THE PRAGMATIC CDO:
CHALLENGINIG ASSUMPTIONS,
DRIVING TANGIBLE RESULTS
Agenda Day One
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM IQPC
8:35 am - 8:45 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON
8:45 am - 8:50 am
LIVE POLLING
8:50 am - 9:20 am
Keynote Presentation: CONFRONTING THE BRUTAL TRUTH – WHY YOUR AI STRATEGY IS GOING TO FAIL
Loulou van Ravensteijn -
Chief Data Officer,
Provincie Gelderland
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, AI strategies are quickly becoming the cornerstone of digital transformation. However, in the current rush to keep up with competitors, hypes and buzzwords, how many of these strategies will really succeed? How many will be written off as a huge waste of resource and money? Before you go any further, maybe it is time to think again.
- Get insights into early failed AI strategies and how to avoid the same fate.
- Explore the key pillars of a successful AI strategy and key factors that must proceed any attempts of big strategic overhauls.
- Critically assess your current plans to see if you are prepared for the journey.
9:20 am - 9:50 am
Fireside Chat: CUTTING THROUGH THE NOISE – PROVEN POTENTIAL OF GEN AI WITHIN INSURANCE & PHARMACEUTICALS
Peter Wanda -
Chief Data & Analytics Officer,
Zurich Insurance
Emanuele D'Agati - Head of Digital Transformation & AI Strategy, Bayer
In this candid fireside chat, two seasoned CDOs from highly regulated industries share their experiences implementing Generative AI within their respective organisations, offering a balanced view of both successes and challenges. While acknowledging the potential pitfalls highlighted in the previous keynote, this discussion aims to showcase tangible benefits and real-life examples of Gen AI applications in 2025, using real examples of initiatives within insurance and banking.
- Explore successful Gen AI initiatives that have delivered measurable value in highly regulated environments.
- Share insights on overcoming common hurdles and turning initial setbacks into valuable learning experiences.
- How to get the correct balance between pragmatism and optimism when devising your AI strategy throughout 2025.
9:50 am - 10:20 am
Presentation: DATA QUALITY: THE CORNERSTONE OF TRUSTWORTHY AI
Erik Horsting -
Principal Solutions Consultant,
Reltio
The emergence of AI presents a unique chance to redefine interactions - with customers, suppliers, partners, prospects and other key stakeholders. To capitalise on this, organisations must prioritise the establishment of a solid data foundation that is built upon high-quality, trustworthy data. Data leaders are at the forefront of this transformation, yet find themselves held back by siloed, fragmented and poor-quality data that’s next to impossible to activate across the enterprise, much less utilised in AI models. Organisations seeking to adopt AI with urgency in order to make their data give them the competitive edge find meeting the ever-increasing amount of regulatory scrutiny slows their efforts down.
- Explore proven methods for delivering unified, real-time data streams to both operational and analytical systems within your business.
- Learn about data strategies that enable AI-powered, high-quality customer experiences with trusted, interoperable data.
- Build a governed data foundation that manages customer data privacy and consent choices while ensuring ease of access and rapid distribution to approved destinations.
- Cut through the noise and use AI to empower data teams by giving them continuously updated, reusable, and high-quality data.
In an era where data is the backbone of decision-making, the integration of robust data management solutions like Microsoft Fabric is more critical than ever. Join us for an engaging Think Tank session where we will explore the pivotal role of data quality in driving successful outcomes.
- Discuss how Master Data Management (MDM) can enhance the effectiveness of data lakes and ensure that the right data is available for AI and ML applications.
- With the mantra "garbage in, garbage out," delve into strategies for improving data quality and fostering a productive relationship with Microsoft Fabric.
- Identify best practices and collaborative approaches to maximize the potential of our data assets in this evolving landscape.
In today’s data-driven world, businesses have unprecedented opportunities to create personalised loyalty experiences through the integration of Gen AI and advanced analytics, establishing unprecedented trust and drive long-term returns.
- Discover strategies to leverage the full spectrum of customer data to deepen engagement and optimise loyalty programs for maximum impact.
- Assess the balance between maintaining compliance and maximising the personalisation of your engagement with customers to drive elevated customer loyalty.
12:10 pm - 12:40 pm
Presentation: BUILDING THE CUSTOMER DATA FLYWHEEL
In today's environment it is not enough to collect data and generate analytics - the most ambitious enterprises are assembling a "data flywheel", where data is turned into operational decisions, followed by action which in turn generates more data, feeding and accelerating the flywheel.
- Discover the concept of data flywheels, first popularized by Jensen Huang, before delving in specifically into customer-orientated flywheels.
- The session will propose a 'crawl-walk-run' approach to transform from prescriptive analytics through to predictive ML and finally to the AI agentic future.
- Real examples and use cases of how top enterprises are implementing these approaches today.
12:40 pm - 1:10 pm
Presentation: THE PERFECTION PURSUIT – WHY 100% DATA QUALITY IS A MYTH AND WHAT CDOS SHOULD FOCUS ON INSTEAD
Valthor Halldorsson -
Executive Director, Head of Data,
Islandsbanki
In preparation for Gen AI, there is growing pressure to provide flawless data quality. Currently, CDOs spend approx. 30-40% of their time focusing on data quality issues. However, the relentless pursuit of data quality can become counterproductive, taking your data team away from more impactful data initiatives. While data quality is a undeniably valuable for decision-making and operational efficiency, it is essential to recognise that data quality perfection is unnecessary and unobtainable.
- Learn why just 80% and not 100% the most effective goal for establishing high quality data.
- Explore the trade-offs between different dimensions of data quality, such as timeliness vs. completeness, and how to make informed decisions.
- Understand alternative focuses instead of solely perfecting data quality throughout your organisation.
1:10 pm - 2:10 pm
Lunch
Speed “Data-ing” - Meet new delegates and learn about their current data challenges and successes.
- Be open to share unconventional and controversial insights into common challenges and themes surrounding your industry and organisation with other delegates.
- Discover current data challenges and innovative ideas from your peers through data conversation cards.
2:45 pm - 3:15 pm
Presentation: THE FUTURE OF REGULATION IN DATA – WHAT’S NEXT AFTER THE EU AI ACT?
Since the EU AI Act entered force in August 2024, CDOs have been focused on implementing its requirements to remain compliant by August 2026, when most of its requirements will be fully applicable. However, this Act is not the end for data regulations in Europe. Learn what’s likely to come next from the European Commission’s AI Office, how to remain compliant and well-positioned for future regulations.
- Listen to an expert voice discussing the likely next steps of European data regulations, including the EU AI Act, AI Liability Directive and alignment with global standards.
- Understand a compliance framework and other best practices to position yourself securely for future incoming regulations within data, analytics and AI.
3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Panel Discussion: BEYOND DATA – THE POWER OF HUMAN INSIGHT AND CREATIVITY IN THE AGE OF GEN AI
Marijke Majoor -
Chief Data Officer,
NIBC Bank
Tom Trollez - Director of Global Data & Analytics Solution Delivery, Novartis
Julie Siezing - Head of Data Governance, LB Forsikring
Jan Krasnodebski - Head of Data Science, Hostelworld
In an era where data is often hailed as “the new oil”, CDOs are increasingly recognising the irreplaceable value of human insight and creativity. While data-driven decision-making has revolutionised business operations, relying solely on data can lead to missed opportunities and a lack of innovation.
- Uncover the delicate balance between data-driven insights and human intuition, ensuring that your organisation doesn’t become overly reliant on algorithms at the expense of creative problem-solving and strategic thinking.
- Learn strategies for cultivating a data-informed culture that values both analytical insights and creative thinking to enhance decision-making processes.
In the era of Generative AI, data is seen by many as the new gold. However, not all data is created equal, and unstructured data from various internal and external sources presents unique challenges and opportunities. The ability to effectively harness unstructured data becomes a key differentiator between organisations that flop or succeed in implementing innovative Gen AI initiatives.
- Understand the challenges and opportunities presented by unstructured data in the context of Gen AI.
- Discover best practices for data cleaning, normalisation and integration of unstructured data from diverse sources.
- Explore cutting-edge techniques for transforming unstructured data into AI-ready formats, including natural language processing and computer vision approaches.
Naturally, there is often a focus on the technical aspects when implementing data initiatives. However, the success of these projects hinges not only on managing the data, but on effectively managing human behaviour.
Your data team can increasingly become catalysts for organisational transformation, if their abilities to communicate, influence and lead change takes place.
- Understand the importance of change management principles in the rollout of data initiatives.
- Learn strategies for developing and applying soft skills to enhance the effectiveness of data teams.
- Explore techniques for overcoming resistance and building buy-in for data-driven approaches across the organisation.
5:45 pm - 6:15 pm
Presentation: DATA DIPLOMACY – TRANSFORMING DATA INITIATIVES INTO DATA PRIORITIES TO SHOW THE TRUE VALUE OF DATA
Olaf Lamberz -
Executive Director, Digital, Data, Analytics & IT,
MSD
In today’s data driven business landscape, securing executive support for data initiatives is more crucial than ever for their success and long-term impact. Data leaders must understand how to craft data initiatives that are both business-critical and forward-looking, whilst giving attention to the important relationships with stakeholders that will make or break the success of projects.
- Explore effective strategies for data leaders to gain C-suite buy-in, aligning data projects with organisational goals and demonstrating tangible value.
- Develop a strategic communication plan tailored to different executive stakeholder’s interests and concerns to effectively demonstrate tangible value and derive requirements.
- Leverage real-world case studies and industry benchmarks to demonstrate the competitive advantage of data-driven decision making.
6:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Roundtables
- Metadata Maturity: The foundation of scalable data governance
- Augmented Data Management: Operationalizing ai at scale
- The Future of Data Architecture: Data mesh vs. Data fabric
- Sustainable Data Strategies: Balancing innovation with environmental responsibility
