ICBE Annual Conference 2025 Agenda
Registration & Tea/Coffee
Opening Address
Facilitator
Anton Savage
Panel Discussion – Answering the Call to Lead: Future Leader Perceptions, Motivations, Skills & Needs
Panellist
Mary Ann Fleming
President
Penn Engineering, Galway
Panellist
Kieran Noonan
Chair and Director of the ICBE
Executive Board Member of Shingo Institute
Panellist
Mairéad Divilly
Consultant
Forvis Mazars - Ireland
Members of the Board of ICBE discuss how Leadership is evolving and share their insights, referencing recent research carried out by ICBE/UL
Using advanced technologies to boost sustainability and increase productivity
Speaker
Micheál Geraghty
Vice President of Operations EMEA & Site Lead
Coca-Cola Ballina
Micheál will share the digital transformation journey at Coca-Cola Ballina - why they started this journey, the approach they have taken and the benefits they have received. He will also talk to how they validated their approach by achieving World Economic Forum accreditation. Coca-Cola Ballina was the first beverage company to achieve this accreditation.
Sustainability - Future Proofing your business – how to build resilience and unlock value
Speaker
Aisling Ryan
Global Strategist, Sustainability and Public Affairs Consultant
Panel Discussion
Environmental Sustainability Projects with Positive Financial Impact on Organisational Goals
Aisling Ryan will join James Atherton to discuss Environmental Sustainability Projects with Positive Financial Impact on Organisational goals.
Panellist
James Atherton
Sustainability and Utility Director at WuXi Biologic
Panellist
Laura Kennedy
Head of Sustainability (Retail) at Musgrave
Networking Break
Tea/Coffee
Case Study : Penn Engineering -Realising Sales Process efficiencies using Data, AI & Automation
Speaker
Mary Ann Fleming
President
Penn Engineering, Galway
Speaker
Eoin O’Reilly
Head of AI and Data at EY Ireland together with ICBE member, Penn Engineering
Penn Engineering aims to transform the customer sales quote process by leveraging Data, AI & Automation. Aligned with their customer obsession strategy they recognise the Speed of response is one of the fundamental actions they need to take to support customers. Their current quotation process is resource intensive for their experience engineering teams and the Penn Engineering objective is to streamline quote generation, ensuring rapid and accurate estimates tailored to customer needs. Automation will ensure an efficient communication & handshake process between the Penn sales, engineer and finance teams, reducing the time spent on drafting quotes and enabling Penn to accelerate their speed to market. They believe the implementation of this solution will empower their sales representatives, ensure their engineers are utilised in high value driven tasks, improve customer satisfaction and drive revenue growth.
Session: AI4LABOUR - Exploring AI’s impact on the future of work, new occupations, and emerging skill sets
Speaker
Dr. Elena Montiel-Ponsoda
Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics to Science and Technology
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)
Speaker
Luis Gasco
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Avature
In her talk, Elena Montiel-Ponsoda will provide an overview of the European project AI4LABOUR, a collaboration among several institutions studying the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the labor market, in particular task automation. She will focus on how companies can effectively identify employees' training needs in an ever-changing environment.
Building on this, Luís will present how Avature develops its AI solutions to help companies in their recruitment processes. He will explain how the R&D strategies are informed by a commitment to transparency, unbiased methods, and ensuring that humans remain in control of decisions, resulting in tools that foster fairness, efficiency, and a people-centered approach to recruitment.
Peer to Peer knowledge sharing discussions Table Discussions
Lunch & Networking
Decarbonisation as a Driver for Technology, Collaboration & Innovation
Speaker
Brian Holliday
Managing Director for Siemens Digital Industries and Chairman of Siemens Digital Industries Software
Case Study: Leveraging AI Technologies - Combining data-driven strategies with practical process improvements to drive operational efficiency
Speaker
Laurent Blanchet
Director of Business Excellence
EssilorLuxottica
Laurent will share his expertise and insights on:
Transforming data into actions: How to bridge the gap between advanced analytics and operational impact by framing problems effectively and ensuring solutions align with business priorities
Impacting through practical solutions: Real examples of how process improvements enabled by advanced analytics and Intelligent Automation drive measurable impact by reducing process inefficiencies while delivering better outcomes for customers.
Scaling success: How governance, proof of concept, and replicability frameworks ensure scalable and sustainable impacts.
Winning hearts and minds: Insights into overcoming change management challenges and fostering adoption of data-driven solutions.
Over the past seven years, Laurent has focused on leveraging AI technologies, including advanced analytics models and robotic process automation, to transform business processes and drive commercial effectiveness and operational efficiency.
Keynote Speaker - Getting the Best Out of Yourself and Others
Speaker
Damian Hughes
Liquid Thinker
Damian combines his expertise in sport, organisational development, and change psychology to help organisations create high-performing cultures.
Dissemination of Table Discussion Findings
Company of the Year Acknowledgement
Closing Remarks
Conference Close
We look forward to welcoming you to a day of inspiring conversations and impactful networking at ICBE Conference 2025.