Agenda Highlights
Keynote – AI & Engineering Teams — Bridging the Gap Between Hype and Reality
- Social media is filled with stories of developers building six-figure businesses overnight using AI, yet most real-world teams only see a 5–10% productivity boost—what’s really happening beneath the hype?
- This session explores the real challenges engineering teams face with AI adoption, from large codebase limitations to hidden coordination costs and the critical skill of effective prompting.
- Drawing on podcasts, community stories, and research, we’ll highlight what’s working today in high-performing teams—and why AI success is more about team structure, workflows, and culture than tools alone.
- Attendees will leave with practical, research-backed strategies to shape their teams for the future: minimising layers, improving prompting skills, and creating intentional AI workflows across areas like testing, documentation, and code quality.
Luca Rossi, Founder, Refactoring
Lightning Talks – When Everything’s On Fire: Surviving and Thriving as a Turnaround CTO
- This session explores how CTOs—including those stepping into new roles, fractional or interim roles—drive technical and cultural turnaround.
- Speakers will share experiences of joining struggling teams, leading rewrites, fixing architecture, and managing tough conversations.
- We’ll cover what it means to be pigeonholed as a firefighter and how to transition from crisis to calm.
- Attendees will gain insights into turnaround leadership, private equity dynamics, and whether this high-stakes work is right for them.
David Asabina, Associate Partner, Philipps & Byrne
Dilip Saha, Senior Director of Software Engineering, HelloFresh
Panel – The Resource-Conscious CTO: Building More with Less
- In a resource-constrained environment, scaling is not just about headcount but about optimising flow, value delivery, and team impact.
- This panel will explore how experienced leaders build lean engineering organisations that can scale efficiently without sacrificing quality.
- We’ll discuss strategies like Minimum Viable Product (MVP) redefinition, flow optimisation, and outcome-based delivery that enable speed and agility at any stage.
- Attendees will learn how to apply lean practices and meaningful metrics to navigate scaling challenges with confidence.
Andrea Perrizato, VP Engineering, FINN
Olga Khorkova, CTO, BARFER’S
Dirk Daumann, CTO/CPO, Blacklane
Presentation – Challenger Safety: The Missing Link in Your Innovation Playbook
- Psychological safety is the foundation of innovation—and “Challenger Safety” is the final, critical stage.
- Discover three silent signals that your team may not feel safe enough to challenge ideas or the status quo.
- Learn how common leadership behaviours, even with good intentions, can discourage bold contributions.
- Reflect on your personal leadership approach with actionable prompts designed to foster a culture of smart experimentation.
Carol Palombini, Founder, Palombini
The Always-On Culture: Redefining Urgency and Availability
- Out-of-hours work and crisis response have long been part of the tech industry—but are they sustainable?
- This talk will explore when leaders were right or wrong to ask for overtime, and how they managed the consequences.
- With “right to disconnect” policies gaining traction, consider the organisational impact and how to rebalance expectations.
Greg Ryzhov, CPTO, Clue
Beyond Tech: Influencing the Organisation for Better Performance
- Tech leaders must navigate conflicting business priorities and align engineering goals with company strategy.
- Recognising hidden opportunities in business challenges can lead to strategic breakthroughs.
- A shift in budgeting principles can help reposition IT from a cost centre to a business enabler.
Matthias Laug, CPTO, Enter