Overview
The AI Strategy & Practice Conference is a one-day, practitioner-focused event about moving artificial intelligence from strategy and experimentation into productive use in complex organisations. Presented by Safe Intelligence, it brings together engineering, business and compliance leaders to examine the decisions and work involved in deploying AI, keeping it reliable, and managing risk. The programme emphasises real deployments, practical experience and lessons learned rather than vendor pitches or product demonstrations.
The conference is intended for engineering leads turning AI ambitions into systems that can be deployed, monitored and maintained; business-unit leads shaping use cases and taking responsibility for value in everyday operations; and compliance teams establishing evidence, oversight and acceptable risk boundaries. The agenda is designed to help these groups work through shared deployment challenges.
Date and venue
The event takes place on 21 October 2026 at Ham Yard Hotel, 1 Ham Yard, London W1D 7DT, United Kingdom. The venue is in Soho, near Piccadilly Circus. The conference uses a single-track format in a 190-seat cinema and theatre space, with the bar area and dining rooms available for networking breaks. The page describes the setting as a place for focused listening and continued conversation.
Programme
The programme features fireside chats, panels and selected presentations, with time for questions and discussion. The published schedule is:
- 09:30: Registration and welcome coffee.
- 10:30: Morning keynote address and panels on delivering real outcomes and living up to AI’s promise.
- 12:30: Networking lunch.
- 13:30: Afternoon sessions and panels offering practical delivery advice and exploring how to balance risk and reward.
- 17:00: Programme close and event reception.
The conference will explore four connected areas: turning AI strategy into a workable scope, including use-case boundaries, ownership and success criteria; deciding what is safe enough to deploy through evaluation, risk limits and human oversight; understanding the integration, delivery processes and lessons behind successful deployments; and maintaining usefulness, reliability and accountability after launch through monitoring, operational ownership and change management.
Speakers
Featured speakers listed on the page include Richard Masters, former Vice President of Data & AI at Virgin Atlantic and Head of AI Strategy at Ankura’s AI by Design; Mira Pijselman, Managing Director and AI Governance Engineering Solution Leader at Ankura; and Stuart McMeechan, Applied AI Engineering Lead for EMEA at OpenAI. The organisers say additional speakers will be announced.
Format and attendee questions
This is an in-person, single-track conference with practitioner-led discussion. The page says the day focuses on deployment decisions and practical experience across technical, business and compliance teams, including tooling and processes alongside scope, ownership and risk. It is not presented as a highly technical-only event. There will be no vendor pitches or tooling demonstrations outside the sponsor area. The event aims to give participants space to compare experience and discuss the practical work of making AI useful, operational and responsibly governed.
