See the amazing keynotes and panels | CTO Craft Con London 2024

Day 1

8th May 2024

Time	Main Stage	Roundtable Room
08:30	Registration Arrive at QEII Centre in London to collect your badge and grab a coffee!
09:20	Welcome to CTO Craft Con: London Speakers Andy Skipper Founder and Chief CTO Coach CTO Craft
09:25	Chair’s Opening Remarks Speakers Lee-Jon Ball Fractional CTO
09:30	KEYNOTE: Innovating at pace with simpler decision-making Fast-growing businesses have an exciting opportunity to improve coordination and decision-making to accelerate innovation and execution. How can tech leaders build a culture of autonomy to drive bottom-up innovation in their organisations? Ways to ensure that business and customer outcomes are at the centre of all decision-making. #Leadership #Culture Speakers Matej Pfajfar CTO Monzo Bank
10:00	PANEL: Delivering top-to-bottom value as a tech leader Businesses are complex and ever-changing, as is technological transformation, meaning that CTOs and tech leaders need to be deliberate and measured with where they spend their time (and budget!). How can you ensure you are well-versed in the goals of the business, be intentional with where (and with whom) you focus your attention and deliver demonstrable ROI. Strategies to identify opportunities to drive value, whether cost savings, improved efficiencies, increased revenue or product enhancements? What are some effective strategies to balance hands-on/hands-off leadership and deliver consistent value to your managers and through trickle-down leadership to teams? How can you work on your internal positioning and branding, to ensure you are perceived as a strategic catalyst for change and not a roadblock for innovation? #Leadership #Culture #Technology Speakers Ankur Sharma CPTO Perkbox David Mackey Director Albany Partners Oge Opara-Nadi Head of Developer Experience & Operational Excellence 10x Banking Paul Ingles CTO RVU Simana Paul VP of Engineering SumUp	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Best practices for security & compliance – no, they’re not the same thing! 10:00-11:00 If compliance doesn’t equal security, what is the standard you should be aspiring to? What are the current best practices in the face of rapidly evolving threats? How do you go beyond ‘just’ compliance to deliver security and agility? #Technology #Leadership Speakers Jon Topper CEO & CTO The Scale Factory
10:40	Break time
11:10	LIGHTNING TALK: Carpaccio Methodology: Connecting the dots between ‘the work engineers do’ and a ‘profitable organisation’ How can CTOs request and justify budget allocation in areas beyond “new features,” particularly concerning team size and infrastructure? Enter the Carpaccio Method. Different from the limitations of traditional DORA metrics, it recognizes both visible and invisible work necessary for software development. Providing a transparent and goal-oriented approach to track and visualise effectiveness, this talk will guide you to a Healthy Productivity Index. This unified measurement considers defects, features, and all the invisible work needed to make any software company successful. Join the thought-provoking session to learn how to empower and validate your software engineers in achieving business goals. #Leadership #Technology Speakers Alberto Silveira VP of Engineering LawnStarter	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Conscious leadership – Creating a safe space & looking after the wellbeing of your team 11:10-12:10 What does it mean to be a conscious leader? How can you become the custodian of your team’s safety and wellbeing? Where is the line of responsibility between professional and personal wellbeing? What are some real world examples of conscious leadership in action and what are the lessons learned? #Culture #Leadership #Wellbeing Speakers Anna Dick CTO Capsule Rija Javed Engineering Leader Facebook
11:25	LIGHTNING TALK: Practically predictable – Forecasting delivery when nothing is certain “When will it be done?”. A simple ask on the surface, fraught with unpredictability and no straightforward answer. For technology leaders, the answer to this question is often key to building credibility and trust with exec teams and stakeholders. This talk will explore how to navigate the complications of software delivery that arise from lack of clear scope, team knowledge gaps and hidden tech debt; offering a roadmap towards clarity and predictability. Drawing on her own experience of transforming teams that constantly tripled and quadrupled their estimates to teams that delivered predictably and consistently, Holly will share key insights and practical tools to address common problems and tactfully manage stakeholder conversations. #Technology #Leadership Speakers Holly Donohue Fractional CPO and Coach Product Rebel
11:40	PRESENTATION – Driving technical excellence from the top – A case study in uplevelling at Pleo In 2023, Pleo underwent some changes that resulted in a 40% improvement in productivity. In this talk, Pleo’s CTO Meri Williams will present how the decision to build API-first was arrived at, and how the engineering team were set up for success. Meri will then dive into some detail on the learning methodology chosen and the results seen both by the team and in the code metrics. Speakers Meri Williams CTO Pleo
11:55	PRESENTATION – Power Skills for Tech Leaders: How to support the shift from IC to people manager / leader in your organisation The gap between individual engineer and tech leader is wider than in most other job functions, which provides unique challenges for people making the leap What makes an engineer successful as an individual contributor (deep technical knowledge) won’t make them successful as a leader and/or manager. In this talk, Hywel will map out the pathways to leadership and management in tech teams and talk about the skills required at each transition, and how to help develop those in your emerging and existing leaders. #Leadership Speakers Hywel Carver Founder and CEO Skiller Whale
12:10	PANEL: Successful OKR strategies to drive alignment & performance Going beyond theory – Defining what OKRs mean for your business and the keys to success at scale. How to get top-down, cross-department and bottom-up OKRs in place for true buy-in. How can OKRs ensure alignment – in both values and goals – between the board, the CTO, engineering leaders and engineers, as well as other departments? How do you communicate the drivers, KPIs and success factors of OKRs to your department and the business at large? How have OKRs contributed towards building a more transparent, focused, motivated and high-performance engineering culture? Discussing roadblocks to OKR adoption and buy-in, and how these have been tackled. #Leadership #Culture Speakers Aaron Rice CIO Vorboss Aditi Agarwal CTO Blue Light Card Julieta Suarez Ruiz de Huidobro VP of Engineering nPlan Rico Surridge CPTO Which?
12:50	Lunch time Want to see a best-in-class solution provider? Wander our Exhibition Want to ask our speakers a question? Head to our Speaker Meet & Greets Want to meet peers tackling the same challenges? Join a themed Tech Talk Table Want to rest, decompress & recharge your social battery? Enjoy our Relaxation Zone
13:00		ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Leading the charge: What happens when things go wrong 13:00-14:00 What strategies and best practices are effective for tech leaders when we are thrown a curveball? How can setbacks be reframed as opportunities for learning and growth? Why is it crucial to create a culture where team members feel comfortable sharing their failures and learnings? Speakers Aaron Rice CIO Vorboss
13:50	PRESENTATION: Driving positive cultural change through developer insights Measuring developer productivity and performance has long been a challenging and complex issue but is it possible? What metrics and KPIs should tech leaders be leveraging to measure the productivity and performance of their team? How should leaders use the data analytics and insights from developer productivity metrics to help drive performance? What are the cultural implications of developer productivity rollouts and how can negative implications be mitigated and positive change driven? How to speak to the business – at all levels – about developer productivity insights. #Culture #Leadership Speakers Laura Tacho CTO DX
14:20	FIRESIDE CHAT: How ZOE built a happy & high-performance engineering culture Underlined by a ten-page manifesto of company values, ZOE’s engineering team indexes higher than average on transparency, empowerment and approachability, and enjoys a low attrition rate. How greater transparency can give engineers the additional context needed to improve their understanding of the organisation’s mission and goals, and empower them to make decisions and solve challenges that increase their own impact. Remote-first is often great for inclusivity and wellbeing, but how can you ensure that you do not lose connectedness or sacrifice speed of decision-making and execution? Ensuring that excellent engineering managers remain excellent engineers to retain credibility and expertise, and in order to ‘act fast’ and ‘dive deep’. #Culture #Leadership #Wellbeing Speakers Julien Lavigne du Cadet CTO ZOE Lee-Jon Ball Fractional CTO	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Strategies for avoiding CTO burnout 14:20-15:20 How do you ‘put on your own oxygen mask’ and practically manage your own stress and wellbeing? What are some of the telltale signs of burnout at the executive level and how can you avoid them? How do you effectively lead by example and filter your own best practices down to your team members? #Wellbeing Speakers Claire Donald CPTO MOO
14:50	PRESENTATION: When Agile and AI Collide Faster development cycles, improved efficiency, and personalised customer experiences are all expectations of AI, but how will you manage your team to benefit from this? Will the role of human creativity and expertise be less required? In this talk, Glyn will dive into changes required for integrating AI into Agile, decision-making, team structure, upskilling and resistance that you will face. Speakers Glyn Roberts CTO Vention
15:20	Break time
15:50	PRESENTATION: Why ‘women in tech’ is not just about women in tech 45% of women leave the tech industry within 8 years of joining. Through personal experiences and collated experiences of others, this session will explore why and, crucially, how you can be part of the change to prevent it from being the case. Including real world examples, exploring the root causes of the challenges faced by women in tech and how addressing these will create a more inclusive tech industry – not just for women, but for all. Shining a light on how women are held to superior standards in the tech industry, forcing them to strive to be a ‘superwoman’ and fight for respect and progression, and discussing how these challenges are misunderstood in a male-dominated industry. By bringing everybody onto a level playing field in terms of understanding these issues, and the impact they’ve had, collectively you can contribute to change. Discussing the power of diversity of thought – especially in software innovation and product development – to ensure a diversity of outcomes, and that products and solutions are representative and inclusive of the populations that they serve. Exploring what it means to be an ally, how you can be one or an even better one. #Culture #Leadership #Wellbeing Speakers Sarah Persov Engineering Team Leader & Head of Women in Tech Dojo	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Riding the GenAI wave to drive data analytics & AI projects 15:50-16:50 Explore candid discussions on crucial topics within the safe and inviting setting of our Chatham House Rules Roundtable. Guided by a knowledgeable Storyteller who sets the stage with profound insights, and a diligent Moderator ensuring focused conversations, this peer-to-peer experience encourages active participation and thoughtful questions. Choose your level of engagement – take a seat at the table to actively contribute or ask questions, or opt for a seat around the edge to listen and absorb. The decision is yours! Seating will be limited to 20, and pre-registration is required. Ticket holders will be able to register for Roundtables from 8th April on a first-come, first-served basis. #Technology #Leadership Speakers Mihai Cernei CTO Amdaris Paul Ingles CTO RVU
16:20	LIGHTNING TALK: Rebuilding trust & improving understanding between business & engineering How do you establish credibility and trust as a CTO when stepping into the eye of a re-org storm? What steps can be taken to increase trust, improve understanding and lower barriers between engineering and the business in the wake of a re-org? How can exposing the engineering team to the realities of business improve their focus on and prioritisation of value-driving work? #Leadership #Culture #Wellbeing Speakers Dan Lake VP of Technology Not on the High Street
16:35	LIGHTNING TALK: Influencing your fellow execs Managing sideways and upwards (members of the exec team, board members) can be a demanding challenge for the leaders of tech orgs in growing startups. Andrew will talk about some of the strategies you can use to effectively influence your most senior stakeholders. What homework can you do up-front to make crises easier to deal with? How can tech people make common ground with senior colleagues from non-tech disciplines? What choices do you make about how you split your time and attention – and allegiance – between ‘your’ org and the exec team of which you’re a part? Successfully explaining technology to non-tech stakeholders, and influencing decisions across the business, is crucial for the success of the tech org as a whole and for the career success of any tech leader. #Leadership Speakers Andrew Ellam VP Technology Climate X
16:50	PANEL: Living by your values to build an aligned, engaged & resilient culture How can tech leaders ensure that there is alignment between business values and the values of the tech team, and that those values are lived out consistently through day-to-day actions, behaviours and decision-making? How should values evolve over time to ensure their relevance as businesses grow and change? How can unity behind a common goal and a set of principles ensure resilience against setbacks and changes? How do you ensure that value alignment is embedded in key practices such as recruitment, onboarding and managing performance and progression? How to ensure that your values create a culture of psychological safety to empower and protect your team #Culture #Leadership Speakers Kari Dempsey CTO Vaarst Milena Nikolic CTO Trainline Niall Paterson Director of Engineering Butternut Box Rija Javed Engineering Leader Facebook Zoe Cunningham Director Softwire
17:30	DX After Party Join DX and CTO Craft, at the Munich Cricket Club for an evening of games, music and fun! It’ll be the perfect place to unwind after a content-packed day at CTO Craft Con. Check it out here!

Day 2

9th May 2024

Time	Main Stage	Roundtable Room
08:30	Registration Arrive at QEII Centre in London to collect your badge and grab a coffee!
09:25	Chair’s opening remarks Speakers Emma Hopkinson-Spark Chief Knowledge Officer 101 Ways
09:30	KEYNOTE: Observability is due for a version change; are you ready for it? The time has come: the DevOps revolution is winding down, and we’re entering the post-DevOps era. We’re at the precipice of a massive generational shift in how we build and understand our software, and CTOs need to prepare. In the past, we were only interested in basic metrics on how we operated our software: reliability, uptime, MTTR, MTTD. Observability 1.0. Companies that settle for these basic data points will not survive in this new era. As engineering best practices around separating deploys from releases, testing in production, observability-driven development have become standardised, the approach to telemetry has stalled, and it’s time for a new version: Observability 2.0. Learn what this new version means for your engineers, and how to embrace this breaking change to: Save them from drowning in symptom-based alerting Help fewer people work together to build better software Create fast feedback loops throughout the entire organization through highly granular visibility into all their systems #Technology #Leadership Speakers Charity Majors CTO Honeycomb.io
10:00	FIRESIDE CHAT: GenerativeAI & the CTO How to answer questions from your CEO, the board or investors about generative AI and how to improve their understanding and manage expectations Exploring frameworks for delivering true value through generative AI, avoiding AI for AI’s sake and hollow ‘sizzle’ features Discussing the impact of the generative AI hype cycle and the future trajectory on the types of skill sets required in technology teams Understanding the impact of generative AI on engineering processes and culture #Technology #Leadership #Culture Speakers Emma Hopkinson-Spark Chief Knowledge Officer 101 Ways Ross McNairn CPTO TravelPerk	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Ensuring alignment as a startup CTO 10:00-11:00 Before joining a startup, how can you ensure alignment with the founding team and the organisation in terms of goals, approach and culture? How far can you test and validate alignment? What are some of the common disconnects between CTO and startup founders? What steps can you take when misalignment takes place post-joining? How possible is it to realign? #Culture #Leadership Speakers Jane Cummings CTO Outmin
10:30	PRESENTATION: Buy vs. build or buy & build? – The pendulum swing of choice Drawing on over 14 years’ experience from engineer to CTO at Skyscanner, Andrew will share how over time the pendulum swings between ‘buy phases’ to ‘build phases’, and how to approach reaching a ‘buy and build phase’. How can you innovate but not jump from one silver bullet technology to another, or being caught up in hype cycles due to a desire to be first? How can you balance innovation with the need to give products time to settle, evolve and grow? How do you build a fail fast experimental culture and how can you apply that to the buy vs. build discussion? What are some of the tactical steps you can take to experiment with bought solutions? Proof of concepts, one-year contracts, influencing solution providers etc. Speakers Andrew Phillips CTO Skyscanner
11:00	Break time
11:30	PRESENTATION: A tech leader’s playbook: Galvanising product & tech organisations to deliver repeated success “Working backwards” principle – cast the audience into the future, on multiple time horizons. “What does 1, 2, 5, 10 year time horizons look like for the company if we succeed?”. Getting buy-in from exec leadership to the engineers on the ground – building a narrative that resonates and inspires trust and action at all levels. Moving from theory to practice – lessons learned from a multiple-tenured, global engineering leader to build a repeatable tech blueprint. Communicating the big picture for maximum inter and cross-departmental buy-in. Ensuring that the tech roadmap and business strategy are intrinsically linked to focus the engineering team on delivering true product and commercial value. Techniques for taking calculated risks and bets as a CTO – ensuring that you’re right more often than you’re wrong. #Technology #Leadership #Culture Speakers Crystal Hirschorn CTO Zoa	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Can you REALLY measure developer productivity? 11:30-12:30 Debating whether you truly can – and should – measure developer productivity? Which metrics should you be applying to your developers and how should you use the insights? What are some of the cultural pitfalls to avoid when communicating, rolling out and analysing the impact of measuring developer productivity? #Culture #Leadership #Technology Speakers Jennifer Bursack VP of Engineering Operations ComplyAdvantage Ryan Appleby Senior Solutions Architect Gitlab
12:00	LIGHTNING TALK: Leading with empathy: Turning good developers into great engineers Why is empathy crucial in engineering and leadership? Explore the fundamental importance of empathy in fostering effective communication, collaboration, and innovation within engineering teams. How can CTOs advocate for empathy and educate developers on its relevance in their daily tasks? Delve into strategies for CTOs to champion empathy within their organisations, providing practical examples and tools for developers to integrate empathy into their workflow. In what ways does empathy shape the life of a CTO and influence their leadership decisions? Examine the challenges and opportunities CTOs encounter in cultivating empathy within their teams and organisational culture. How can CTOs integrate empathy into their coaching and expectations framework to drive developer growth and team success? Explore techniques for CTOs to incorporate empathy into their coaching practices, empowering developers to enhance their problem-solving abilities and drive personal and professional growth. #Culture#Leadership#Wellbeing Speakers Adam Maschek CTO Momox
12:15	PANEL: Selecting the right technology for the right challenge How can you and your teams keep up-to-date with the freshest technologies and tools, without falling foul of the latest fads? How do you keep your engineers and developers excited about new technologies and tools, and constantly looking for new innovations opportunities? What criteria should you be considering when weighing up new technology implementations and how do these criteria differ depending on whether it’s a greenfield project, a rebuild or an evolution of the existing tech stack? How hands-on should CTOs be in this process and how does this evolve as companies and engineering teams grow? How do you communicate with your CEO, board and investors about new technologies in a way that increases understanding, sells value and excites, while managing expectations? What are the keys to success when it comes to moving from a standard client-vendor relationship to a true strategic partnership? #Technology #Leadership #Culture Speakers Adelina Chalmers CTO The Geek Whisperer's Dan Lake VP of Technology Not on the High Street Jon Leigh Director of Engineering moneybox Silky Vaidya Former Global Director of Engineering GoStudent Tony Butler Director of Strategic Accounts Software Mind
13:00	Lunch time Want to see a best-in-class solution provider? Wander our Exhibition Want to ask our speakers a question? Head to our Speaker Meet & Greets Want to meet peers tackling the same challenges? Join a themed Tech Talk Table Want to rest, decompress & recharge your social battery? Enjoy our Relaxation Zone
14:00	PRESENTATION: The art of distributed work: Harnessing strengths & mitigating weaknesses for asynchronous success Countless resources paint distributed work as the next industrial revolution, and countless paint it as dead in the water After doing it for over 10 years, it’s clear that the truth is a lot more nuanced This talk will share the ingredients to thrive in remote work and asynchronous communication environment Not as a fairy nor as a gloomy tale, but for what it is — a powerful yet peculiar tool, with its particular uses Covering multiple essential traits, values, and processes for technology organisations that make distributed tick, and not fall apart #Culture #Leadership #Wellbeing Speakers Gonçalo Silva CTO Doist	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Leadership lessons from downsizing & re-orgs 14:00-15:00 How can you overcome the taboo of discussing re-orgs and their impact? What are some key lessons learned from real re-org situations and how can they be applied in the future? How can you manage colleagues impacted by re-orgs with respect and compassion, whether staying or leaving? #Leadership #Culture #Wellbeing Speakers Joel Chippindale CTO Coach Monkey's Thumb Michael Hefferan VP of Engineering Farewill
14:30	LIGHTNING TALKS: Why psychological safety is the key to sustainable product development Join Georgina on a journey from a 19-year-old call centre agent to leading UK-wide critical programmes. Always starting and prioritising with psychological safety. In this talk, we’ll explore the transformative power of creating psychologically safe spaces within product development teams. Through a practical framework, we’ll navigate the complexities of diverse personalities, tackle collaboration challenges, and address the fine line between ambition and burnout. I’ll share some of the ugly and beautiful parts of my journey, highlighting the impact of psychological safety on outcomes. Learn how to cultivate an environment where burnout is minimised, productivity soars, and innovation becomes sustainable. Every tech leader can apply this framework starting today, making a difference to themselves and their teams ; You might already be doing some of it #Culture #Wellbeing #Leadership Speakers Georgina Shute Founder KindTwo
14:45	FIRESIDE CHAT: Leading your personal growth Expectations and needs from tech leaders vary from company to company. In fact, it changes in the same organisation as well, lately at an accelerated pace. This means that tech leaders need to continuously balance operational work with strategic and self-growth. How can you get a handle on your own strengths and areas of development, specific to your organisation and demands of your role, and take honest stock of where you need to grow? Understanding your intrinsic and extrinsic drivers and how these impact your approach to learning. Identifying roadblocks in your day-to-day work, building your development and learning around these and ensuring they’re a constant, top-to-bottom thread in your work. #Wellbeing #Leadership Speakers Elena Bladh VP of Engineering Aircall Emma Hopkinson-Spark Chief Knowledge Officer 101 Ways
15:15	LIGHTNING TALK: Do you have a minute? A better approach to feedback culture Giving and receiving feedback is hard. Yet without a flow of effective feedback it’s hard to create a culture where people can learn and grow. Too often feedback is either reserved for formal reviews or when performance is already a real concern. This talk explores how to change this and establish a culture where feedback flows continuously, based on lessons learned in a tech company of 500+ people. We’ll explore the pre-conditions required for a feedback safe workplace, recipes for how to give feedback effectively and why it’s the combination of mechanisms and support that really enables continuous feedback rather than one thing in isolation. And if you’re a leader at a tech business, why effective feedback isn’t just great for individuals but also a crucial component of high-performing teams that deliver. #Culture #Leadership Speakers Clem Pickering Coach and Founder Clement Pickering Coaching
15:30	Break time
16:00	LIGHTNING TALK: Beyond Testers: Embedding Test Expertise in Modern Software Development Teams The shifting landscape: Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines create the perception that dedicated testers are becoming obsolete, but this view is shortsighted. The continued need for testing expertise: Integrating testing knowledge into the entire development process is crucial to avoid quality issues, technical debt, and customer dissatisfaction. Practical integration strategies: CTOs need to upskill developers in testing, embed testing practices throughout the development lifecycle, and promote a culture of quality from the ground up. Conclusion: Testing expertise is a fundamental team skill set and can’t be treated as an afterthought. CTOs must make strategic decisions to integrate quality assurance deeply into their processes. #Culture Speakers Katja Obring Founder and Director Kato Coaching	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Fundraising & the role of the CTO 16:00-17:00 What role does the CTO typically play in fundraising, how does it differ organisation-to-organisation and what might necessitate a CTO being more hands-on? How can CTOs effectively contribute to the fundraising process? What are some of the skills CTOs need to learn to communicate with potential investors and understand their drivers? #Leadership Speakers Jon Holloway Chief Product and Technology Officer Cencora Kari Dempsey CTO Vaarst
16:15	LIGHTNING TALK: Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Having no Tech Strategy Creating a tech strategy can be difficult and it can even be damaging within an organisation. A tech strategy can distract focus and resource from what is required to make the business successful and can be divisive, erecting barriers between different parts of the organisation. A good tech strategy is lightweight and is there to support the business strategy. Tech principles – the things we care about that guide how we go about our work – a much more important than a tech strategy. Mark will take you through examples of how we focus on and implement our tech principles every day at TotallyMoney. #Leadership #Technology Speakers Mark Durrand CTO TotallyMoney
16:30	PANEL: Challenging ways of working – Finding happiness at work How can you combat stress, avoid burnout and create wellbeing-enhancing work? Understanding what makes your team members tick, what they value and how you can enrich that for them Creating environments where people can produce their best work in conditions that are optimal for their own personal lives and wellbeing How can you lead from the front and promote positive habits in terms of working style, wellbeing and rest? Leadership in action – How to lead with confidence, empathy and strength during high-stress instances: system failures, cyber attacks, failed product launches or, worse, company closures? #Wellbeing #Leadership #Culture Speakers Georgina Shute Founder KindTwo Lauren Langdell Global Community Director Women in DevOps Liz Pope VP in Engineering Unmind Ryan Murphy Engineering Manager Yelp
17:15	Closing Remarks Speakers Andy Skipper Founder and Chief CTO Coach CTO Craft

Schedule

Day 1

8th May 2024

Day 2

9th May 2024

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