TE CHNOLOGY TRENDS Q&A with


James Spellos Tech Educator, Influencer and 2


CONSTRUCT Speaker Talks Ar Intelligence and its Impacts


BY CAROL EATON d 2025 s Artificial


F


rom tech geek and trendsetter, to a “now-ist,” humorist, and “way cool influencer,” James Spellos


has earned an array of monikers in the 25 years he has spent demystifying tech- nology for people in a variety of business sectors. A nationally acclaimed and in-demand


speaker, president of New York-based Meeting U., and longtime faculty member at New York University (NYU), Spellos has made it his mission to help individuals and businesses become more comfort- able leveraging the latest technology to improve their productivity at home and in the office. He has received plenty of recognition along the way. Tat includes being named one of Meeting Professionals Interna- tional’s “50 Most Influential People” in 2023 and an “Industry Trendsetter” in 2024 by Meetings Today magazine, as well as receiving an Award for Teaching Excellence and an Outstanding Service Award from NYU.


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CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR JULY/AUGUST 2025


As keynote speaker at AGC of Cali-


fornia’s upcoming 2025 CONSTRUCT Annual Conference in Indian Wells this Fall, Spellos plans to share useful tips and strategies for how construction profes- sionals can employ generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other leading tech- nologies to maximum benefit. California Constructor recently caught


up with Spellos to ask him about his path into the technology speaking circuit, what to expect at his upcoming address, and what he finds most compelling about the ways generative AI is impacting the con- struction industry, among other things.


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR: Tell us about your career journey and how you ended up as a technolgy educator and enthusiast?


JAMES SPELLOS: Sure! Early on (before getting into the technology industry) I spent about 20 years in the hospitality industry running conferences. Tat was


during the 1980s and 1990s, and all the time doing it I was the geek – the person people would go to with technology questions. It hit me in 1999 that what I really love to do is teach. I had no issue at all giving up my hospitality career, starting up my business (Meeting U.) and focusing on teaching about technology.


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR: How has the technology field changed most significantly over the quarter century that you’ve been educating, speaking, and running a business around it?


JAMES SPELLOS: The tech field has undergone a lot of iterations and really morphed over the years. Obviously in 1999, it wasn’t about AI but was more focused on teaching about Microsoft Office, Excel, Google, Blackberries – that type of stuff. Pre-pandemic, the hot tech- nologies people were talking about were augmented and virtual reality. And then, about two-and-a-half years ago the tech


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