A road trip to Cincinnati for Black Tech Week 2026.

Until last week, I'd never been to Cincinnati. I started writing this before the event, when I realized that an on-the-road diarized account to Black Tech Week (BTW) 2026 kinda made the most sense.

But first, some context.

BTW began in Miami back in 2015, and it is fair to say that a road trip south would have been very different. The event grew out of Code Fever — a non-profit that aimed to teach Black youth and young adults about tech and entrepreneurship — and whose founders, Felecia Hatcher and Derick Pearson, saw it as "a way to make Black History Month in Miami more impactful," according to an Ebony magazine article from 2016.

In any case, an event in Cincy is much more relevant to us than one in Miami, the Midwest being our entire thing after all. The fact that the largest and most prominent tech event of this type in the country takes place in our region is a big part of the allure to visit.

One of our questions going in was: how did this come to happen, and could it ever move anywhere else? It is not difficult to imagine it taking place — and having a similar, huge impact — in Detroit or Chicago, never mind Los Angeles or Atlanta. Either way, it has been in Cincinnati since 2020, after Lightship Capital and its eponymous foundation took ownership.

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Cincy here we come: leaving Michigan

Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 6am

I'm on the four-hour drive from Michigan. As usual when crossing into Ohio, I have to stay aware of the 65 mile per hour limits instead of Michigan's 70. You may not care about any of this yourself, but there are definitely more Police on the highways in Ohio. Don’t @ me, cos it’s true. So I’ll be as cautious as I need to be, so I don’t have to deal with a ticket when there are events I need to get to.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 10am

You travel a few hours cross-country and the first person you see in a strange town is someone you already know: I literally run into Wolf Starr and the Founder of our friends, Midwest House, Ted Velie, in the street. Making the best of the serendipity, I ask Wolf his thoughts on BTW. Wolf runs the Ohio Impact Fund, a Venture Capital fund that says its mission is "Uplifting and Empowering Ohio's Impact Driven Social Entrepreneurs," plus he’s an Ohian and has been a panelist at BTW before. He tells me the event is "an incredible showcase at the convergence of technology and black excellence" and suggests I join him at the VC mixer down the street. I'm not registered, but I do have a coveted 'media pass.' Surely that gets me in everywhere? It works, although I don't push the theory any further over the next two days, more’s the pity.

At the mixer I meet Derrick Maultsby Jr. We've carried his words on these pages before — having personally missed Black Tech Week last year, it was he who gave us his take in an interview with Ted — but this is the first time we've ever actually met. Maultsby is a corporate attorney and Managing Associate at FBT Gibbons, a firm headquartered in Cincy with several thousand employees across 26 offices nationally. FBT Gibbons is also a sponsor of Black Tech Week, and Maultsby has been involved with the event for the last four years.

I ask him why he and his firm take such an active role in BTW, and he tells me that Lightship's mission aligns with his own. "Entrepreneurship should be accessible. Resources should be accessible … the convening of a diverse talent pool from around the world with fresh ideas and perspectives are exactly what we need to continue pushing this country forward. I want to support that wherever it is happening but in the Midwest especially."

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 12pm

Half the day is almost gone and I've only just arrived at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, the main location for programming at BTW. One thing becomes immediately obvious: the aesthetic has been carefully crafted. The space is huge and the theaters are impressive, but the most striking thing from an events perspective is how it looks. From the massive wall of screens and neon signs, many of them sponsor logos, to the large standing 'B' logo in the foyer to the old skool TVs encircling the screens on the main stage, to the ‘ticker’ announcing what is going on. It's more Hollywood premiere than tech event, but in this is also one of the keys to BTW: these aesthetic touches everywhere make it feel like something 'more' as an attendee. 

Brian Brackeen — General Partner at Lightship Capital, and therefore in many ways one of those primarily responsible for bringing the event to Cincinnati in the first place — tells me afterwards that he has “seen with my own eyes … the impact a well curated conference can have on its attendees” and that he and his team "aim to create experiences that surprise and delight," delivering "an almost Disney level of service."

The visual details present in this conference bear that statement out in spades.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 1pm

My first actual session: a conversation with Denim Richards, an actor on the hit show 'Yellowstone' and now founder and CEO of his own media and entertainment business, called Opulent. Richards now lives in Botswana and talks with conviction and passion about the opportunities within Africa, using the $8 billion in annual remittances sent to the continent every year from its diaspora, alongside the fact that it is collectively home to the youngest population on earth. The host of this session, Annette Richardson reiterates his passion by saying that the 21st century will be the African century.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 2pm

I manage to sneak in an in-person meeting with Ilana Habib, Principal at Cintrifuse Capital. Cintrifuse is a supporter of Black Tech Week (as well as a contributor to this site) by hosting community events alongside official programming, all held within in its co-working space down the street, Union Hall. Ilana is from Cincinnati but lived away for many years, and is now back helping local entrepreneurs through the fund.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 3pm

I'm back at Aronoff to watch Maultsby's panel "What my Last Deal Taught Me" with three VCs who are investing across the country. I attempt to live tweet for the first time in possibly eight years, a fact I would prefer you keep to yourselves, thanks. Plus, if Twitter is now called ‘X’, how do I describe ‘live tweeting’ now without sounding like I’ve been redacted?

But I digress… one of the panelists explains how poor communication can ruin a potential deal: "we can be your biggest ally… or your biggest enemy. As your name goes around, people talk about you." Words to live by.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: 5pm

I'm back at Union Hall for the Cintrifuse/Think Moda Feature Day, watching a slew of pitches. I find a spot next to my new buddy Leo Senai of Baltimore Development Corporation. Ok, he’s not from the Midwest, but we have similar challenges in our region, so the conversation resonates. 

We're both suitably impressed by a pitch that begins with a founder being trailed to the stage by a drone… and then the slides don't work due to technical difficulties. He soldiers on anyway like an absolute boss. Two things that never work at a tech event: the wifi and the PowerPoint.

After this we head up to the Rooftop Mixer, where I run into fellow Michiganders Lauren Daniels, Justin Turk and Matthew Burnett and find out what they’ve seen and taken part in over their two days in town. Things then get serious when I get a drink and try Hennessey Punch for the first time. These three were witness to an overtly positive reaction: life may never be the same again after this.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026: not telling you AM

Later that night, myself, William Tavel of Case Western University’s Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur Angie Buckalew and my new Francophone friend, Armand Etienne, follow Wolf across the river into Kentucky to a Chinese restaurant for some good eating. Because that's what we do in Ohio, apparently. Someone orders lettuce leaf wraps, or what I'd call San Choy Bow. The next day I question my sanity after the recent Cyclospora outbreak that has been linked to lettuce across three states.

We may be across state lines, but it's only an Uber ride away and I'm ready for bed.

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Day two: where's the wifi? + the last BTW sessions before hitting the road

The next day was spent getting the wifi to work (what did I just say about tech events!) and a handful of talks crammed in before the drive home.

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Thursday, July 16, 2026: 11am

My first session of the day was a panel of local entrepreneurs and decision makers talking about the opportunities available locally in Ohio, entitled “Why Ohio, Why Now?”

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Thursday, July 16, 2026: 12pm

I spent a couple of hours working, with a few meetings and writing up some pieces to publish over the next day. In trying to get on the right wifi, I connected with others around me in the “quiet space” upstairs and met some super cool people (Hi Waitoya!) who were also trying to get some work in. However, that quiet space was interrupted later in the afternoon as the event started winding down;  a DJ started cranking tunes and the vibe changed from work mode into celebration.

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Thursday, July 16, 2026: 3pm

As we continue to build this site, I’m always curious how others do it. For that reason the session with the Lightship team on “How we built BTW” was particularly interesting, especially when they talked about why they’re in Cincy and the biggest divas they’ve ever experienced. 

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Why Cincinnati for Black Tech Week?

That border I crossed so casually the night before — an Uber ride into Kentucky for dinner and back — comes back to me after the event when I ask Brian Brackeen why Black Tech Week is in this part of Ohio. Aside from it being Lightship's headquarters, he gives an unequivocal response. "There are certainly technical reasons … but beyond that there are cultural reasons. Cincinnati is ON the Mason Dixon line, and when Black people got to Cincinnati they were free. That history is celebrated in Cincinnati's Underground Railroad Museum."

During that "how we built BTW," session I mentioned above, Lightship's Chief of Staff Dari Daniels emphasized the location when she shared with all us watching that they get asked about the location all the time. "Why are we not in Atlanta or L.A. or whatever? There's just a humongous community of black entrepreneurs here across the state that we love, and we want to make sure we're providing really, really great access," she said.

It may not always be the case, however. Brackeen told us that they “have done 1 bid so far. Cincinnati beat out a number of amazing cities,” and that “the conference is at the end of its current contract with Cincinnati. Stay tuned!"

Before leaving town, I met Maultsby again for coffee at a place called 1215 (as a self-proclaimed coffee snob, I can report that it was very good). He echoes Brackeen's take on the impact events can have on attendees, while leaving me with something that sticks in my head even now a week later: "By showing up and being engaged, we all do the first step. But it's what happens when the week is over. The work begins when we leave the conference."

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