Yellow Rabbit PR & Marketing

So many people, upon first learning about the Gulf Coast AI Summit, want to know more about me and why I created it, and even why I should be the person building it.

Here is my honest answer.

I built this Summit for the business owner in Biloxi who does not know what an AI prompt is but knows her competitors are moving faster than she is.

I built it for the nonprofit director in Gautier, trying to write grants with a staff of two and no budget for more.

I built it for the young person on the Coast who has never seen someone who looks like them (or me) standing at the front of a room talking about technology, how to access it, and how it will help transform their world, their cities, and their communities.

I am a communications strategist and a hardcore nerd who started using AI in my own practice and watched it change what I could do, how fast I could do it, and what I could offer the mission-driven organizations I serve. I taught it to others around me as well and watched it make their businesses grow. That experience lit something in me, resulting in my becoming a power AI user. I wanted to share what I had learned with others.

I'm also building this Summit because the Gulf Coast masses, regular people like me, deserve their own seat in this moment too. Not borrowed from somewhere else. Built here. Rooted here. Designed for the people who live, lead, and build here.

I built it because I know what it feels like to need something to exist and have to roll up your sleeves and build it yourself.

September 25. Mississippi Gulf Coast. If you see yourself in any of this, I am talking to you.

gulfcoastaisummit.com

Some days have a wink in them. Today had a whole blink.

I was at the Gulf Coast Business Council's State of the Coast Symposium in Biloxi, listening to Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, talk about change, business, AI, and the strange little ways the future shows up before we are ready to call it the future.

Then I ended up becoming an unexpected, microphone-holding part of his audience engagement segment.

There I was, a former newspaper reporter and columnist, standing there with another former newspaper writer who now leads one of the most recognizable business magazines in the country, talking about my unique calling in life as a storyteller in a room full of MS Gulf Coast leaders.

Life is funny like that.

What stayed with me most was Feifer's point that "AI may not break us. It may break what is already broken."

That one sat down beside me and stayed there. For months, I have been having conversations across the MS Gulf Coast about AI, business, workforce, creativity, education, and what it means for this region to not only participate in the future but also help shape it.

And what I keep seeing is momentum. Real, passionate, diligent momentum.

Across the state, there are people - like MGCCC's Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network (MAIN) - who are not waiting around for the future to introduce itself properly. There are also business leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and people committed to being an engaged part of the AI movement.

That is why today felt like confirmation.

On September 25, 2026, I am convening the Gulf Coast AI Summit at MGCCC’s Hospitality Center. Not to announce that AI has arrived on the Coast. It most certainly already has.

The summit is about gathering the energy already here, connecting like-minded people who need to be in the same room, and making sure this conversation includes the business owner, the teacher, the creative, the nonprofit leader, the student, the public servant, the skeptic, the early adopter Power AI user like me, and everybody standing somewhere in between.

The Gulf Coast has always known how to make something out of a hard moment. Now we get to show what we can do with an opening.

Today was one of those mornings that reminded me: sometimes the assignment finds you in public. You just have to be willing to embrace it.

More soon.

We’re just pausing to say Congratulations to our longtime client and founder of Premier Professional Counseling Services Jocelyn Lane for launching her 4th location!!

We are super proud 🥹 of Jocelyn and her team. Way to go!!

Mental health care should be easier to reach.

That belief has guided the growth of Premier Professional Counseling Services from the beginning.

We are proud to announce that Premier Professional Counseling Services is opening a new clinic in Moss Point, Mississippi, in July 2026.

With this expansion, Premier will soon serve the Mississippi Gulf Coast through four locations:
- Gulfport
- D’Iberville
- Picayune
- Moss Point

This new location means more access to compassionate, evidence-based mental health care for children, teens, adults, couples, and families. It also means we are growing our clinical team.

Premier Professional Counseling Services is now hiring part-time and full-time therapists who want to be part of meaningful, community-centered mental health work.

For us, growth is connected to access.

It means meeting people closer to home.
It means creating more places where families can receive support.
It means continuing the work to make mental health care feel more open, trusted, and accessible across the MS Gulf Coast.

Welcome to the Premier family, Moss Point.

Gulfport Office: 228-220-4226
D’Iberville Office: 228-828-5208
Picayune Office: 228-828-5208

More details coming soon.

Today has been an amazing experience. Along with volunteering with the dynamic team LaRochelle Designs and the outstanding Tershara Matthews, I also moderated the Technology and AI panel, networked with leaders from across the region, reconnected with local business besties and heard some dynamic speakers. The Southeastern Leadership Conference was one for the books!