Catch Courtney at CITE 2026 in Anaheim, CA
This year marks CITE's 66th annual conference and Opichi is excited to be part of it! Join Opichi's Founder & CEO, Courtney Hamp, as he co-presents with the Director of IT of Sage Oak Charter Schools based in Southern California. Bradford Bookser and Courtney will be presenting two interactive sessions for educators, administrators, and leaders on Tuesday, Nov 17th.
Building AI Powered Assistants Safely in Google Workspace for Education
Tuesday, Nov 17, 2026, 9:00 - 9:45 am
Location: Room 303 D (3rd Floor)
Description
Schools are eager to explore AI-powered assistants, but safe implementation requires more than turning on a new feature. In this interactive session, attendees will watch a custom AI assistant be built live in Google Workspace for Education using Gemini and custom Gems. As the assistant takes shape, we will examine the privacy, security, governance, and compliance decisions schools should address before allowing AI to interact with tools such as Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, and Chat. Google supports custom Gems for qualifying work and school accounts, and admins can control whether Gemini can connect to Google apps and whether Gemini features are enabled in Workspace services. Participants will engage in real-world scenarios and guided discussions focused on student data protection, staff use, acceptable use boundaries, and rollout decisions in a K-12 environment. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for introducing AI more safely in schools and a clearer understanding of the guardrails available in Google Workspace for Education. Google states that, for school accounts using Gemini Apps, chats and uploaded files are not reviewed by human reviewers and are not used to improve generative AI models, which makes this an especially relevant environment for school leaders evaluating AI use.
Directly following the 9 am session, Courtney and Bradford will join the Director of Secondary/High School Principle and Head of the AI Committee at Sage Oak Charter Schools, Traci King, for another high-value, interactive, and AI-focused session. This team of leaders will speak specifically to educators, staff, and directors using AI to build educational and operational tools for their school's specific needs.
From Idea to Solution: Using Natural Language and AI to Build Practical Tools
Tuesday, Nov 17, 2026, 10:00 - 10:45 am
Location: Room 303 B (3rd Floor)
Description
What if IT leaders could turn everyday challenges into working solutions just by describing what they need? In this interactive 45-minute session, participants will explore how to use AI as a collaborative partner for planning, problem-solving, and rapid natural-language solution design. Rather than needing deep coding expertise, attendees will learn how to "think out loud" with AI, refine ideas through iterative prompting, and move from rough concepts to practical tools that support real educational and operational needs. Using examples relevant to school and district leaders, this session will demonstrate how AI can help generate workflows, draft solution logic, prototype internal tools, and support custom use cases that fit the unique needs of educational organizations. Participants will leave with practical strategies, prompt frameworks, and greater confidence in using AI not just as a tool, but as a creative partner in building solutions.
AI in Education that Actually Impresses
This is a chance to see how AI is actually working successfully in education to better support teachers, administrators, and students. Find out how we're using AI to enable admins to regain control of their data, empower school leaders to make better informed decisions, and much more!
Join Sage Oak Charter Schools and Opichi to see how all of this is working in real-time, and afterwards, introduce yourself, and ask your long unanswered questions about other ways you're seeing or want to see AI in Education be used!
About Opichi
Based in the Denver Tech Center, Opichi is a boutique software development firm dedicated to making AI technology function exactly as intended. We specialize in engineering bespoke data management and intelligence platforms that provide organizations with the clarity needed for high-stakes decision-making. By partnering directly with institutional stakeholders and frontline staff, our team identifies the specific bottlenecks and procedural friction points within an organization. We develop precise AI-driven tools designed to resolve underlying data integrity issues and transform fragmented source material into actionable insights.