Platform Leaders November 2026

Guest Registration

In-person guest registration and networking at Digital Catapult.

Welcome Talk

Start of the online webinar and the in-person conference.
Platform Leaders introduction by the master of ceremony.

Fireside chat with mystery industry veteran

Join us for a fireside chat between Brigitte Bellan, Founding Member at Collective Intelligence for AI, and our mystery industry veteran to be revealed soon!

Keynote: Digital Trends 2027

Platform Leaders co-chair and Launchworks & Co CEO Benoit Reillier will present his key digital trends for 2027.

Collective Intelligence for AI

Platform Leaders co-chair and Launchworks & Co COO Laure Claire Reillier will give an update on the Collective Intelligence for AI initiative.

AI Governance: managing risks while realising ambitions

Between the doom of existential-risk headlines and the hype of frictionless abundance sits the actual work of governing AI. It is being debated everywhere from the frontier labs to the Vatican, with real urgency and a growing insistence that these systems be designed with human flourishing in mind.

Our panellists will discuss how AI is reshaping markets, what this means in terms of new risks and opportunities and how we can design shared principles and guardrails, nationally and internationally to mitigate risks and bring about the best of AI. The discussion is timely and the grace period of the AI Act's transparency obligations that became applicable on 2 August 2026, will expire on 2 December 2026, six days after we meet.

Key questions

• What are the different types of risks -and opportunities- associated with AI, how real and immediate are they and what type of governance would help manage the downside while realising the upside?


• How to change the incentives of stakeholders involved in the current AI race and in particular how to create convergence on norms and principles for what is fundamentally a global issue?


• Where is governance already paying off, in terms of trust, adoption or investor confidence, and where does its absence create uncertainty, risk and frictions?


• How can countries like the UK, the EU, the US and China, develop suitable governance frameworks? What is already working well and what is yet to be done?

Coffee Break

The Intelligent Marketplace: lower cost, better service?

Strategy has always been about trade-offs, and few have been as persistent as the tension between cost and service quality. Take cost out and, sooner or later, customers tend to feel it. For decades, that trade-off has defined the cost-service frontier. AI appears to be shifting it.

AI is unlocking functionality that was previously difficult or impossible at scale. Real-time translation makes a Lithuanian seller’s inventory immediately accessible to an Italian buyer. Valuations can be built on millions of pooled transactions. A listing can be generated from a single photo and improved by everything the network has learned before. In each case, AI can do more than automate a task: it can turn the accumulated data and experience of the network into a shared intelligence layer, potentially delivering better service at lower cost.

Our panellists will explore how AI and collective intelligence are reshaping one of the oldest trade-offs in business, and what new opportunities, risks and competitive dynamics this creates.

Key questions

• Where is this already happening today, and how far can it go?


• When does AI genuinely improve the service, and when does it simply move work or friction from the platform onto its users?


• Which uses of AI actually compound network effects, and which simply cut costs without making the platform smarter?


• If AI-generated content erodes the human signal that made a network worth trusting, what can a platform do about it?


• If AI is moving the cost-service frontier, what happens to competitive advantage when every platform or organisation gains access to similar technology?

Announcing Platform Leaders Academic Prize

Join us to discover this year’s Platform Leaders Academic Prize winners!

Each year, Platform Leaders awards a prize to an academic paper that demonstrates exceptional relevance and practical applications to the business world. This year’s finalists have been selected in partnership with platformpapers.com. The winner is selected by the 2026 business jury, which will be announced shortly.

The winners will present their research, discussing its business implications, alongside a specially commissioned illustrated video sponsored by Platform Leaders.

Conference wrap up

Closing remarks and key insights from the event by our master of ceremony and conference co-chairs.

Networking drinks

In-person networking drinks.