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About mindit Forward
mindit Forward marked ten years of mindit.io with a simple idea at its core: people, partnership, and disciplined collaboration turn technology into impact. The room felt less like a conference hall and more like a workshop where leaders compared scars, traded lessons, and aligned on what actually ships. What followed were stories about how data and AI move from hopeful pilots to reliable products that customers love and teams can sustain.
Key takeaways
- Real impact happens when culture, governance, and delivery move in sync.
- Partnerships compress the path from question to answer.
- The winning pattern is outcomes first, technology second.
Keynote: Irina Arsene, Founder & CEO, mindit.io
Irina opened with a promise she made long ago: build a company where people, values, and vision come first. She did not talk about frameworks or hype. She talked about trust, about the patience required to harmonize data before anyone sees magic on a dashboard, and about the grit it takes to go from idea to outcome. Her message set the tone for the day. Technology enables, but culture multiplies.
Key takeaways
- Put humans at the center, then let technology amplify.
- Harmonize data and language before chasing dashboards.
- Move from experiments to owned products with SLAs and clear KPIs.
Avolta — Commercial Applications and Integration
Speakers:
Ioannis Zouroudis — Global Head for Commercial Applications & Integration, Avolta
Russell Deaney — Global Lead of Commercial Applications, Avolta
Ioannis and Russell described the lived reality of moving from monolithic platforms to modular ecosystems while keeping revenue-critical systems alive. Modernization is not a big bang. It is a steady march: tighten governance, make observability routine, coach delivery teams, and measure business outcomes rather than activity. Salesforce and Databricks appear as tools in service of a principle: enable people to ship quickly and safely.
Key takeaways
- Modularize with discipline and protect business continuity.
- Coach teams and harden pipelines with observability and guardrails.
- Measure change by business outcomes, not ticket counts.
Gekko Group / Accor — Hospitality Data Strategy
Speaker:
Matthieu Chevrier — Chief Digital Officer, Gekko Group (Accor)
Matthieu brought the rhythm of hospitality to the stage. He spoke about the tempo that separates good ideas from great products: short feedback loops, clean APIs, and data that is reliable enough to trust with the guest experience. Distribution is large, but the mindset is small-batch. Experiment, learn, adjust, and never let the guest feel the complexity behind the curtain.
Key takeaways
- Short feedback loops beat long roadmaps in dynamic markets.
- Treat data quality as a guest-facing feature.
- Scale with clear APIs and product thinking, not one-off projects.
Bucherer AG — Luxury Retail, Precision Meets Personalization
Speakers:
Diana Muntean — Global Cross-Cloud Manager, Bucherer AG
Christopher Schmieg — Global Director CRM & Customer Experience and Group Data Privacy Officer, Bucherer AG
Diana and Christopher invited everyone into the quiet craft of luxury retail where precision, heritage, and intimacy meet technology. Their narrative centered on a harmonized customer view across CRM, marketing, and e-commerce. Personalization is respect for the client, and privacy by design is trust you can feel in every conversation at the boutique.
Key takeaways
- Build a single, trusted customer view to power true clienteling.
- Make privacy and compliance a design choice, not an afterthought.
- Align teams on shared metrics to move faster without losing quality.
Databricks — Data Investments That Deliver
Speakers:
Sarah Scholz — Senior Named/Strategic Account Executive, Databricks (Switzerland)
Dr. Grazia Frontoso — Field Engineering Lead (Head of Field Engineering for CH/AT/Eastern Europe), Databricks
Sarah and Grazia told a pragmatic story about turning data into durable advantage. The lakehouse acts as a backbone where ingestion, transformation, warehousing, and machine learning stay in the same conversation. Unity Catalog consolidates governance, open formats avoid lock-in, and Mosaic AI plus emerging agentic patterns help teams graduate from proofs of concept to real products.
Key takeaways
- Use a lakehouse backbone to unify analytics and ML.
- Centralize governance with a single catalog and open formats.
- Move beyond pilots by productizing AI with repeatable patterns.
Microsoft — Responsible AI at Enterprise Scale
Speaker:
Bogdan Puținică — Area General Manager, Microsoft Central Europe (EURA)
Bogdan asked the hard questions leaders face when ambition meets accountability. Who has access to what data, and why. How do Copilot and the Microsoft platform become force multipliers without creating new risks. Responsible AI is a leadership choice: decide on governance early, align on outcomes that matter, and equip people with tools they can actually use.
Key takeaways
- Governance and security first, then accelerate adoption.
- Tie Copilot use cases to measurable productivity and risk controls.
- Scale through a sequence: secure foundation, focused wins, broader rollout.
SAP CEE — Harmonized Data Layers for Complex Enterprises
Speaker:
Nicoleta Fedorovici — Chief Partner Officer for CEE, SAP (executive team, SAP CEE)
Nicoleta spoke the language of resilience. In supply chains and regulated processes, a harmonized data layer is not a preference. It is a necessity. With SAP Business Data Cloud working alongside lakehouse patterns, organizations cut inefficiency and gain the confidence to move faster when conditions change.
Key takeaways
- Create a harmonized data layer to support mission-critical flows.
- Bake compliance, safety, and reliability into the first architecture draft.
- Combine SAP data strengths with lakehouse agility to reduce waste.
Izzard Ink Publishing — AI-Empowered Publishing and Human Impact
Speaker:
Tim McConnehey — CEO & Founder, Izzard Ink Publishing
Tim’s session felt like a letter to every creator who wonders if their voice matters. AI does not write your story, but it can make the journey kinder. Manuscript assessments become clearer. Editorial quality improves. Coaching scales without losing empathy. Many first-time authors at Izzard Ink reach the top tier of literary reviews, which shows what happens when process supports creativity.
Key takeaways
- Use AI to remove friction and bias from creative workflows.
- Keep empathy at the core while scaling coaching and feedback.
- Prove value through outcomes such as review rankings, not speculation.
EY — Entrepreneurship at Scale
Speakers:
Frédéric Tissot — Director, Head of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year, Switzerland
Aurelia Costache — Partner, AI & Data Leader, EY Romania
Frédéric and Aurelia widened the lens to the ecosystem that makes company building possible. A decade of the EY Romania program has connected hundreds of founders and supported tens of thousands of jobs. Elevate women in technology. Give local entrepreneurs a bridge to global networks. Celebrate momentum so it compounds.
Key takeaways
- Strong ecosystems multiply founder success and job creation.
- Visibility and mentorship are critical for underrepresented leaders.
- Cross-border networks unlock capital, customers, and credibility.
Five themes that tied the day together
- From pilots to platforms: experiments become products with owners, SLAs, and KPIs.
- Harmonized data layers: common semantics and governance are the quiet engines of speed and trust.
- Open ecosystems: SAP, Microsoft, Databricks, Salesforce, and partners deliver more together.
- Outcome over activity: track CX lift, resilience, and time to value rather than vanity metrics.
- Human first: AI succeeds when it augments teams, protects privacy, and respects the people it serves.
What’s next
Explore the talks, borrow the checklists, and adapt the patterns to your context. If a topic aligns with your roadmap, we can walk you through the architecture, the trade-offs, and the first three steps that create momentum. When you are ready to move, we are ready to help.
- Book a 30-minute call with our architects
- Follow us on LinkedIn to stay updated with the latest news from mindit.io
- Connect with us to explore partner integrations for your data and AI journey
Thank you to every customer, partner, and friend who filled the room with insight and momentum. The next chapter starts now.
