The TechEx exhibition series’ latest regional showcase took place at the Santa Clara Exhibition Center June 4-5 this year. The North America-focused event is one of a trio of regional events, joining TechEx Global held in London, UK, in February every year, and the European event, in Amsterdam each September.
The US event centred around the key themes of AI and big data, cybersecurity, cloud, IIoT and Edge computing, data centres (this track having its own, dedicated room in the Conference Center), and the more broad digital transformation and intelligent automation tracks.
The careful curation of event admissions meant that 73% of attendees to the event were director level or higher, meaning the 8,000+ delegates were the industry’s movers and shakers, a situation that was reflected in the extensive speaker list. Appearing on the event’s stages were speakers from end-users, like Rooshana Purnyn, Director of Data Architecture and Platform Engineering at Hyatt Hotels, Premsai Ranga, VP of Senior Infrastructure Governance at JPMorgan Chase, and Walmart’s Brian Timmeny, CTO for Mexico & Central America.
The publication and editorial arm of the organisers, TechForge, conducted interviews on the show floor, videos of which will be featuring on these pages over the coming weeks. Among them were Kevin Cochrane, Chief Marketing Officer at cloud computing challenger Vultr, PwC’s Ilana Blumenfeld (Director of Emerging Tech at PwC Labs), SAP’s Ted Way, and Alex Wylie the Director of Technology Field Marketing at IBM.
Big names from across technology
We were also able to discuss the latest version of AWS’s SageMaker with William Vambenepe, Director of Product Management. SageMaker is a platform that’s grown considerably from its initial remit of workflow management for AI projects, into a full suite of products that covers data governance, meta data tagging, and scalable implementation of AI models in production.
Jennifer Fitzgerald, Director of Product Management, Observability at IBM spoke on stage about the need for oversight across the enterprise to ensure the reliability and veracity of data that companies use in their AI deployments – a subject Jennifer discussed with us in some depth before the event, with an ensuing article now available to read here.
Given the mix of technical experts, product managers, and end-users, the range of exhibitors, speakers, panel members, and show attendees meant that the focus was always on the practical implementations of the latest technology, rather than one that hinted at forthcoming breakthroughs and theoretical possibilities. The strong presence of heavyweights from large financial institutions and household name companies shows that even in the most conservative of large enterprises, technologies like agentic AI and data mesh layers are beyond the experimentation stages: these are technologies that are making a difference in today’s businesses and public organisations.
AI governance and safety feature
Many companies’ presented on the safety, governance, and security of data in a time where organisations are using their internal data troves to power bespoke AIs to help them achieve their goals. In addition to ‘traditional’ cybersecurity concerns (such as those outlined by Kieran Norton in one of his two talks at the event), there was a great deal to learn about how companies could use their information reserves safely. While the temptation for many businesses might be to immediately commit first- and second-party data to their AI engines, the experiences shared from the enterprise companies at the event were that a deep, roots-and-branches change management approach was needed. In a world where the technology is new and potentially game-changing, companies need to re-invent much of their internal processes to proceed safely and coherently with AI.
Later this year, and in 2026…
The next TechEx event is due to be held in Amsterdam, September 24-25, which will bring a European perspective to many of the themes explored on the US West coast at TechEx North America. Expect to hear more about AI, of course, but also all the latest from the data centre industry, edge computing and IIoT users and vendors, sovereign European cloud providers, and local users of the big technology platforms that are shaping the world of business and government.
Speakers in Amsterdam look likely to include representatives from NATO, IKEA, and Schneider Electric, among dozens of others. You’ll be able to meet these companies and many vendors on the show floor, too, and get the latest in European technology. To find out more about TechEx Europe, head on over here.
