The IT services industry has never been more vibrant. Enterprises are relying on IT service providers to help them grow, execute faster and reduce costs like never before. However, providers are under pressure. Competition is fierce as globalization levels the playing field. Talent is increasingly difficult to source, impacting project timelines. And wages are increasing for in-demand skills, putting pressure on both buyers and sellers of IT services.

In this keynote session, learn what's driving growth in our industry, key changes in services pricing and talent availability, and how changing enterprise buying patterns are re-shaping shaping the industry as we move into 2023.

Guy Gadney runs Charisma Entertainment, using Machine Learning to power virtual characters for the entertainment industries and the metaverse. He has previously worked on pioneering interactive entertainment products for global media organizations such as the BBC, Sky, Penguin Books, FOX, and has produced Emmy and BAFTA nominated products for drama and factual television series. Guy is Chair of the Arts at the Old Fire Station venue in Oxford, on the UK5G Creative Industries Working Group, and has given keynote speeches on AI and Creativity around the world. He is a co-founder of The Collaborative AI Consortium, promoting creative leadership in AI developments. With Charisma, Guy is transforming interactive entertainment through the use of advanced technology, producing projects for Sky, the BBC, Warner Bros Discovery, and inspiring a new generation of game designers and developers to pioneer new forms of entertainment.

A potential future large scale quantum computer puts the world's digital economy at risk, due to the underlying cryptography being broken. At the same time, changing existing cryptography across the business is known to be difficult and costly. In order to anticipate this future threat, we need to become ready to implement new encryption standards that are recognized to be “quantum safe”, which at the same time are nearing standardization. Improving your “crypto agility” allows you to gain control over the way you encrypt today as well as prepare you to rapidly implement new types of cryptography tomorrow. There are multiple initiatives that organization should start today and we will share IBM's point of view on the matter.

The Future of Work has given rise to the Return to Work where we see a myriad of unique “solutions” being focused on.  This has resulted in organisations appearing across a scale of return to work mandates from “do what you want” on one side to “all must return” on the other.  In reality, what are the essential components that need to be in place to enhance operations and employee experience and which also might offer cost savings when potential recession looms?

Applying selective agile practices to IT sourcing and contracting sounds contradicting as typical attributes of agility such as speed, flexibility, or uncertainty are usually not perceived as characteristics of IT sourcing or contracts. This session reveals with the help of exemplary reference cases how selective agile practices can be applied to the domain of IT sourcing and contracting to significantly reduce not only tender duration but also reducing risk and contract uncertainties in the sourcing process – in short: Improving the sourcing process and developing better contracts.

Meet in Hotel Lobby at 5:45 pm for the short walk to Flight Club, Victoria

Across the ESG value chain, many organisations are not yet on top of what is needed to be truly ESG leaders.  Using the end-to-end supply chain as an example from contract to disposal, we will investigate the fundamental elements that need to be in place to ensure organisations are not labelled as “greenwashers” when declaring ESG and environmental benefits in their service deliver.