Check Out Our 2025 agenda
Find out more details of each of the speaker sessions as our 2025 agenda begins to take shape.
PLAN YOUR DAY, YOUR Way
Thursday, September 25th, 2025
08:30 - 09:00
registration
Tea, coffee and breakfast rolls on arrival.
09:00 - 09:25
Welcome
Karen Meechan, CEO, ScotlandIS
09:25 - 10:25
Keynote - The Web Before the Web
Ian Ritchie, Tech Entrepreneur
Ian Ritchie (CBE, FREng, FRSE, FBCS) founded OWL in 1984 which pioneered hypertext technology (a forerunner to the World Wide Web) and which was sold to Panasonic in 1989. Since then, he has been involved in over 50 start-up high-tech businesses.
In the late 1980s he was a founder of ScotlandIS (then the Scottish Software House Federation) and was its Chairman from 1988 to 1990.
In his keynote, Ian will talk about his company's contribution to the development of web technology and the modern graphics-based personal computing devices, as well as the early formation of ScotlandIS.
10:25 - 10:50
coffee break
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided, with the chance to network and browse the exhibition hall.
11:00 - 11:40
Attacks and Defences for lLMs
Daniel Llewellyn, Director of Technology, CreateFuture
With the incredible speed that developers have been integrating AI into their applications, the tools we have to prevent attackers from abusing AI has not kept up, and in fact unlike other vulnerabilities in web applications (like XSS) there is no easy or clear way of stopping prompt injection attacks.
In this talk, Daniel will cover some of the top threats, including prompt injection, jailbreaking and data poisoning, the impact it can have on an application, and attacks and defences at three levels: before a prompt hits the LLM, defences on the LLM and defences after the LLM.
While there is no silver bullet, he will finish by pointing the attendees to a few tools they can use to protect their own applications, and why you need to care, plus more on AI legislation and the growing call for 'responsible AI' practices.
11:00 - 11:40
How Hackers are Using AI (and What We Can Do About It)
Charlie Maclean-Bristol, Director, PlanB Consulting
Imagine getting a phone call from your CEO, urgently asking you to transfer £100,000 to a new supplier. You recognise their voice immediately — it has to be them, right? Except…it isn’t. It’s a hacker, using AI to mimic your CEO’s voice perfectly. This isn’t science fiction anymore — it’s happening today.
In this talk, Charlie will explore the many different ways hackers are using AI to enhance and accelerate their attacks. From deepfakes tricking staff into sending money, to phishing emails and ransom notes crafted in perfect English, AI is changing the cyber threat landscape at incredible speed. He’ll also look at how AI is making malware smarter and stealthier, slipping past traditional security tools with ease.
Along the way, Charlie will share real-world examples of AI-driven threats and explain what these developments mean for businesses and individuals alike. Importantly, we’ll also discuss the critical role of Cyber Incident Management in an AI world — and why having a prepared, well-practised human team remains essential when facing fast-moving, AI-powered attacks. Finally, the audience will leave with practical steps you can take to protect yourself and your organisation, and how you can even harness AI as a powerful tool for defence.
11:00 - 11:40
Key Trends Shaping Cloud Native and AI Ecosystem
Cheryl Hung, Senior Director, Head of Infrastructure Ecosystem at Arm
11:50 - 12:30
Coping with constant change: the realities of embedding AI
Richard Marshall, Principal, Concept Gap Ltd
Software environments have always been evolving, but the rate of change in the last couple of years has grown exponentially. This creates a massive problem for developers looking to create a stable, reliable enterprise operating environment, yet want to add new AI-based features. This is particularly important for many highly regulated industries where AI can bring measurable benefits, yet the churn in approaches, APIs, models, and capabilities makes adoption particularly challenging.
In this session, Richard will present techniques that will enable developers and architects to plan for an increasingly fluid future.
12:40 - 13:30
Lunch
13:40 - 14:20
Agentic AI: Software Steps into the Labour Market
Gary Crawford, Founder and Chief Advisor, Owendale Advisory
In 2011, Marc Andreessen famously declared, "Software is eating the world." But Andreessen wasn't entirely correct: software merely ate the tasks of storing and retrieving information—until now.
Agentic AI marks a seismic shift. We're now entering an era where AI-enabled software steps into skilled roles, performing activities once exclusive to humans. As AI enters the labour market, we stand on the brink of the most profound transformation in work, society, and economics since the Industrial Revolution.
In this talk, Gary Crawford outlines the strategic, operational, and cultural challenges leaders must overcome to succeed in the Intelligence Era. Combining sharp insights with practical guidance, this lively and entertaining session is a must-see for forward-thinking leaders shaping the future of work.
13:40 - 14:20
Code Meets Creds: Navigating the Identity Collision Course
Chris Owen, Managing Director, dotnext Europe
As software eats the world, identity is quietly becoming its favorite snack. In today’s DevOps-fueled, API-saturated world, the line between development and security has not just blurred—it’s buckling under the weight of machine identities, hardcoded secrets, over-permissioned service accounts, and a "ship it now, patch it later" mindset.
This talk explores where security and development collide—often unintentionally—and how developers are unknowingly holding the keys to the kingdom. We'll spotlight the growing risks around both human and non-human identities, including the rise of shadow tokens, identity sprawl in CI/CD pipelines, and privilege escalation hiding in plain sight.
But this isn’t a blame game. We’re here to show how developers can become identity champions without slowing down innovation. From least privilege by design to secrets hygiene that doesn’t suck, we’ll share practical strategies that work with your flow, not against it.
Let’s rethink identity security as a team sport—because the best code in the world means nothing if it ships with the wrong permissions.
13:40 - 14:20
Scaling Without Losing Momentum & Planning for Exits
Keith O'Donnell, Managing Director, Feynic Technology
This session is designed for post-seed to Series-funded tech companies, where Keith will break down the key frameworks and decision points that drive sustainable scaling. This talk will equip you with practical insights, actionable strategies, and expert guidance on maintaining momentum through rapid growth, navigating key funding stages and investor expectations, understanding the road to IPO or M&A (and how to prepare), and making informed decisions to future-proof your company.
14:30 - 15:10
Patching the Pipeline: Aligning Python Engineers and SQL Analysts
Ceri Shaw, Fractional CTO
Technical leaders often find themselves managing teams where Python engineers and SQL analysts operate in silos with misaligned goals and workflows leading to data teams struggling to untangle the data, broken pipelines and dashboards and blame games all around.
This talk explores why that gap exists, what it costs in terms of productivity and trust, and how to close it.
Ceri will look at real-world examples of tension between engineering and data teams, the root causes behind data handoff issues, and why shared context, collaboration and communication are the key to better outcomes. You'll leave with actionable strategies to align your engineering and analytics teams, from setting joint data contracts to embedding analysts in feature teams. Ceri will also share tips and techniques that have worked in her experience as a technical leader and discuss some of the well-intentioned misses and why they failed.
Whether you're leading a data-driven org or feeling frustrated with data work always lagging the product teams, this talk will give you actionable insights you can apply in your teams tomorrow.
