AI+ Expo 2026 | Washington, DC
2026-05-07 - 2026-05-09 | https://tealtech.com/event/ai-expo-2026/
Many conversations about AI in business focus on what to adopt. The harder question – and the one most organizations skip – is whether it should be adopted at all (and what the consequences look like when that judgment is wrong).
The SCSP AI Expo brings together government officials, defense leaders, and enterprise technology executives to address that.
The event focuses on how AI is being deployed in high-stakes environments – where the cost of a poor decision is a compromised system or a national security exposure.
Teal cofounder Gar Whaley will be on site to explore how that discipline applies to the businesses and organizations Teal supports every day. As pressure mounts to “do something with AI,” Teal’s clients need advisors who have seen where responsible adoption works – and where it doesn’t. Not just advisors who have read about it.
The expo spans AI policy, infrastructure, and business readiness, with a particular focus on:

Governance frameworks for AI deployment

Risk accountability at the leadership level

The intersection of AI adoption and national security requirements

Equal Justice Conference 2026
2026-05-14 - 2026-05-16
Teal is proud to sponsor the 2026 ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference – a national gathering of nonprofit legal aid and public defense organizations working to strengthen systems, partnerships, and outcomes for communities in need.
In its 28th year, the event brings together legal services and pro bono advocates from across the country to share developments and innovations in serving people with low income. The conference emphasizes strengthening partnerships across the civil justice system through plenary sessions, hands-on workshops, networking opportunities, and special programming.
Events like EJC 2026 create space for nonprofit leaders to share helpful insights, learn from peers, and advance their work.
Teal’s roots are deeply connected to this community. Our first client was a nonprofit, and that foundation drives our commitment to building trusted partnerships and giving back to the organizations doing some of the hardest work.
We’re proud to give back to the nonprofit sector by supporting organizations and events that prioritize sustainability, trust, and long-term impact. We’re honored to stand behind EJC 2026 and the leaders working every day to expand access to justice.

CMMC Level 2 Audit Q&A
2026-05-14 11:00 - 11:20 (America/New_York) | https://events.zoom.us/ev/AjD_fz4zPfLrZkj7OkiBtQPGg13XKXy5IO_rZs0grs2DyIW_59FI~Am6qrilzzJ9lUPRwAfhCKLeUKYVmtaij3x17Jw06S7cjZ0vB3hqoVwMd8A
What is it like to go through a CMMC Level 2 audit?
Get firsthand insight from leaders who just completed one. Teal cofounders Reid Johnston and Gar Whaley recently completed a CMMC Level 2 audit.
In this live Q&A, they’ll share what the process looked like – from preparation and evidence collection to working with assessors. Reid and Gar will also be answering your questions about the audit process or their experience during the event.

What we’ll cover:

How we built the environment

What the process was like

What the toughest parts of the process was

And more

Register for CMMC Level 2 Audit Q&A

About the Speakers

Gar Whaley, Teal CMMC Cofounder
CMMC Registered Practitioner & Chief Revenue Officer
Gar Whaley is a cofounder of Teal and brings more than 30 years of experience helping regulated organizations strengthen cybersecurity, governance, and risk management practices. He holds multiple industry certifications, including CISSP, CISM, CGEIT, CISA, and CMMC Registered Practitioner, and works closely with defense contractors navigating NIST, DFARS, and CMMC requirements.

Reid Johnston, Teal CMMC Cofounder
Chief Intelligent Transformation Officer
Reid Johnston has over 25 years of experience helping organizations modernize IT environments to support growth, efficiency, and security. As Teal’s CITO, Reid focuses on aligning technology strategy with business outcomes – particularly through Microsoft-based solutions, automation, regulatory compliance, and operational maturity. His work centers on helping leadership teams move beyond reactive IT and toward disciplined, scalable systems that support compliance and long-term growth.

Stop Guessing: Get Claude AI Working for Your Business
2026-05-21 11:00 - 11:15 | https://youtu.be/sQdmkEr-mxc?si=mkZUrVm-HR-POxqt
Most business leaders have heard of Claude, but few know how to use it in a way that actually saves time.

This 20-minute virtual event is built for executives and technology leaders who want to get work done with AI – without spending hours figuring it out on their own. Reid Johnston, Teal’s Chief Intelligent Transformation Officer and cofounder, walks you through the setup, features, and workflows he uses every day.

What you’ll explore:

The three settings to configure before you do anything else (most people skip these).
When to use Chat, Cowork, and Code.
How to use Projects and Skills to give Claude persistent context across your work.
How to generate research reports, build artifacts, and run repeatable workflows without writing a single line of code.
The shortcuts and dictation features that make Claude faster than typing.

Register now

How AI Helps a Lean Marketing Team
2026-06-04 11:00 - 11:15 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNFhG3rBxg4&t=3s
Most marketing teams have been experimenting with AI since its inception into the public space, but few have turned it into a repeatable operating model. This 15-minute virtual event is for marketing leaders and executives who want to see what that shift looks like in practice.
Teal cofounder and CRO Gar Whaley, Marketing Manager Brittany Watson, and Marketing Copywriter Cayden Crowise walk through exactly how their team uses tools like Microsoft Copilot and Claude to do multi-person, multi-day work in single sessions, and what the before-and-after numbers look like.
What you’ll explore:

How a live event recording becomes a full multi-channel campaign.

How one prompt produced a complete client announcement toolkit.

How to do competitive intelligence more effectively.

How to reduce your KPI reporting process.

How raw survey responses can become fully branded, print-ready reports.

Register now

Copilot Success Series - June 2026
2026-06-24 11:00 - 11:15 | https://youtu.be/cafbzftOjRA
Why join us?
Copilot changes weekly. In 20 minutes, Teal cofounders Gar Whaley and Reid Johnston will demonstrate how SMB teams use Microsoft Copilot capabilities to save more time than imaginable.

Who should attend

CEOs / COOs / Business Leaders
IT Directors / SMB IT Pros

Speakers

Reid Johnston, Chief Intelligent Transformation Officer & Teal Cofounder
25+ years guiding SMBs through practical modernization. Specializes in Microsoft 365, automation and secure adoption of AI at work.

Gar Whaley, Chief Revenue Officer & Teal Cofounder
Helps leadership teams translate AI capabilities into pipeline, productivity, and outcomes.

Back by popular demand: Get Claude Working for Your SMB
2026-07-09 11:00 - 11:30 | https://youtu.be/sQdmkEr-mxc?si=mkZUrVm-HR-POxqt
This event was so popular in May that we’re running it again. One executive who attended called it a “great value.”

This 20-minute virtual event is built for executives and technology leaders who want to get serious work done with AI – without spending needless hours figuring it out on their own.

Reid Johnston, Teal’s Chief Intelligent Transformation Officer and cofounder, walks you through the setup, features, and workflows our team uses every day.

What you’ll explore:

The three settings to configure before you do anything else (most people skip these).
When to use Chat, Cowork, and Code.
How to use Projects and Skills to give Claude persistent context across your work.
How to generate research reports, build artifacts, and run repeatable workflows without writing a single line of code.
The shortcuts and dictation features that make Claude faster than typing.

Register now

How Marketing Teams Can Use Claude Design
2026-07-22 11:00 - 11:30 | https://youtu.be/56h6tM-zDmc
If your marketing team’s design backlog grows faster than the people who can complete it, then using Claude for your design work is worth a look. This 20-minute virtual event showcases how Teal’s team leverages it.
Brittany Watson, Teal Marketing Manager, will share with you the jobs she runs with Claude Design each week and put specific numbers on how much time the team has saved.
This isn’t a demo of AI replacing a designer on your team, but rather a look at what happens when production work stops blocking strategy work, and what a team gets back when it does.

What you’ll see:

How to generate on-brand landing pages, social assets, and decks from a brief.
The multi-size workflow that turns one campaign visual into every channel format without the resize grind.
A critique process that catches issues before anything goes public.
Where Claude falls short and what judgment calls stay with the human.
How to pick your first job to try next week.

Watch Now

About Brittany Watson
Brittany Watson is Marketing Manager at Teal. She has spent over a decade in marketing, including six years leading a team of three. That team covers everything from SEO and emails to campaigns and design – for three brands – which means she had to identify ways to do the work of a much larger department without the staff to match. AI is now central to how that gets done. She holds generative AI certifications from the American Marketing Association and LinkedIn and uses tools like Claude, HubSpot, Monday.com, and Microsoft Copilot daily.

About Gar Whaley
Gar Whaley is co-founder and CRO at Teal, a managed IT services company serving SMBs in Minnesota and the DMV region. He hosts Teal’s virtual events and has spent the last several years watching his team figure out which AI tools actually help and which ones don’t.
Gar Whaley is the cofounder and Chief Revenue Officer of Teal, a managed IT services company serving SMBs in Minnesota and the DMV region. With over 25 years of experience in the technology sector, Gar is a highly regarded expert in cybersecurity, IT governance, and risk management, and holds certifications including CISSP, CISM, CGEIT, CISA, and CMMC RP. Gar combines his deep understanding of technology solutions with a client-centric approach to guide businesses in adopting scalable, secure, and compliant IT practices.

Exec Favorites: How to use AI in your business
2026-08-13 11:00 - 11:20 | https://events.zoom.us/ev/ApPmhKzaYcQTupZ9LBeV2K7U48OZoD_xL8B80yNbfFyMxXMN_t5W~Ag-t2s83_7mCuLDYCUKgLSxApo1ChGZRxCGNYnsM7i1xJhEmk9RcPyTVXA
“How do we use AI to be more profitable?” is one of the questions we hear the most at Claude and Copilot events we run.
So, we pulled the moments that got the strongest reaction from executives this year and put them in one 20-minute recap. One executive who attended one of our virtual events called it a “great value.” Now you can see why.
This is a curated recap of setup steps, workflows, and shortcuts. If you missed the originals or want to see the tips leaders love in a highlight reel without watching a ton of videos, this is the fast way to catch up.
What you’ll see:

The Claude workflows we use in our own workflows
The Copilot moments our audience asked to see again
A shortlist of what to try first in your own business
