January didn’t arrive quietly.
Across classrooms, coworking spaces, Zoom rooms, and demo tables, Memphis tech showed early-year intent. This wasn’t a month of hype or resolutions; it was a month of practice. Of people sharpening skills, testing ideas in public, and building confidence through repetition.
Tech Scene Media amplified 25 events this month, reaching 12,000+ digital impressions, but the real story isn’t the volume. It’s what those moments reveal about where our ecosystem is heading.
From Attendance to Alignment
What stood out immediately wasn’t just turnout, it was alignment. Different communities, different skill levels, different tools, all circling the same core questions:
How do we work better?
How do we learn faster without skipping fundamentals?
How do we turn effort into outcomes?
That alignment showed up clearly in the events you engaged with most.
Community Recaps That Resonated
Speaker Marco Cabrera — Memphis Design and Code
You showed the most love to:
BDPA Memphis Winter Celebration → Recap
Code Connector: Highlights from Code & Share project demo day → Recap
When Copilot Meets Real Analytics Work with Memphis Data Professionals → Recap
Demystifying WordPress with Memphis Design & Code → Recap
Voices of Memphis Tech spotlight on Lawrence Lockhart → Recap
Inside Tech901’s Mario Kart Night → Recap
These weren’t just popular events. They were signals. Each one centered on real work (projects, documentation, strategy, and lived experience) over abstraction. Memphis isn’t chasing trends. It’s pressure-testing them.
The Voices Shaping the Room
Speaker DeNisha Malone — Memphis Data Professionals event
Behind every strong signal is someone willing to teach in public.
January’s speakers didn’t just present. They translated complexity, named tradeoffs, and invited others into the process:
DeNisha Malone — making analytics and Copilot practical across in-person and virtual events
Patrick Boateng — grounding Python validation in real developer workflows
Marco Cabrera — turning WordPress from “mystery box” into a system
Richard Wellington — creating space for builders to learn together, in person
Robb Mann — reframing the job hunt as a strategy, not hope
JC Smiley — facilitating conversations where learning meets visibility
Julian Boyd — pulling back the curtain on founder decision-making
Rex Gatling — showing AI and AR not as spectacle, but as tools
Collectively, these voices are shaping a culture where learning is communal, and credibility comes from clarity.
Ideas That Marked the Month
Tech901 Mario Kart community event
Certain moments stuck. Not because they were flashy, but because they named something true:
“Success becomes sustainability when you have documentation to guide you.” — Julian Boyd
Transparent demos close the gap between theory and practice — Marco Cabrera
AI doesn’t replace foundational analytics work. It amplifies it — DeNisha Malone
“If getting a tech job is the goal, you need a strategy—not just effort.” — Lawrence Lockhart
Ecosystems strengthen through human reinforcement, not speed — Tech901’s Mario Kart community event
Prompt engineering is iterative, not a one-shot command — Kevin Kawchak
These aren’t soundbites. They’re operating principles. And they point toward a Memphis tech scene that values durability over shortcuts.
The Quiet Infrastructure Behind the Scenes
Momentum doesn’t sustain itself.
It’s carried by organizers who keep showing up by booking rooms, managing logistics, holding space for learning to happen:
Memphis Data Professionals
Camp Co-Pilot by DeNisha Malone
Germantown Career Support & Networking
Code Connector
Memphis Design and Code
University of Memphis Crews Center of Entrepreneurship
This consistency is the ecosystem’s backbone. Without it, there’s no compounding effect—just isolated wins.
February: From Signals to Acceleration
January clarified direction. February applies pressure.
Coming up:
Innovate Xcelerate Design Thinking Workshop at LeMoyne-Owen College (Epicenter Memphis)
GiveCamp Memphis 2026 — a full weekend of building for nonprofits
GitHub Copilot in 2026 with the Memphis Python User Group (Douglas Starnes)
Don’t Speed Date, Speed Network for data and design professionals with the Design and Code group
If January was calibration, February is execution.
Memphis tech is growing because people keep choosing to show up: to learn out loud, to share context, to build with others in mind. Tech Scene Media exists to make that work visible, connected, and valued.
Let’s keep the signal strong.
Learning doesn’t stop when the room clears.