45Drives Announces First Wave of Featured Speakers for Fourth Annual Creator Summit

Leaders From Unraid, JR Automation, and Some of the Technology Community's Most Influential Creators Revealed as 45Drives Prepares for Its Largest Creator Summit Yet

WILMINGTON, NC - July 2, 2026 (NEWMEDIAWIRE) - As organizations race to build private AI infrastructure and creators increasingly embrace self-hosting, open-source software, and locally owned technology, the leaders driving those movements will come together this October at the Fourth Annual Creator Summit. Today, 45Drives announced the first wave of featured speakers for the event, taking place October 20-22 at the Skyline Center in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Designed to bring together enterprise technology leaders, infrastructure architects, creators, engineers, and the open-source community, Creator Summit has become one of North America's premier gatherings exploring the future of private AI, data sovereignty, enterprise storage, automation, and AI-powered creative workflows.

The first confirmed speakers represent some of the technology industry's most respected companies and voices, including:

Leaders from Unraid (Lime Technology), whose recently announced strategic partnership with 45HomeLab is bringing purpose-built server platforms running Unraid OS to the rapidly growing self-hosting and homelab community. Built around a shared philosophy of open infrastructure, user ownership, and freedom from vendor lock-in, the partnership reflects many of the same principles at the heart of Creator Summit.

Leaders from JR Automation, a Hitachi Group company and one of the world's leading providers of advanced manufacturing automation and robotics, bringing firsthand insight into industrial automation and the future of intelligent manufacturing.

Wendell Wilson, founder of Level1Techs and one of the technology industry's leading voices on enterprise hardware, Linux, AI infrastructure, and open computing.

Jeff Geerling, bestselling author, engineer, and one of YouTube's most influential technology creators covering self-hosting, Raspberry Pi, home infrastructure, open-source technologies, and edge computing.

Tom Lawrence, founder of Lawrence Systems and a recognized expert in networking, cybersecurity, virtualization, enterprise infrastructure, and open-source technologies.

Collectively, the announced speakers educate and influence millions of technologists, developers, IT professionals, creators, and home lab enthusiasts worldwide through enterprise leadership, engineering expertise, and some of the technology community's largest educational platforms. Together, they reflect Creator Summit's unique mission of bringing enterprise infrastructure professionals, open-source developers, creators, and technology enthusiasts together to share ideas, solve common challenges, and shape the future of computing.

"The technologies transforming AI, enterprise infrastructure, and digital creativity aren't being built in isolation," said Dr. Doug Milburn, CEO of 45Drives. "They're emerging from communities that believe in openness, collaboration, and sharing knowledge. Creator Summit exists to bring those communities together under one roof. These first speakers represent exactly that spirit, and we're just getting started. We're looking forward to announcing many more outstanding speakers and sessions in the weeks ahead."

Now in its fourth year, Creator Summit continues to expand alongside the rapid evolution of AI and enterprise infrastructure. This year's event features dedicated tracks designed for both enterprise technology professionals and creators.

The Enterprise Track will explore private AI infrastructure, high-performance storage, cybersecurity, virtualization, high-performance computing, and data sovereignty, with practical sessions focused on deploying AI closer to where organizations create and manage their data.

The Creative Track will examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping content creation, filmmaking, design, storytelling, and production workflows while showcasing the technologies empowering creators to build, produce, and own their work.

Attendees can participate in person in Wilmington or virtually through a global livestream featuring keynote presentations, technical sessions, panel discussions, live demonstrations, networking events, and hands-on workshops.

Today's announcement represents only the beginning of the 2026 speaker lineup. Additional keynote speakers, industry executives, enterprise practitioners, creators, technical sessions, partner announcements, and special events will be revealed throughout the summer and early fall as 45Drives prepares for its largest Creator Summit to date.

Registration is now open at 45drives.com/creator-summit.

About 45Drives

45Drives designs and manufactures big, strong, fast open-source data storage, private AI, and enterprise infrastructure solutions that give organizations complete ownership and control of their data. Built on open technologies including Ceph, ZFS, Linux, and Kubernetes, 45Drives helps businesses, research institutions, government agencies, and creators deploy scalable, high-performance infrastructure without vendor lock-in. The company also operates 45HomeLab, serving the rapidly growing community of creators, self-hosters, and technology enthusiasts with purpose-built storage and server solutions. Learn more at www.45drives.com.

Contact: 
Jonathan Phillips
45Drives@PhillComm.Global

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News Source: 45Drives