BUILD THE CULTURE, SYSTEMS, PROCESSES AND AI THAT MAKE DATA VALUE INEVITABLE
BUILD THE CULTURE, SYSTEMS, PROCESSES AND AI THAT MAKE DATA VALUE INEVITABLE
Agenda Day 1
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
IQPC WELCOME SPEECH
8:35 am - 8:45 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON
Louise Maynard-Atem -
Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and Fraud,
Government Digital Service
Louise Maynard-Atem
Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and FraudGovernment Digital Service
8:45 am - 8:50 am
LIVE POLL
8:50 am - 9:35 am
PANEL | STOP FAKING “MATURITY” - REIMAGINE YOUR DATA CULTURE FOR PRODUCTION READY AI
Mike Leverington -
Sr. Director Business Analytics,
Skyscanner
Martin Knoebel - Head of Digital Solutions & Analytics, UK Power Networks
Miryem Salah - Director Digital Data & Transformation, VodafoneThree
Shruti Sharma - Chief Data & AI Officer, Save the Children UK
Dave Harrison - Global Director of Data & AI Stewardship & Delivery, Mars Wrigley, Mars
Louise Maynard-Atem - Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and Fraud, Government Digital Service
Let's be honest: many organizations are diving headfirst into AI, but their data culture is shaky - at best. This gap between AI ambition and data maturity is a recipe for disappointment, leading to failed projects, wasted resources, and frustration. It's a familiar story; the business demands supersonic speed, but the data infrastructure is stuck on dial-up. The biggest challenge is however not technology, but cultural resistance to change. Without buy-in from business units and senior management, even the best AI strategies stall. Real maturity starts with honest conversations about what’s not working and a willingness to address legacy processes and mindsets. The point isn’t perfection, and while speed matters, sustainable speed wins. Keep the board onside, your teams invested, and vision realistic when budgets tighten and patience thins to prepare for AI that delivers.
• Discover how to align your data culture with your organisation’s AI ambitions.
• Explore culture fixes for broadening understanding of what makes data culture across seniorities work for you, not against you.
• Learn to spot the early warning signs of a failing AI strategy before you get stuck in a “sunk-cost” fallacy loop.
Louise Maynard-Atem
Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and FraudGovernment Digital Service
9:35 am - 10:05 am
PRESENTATION | VEEZOO CASE STUDY
10:10 am - 10:40 am
THINK TANK | THE AI PARADOX - SOLVING FOR SCALE, COST, AND GOVERNANCE
While 2025 was the year of the AI pilot, 2026 is the year of the ‘Agent Tax.’ As organisations transition from simple chatbots to autonomous agents, infrastructure costs are surging by over 166% year on year. For the CDO, the challenge is no longer ‘How do we build it?’ but ‘How do we scale it without breaking the budget or the trust of the business?’ Discover how to move beyond fragmented silos and build a governed, audit-ready architecture that provides the strategic autonomy required for the Age of AI.
• Identify the Agent Tax and pinpoint where hidden compute multipliers and Black Box costs are leaking from your 2026 budget.
• Discuss the transition from tool proliferation to a universal semantic layer to eliminate data silos.
• Learn about frameworks for ensuring AI transparency and evidence-based approvals that satisfy both the EU AI Act and UK regulatory standards.
10:10 am - 10:40 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
10:45 am - 11:15 am
COFFEE & NETWORKING BREAK
10:45 am - 11:15 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
11:20 am - 11:50 am
THINK TANK | GOVERNANCE THAT LIVES IN THE FLOW – OWNERSHIP, EVIDENCE, AND SPEED WITHOUT SILOS
Biju Mukund -
Global Head of Data Governance and Privacy,
Unilever
Governance is a team sport and only works when built on top of delivery workflows, not layered over it – when people don’t’ actually use it, operations stall. Too often, rules sit outside the frontline, so teams wait weeks for approvals, chase definitions, or re-check what should be obvious or immediately accessible. The fix is simple: ownership in business teams, clear decision rights, findable definitions, and lineage captured automatically – the result? Saved time, energy, and sanity. A central-but-open library keeps people aligned, while reusable evidence packs and event-based approvals replace 11th-hour bottlenecks and cut delays before they start.
• Assign ownership and decision rights inside everyday workflows.
• Automate cataloguing, lineage, and evidence to reduce rework.
• Use event-based approvals to shrink cycle time and prevent last-minute stalls.
11:20 am - 11:50 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
11:55 am - 12:25 pm
PRESENTATION | CONTEXT INTELLIGENCE - MASTERING THE NEW RULES OF DATA FOR AGENTIC AI
Chris Lowe -
Senior Solutions Consultant,
Reltio
The old rules of data no longer apply. We have entered the Age of Context Intelligence, where the leap from passive automation to autonomous Agentic AI depends entirely on the depth and reliability of your data foundation. How does AI shift from simple, automated responses from chatbots towards Agentic AI that can reason, plan, and act with situational awareness? This move is achieved by implementing the concept of 'Context Intelligence'. Discover how to provide AI agents with high-quality, unified data necessary to drive business growth without human intervention.
- Learn 10 new rules of data management and governance to understand how to weave context intelligence across the data landscape to stay ahead of the next wave of autonomous AI.
- Explore how to implement high-quality and cohesive data inputs for AI agents to augment growth and increase ROI.
- Examine the ever-evolving data and AI climate to understand the shift from passive automation towards agentic AI, gleaning the relationship between a solid data foundation and harnessing more autonomous forms of AI.
12:25 pm - 12:55 pm
PRESENTATION | SCALING TRUST IN DATA - GOLDEN METRICS, GUARDRAILS, AND CHANGE
Ela Osterberger -
Director of Experimentation & Measurement,
Booking.com™
Conflicting definitions and fragmented metrics erode trust and slow innovation. Real impact only happens when organisations establish clear, consistent metrics, guardrails, and decision-ready products that teams adopt at scale. At Booking.com, scaling experimentation and measurement required:
• Defining golden metrics and guardrail frameworks that teams could rely on.
• Building the Impact Aggregator approach, turning ad hoc analyses into reusable, decision-ready products.
• Developing platforms for measurement and experimentation that balance safety, control, and innovation.
• Leading the change management journey to align leadership and embed new ways of working across a large number of teams.
The outcome? Clearly defined, shared metrics, platforms that scale, and decisions that are faster, safer, and more consistent.
12:55 pm - 1:55 pm
LUNCH – TOPIC LABELLED DISCUSSION TABLES
Pick your challenge focused seat during lunch, and get to network with peers who are focused on similar blockers – walk away with new contacts, and solutions to what’s holding you back
1:55 pm - 2:25 pm
THINK TANK | DATA QUALITY IS MORE THAN JUST PROCESS – INGRAIN DQ HYGIENE IN YOUR TEAMS’ DNA
Chris O'Donnell -
Head of Analytics,
Utilita
Your AI is only as good as the data you feed it. Rubbish in, liability out. Poor data quality is the silent killer of AI initiatives, leading to unreliable models, flawed insights, and an overall loss of business trust. Technical data cleansing is one solution, but often organisational quality culture is also a major blocker. Instead of slow, expensive blanket monitoring, learn to target critical data points with automated checks and clear ownership at the stages that matter the most. Discover how to build a robust foundation for trustworthy AI, ensuring your models are accurate, reliable, and production ready.
• With your peers, discuss and pinpoint the critical points where the majority of data quality issues arise.
• Move from ad-hoc fixes to policy-backed checks tied to real owners and SLAs.
• Develop quality routines you can embed into day-to-day work, so teams treat DQ as part of deliver, not an afterthought.
1:55 pm - 2:25 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
2:30 pm - 2:35 pm
LIVE POLL
2:35 pm - 3:20 pm
PANEL | MAKE SMARTER PLATFORM BETS WITHOUT LOCK-IN AND CRAFT A WINNING STRATEGY ROADMAP
Shruti Sharma -
Chief Data & AI Officer,
Save the Children UK
Louise Maynard-Atem - Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and Fraud, Government Digital Service
The modern data stack is a complex ecosystem. Choosing the right data platform is one of the biggest bets a data leader can make, with long-term consequences for cost, agility, and innovation. Integrated suite or focused tools? Buy, build, or a little of both? With margins tight, the wrong call drags year-round. With hyperscaler alliances shaping who you can do business with for years to come, platform decisions need to align with long term business strategy, not just immediate technical or budgetary concerns - you don’t want to be boxed in roadmaps you can’t influence. Done right however, platform strategy unlocks efficiency without trading freedom for convenience.
• Learn how to choose the right platform path by weighing time-to-value against long term priorities so investment doesn’t backfire.
• Discover practical ways to keep flexibility, ensure privacy, and avoid ecosystem captivity, so today’s decision doesn’t restrict tomorrow’s strategy.
• Learn how to stress-test vendors against real constraints so that your platform choices don’t trap you later.
Louise Maynard-Atem
Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and FraudGovernment Digital Service
3:20 pm - 3:50 pm
THINK TANK | WHO OWNS THE LAST MILE OF AI? - ENABLING USERS TO OPERATIONALISE AI
Prashant Chamarty -
Strategic Alliance Manager,
Alteryx
Most organisations have modern data platforms. Many are investing in AI. Yet value often stalls at the final hurdle - where business context, governance, and usability collide. In this peer-led think tank, we’ll explore how leading organisations are solving the “last mile” challenge: enabling business users to operationalise AI on governed enterprise data—without compromising control or compliance. Expect candid discussion, cross-industry insight, and practical approaches to bridging platform capability with real business impact.
3:20 pm - 3:50 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
3:55 pm - 4:25 pm
COFFEE & NETWORKING BREAK
3:55 pm - 4:25 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
THINK TANK | DATA COMMERCIALIZATION LAB - FROM HYPOTHESIS TO PILOT
Ramneet Julka -
Head of Data & Analytics,
VOIS - Vodafone Intelligent Solutions
Organizations are investing heavily in data and AI, yet few can clearly show the return on that investment. The new challenge is not only how to turn data into a product, but how to attach commercial value to AI models, agents, and capabilities that rely on that data.
Whether your monetization goal is internal ROI (productivity gains, automation value, AI-driven efficiency) or external commercialization (data and AI products, APIs, insights-as-a-service), it comes down to the same principle: putting a price on intelligence.
• Explore how to identify and prioritize data and AI assets with real commercial potential.
• Learn how to price, build, and scale data and AI products effectively.
• Discover what governance, trust, and cost transparency frameworks are needed to sustain commercialization.
Challenge assumptions, share practical examples from across industries, and co-create strategies that turn data and AI from a sunk cost into a sustainable commercial engine.
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
5:05 pm - 5:35 pm
PRESENTATION | NO MORE TOKEN GESTURES - FAST TRACK AI INTO PRODUCTION TO ACCELERATE OUTCOMES
Are you caught in endless GenAI experimentation, chronic pilotitis or acute proof of concept (POC) syndrome? While companies run as many as 40 GenAI POCs annually, 95% of them fail to reach production and achieve measurable business outcomes. Adoption is high, but transformation is rare. Context is everything: without integration into your business data the benefits of even the most impressive GenAI models will be short-lived. In the meantime, workers are taking matters into their own hands, bridging the pilot-to-production chasm with shadow use of personal GenAI tools at work. Cutting-and-pasting sensitive data into prompts and uploading company files to shadow GenAI is now the number one vector for corporate data exfiltration.
• Keep your business stakeholders happy by accelerating AI outcomes and explore how to fast-track to enterprise-grade production-ready AI
• Learn how to connect to distributed, hybrid, heterogeneous data sources
• Discover how to establish security and governance by handling data privately and securely
5:35 pm - 5:45 pm
CLOSING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON
Louise Maynard-Atem -
Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and Fraud,
Government Digital Service
Louise Maynard-Atem
Deputy Director for Data, Insights, and FraudGovernment Digital Service
