Day 1
09:05-09:10
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
09:10-09:40
Leadership Keynote with Erica Stanley
Coming all the way from Atlanta, Erica brings her expertise from tech giants like Boeing, Oracle, and Turner Broadcasting to the CTO Craft Con stage!
A passionate advocate for gender and multicultural inclusion, she’s reshaping the future of tech through impactful community work and advisory roles, including 100 Girls of Code.We’ll be sharing more on Erica’s session in the upcoming weeks – stay tuned!
Erica Stanley, Director of Engineering, Google
09:40-10:05
Presentation – Bootstrapping the CTO Role: The Best First 100 Days in a New Leadership Position
- Stepping into a new CTO role is a critical time to establish your leadership style, build trust with your team, and set a strategic direction for the organisation. The first 100 days can define your long-term success.
- Learn how to prioritise key initiatives, build relationships across the leadership team, and establish a clear tech strategy that aligns with the company’s goals. Avoid common pitfalls and learn how to make a strong early impact.
- Explore the best practices for setting up quick wins, securing stakeholder buy-in, and creating a roadmap for both short-term and long-term growth.
Roxana Diaconescu, CTO, SilverRail
10:05-10:50
Coffee & Recharge Break
10:50-11:35
11:35-12:00
Panel – The Role of the CTO in Shaping Company Culture
- CTOs significantly influence company culture, especially during times of organisational growth, restructuring, or crisis.
- Strategies for promoting effective inter-team communication, managing diversity, and fostering a culture of innovation that aligns with company values and objectives are vital.
- Practical advice and real-world examples will help in intentionally building a positive and resilient organisational culture that supports individual well-being and overall business success.
Sara Stephens, CTO, Rest Less
Manogna Machiraju, Head of Engineering, Domestic & General
Vicky Smalley, CTO, FundamentalVR
David Santoro, CTO, carwow
Moderator: Henry Draper, Director, Albany Partners
Presentation – The Future of R&D Productivity: Leveraging a Strategic Framework and GenAI for Lasting Impact
- Increasing R&D productivity benefits from a structured measurement framework and the strategic application of technologies like GenAI. This session covers a tailored framework for product engineering teams, focusing on metrics that align with business goals and promote high-impact activities.
- Explore how GenAI is reshaping R&D, enhancing efficiency in coding, bug triage, and data analysis, alongside its limitations in areas requiring human oversight and context-specific judgment.
- Actionable strategies will be shared to drive productivity initiatives, overcome adoption barriers, and foster an adaptable team culture that evolves with new tools and technologies for lasting impact.
Will Lytle, COO, Plandek
10:50-12:20
Scaling Your Company and Platforms to New Markets: Top Do’s and Don’ts For Architecture and more
All-Access Pass Required
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 and learn from each other. With 3 sessions per day, each Conversation will run for 90 minutes.
Füsun Wehrmann, CTO, InPost
12:00-13:15
Lunch & Learn Roundtable
13:15-13:40
13:40-14:05
Community Showcase
With over 160 submissions for CTO Craft’s call for papers, our Creative Committee is working hard reviewing each and every paper. Stay tuned for winners to be announced the week of 11th November.
Fireside Chat – The Intersection of Tech and Product: Defining Roles in the Modern Organisation
- As the roles of tech and product teams increasingly overlap, clear definition of responsibilities and effective collaboration are crucial to avoid confusion and inefficiency.
- Clarifying distinct roles of tech and product teams and offering strategies to foster effective collaboration that enhances product development and organisational performance is key.
- Insights into aligning these teams’ efforts ensure that their combined contributions lead to better product outcomes and a more efficient organisation.
Niall Paterson, Director of Engineering, Butternut Box
Hannah Patrick, Head of Product, Butternut Box
13:15-14:45
Gaining stakeholder trust and building strong communication between technology teams and the board
All-Access Pass Required
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 and learn from each other. With 3 sessions per day, each Conversation will run for 90 minutes.
Dan Smith, Coach, CTO Craft
14:05-14:30
Community Showcase
With over 160 submissions for CTO Craft’s call for papers, our Creative Committee is working hard reviewing each and every paper. Stay tuned for winners to be announced the week of 11th November.
14:30-15:15
Coffee & Recharge Break
15:15-15:40
15:40-16:25
Presentation – Facilitative Leadership: Maximising Other’s Contributions
- Discover your mission and style: Learn how aligning your personal leadership mission with facilitative practices enhances collaboration and empowers decision making
- Explore facilitative leadership: Understand why facilitative leadership goes beyond traditional servant leadership by fostering true collaboration
- Drive results: Get ideas for workshops and participative meetings that maximize the contributions of each team member
Claus Höfele, Head of Engineering, On
Panel – Cybersecurity in the Age of AI: Strategies for the Modern CTO
- As AI technologies advance, cybersecurity threats become more sophisticated, requiring new approaches to safeguard organisational assets.
- Discuss the latest challenges in cybersecurity, such as AI-driven phishing attacks and data breaches, and explore comprehensive security strategies.
- Gain insights into developing robust cybersecurity protocols, integrating AI in defence measures, and training teams for effective threat response.
Lee Edwards, CTO, Shared Services
Ravneet Shah, CTO, Allica Bank
15:15-16:45
Technology Workshop – To be announced!
All-Access Pass Required
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 and learn from each other. With 3 sessions per day, each Conversation will run for 90 minutes.
16:25-16:50
Community Showcase
With over 160 submissions for CTO Craft’s call for papers, our Creative Committee is working hard reviewing each and every paper. Stay tuned for winners to be announced the week of 11th November.
16:50-16:55
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
16:55
Networking After Party
More information coming soon!
Day 2
09:05-09:10
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Emma Hopkinson-Spark, Director of Business Change, Bromford
09:10-09:40
The CTO Spectrum: Which Archetype Are You?
As a CTO, you might start talking to another CTO and suddenly think, ‘Wow! Their job looks really different from mine.’ This can even make you wonder, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ Over my 20+ years in technology, working as a consultant, advisor, peer and now coach with many CTOs, I’ve observed that while the role varies widely, certain common CTO ‘archetypes’ emerge. In this talk, we’ll explore these archetypes and what they mean for you — whether you aspire to be a CTO, work with one, or are navigating your own path as a CTO.
Pat Kua, Coach, Tech Lead Academy
09:40-10:05
Presentation – People, Process, Technology: Thriving as a Technical Leader
- Becoming a successful technology leader requires skills in three core areas: people, process, and technology. Each leader has unique strengths in these areas, and rather than aiming to excel equally in all, focusing on your strongest areas can be far more effective.
- Learn how senior tech leaders can identify their strengths, leverage them to enhance their leadership impact, and position themselves in roles that fit their skill set.
- Explore how to prioritise business outcomes by aligning technology initiatives with strategic goals, ensuring that your leadership delivers maximum value.
Anna Shipman, CTO, Kooth
10:05-10:40
Coffee & Recharge Break
10:40-11:25
11:25-11:50
Panel – AI Ethics and Practical Applications: Moving Beyond the Hype
- Implementing AI in a way that is both effective and ethically responsible, such as ensuring fairness, avoiding bias, and protecting privacy.
- Shift the focus from theoretical AI capabilities to practical, real-world applications that drivemeasurable business outcomes, including use cases that deliver tangible benefits, such as improved customer service, enhanced operational efficiency, or new product innovations.
- Focusing on impactful applications and managing risks, you can drive innovation while maintaining a strong ethical stance and future-proof organisations against potential legal and reputational risks.
Sarah Persov, Engineering Lead, Dojo
Massimo Belloni, Senior Engineering Manager – Machine Learning, Bumble
Presentation – Building a Data-Driven Engineering Culture
- Fostering a data-driven culture within engineering teams enhances decision-making, innovation, and alignment with business goals.
- Explore the necessary tools, processes, and cultural shifts required to embed data at the heart of the engineering workflow, driving informed decisions.
- Learn how to implement data-driven practices that empower teams, improving their ability to innovate and deliver solutions aligned with strategic objectives.
Oge Opara-Nadi, VP Engineering, Hey Savi10:40-12:10
Skills pathways needed for fast flow and Team Topologies
All-Access Pass Required
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 and learn from each other. With 3 sessions per day, each Conversation will run for 90 minutes.
Matthew Skelton, Founder, Holistic Innovation
11:50-12:15
Community Showcase
With over 160 submissions for CTO Craft’s call for papers, our Creative Committee is working hard reviewing each and every paper. Stay tuned for winners to be announced the week of 11th November.
12:15-13:15
Lunch & Learn Roundtable
13:15-13:40
13:40-14:05
Community Showcase
With over 160 submissions for CTO Craft’s call for papers, our Creative Committee is working hard reviewing each and every paper. Stay tuned for winners to be announced the week of 11th November.
Presentation – Redefining Company Values – A Playbook and Case Study
- Many companies struggle with defining effective values, often defaulting to virtuous but uninspiring behaviours like “be data-driven” or “team first.”
- Learn how yetipay took a different approach, inspired by Brené Brown’s definition of values as deeply held beliefs that guide us at our best and help us make hard decisions.
- Explore the process the yetipay team followed, and how their elected values have become cornerstones of their hiring practices and decision-making processes.
- Discover how redefining values can meaningfully impact your organization’s culture and align everyone towards shared goals.
Matt Yule-Bennett, CTO, yetipay
13:15-14:45
Leadership Workshop with Erica Stanley
All-Access Pass Required
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 and learn from each other. With 3 sessions per day, each Conversation will run for 90 minutes.
Erica Stanley, Director of Engineering, Google
14:05-14:30
Presentation – From Agile Fatigue to Empowered Teams: Implementing Shape Up at Scale
- Today’s Agile practices often result in teams merely going through the motions—standups, sprints, and retrospectives—without delivering expected outcomes. Engineers frequently work through tickets without a holistic view, leading to unmet expectations, disempowered teams, and delayed or ineffective software.
- As Agile reaches its limits, more teams are turning to **Shape Up**, a refined approach developed by Basecamp that truly empowers teams to deliver valuable software consistently.
- Sharing insights from implementing Shape Up at Moneybox over the past five years, discussing both successes and challenges in scaling it across a 120-person tech team.
Jonathan Leigh, Director of Engineering, MoneyBox
14:30-15:00
Coffee & Recharge Break
15:00-15:25
15:25-15:50
Presentation – The CTO’s Guide to Managing Tech Strategy During Economic Turbulence
- Navigating tech strategy during economic uncertainty requires informed, strategic decisions that prioritise initiatives aligned with core business objectives.
- Approaches to balancing build vs. buy decisions, optimising resource allocation, and maintainingstrategic focus despite financial constraints are essential.
- Practical advice on guiding organisations through economic challenges ensures continued tech success and business resilience.
Nasreen AbdulJaleel, CTO + CPO, Marley Spoon
Community Showcase
With over 160 submissions for CTO Craft’s call for papers, our Creative Committee is working hard reviewing each and every paper. Stay tuned for winners to be announced the week of 11th November.
15:00-16:30
Technology Workshop – to be announced!
All-Access Pass Required
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 and learn from each other. With 3 sessions per day, each Conversation will run for 90 minutes.
15:50-16:35
Panel – Balancing Innovation with Operational Excellence: CTOs in the Boardroom
- The demand for continuous innovation often conflicts with the operational imperatives of running a tech organisation efficiently.
- Effective alignment of tech strategies with broader business goals ensures that innovation does not compromise operational stability.
- Explore strategies for managing stakeholder expectations and achieving a balance between driving innovation and maintaining operational excellence.
Neil O’Connor, CTO, Experian Consumer Services
Mohamed Ait Si Brahim, Group CTO, Hargreaves Lansdown
16:35-16:40
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Emma Hopkinson-Spark, Director of Business Change, Bromford
16:40-18:40
The Unofficial Drinks!
Ready to be a part of it? Confirm your spot here!