Digital leadership

Through real examples from global pharma, energy, fintech, and mining sectors, we’ll examine three pivotal leadership transitions: moving from designing individual user experiences to crafting ecosystem-wide strategies, evolving from sprint-based delivery to portfolio-level orchestration, and shifting from solving discrete problems to bridging organizational silos.

The most successful culture of AI adoption is not created in the Strategy Boards, but emerges from collective enthusiasm, wins and failures shared by employees.

Join for a story on how the global digital innovation and transformation firm Valtech harvested internal grassroots AI movement and converted it into mature sustained innovation strategy.

It was not an easy journey, and the newborn AI enthusiast’s community almost fell victim to its own rapid and chaotic success.

This is not your usual polished case study and we will follow up with an open and honest discussion on your AI adoption strategies, lessons learned and biggest surprises.

Because every real change starts with someone who dares to disagree

AI promises to make digital leaders and their teams more productive—faster analysis, instant summaries, automated content generation. The efficiency gains are real. But there’s a question we’re not asking enough: What happens to our judgment when we stop doing the hard thinking ourselves?

As an early adopter who pushed the boundaries of AI in my work, I discovered something surprising: You can be highly productive while losing touch with what actually matters. The work gets done faster, but the deep understanding that drives good decisions starts to fade. This isn’t anti-AI—it’s about intentional AI use.

In this session, I’ll share what I’ve learned about finding the balance, then open it up for discussion. Whether you’re leading content strategy, digital transformation, product development, or organizational change, we’ll explore together:
* How to recognize when AI is helping versus replacing your thinking
* Practical ways to maintain strategic depth while leveraging AI’s speed
* When to deliberately choose the slower, harder path
* How to guide teams through this transition

Let’s figure out how to stay sharp in the age of instant answers.

Remember when we believed good design would make the world a better place? That if we just worked hard enough, companies would see its value and put people first? Yeah… about that.

At the moment, user-centered design can feel more like a nice-to-have. Shareholder value trumps building products people actually want, AI gimmicks flood the backlogs, restructurings hit mid-project, and layoffs abound. It’s enough to make even the most optimistic designer question their job choice.

But before you go full nihilist, hear me out: pessimism might actually be our best tool to get through this. The hopeful kind—one that sharpens our strategies, helps us play the long game, and makes designers harder to sideline. Let’s talk about why pessimism makes us stronger
strategists.

Meet at the registration desk for a small guided tour of Aarhus
Highlights include Hesitation of Light, former Gestapo HQ, Latin Quarter, Endless Connections, Magic Mushrooms, and the famous Rainbow Panorama.

On the evening of Conference Day #1, everybody who has arrived in Aarhus is welcome to join us for an informal evening dinner in a nice setting.

Our friends at Manyone at hosting us on Åboulevarden 31 and the pizzas will be from Il Locale