THE UK'S PREMIER INVITATION-ONLY COMMUNITY MEETING FOR SENIOR DATA LEADERS
18-19 March 2026
| London, United Kingdom
Agenda Day 1
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
IQPC WELCOME SPEECH – KONSTANTINOS-KONOR LAMBRINIDIS, CONFERENCE PRODUCER, IQPC
8:35 am - 8:45 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON
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
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.
9:35 am - 10:05 am
PRESENTATION | AI BEYOND ONBOARDING: MINIMIZE RISKY UPDATES AND ACCELERATE APPROVALS
Onboarding a new AI solution is the start of the risk curve, not the finish. New product features land faster than legal can read existing T&Cs, creating risk and delays. The smart move is a standing rulebook, rather than a case-by-case evaluation of each vendor feature. Learn how to reduce feature approval times with reusable due-diligence packs and a standard AI addendum vendors sign once.
• Stop compliance drift with event-based reviews; no more re-running the whole playbook for minor updates.
• Design fast lanes for low-risk features, quarantines for the rest, and enforceable exit rights to cap compliance creep.
• Develop frameworks that cut approval cycles without exposing the business to hidden risk
10:10 am - 10:40 am
THINK TANK | DATA QUALITY IS MORE THAN JUST PROCESS – INGRAIN DQ HYGIENE IN YOUR TEAMS’ DNA
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.
10:10 am - 10:40 am
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
10:45 am - 11:15 am
SOLUTION SANDBOX | DEMO SPONSOR SOFTWARE
Step out of the sales pitch and into a safe sandbox. Using vendor datasets or synthetic data, and test tools against common constraints: lineage, latency, privacy, and cost. Uncover hidden integration needs, examine how platforms behave under time pressure (it’s a 30-minute session after all), and picture how it would perform in your own environment.
• Test time-to-value and integration friction on your data reality.
• Surface hidden services, contract gotchas, and future lock-in risk.
• Leave with a written go/no-go you can defend to legal, finance, and procurement.
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
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 – CURIOSITY-DRIVEN ANALYTICS: THE JOURNEY FROM DASHBOARDS TO AGENTIC BI
With AI models like DeepSeek R1 and OpenAI’s o3 mastering the art of reasoning, Business Intelligence stands at the cusp of a paradigm shift. Once synonymous with dashboards - or simply “PowerPoint for Data” - BI is now rapidly evolving into a proactive system where AI actively answers our most critical business questions. As AI continues to advance, it won't merely assist - it will proactively answer thousands of insightful questions in the time it takes a human to ask one.
In this keynote, Marcos Monteiro, co-founder of Veezoo, the Swiss tech company behind the world's first Curiosity-Driven Analytics solution, will guide you on the journey from Dashboards to Agentic BI.
Discover how leading companies such as AXA, Breitling, Valora Group, and Baloise are leveraging the power of AI to make smarter, faster, and more effective data-driven decisions.
12:25 pm - 12:55 pm
PRESENTATION | SCALING TRUST IN DATA: GOLDEN METRICS, GUARDRAILS, AND CHANGE
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 | SELF SERVE OR SELF DESTRUCT? HOW TO EMPOWER YOUR TEAM WITHOUT ENABLING CHAOS
Freedom and autonomy to explore and exploit data is great. Accelerated speed-to-insight, experimentation, and unburdening data teams from ad-hoc requests. The catch? Spreadsheet and tool sprawl, skewed dashboards, and unintended data leak risk. The fix isn’t increased gatekeeping; it’s better guardrails.
• With your peers, define certified sources and access tiers business users can follow with trust.
• Learn how to grant fast paths for common queries, with role-based access and logging that catches trouble early.
• Agree simple rules that keep reports consistent, so teams move fast without creating chaos.
11:55 am - 12:25 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
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.
3:20 pm - 3:50 pm
THINK TANK | FROM RISK TO REVENUE: MAKING DATA SHARING SAFE, SCALABLE, AND SELLABLE
Data sharing promises big rewards; efficiency gains, stronger partnerships, new revenue streams - but trust issues and privacy concerns make it complex. Partnerships need data, reputations require upkeep, and consumers need reassurance. Balancing all is where things get tricky. Data sharing only thrives when terms are clear, data is protected, and customers are informed. Add in interoperability barriers, real-time security needs, and architectural headaches, and the challenge multiplies. The upside is real, but the path to safe, scalable sharing remains the hard question.
• Learn how to communicate the value of data sharing to a non-privacy savvy board.
• Discover techniques for building trust with customers and partners around data sharing.
• Get a framework for creating data-sharing agreements that are clear, transparent, and fair
3:20 pm - 3:50 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
3:50 pm - 4:20 pm
COFFEE & NETWORKING BREAK
3:50 pm - 4:20 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
4:20 pm - 4:50 pm
THINK TANK | DATA COMMERCIALIZATION LAB - FROM HYPOTHESIS TO PILOT
Think Tank | Data Commercialization Lab - From Hypothesis to Pilot
Many organizations are sitting on a goldmine of data but don't know how to turn it into a profitable product – when they do, other obstacles appear. From retail, healthcare, travel, and chemical verticals, organizations are realizing they’re in fact in the data product horizontal. From deciding which datasets can offer sustainable financial gains, to exploring data partnerships that unlock revenue, there are several routes to extract surplus value from idle assets. It however takes serious brainstorming, willingness to experiment (and fail), and convincing the board; that’s where it gets tricky.
• Explore use cases for data monetization and compare how other industries are tapping into this goldmine.
• Discuss what data assets you want to monetize, and brainstorm how to operationalize them.
• Compare monetization strategies across industries and adopt best practices from verticals you wouldn’t expect.
4:20 pm - 4:50 pm
1:1 BUSINESS MEETINGS
4:55 pm - 5:25 pm
PRESENTATION | KILL “JUST-IN-CASE” DATA: THE HIDDEN COST OF KEEPING EVERYTHING
Keeping legacy data feels safe, but it slows innovation, buries insights, and swells bills. Legal retention collides with messy, unstructured sprawl - emails, SharePoint duplicates, local copies. Hoarding becomes a comfortable habit, not strategy; all while most value still only sits in a small slice of data. Your technology is not to blame – it’s culture that makes data bloat stick around. Tackle the perception that all data matters equally, and embed a data cleansing culture that saves time, energy, and patience. The win? Accelerated time-to-insight, cheaper legacy modernisation, and a database your team can actually work with.
• Determine real retention duties vs. data that inflates storage and confusion.
• Decide if the “might be useful one day” mantra keeps legacy data alive long after its relevance fades.
• Balance growth plans with realistic storage costs and a lean data culture.
