Executive Briefing Programme

The Executive Briefing Programme is a series of lunch events designed to provide valuable information to senior executives, advisors and consultants in the technology sector.

The lunch will commence with networking drinks at 12.00pm, followed by lunch at 1.00pm with our guest speaker. There will be a further opportunity for networking after lunch during coffee and cheese & biscuits.

Our guest speaker is Chris Pilling, Principal Consultant – Fujitsu UK DBS, Lead Architect – Blockchain Innovation Centre EMEIA who will be talking about blockchain.

How is the market for commercial application of blockchain developing? What’s the impact in manufacturing and retail businesses and their supply chains? Are blockchain solutions providing sustainable revenue streams?

Chris Pilling has been working with blockchain technology for five years and will give his answers to these questions. Chris will share his experience of how blockchain, AI and quantum inspired computing are coming together to create new business opportunities, and how businesses are preparing for the transformation these technologies are bringing. He will explain in simple terms concepts such as Securitised Tokenisation and put Digital Currency & Cryptocurrency in a business context.

Chris Pilling

Chris has 25 years IT & Tech industry experience and joined Fujitsu in 2016 as EMEIA Principal Consultant. In 2017 he co-founded Fujitsu’s Blockchain Innovation Centre in Brussels which works with customers to define strategy for this emerging paradigm. Chris is also EMEIA customer liaison for Fujitsu’s Open Innovation Gateway in Silicon Valley. Additionally, Chris is at the forefront of helping customers understand and adopt Fujitsu’s Quantum Inspired computing services and capability.

Prior to joining Fujitsu Chris held roles for NEC, CSC, SCC and has consulted for organisations in Finance, Government, Industry and Retail.

The lunch will be chaired by John Higgins CBE.

John Higgins has been the public face of the digital sector in Europe since November 2011 and speaks regularly on platforms and at conferences throughout Europe and beyond. He was Director General of DIGITALEUROPE, the association for the digital technology industry in Europe, until April 2017, following nine years leading its UK member association, Intellect, now TechUK. In spring of 2017 he became Chair of the Global Digital Foundation and a Senior Advisor to global communications company, Burson Marsteller. He continues to chair DIGITALEUROPE’s Brexit Advisory Council and is chair of the University of Warwick’s European Advisory Board.