Xochil Herrera is the founder of The Chicago Pattern Maker, a product development company that helps clients bring their clothing and other soft-goods concepts from idea to reality. She has collaborated with numerous brands and designers, and brings her technical expertise, guidance, and genuine care to the pre-production process of technical design, pattern development, and prototyping.
Xochil has a strong skill set in technical design, pattern making, material sourcing and prototype development with production in mind. She has a keen understanding of the manufacturing process through working with various factories, training and using industrial equipment, and being closely involved with clients throughout product development. Her background in tailoring and being a lifelong sewer has helped shape her skills in garment fit and construction techniques.
Jay Carlile is an AI infrastructure practitioner helping enterprise and public sector organizations move from AI experimentation to production. At CDW, he advises CIOs, CTOs, and data leaders on on-premises AI architecture—spanning GPU compute, high-performance storage, and the full software stack required for modern AI/ML workloads. He brings a practitioner's lens to the build vs. buy vs. cloud conversation, with deep expertise in NVIDIA AI Factory environments, generative AI deployment, and the governance frameworks institutions need to responsibly scale AI.
Jay's background bridges technical depth with go-to-market leadership—drawing on more than two decades selling and leading teams in the public sector, higher education, and enterprise technology markets. He is a frequent voice on practical AI adoption strategy, with a focus on making the path from pilot to production real for institutions navigating infrastructure, data readiness, and organizational change at the same time.
Brittany Jones is a Senior AI Business Solutions Workforce Specialist at Microsoft, where she helps organizations explore and implement AI solutions that transform how people work, innovate, and create business value. With more than 15 years of experience in enterprise technology and a degree in Journalism Broadcast News from the University of Georgia, Brittany brings a distinctive blend of technology, storytelling, and communications expertise. Her career also includes many years of fashion retail experience and a lifelong passion for fashion, giving her firsthand insight into consumer behavior, merchandising, styling, and the evolving retail experience. Brittany brings a unique perspective to the intersection of AI, creativity, and the fashion industry. She is passionate about how emerging technologies can empower fashion brands, retailers, designers, and consumers while preserving the creativity and human connection that make fashion so influential.
Mayara Leeb is a fashion marketing strategist working at the intersection of independent fashion and applied AI. Based in Chicago with strong ties to Central Europe, she brings more than 7 years of industry experience, starting as a professional model and moving into content, brand strategy, and marketing operations.
Today her work centers on helping designers and small fashion brands use AI as a real lever to scale visual content, marketing, and operations without losing brand identity. She takes a practical view of the technology: what actually works for small teams, where it fits, and where the human still matters most.
