AI CONFERENCE
01.10.25
About the conference
DiSH Manchester, Heron House
9:00am Registration. 9:40am Talks Start. 4:30pm Closing Remakrs & Evening Social
What to expect
Designed for those working in AI this conference will include:
AI is shaping every corner of the tech landscape — and at MTF AI, we go straight to the heart of it. Our talks and panels focus on the technical realities of AI development, deployment, governance, and ethics. Expect challenging, in-depth sessions designed for those building, integrating, or scaling AI systems — with actionable insights you can take back to your organisation.
Meet the companies leading the charge in AI innovation. Our tech expo showcases cutting-edge tools, platforms, and services from organisations actively building the future. Whether you’re hiring, looking for your next role, or just want to explore the latest developments, this is where connections happen and new ideas emerge.
After a packed day of insight and innovation, the conversation doesn’t stop. Join fellow delegates, speakers, and sponsors at our evening social to dig deeper into the day’s biggest questions. It’s the perfect chance to unwind, connect, and explore new perspectives on the most transformative tech of our time.
New for 2025! The MTF event app is a virtual environment which puts you in the centre of the festival! Log on, explore sessions and choose your own agenda. Plus! Interact with other guests, access pre-conference content, pose questions to our speakers and more! The best part? You get access to the app for upto 6 months after the festival where all of our talks will be posted so you don’t need to worry about missing a thing!
SPEAKERS
Discover this year’s speaker bio’s by clicking the images below.
Rahul Verma
Senior Product Manager
booking.com
Bryan Jones
Quality Architect
2i Limited
Luke Thorp
Solutions Architect
Databricks
Dr. Phininder Balaghan
Founder & CTO
Traversally
Ben Rawson
Data Scientist
Roke
Kendrick Curtis
VP Technology
Codacy
Dr. Phininder Balaghan
Founder & CTO
Traversally
Elhannah Adekeye
Global Cybersecurity GRC Manager
Deloitte
Kendrick Curtis
VP Technology
Codacy
AGENDA
Explore the talk details using the drop downs.
Have your QR Code Ticket to hand and head to the registration desk to collect your pass for the day. Next head on down to our networking area for refreshments and early morning networking.
Take your seat ready for opening remarks
Join us for opening remarks and in introduction to the day
Dr. Phininder Balaghan
Founder & CTO
Traversally
SESSION OVERVIEW:
Kendrick Curtis
VP Technology
Codacy
SESSION OVERVIEW:
Dozens of tools from product-led ones like Lovable, Replit, v0 to developer adjuncts (VSCode + GHCP Agent mode) to developer _replacements_ (GH Software Engineering Agent) now offer to create code for you but anyone who has worked with them for any length of time has experienced the sudden moment where the AI agent is no longer able to continue in a meaningful way. Let’s explore what is driving this “house of cards” phenomenon and how we can stop it
Take some time to network and grab some refreshments
Luke Thorp
Solutions Architect
Databricks
SESSION OVERVIEW: At Databricks I speak with enterprise customers regularly to help them with their Data and AI maturity, adoption of new technologies and methodologies. All companies are facing challenges when trying to move up the data maturity curve. This journey is hard and is not nessesarrily linear. Being able to build out the core foundations using solid data, good governance, keeping scalability in mind.
Take to the stage and have your say for 99 seconds!
Take a break for lunch
Settle back in before our afternoon of talks
Rahul Verma
Senior Product Manager
booking.com
SESSION OVERVIEW:
In this session, Rahul will share how Booking.com has adopted FinOps to manage the challenges of operating at cloud scale. He will begin by setting the context of the business, highlighting the scale and complexity that made cost visibility and control a top priority. Rahul will introduce the core principles of FinOps and explain why establishing a dedicated FinOps function has been critical to aligning engineering and finance. He’ll then dive into how Booking.com is leveraging AI to address FinOps and cloud migration challenges—covering real-world use cases such as anomaly detection, forecasting, and intelligent workload optimisation. Attendees will gain insight into the key results achieved through this approach and walk away with practical lessons from Booking.com’s FinOps journey. The session will conclude with an interactive Q&A.
Elhannah Adekeye
Global SEcurity GRC Manager
Deloitte
SESSION OVERVIEW:
Take some time to network and grab some refreshments
Bryan Jones
Quality Architect
2i Limited
SESSION OVERVIEW: The truth about AI is far more nuanced than the hype the media feed us. Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay and as Quality Professionals it is our job to understand those nuances, the actual risks and how to mitigate them.
So …How do you Test and Quality Assure an AI system? This talk addresses some of the risks, opportunities and ethics involved. It provides a practical, ready-to-use framework for testing & assuring AI-based systems. It also explores the techniques, skills and thinking patterns that we as Quality Professionals need to remain relevant, as the fourth Industrial Revolution kicks in for real.
AI is evolving. We need to as well!
Ben Rawson
Data Scientist
Roke
SESSION OVERVIEW: The recent introduction of large language models has changed the way the public interacts with artificial intelligence. Models equipped with tools have a greater and greater ability to interact with the world around us. Given the high computation requirements of these models, utilizing pretrained foundation models has become the norm for many businesses. But within these foundation models could lurk hidden triggers, words and phrases that when included in prompts trigger unintended behavior, potentially circumventing safeguards. In this talk we will introduce how these backdoors are introduced into models, how they remain persistent despite fine-tuning and how they can affect model output.
Take to the stage and have your say for 99 seconds!
Take some time to network and grab some refreshments
Purchase your Tickets
Tickets for the AI Conference are £46 and include entry to the conference, early access to the event app to build your own agenda, entry to the evening social and access to conference recordings and content for up to 6months following the festival! Your ticket also includes refreshments throughout the day and lunch!
Don’t forget, MTF is a two week festival so check out our other events and once your ready to book your tickets, follow the links below!
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