Weeknotes #370 — I Don’t Know Why

Slide from Hannah Fry’s presentation at the Gartner CIO Leadership Forum

A really tough week, mentally and physically. I spent the first two days at the Gartner CIO Leadership Forum, an event that I really like as it is relatively small, resulting in you bumping into the same faces in different sessions. I felt all jumbled up and out of sorts, which I first attributed to the after-effects of a weekend of cycling, but as the week went on I realised that I was actually ill with some kind of cold. On top of this, or maybe partly because of it, I felt stressed. When this happens, I struggle to keep focused on the thing directly in front of me, e.g. the content of a meeting, as my brain is eager to move to thinking about the hundred other things I need to get done. Wednesday was a day spent working from home, but an early meeting meant that my dalliance with my indoor bike trainer was fleeting. Thursday and Friday were back in the office, with the main goals of that last day being to take delivery of new furniture for our internal boardroom and to hold an in-person interview.

I’ve now got a week off, which feels like it’s coming at just the right moment. My wife and I will be home alone, as our eldest is at university in Texas and our youngest is cycling around the Balkans with some friends. I’ve not planned much in my head other than a couple of must-do jobs around the house and checking in on a few items at work, so it should be pretty relaxing.

This was a week in which I:

Attended the Gartner CIO Leadership Forum. Although the four-day Symposium/Xpo in Barcelona is the flagship event, I think this two-day session is more valuable as it’s smaller, is focused on CIOs, and is easier for an attendee to book onto sessions with limited places. After a few years of attending these conferences, I’m starting to bump into familiar faces.

Heading to the Intercontinental Hotel at the O2 for the conference, facing the skyline of the Docklands.

Had a good conversation over lunch about Gartner’s research that says “74% of boards want enterprises to take more technology risks.” Do they really? What are the negative consequences of taking these risks that they are prepared to put up with? I get the feeling that there is FOMO in relation to AI — CEOs and boards think that all of the other companies are well ahead — and they are pushing their CIOs to take more chances with AI. But Microsoft claim to have 450 million subscribers to Microsoft 365, of which 15 million have a paid Copilot subscription. That’s less than 4%. It is still early. Others are not likely to be much further ahead than you are.

Learnt that Gartner research has found that AI-related layoffs are actually decreasing, contrary to how it feels from the news cycle at the moment. They analysed data for 1.4 million layoffs in 2025 and found that less than 1% were attributable to AI productivity gains.

Went to more workshops and round tables than usual, which were much more valuable than attending more seminar- or lecture-style sessions. They were excellent, and I came away with good insights and some practical things that I can follow up with at work. These covered the topics of:

Assessing and transforming your IT operating model

AI literacy in the enterprise

A structured approach to accelerating ‘speed to value’ for new CIOs

Attracting and integrating neurodiverse talent

Enjoyed the celebrity keynotes as they were reasonably related to technology and leadership. On Monday afternoon we saw Tim Peake, who has made a wonderful speaking career out of his trip into space. On Tuesday morning I found myself sitting two seats away from Hannah Fry before she got up to give her presentation. I couldn’t help but listen in to her conversation with her host from Gartner who was sitting right next to me, discussing what they think the impact of AI will be.

Hannah Fry giving her keynote on day two of the Gartner CIO Leadership Forum.

Went out for a CIO networking dinner on Monday night at Gaucho at the O2. By the time we left I was so full up. I’d been eating all day on Monday like I was still on my weekend bike rides.

Met with the project team who are working on the fit-out of our newest office to review the latest design. We also met with a broader stakeholder group to review the journey of how we got to this point, what decisions we need to make, and the data and insights that we will base these on.

Took part in the formal kick-off meeting for one of our key projects with all of the people that need to be involved in the work. The project team did an excellent job of presenting the background, what happens next, and lining up our CEO to reiterate the importance of what we need to do.

Joined our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion meeting.

Attended an internal webinar on the macroeconomic and political outlook for South Africa, the latest in an ongoing series. They are so well put together, and extremely informative.

Met with colleagues to discuss how we might approach using AI to streamline one of their main business processes, and the pitfalls of working with vendors in this space.

Had a meeting to discuss our provision of audio-visual support for the meeting rooms that we share with our sister company, and how we might improve the service.

Had an introductory chat with a colleague who has joined us in the office for a six-month assignment that will be focused on business strategy.

Took delivery of a new table and credenzas for our internal boardroom. They are a massive upgrade from what we had before. There are still a couple of snags to resolve, but it will be excellent once the project is complete.

Did some mandatory online basic AI training that has been rolled out across our organisation.

Interviewed a candidate for our developer role and lined up three more for the week that I return from leave.

Heard the very sad news of the passing of an ex-colleague who retired only a couple of years ago.

Spent some time with our youngest boy, making sure he was ready for his bike ride. On Saturday morning we headed over to the house where his friends were doing their final packing, and the cardboard boxes containing their bikes were being loaded onto the back of a van. I really hope it’s the experience of a lifetime for him, and that he’s keen to keep up the cycling habit after the trip.

Ready for their Balkan adventure.

Was pleased that the company responsible for our wastewater pipes found what they think is a root cause of the drain collapse. Unfortunately it sits on our neighbour’s side and is linked to how the two drains join together before meeting the sewer in the road. The next step is for them to dig up our neighbour’s driveway.

Didn’t get much exercise in, due to being in London four days out of five, being time-crunched on the other days across the weekend, and feeling a bit under the weather. My wife and I went out for a lovely Sunday morning run, splitting up halfway round and then reconvening for coffee and pastry in town.

Got a second quote for cutting back the big beech tree in the garden, not too different from the first quote. Trimming it isn’t going to be cheap.

Had a plumber come and take a look at our leaking bathroom. They pointed out a couple of issues with the en suite that we need to fix before they start to open up the ceiling to track down the issues with the waste pipes.

Media

Video

Watched The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), the latest in my journey through Fred Astaire’s musical films. I first saw this about 25 years ago at the BFI cinema on the South Bank when they showed all of the Astaire and Rodgers films. It’s a strange picture that ends their run of movies at RKO, but contains some lovely moments. Vernon and Irene Castle were very famous in their day, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who knows a thing about them. This YouTuber gives a good overview of the movie:

Audio

Took delivery of a bunch of bargain-basement-priced CDs and a few records from a seller on Discogs. I was after one particular album, but the seller had so many that were on my wishlist that I could add for no additional postage that I couldn’t help myself. I am now once again the proud owner of the superb 1985 compilation Love Songs (20 Classic Hits) which showcases the early work of Stevie Wonder. It contains wall-to-wall classics, including my personal favourite I Don’t Know Why. What a song.

Web

Death by Clawd is fun for a few minutes. You feed it the URL of a website or software-as-a-service platform and it uses AI to determine how vulnerable it is to being replaced by AI.

Fascinating insights into batteries and charging for Apple devices.

Speaking of Apple, it was also interesting to read about their launch of Apple Business, a platform to help companies to manage their Apple product estates.

Books

Continued reading Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint by Robert Gaskins. I’m not reading anywhere near as much as I’d like this year, but I’m enjoying this.

Next week: Some more time away from the desk.