitality or critical industries → Sip and Sync. Schedule a separate hands-on week on the free ladder.
Path C — Care-adjacent Broward shop:
Breakfast → light morning panel → Claude or economy panel (pick one) → lunch → keynote → healthcare panel 3:00 → Meta workshop or critical industries → Sip and Sync. Bring your compliance questions on paper.
Whichever path you pick, block drive time from Broward or Palm Beach, parking buffer, and a hard stop if you have Friday close-of-business duties. The reception runs to 7:30 p.m. — only stay if you have two named people to meet.
Prep kit: what to bring on paper or phone
- One-page tool inventory — every AI or “smart” app staff already use, including free consumer apps on personal phones.
- Two workflows — one you would test this quarter; one you will not automate this year, with a sentence why.
- Data rule draft — what customer or employee data may never be pasted into an external model.
- Three vendor questions — ownership of prompts/outputs, export if the login dies, human review before customer-facing use.
- Budget note — Eventbrite line item you actually paid (range on this pull: $136.12–$524.74), plus parking/food/drive cost, so Monday’s ROI conversation is honest.
- Follow-up list — SBDC contact ask; one FIU ATOM / faculty question; one peer owner to meet at Sip and Sync.
Where this sits on the South Florida owner stack
Treat Oct. 2 as the paid intensifier above live free and low-friction rungs already mapped in the Gazette:
- Broward public literacy ladder (Library / SCORE and related free paths): broward-ai-literacy-sep9-library-score-ladder-2026
- Delray Chamber Chasing AI Session 1 (Oct. 16 owner-prep): delray-chamber-chasing-ai-session-1-oct-16-2026
- FAU Runway and Levan apply maps for founders who need venture structure, not a conference badge: linked above
Light-link only; those packages are already live. Do not rewrite them here.
After Oct. 2: what “done” looks like on Monday
A useful AI 305 day ends with four artifacts, not a tote bag:
- A written pilot (process, owner name, 30-day metric, kill criteria).
- An updated data rule your managers can enforce.
- One SBDC or FIU follow-up email drafted before you leave the Turnpike.
- A clear sentence on whether you need another literacy hour, another workshop, or a semester-length consulting engagement — and which.
If you cannot write those four lines in the car, the badge was tourism.
Registration checklist (print this)
- Re-open Eventbrite — confirm still
on_sale/ InStock - Read the exact ticket name and total at checkout (public offer range on this pull: $136.12–$524.74 USD)
- Ignore stale “February 15 early bird” banner unless checkout shows a matching discount
- Screenshot confirmation PDF
- Map Graham Center; leave Broward/PBC with parking buffer
- Circle one 11:30 room and one 4:00 room — no hallway double-booking
- Do not assume Meta private luncheon access without a written invite
- Pack the prep kit above
- Optional soft-flag only: atom@fiu.edu / 305-348-2830 for organizer questions
Pages move. This map reports what the FIU Business site, FIU Calendar, and Eventbrite showed on a Sept. 14, 2026 pull. Verify before you spend.
