LAS VEGAS — The inaugural HumanX was a smashing success. The AI-focused event brought together business leaders and professionals across sectors in the AI space from March 10-13 at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
By the Numbers: Impressive Turnout for First Edition
HumanX 2025 recorded impressive year-one numbers:
- More than 3,300 attendees
- 100+ exhibitors had a presence at the event
- More than 150 sponsors signed on for the inaugural edition, including AWS, J.P. Morgan, Google Cloud, Meta and Silicon Valley Bank
- 320+ speakers were featured throughout the four-day program, including the President of the New York Stock Exchange Lynn Martin, OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil, Former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Dropbox Co-Founder and CEO Drew Houston
- More than 270 journalists were in attendance to maximize the event’s reach
HumanX As a Disruptor
Not only was the inaugural edition a success, it also is disrupting the “way things have always been done” for technology conferences and trade shows. Trade Show Executive interviewed Ashley Witz, Vice President of Operations at HumanX, to find out more about the inaugural event and how it’s differentiating itself.
Here are five ways HumanX is setting the bar for events.
- Curated, High-Value Content and a Research-Backed Agenda
HumanX does not sell stage time, ensuring that sessions did not resemble self-promotional content.
“HumanX hand-selected every speaker to ensure only the most relevant, engaging and insightful voices were featured,” Witz said. “This commitment to quality ensured that attendees received practical and meaningful takeaways rather than sitting through sales pitches.”
The team also partnered with HarrisX to conduct a large-scale study on the pressing challenges and opportunities of AI that executives are facing.
“This data-driven approach ensured that every session delivered practical, actionable insights that attendees could immediately apply,” Witz said.
- Seamless, Tech-Driven Attendee Experience
The HumanX app was designed to eliminate frustration and inefficiency at the event. Through the app attendees could get real-time alerts guiding them to programming, access to AI-powered matchmaking to meet with relevant vendors and attendees, as well as get real-time transcriptions and bookmarking of sessions.
- Elevated Venue and Hospitality
The Fontainebleau Las Vegas was chosen as the site for the first HumanX because of its reputation for high-end dining and luxurious atmosphere. The team also included F&B costs in the price of admission, which offered a premium experience to attendees.
- ROI-Driven Business Opportunities
HumanX aimed to provide startups and enterprises more tailored networking and deal-making opportunities through its SolutionBridge Meetings (one-to-one meetings with AI decision-makers), VentureConnect program (AI-powered matchmaking with venture capitalists for startups seeking funding) and Pitch Competition.
- Positioning HumanX as an Industry Catalyst
“Rather than being a one-off event, HumanX positioned itself as a movement driving AI adoption and governance,” Witz said.
The team did this through:
- AInsight: AI advisory research guiding the industry on best practices
- The Annual Gathering: The conference itself, ensuring a high-impact experience
- The HumanX Foundation: A long-term initiative to shape AI policy, standards and responsible innovation beyond the event
Securing Big Name Sponsors
Before launching this event, the HumanX team went to AI shows, big and small, to check out what kind of format was working and if there was space in the marketplace for an event launch. The team discovered that there wasn’t anyone focused on building an AI show for business leaders across sectors.
“Moreover, this was a time where executives felt lost,” Witz said. “There was a real anxiety about being able to keep up in this AI-enabled world. We brought our vision of a gathering, for executives, to learn from the brightest minds on AI, then drill down into how companies in their sector think about best practices, and finally connect them directly to vendors who could help them build this AI-enabled future. That was a program no one was offering, and sponsors were hungry to get in front of this audience.
“Oddly, it also helped that we were not pay-to-play for any content. Attendees knew who they were seeing on stage were there because of merit, which meant if a sponsor was on stage (because editorial independently selected them), they were probably worth listening to. It’s a massive revenue hit to us, but we are serious about keeping it.”
Witz also said that having the reputation as the creators of HLTH, Money20/20 and Shoptalk helped secure sponsors who wanted to know the show would feel like a festival and trade show with high production value.
Networking Done Right
When the company was first launched and the team was in the planning stages, it did a lot of research on why people attend events — and networking and connecting with others was the top answer.
“With this top of mind, we launched several programs to help people find others like them. Each program had its own dedicated meeting space for these connections to take place,” Witz said. “We have the SolutionBridge program which matches buyers with sellers; the VentureConnect program which matches startup founders with investors; the Peer[X]change program matches attendees with others in similar functions (like marketing, sales, or finance); HumanX Connect is a feature within our app that allows attendees to schedule a quick 15-min meeting with other attendees through double-opt in matchmaking.
“We also prioritized the press areas — both a dedicated press room and announcement stage for companies to release their news in a professional manner and a host of private interview pods where the press could conduct meetings with attendees and speakers. We also just carved a lot of space out of the main hall and surrounding areas for people to sit down and connect casually. Our goal was pretty simple: no one should ever be sitting on a floor, and we are happy that we accomplished that!”
Tech-Forward Event
As an AI event, it only makes sense that HumanX focused on its technology experience for participants.
The HumanX app offers HumanX Replay, a feature that allows attendees to check out all the content they might have missed. Through its partnership with Read.ai, every session was recorded, transcribed and summarized right in the app. The app also features Alani AI so attendees could ask questions, find out what they missed and see session highlights while on the go.
“With over 300 speakers and 60 hours of programming, as you can imagine we have a lot of content. In addition to all of the stage content, there are tons of networking opportunities, and many partners and sponsors host their own events too,” Witz said. “With all of this taking place, it’s impossible to attend everything. It was really important to us to take the stress out of figuring out what to attend and allow people to watch all of the sessions at a later date in case they missed one.”
The show also featured smart badges, allowing people to automatically share contact information with those they meet to make networking more seamless.
Future Dates
HumanX will head to the Moscone Center in San Francisco April 6-9, 2026. HumanX 2026 is expected to have more than 6,500 attendees, 400 sponsors and more than 350 speakers.
“HumanX was built by industry veterans who knew what worked — and more importantly, what sucked about traditional conferences. By combining a rigorously curated agenda, seamless tech integration, luxurious hospitality, and ROI-focused networking, HumanX wasn’t just another AI event — it became the must-attend AI experience,” Witz said.
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Featured image Credit: Big Event Media
