Conference News: DPW Goes Big; CHROs in Chicago; Speak at Infosecurity Europe
DPW at RAI: After years of steady growth, DPW Amsterdam will be moving to a larger home next year– the RAI. The team also announced that the 2026 event will happen from 30 September – 1 October (about a week earlier). Since its launch in 2019, DPW has become an important gathering for procurement and supply chain professionals, startups, investors, and innovators. Topics have included industry trends and case studies covering predictive analytics, autonomous digital workers and AI-driven process reinvention.
JFK to ORD: The Conference Board’s annual CHRO Summit is moving to Chicago next year. Historically held in New York alongside much of the Conference Board’s other programming, the 2026 summit will be held 3 June and is timed to coincide with the CHRO council meeting in Chicago that same week. Not changing is the exclusive focus on those with CHRO titles (or equivalents) and discussion topics that include AI transformation, the role of the chief people officer, and conversations around talent, development, and well-being. Following the event, delegates are provided an anonymized report-out of insights from the Summit.
Submission Opportunity: Infosecurity Conference Europe (2-4 June in London) has opened its Call for Speakers for the CyberStrategies stage. Speakers on this stage will be elected from exhibitors’ entries (still a competitive process but only open to exhibitors). Each company may submit up to three speaker/topic suggestions – but only one of the three may be accepted. Topics may include security threats and AI, cloud security, phishing attack attribution and API security, to name a few. The deadline is Friday 5 December and speakers must adhere to the guidelines found here.
Lunchtime Learning: Web Summit was held in Lisbon last week and again brought together “the world’s most disruptive technology companies and those interested in how that disruption can transform their businesses and their lives.” Despite some inclement weather and the flight disruptions caused by the US government shutdown, the show went on with all of the usual fanfare one would expect from Web Summit. If you were not able to attend (or planned to but your flight was cancelled) you can still catch the main stage sessions from Day One and Day Two. Hear from world leaders, tech luminaries and the hottest startup founders.
Coming Up Next Week: The International Economic Forum of the Americas/IEFA World Strategic Forum – which runs 24-25 November at the Loews Hotel in Coral Gables – adopts a new two-day format in 2025: The first day will feature curated sessions and panels, while the second day will be invitation-only, dedicated to private discussions and strategic partnerships. MWC Doha gets underway 25 November at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center to convene “tech pioneers, global industry voices and iconic brands, ready to energise our hyperconnected, hyperautomated future.” Following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, events like New York Times DealBook (3 December; New York) and WIRED’s The Big Interview (4 December; San Francisco) draw heavy hitter speakers. Case in point: DealBook features CEOs of Bayer, Coinbase, GM, and Paramount Skydance, while The Big Interview features CEOs of AMD and Cloudflare along with filmmaker Jon M. Chu. (Interestingly, Anthropic co-founders will divide and conquer between the two events.) Axios AI+ Summit makes its third and final stop in San Francisco on 4 December for a program exploring the progress and pitfalls of AI. Earlier 2025 editions were held in New York City and Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. And from 1-5 December, ecosystem conference behemoth AWS re:Invent is held in Las Vegas.
Conference News is taking next week off for the Thanksgiving Holiday but will be back in your inbox on Friday 5 December. Happy Turkey Day!