First Forge · Being scheduled

The Forge.

Where operators meet, sharpen, and ship. The annual Gladius summit.

Express interest → council@gladiuscrm.com See the agenda ↓

Target: Q1 2027 · US venue TBD · Capped at 40 humans

Private invitation · First Forge

The Forge.

Two days. Forty humans. No sponsors. A working session for operators who’d rather solve their own problems together than sit through a keynote about somebody else’s.

Target

Q1 2027

Venue

US · TBD

Cap

40 humans

Duration

2 days

What it is

Four lines. Plainly.

Before the agenda, before the venue, before any of the event-marketing language — here’s the shape of it.

01
A two-day in-person working session for active Gladius pilot operators and Council members.
02
25–40 attendees, hard cap. Intimacy over scale. Everyone in the room gets airtime.
03
No sponsors. No booth crawl. No swag bag. Nothing to sell you that isn't already in your relationship with us.
04
Topics are set by attendees in the 30 days prior — not by us, not by a steering committee.

Agenda

Two days. One room.

Day one is the operators. Day two is the roadmap. Both days are work, not theater.

Day 1

Operator-led teardowns

What’s broken at my store.

Morning
Operator-led teardowns
Each attendee presents 15 minutes on what's broken at their store — funnel leak, comp plan, retention drop, BDC throughput, F&I PVR, whatever's actually hurting. Then 15 minutes of Q&A where the room works the problem.
Afternoon
Teardowns continue
We keep going until every attendee has had the room. No skipping, no observers. The teardown queue is the point of the day.
Evening
Dinner, informal
One long table, group rate at the venue, no presentations. The conversations that don't happen on stage happen here.

Day 2

Founder + roadmap

What we build next.

Morning
Founder + roadmap
Ricardo walks the Gladius roadmap — what shipped last quarter, what's next, what got cut. No slides for press, real internal planning view.
Midday
Attendees vote priorities
Every attendee gets weight in the prioritization. The top three items become the day-two working session.
Afternoon
Top-3 working session
We design the prioritized features in the room. Specs, edge cases, what the cron does, what the UI looks like. Operators talk to the builder, not to a product manager.
Close
Action items + 30-day check-in
Each attendee leaves with one commitment for their store and one commitment to the room. Thirty days later, we follow up — in writing, by name.

Who attends

Forty seats. Filled in this order.

Active Gladius pilot rooftops
One operator per rooftop. If you're already piloting Gladius, you're on the list.
Founding members of The Council
First-25 Council founding members get first dibs on the open seats.
Selected applicants
We read every application personally. No application fee, no broker, no waiting list to skip.
Total cap
40 humans. Hard line. If we ever raise it, we update this page first.

Current status

Where we actually are. Plainly.

No countdown clock. No livestream sign-up. No fake urgency. Here’s the truth as of today.

The first Forge is being scheduled. Target: Q1 2027. US location TBD.
Founding-member Council applicants get the first invitations once dates lock.
If you’re a pilot dealer reading this — you’re already on the list. We’ll be in touch with date and venue.
We have not held a Forge yet. This page is the announcement, not a recap.

Cost

Three lines. No ticket tiers.

Pilot dealers + Council members
Included in your relationship with Gladius. No event fee, no ticket tier, no "VIP access" upsell.
Travel + lodging
On you. We negotiate a group rate at the venue and pass it through at cost.
Speaking fees
We do not pay them. Nobody is on a check to be in the room. The teardowns are the value.

What it is not

Five things the Forge isn’t.

Worth saying out loud, because the automotive industry has seen every flavor of these.

“Not a keynote stage for vendors.”
No DMS executive opens the day with a partnership announcement. No agency CEO on the closing panel.
“Not a sponsored session circuit.”
No tracks paid for by anyone. No "in association with" logos. No badge sponsors.
“Not an award ceremony.”
Nobody wins Dealer of the Year. Nobody collects a glass trophy. The work is the work.
“Not a sales-pressure environment.”
We don't pitch you at The Forge. If you came in on pilot, you leave on pilot — or not, your call.
“Not anything you've sat through at NADA.”
If you've seen it in an exhibit hall, it isn't here. That's the whole point.