See the amazing keynotes and panels | CTO Craft Con London 2023

Day 1

Tuesday 23rd May 2023

Time	Main Conference
08:00	Registration & Networking
08:45	Welcome to CTO Craft Con
08:50	Chair’s Opening Remarks Speakers Lee-Jon BallInterim Chief Technology Officer, GL EDUCATION
09:00	Keynote Fireside Chat: The CTO Journey So Far – How We Got Here, and Where Next? In this Fireside chat Lee-Jon and Meri discuss the challenges of the CTO Role, how they’ve changed and where they think they’re going, how we can prepare ourselves for a change in role, and how we can prepare ourselves for the CTO role as we move into it Speakers Meri WilliamsChief Technology Officer, Pleo
09:30	Keynote: The Failing CTO – What we can learn from others’ mistakes Glyn Roberts is a seasoned technology professional with years of experience working with hundreds of companies at various stages of their business. During this talk, he will share practical examples that demonstrate how the absence of strategy and leadership can result in costly financial and time-related consequences for businesses. Attendees will gain valuable insights on how to avoid common pitfalls and steer their organisations towards success. Speakers Glyn RobertsCTO of Digital Solutions, Vention
10:00	Panel Discussion: Let’s Get Strategic! Stop Reacting, Start Leading Start with the end in mind – defining the technology vision for the organisation The key to devising and delivering a successful long term technology strategy Ensuring tight linkage between technology strategy and wider business goals Discover how to move beyond constant fire-fighting to achieve proactive action Communicating and collaborating with other C-level executives and cross-functional teams Speakers Dan SmithCoach, Facilitator, Mentor, PARTNERS IN TECH João GraçaFounder and Chief Technology Officer, Unbabel Maria GutierrezVP of Engineering and Operations, PERSONIO Pau MinovesFORMER Chief Technology Officer, TYPEFORM Sophie Davies-PatrickChief Technology Officer, MPB
10:45	Networking Break
11:15	Presentation: Moving Fast! In 10 years, we overhauled technology and process at Uswitch to move faster than our competitors, and the results followed. Since then, we’ve bought many businesses and are applying the same learnings to help us move quickly. This talk will cover some stories of what worked and what didn’t to provoke thought on making progress in your organisation. Speakers Paul InglesChief Technology Officer, RVU (uSwitch, Confused.com)
11:45	Presentation: How to Build an Compensation Package Appropriate to your Role, Location, and Funding Stage – Exploring your Survey Response Speakers Henry DraperManaging Partner, ALBANY PARTNERS
12:15	Panel Discussion: Power to your People – Building a Team to Succeed Top tips for leading, managing, and developing technical teams Overcoming the talent trap by building and maintaining a strong talent pipeline Fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional development How can we best instil a culture of innovation within our people? The ‘new normal’ – managing remote teams and distributed workforce Speakers Claire DonaldVP of Technology & Product, MOO.com David LushChief Technology Officer, Mindgym Joel ChippindaleCTO Coach and Adviser, MONKEY’S THUMB Mike SiriusChief Technology Officer, Love Home Swap Morgan Sadr-HashemiChief Product and Technology Officer, Flash Pack
13:00	Networking Lunch
14:00	Panel Discussion: Cybersecurity – Protecting the organisation’s technological assets Exploring the current cybersecurity threat landscape Developing and executing a cybersecurity strategy and partnering with other stakeholders Worse case scenario – developing and implementing a disaster recovery plan Defending data from breaches and unauthorised access Protecting the organisation’s technological assets Speakers Anna DickFractional CTO and NED, Dixi Tech Charlotte SlingsbyChief Technology Officer, Nettoken Katherine SpiceChief Technology Officer, Learnerbly Marta JasinskaChief Technology Officer, Launchpad
14:45	Presentation: What do investors care about most and how to deal with it as a CTO? 2023 economic context – what are the most common challenges CTO are facing – investor’s perspective Which challenges matter to investors – what are the fundamentals that should be in place What to do about them. Speakers Christian LarsenDirector of Product and Technology, Marlin Equity Partners.
15:15	Networking Break
15:45	Community Showcase: How to talk about tech with boards that just don’t get it Game changing technology projects proposed by CTOs are often disregarded because “the board just didn’t get it”. Affectionately known as the “The Geek Whisperer”, Adelina Chalmers will share insights on how CTOs can secure buy-in from the CFO, CEO and Board of Directors for their proposals. Through drawing upon various case studies, Chalmers will address key challenges faced by CTOs including: How to avoid the common traps CTOs fall into when seeking buy-in from the C-Suite/Board Why the C-Suite and the Board ask irrelevant questions at CTOs’ tech presentations How to cut the time it takes to get buy-in for projects from the C-Suite from 9 months of meetings to 1 meeting What helps convey complex tech projects to a non-tech C-Suite/Board. Speakers Adelina ChalmersThe Geek Whisperer®
16:00	Community Showcase: Innovating Beyond Hackathons: Building a Culture of Creativity in Your Tech Team Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful tech company, but too often it’s treated as a one-time event rather than a continuous process. Many companies rely on hackathons or other sporadic events to generate new ideas and spur innovation, but these approaches are often ineffective at producing lasting results. In this talk, we’ll explore how to create a culture of continuous innovation in your tech team, where creativity and problem-solving are habits rather than occasional events. You’ll learn practical strategies for breaking out of the hackathon mindset and fostering creativity every day to create a sustainable culture of innovation. Speakers Aviv Ben-YosefTech Executive Consultant
16:15	Panel Discussion: Show Me The Money! Managing Technology Investment Bootstrap, seed, series A-D, or IPO – Best practices for delivering value, whatever your stage Measuring bang for your buck – Assessing the ROI of technology projects and investments Balancing spending between building strong foundations and delivering new features Exploring the CTOs role in securing funding & investment & justifying valuation through Tech Due Diligence Advocating for technology investments and initiatives and communicating the business value to non-technical colleagues Speakers Efua AkumanyiCo-Chief Technology Officer, Coding Black Females Jonathan HowellChief Technology Officer, Cazoo Klaas ArdinoisChief Technology Officer, CloudCall Leon ReesPrincipal Tech BD, Startups and VC, AWS Sasha VidiborskiyPartner, Atomico
17:00	Chair’s Closing Remarks Speakers Lee-Jon BallInterim Chief Technology Officer, GL EDUCATION
17:15	Networking Drinks
20:00	End of Day One

Day 2

Wednesday 24th May 2023

Time	Main Conference
08:00	Registration & Networking
08:45	Chair’s Opening Remarks Speakers Emma Hopkinson-SparkChief of Staff, 101 Ways
09:00	Keynote Fireside Chat: Strategic Technology Leadership – Defining a Clear Vision for Long-Term Success What are the key drivers of technology strategy and how do they shape decision-making? Why having a clear technology vision is crucial for long-term success, and how to define a technology vision that aligns with business goals How to measure the success and impact of technology initiatives on the overall business Strategies for building relationships and fostering collaboration across different departments and teams Navigating competing priorities and conflicting perspectives to drive success Speakers Anna ShipmanTechnical Director for Customer Products, Financial Times
09:30	Keynote Presentation: Everyone Can Contribute -Exploring Strategies to Accelerate Rate of Innovation During this presentation, we will discuss how GitLab realises its philosophy of “everyone can contribute”. We will delve into the significance of this approach for digital enterprises and demonstrate how you can implement some of our insights to encourage contributions from everyone within your own organisation. Speakers Steve ChallisMajor Account Executive and Value stream practitioner, GITLAB
09:45	Panel Discussion: Out with the Old, In with the New – Managing the Technology Lifecycle Determine the best approach to assess and prioritise your organisation’s technology needs How should you evaluate emerging technologies, and the key to determine when they are ready to implement Establishing and maintaining the right partnerships and vendor relationships to achieve your objectives How can we ensure seamless retirement and replacement of outdated systems? Continuously learning and staying up-to-date on technology and industry trends and developments Speakers Aaron RiceChief Information Officer, Vorboss Dayvid KayalChief Technology Officer, Taster Fiona HobbsChief Technology Officer, 3t Transform Nik GuptaChief Technology Officer, THG Simana PaulVice President of Engineering, Sumup
10:45	Networking Break
11:15	Presentation: Building Resilient Tech Organisations to Survive and Thrive through the Periods of Change Technology leaders are often focused on solving today’s challenges, and yet – as the past year has taught us – business context can and does change year after year. Sometimes that requires significant growth, or reducing the investment into tech, or pivot in terms of the technology being built. In order to adapt, our tech organisations need to be thoughtfully built with resilience principles in mind. Key takeaways: Hiring generalists and investing in continuous growth of your engineers is one of the best people investments you can make. Social bonds and shared purpose keep employees engaged even through the times of change. Incentives and an org structure are a powerful tool to avoid territorialism. Speakers Milena NikolicChief Technology Officer, Trainline
11:45	Presentation: Build vs. Buy – a strategic decision for systems and people In an economic downturn, technical leaders have to be even more careful with every resource they have. In this talk, Hywel will look at the questions of building vs buying, and provide a framework for considering the long term and short term costs and payoffs. Then, he’ll extend the question beyond systems and products to people and their capabilities, and propose a framework for thinking about team capability, comparing “buying” through hiring and “building” through learning. Speakers Hywel CarverFounder, CEO at Skiller Whale
12:15	Panel Discussion: A Match Made in Heaven – Instilling Harmony Between Product and Engineering Strategies How can we ensure that Product and Engineering strategies work in harmony to drive business growth and success? Best practices for aligning product and engineering roadmaps and ensuring a smooth flow of communication and collaboration Fostering a culture of collaboration between product and engineering teams How should you structure your organisation and functions to best achieve alignment? What are the common points of friction between Product & Engineering, and how can these be overcome? Speakers Jasper SchulteEngineering Director, Booking.com Jen BeattieHead of Engineering, GivePanel Mark Stanton-BennettFounder & Technology Principal, Kiln Rico SurridgeChief Product & Technology Officer, Which?
13:00	Networking Lunch
14:00	Panel Discussion: Moving Beyond Agile? Modern Methodologies for Technology Development Does the Agile manifesto and its core principles still provide an effective framework, or should we be seeking to move beyond it? Scrum, Kanban, and Lean – what to use, and when? Determining suitability for different types of projects, and avoiding “Scrum by Ceremony” Utilising Agile practises to increase efficiency and responsiveness to changing business needs Best practices for communicating and collaborating with non-technical stakeholders Identifying the common challenges and how to overcome them Speakers David InkpenChief Technology Officer, Earthly David SantoroCo-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Carwow Fabio DavideTechnical Director, Vention Irina BednovaChief Technology Officer and Founder, Cordless Kirsten AchtelstetterFounder, North Star Advisory
14:45	Presentation: Integrated outsourcing – maximising your software development partnership Learn how to select, contract, engage and work with an offshore outsourcing partner. Get real-world insights about outsourcing software development to an external team, including tips about: Finding a partner with the right skills and culture Exploring different software outsourcing options Launching an outsourcing partnership Implementing best practices Measuring success Speakers Jakub DymekSenior Software Delivery Manager, Software Mind Lucian MorrisChief Information Officer, Mortgage Advice Bureau
15:15	Networking Break
15:45	Community Showcase: Walking the Tightrope – Navigating Constant Change with Clarity and Empathy Most successful technology startups regularly break their teams! At first, this sounds counterintuitive – how would success lead to dysfunction and misalignment? By their very nature, startups need to move fast to capture a market. This requires constant change and adaptation. Contrast this with how people and systems work: just like families or communities, we need stability to thrive. Technology teams are most successful if their environment is predictable! So how can startups walk this tightrope? In this talk, I will explore how continuously creating clarity with empathy is the glue that allows constant change to sit side-by-side with predictable environments. Speakers Tobi TonnerTechnology Mentor, Coach and Founder, Workband
16:00	Community Showcase: “We need to talk” – How to receive feedback like a boss In teamwork, a culture of feedback is necessary to archive good collaboration and high performance. Nonetheless, these skills are seldom overlooked in training programs. This is a step-by-step guide to getting the best out of every feedback session. Each step will be explained, with the concepts of collaboration and conflict resolution that are behind it.
16:15	Panel Discussion: Self Care as Technology Leaders – Building Resilience to Stress and Improving Wellbeing What are the individual stressors that face CTOs, and how do they combine in a unique way in our field? Best practices for maintaining physical and mental wellbeing in a high-pressure work environment Building a framework to improve the resilience of our teams and ourselves through training and system configuration Exploring the benefits and challenges of flexible working – how can full or partial home working improve or reduce wellbeing? Understanding the importance of personal development in a fast-paced and rapidly changing industry Coping during times of acute stress such as cyberattacks, outages, and layoffs Speakers Christian WongVP of Engineering, Accurx Irina DumitrescuCo-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Nossa Data Jamie Smith WebbChief Technology Officer, Numan Kim RowanSenior Engineering Manager, YouTube
17:00	Chair’s Closing Remarks Speakers Emma Hopkinson-SparkChief of Staff, 101 Ways
17:15	End of Day Two

The Schedule

Day 1

Tuesday 23rd May 2023

Day 2

Wednesday 24th May 2023