2026 Speakers

Conference Chairs

Greg Denholm

IT Europa

Greg Denholm

IT Europa

Greg Is an experienced editor in the IT and telecoms channels managing and publishing executive news interviews, features and market reports across platforms including IT Europa, Comms Dealer, and Fibre Provider. He has moderated and managed content at panels for major industry events both online and in person. 

Will Garside

IT Europa

Will Garside

IT Europa

Will specialises in writing and presenting – producing a huge range of content, ranging from thought-leadership articles to white papers. He started his career as a computer engineer before becoming one of the first producers on Sky TV’s primetime technology show “The Computer Channel” – alongside also covering mainstream business and technology news. He then worked as a product reviewer and technical writer for IT Network before going to Computer Weekly to cover security, telecoms and networking. He worked for several large technology brands including Microsoft and EMC as a technical writer and media consultant and was also the editor at International Broadcast Engineer – a role that saw him deliver a huge number of detailed analysis pieces on emerging video experiences. He has also written a number of books including tech guides for Which? and several "Dummies" guides on topics including big data and storage.

Will is also a highly experienced event moderator, managing content and panels at both the IBC and NAB shows for the last 10 years.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Sue Turner OBE

Sue Turner is dedicated to using her expertise in AI governance and ethics to inspire people and organisations to use AI with wisdom and integrity.

With both a Law degree and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, she established AI Governance Limited in 2020 to advise businesses and policy makers on pragmatic AI, data ethics and governance issues, and making a positive societal impact. Her Board development clients range from Fortune 100 and FTSE 350 businesses to small charities, and her reach is global through accredited training programmes and being a founder member of the United Nations AI Skills Coalition. She has been rated in the World's Top 100 Women in AI Ethics and was one of the first 14 people globally to be accredited in the Foundations of Independent Audit of AI systems.

She is Professor in Practice for AI and Technologies at the University of Bristol Business School, and has been a Board Chair and Non-Executive Director for purpose-driven businesses in regulated industries as well as a Mentor on the Turing Institute’s Skills Policy Awards. Her career spans entrepreneurial private businesses and not-for-profit organisations where she has led significant organisational growth, raised £27 million for charity and collaborated to shift power to help people improve their prospects. She was awarded the OBE in 2021 for Services to Social Justice.


John Hartson

John Hartson (born 5 April 1975) is a former Welsh international footballer who played as a striker, best known for his spells with Arsenal, West Ham and Celtic. Hartson also featured prominently for Wales, earning 51 caps until his international retirement in 2006. He retired from professional football after being released by West Bromwich Albion in January 2008. John was celebrated many times during his career , he appeared for Celtic in 146 games and scored 88 goals. He was voted Welsh footballer of the year 3 times – 1998, 2001 and 2003 and PFA Players’ player of the Year 2005. In July 2009 it was reported that Hartson would undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with "testicular cancer which has spread to his brain”. It was later reported the cancer had spread to his lungs and that he remained in a "critical condition" following emergency surgery. Professor Colin Cooper, Head of the Everyman Campaign, still believed Hartson's prospects were good at 60:40 though they would have been 99:1 with an earlier diagnosis. On 11 April 2010 Hartson appeared as a guest in ESPN's "Talk of the Terrace", where he revealed that he had had over two hundred carcinogenic cells in his body but through treatment all of them had been eliminated and not a trace of cancer was left in his body. John is now an estabilished football pundit for both the BBC, on Match of the Day and Football Focus, he also commentates and give his valued opinion for BT Sport. In 2010 John set up his own foundation to suppport individuals who have suffered in the same way he has and to create awareness campaigns to get young men to check themselves for the signs of testicular cancer. John has been involved in many fundraising projects including climbing Kilimanjaro, raising thousands of pounds for his foundation.

As John says “People say I’m a fighter but I was only doing what came
naturally. I’ve got so much to live for.”


Managed Service Providers (MSPs)

Tom Jones

Focus Group

Tom Jones

Focus Group

Tom Jones is Head of Corporate Development at Focus Group, where he has helped deliver around 40 acquisitions, supporting the group’s growth across telecoms and IT services. A Fellow Chartered Accountant, Tom previously worked at Knight Corporate Finance and Grant Thornton and has been involved in roughly 90 acquisitions and investments. He brings a practical, plain-English perspective on technology-sector M&A, working with business owners and investors to navigate transactions and build long-term value.

Dave Bennett

Focus Group

Dave Bennett

Focus Group

Dave Bennett is Technical Director at Focus Group, one of the UK's leading managed service and telecoms providers, where he has spent over 18 years progressing from junior engineer to senior leadership. In his current role he holds responsibility for technical operations across the full product portfolio, spanning Cyber, Cloud, Network, Voice, and IT, as well as Service Design, Automation and Pre-Sales. With a career built entirely within the MSP sector, Dave has hands-on experience scaling teams from the ground up, leading complex service transformations, and bringing emerging technologies including AI and RPA into practical commercial use. He has led the development of cyber practices, vCTO and vCISO services, and automation programmes, while working closely with product and sales functions to shape how managed services are designed, sold, and delivered at scale.

Mark Curtis-Wood

Blue Orange IT

Mark Curtis-Wood

Blue Orange IT

Awaiting biography.

Toria Walters

ANS

Toria Walters is Chief People Officer at ANS Group and Chair of the ANS Academy, with a career leading people and transformation for some of the UK’s best-known brands, including Samsung, Santander and Dixons Carphone.

She has built her career around creating high-performing teams through significant transformation, with extensive M&A experience spanning more than 50 transactions. Her focus has consistently been on making complex change work in practice, bringing together people, culture, leadership and commercial performance.

Today, Toria is helping shape ANS’s approach to AI adoption and workforce transformation, exploring how AI will change jobs, skills, organisational design and leadership. She is passionate about ensuring technology creates opportunity rather than leaving people behind, and is a strong advocate for diversity, social mobility and creating new routes into the tech industry.

A regular industry speaker, Toria brings a practical perspective shaped by years of transformation: technology can enable change, but people determine whether it succeeds.


Alex Heslip

Novem

Alex exited a UK Private Equity backed Telecom/Utilities business in 2021 for £400M+, he is now leading a buy and build in MSP, Telecom & Cyber to UK SMEs. Novem have acquired 5 businesses since June 2023 and have now fully integrated them all into a single operating business. The aim is to acquire 2-3 businesses every year and fully integrate them within 6 months, whilst trying to deliver continuity to customers and retain people.

Speakers

Name to be advised

Sherweb

Awaiting biography.

Callum Gillespie

Nueworx

Callum spent years inside an MSP serving large enterprise IT teams, and more recently working on the challenges across service desk, endpoint and identity Nueworx now automates. He went looking for a platform that combined proactive management with AI that could safely act for real users. When he couldn't find one, he co-founded Nueworx to build it. He now leads the company's strategy, vision and commercial direction.

Name to be advised

Megaport

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Netwrix

Awaiting biography.

Mark McInerney

LogMeIn

Mark McInerney is a sales leader at GoTo, specialising in the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and IT management market. With extensive experience helping MSPs navigate the evolving technology landscape, Mark focuses on solutions that enable providers to simplify their technology stack, improve operational efficiency and scale their businesses. His expertise spans remote support, RMM, endpoint management, cybersecurity and automation, with a particular focus on how emerging technologies such as AI are shaping the future of the MSP industry.

Name to be advised

Brigantia

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Topsec Cloud Solutions

Name to be advised

Topsec Cloud Solutions

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Opentext

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Watchguard

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Hornetsecurity

Name to be advised

Hornetsecurity

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Arrow

Awaiting biography.

Name to be advised

Huntress

Awaiting biography.

Meet our 2026 Event Sponsors

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