MaineR Online Talk June 2026

Join us for a short, but sweet 30 minute talk given by Portland local Nick Lisac at 1PM.

MaineR locals will meet in the evening at 5:30 to de-brief on the talk and enjoy a few beers together.

• Link shared the day of the event here and via the mailing list!

"Talk to Your Own Computer - Not the Cloud: Truly Local LLMs"

"You'll own nothing and be happy" is truer more than ever. However - there has been a understated countercurrent in the other direction. Large Language Models at the top end have gotten bigger, more powerful, and better-harnessed while using more infrastructure and pricing at a loss for market share. But the small end of the LLM spectrum is moving faster than ever and they, in many cases, are open & local.

For less than the price of a new laptop, you might be able to turn your current computer into a personal LLM machine. I plan on showing you how I have done this and give some perspective on the capabilities of small, capable, open-weight models.

Nicholas Lisac - I live in Portland, Maine with my family. I received a graduate degree in Economics from the University of Maine and have worked in data and analytics for 15 years. I build and tinker in my free time both digitally and physically. My kids are a big inspiration for many of my projects - examples include designing and 3D printing new Hot Wheels tracks, hand-crafting puzzle toys from oak and maple, and creating a web application to procedurally design extreme marble-run tracks for us to build. I do also go outside! I am a volunteer coach for my son's tee-ball team and spend time remembering the days when I had enough free time to go fishing. I've recently picked up the hobby of learning about and building with Local LLMs and I am looking forward to sharing that with the group!