2026 Keynote - Larry Kilroy
DataKind | Vice President, Technology
Larry Kilroy leads DataKind’s technology team, building sustainable and responsible products across the organization’s domains. He has more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of technology strategy, organizational development, policy leadership, product management, and communications. He’s a technical strategist with a history of developing globally-reaching, data-driven solutions that span environmental and social justice campaigns, international development and fair trade, and internal operations to enable top performance.
Beyond the Build: Technology, AI, and Community Impact
”We can build technology faster than ever. AI can generate code, analyze enormous datasets, and help us tackle problems that once seemed out of reach. But getting something to work is only the beginning.
After more than 20 years as a developer and technology leader building systems for social impact, Larry Kilroy, Vice President, Technology at DataKind, has learned that the hardest part often comes after the build: earning trust, adapting technology to real-world contexts, getting it into the hands of the people who need it, and creating the communities and infrastructure that allow it to last.
In this keynote, Larry will look beyond the models, tools, and demos to explore what makes technology create lasting impact. Drawing from DataKind’s work across data, AI, open source, and digital public infrastructure, he’ll unpack the less visible foundations that determine whether technology can actually serve people over time: trustworthy data, open and interoperable systems, community participation, responsible governance, and long-term stewardship.
He’ll explore three questions every builder should consider:
Who are we building with? The people closest to a problem bring context and knowledge that technology cannot provide on its own.
What are we building on? Open source, shared standards, interoperable systems, and digital public infrastructure can make innovation more accessible and give communities the ability to build on one another’s work.
What happens after we build it? Sustainable impact depends on adoption, trust, governance, maintenance, and the ability to adapt as needs change.
For developers, designers, founders, and community builders, Larry offers a perspective grounded in building technology for real-world use—not technology hype. The most meaningful technology isn’t necessarily the most sophisticated. It’s technology that people can use, trust, shape, and sustain.
Because the future of AI and technology for good won’t be defined only by what we can build. It will be defined by what happens beyond the build - when technology meets people, communities, institutions, and the messy realities of the world it’s meant to change.”