Join former NASA Chief Data Officer Ron Thompson for an insightful session on the real-world challenges and opportunities of driving digital transformation at scale. With a career spanning over a dozen U.S. federal agencies as CIO, Deputy CIO, and CDO, Ron brings a unique lens to how public sector missions and private sector innovations intersect.

This session will explore how data, automation, and culture work together to fuel innovation — from national security to space exploration. Ron will share firsthand stories from NASA and beyond, highlighting what it takes to move large, complex organizations toward meaningful change.

Participants will leave with actionable insights on:

• Making data a strategic asset — not just a byproduct

• Balancing innovation with operational constraints

• Leading through change in highly regulated environments

• Building inclusive digital strategies that scale

Whether you’re in government, a startup, or scaling a tech business, this is a chance to learn what it really takes to transform — and sustain — enterprise-level systems in a rapidly evolving world

When it comes to innovation and technology impacting future mobile experiences, what will good look like?

How will the capabilities of mobile experts across product and engineering need to evolve and how will that impact the experiences brands are looking to create? How will engineers embrace and maximise automation, robo-coding, AI? What expertise and talent will be needed to bring them to life?

Agentic technology and delegated functionality is evolving our mobile experiences into ever-present personal assistants. A brand will need to consider the way it interacts not just with customers, but also with other applications. Screens may move down the pecking order as new functionality creates multiple entry points.

This panel discussion will tackle all of this and more, head on, providing expert views across innovation, technology, and design. What will next generation mobile experiences really look like and how will brands be expected to show up?

Organisations are faced with a colossal challenge. Business decision-making in the 21st century is defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (known as VUCA). That is the baseline from which you must lead your organisation. Doing so requires that corporate strategies be responsive, agile, and adaptable. This is where hyper-personalisation is a market differentiator. How do we achieve this exceptional engagement, everywhere but also at any time and for anything for monumental growth bringing the 3 Ps together – Platforms, People & Perceptions. Hyper-personalization uses AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, and recommendation engines to process to analyze data and deliver custom experiences. Its a must, not a perk anymore. Embrace it or be left behind.

This talk explores the challenges women face in their tech careers and the power of creating your own space when you don’t fit the traditional mold. I’ll share my journey, pivoting into tech, building products, and leading through rejection and doubt, as well as real stories of women who’ve launched new paths despite fear. We’ll examine why many great ideas never start, why startups often fail, and how fear, perfectionism, and lack of representation hold us back. Attendees will leave inspired to push past fear, embrace defining moments, and boldly lead with authenticity, even if it means building the room yourself.

In an age where digital platforms shape childhood in real-time, developers are no longer just builders—they’re gatekeepers. With the UK’s Online Safety Act now in full effect, the responsibility to protect younger users is shifting left—into the codebase, into product design, and into the hands of those who create the technology itself.

This session brings together leading voices from tech, policy, law enforcement, and online safety to explore the developer’s role in building safer digital spaces for children. We’ll examine the technical and ethical decisions behind age verification, content filtering, engagement algorithms, and more.

For the first time on our main stage, we’ll also hear real-world insight into:

• The types of crimes being committed through everyday platforms
• How predators exploit features like messaging, livestreaming, and anonymity
• The role tech platforms play in both enabling—and preventing—these crimes

We’ll also explore a critical tension:

Where should the line be drawn between platform responsibility and parental control?
Should developers bear the full burden of protecting young users—or should parents, educators, and institutions be doing more?

Whether you’re writing algorithms, shipping features, or shaping user journeys—this is your call to consider not just what you build, but who might be harmed by it