Ali is a design leader with 15 years of experience helping teams build thoughtful, scalable programs and user experiences. She specializes in cross-functional partnership and guiding teams through periods of change, instability, and shifting priorities — including the move toward AI-native ways of working. Her talks focus on practical, hard-earned lessons for driving clarity from chaos, navigating ambiguity, and building capacity — while staying (mostly) sane.

David is Chief Exec of Collections Trust where he leads the organisation and delivers collections consultancy projects. David was Chair of the UK Museum Accreditation Scheme for four years, and is Chair of Your Trust, Rochdale’s culture and leisure trust. Most recently, David was Curator of Earth Sciences at Manchester University Museum for nineteen years, where he worked with a large collection, supporting researchers and decolonisation work.

Jennifer Pearson is a Digital Archivist at HSBC, where she supports and maintains the digital preservation system for the bank’s global archives team. Her particular focus is catalogue metadata management and automation of processes using scripts.

Ekaterina “Kat” Erschowa is a Creative Director specializing in luxury beauty, skincare, and fashion storytelling across global markets. She has led brand development, creative, and campaign strategy for prestige brands, with a focus on elevating visuals and experiences across flagship, e‑commerce, and social channels. At the intersection of creativity and emerging technology, Kat explores how AI can augment brand worlds, accelerate content creation, and unlock new forms of visual expression while preserving craft, taste, and a distinct point of view.