What's in store on Day 3 of the IT Leaders Festival?

AI in defence, Robots in government, AI/ML: the RoI question, the coming role of the Dark Net in everyday life, ask a CIO ... and more

The third day of our flagship IT Leaders Festival event, 22 October, is book-ended by two thought-provoking presentations on the nature of the coming wave of analytics powered technology and what it means as a country and a society.

At 10.35 am BST, Major General Tom Copinger-Symes takes us through some concerning developments in international relations and the UK's response in creating a digital backbone to counter cyber and other threats.

And to conclude the event, Jamie Bartlett, author of The Darknet and writer and co-presenter of The Missing Cryptoqueen BBC podcast ponders the inevitable encroachment of machines into all areas of business and asks how we should prepare for a world when all aspects of life are digitally intermediated. Jamie is on at 2.40 pm.

In between we have a look at introducing robotic process automation at the Department of Work and Pensions, the role of AI in security, and panels on the IT skills drought, getting RoI from machine learning tools and a look at the office of the future. A full agenda is below.

Video recordings of the two previous days' sessions are available on demand. Register or login today.

Day 3 Agenda, 22 October

All day
Fringe Events: Ask a CIO, Mindfulness Worksop, Mentoring Academy, Metal Health Workshop
10:30 - 10:35 BST
Opening Remarks
10:35 - 11:10

Connecting Defence - Delivering the Digital Backbone

Major General Tom Copinger-Symes, Director Military Digitisation UK, Ministry of Defence

In this talk General Tom Copinger-Symes describes how the Ministry of Defence is embarking on a transformational journey to gain a competitive advantage over its adversaries by harnessing the power of cutting edge technologies such as AI, data analytics, automation and robotics.

11:10 - 11:30

Intelligent Automation in the DWP

Hayley Addison, Lead Product Owner, Department for Work and Pensions

This presentation will focus on robotics Process Automation (RPA) and wider AI capabilities and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) approach and platform. It will explore the way in which RPA and AI can be delivered at scale and pace, maximising benefits and contributing to service transformation.

11:30 - 11:50
Coffee and movement break
11:50 - 12:10

Darktrace: Mimicking Human Intuition: The Cyber AI Analyst

During this presentation, Darktrace's Global CISO, Mike Beck, will outline the capabilities this world-first technology, the Cyber AI Analyst, and discuss how automated investigation and triage is helping to uplift and augment human teams across the globe. He will also demonstrate how an APT using a zero-day was caught weeks before public attribution using cyber AI analyst technology.

12:10 - 12:45

Panel: The Skills Drought

  • What skills should you be investing in? How will this change over time?
  • What skills are young people being taught?
  • How can you train staff to overcome the skills shortage?
  • How could apprenticeship schemes benefit your organisation?
12:45 - 13:20

Panel: Is there value in AI and Machine Learning?

  • Where would AI / ML bring RoI to your organisation?
  • What are the biggest growth opportunities for these technologies?
  • How to incorporate AI / ML into the wider business strategy.
  • Are your data architecture foundations ready?
13:20 - 13:50
Lunch break
13:50 - 14:20

Panel: Office of the Future

  • Is hotdesking a thing of the past? What does this mean for your infrastructure and resources?
  • How will demands on hardware be altered? What can you do with redundant kit?
  • Is your organisation ready for a virtual desktop infrastructure?
  • How will this affect your business continuity plans? Could they be automated?
14:20 - 15:00

Closing Keynote: Tech's Crystal Ball

Jamie Bartlett, Author, The Darknet

Jamie will examine how our use of technology is likely to change in the coming years in unexpected and surprising ways. He will show how the dark net will affect ordinary people's lives, and the dangers of people not understanding the machines that affect them. Can politics, society & business keep up with technology - and if so, how?