Day 1
09:15-09:25
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
09:25-09:55
Leadership Keynote – The CTO as a Global Citizen
Explore the intersections of technology, business and society, and the ethical concerns of CTOs in a globalised world.
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.
Erica Stanley, Director of Engineering, Google
09:55-10:25
Protecting Innovation: Mitigating the Hidden Risks of Emerging Tools
AI-driven breakthroughs dominate headlines but also are quietly added to the products your teams use, while the hidden risks like cross-border data transfer, compliance pitfalls, and trust erosion linger in the shadows.
Safeguarding innovation requires freedom, education and responsibility which is difficult to find the right balance.
This session explores practical methods for early warning signs, building policies, clarifying organisational accountabilities and strategies around adopting emerging tools.
See how Vention tackled these challenges for 3,000 employees across 12 countries that refine initiatives, reinforce secure practices, and keep innovation and risk management in sync.
Glyn Roberts, CTO, Vention
10:25-10:50
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
10:50-11:20
Coffee & Recharge Break
11:20-12:05
12:05-12:30
12:30-12:55
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
Presentation – The Connective Tissue of Tech: Why Glue Work Deserves Your Attention
- In the tech landscape, breakthrough features and transformative code often steal the spotlight, while critical “glue work”—testing, integration, and cross-functional coordination—remains undervalued and invisible. This essential work forms the connective tissue that holds technical organisations together.
- This session explores why glue work is often overlooked in performance reviews and promotions, how its invisibility leads to technical and organisational debt, and the true cost of neglecting this vital contribution.
- Practical strategies will be shared for recognising, measuring, and elevating the status of glue work, ensuring it is visible and valued, and creating career paths that reward this foundational effort.
Katja Obring, Director, Kato Coaching Ltd
Conversations Track
11:20-12:50
Scaling Your Company and Platforms to New Markets: Top Do’s and Don’ts For Architecture and more
All-Access Pass Required
Share your own experiences and pick up tips from your peers around the table.
- Scaling to new markets or verticals is no small feat—it’s a complex puzzle where every piece looks different. Whether it’s untangling legacy systems, prepping infrastructure for rapid growth, or building a team with market-specific expertise, everyone’s journey is unique.
- Get into the nitty-gritty of prioritisation and delegation. When do you step back, and when is it time to roll up your sleeves? Debate how to balance agility, costs, and all those tricky third-party integrations.
- Unpack the “do’s and don’ts” of software architecture, trading war stories and actionable insights that you can take back to your team.
- Join the conversation to swap lessons, brainstorm solutions, and leave with fresh ideas for tackling your next big scaling challenge.
Füsun Wehrmann, CTO, InPost
About the Conversations Track:
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.
12:55-14:00
Networking Lunch
12:55-14:00
Invitation Only: Lunch & Learn Roundtable – A Single Pane Of Glass
- As technology leaders, what tools are we using to capture our code health, security, team health and other metrics?
- We’re often touted a “single pane of glass” into some dimension of our department, but what out there actually brings that? And what metrics or statistics do we get from these tools that we trust and leverage?
- Let’s talk about what tools are actually bringing value and visibility into our software.
Kendrick Curtis, VP Technology, Codacy
14:00-14:25
14:25-14:50
14:50-15:15
Community Showcase – Defending Open Source: The Attack on Bitcoin
- Recounting the story of an open-source system under attack and how a global community united to defend it. The case of Craig Steven Wright, who falsely claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, showcases the importance of safeguarding open-source projects and the necessity of cooperation in tech—even among fierce competitors.
- Explore how Wright’s well-resourced and escalating attack—implicating billions in BTC—was dismantled by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) through collective legal action. The aftermath highlights the vulnerabilities in open-source systems and the need for vigilance.
- Key lessons focus on fostering industry-wide collaboration, strengthening defences, and valuing open-source communities as critical to the future of technology.
Tristan Sherliker, of Counsel, Bird & Bird, London
Tech & Leadership Presentation with Skillerwhale
About Skillerwhale:
SkillerWhale offers live, expert-led training sessions designed to help software engineering teams enhance their skills and productivity. Unlike traditional courses, SkillerWhale’s approach focuses on hands-on, practical learning tailored to the specific needs of each team, ensuring immediate applicability and measurable improvements in performance.
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
Conversations Track
14:00-15:30
The Great Tech Shift: Predicting Tomorrow’s Tech Industry
All-Access Pass Required
- The tech industry is transforming at lightning speed, with AI co-pilots, evolving team structures, and redefined leadership roles shaking things up. Join the conversation to discuss how these changes are reshaping hiring, management, and innovation.
- Dive into the impact of AI-driven productivity on middle management and debate whether these roles are destined to shrink, pivot, or evolve entirely. Share ideas on what these shifts mean for leadership at all levels.
- Explore how today’s CTOs can transition into broader strategic roles, navigating organisational change and leveraging emerging technologies to drive business growth.
- This dynamic roundtable offers a space to swap insights, share predictions, and brainstorm how to thrive in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Glyn Roberts, CTO, Vention
About the Conversations Track:
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.
15:15-15:50
Coffee & Recharge Break
15:50-16:15
16:15-17:00
17:00-17:25
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
Moderator: Mackenzie Jackson, Developer and Security Advocate, Aikido Security
Community Showcase – 15 to 1: Scaling down a startup for success
- Transitioning from a “startup with VC cash” to a resource-constrained “small business” requires a fundamental shift in mindset, particularly for tech leadership. This session contrasts two leadership experiences: scaling a team rapidly with significant funding versus scaling down to a fraction of the size while maintaining operational efficiency.
- Explore strategies for supporting complex SaaS platforms with minimal resources, balancing tech debt with feature development under extreme constraints, and effectively managing stakeholder expectations when prioritisation becomes critical.
- Practical lessons demonstrate how lean approaches to technology and leadership can drive long-term success, even in challenging circumstances.
Mark Somerfield, CTO, Hostology
Conversations Track
15:50-17:20
Leading as an Effective and Strategic CTO in the Board Room
All-Access Pass Required
- Effective collaboration with the board and C-suite peers is a key skill for any CTO. Discuss strategies for understanding board dynamics, aligning with their goals, and building trust to strengthen relationships at the highest levels.
- Share insights on how to adapt communication styles for the boardroom, exploring what works (and what doesn’t) when presenting complex technical issues to non-technical stakeholders.
- Engage in real-world scenarios with your peers, practicing techniques and trading tips on how to navigate tough conversations, present your ideas with clarity, and advocate for technology’s role in driving business success.
- This interactive session provides practical takeaways and fresh perspectives to enhance your effectiveness in the boardroom.
Dan Smith, CTO Coach, Partners in Tech
About the Conversations Track:
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.
17:25-17:30
Chair’s Closing Remarks
Lee-Jon, CTO, CTO Craft
17:30
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 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
- Understand the dynamics that drive the “shape” of the CTO role and what this “shape” might mean for you if you’re a person aspiring to be a CTO or if you’re working with or as a CTO today.
Pat Kua, CTO Coach & Founder, 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
11:50-12:15
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
David Asabina, Associate Partner, Philipps & Byrne
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 SaviCommunity Showcase – How to not hurt people with software
- People don’t usually die when we get software wrong, but our health and wealth are increasingly reliant on good software.
- Valid data is a big part of that, so we’ll talk through three practical principles to help with everything from internal emails, to high level architecture, to lines of code.
- Non-techie or techie, you’ll take away some fresh thinking and entertaining ideas to guide and inspire your colleagues.
John O’Rourke, Technical Director, GetJohn & Co
Conversations Track
10:40-12:10
The skills pathways you need in a rapidly evolving tech landscape
All-Access Pass Required
- With GenAI accelerating higher-level coding abstractions like prompt engineering and workflow configuration, technology leaders face tough questions: How can organisations upskill effectively without chasing short-lived trends or investing in soon-to-be-obsolete skills? Share insights on navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.
- Explore practical strategies for creating a joined-up approach to innovation, skills uplift, and practice sharing across teams. Discuss ways to avoid wasteful duplication of effort and make upskilling more collaborative and aligned across departments.
- Debate techniques for guiding upskilling that balance staying ahead of trends with building lasting, adaptable skills, while generating excitement and alignment throughout the organisation.
- This engaging discussion will provide practical ideas for fostering skill development that prepares teams for the future while avoiding the pitfalls of chasing every new tech fad.
Matthew Skelton, Founder at Conflux and co-author of Team Topologies
Renee Hawkins, COO, Conflux and Woman of the Year at the 2021 Women in Tech Excellence awards
12:15-13:15
Networking Lunch
Lunch & Learn Roundtable
13:15-13:40
13:40-14:05
Community Showcase – Engineering Managers: The most important and yet most overlooked role in your tech org
- Engineering Managers (EMs) play a pivotal role in the success of engineering organisations, often surpassing the impact of individual engineers or even senior leaders. They are key to retaining talent, ensuring delivery, and embodying the cultural values of the organisation through hiring, learning, and team engagement.
- Explore the pros and cons of different EM models—how much ownership they should have over delivery and the ideal balance between technical skills and leadership focus. Insights will also cover hiring and developing strong leaders from within the team.
- Learn how to provide career development and tailored support, creating an environment where they can thrive, enabling teams to perform at their best and fostering long-term organisational success.
Katherine Spice, Engineering Lead, Lendable
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
Conversations Track
13:15-14:45
Culture Mapping Your Team for Innovation and Resilience
All-Access Pass Required
- Explore how to identify the current culture within your team and map it to the culture needed to achieve key organisational goals. Share approaches for bridging gaps and aligning team dynamics with broader objectives.
- Engage in a deep dive with your table, where participants collaborate to apply culture mapping techniques, uncover challenges, and share practical solutions.
- Discuss strategies for fostering a culture that drives innovation, builds resilience, and adapts to changing organisational needs, while keeping team values and morale at the forefront.
- This hands-on session is designed to spark actionable ideas and insights for cultivating the culture your team needs to thrive.
Erica Stanley, Director of Engineering, Google
About the Conversations Track:
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.
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 – Cyborg CTOs: Where CTOs should be personally leveraging AI
- Many CTOs, even those leading AI-driven organisations, underutilise AI tools in their own workflows. By leveraging LLMs extensively, CTOs can dramatically increase productivity—doubling, even tenfolding their impact in strategic and operational areas.
- Practical use cases include gaining deeper insight into engineering activity without micromanagement, re-engaging with hands-on technical work without traditional drawbacks, and preemptively resolving communication issues with Boards, CMOs, and CEOs. Additionally, AI can offer nuanced, actionable advice for handling sensitive team conflicts beyond standard HR guidance.
- Drawing from real-world examples since 2022, this session explores the transformative potential of AI for personal and professional efficiency in CTO leadership.
Adam Martin, Consulting CTO
Conversations Track
15:00-16:30
Technology Workshop with Gitpod
All-Access Pass Required
Session details coming soon.
About the Conversations Track:
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.
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
Selina Butterfield-Mashoofi, CFO and CTO, Central Co-op
Silky Vaidya, Interim CTO, ex- GoStudent, Anaplan, CISCO
Moderator: Zoe Cunningham, Director, Softwire
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!