IT & AI Leadership

Why this track, why now

Your team is already using AI. Governance hasn't caught up.

Adoption moved faster than oversight. Most boards still don't have a formal position on AI, and accountability for what goes wrong is unclear even where policies exist on paper. This track is built for the leaders who have to close that gap before it closes on them.

Boards with a formal AI governance framework in place, despite AI already running inside day-to-day operations.

Source: Grant Thornton, 2026 AI governance survey

28%

Organizations that hold their CEO directly accountable for AI governance oversight. Only 17% hold the board accountable.

Source: 2026 industry AI governance benchmark

Sessions built for you

The leadership track, at a glance

Keynote

Navigating the AI revolution

Jeffery Snover, Harvard Fellow

My entire career has been about maximizing the leverage, salaries, and careers of IT Pros. This is not another incremental tech cycle—the physics of our industry are fundamentally shifting. This AI revolution will be an aggressive career accelerator for those who adapt, and an extinction event for those who cling to the past. Let's cut through the vendor marketing fluff and get comfortable being uncomfortable, because the only way forward is engineering through the chaos.

Keynote

Digital Sovereignty in an Era of Continuous Disruption

Harald Fianbakken, Product Manager - Azure Local disconnected operations at Microsoft

For decades, organizations have invested heavily in securing their physical assets, supply chains, and business continuity. Yet in an increasingly digital economy, the most critical infrastructure a business depends on is often owned, operated, and controlled by someone else. Digital sovereignty is no longer just a political discussion or a compliance checkbox. It is a board-level business imperative. It is the ability to maintain control over your data, operations, and critical digital services, regardless of geopolitical tensions, cyber threats, regulatory change, connectivity failures, or unforeseen disruptions.

Level 200

That’s What AI Said: Catching Up in the Age of Ai

Feeling like everyone else is building robot empires while you’re still trying to figure out what “GPT” stands for? You’re not alone—and this session is for you.

In this laugh-powered, jargon-free survival guide to Artificial Intelligence, we’ll help you go from “Wait… what’s a token?” to “I just built a thing with Copilot and it didn’t explode!”

Level 300

Lessons from experiencing a ransomware attack

Ronald Beekelaar, Hyper-V MVP at Virsoft Solutions

Earlier this year, Virsoft Solutions was hit by a ransomware attack. Within a few minutes, all servers in the datacenter stopped working, due to the file encryption. Virsoft provides online lab virtual machines for thousands of students worldwide, as part of official Microsoft courses.
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In this session, Ronald Beekelaar, founder of Virsoft, and a 23 year Microsoft MVP, will tell the story of this experience.

Level 300

Cyber Security - State of the Union 2026

Sami Laiho, Chief Research Officer, MVP

Cybersecurity in 2026 looks very different from what we were preparing for just a few years ago. AI is accelerating both attacks and defense, identity has become the primary battleground, ransomware continues to evolve, and attackers are finding new ways around technologies we once considered strong security boundaries.

So where do we actually stand?In this session, Sami Laiho takes a fast-paced look at the current state of cybersecurity

Level 300

A Brave New World – A Technical Introduction to Quantum Computing

Andy Melone, Microsoft 365 Expert, Worldwide speaker

In this session we will discuss the next breakthrough in computing evolution, Quantum. In this 60 min session you’ll not only learn what Quantum Computing is, but also discover some of its practical applications. When you combine with the power of AI and you will be astounded at the future potential, not only for computing, but also humanity.

Who you'll meet