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Belgium 01-10-2026 Squad Only Virtual english
Low-code, no-code, and AI tools are giving business teams more ability to build solutions themselves. The challenge is setting the right boundaries before fast local solutions become important operational assets. Three pressure points need attention. - Boundaries must be clear: teams need to know what they can build alone and what requires IT, security, or architecture review. - Supportability matters when a quick solution becomes business-critical. - Risk control remains necessary around data access, compliance, security, process dependency, and maintenance. The working question is simple: how do we enable business-led development while keeping security, ownership, and support under control? If you are trying to enable this safely, let’s compare approaches with others facing the same balance.
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Belgium 06-10-2026 All Members Physical english
As enterprise AI transitions from experimental Proofs of Concept (POCs) into real implementations, digital leaders are encountering a shared challenge: consumption-based public cloud token billing models do not fit neatly into traditional IT budgeting. Daily token consumption can rise unexpectedly, pushing expenses through the roof while arbitrary caps quickly kill momentum for innovation. For many CIOs, this raises an open strategic question: How do we keep costs under control while further stimulating innovation? During this interactive CIONET roundtable, we will explore among peers how to navigate AI tokenomics. Rather than treating public cloud LLMs as the default path, we will investigate how different execution environments, ranging from hybrid cloud setups and targeted on-premise models to specialised edge hardware, can help balance cost with performance. This session is intentionally designed as an open peer-to-peer exchange; a space to compare notes, challenge current ways of working and architectural setups, and discuss practical approaches to building predictable, scalable AI models.
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Belgium 08-10-2026 All Members Physical english
Every large organisation has been through a major transformation, and most through several. The word transformation is misleading because it suggests a beginning and an end. But organisations that do well are the ones that have given up on the idea of arriving and realise that constant change has become the new norm, and missing a single cycle leaves you permanently behind. This evening, two leaders will share how they think about this, coming from opposite directions. John Porter led Telenet through a sustained period of reinvention spanning the pandemic, a full reorganisation into tribes, M&A, and a shift to a performance driven culture. Along the way, the IT department was dissolved and technology was embedded inside autonomous tribes that run as small businesses. There is no CIO at Telenet. It is Telenet Group’s purpose to become a digital-first, customer-centric organisation. To deliver on this ambition, it has embarked on a transformation journey built on three pillars: (i) the implementation of a scaled-agile operating model (organisation), (ii) the acceleration of digitisation and automation underpinned by optimised IT systems, platforms, and strategic technology partnerships (digitisation), and (iii) a performance leadership culture focused on accountability, ownership, and a change mindset (culture). Kris Vervaet, on the other hand, has just become CIO at KBC, the bank whose mobile app has been ranked best in the world three times and whose AI assistant Kate now handles 70% of customer queries on its own. But Kris is no ordinary CIO: he ran DPG Media Belgium as CEO, and KBC went looking for someone who has led transformation rather than someone who manages technology. So while one organisation got rid of the CIO role, the other reinvented it, and both are thriving. The conversation will range across organisational and IT redesign, the rise of digital-first customer experience, the impact of AI on how every business is run, and the harder questions of culture, talent and leadership. The question for every leader in the room is what that tells you about your own role, your own operating model, and the pace at which you are prepared to keep evolving.
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CIONET Trailblazer: CISO: The Shift from Prevention to Resilience: Turning Visibility into Execution
Published on: January 28, 2026 @ 9:48 AM
CIONET Trailblazer: AI Transformation: Bridging the Cultural Divide to Achieve Competitive Advantage
Published on: December 17, 2025 @ 9:16 AM
Adoption success. New workspace solution for a professional service company
Driving faster business results for our customers as their employees start spending more time at the office.
Overview
Adopting new collaboration technology presents a challenge for some organisations, leaving many employees confused. But success is dependent on people accepting and changing their behaviour. That can be more challenging when you’re trying to encourage your people to use the in-room technology – something they haven’t been used to whilst they’ve worked remotely.
To achieve a successful uptake of the new technologies, our customer needed a user adoption programme that would drive behaviour changes needed. That’s where we came in.
The challenge
Organisations need digital workplace transformation now more than ever, so their people can collaborate from anywhere. But with around 80% of deployments failing to deliver the expected business value and the added difficulties of getting employees to come into the office to use the new technology, this is a new type of challenge.
The customer wanted to migrate to a new video infrastructure. They had a mixture of various legacy end points and wanted a new single vendor platform under a BT managed service. This would enable video end points to be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams and provide a better user experience. They also needed a new way to book and schedule video meetings as their existing service was slow and outdated.
When migrating to a new infrastructure, there needs to be a behaviour change. It’s therefore key that we drive usage through awareness, education and coaching to bridge the gap in user experience. It was essential to the customer to build a video culture as part of their major digital transformation which had already seen the launch of Office 365, Microsoft Teams Enterprise Voice and providing all employees with new laptops.
The BT user adoption team provided amazing support… our adoption lead was proactive and driven to deliver results. She worked to provide clear communication, support plans and materials in a highly nebulous space. In addition to adding great business value, the team worked as collaborative partners and were a pleasure to work with.”
The solution
It takes the right experience and knowledge to position change successfully. We started with our discovery and planning stages to understand how to drive the change that the customer wanted. Our team worked alongside our technical solution architect and service delivery manager to understand the solution and understand the impact from the experts that designed it. We needed to identify the behaviour change required, based on what technology is available and what users are doing now. It’s equally as important to understand the agreed support model in place. Who would support the end-users should they experience any issues whilst in the meeting rooms? This needed to be promoted to the users.
Driving awareness and creating excitement was critical, especially as the use of meetings rooms was one of the key drivers behind why people would return to the office. Our dedicated adoption specialist provided advice on how to position the benefits of the new rooms and what channels to use to the promote the message internally. Ensuring this covered the common question: are the rooms fit for purpose for the new hybrid meetings? The specialist built tailored launch emails which were sent company-wide with compelling messages on what’s new, the next steps and best practice.
Education on the new service was crucial to enriching our support. We provided quick start guides on using the meetings app integrated with rooms and support on the various in-room devices. We needed to ensure we covered all devices, and that the right device guides were in the right rooms. Based on our experience and expertise we also provided frequently asked questions which were ideal not only for end-users but also the end user support team. Quick and easy access to this user support content was key so we made the accessible using QR codes in the meeting rooms.
To ensure continuous learning we recommended how to keep assets updated so they reflected any changes to the video user interface. We provided source files to enable them to make these updates.
The result
The migration to the new video infrastructure, the introduction of new devices and a booking system was successfully achieved with minimal disruption. Our adoption specialist received positive feedback from the leading professional services company and all assets were set-up and ready to use upon employees return to the office. Today, the organisation is working with us to drive an even more embedded video culture as more of their people return to the office and face-to-face meetings.
We’ve become the organisations trusted partner and main provider of cloud collaboration tools. Our user adoption teams continue to support this customer to help them develop a truly unified communications experience for their users.
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CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.
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The Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.
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Découvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !
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CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.
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