# Speaking at Great Lakes AI Week: How I'm Using AI To Build A Publishing Platform *By James Hills — Updated November 2026* Flow Media Marketing founder James Hills will speak at Great Lakes AI Week in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday, November 12, presenting "How I Transformed My Blog Network Into A Publishing Network With AI" at 3:30 PM on the AI Innovation Track stage in the University of Toledo Student Union. Earlier that day, he joins the AI for Marketing and Revenue roundtable, where marketing and sales leaders compare notes on using AI for growth, content, visibility and pipeline. **Session Details****Article Index** Where to find James at Great Lakes AI Week. - Roundtable: AI for Marketing and Revenue, Thursday, November 12, 12:00 to 1:00 PM, Roundtable Room, University of Toledo Student Union, hosted by Melanie Dunn. - Presentation: How I Transformed My Blog Network Into A Publishing Network With AI, Thursday, November 12, 3:30 to 4:00 PM, AI Innovation Track stage, University of Toledo Student Union. - Slides and a walkthrough of the talk: [flowmediamarketing.com/jameshills.html](jameshills.html) after the session. - Great Lakes AI Week runs November 10 to 12 across Bowling Green State University, downtown Toledo and the University of Toledo, produced by the Enterprise Technology Association. - Workshops count toward AI Certificates through the AI Ready Ohio initiative. - Tickets and the full agenda are on the Great Lakes AI Week website. 1. [What James Will Cover in His Great Lakes AI Week Talk](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#what-james-will-cover-in-his-great-lakes-ai-week-talk)[Why AI-Only Content Failed, and What Replaced It](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#why-ai-only-content-failed-and-what-replaced-it) 2. [Running an AI Agent Team With Defined Roles](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#running-an-ai-agent-team-with-defined-roles) 3. [Tools Over One-Off Prompts](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#tools-over-one-off-prompts) 4. [Games, Tools and Quizzes Instead of Just Promoting Deals](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#games-tools-and-quizzes-instead-of-just-promoting-deals) 5. [Beware the Yes-Man](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#beware-the-yes-man) 6. [Writing About "You" in a Post-Search World](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#writing-about-you-in-a-post-search-world) [Who Should Attend the Session](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#who-should-attend-the-session)[Connecting With James During & After Great Lakes AI Week To Talk About Blogging, AI, and Marketing ...](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html#connecting-with-james-during-after-great-lakes-ai-week-to-talk-about-blogging-ai-and-marketing) [Great Lakes AI Week](https://www.greatlakesaiweek.com/) brings three days of keynotes, trainings, workshops and networking to the Toledo region, with the leadership summit at Bowling Green State University, a community networking day at One SeaGate in downtown Toledo and the final day of programming at the University of Toledo. ## What James Will Cover in His Great Lakes AI Week Talk The 30-minute presentation is a working publisher's account of a year spent rebuilding a network of travel and lifestyle sites, including [ManTripping.com](https://www.mantripping.com/) and [CruiseWestCoast.com](https://cruisewestcoast.com/), around AI agents and custom tools. It isn't a pitch for a product. It's what worked, what broke and what he would do differently. ### Why AI-Only Content Failed, and What Replaced It James followed the industry into AI-generated volume and found its limit. "No matter how good your prompting was, AI writing is always going to be soulless since it has nothing original," he says. The talk covers how his sites shifted to [original content gathered from interviews, surveys and roundups](blog/gathering-original-high-quality-content.html), and why "most small publishers fail not because they don't have something good to say, it's that nobody knows they even exist." ### Turning a UGREEN NAS Into a Dev Server for Vibe Coding How a UGREEN DXP4800 Plus became a dedicated dev server for vibe coding with Claude Code. Staging sites locally, sandboxing AI agents, and why you don't need another machine. FlowMediaMarketing [Read More](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/go/nG_YCfnonTqxL1mPyRvKiA.647) ### Building Checks That Can't Fail: Why You Need To Direct Your AI Agents To Test, Debug And Fail Loudly Why AI-built software needs checks that can fail, processes that stop on bad input and synthetic users walking the app before a human reviews it. FlowMediaMarketing [Read More](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/go/nG_YCfnonTqxL1mPyRvKiA.2489) ### Great Lakes Cruising Is Booming - And the Industry Experts Who Dismissed It Were Wrong Great Lakes cruising doubled since 2015 with $300M projected for 2026. First-hand Viking Octantis experience plus analysis on why skeptics who dismissed Milwaukee got it completely wrong. FlowMediaMarketing [Read More](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/go/nG_YCfnonTqxL1mPyRvKiA.652) Promoted by FlowAds ### Running an AI Agent Team With Defined Roles Behind the sites is a team of 13 named AI agents, each with its own role card: infrastructure, security, design, editorial, research, cruise data, games, and a business advisor, coordinated by an orchestrator that runs each project. "It's essential that you as a human stay core to the process, but this means managing your team, not just delegating," James says. He'll explain how the team runs and [what running it on his own hardware taught him](blog/nas-development-testing-server-lessons-learned.html). ### Tools Over One-Off Prompts The biggest change came from [building tools around the models](blog/building-tools-to-unlock-the-power-of-ai.html). A 20-product holiday gift guide that once took days can now be produced in a couple of hours or less. "AI isn't 'Claude, go fix this,'" he says. The subject matter expert has to describe what's needed. ### Games, Tools and Quizzes Instead of Just Promoting Deals On CruiseWestCoast.com, the customer journey isn't built on promoting deals or repeating cruise news. It runs on games and tools that spark curiosity: WakeWord, a daily cruise word game with a daily email, Chair Hogs, a quick round to compare scores, and Guess On Deck, designed to be played on the ship itself. James will walk through the five layers of a site people come back to: an engaging template, good content, interactive content, a sticky site and promotable content. ### Beware the Yes-Man An AI that answers every plan with "that's a great idea" is dangerous. James will show how he built an advisor whose job is to push back, and how he uses several models from different providers to check plans and facts against each other. ### Writing About "You" in a Post-Search World After 20 years of chasing search traffic, James is building for what he calls a post-search world, where experts and community carry the brand. That approach drove the shift[ from writing about others to writing about you](blog/writing-about-others-to-writing-about-you.html). ## Who Should Attend the Session The talk is built for marketers, publishers, small business owners, and tourism professionals who are past the "should we use AI" question and want to see what a sustained, practical rollout looks like from the inside, including the costs and the mistakes. ## Connecting With James During & After Great Lakes AI Week To Talk About Blogging, AI, and Marketing ... After the session, the full slide deck and a walkthrough of the key points will be at [flowmediamarketing.com/jameshills.html](jameshills.html). Attendees who want to continue the conversation about AI tooling, original content strategy or agent teams for small businesses can reach James at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 630-779-9302. **About James Hills:** James Hills is the founder of FlowMediaMarketing.com and runs a network of travel and lifestyle publications including ManTripping.com and CruiseWestCoast.com, built and maintained with a team of AI agents and custom publishing tools. For media inquiries about Great Lakes AI Week or AI in publishing, contact James at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Details Written by: James Hills Last Updated: 11 November 2026 Hits: 39 ### Latest News Updates: #### How I'm Transforming My Blogging Strategy To Develop, Currate and Publish Original High-Quality Content [How I'm Transforming My Blogging Strategy To Develop, Currate and Publish Original High-Quality Content](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/gathering-original-high-quality-content.html) #### Not Just "Intelligence" - Why Building Tools To Unlock The Power Of AI Is Essential To Success [Not Just "Intelligence" - Why Building Tools To Unlock The Power Of AI Is Essential To Success](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/building-tools-to-unlock-the-power-of-ai.html) #### Building Checks That Can't Fail: Why You Need To Direct Your AI Agents To Test, Debug And Fail Loudly [Building Checks That Can't Fail: Why You Need To Direct Your AI Agents To Test, Debug And Fail Loudly](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/checks-that-cant-fail-ai-agent-testing.html) #### FlowGate: The Release Process That Turns AI-Built Apps Into Real Products [FlowGate: The Release Process That Turns AI-Built Apps Into Real Products](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/flowgate-release-process-for-ai-built-apps.html) - - Flow Media Marketing is based in Southwest Michigan. Learn More About Our People and Brands: - [James Hills](https://flowmediamarketing.com/james-hills.html) - [Heather Hills](https://flowmediamarketing.com/heather-hills.html) - [Flow Media Marketing](https://flowmediamarketing.com/flow-media-marketing.html) - [Flow Voyages](https://flowmediamarketing.com/flow-voyages.html) - [Cruise West Coast](https://flowmediamarketing.com/cruise-west-coast.html) - [Couple Places](https://flowmediamarketing.com/couple-places.html) - [MenWhoBlog](https://flowmediamarketing.com/menwhoblog.html) - [ManTripping](https://flowmediamarketing.com/mantripping.html) - [The Grape Stomp](https://flowmediamarketing.com/the-grape-stomp.html) --- *Source: [Speaking at Great Lakes AI Week: How I'm Using AI To Build A Publishing Platform](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html)* **Tags:** Flow Media Marketing