Proposal · Digital Innovation 2026

Nova — an AI guide your attendees can actually talk to

A conference about practical AI shouldn't just have speakers talking about it. Nova is a working AI avatar — face, voice, and a brain loaded with your program — ready for the booth floor — and she pays her own way.

Prepared for Morgan Baldwin · MEGAPOP By Ben McAlilly · benmcalilly.com July 2026

Nova is live on this site

Ask her who John Sileo is, what the Splicing Rodeo is — or where to grab dinner downtown. She answers out loud, face to face.

🎤 Tap to talk to Nova

Works on any phone · allow the microphone · phone off silent

01 · The ideaLet people talk to the thing the conference is about

Digital Innovation's whole thesis is practical AI for business, education, and rural broadband. Nova demonstrates it live: attendees walk up, hold a talk button, and have a real conversation — schedule, speakers, the Splicing Rodeo, where the bathrooms are, what to do in Tupelo tonight. She already knows the full program: every speaker (including deep background — ask her about John Sileo's identity-theft story or why Christa Alexander's talk title is her family's own history), all twelve partners, the Huntington Bank Arena, and downtown Tupelo block by block.

These are real, unedited transcripts from the working system:

🎤 Where should I grab dinner around here?

You're in luck — downtown Tupelo is right outside the arena on Main Street! Our conference partners include Loco Taco Downtown for tacos and margaritas, and Johnnie's Drive-In, which has been serving burgers and shakes since nineteen forty-five — it was actually Elvis's teenage hangout, and you can sit in the Elvis booth. Want more options?

Sponsored recommendation — note she names partners as partners, every time.

🎤 What room is the blockchain workshop in at 2pm?

I don't have those details just yet — the full session schedule is still being finalized by the MEGAPOP team. Head over to digitalinnovation.org, or swing by the registration desk when you arrive!

There is no blockchain workshop. She doesn't invent one — grounded answers only.

02 · The optionsThree ways to deploy her — combinable

Option 1 · The flagship booth

One kiosk on the expo floor

A large touchscreen station: push-to-talk conversation (built for a loud hall), type-to-ask fallback, live captions. Runs unattended all day.

Fit: the proven baseline — this is what's running today.

Option 2 · Nova stations

Tablets throughout the venue

The same Nova on locked-down tablets at registration, the expo hall, and outside session rooms. Each station knows where it is ("the AI track is up the stairs behind you") — and each is individually sponsorable: "the registration Nova, presented by C Spire."

Fit: maximum reach and maximum sponsor inventory; cost scales with conversation, not hardware.

Option 3 · The stage moment

Live Q&A with your host

Nova full-screen on the big screen, in conversation with an emcee — audience questions relayed by the host, a backstage operator with skip and kill controls as the safety net, rehearsed in advance.

Fit: the headline moment — "watch our host interview an AI, live." Add-on to either option; requires host rehearsal time in September.

03 · The revenue modelShe pays for herself

Nova Recommends. When attendees ask about food, nightlife, or things to do in Tupelo, Nova recommends paying local sponsors first — always disclosed as conference partners (see the transcript above). Sell the slots like booth space: an out-of-town crowd asking "where's dinner?" hundreds of times over two days is premium inventory for downtown restaurants and attractions.

Station sponsorships. With Option 2, each physical station carries a presenting sponsor — and three of your partners (C Spire, Tombigbee Fiber, CED Fiber) are connectivity companies who could sponsor the stations' network itself.

Sponsor receipts. Every conversation is transcribed. After the event, each sponsor gets a report: "Nova recommended you 47 times; dinner was the #3 topic." Data like that is what turns a one-time slot into a renewal next year.

Three to five local slots at a few hundred dollars each more than covers the entire platform cost below — before station sponsorships.

04 · CostsHonest numbers, usage-billed

The AI platforms bill by the minute of actual conversation — an idle Nova costs nothing. Estimates at ~$0.15 per conversation-minute across both platforms:

Line item	Estimate	Notes
Platform usage — Option 1 (one busy booth, 2 days)	~$110	≈ 12 hours of total conversation
Platform usage — Option 2 (six stations, 2 days)	$250–400	scales with talk time, not tablet count
Tablets (Option 2)	$0–190 ea.	rent (~$30–50), buy (~$165–190), or borrow — our community-college partners have device carts
Network kit (own access point + 5G failover)	$150–300	one-time; plus venue ethernet drop — or sponsored by a fiber partner
Stage rig add-on (Option 3)	~$50	realtime control channel + operator console; uses existing screen & sound
Production & service — build, content, rehearsal, on-site operation	quoted separately	to be discussed

Platform figures are estimates at current published rates; concurrent-session plan tiers to be confirmed before committing to a station count. The software itself is built and running — see the demo link above.

05 · TimelineEleven weeks out — comfortable, not casual

July: lock the deal, confirm avatar identity & branding, open sponsor-slot sales.
August: load the published session schedule as it lands; convert placeholder recommendations to real paying sponsors; order/borrow hardware.
Early September: venue walkthrough (network drop, station placement, bathroom-and-wifi facts for Nova); host rehearsals if Option 3.
September 28: full on-site tech check in the actual room, every station, before doors.
September 29–30: show days — with live monitoring and same-day knowledge updates ("the 2pm session moved to Room B" takes minutes to deploy).

06 · SafeguardsBuilt to not embarrass anyone

Grounded answers only: Nova answers from the loaded program or says she doesn't know — demonstrated above with the fake workshop question.
Disclosure by design: paid recommendations are always identified as partner recommendations.
Guardrails: politics, medical, legal, and off-color topics are deflected with a smile and a redirect to the conference.
Loud-hall audio: push-to-talk only — no open microphones; typed input as backup.
Stage safety net: a backstage operator can skip an answer, steer the conversation, or cut audio instantly (Option 3).
Full transcripts: every conversation is recorded and reviewable — the same data that powers sponsor reports.

07 · What MEGAPOP bringsYour part is light

The session schedule and any program updates as they're published.
Sponsor decisions: which local businesses, which tiers, station naming.
A venue walkthrough and one wired network drop (or an introduction to a fiber partner).
Sign-off on Nova's look and name — and your host's time for rehearsal if we do the stage moment.

Ben McAlilly

benmcalilly.com · Tupelo, Mississippi

Ask Nova who built her — she'll tell you, and she'll even pronounce it right.