BCS Convene 2025 Programme- Innovating an ethical and sustainable UK tech landscape
Our convening power is what sits at the heart of our Royal Charter, so we’re excited to gather industry leaders, innovators, educators, and thinkers to explore the future of technology in our ever-evolving world. Note: Programme is subject to amendment.
AM session
08:00 - 09:00
Registration open
09:15 - 10:00
Room: Spärck/Shirley
Keynote 1: Recent Advances in AI: Where did they come from, what do they mean, and where are they going?
While Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a prominent emerging technology for at least a decade, the speed of progress in the past few years has been remarkable - and possibly unsettling. Generative AI, most notably in the form of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT has gone viral - the first general purpose AI technology to reach a global audience. In this talk, I will review what is generative AI and how is it different, and ask why generative AI has taken off now. I will look at capabilities of generative AI now, and how will they evolve, and the implications for business and society.
Professor Michael Wooldridge FBCS, Ashall Professor Oxford University
10:00 - 10:55
Room: Spärck/Shirley
AI, Ethics and Governance
In this session we will share perspectives on ethics, governance and innovation to help understand UK AI readiness, workforce impact and how we can innovate ethically.
Session Chair:
Nadia Abouayoub FRSA, Founder, AIRFINAI
Committee Member - BCS AI Specialist Group
Panellists:
Leanne Allen, UK Head of AI, KPMG
Bill Mitchell OBE FBCS
BCS Influence Board Member
Dr Sam De Silva FBCS, Partner & Global Co-Head of the Commercial Practice Group at global law firm, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP (CMS).
Board Member - BCS Influence Board
Chair: BCS Legal Specialist Group
10:55 -11:10
Break
11:05 - 12:00
Room: Shirley
Resilience of services: the challenge for IT professionals (Service Resilience)
Short briefings on:
- The current business environment – the effect of IT failures on the economy
- Why service resilience is important for AI: Professor Alan Brown
- The current operational environment and the cyber threat: Steve Sands
- Methods and tools – outcomes from the IT Leaders Forum Service Resilience Working Group
Chair:
Gill Ringland FBCS, Emeritus Fellow - Sami Consulting
Secretary - BCS IT Leaders Forum
Panellists:
Ed Steinmueller, Emeritus Professor - Science Policy Research Unit - University of Sussex
Alan Brown, Professor in Digital Economy - Exeter University
Steve Sands CITP, FBCS,MCIIS, Information Security Consultant and Data Protection Officer - Synetics Solutions
Chair - BCS Information Security Specialist Group
12:05 - 13:10
Room: Shirley
How Quantum Computing will change our world and what you need to know now
Quantum computing presents another seismic shift in computing and society, its enormous power for problem solving could have a radical impact on the way we live our lives, it also creates further new challenges in cyber and ethics.
In this session we explore what Quantum is and its use cases in computing, we’ll also look at what it might mean for cyber threats, ethics and innovation.
Chair:
Steve Sands CITP, FBCS,MCIIS, Information Security Consultant and Data Protection Officer - Synetics Solutions
Chair - BCS Information Security Specialist Group
Panellists:
Andy-Stanford-Clark, Lead Quantum Ambassador - IBM
12:05 - 13:10
Room: Spärck
Embedding sustainability through technology, innovation and a shift in leadership
Sustainability is on the agenda for every organisation but how is it achieved? In this curated panel discussion we will share perspectives ranging from energy efficient products, Green software development and understand the response needed from leadership to shift organisational mindset and culture.
Chair:
Sathpal Singh
Chair - BCS Agile Methods Specialist Group
Panellists:
Alex Bardell, Founder - SDAdvocate
Chair - BCS Green IT Specialist Group
Mark Butcher, Director - Posetiv Cloud Ltd
Joanna Masraff, Founder - Green PO and Pirate Jo
PM session
13:10 - 14:20
Lunch
14:20 - 14:45
Room: Spärck/Shirley
Details coming soon
14:45 - 15:45
Room: Spärck
Unlocking potential and meeting the skills demand of an evolving profession
The skills landscape is ever changing, but one thing is a consistent – the skills gap. In this session we look at the opportunity of addressing a lack of diversity in the profession as a solution to meeting skills needs, whilst helping to provide people with opportunity to unlock their talent.
Chair:
Jo Stansfield, Founder and Director - Inclusioneering Ltd
Panellists:
Julia Adamson MBE FBCS CITP, Managing Director of Education and Public Benefit - BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
Matthew Bellringer, Director - Meaningbit
Charlene Hunter MBE, Founder - Coding Black Females
Nimmi Patel, Head of Skills, Talent & Diversity - Tech UK
Russ Shaw CBE, Founder, Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates
15:45 - 16:00 BREAK
Break
16:00 - 16:50
Room: Spärck/Shirley
Our Professionalism Journey
Upholding our standards, ethics and professionalisation in partnerships.
Richard Corbridge FBCS, Chief Information Officer
SEGRO
Samantha Faithfull, Associate Partner
IBM
