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Why Attend?

The share of registered federal lobbyists working on AI issues has more than doubled since 2023, both leading AI labs opened Washington offices within the past year, and the agencies buying AI are, by their own accounting, short on the compute and people to deploy it. For AI companies, the question is no longer whether Washington matters, but where to sit. This webinar makes the District’s case through proof rather than persuasion: leaders who chose the District explain what drove the decision, a District-grown AI voice answers whether you can hire here, and independent analysis validates the market with third-party data. Attendees will leave able to evaluate their own trigger point for a Washington office, benchmark real occupancy and talent costs, and act on a concrete 90-day plan — with a District data pack and a named WDCEP contact.

Key learnings:

  • Evaluate the trigger point for opening a Washington office — revenue, regulatory exposure, headcount, or a specific federal contract — against the experience of companies that recently made the decision.
  • Benchmark the real costs and leverage of a District office, including downtown rent and concession conditions and the market for policy, government affairs, and federal-delivery talent.
  • Assess what selling AI into the federal government actually requires — procurement realities, agency capability gaps, and the proximity that matters — using independent, third-party data.
  • Apply a concrete 90-day action plan for establishing a Washington presence, using the District data pack on space, talent, and the local AI sector.

Speakers

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Marcus Finley
Founder and CEO, FIN Digital

Marcus Finley is founder and CEO of FIN Digital, a Washington, DC digital product and AI development agency. Known as “The AI Professor,” he helps owners, CEOs, and CMOs integrate AI into their businesses to improve productivity and profitability, and is an experienced speaker and instructor on applied AI and technology delivery.

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Jessica Fulton
Senior Fellow, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Jessica Fulton is a senior fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the Washington, DC think tank focused on the economic advancement of Black communities, where she previously led the policy program. An economist with prior roles at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, she brings an independent workforce, labor, and talent-equity perspective to the District’s AI economy.

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Stephen N. Miller
Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia

Stephen N. Miller is the District of Columbia’s seventh Chief Technology Officer and leads DC’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force, winner of the inaugural AI 50 Award from the Center for Public Sector AI. Under his leadership, DC became the first major U.S. city to require Responsible AI training for its government workforce, giving him a first-in-nation vantage point on how the city regulating AI also deploys it.

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Dr. Varun Sivaram
Founder and CEO, Emerald AI

Varun Sivaram is founder and CEO of Emerald AI, a Washington, DC company turning energy-hungry data centers into flexible grid assets, backed by roughly $68 million from investors including NVIDIA’s NVentures, Eaton, GE Vernova, Salesforce, Samsung, and In-Q-Tel. He previously served as chief strategy and innovation officer at Ørsted, CTO of ReNew, and as a senior U.S. diplomat at the State Department.

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Mark Muro
Senior Fellow, Brookings Metro

Mark Muro is a senior fellow at Brookings Metro and author of the Brookings research mapping AI readiness across U.S. metro areas, which places Washington in the top tier of “Star Hubs” behind only San Francisco and San Jose. His work provides the independent, third-party validation of the District’s AI market that anchors this program’s data segment.

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