Day 1
09:30-09:40
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
09:40-10:10
Keynote – AI and Engineering: Closing the Gap Between Expectations 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 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
10:10-10:35
Presentation – The CTO Spectrum – Which Archetype Are You?
- As a CTO, you might start talking to another CTO and suddenly realise, “Wow! Their job looks really different to mine.” You might even ask, “Am I doing the right thing?” Your worry might even amplify as you speak with other industry peers.
- Learn about some common CTO archetypes that I’ve observed in my 20+ years as a consultant, advisor, peer and coach to CTOs.
- Uncover the archetypes most frequently seen in the Berlin scene, and what that means for you if you’re a CTO, a person aspiring to be a CTO or working with a CTO today.
Pat Kua, CTO Coach and Founder, Tech Lead Academy
10:35-11:15
Coffee & Recharge Break
11:15-12:05
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 Perizzato, VP Engineering, FINN
Olga Khorkova, CTO, BARFER’S
Dirk Daumann, CTO/CPO, Blacklane
Conversations
11:15-12:15
What got me here won’t get me there: Going from expert to strategic mindset
Carol Palombini, Founder, Palombini
About Conversations:
Led by our community’s facilitators, each Conversations session will give you the opportunity to get involved in the discussion. Instead of sitting in the audience, you’ll be sat at a roundtable with peers to share with and learn from each other.
Conversations sessions need to be experienced in-person and are crafted to be participatory and stimulating.
Don’t worry about missing any sessions on the main stage! With your ticket, you will have access to the recordings after the conference.
12:05-12:30
Community Showcase – Side Quest Unlocked: Community, Connection and the Future of Tech
- Recognise how “side quest” work like mentoring, documenting, and organising can lead to unexpected skills, opportunities, and personal growth.
- Understand why great engineers go beyond code to strengthen teams and build communities.
- Explore how community-building efforts develop leadership skills and why they deserve more recognition in tech.
- Leave with practical ways to contribute, a deeper appreciation for invisible work, and a challenge to define your role in shaping the future of tech.
Melinda Seckington, Founder, Learn Build Share
12:30-13:45
Lunch
13:45-14:10
Community Showcase – From Chaos to Calm: Leading in the Permacrisis
- Acknowledge the pressure technical leaders face in a world of geopolitical upheaval, AI disruption, and economic instability—and explore what behavioural science tells us about why we respond the way we do.
- Unpack three key mental models—“Real over Ideal,” “Be Here Now,” and “Let It Go”—to help navigate uncertainty, reduce overwhelm, and show up with greater presence and resilience.
- Learn how neuroscience and behavioural psychology can reframe how we approach leadership, creativity, and psychological safety in high-stakes environments.
- Leave with actionable tools, practices, and reflections that help you (and your team) lead through chaos—grounded, effective, and human.
Ceri Newton-Sargunar, Systemic Behavioural Coach & Consultant, ThirstyHorse Consulting
Conversations
13:45-14:45
Culture Mapping in Practice: How Differences in Communication and Decision-Making Shape Teams
Claus Höfele, Head of Engineering, On
About Conversations:
Led by our community’s facilitators, each Conversations session will give you the opportunity to get involved in the discussion. Instead of sitting in the audience, you’ll be sat at a roundtable with peers to share with and learn from each other.
Conversations sessions need to be experienced in-person and are crafted to be participatory and stimulating.
Don’t worry about missing any sessions on the main stage! With your ticket, you will have access to the recordings after the conference.
14:10-14:35
Community Showcase- Quietly Powerful: Leadership for the Ones Who Don’t Shout
- Find out why “louder” isn’t the same as “stronger” in leadership—and how quiet confidence creates impact
- Hear real stories from my journey as an introverted engineering leader trying to fit in (and finally leading on my terms)
- Understand practical strategies to build trust, influence, and visibility without burning out or performing
- Leverage a new, more inclusive model of leadership—for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t belong in the spotlight
Limor Bergman, Executive Coach and Mentor, LBG Consulting Services
14:35-15:15
Coffee & Recharge Break
15:15-15:40
Primary Presentation – 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
15:40-16:30
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.
What are Lightning Talks? They are a series of 10 minute presentations and an opportunity for senior tech leaders to tell their side of the story. Hear their experiences of joining struggling teams, leading rewrites, fixing architecture, and managing tough conversations!
David Asabina, Associate Partner, Philipps & Byrne
Dilip Saha, Senior Director of Software Engineering, HelloFresh
16:30-16:55
Community Showcase – Motivational Leadership: Driving Change Through Empowered Engineers
- Discover how one engineering leader turned a team-level observability win into a scalable incident management strategy for the entire organisation.
- Uncover how influence, motivation, and credibility can lay the groundwork for broad technical change.
- Apply proven tactics—like roadmaps, milestones, and outcome tracking—to help structure and sustain your own large-scale improvements.
- Recognise how to spot and support emerging leaders who are ready to take on complex challenges and inspire change across teams.
Kimberly Schmitt, Engineering Manager, Babbel
16:55-17:00
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
17:00-19:00
Networking Reception
Day 2
09:30-09:40
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
09:40-10:10
Keynote – Intelligent Connections: Transforming Work Through Strategic AI Integration
- Working with AI solutions individually already brings significant benefits, but the true transformation of organisational work happens when we use AI to improve collaboration and create seamless connections between people and systems.
- Learn how the team at Scout24 are implementing this vision by showcasing practical uses of Claude and the Model Context Protocol.
- Discover how AI can act as the connective tissue that strengthens an entire organisational fabric.
Gertrud Kolb, CTO, Scout24
10:10-10:35
Community Showcase – Making better decisions – How we decide better together
- Most teams never learn how to make solid decisions, they just wing it – leading either to a few decision-makers and lack of autonomy or decision fatigue. When scaling, success is not only limited by the quality of decisions but also by peoples ability to continuously make better decisions with high autonomy and speed.
- Discuss what actually makes a good decision and how to use your team’s brainpower without getting lost in endless discussions.
- Learn about real methods (like consent and systemic consensing), when to use them, and how to keep things moving.
- Walk away with practical tools to make better, faster, more inclusive decisions – and less second-guessing after.
Tobias Mende, Leadership & Ops & Tech Advisor / Founder, Tech Unicorn Builders
10:35-11:15
Coffee & Recharge Break
11:15-11:40
Community Showcase – If Feedback is a Gift, Why Does it Never Feel Like One?
- Despite feedback being called a “gift”, it often comes across as vague and generic, especially during performance reviews and 360-degree assessments.
- Explore how as executives and coaches, we’ve witnessed well-intentioned feedback fail because it wasn’t actionable or relatable enough for clients to implement.
- Transform processes around meaningful feedback, which is a skill that needs development. It can be learned – but requires taking initiative to improve.
- Discover the journey in overcoming feedback challenges and provides a practical toolkit for giving more effective feedback.
Mathias Meyer, Founding Partner & Executive Coach, The Intentional Organization
Conversations
11:15-12:15
Building Leaderful Cultures: The Future is Shared Leadership
Natalie McCormack, Learning and Development Lead, JVM Consultancy
About Conversations:
Led by our community’s facilitators, each Conversations session will give you the opportunity to get involved in the discussion. Instead of sitting in the audience, you’ll be sat at a roundtable with peers to share with and learn from each other.
Conversations sessions need to be experienced in-person and are crafted to be participatory and stimulating.
Don’t worry about missing any sessions on the main stage! With your ticket, you will have access to the recordings after the conference.
11:40-12:05
Presentation – Business Platforms and Platform Engineering: Breaking Myths, Building Realities
- Platform Engineering is one of tech’s buzziest topics—but despite widespread adoption, many teams still struggle to define, measure, or implement it effectively.
- Drawing from an industry survey of platform practitioners, leaders, and engineers, this session reveals why 50% of respondents couldn’t define platform engineering in actionable terms—and what that says about how the field is evolving.
- Through real-world examples, we’ll explore common failure patterns: over-reliance on tools, unclear strategy, and disconnects between platform teams and their users.
- Attendees will leave with clear definitions, busted myths, and pragmatic strategies to align platform work with real business outcomes.
Shweta Vohra, Lead Architect, Booking.com
12:05-13:20
Lunch
13:20-14:10
Panel – The Changing Face of Engineering: What Teams Need Now
- This session will explore how companies are redefining the engineering capabilities they prioritise to match evolving business models and technical shifts.
- We’ll go beyond speculation to examine how trends like AI integration, platform thinking, and outcome-based delivery are influencing how teams work.
- The panel will feature real-world insights into how organisations are evolving talent strategies—what skills they hire for, nurture, and sunset.
- Attendees will gain a clearer picture of where engineering skill demand is heading and how to adapt their organisations to stay competitive.
Eric Bowman, CTO, King
Conversations
13:20-14:20
Leadership Conversation
Mario Duhanic, CTO, krisenchat
About Conversations:
Led by our community’s facilitators, each Conversations session will give you the opportunity to get involved in the discussion. Instead of sitting in the audience, you’ll be sat at a roundtable with peers to share with and learn from each other.
Conversations sessions need to be experienced in-person and are crafted to be participatory and stimulating.
Don’t worry about missing any sessions on the main stage! With your ticket, you will have access to the recordings after the conference.
14:10-14:35
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
14:35-15:00
Community Showcase – The Surprising Similarities Between Renovating your House and your Code Base
- Learn how code and buildings differ in structure, but renovating each reveals surprising parallels—especially when dealing with legacy systems and old plasterboard alike.
- Drawing on personal experience renovating both a house and a codebase, this session uses vivid, relatable analogies to demystify legacy code work.
- Gain practical, memorable strategies for tackling code renovation—no sledgehammer required.
- Explore how tools like Quality Views and CodeCharta can help map large codebases, surface architectural risks, and support meaningful conversations with non-technical stakeholders.
Richard Gross, Head of Software Archeology, MaibornWolff
15:00-15:40
Coffee & Recharge Break
15:40-16:05
Presentation – From Startup to Scale-Up: Designing for Growth from Day One
- Many leaders struggle with the shift from startup to scale-up mode, but what if the pain could be avoided?
- This session will explore how to set your engineering culture, structure and mindset for scale right from the beginning.
- The speaker will reflect on their own experiences—both successes and missteps—and share what they would do differently in hindsight.
Matthias Laug, CPTO, Enter
16:05-16:30
Community Showcase – How misjudging the importance of an unloved project can turn into a disaster: A real-life incident post-mortem
- Hear the story of how the failure of a side legacy project, generating less than one-tenth of our revenue, spilled over and brought half of the company to a standstill for almost a month.
- Learn how accumulated technical debt, lack of ownership, and a series of poor decisions can lead to disastrous consequences. I’ll also discuss why disaster recovery for complex systems is often far more challenging than it appears.
Jerzy Kopaczewski, Co-founder and CTO, Devopsity
16:30-16:35
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft