Two members of BizStream’s creative team will be presenting at MERGE 2026 on May 11, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Rex Rainey, Creative Lead, and Coe Lacy, Art Director, will each deliver sessions focused on how AI is changing the way designers and marketers approach their daily work. BizStream is also a Gold Sponsor of this year’s conference, which takes place at the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health and is organized by SoftwareGR.
MERGE brings together product managers, designers, and developers to explore how their disciplines intersect. This year’s theme is “AI at Work: Practical Intelligence for Software Teams,” focusing on real-world applications rather than hype. That lines up with how our design and AI solutions teams approach the topic every day. We work with AI tools across creative and technical projects, and Rex and Coe are both bringing practical, experience-based perspectives to the stage.
Rex leads the creative team at BizStream, overseeing branding, UI/UX, web design, and illustration across client projects. He has worked professionally as a designer, art director, and creative lead at interactive and branding agencies since the mid-2000s. His session draws directly from a recent client illustration project where AI played a key role in the concepting process.
Coe is a self-taught, multi-hyphenate design professional with a strong background in the arts. As Art Director at BizStream, he digs into each client’s business to uncover the narratives that connect them to their customers. Outside of work, he teaches drawing classes and pursues mentorships with world-class artists.
This session explores how AI can dramatically speed up illustration concepting without replacing the artist’s voice. Using an interior graphics project as a real-world example, Rex will walk through how Adobe Firefly enabled rapid iteration of complex visual elements, freeing up more time for refinement, storytelling, and craft.
For decades, the industry has asked designers and marketers to absorb more disciplines without more resources. AI is the first tool that actually helps meet that demand. Coe’s talk cuts through the hype and the fear to show how generalists are uniquely positioned to use AI effectively. Attendees will leave with practical applications, honest limitations, and a framework for thinking about AI as a tool for the skills they already have, not a replacement for them.
MERGE is a one-day conference on May 11, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you’re a designer, developer, product manager, or marketer interested in how AI fits into real creative and technical workflows, this is a great one to attend.
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