How Sloss Tech Is Rewriting the Future of Tech—From Birmingham
Words by Ashley Locke
Photos by Mason David
In the heart of downtown Birmingham, where coffee shops hum with early morning conversations, something electric was brewing. For three days this summer, the streets filled with lanyards and laptop bags as the Southeast’s most curious thinkers, tech leaders, founders, and creatives gathered for one of the most unexpected collisions in the country: Sloss Tech.
Yes, that Birmingham.
The city once known for its steel, soul, and seismic civil rights history is quietly—boldly—staking its claim in the tech world. And Sloss Tech is proof that the South has the brains, the ideas, and the guts to lead the charge. This isn’t a Silicon Valley copy-paste. It’s something grittier. More grounded. Something real.
From the opening keynotes to the late-night conversations spilling out of The Lyric Theatre, Sloss Tech had a heartbeat that pulsed with innovation and community. It was part conference, part cultural moment—bringing together people who believe in building something better, and building it here.
Where Passion Meets Purpose
This year, the streets surrounding the Lyric Theatre were packed with hundreds of attendees zipping from panels to pitch sessions, their badges bouncing with every step. The energy was undeniable. These weren’t just people talking about the future of tech—they were actively creating it.
At the inaugural Sloss.Tech/Ideas Pitch Competition, sixteen companies from across the Southeast competed for funding in categories like agtech, biotech, and mobility. The grand prize went to WiNK Therapeutics, a game-changing startup using modified RNA aptamers to treat Type 1 Diabetes and solid tumors—proof that life-saving innovation is happening in our own backyard.
Panels like Fueling Founders: Powering Growth Across Alabama spotlighted the infrastructure being built to support dreamers and doers at every stage.
Across the state, accelerators, partnerships, and policy are quietly shifting the landscape—making Alabama not just a viable place to start a company, but a desirable one.
And then there were the headliners: Zack Kass, futurist and former Head of Go-to-Market at OpenAI, offered a powerful (and optimistic) reminder that storytelling—not fear—is what will shape the future of AI. Johnny Cupcakes took us on a ride through branding, nostalgia, and why selling memories is more meaningful than selling merch. Rashaun Williams reminded us that your zip code doesn’t have to define your destiny.
Southern Roots, Future Vision
It’s easy to overlook Birmingham if you’re not paying attention. But that’s what makes Sloss Tech so magnetic. It’s a quiet revolution. The kind where XR filmmakers share a stage with civil rights icons like Jeff Drew, who walked in the 1963 Children’s March and now stands alongside Birmingham students using immersive technology to retell that history through their own lens.
It’s a future-facing city that knows its past—and isn’t afraid to reimagine what comes next.
“There is beauty in our diversity,” Drew told the crowd. “And using technology to bridge these gaps is a wonderful thing. You can weave sincerity into technology.”
That’s the ethos that carried through every conversation. From practical discussions about AI in education and the workforce to raw talks about finding your squad in tech, the vibe was less “hustle harder” and more “build smarter, together.”
Sloss Tech isn’t just a conference. It’s a declaration: that the South has always been about progress. That diversity isn’t a checkbox, it’s a competitive advantage. And that when you give the right people a platform, they don’t just show up—they show out.
Meet You in the Future
What makes Sloss Tech feel different isn’t just the quality of speakers or the surprise of seeing Birmingham named in the same sentence as tech-forward cities like Atlanta or Austin—it’s the authenticity of it all. These ideas weren’t imported. They were born here. Shaped by lived experience. Backed by purpose.
In a world where machine intelligence is growing faster than we can process, Sloss Tech dared to ask: What do we want the future to look like? And maybe more importantly—who gets to shape it?
According to keynote speaker Dr. Ruha Benjamin, the answer might just be: us.
Because in Birmingham, the future isn’t just a talking point. It’s a block party. A brainstorm. A belief that the South can—and will—lead with boldness, creativity, and care.
Sloss Tech isn’t where the conversation ends. It’s where it begins.
