Intercloud9 Events

Breaking Ground: From curiosity to strategy: building your AI foundation

Date: 29 September 2026 – 9am to 2pm

Speakers: Jen Watkins (IC9), David Hancox (CIOB), Bill Wilson (IC9 technical lead)

Before CIOB had a policy or a plan, they already had over 7,000 AI interactions happening across their organisation. Sound familiar? This is where most organisations are. AI is already in your building, whether you have a strategy for it or not. This immersive session starts with that reality, and by the end of it, you will have done something about it.

What you’ll do in this session

Working with expert facilitators, in this session you will run your own rapid AI audit and maturity self-assessment, map what is already happening across your organisation, and draft the outline of an Acceptable Use Policy built around your own context.

Key takeaways

In session one, you will leave with an AI governance document tailored to your organisation, a prioritised list of your own use cases, and – perhaps most importantly – a clear sense of where you stand and what needs to happen next.

Join the series

You can join the complete journey with all four sessions for just £195. Here you will follow CIOB’s implementation from the very beginning and build your own roadmap alongside it. Each session runs from 09:30 to 14:15 and includes refreshments and lunch.

If you’re only able to make a couple of the dates, sessions can also be purchased individually for just £60 if space permits. Each will provide a unique insight into another step of the CIOB AI journey.

Drawing Up the Plans: “Selecting use cases and choosing partners”

Date: 3 December 2026 – 9am to 2pm

Speakers: Kris Watkins (IC9), Bill Wilson (IC9), David Hancox (CIOB), Bluelight representative

CIOB had 25 AI use cases and had to choose six. Getting that decision wrong would have cost them everything that followed. This session gives you the framework to make the same call in your own organisation and how to get it right.

What you’ll do in this session

CIOB’s decision to work with Bluelight’s agentic platform did not happen by accident.

During this session, you will apply Intercloud9’s use case scoring framework to your own shortlisted opportunities, work through a structured partner evaluation exercise, and get honest about what good data readiness looks like before any AI goes near it. The most overlooked risk in any AI implementation is the data it runs on. This session also introduces the 365 Data Optimiser and shows you what data readiness actually means – because if your D365 data is bloated, ungoverned, and costly to maintain, your AI strategy is built on the wrong foundation.

Key takeaways

In session two, you see first-hand how they got there, and what questions you need to be asking before your business commits to any implementation partner. You leave with a scored use case shortlist and a partner evaluation framework that you can actively use.

Join the series

You can join the complete journey with all four sessions for just £195. Here you will follow CIOB’s implementation from the very beginning and build your own roadmap alongside it. Each session runs from 09:30 to 14:15 and includes refreshments and lunch.

If you’re only able to make a couple of the dates, sessions can also be purchased individually for just £60 if space permits. Each will provide a unique insight into another step of the CIOB AI journey.

Going Live: How CIOB built, tested and deployed their AI

Date: 11 February 2027 – 9am to 2pm

Speakers: Jen Watkins (IC9), Bluelight technical team, CIOB operational lead (TBC)

Every AI project should have a concrete plan. This session is about what happens when you launch it. CIOB will share exactly how they built, tested and deployed their AI, including what went as expected, what did not, and what they would do differently. There’s zero polished retrospective, but an honest account from the people who were there, in the room with you.

What you’ll do in this session

This is the most hands-on session in the series. You will work with prompt design and agent configuration, explore testing principles, and dig into one of the hardest parts of any AI implementation – why some teams embrace it and others resist it, and what you can do about it in your own organisation. Getting the technology right is only half the job. Getting your people there is the other half.

Key takeaways

In session three, you will build your own testing and governance checklist and a change readiness assessment built around your own organisation.

Join the series

You can join the complete journey with all four sessions for just £195. Here you will follow CIOB’s implementation from the very beginning and build your own roadmap alongside it. Each session runs from 09:30 to 14:15 and includes refreshments and lunch.

If you’re only able to make a couple of the dates, sessions can also be purchased individually for just £60 if space permits. Each will provide a unique insight into another step of the CIOB AI journey.

Handover: Embedding and scaling: making AI stick across the enterprise

Date: 20 May 2027 – 9am to 2pm

Speakers: Jen Watkins (IC9), Bill Wilson (IC9), David Hancox (CIOB), Leadership Blueprint cohort voice (TBC – one participant willing to share their own leadership and change journey), Bluelight representative

Getting AI live is one challenge. Making it stick is another. This is the final session of the CIOB AI Journey and the most complete picture you will get. Twelve months in, CIOB share everything their real deployment has taught them: the AI Ambassador programme, the culture change, the moments that nearly derailed it, and what they would do differently if they were starting again. The hardest part of any AI implementation is not the build – it is what happens six months later, when the initial energy fades and the technology has to survive on its own.

What you’ll do in this session

This session closes the loop. You will build a 90-day embedding plan for your own organisation, design an AI Ambassador structure that fits the way your teams actually work, and review your governance framework in light of everything you have learned across the series. Over the four sessions, you will have followed CIOB’s full AI journey from the very beginning – and built your own parallel roadmap alongside it. You leave not just having watched an AI transformation happen, but having done the work yourself at every stage.

Key takeaways

In session four, you will leave with a 90-day embedding plan, your own AI Ambassador structure, and a governance framework refined across the full series. And something bigger than any of those – a complete and ready-to-use actionable roadmap for your own AI transformation, built by you over the last 12-months.

Join the series

You can join the complete journey with all four sessions for just £195. Here you will follow CIOB’s implementation from the very beginning and build your own roadmap alongside it. Each session runs from 09:30 to 14:15 and includes refreshments and lunch.

If you’re only able to make a couple of the dates, sessions can also be purchased individually for just £60 if space permits. Each will provide a unique insight into another step of the CIOB AI journey.