13 and 14 October 2026, Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow
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Registration Desk60 mins
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Main room10 minsChairperson
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Main room30 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
Government is moving from AI ambition to delivery; but the real challenge is applying technology effectively to complex, real-world problems. The No.10 Innovation Fellowship tackles this by embedding world-class technical talent into priority challenges across Whitehall, accelerating progress and delivering tangible outcomes at pace. Blending strategic insight with a live case study, they will share what it takes to move from concept to impact; including what works, what doesn’t, and the barriers that remain. This session offers senior leaders a view from the frontline of transformation, providing a tangible, proven model for delivering AI-enabled change across government.
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Main room20 minsHow legacy technology consumes budgets, limits innovation, and slows transformation – and what you can do about it.
Legacy technology can often place a significant strain on available resources within an organisation. It often slows the adoption of new technology, limits flexibility, and makes it harder to improve services. Civica CGD explores why legacy technology can act as an anchor on progress, and how organisations can build a stronger business case for change and select the right technical solution to support better service outcomes.
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Main room20 minsOur signature ‘Dragons’ Den’ session provides each solution provider with an opportunity to deliver a 60 second pitch, explaining why they are here and how their services can help tackle some of the s ...
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area75 mins15 minute meetings with suppliers who are offering solutions most relevant to your challenges. Please check the schedule on the back of your delegate pass for your meeting timings.
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Main room45 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
AI adoption across central government has moved from pilot projects to an operational expectation. But beneath the surface, a harder question is emerging: are we truly transforming services, or simply layering AI onto systems that aren’t fit for purpose? This keynote panel challenges the narrative of progress and asks leaders to confront the gap between ambition and delivery. With growing pressure to demonstrate value under tight fiscal conditions, departments must move beyond proof-of-concept and into measurable, citizen-facing outcomes. This session will examine what is actually working, what is falling behind, and what must change to deliver AI at scale.
- How are departments moving from pilots to scalable, outcome-driven AI adoption?
- What governance models enable safe, but agile, AI deployment?
- How can policy, procurement, and delivery functions align to avoid duplication?
- How are legacy systems being addressed to ensure AI tools are effective?
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Main room20 minsWith the rise in AI usage across all industries in recent times, problems are arising around the economics of AI, how organisations are buying it, and how we ensure entry-level talent are still given the ability to develop their skills in a world where AI is able to replace the simple work they often carry out at the start of their careers.
This session will explore:
• The new economics of AI
• What is the real cost of running an AI agent?
• With the growth of AI, how do AI and humans work together?
• How do organisations now buy AI?
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Networking lunch40 minsAn opportunity to connect with your peers and suppliers to talk over the learnings from the event. Lunch is served buffet style and a range of options are available to cater for different dietary requ ...
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Main room20 minsEverything we’ve learnt about Digital Transformation in Government is changing. Defining a clear “future state” in an AI programme is impossible – so we must rethink how to lead our organisations through a period of continuous change. In this session, Hable Founder & CEO Mark Reynolds explores why traditional change management approaches no longer work in the era of AI. He is joined by Andrew Allen, CDTO for Government at Microsoft – who will share examples from central government organisations and practical lessons from Copilot & Agentic AI adoption programmes in the UK.Speakers
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Main room40 mins
- Outcomes & Impact
Public trust in digital services is built through experience: whether services work, whether decisions feel fair, and whether people understand and trust how their data is being used. As government accelerates digital transformation and adopts AI, getting the foundations right becomes increasingly important. From data quality and governance to service design and accessibility, this discussion will explore what it takes to create public services that deliver better outcomes while maintaining confidence and trust.
- How is poor data quality undermining citizen experience and confidence? Do citizens understand and trust how their data is used?
- Are digital-enabled transformation efforts delivering measurable improvements in outcomes, particularly for underserved groups?
- How can government use data to drive efficiency while maintaining accessibility, transparency, and public trust?
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Main room20 minsAI agents are being handed the keys to legacy estates, sensitive citizen data and shared services, often before anyone has decided who's accountable for them. They're curious, tireless and eager to act, but they don't always know their limits, and they rarely ask permission. Under tight budgets, stretched teams and intense audit scrutiny, that's a risk few can afford. This session explores why identity is the control plane for agentic AI: proving who (or what) each agent is, what it can touch, and for how long. Securing agentic AI isn't child's play, but with identity in control, it can be.
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From Pilot to Proof: Measuring AI Outcomes, Sharing What Works and Building the Skills to Sustain ItBreakout room 120 minsMost government organisations have now piloted AI. Far fewer can evidence what it delivered, or sustain it without ongoing supplier support. Drawing on Phoenix Software's public sector delivery experience, this session shares three practical lessons: how to measure AI so that outcomes stand up in a business case, how a peer community is helping organisations share use cases and lessons across government rather than solving the same problems in isolation, and how a champion-led, build-with delivery model turns AI adoption into a repeatable in-house capability. Delegates will leave with a measurement approach, a collaboration model and a clear view of how to make AI skills stick. -
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Breakout room 220 minsAI has made building software dramatically faster. Things that took weeks can now take days, sometimes hours. Yet government delivery still follows the same Discovery, Alpha and Beta phases, with the same timelines and expectations. Does that still make sense?
In this session we'll explore where AI genuinely makes a difference, what still takes time, and how we might get from idea to working service differently. And we'll show you, not just tell you: our Senior Technical Lead Harry will build a government service live using AI while we talk, and we'll see how far he gets.
User research, testing and assurance still matter. But if building has changed, should the way we organise around it change too?
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Main room20 minsAs government organisations accelerate AI adoption, digital transformation and service modernisation, success depends on more than technology alone. Critical services rely on complex workflows, data flows and operational processes that span legacy systems, cloud platforms and departmental boundaries.
This presentation explores how enterprise orchestration helps government organisations create trusted, governed and AI-ready services by connecting people, processes, applications and data across the digital estate. Discover how greater visibility, control and automation can improve resilience, strengthen governance, modernise service delivery and ensure trusted data is available wherever and whenever it is needed.
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area75 mins15 minute meetings with suppliers who are offering solutions most relevant to your challenges. Please check the schedule on the back of your delegate pass for your meeting timings.
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Main room40 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
- Operations & Service Delivery
These roundtable discussions give leaders the opportunity to explore key themes from across the CGPN programme in greater depth through practical, peer-to-peer conversation. Each table will focus on a current central government challenge, giving attendees space to compare approaches, share what is working, discuss where progress is proving difficult and learn from others facing similar pressures. The aim is to turn wider programme themes into focused, candid conversations around practical delivery.
- From AI pilot to business as usual
- Doing more with less: Prioritising under pressure
- Fixing the foundations: Data, governance and AI readiness
- Modernising without breaking what already works
- Build, buy or borrow? Closing the capability gap
- Making transformation stick
- Designing services around the user, not the organisation
- Resilience in a rapidly changing technology landscapе
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110 mins
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Drinks reception and networking dinner150 minsNetworking sessions – throughout the event we host a networking lunch as well as a dinner and drinks reception to give you ample opportunity to connect with your peers and suppliers over the learnings ...
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Main room5 mins
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Main room30 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Finance & Sustainability
Effective procurement is no longer about buying services, but a strategic lever for innovation. In 2026, there is a renewed emphasis on working with SMEs, embedding social value, and fostering homegrown capability rather than relying solely on large vendors. This session explores how government can buy smarter, deliver better outcomes, and enable innovation across the public sector. How can we balance risk with efficiency, while ensuring tech investments contribute to the green transition, mission-led innovation, and UK digital capability, and align with broader government objectives.
- How can departments balance working with SMEs and large vendors to drive innovation?
- How can procurement decisions strengthen UK digital capability rather than just buying solutions?
- How do procurement reforms support environmental, social, and economic objectives?
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Main room35 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
This scenario-led discussion will examine what happens when a shared government service fails and responsibility is distributed across multiple organisations, systems and decision-makers. Using a fictional but realistic case as a common starting point, speakers will draw on their different experiences of technology delivery, operational leadership, policy, regulation and public accountability. Together, they will explore how decisions should be made under pressure, where responsibility should sit, and what leaders can put in place now to ensure shared ownership does not become diluted accountability.
- When systems are jointly owned and continuously evolving, how should accountability be defined?
- How do we assign responsibility when decisions become automated?
- Are current governance, audit, and assurance models fit for platform-based government?
- What practical steps can leaders take now to prepare for failure, not just delivery success?
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Main room20 minsIn this session, we will share the strategies we have developed for adopting AI internally here at Dell Technologies as part of our modernisation journey. Moving from AI ambition to practical delivery, we will cover some of the key lessons we have learnt along the way, leaving senior government leaders with a proven, real-world approach they can apply within their own departments.
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Breakout room 120 minsGovernment is under pressure to scale AI, yet most services still depend on people manually moving work between disconnected systems. Through a live Camunda demo based on a government use case, we'll show how orchestration and workflow technology connects people, legacy systems and AI agents within one coherent user experience. Running the process end-to-end in a single system provides full auditability, real-time observability and data to manage casework. We'll also show why combining deterministic workflow with AI orchestration provides the right framework to introduce, expand and scale AI across complex systems, processes and organisations, without ripping everything out and starting again.
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area60 mins15 minute meetings with suppliers who are offering solutions most relevant to your challenges. Please check the schedule on the back of your delegate pass for your meeting timings.
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Main room40 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
- Operations & Service Delivery
Despite efforts to reform, central government still operates largely in departmental silos, limiting opportunities to deliver joined-up, efficient systems. With pressure mounting to do more with less, 2026 marks a shift toward converged operating models and cross-government collaboration. Yet barriers remain around data-sharing, supplier management and investment decisions. This session brings together leaders to explore how government can move from isolated initiatives to a system-wide approach. What practical steps would enable data sharing and align strategy across departments?
- How can government overcome cultural and organisational barriers to effective data sharing?
- What does a realistic, joined-up operating model look like across departments?
- How can shared services reduce duplication while respecting departmental autonomy?
Chairperson
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Main room30 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
Good data underpins effective digital government, but creating a framework is only the beginning. The harder challenge is embedding consistent standards, ownership and accountability across complex organisations. Drawing on the Ministry of Justice’s experience of implementing its Data Quality Framework across 35 public bodies and around 93,000 staff, this interactive workshop will explore what it takes to turn principles into practice. Delegates will hear lessons from MoJ’s journey before comparing their own challenges, from securing business ownership and defining what “good” looks like to building capability and maintaining momentum. The session will identify practical approaches for improving data quality, accountability and assurance across government.
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Breakout room 130 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
- Operations & Service Delivery
Legacy tech is a widely recognised barrier to transformation, but a deeper challenge lies in understanding what already exists. Across central government, decades of system changes, undocumented workarounds, and staff turnover have created significant gaps in institutional memory, making modernisation complex, costly, and high-risk. As departments push to adopt AI and new digital services, many are finding that progress is constrained not just by outdated systems, but by a lack of visibility into how those systems operate. This session explores how organisations can take a more strategic approach to modernisation.
- How can departments better understand and map legacy systems before attempting transformation?
- How should leaders balance the cost of modernisation with long-term operational value?
- What practical approaches enable low-risk migration to modern platforms?
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Main room40 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
- Workforce, Skills & Culture
Government has talked about building digital capability for years, yet many departments remain heavily reliant on contractors. As transformation accelerates, is government building sustainable capability or outsourcing its future? Skills gaps persist, while digital and AI literacy remain uneven. As AI reshapes roles, what capabilities does government genuinely need to own, and how do we develop them across the workforce? This panel explores how government can move from short-term resourcing and one-off training towards sustainable capability, developing existing talent, evolving roles and aligning workforce strategy with transformation goals.
- Where should departments prioritise investment to build high-impact, in-house data and digital capability?
- How can government reduce reliance on contractors without slowing delivery?
- How do we scale meaningful digital literacy across the civil service?
- How can leaders evolve culture, career pathways, and incentives to retain talent?
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Main room5 mins
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Networking lunch50 mins
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