SAS Innovate On Tour in Liverpool | June 16th 2026

Liverpool • Anfield Stadium • 16 June 2026

The data and AI conference for business leaders, technical users and SAS Partners

Join us in the iconic city of Liverpool for this exclusive, free, in-person event bringing leaders, practitioners and partners together around the real world of data and AI.

SAS Innovate on Tour will give you practical, evidence-based insights on how:

Organisations make decisions confidently with AI they can trust.
Industry specific SAS solutions give companies a competitive edge.
Partners help scale AI across complex environments.
Transparency and governance unlock innovation with AI.

Plus, you’ll connect with industry peers, experts and partners to share best practices of data and AI turning insight into action.

Whether you define strategy, build models, deploy systems or support clients, SAS Innovate on Tour is your opportunity to join us in our 50^th year as a trusted partner across business, government and society.

SAS Innovate on Tour Liverpool – register now to secure your place, as spaces are limited.

Keynote speakers

Bryan Harris
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, SAS

Reggie Townsend
Vice President Data Ethics Practice, SAS

Alyssa Farrell
Director Marketing – Global Healthcare and Life Sciences, SAS

Stu Bradley
Senior Vice President – Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions, SAS

Jenn Chase
Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, SAS

Ben Latty
Chief Commercial Officer, Liverpool Football Club

Graeme Souness
CBE

General speakers

Ekin Demir Kılıç Senior AuditorKoc Holding
Luis Andre Soriano Senior Statistical Programmer | Project LeadOCS Life Sciences
Sascha Ahrweiler Global Head of Statistical Programming & Analysis Strategy & OperationsBayer
Stephen Bamford Stephen Bamford, Head of Data Transparency, Clinical Data Standards Executive, PHUSE FounderJohnson & Johnson
Richardus Vonk Global BioMetrics & AI Executive, CRO, Big Pharma, Strategic AdvisorITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE
Jessica Whittaker-Dixon Principal Statistical ProgrammerChiesi
Emily Campbell-Ratcliffe Head of AI for Local GrowthDSIT
Paul Ridge Director - Financial Services SolutionsSAS
David Smith Head of Technology, Northern Europe SAS
Dr. Iain Brown Global Head of AI & Data Science, SAS | Adjunct Professor, University of SouthamptonSAS
Paul Jones Global Head of Financial Services Customer AdvisorySAS
Mark Lambrecht Global Head of Health and Life Sciences AdvisorySAS
Jonathan Riches Head of Global Large PharmaSAS
Christen Kirchner Head of Fraud & Compliance, Northern EuropeSAS
Caroline Payne Head of Customer Advisory, Public SectorSAS
Véronique Van Vlasselaer Head of AI & Data Science EMEASAS
Margarita Mersiyanova Senior Industry Consultant, Global Health & Life Sciences Customer AdvisorySAS
Alfredo Iglesias Rey Principal Customer AdvisorSAS
Alan McGlinn Director of Financial Services, UKI SAS
Mari Nilsson Björkman Global Telecom Industry LeadSAS

Agenda

Monday 15^th June

15:00

Registration open

Ball and track on blue to purple gradient

15:30 - 18:00

SAS Hackathon Bootcamp
Choose your own adventure at the SAS Hackathon Boot Camp, where learning meets action. Step into a high impact, hands on experience designed to tackle real world business and industry challenges. Experiment, build, and innovate using the latest SAS Viya® capabilities, all in an inspiring, fast paced environment that fuels creativity and problem solving.

17:00 - 18:00

Industry Round Tables (Invite only)

Financial Services:
AI Innovation Think Tank

An open discussion on where AI is delivering real value today in Financial Services, where it’s falling short, and how financial institutions are scaling AI responsibly.
Life Sciences:
Executive Roundtable
Public Sector:
Trusted AI in Government Think Tank

The session brings together public sector leaders, policymakers, and industry experts to explore how AI can be deployed responsibly, transparently, and effectively. The session focuses on key challenges such as governance, ethics, and data integrity, while providing a valuable opportunity for leaders to network across departments, share experiences, and shape practical approaches to building trust in AI.
Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Utilities, and Mining:
Closing the Loop - An Agentic AI Approach to the Productivity Paradox

Predictive maintenance only creates value when alerts become safe, timely work. In this roundtable, we’ll unpack a practical, standards‑aligned approach that connects sensor signals to diagnosis, recommended checks, and one‑click work orders and feeds outcomes back to improve models. Drawing on decades of industrial analytics experience and the new capabilities of agentic AI, we’ll discuss how teams are cutting time‑to‑value, reducing false positives, and scaling from a few critical assets to entire fleets of assets. Bring your questions on data quality, drift, CMMS integration, and change management. We’ll compare what used to take months with what’s achievable in weeks and where to start.
Telecom, Media, Manufacturing, Energy&Utilities, Retail and Services:
Financial Resilience Powered by AI: Turning Uncertainty into Faster, Safer Decisions

In an era of persistent volatility - rate shocks, supply-chain disruption, customer churn, cyber incidents, and tightening expectations around governance - financial resilience is no longer a quarterly exercise. It is the ability to sense risk earlier, run “whatif” scenarios faster, and act with confidence, without creating new control or compliance blind spots.

This closed door executive roundtable brings together leaders from across industries such as telecommunications, energy, retail and manufacturing to share practical, evidence based approaches to resilience powered by AI: improving forecast accuracy and decision speed, strengthening cashflow and working capital levers, and building governance that makes AI trustworthy and scalable. The discussion will focus on what’s working in the real world - data foundations, operating model, measurable ROI, and “guardrails to gamechangers” use cases - than theory.

18:00 - 20:30

Welcome networking reception

Tuesday 16^th June

08:00 - 09:15

Registration and welcome

09:15 - 10:45

Where Human Ingenuity Meets AI in Action
Discover how leading organizations are putting AI to work—responsibly, at scale, and with measurable impact. In this session, you’ll see how human expertise and intelligent systems come together to deliver trusted, enterprise‑ready AI. From governance and transparency to real‑world use cases powered by SAS Viya, this is AI delivering value now—and how you can apply it in your organization.

Bryan Harris, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, SAS
Reggie Townsend, Vice President Data Ethics Practice, SAS
Alyssa Farrell, Director Marketing – Global Healthcare and Life Sciences, SAS
Stu Bradley, Senior Vice President – Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions, SAS

What does real AI impact look like when it’s accountable, governed, and delivering measurable results today?

In this 90‑minute session, we bring together the most important breakthroughs, innovations, and real‑world applications shaping AI today—and show how leading organizations are turning them into tangible business outcomes at scale.

We begin with a high‑energy exploration of what’s possible when human ingenuity and AI operate together. You’ll see how human expertise, domain knowledge, and responsible design work hand‑in‑hand with AI systems to drive better decisions and smarter outcomes. From agentic AI and digital twins to intelligent systems, these capabilities come to life—not as future concepts, but as technologies being built, governed, and deployed right now.

From there, we dive into what makes AI truly enterprise‑ready: trust. Learn how organizations are embedding transparency, accountability, and governance across the entire AI lifecycle—from model development and bias monitoring to oversight that scales across teams and geographies. You’ll see why trustworthy AI isn’t just a requirement—it’s becoming a competitive advantage.

Next, we bring it all together on the SAS Viya platform. See how teams are shortening time to value, operationalizing AI responsibly, and scaling innovation with speed and confidence. From copilots to autonomous agents, innovation is accelerating across the full analytics lifecycle—powered by a platform built for the enterprise.

Finally, we connect technology to outcomes. Through real‑world use cases across industries, you’ll see how data and AI are driving faster decisions, smarter operations, and measurable business impact—where it matters most.

This isn’t a view of what might happen someday.

It’s what’s delivering value now—and how you can put it to work in your organization, starting immediately.

10:45 - 11:15

From Anfield to Action: The SAS x Liverpool FC Partnership
Jenn Chase, CMO, SAS and Ben Latty, CCO, LFC

11:15 - 11:45

Break and Networking

11:45 - 13:15

Industry tracks

11:45 - 11:50
Welcome to Financial Services Industry Track

Host: Alan McGlinn, Director of Financial Services UKI, SAS
11:50 - 12:30
PANEL: Re‑Thinking Risk: Smarter, Faster Decisions for Financial Services
A forward‑looking discussion on how financial institutions can modernise their risk frameworks to enable smarter, faster, and more resilient decision‑making in an increasingly complex, AI-driven, regulated landscape.

Moderator: Paul Ridge, Director, Financial Services Solutions, SAS
12:35 - 13:15
PANEL: The Agentic Arms Race: Orchestrating AI to Outpace Industrialised Fraud
A practical blueprint for scaling next‑generation fraud protection and detection to stay ahead of emerging fraud patterns, powered by generative AI.

Moderator: Christen Kirchner, Head of Fraud & Compliance, Northern Europe, SAS
Panelists: James Bennion, Head of Financial Crime, Aldermore Bank

11:45 - 12:00
Welcome to the Public Sector Industry Track
12:00 - 12:45
Panel: Closing the Data and AI skills Gap in Public Sector
Under the UK Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, the ambition is clear: Upskill 10 million workers in AI by 2030 including 2 million in SMEs. This panel will explore how the public sector can close the AI skills gap at scale, ensuring civil servants have the capability, confidence and governance frameworks to adopt AI responsibly and deliver better outcomes for citizens.

Presenters:
Emily Campbell-Ratcliffe, Head of AI for Local Growth, DSIT
Giuseppe Sollazzo, Deputy Director, Head of Innovation Strategy, Chief AI Officer, HMRC
12:45 - 13:15
How AI is Reshaping Governments
Hear how governments are advancing with AI and embedding it into their daily operations. This session explores what agentic, governed and industrialised AI really mean in the public sector, and how they are transforming governmental processes and decisions.

Presenter:
Véronique Van Vlasselaer, Head of AI and Data Science, EMEA, SAS

11:45 - 11:50
Welcome to the Commercial Industry Track

Host: Atikul Haque, Commercial Sales Director EMEA, SAS
11:50 - 12:20
TBD
12:20 - 12:45
Customer story - KOC: Continuous Monitoring and Data-Driven Approach in Audit Domain
Koç Holding will present its transformation journey in internal audit through the implementation of Continuous Monitoring for Procurement Integrity (CMPI) powered by SAS. The session will highlight how advanced analytics and automation enable continuous monitoring of high-volume procurement processes, allowing earlier detection of risks and anomalies while strengthening control mechanisms.

The presentation will demonstrate how Koç Holding is evolving from traditional, manual audit practices toward a proactive, data-driven assurance model—enhancing efficiency, scalability, and sustainability across multiple subsidiaries.

Presenter: Ekin Demir Kilic, Senior Auditor, Koc Holding
12:45 - 13:15
Governing the Hybrid AI Era: Trusted Analytics and GenAI by Design
As organizations combine traditional analytics with GenAI, governance and responsible use become critical success factors. This session explores how hybrid AI architectures—connecting enterprise systems to GenAI—can be governed safely, ethically, and transparently. We demonstrate how SAS provides a trusted control layer for explainability, lineage, bias monitoring, and regulatory alignment, while GenAI extend productivity and interaction.

Presenter: Alfredo Iglesias Rey, Principal Customer Advisor, SAS

11:45 - 12:00
Keynote session: Trust at Scale: How Data and AI Are Reshaping Life Sciences
As life sciences organisations scale AI across research, development, and operations, trust becomes the defining requirement. In this presentation, SAS shares its vision for the future of life sciences—one where advanced analytics, AI, and governance are designed together. We show how SAS supports customers across the life sciences value chain, enabling them to convert complex, regulated data into reliable, explainable insights that stand up to scientific, regulatory, and operational scrutiny.

Host: Mark Lambrecht, Global Head, Health Care and Life Sciences Advisory, SAS
Co-Host: Luis Andre Soriano, OCS Life Sciences
12:15 - 13:15
Panel: Real Stories and Trusted Impact: Moving AI from Experiment to Enterprise in Life Sciences
A forward‑looking discussion on how life sciences organisations can turn GenAI into a trusted operational capability — with governance that keeps models transparent, monitored and compliant from build through scale.

Moderator:
Stephen Bamford, Head of Clinical Data Standards & Transparency, Johnson & Johnson, Phuse Founder and Chairman of the Board

Panellists:
Richardus Vonk, Global BioMetrics & AI Executive, CRO, Big Pharma, Strategic Advisor, ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE
Jessica Whittaker-Dixon, Principal Statistical Programmer, Chiesi

13:15 - 14:15

Lunch and Networking

14:15 - 15:30

14:15 - 15:00
What's new in the SAS Platform? The new features and why you should care.
This presentation will cover the new features of the SAS platform, focusing on increasing your efficiency while keeping regulators happier than ever.

Presenter: David Smith, Head of Technology, Northern Europe, SAS
15:00 - 15:30
SPOTLIGHT: From Models to Machines: The Next Era of AI in Financial Services
What agentic, governed and industrialised AI actually means for banks and insurers
A practical look at how agentic and governed AI are moving financial services from isolated models to industrialised decision systems and what leaders need to change now.

Presenter: Dr Iain Brown, Global Head of AI & Data Science, SAS

14:15 - 15:00
Current Trends in Fraud and Counter Fraud, is Government as Prepared as it can be?
Fraud is now the most common crime affecting individuals in the UK. According to the National Crime Agency, it accounts for 41% of all offences. And the government has not been idle - between April 2024 and April 2025, government efforts stopped more than £480 million in fraudulent activity. Nevertheless, as the treasury looks to recover revenue across the system, tackling fraud efficiently and proactively has never been more important.

Moderator: Caroline Payne, Head of Customer Advisory, Public Sector, SAS

Panellists:
Kirsty Pugh, DWP, Insights, Futures and Communications Team
Lucy Appleton, Director of Enforcement at the Child Maintenance Service
15:00 - 15:30
What's new in the SAS Platform? The new features and why you should care.
This presentation will cover the new features of the SAS platform, focusing on increasing your efficiency while keeping regulators happier than ever.

Presenter: David Smith, Head of Technology, Northern Europe, SAS

14:15 - 15:00
Customer Story: Centralizing Surgical Instrument Sterilization with Robotics, Automation and Operational Analytics

Hospital operations depend on the reliable flow of sterile surgical instruments. In this session, the CEO of Sterilcentral, a centralized, highly automated sterilization facility, shares how robotics and data are transforming sterilization from a fragmented function into a predictable supply chain. The session also shows how a 3D digital twin of the cleaning floor makes operational analytics tangible by linking data and decisions directly to the physical flow of instruments. Learn where analytics drives impact today and what’s next for forecasting and scale.

Presenter: Thomas Bøgeskov, Direktør/CEO, Den Fælles Steril central, Capital Region
15:00 - 15:30
TBD

14:15 - 14:35
SAS Hosted Session: Turn insights into actionable outcomes: Exploring how data, AI and RWE are shaping smarter clinical trial protocols.
Protocol design increasingly determines trial success. This session shows how life sciences teams use trusted data, explainable AI and real world evidence to inform protocol decisions they can defend, from eligibility criteria to site feasibility. Learn how teams reduce amendments, improve patient representation and move from insight to action while maintaining regulatory confidence.

Presenter: Dr. Margarita Mersiyanova, Sr Industry Consultant, SAS Life Sciences Advisory
14:35 - 15:00
The scaling of agents and AI in clinical development - architecture, change management and progress
As agentic AI is introduced into clinical development, it brings significant opportunities to accelerate analysis, automate processes, and scale insight generation across the clinical lifecycle. At the same time, organizations face substantial challenges in ensuring scientific rigor, traceability, and effective risk control within highly regulated environments.

In this technical panel, AWS, Deloitte, and SAS share their hands‑on experiences designing and deploying agent‑based AI architectures for clinical development. The discussion will balance deep technical considerations with a practical focus on business impact, organizational change management, and adoption at scale. Panelists will explore what it takes to operationalize agentic AI responsibly, highlight lessons learned from early implementations, and outline emerging scenarios for the future of clinical trial analytics and decision‑making.

Panellists: Mark Lambrecht, Global Head, Health Care and Life Sciences Advisory, SAS
15:00 - 15.30
From Data Cook to Data Caterer - Building the Kitchen That Transforms Pharmaceutical Analytics
The "Data Caterer" concept — first introduced as a keynote provocation to the PHUSE community — challenged statistical programmers to stop arguing about the oven and start focusing on the meal. It reframed the role from task executor who produces tables to outcome owner who enables decisions with traceable evidence.

This session picks up where the vision left off. Because vision without architecture is just a slogan. At Bayer, the kitchen is now being built — the ecosystem that makes Data Catering repeatable, compliant, and scalable.

Speaker: Sascha Ahrweiler, Global Head of Statistical Programming & Analysis Strategy & Operations, Bayer and Board Member, PHUSE (Director for Communication and Brand Strategy)

15:30 - 16:00

Break and Networking

16:00 - 17:00

16:00 - 16:30
FS CUSTOMER STORY- DNB: Accelerating Intelligent Decisioning Development with Python, Containers, Automation and Copilot
Organisations need to deliver analytics faster—without compromising reliability. In this session, DNB, Norway’s largest bank, shares how it is modernising intelligent decisioning using Python, containerisation, Git, automated pipelines and Copilot‑enabled development workflows. By closely replicating production environments, DNB is enabling faster testing, stronger version control and more reliable deployments—helping teams deliver SAS solutions with greater speed, confidence and reduced downtime.

Presenter: Magnus Mogstad, Engineering Manager, DNB
16:30 - 17:00
SPOTLIGHT: Banking in the Quantum Era: Solving the Unsolvable, What Leaders Need to Know Now
This talk explores the short-term impact of quantum technology on the banking sector, focusing on immediate effects and practical, near-term applications. We highlight how hybrid quantum computing approaches can be leveraged in areas such as bankruptcy prediction and asset and liability management, demonstrating tangible use cases that can deliver value within a short-term horizon.

Presenter: Paul Jones, Global Head of Financial Services Customer Advisory, SAS,
Guest Speaker TBC

16:00 - 16:30
Customer Spotlight: AI Adoption in Defence

Speakers: Elaine Kedwards, Geospatial and Analysis Lead, MOD | Samuel King, Assistant Head of Analytics, MOD
16:30 - 17:00
TBD

16:00 - 16:30
What's new in the SAS Platform? The new features and why you should care.
This presentation will cover the new features of the SAS platform, focusing on increasing your efficiency while keeping regulators happier than ever.

Presenter: David Smith, Head of Technology, Northern Europe, SAS
16:30 - 17:00
Are You Scaling AI — or Scaling Risk?
AI is advancing fast, with buzzwords like agentic AI, quantum AI, and synthetic data dominating conversations. Despite interest in generative AI and autonomous systems, few have built the foundation to scale AI effectively and responsibly.

When AI scales it can also scale risk and every major AI failure we see — across industries — is not a technology failure. It’s a governance failure.

Join this session to get insights and ideas on how to avoid the AI Trust Gap.

Presenter: Mari Nilsson Björkman, Global Telecom Industry Lead, SAS

16:00 - 16:30
TBD
16:30 - 17:00
What's new in the SAS Platform? The new features and why you should care.
This presentation will cover the new features of the SAS platform, focusing on increasing your efficiency while keeping regulators happier than ever.

Presenter: David Smith, Head of Technology, Northern Europe, SAS

17:00 - 17:45

Keynote:
Graeme Souness, CBE

17:45

End

What to expect

Join us in Liverpool to learn how to boost productivity with data and AI. This complimentary event will provide something for everyone – top executives, IT directors, data scientists, engineers, analysts and SAS partners across industries.

Turn data into decision you trust

Hear how SAS makes sure AI can be trusted and how industries feel safe and confident in the decisions they make.

Responsibly use trusted and transparently governed AI

Learn how you can drive meaningful impact for your organisation using data and AI responsibly and effectively, all while prioritising transparency and governance.

Industry-first insights

Hear real stories from your industry and learn how peers are applying AI to solve sector specific challenges.

Actionable ideas, real impact

Discover ways to scale AI across your organisation with simplicity and speed. Get practical guidance on building compliant, future-proof AI systems.

Conference Experience

Join us and bring your team. We will bring content, inspiration, networking and fun.

More experiences will be added so stay tuned!

Networking Zone

Get to know SAS Partners, their services and solutions or check out the SAS booths for interactive demos.

SAS Hackathon

Choose your own adventure at the SAS Hackathon Boot Camp, where learning meets action. Step into a high impact, hands on experience designed to tackle real world business and industry challenges. Experiment, build, and innovate using the latest SAS® Viya® capabilities, all in an inspiring, fast paced environment that fuels creativity and problem solving.

Museum Tour

Go behind the scenes inside one of the world's most iconic and historic stadiums during your visit to Anfield, on the interactive LFC Stadium Tour & Museum.