Sidecar Sync

Send us a text Is the future of associations being rewritten by influencers? In this episode, Mallory Mejias is joined by Jackson Boyar, co-founder and CEO of Rallyboard, for a sharp and forward-thinking conversation about how digital creators are reshaping professional learning. They explore the competitive rise of “influencer-led” communities like Josh Bersin Academy, how associations can leverage trust and networks in the AI era, and why curated cohorts could be the key to long-term engagement. If you're an association leader wondering how to remain essential in a rapidly shifting landscape, this one's for you. Jackson Boyar is the Co-founder and CEO of RallyBoard, a peer learning and engagement platform for associations. He previously served as the Founding CEO of Mentor Collective—higher education’s leading mentorship platform—where he led the company for 10 years and now serves as Chairman of the Board. Under Jackson’s leadership, Mentor Collective partnered with hundreds of universities and employers to support more than 500,000 students, earning a spot on the Inc. 5000 list four years in a row. A 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Jackson is also an active angel investor and advisor to socially minded startups. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksonboyar/ 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Galileo Learn ➡ https://getgalileo.ai/learn Rallyboard ➡ https://www.rallyboard.com Circle ➡ https://circle.so 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this audio-focused episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan explore three groundbreaking advancements in AI audio technology—starting with Google’s real-time voice translation for seamless cross-language communication. They then unpack Microsoft’s open-source Vibe Voice, capable of generating full-length, multi-speaker podcasts, before diving into ElevenLabs Music, an AI tool creating fully-licensed, studio-quality tracks from simple prompts. Tune in for laughs, live demos, and serious implications for associations, from global content reach to AI-driven personalization. Plus, hear the hilarious tale of Amith’s early-morning car debacle and Mallory’s AI-generated bounce anthem for associations. This one hits all the right notes! 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Google’s Real-Time Translate ➡ https://blog.google/products/translate/language-learning-live-translate Microsoft Vibe Voice ➡ https://microsoft.github.io/VibeVoice ElevenLabs Music ➡ https://elevenlabs.io/music HeyGen ➡ https://www.heygen.com Notebook LM ➡ https://notebooklm.google Rasa.io ➡ https://rasa.io LM Studio ➡ https://lmstudio.ai Suno ➡ https://www.suno.ai Sidecar Sync: Online Learning Course Creation at 26x Speed ➡ https://youtu.be/gDxiLRaHMww?si=etN1MSyBayZmXA- 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text Thomas Altman, co-founder of Tasio and Betty, joins Mallory Mejias for an electrifying deep dive into the future of AI through the lens of world models—AI systems that don’t just respond but simulate environments and predict outcomes. From Genie 3’s physics-aware interactive worlds to the transformative potential for associations in training, events, and strategy, this episode unpacks the profound shift from reactive AI to systems that “understand” the world. Thomas also shares insights from his new book The Association Knowledge Cycle, and offers practical advice for staying ahead in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Thomas Altman started working with associations after earning his graduate degree in applied data modeling techniques. One of the first things Thomas noticed when working with associations was that, while they do a great job of collecting data, hardly anyone is really putting that data to use. In an effort to leverage association data and content, Thomas developed Betty. With Betty, Thomas aims to utilize advanced AI-driven solutions to help associations deliver value to their members. https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-altman-tasio/ 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://shorturl.at/PSR0T 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources: Genie 3 ➡ https://shorturl.at/ndooP Gemini ➡ https://shorturl.at/fVVHA Betty ➡ https://meetbetty.ai/ Tasio ➡ https://tasiolabs.com/ The Association Knowledge Cycle ➡ https://meetbetty.ai/#download 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri https://cimatri.com/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias tackle the latest developments in AI with a fast-paced series of updates—from Claude overtaking ChatGPT in the voice mode battle, to Google's shockingly tiny Gemma 3 model, to the rocky rollout of GPT-5 and what it teaches us about innovation at scale. Then, the duo zooms out for a big-picture look at AI’s massive and growing energy demands. Can AI keep advancing without breaking the grid? Enter neuromorphic computing—a brain-inspired breakthrough that could power the next era of AI more efficiently. Hot dogs, ant colonies, and nuclear power all make appearances in this can't-miss conversation. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Claude Voice ➡ https://www.anthropic.com/ ChatGPT Voice Mode ➡ https://openai.com/chatgpt Google Gemma 3 ➡ https://ai.google.dev/gemma OSS Models (OSS-20B, OSS-120B) ➡ https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mixtral-8x7B Mark Horner’s TED Talk on Neuromorphic Computing ➡ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66b49ZrJzdw&t=3s 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri https://cimatri.com/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into two groundbreaking releases from OpenAI: the long-awaited GPT-5 and the surprising return to open source with GPT-OSS. They unpack the shift toward simplified AI interaction, the implications of automatic model selection, and what GPT-5’s real-world performance means for power users. Then they explore how the new OSS models may radically reshape how associations build and deploy custom AI solutions. Plus: updates from ASAE Annual, thoughts on AI hallucinations, and why association leaders should start thinking more like engineers. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ChatGPT (GPT-5) ➡ https://chat.openai.com Claude 4.1 Opus ➡ https://www.anthropic.com Soundpost ➡ https://www.soundpost.ai LM Studio ➡ https://lmstudio.ai Hugging Face ➡ https://huggingface.co Quen3 ➡ https://qwenlm.github.io/blog/qwen3/ Kimi K2 by Moonshot AI ➡ https://www.moonshot.cn OpenRouter ➡ https://openrouter.ai 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri https://cimatri.com/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Mallory Mejias sits down with Dr. Nicola Sahar to explore how a University of Toronto med student dove head-first into clinical AI research and went on to found Semantic Health, an AI-powered medical coding platform later acquired by the American Academy of Professional Coders in 2023. They unpack the art and science of medical coding, discuss why AI will augment rather than replace coders, dive into the critical role of data privacy and private-cloud deployments in healthcare AI, and share why associations are uniquely positioned to guide their members through this AI transformation. Dr. Nick Sahar is a Canadian physician and health tech entrepreneur who co-founded Semantic Health. In 2023, Semantic Health was acquired by the American Academy of Professional Coders - AAPC - marking a significant milestone in the adoption of AI in healthcare operations. Today, Dr. Sahar remains an active voice in the healthcare AI space, focused on building tools that support clinicians and improve patient care. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasahar/ Semantic Health - https://www.semantichealth.ai/ AAPC - https://www.aapc.com/ 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com Claude ➡ https://claude.ai 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri https://cimatri.com/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan cover a trio of urgent topics shaping the AI landscape. They kick off with Anthropic’s surprising rise to enterprise dominance—fueled not despite, but because of its safety-first approach. From there, the conversation heats up around accelerating predictions for artificial general intelligence (AGI), with some forecasting human-level AI by 2027. Finally, the hosts zoom out to tackle the hidden but massive infrastructure demands powering this AI surge—and why nuclear energy might be the unsung hero. Plus, Mallory introduces us to her rambunctious new puppy, Chai, who’s stealing hearts (but not the mic) behind the scenes. Along the way, you’ll hear updates on new tools like Google Opal and NotebookLM, thoughts on open source vs. closed models, and why humility and daily learning are the keys to thriving in the AI age. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Google Opal ➡ https://opal.withgoogle.com/landing/ NotebookLM ➡ https://notebooklm.google MemberJunction ➡ https://memberjunction.org Claude by Anthropic ➡ https://claude.ai Quen-3 ➡ https://huggingface.co/Qwen Moonshot AI ➡ https://moonshot.ai 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://meetbetty.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text Are we ready for a world where AI agents write our blogs and robots clean our homes? In this episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive deep into the rise of agentic AI and the future of robotics. They explore how digital workforces powered by open-source platforms like MemberJunction are already transforming productivity, especially in marketing. Then, they pivot to the physical world, breaking down NVIDIA’s fascinating vision of the “Physical Turing Test” and simulation-based training for robots. You’ll hear about digital twins, robot chefs, and what it all means for associations navigating this new frontier. 📽 Jim Fan’s Presentation on the Physical Turing Test and Physical AI - https://youtu.be/_2NijXqBESI?si=6JLhFNQIa4cEfSbP 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: MemberJunction ➡ https://docs.memberjunction.org Claude ➡ https://claude.ai ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com Groq ➡ https://www.groq.com 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://meetbetty.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this heartwarming and enlightening episode, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias welcome the dynamic father-son duo, Conor and Finn Grennan, to discuss their journey teaching generative AI in Nepal. Connor, Chief AI Architect at NYU Stern, and his 16-year-old son Finn share stories of cultural resonance, the universal challenges of AI adoption in education, and how peer-to-peer learning can drive real change. From Kathmandu classrooms to critical thinking conundrums, this conversation explores why the messenger matters just as much as the message—and why students everywhere might be the future's best AI evangelists. Conor Grennan is Chief AI Architect at NYU Stern School of Business and trains large companies on how to drive AI adoption. He's worked with organizations like NASA, McKinsey, PWC, Google, Amazon, and many more. Finn Grennan just finished his sophomore year in high school where he has been asked by the administration of his school to help set AI strategy. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ChatGPT ➞ https://chat.openai.com Claude ➞ https://www.anthropic.com AI Mindset ➞ https://www.ai-mindset.ai/ Conor's Post About their Trip to Nepal ➞ https://shorturl.at/W3GwR 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://meetbetty.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this dog-dedicated episode of Sidecar Sync (Happy 12th to Ninja!), Mallory Mejias and Amith Nagarajan tackle two extremes of the nonprofit tech landscape. First, they dig into Cloudflare’s bold new default to block AI content scrapers—what it means for associations, the rise of pay-per-crawl, and whether blocking AI is smart strategy or short-sighted fear. Then, they shift gears to dissect a revealing Chronicle of Philanthropy survey on nonprofit tech adoption, where some orgs are experimenting with AI while others still won’t accept credit cards. The result? A growing digital divide—and plenty of lessons for association leaders looking to future-proof. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Claude ➞ https://claude.ai Gemini CLI ➞ https://cloud.google.com/gemini/docs/codeassist/gemini-cli ChatGPT ➞ https://chat.openai.com rasa.io ➞ https://rasa.io Cloudflare Article ➞ https://shorturl.at/xY54H Nonprofit Tech Survey ➞ https://shorturl.at/2U9jb 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://meetbetty.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this episode, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into the world of AI agents, hackathons, and the secret cyborgs in your office. Fresh off a high-intensity AI agent-building retreat, Amith shares how association leaders—regardless of technical skill—can use open-source tools to build powerful, secure AI assistants. Then, the duo explores a framework by AI researcher Ethan Mollick to explain why organizations are lagging in AI gains despite skyrocketing individual productivity. They unpack the importance of visionary leadership, encouraging experimentation within your team (and your members), and building your own “lab” to prototype the future—even with limited resources. This episode invites you to chart your course and navigate AI’s uncharted waters with confidence and creativity. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 💡 Find out more about Sidecar’s CESSE Partnership - https://shorturl.at/LpEYb 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://meetbetty.ai/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Member Junction ➡ https://memberjunction.org Claude ➡ https://claude.ai GitHub Copilot ➡ https://github.com/features/copilot ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://meetbetty.ai/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights. https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text In this energizing interview, Mallory Mejias is joined by leadership legend John Spence to unpack the three essential quotients of leadership—IQ, EQ, and AQ (Adaptability Quotient)—and why AQ might be the most critical of all in today’s AI-driven world. With decades of global experience, John shares how leaders can foster resilience, embrace change, and build cultures that thrive in uncertainty. From AI pilot projects to emotional pulse checks, this episode is packed with practical wisdom (and a few gut-check moments) for association leaders ready to adapt and grow. 🔗 More about John Spence: At 26, John was the CEO of an international Rockefeller foundation, overseeing projects in 20 countries. Two years later, Inc. Magazine named him one of America’s Up and Coming Young Business Leaders. John has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America, one of the Top 100 Small Business Influencers in America, one of the Top 50 Small Business Experts in America, and one of the top 500 Leadership Development Experts in the World. https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbspence/ https://johnspence.com/ 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com CRM Systems with AI Capabilities ➡ https://www.salesforce.com Gallup Employee Engagement Research ➡ https://www.gallup.com Amazon Predictive Logistics ➡ https://www.aboutamazon.com 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: Member Junction https://memberjunction.com/ 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive deep into the cutting edge of AI-generated audio and video. Mallory demos the stunning new ElevenLabs V3 voice engine and the lifelike hand gestures of HeyGen's Avatar 4, while Amith shares behind-the-scenes insights from a recent hackathon focused on building agentic software. The pair also unpack Apple’s eyebrow-raising research paper, “The Illusion of Thinking,” and debate whether AI models are truly reasoning—or just pattern-matching very well. Whether you're building AI learning hubs or just wondering when Siri will finally get it together, this episode’s for you. 🎥 Video Demo of ElevenLabs V3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv_IoWIO5Ek 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 💡 Find out more about Sidecar’s CESSE Partnership - https://shorturl.at/LpEYb 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ElevenLabs V3 ➞ https://www.elevenlabs.io HeyGen Avatar 4 ➞ https://www.heygen.com Claude ➞ https://claude.ai OpenAI Voice Mode ➞ https://openai.com/chatgpt Synthesia ➞ https://www.synthesia.io 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: Member Junction https://memberjunction.com/ 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Mallory Mejias sits down with Jason Marchese, Learning Content Specialist at Sidecar, to explore the exciting frontier of AI-generated interactive web apps. From solving everyday meal planning problems to analyzing U.S. migration trends, they demonstrate how anyone—even non-technical folks—can build useful tools using Claude and ChatGPT. The conversation then shifts to a groundbreaking internal project: the Learning Content Agent (LCA), a dynamic AI-powered system that streamlines and customizes educational content at scale. Whether you're curious about AI's impact on personal productivity or ready to revolutionize your association’s learning programs, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical insights. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 💡 Find out more about Sidecar’s CESSE Partnership - https://shorturl.at/LpEYb 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🛠 AI Tools & Resources in This Episode: Claude Dinner App ➡ https://shorturl.at/BQzBq ChatGPT Dinner App ➡ https://shorturl.at/2ccPX Census App ➡ https://shorturl.at/ehNKF ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com Gamma ➡ https://gamma.app ElevenLabs ➡ https://elevenlabs.io Claude Code Overview ➡ https://shorturl.at/EKlHa 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: Member Junction https://memberjunction.com/ 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text In this electric episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias unpack the latest AI announcements from Google IO and the highly anticipated Claude 4 release from Anthropic. They explore what Google's Deep Think means for AI reasoning, debate the creative and ethical implications of video generation tools like Veo 3 and Flow, and rave about Claude's new voice mode. Plus, they reflect on the seismic shift AI is bringing to content, coding, and SEO—alongside some ACDC-fueled Chicago memories and a preview of the upcoming digitalNow conference. "If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more." - Erik Shinseki https://shorturl.at/39XvA 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 💡 Find out more about Sidecar’s CESSE Partnership - https://shorturl.at/LpEYb 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 🎉 Thank you to our sponsor https://memberjunction.com/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Claude 4 Opus ➡ https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-4-opus Claude Voice Mode ➡ https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-voice-mode Gemini 2.5 Pro ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini Gemini Ultra ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini Gemini Flash ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini Google Veo 3 ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/veo Google Image 4 ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/image Flow by Google ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/flow 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: Member Junction https://memberjunction.com/ 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text This week, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive deep into Google's groundbreaking AI breakthrough—AlphaEvolve. In their first-ever single-topic episode, the duo unpacks why this agent’s ability to autonomously invent and refine algorithms marks a pivotal moment in AI history. From shattering a 56-year-old math record to its potential to reshape how associations tackle "unsolvable" problems, Amith and Mallory explore what AlphaEvolve means for science, business, and the association world. Plus, they discuss how associations can remain relevant in the face of rapid AI advancement—even when the tech seems impossibly complex. 📽 Supporting video by https://www.youtube.com/@Pourya_Kordi: https://youtu.be/PcjhXA2bsh0?si=WuQeA3BuDAAROHIp 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 💡 Find out more about Sidecar’s CESSE Partnership - https://shorturl.at/LpEYb 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: AlphaEvolve ➡ https://shorturl.at/3vzXm Gemini ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini Claude by Anthropic ➡ https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude Perplexity AI ➡ https://www.perplexity.ai/ Betty ➡ https://www.meetbetty.ai/ Isomorphic Labs ➡ https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/ 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: CDS Global https://www.cds-global.com/ VideoRequest https://videorequest.io/ 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive deep into two cutting-edge developments in the AI world. First up is the mind-bending concept of "sleep time compute"—how LLMs might learn and improve during their downtime, transforming into smarter, faster assistants overnight. Then, the duo breaks down OpenAI's $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf, the booming arena of AI coding tools, and what it means for developers and associations alike. From persistent memory to prototype-ready AI partners, this episode is packed with insights for both techies and the tech-curious. 🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: CDS Global https://www.cds-global.com/ VideoRequest https://videorequest.io/ AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Claude Code ➡ https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview Claude Desktop ➡ https://claude.ai/download Windsurf ➡ https://windsurf.ai GitHub Copilot ➡ https://github.com/features/copilot Cursor ➡ https://www.cursor.so OpenAI Codex ➡ https://openai.com/blog/openai-codex ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com Gemini by Google ➡ https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias take on one of the most pivotal—and often overlooked—challenges in association innovation: getting your board on board with AI. Drawing from Amith's personal boardroom experience and Mallory’s deep dive into board psychology, they break down how to navigate internal politics, craft compelling AI use cases, and turn skeptical board members into innovation allies. From emotional storytelling to small pilot wins, this episode is your roadmap to aligning AI ambition with boardroom approval. 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: CDS Global https://www.cds-global.com/ VideoRequest https://videorequest.io/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ChatGPT ➡ https://openai.com/chatgpt Claude ➡ https://www.anthropic.com HeyGen ➡ https://www.heygen.com NotebookLM ➡ https://notebooklm.google Chapters: 00:00 - Welcome to Sidecar Sync 01:00 - Setting the Stage: Why Board Buy-In Matters 06:55 - What Motivates Board Decisions in Associations? 10:15 - Volunteerism, Ego, and Career Goals 13:55 - Navigating Volunteerism, Legacy, and Tradition 25:37 - How Can You Build an Irresistible AI Use Case? 27:21 - Selecting the Right Pilot Project 32:59 - The Role of Demos and Emotional Buy-In 37:19 - Is an AI Data Platform the Right Starting Point? 40:34 - What’s the Pathway to Getting Board Approval? 42:53 - Building Support and Presenting With Impact 51:14 - Closing Thoughts and Next Steps 🚀 Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias ...

Send us a text This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias explore Wells Fargo’s virtual assistant “Fargo” and how it stacks up against Klarna’s AI tool from a year ago. With 250 million fully automated interactions and measurable impact on customer engagement and bias reduction, Fargo offers a powerful case study in applied AI. Amith reflects on what’s now possible for associations, why a narrow pilot project is a smart first move, and how “human in the loop” isn’t just a safety net—it’s strategic. The duo also breaks down Microsoft’s new Phi-4 reasoning models, which pack PhD-level performance into incredibly compact packages that can run on your phone. If you're wondering where the AI trend line is heading, this one’s for you. 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: CDS Global: https://www.cds-global.com/ VideoRequest: https://videorequest.io/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Fargo ➡ https://sites.wf.com/fargo/ Klarna AI Assistant ➡ https://www.klarna.com Microsoft Phi-4 Reasoning Models ➡ https://huggingface.co/microsoft Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 03:47 - Meet Fargo: Wells Fargo’s AI Assistant 05:59 - Comparing Fargo with Klarna’s Assistant 08:57 - The State of AI Agents in Associations 13:05 - Event Support: A Smart Use Case for AI 15:00 - Human-in-the-Loop: Not Optional, But Essential 23:44 - Private AI: Local vs. Cloud Deployment 26:46 - Microsoft’s Phi-4 Models: Small and Mighty 32:50 - Why Small Models are a Big Deal 43:54 - AI Trendlines and the Future for Associations 🚀 Follow Sidecar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/ 👍 Please Like & Subscribe! https://x.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecar.ai/ More about Your Hosts: Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress 🔗 https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory on Linkedin: ...

Send us a text In this episode of Sidecar Sync, hosts Mallory Mahias and Amith Nagarajan take a deep dive into Model Context Protocol (MCP), a revolutionary standard making it dramatically easier for AI to interact with data, tools, and systems—no code required. Mallory shares her personal setup experience with Claude for desktop, walking through a live example of using MCP to automate file organization. Amith expands on why MCP is a game-changer for association leaders, how it enables business users to go from idea to execution quickly, and why data liberation is the missing piece for many organizations. The duo also breaks down new insights from Anthropic’s Economic Index, which reveals that AI is currently used far more for augmenting human effort than full automation. It’s an episode rich with practical insights, technical clarity, and a peek into the fast-arriving future of AI in the workplace. 🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification: https://learn.sidecar.ai 📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE https://sidecar.ai/ai 📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now: https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/ 🎉 More from Today’s Sponsors: CDS Global https://www.cds-global.com/ VideoRequest https://videorequest.io/ 🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: MCP Quickstart Guide ➡ https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user Claude for Desktop ➡ https://www.anthropic.com Zapier ➡ https://zapier.com Cursor ➡ https://www.cursor.so Chapters: 00:00 - Welcome to Sidecar Sync and What’s Ahead 01:02 - Catching Up: Spring Break and Autonomous Driving 05:02 - What Is Model Context Protocol (MCP)? 07:06 - How MCP Works: Mallory’s Simple Explanation 08:11 - Step-by-Step: Setting Up Claude Desktop With MCP 12:42 - Live Demo: Moving Files Using Claude and MCP 18:01 - Why Associations Should Care About MCP 26:44 - MCP and the Role of AI Data Platforms 33:07 - What Is the Anthropic Economic Index? 35:59 - Key Findings: Augmentation Over Automation 39:34 - Amith on Real-World Automation Examples 44:46 - Vibe Coding: Cool Concept or Caution Zone? 🚀 Follow Sidecar on LinkedIn https://linkedin.com/sidecar-global 👍 Please Like & Subscribe! https://twitter.com/sidecarglobal https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync https://sidecarglobal.com More about Your Hosts: Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress 🔗 https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey. 📣 Follow Amith on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. 📣 Follow Mallory on Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias