Connecting Places: Better Services, Stronger Economics Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Ivana Bajović currently serves as Special Advisor to the CEO at Telekom Srbija Group, one of the largest and fastest-growing telecommunications and multimedia providers in Southeast Europe and a key driver of digital transformation across the Western Balkans and beyond. Throughout her career, she has held senior leadership roles in Marketing, Public Relations, and Corporate Affairs, building a strong track record in strategic communications, executive advisory, and international positioning. In her current role, she leads Strategic Expansion Projects and oversees International Media Relations and Global Communications, supporting the Group’s growth in global markets while strengthening its reputation among international stakeholders and partners. She is also actively engaged in the global business community, contributing to cross-market partnerships, public diplomacy, and international representation.
As Special Advisor to the CEO, Ivana plays an active role in advancing the company’s transformation from a traditional telecommunications operator into a technology-driven “telco of the future.” This strategic evolution is centered on significant investments in 5G infrastructure, multimedia platforms, and next-generation digital services, including early-stage innovation and AI-focused initiatives. The Group’s forward-looking strategy prioritizes artificial intelligence and cybersecurity solutions, reinforcing its leadership position in Southeast Europe’s digital ecosystem.
With the launch of MTEL USA, Telekom Srbija Group continues its global expansion, now operating across 13 international markets in addition to its core presence in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Serving nearly 14 million subscribers and generating approximately €2.2 billion in annual revenue, the Group continues to strengthen its position as a major European telecommunications and technology player.
Ivana Bajović | LinkedIn
Communication Service Providers at the Crossroads: AI Infrastructure and Autonomous Networks Thursday @ 10:35 AM
Mike Barlow is an IT and Telecoms sales director with 25 years’ experience of selling to both public and private sector enterprises. Having worked with Siemens, telent and Nokia in the past, he is now driving Ericsson’s growth in the UK, Ireland and Iberia in the Enterprise market.
Mike has a history in helping organisations to drive transformational outcomes through 5G, IoT, Fibre, LAN and Smart Places technology. This includes working both directly and with partners such as the MNO’s, Systems Integrators and Value Added Resellers.
Advanced Manufacturing: Autonomous Production and the Rise of Dark Factories Thursday @ 12:00 PM
Connecting Places: Better Services, Stronger Economics Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Commander Trevor Bradley joined the Royal Navy in 2000 as a Weapon Engineer and has served on Frigates and Aircraft Carriers in addition to a number of multinational posts in the Middle East. Whilst in the UK he has divided much of his career between Capability Development and C5ISR delivery with posts in Cyber Security, Deployed Information Systems and Dstl.
In 2021 as Deputy Commander of Erbil Airbase, Iraq Trevor gained operational experience in the challenges of blending and integrating crewed/uncrewed activity in a hostile environment. On return to the UK as part of Defence Digital Operations he delivered services across the globe to meet rapidly evolving requirements before moving to the Royal Navy’s Develop Directorate where he led StrikeNet, a programme which will enable the hybrid navy, delivering disaggregated force level sense, decide and effect.
Trevor is currently the lead military adviser to the Dstl Comms and Nets programme as one of a suite of military personnel working hand in glove with all of Dstl to develop and deliver the future generations of capabilities.
Operational Advantage: AI, Autonomy and the Future Fight Thursday @ 12:00 PM
Jo has 20 years’ experience working across the private and public sectors in the UK, including in government, policing, national security, arm’s length bodies and the tech industry. Throughout her career, Jo has worked at the intersection between technology and security. Jo is currently the Managing Director of the UK Telecoms Lab (UKTL). UKTL delivers world-class security research and testing to secure the technology that underpins connectivity, drives innovation and economic growth. Prior to joining UKTL, Jo held Director roles at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Securing our Future: Building the Talent Pipeline Thursday @ 4:15 PM
Katy Davies is Managing Director of Cap Air Systems, a UK electronics manufacturer specialising in PCB assembly, cable assembly and box build. She is also National Chair of Citizen Hub, bridging industry, skills and community to create good work locally. With 20+ years’ experience in transformation and growth, Katy brings a practical, place-based lens to manufacturing, productivity and capability.
Advanced Manufacturing: Autonomous Production and the Rise of Dark Factories Thursday @ 12:00 PM
Gavin is a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Consultants, where he leads cross-disciplinary engineering teams to shape breakthrough innovation strategies across a wide range of industries. He advises clients on how emerging technologies can optimise operations, unlock new business models, and support long-term strategic goals, guided by the principles of technical feasibility, solution desirability, and commercial viability.
Gavin brings over 20 years’ experience in technology solution design and delivery across consulting, telecommunications, and the energy sector, and his current focus areas include non-terrestrial networks and agentic AI, with applications spanning defence, energy, and ICT.
Gavin is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) and holds a BEng (Hons) in Electronics and Communications Engineering. He is driven by a commitment to harness innovation for human progress and is confident that active engagement and dicourse with the technology community and wider society is essential to that mission.
Operational Advantage: AI, Autonomy and the Future Fight Thursday @ 12:00 PM
Connecting Places: Better Services, Stronger Economics Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Simon Fabri is Product and Engineering Director at HMGCC (His Majesty’s Government Communications Centre), a post he has held since 2023. His role is part of the core leadership team at HMGCC, where he oversees hundreds of engineers, technologists and scientists carrying out vital work for national security. Based at the historic Hanslope Park, Milton Keynes, Simon’s time in leadership has positively transformed the way in which HMGCC delivers its engineering - creating vital tech to be used in national security work across the globe.
Simon has a strong background in academia and industry. After starting out as an engineering lecturer, his career took him across telecoms, energy and automotive industries and then to Amazon before joining HMGCC.
HMGCC creates tools and technologies for work within the national security community, creating, designing and testing them on site. This government organisation now increasingly works with outside innovators from academia and industry.
What Bold Ideas Will Shape the Next Decades of Technological Progress? Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Jouni Flyktman is Vice President for Defense and Security at IQM Quantum Computers, where he leads the company’s engagement with international defense and security stakeholders. He has overseen customer deployments globally, entries to new markets, and quantum R&D projects, including Finland’s first quantum computers.
Prior to joining IQM, Jouni served for 20 years in the Finnish Defense Forces, advancing cyber defense, driving the development of next-generation defense capabilities, and contributing to strategic and operational planning.
He holds degrees in Engineering Physics (M.Sc.), Economics (M.Sc.), and an Executive MBA, as well as a General Staff Officer qualification, combining technical, defense, and business expertise to shape the future of quantum technologies.
The Quantum Internet: Promise and Peril Thursday @ 3:30 PM
Lesley Holt is Adoption Director at WM5G, where she leads major programmes that enable public and private sector organisations to adopt and scale advanced connectivity and digital technologies. A core focus of her work is developing the skills, talent pipelines and organisational capability required to move beyond pilots and embed technology successfully in real world operations.
With over twenty years’ cross sector experience, Lesley brings deep expertise in transformation, service improvement, and operational delivery. Her background spans public sector reform, business transformation, and the management of complex outsourced services, giving her a strong understanding of the workforce, cultural and leadership challenges that shape successful technology adoption.
At WM5G, Lesley has led the design and delivery of testbeds, accelerators and adoption programmes that combine technical innovation with skills development, capability building, and culture change. Lesley played a senior role in WM5G’s delivery of the UK Telecoms Innovation Network (UKTIN), leading national skills and talent activity on behalf of the sector. Through UKTIN, she has shaped and delivered skills plans, market mapping, and ecosystem wide engagement to address critical workforce shortages, future proof telecoms and digital skills, and improve diversity, attraction and retention across the talent pipeline. This includes convening industry, government, academia, and training providers through the UKTIN Talent Advisory Group to align skills supply with emerging technology demand.
Lesley has played a central role in Technology Enabled Care programmes delivered through the 5G Innovation Region (5GiR), supporting councils and care providers to upskill workforces, redesign services and adopt digitally enabled models of care. These programmes have delivered measurable outcomes, including improved workforce productivity, enhanced citizen independence, and reduced pressure on frontline services.
Her work blends strategic leadership with hands on delivery, ensuring that organisations invest not only in technology, but in the people, skills and confidence needed to sustain long term digital transformation across health, care, local government, and industry.
Securing our Future: Building the Talent Pipeline Thursday @ 4:15 PM
What Bold Ideas Will Shape the Next Decades of Technological Progress? Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Seán has worked on wireless networks for over 25 years. He has delivered projects across four continents. Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Australasia. This involved building infrastructure for mobile operators, governments, investors, real estate companies, offshore wind developers and large industrials.
As CTO for the UK and Ireland, Seán led an innovative technology team creating industry-leading technology for our customers, underpinning Boldyn Networks’s growth ambitions. Before Boldyn Networks's acquisition in 2021, Seán was CEO of Vilicom. In this role, Seán executed a strategy to expand the company into new verticals, supporting digital transformation and launching Europe’s first cloud platform to deploy mobile and private networks faster and more efficiently.
Seán holds an electronics engineering degree from Dublin City University and an MBA from Smurfit Business School. He has completed a year-long leadership development programme with IMD Lausanne.
Connecting Places: Better Services, Stronger Economics Thursday @ 2:00 PM
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https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-legh-smith-630
The Quantum Internet: Promise and Peril Thursday @ 3:30 PM
Communication Service Providers at the Crossroads: AI Infrastructure and Autonomous Networks Thursday @ 10:35 AM
Connecting Places: Better Services, Stronger Economics Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Enrique is a world leader in the field of multi-agent systems. He holds a MSc in distributed systems, a PhD in computer science with a specialty in machine learning and a post-doc on defense multi-agent robotic systems (as part of a BAE Systems, MBDA and Celex joint program). He has published over 80+ academic (peer-reviewed) papers in all the top AI journals, 2 books and 3 patents.
Enrique is co-founder and CTO of Mutable Tactics, a Cambridge based startup building the orchestration layer for autonomous robotics: turning solo robots into cohesive teams that are smarter, faster, and cheaper to operate. Mutable Tactic's tech builds on Enrique's contribution to ALADDIN, a £10m+ project on robot-human teamwork led by BAE Systems and MBDA. This experience shaped Enrique’s opinion on how to think about complex systems in the real world, leading to being a top-voice in the sub-domain of adversarial machine learning
What Bold Ideas Will Shape the Next Decades of Technological Progress? Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Konstantinos Nikitopoulos is a Full Professor in Wireless Communications and Signal Processing at the 6G Innovation Centre, University of Surrey, and Director of the Wireless Systems Lab. He is also a founder and director of Noema Signal Labs Ltd, a recent University of Surrey spin-out commercialising the award-winning NL-COMM technology.
His research focuses on advanced signal processing, next-generation computing architectures, and system-level wireless design. He has deep expertise in non-orthogonal transmission techniques, including MIMO and NOMA, and is the lead inventor of the NL-COMM technology (www.nl-comm.com).
Professor Nikitopoulos was named 2024 Innovator of the Year by the University of Surrey’s School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering. He has also received the Tony Jeans Inspirational Teaching Prize and the School’s Teacher of the Year Award, and is a recipient of the prestigious EPSRC First Grant.
What Bold Ideas Will Shape the Next Decades of Technological Progress? Thursday @ 2:00 PM
Ruth Redding is a coach and leadership development expert, working as an Associate at Cambridge Management Consulting. She has 25 years of experience in the global communications and optical networking sector. She previously spent several years at Infinera, where she served as VP of Sales for North and Central Europe, driving significant regional growth and navigating the complex commercial landscapes of the EMEA infrastructure market, as well as sales leadership role at Gartner, Ciena and Alcatel.
Currently, Ruth serves as a Board Advisor for the University of California, Berkeley Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure, helping to bridge the gap between academic theory and the commercial realities of the subsea and data centre sectors. A dedicated architect of talent, she leads the Talent Track at Capacity Europe, which 150+ students to see the compelling reasons to join the industry. Ruth combines her deep commercial background with professional coaching to ensure the UK’s digital economy is supported by a diverse, resilient, and high-performing workforce."
Securing our Future: Building the Talent Pipeline Thursday @ 4:15 PM
Dr Mike Short CBE is Chairman UK Telecoms Labs (NPL), and AWTG (a UK based Technology solutions provider). He is a member of the National Quantum Technology Programme (NQTP) and advisor to 2 Quantum hubs (PNT at Glasgow; Health at UCL). Until recently, he chaired the UK Telecoms Innovation Network and its predecessor for 5G trials and testbeds .
He had a 40-year career in Electronics and Telecommunications (BT / O2 / Telefonica) before appointment by DIT (now DBT) in 2017 as the Department’s first Chief Scientific Adviser. He is now pursuing a portfolio career around innovation and research largely in satellite and telecommunications, including as Chief Architect at the Satellite Applications Catapult and Distinguished Visitor at NPL.
He has chaired the Mobile Data Association, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the global GSM Association and been a Board member of ETSI and Innovate UK. He is a Visiting Professor at UCL and Surrey Universities, and an advisor for the UK - India Future Networks initiative.
Communication Service Providers at the Crossroads: AI Infrastructure and Autonomous Networks Thursday @ 10:35 AM
John-Paul (JP) Szczepanik has been at the forefront of satellite communications technology for over 12 years, specialising in the development of phased array antennas. He began his journey in the sector with Phasor, before joining All.Space, where he has served as Chief Technology Officer for the past five years.
At All.Space, JP initially focused on advancing the company’s core antenna capabilities. More recently, his work has evolved to explore the cutting-edge applications enabled by All.Space’s multi-beam, multi-network platform. This includes innovation in areas such as Alternative PNT, RF sensing, and interference detection and mitigation - technologies that are shaping the future of dynamic satellite connectivity.
JP holds an MEng and MA in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Operational Advantage: AI, Autonomy and the Future Fight Thursday @ 12:00 PM
Shona Taylor brings extensive experience across the education and skills sector, spanning further education teaching and management, careers education development, and strategic roles within education and charitable organisations. She specialises in strengthening collaboration between employers, educators, and key stakeholders, drawing on deep sector knowledge and practical insight. Shona regularly shares UCAS insights at national conferences to inform the future of apprenticeships, skills, and early careers. Passionate about equity and inclusive workforce pathways, she is committed to empowering young people and supporting organisations to engage effectively with the next generation.
Securing our Future: Building the Talent Pipeline Thursday @ 4:15 PM
Lory is an executive technology leader and board advisor with 20+ years of global experience driving digital transformation, technology innovation, ecosystem partnerships and go to market across telecommunications and regulated industries. She has a background in engineering and cybersecurity, with in-depth expertise in connectivity technologies, IoT and data analytics applied across industry sectors. She is a Strategy Advisor within the IBM Quantum Safe team, a Senior Quantum Ambassador and Chair of the GSMA Post Quantum Telco Network Task Force, the first sector specific forum focused on preparation and implementation of post quantum cryptography for the telecommunication sector.
Lory is passionate about driving the use of technology for positive societal impact and is an advocate for increasing women’s representation in STEM.
The Quantum Internet: Promise and Peril Thursday @ 3:30 PM
Mike Wilson has over 40 years of experience in the application of automation to manufacturing across a broad range of industry sectors and is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities on the application of robot systems in the UK.
Mike is Chief Automation Officer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre, leading the drive to increase the adoption of robotics and automation in the UK. He was awarded ‘The Manufacturer Top 100’ status as one of the top 100 people in UK manufacturing in 2018. He is also Visiting Professor of Robotics & Automation at Loughborough University, member of the Department for Science, Innovation, & Technology Robot Advisory Group, Council member of the British Automation and Robot Association, General Assembly member of the International Federation of Robotics and has previously been Chairman of the International Federation of Robotics. His book “Implementation of Robot Systems” was published in 2014.
Advanced Manufacturing: Autonomous Production and the Rise of Dark Factories Thursday @ 12:00 PM
Andrea is an esteemed and motivational senior leader with over two decades of experience in further education and local government, concentrating on skills, employment, and inclusive economic growth. Her career began in Human Resources before she transitioned to an Employment Consultant role, aiding long-term unemployed individuals and vulnerable groups in the Eastern region. Subsequently, Andrea entered the realm of further education as a qualified Teacher and Advanced Practitioner, leading various programs such as 14-16 education, post-16 study programmes, Apprenticeships, Adult Skills, and community learning. Her path led to her appointment as Head of Skills for Suffolk County Council and Principal of New Directions College in Reading. Andrea possesses extensive expertise in formulating and executing policies within the skills and employment sector. She has been instrumental in shaping policies related to work and health, post-16, SEND, youth unemployment, and adult skills. Presently, Andrea serves as Assistant Director for Skills and Employment at the CPCA, where she champions economic growth by enhancing human capital through skills development and addressing disparities across regional communities.
Securing our Future: Building the Talent Pipeline Thursday @ 4:15 PM
