Every audience is being sold a version of the future. The job of a technology keynote is to tell them which parts are real. Greg McNeal is built for that, because he has stood on both sides of the line: the builder shipping the product and the professor explaining the rules.
He co-founded AirMap, a multinational aerospace and defense company, and sold it in 2021. He sits on the board of Exyn Technologies (Nasdaq: EXYN), an autonomy, robotics, and AI company. At Pepperdine he teaches technology, privacy, and AI law, and he has testified before Congress twelve times on emerging technology. That combination, operator and scholar, is what separates his talks from the futurist’s montage and the analyst’s spreadsheet.
The short version: This is a technology keynote for decision-makers, covering AI, robotics, drones, privacy, and the rules forming around all of them. Greg has built companies in these fields, sits on a Nasdaq-listed technology board, and teaches the law that governs them, so the talk tells your audience what is real, what is hype, and what to do before the regulation arrives.
What the talk does
A technology keynote should cut through noise, not add to it. Greg’s talks answer the questions every executive is actually asking. What can artificial intelligence do for my business right now, and what is still a demo? Which emerging technologies deserve attention and which are slideware? How does the shape of work change when the tools change? And how will regulation, the thing technology audiences consistently underestimate, decide who wins? He has a point of view on each, and he will defend it, which is what audiences remember.
Why his read is different
Greg has built a category-defining company inside one of the most regulated industries on earth, helped write the rules that made it legal, and watched the same patterns repeat across drones, AI, and platforms. So when he tells an audience that a celebrated technology is overrated or that a feared one is manageable, it is grounded in having lived the cycle, not in reading about it. He is pro-innovation and skeptical of hype in equal measure, which is a rarer and more useful stance than either pure boosterism or pure doom.
Who it is for
Corporate summits that need a credible read on where technology is heading. Industry and association conferences that want a headliner who can hold a ballroom and tie the talk to their field. And universities looking for substance over slogans. Greg tailors the talk to the room rather than running the same deck he ran last week, and he has spent twenty years on national television making complex technology make sense in minutes, which is the same skill a keynote demands.
Formats
Keynotes in person and virtual, executive workshops for teams that want to move from a talk to a plan, and panel moderation or emcee work when a program needs a steady, credible voice. Whatever the format, the goal is the same: people leave understanding what is hype, what is real, and what to do Monday morning.
Technology, not just the headline of the month
Most technology keynotes are really AI keynotes wearing a broader title, because AI is what is trending. Greg’s range is wider, and it has to be, because the decisions your audience faces do not respect topic boundaries. He co-founded an aerospace and defense company in the drone space, and he sits on the board of a Nasdaq-listed robotics and AI company. He teaches privacy, internet, and web3 law, and he has helped governments write the rules for technologies before most people had heard of them.
That breadth lets the talk connect dots a single-subject speaker misses. The same forces shaping AI are reshaping robotics, surveillance, and data rights at the same time, and the smartest move for a business is usually to see the pattern rather than chase each piece. A technology keynote should widen the field of view, not narrow it to whatever is loudest this quarter.
What a technology keynote should leave behind
The test is the same as for any talk worth its fee: does anyone decide differently afterward.
A way to tell durable shifts from passing noise
Every year brings a new technology that is either the future or a fad, and most audiences cannot tell which until it is too late to matter. The talk gives a room a way to sort the two, so they invest ahead of the durable shifts and ignore the noise.
A realistic read on the rules that are coming
Technology decisions made today get judged by regulation written tomorrow. Greg spends part of every talk on the rules already forming, so the room builds in a way that a future law will not break.
A concrete next step for each role in the room
Strategy that no one can act on is just entertainment. Whether someone runs the company, a function, or a team, they leave with one specific move that is theirs to make.
Topics he covers, and the decision each one informs
The talk is built from themes weighted to your audience. Each exists to inform a decision, not to fill time.
| Topic | The decision it informs |
|---|---|
| AI capabilities and limits | Where to deploy now versus where to wait |
| Robotics and autonomy | Which physical processes are about to change, and how fast |
| Drones and airspace | Where new operations are possible, and what the law allows |
| Privacy and data rights | What you can collect and use without creating liability |
| The regulation actually coming | What to build now so a future rule does not force a rebuild |
If your event has its own theme, the weighting shifts to match it, so the hour feels written for your room rather than pulled off a shelf.
FAQ
What does Greg’s technology keynote cover?
What AI and emerging technologies can and cannot do now, which deserve your attention, how work changes, and how regulation shapes the winners.
Is it tailored to our industry?
Yes. The talk is built around your audience and theme, not delivered from a fixed script.
Does the technology keynote cover more than AI?
Yes. It covers AI alongside robotics, drones, autonomy, privacy, and data rights, because the decisions your audience faces cross those lines. Greg has built or governed companies in several of these fields, which lets the talk connect the pattern rather than treat each topic in isolation.
How current is the material?
It is refreshed continuously, because Greg works in these fields rather than just speaking about them. He sits on a public technology board and teaches the law as it is being written, so the regulatory and capability picture in the talk reflects where things actually stand, not where they stood a year ago.