EXCLUSIVE AI EMPLOYEES WORKSHOP - MAY 13
- 2.00 - 4.00 PM
The AI Employee: expanding your team’s capacity
A workshop for senior procurement leaders exploring how AI is reshaping team design, decision-making, and organizational capacity. Hosted by Hala Jalwan, Co-founder & CEO, Rivio & Dr. Elouise Epstein, Digital Futurist & Partner, Kearney
If you would like to apply for one of the limited spaces at this workshop, please click below:
MAIN EVENT - MAY 14
- 8:15 AM
Registration and Coffee
Welcome coffee
Meet fellow attendees and kick off the day with introductions
- 9:00 AM
Welcome to the Event
Event host: Constantine Limberakis, Founder & President, Liberis Consulting
MAIN STAGE
- 9:10 AM
Opening Address: The AI Factory
From COE to Center of Intelligence: Why the Model Changed
How enterprises move beyond AI pilots to build governed, orchestrated systems that turn intelligence into scalable outcomes, where every decision carries clarity, ownership, and trust, not chaos.
Doug Shannon, Global Intelligent Automation & GenAI Leader
MAIN STAGE
- 9:35 AM
Live Podcast: The AI Data Center Revolution
Whether your organization is directly sourcing data center infrastructure or not, the AI-driven data center boom is reshaping procurement as we know it. Energy costs are climbing, supplier markets are consolidating, and new categories like liquid cooling and nuclear power agreements are emerging. In this live podcast recording, Dr. Elouise Epstein and Sarah Scudder break down what procurement leaders need to know. The numbers tell the story: U.S. data centers consumed more than 4% of the country’s electricity in 2024, and that figure is projected to grow by 133% by 2030. Meanwhile, just four companies control 42% of U.S. data center capacity, and projects take an average of seven years from start to finish. These market dynamics are creating new risks and opportunities that extend well beyond IT procurement, affecting energy contracts, real estate decisions, and supplier negotiations across industries.
Dr. Elouise and Sarah will unpack the critical shifts underway and what they mean for procurement strategy: the nuclear power revival reshaping long-term energy sourcing; the rapid rise of liquid cooling and its implications for supplier relationships; electricity cost increases of 8% to 25% that could affect operating budgets; and the community backlash that has blocked $64 billion in projects, adding risk to infrastructure timelines. You’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of how to assess these trends, ask better questions of your stakeholders, and anticipate how data center dynamics may ripple into your own sourcing categories. The session will include time for audience Q&A, so come prepared with your data center questions.
Dr. Elouise Epstein, Digital Futurist & Partner, Kearney
Sarah Scudder, VP Marketing, Oomnitza and Procurement Thought Leader
- 10:15 AM
Coffee and Networking Roundtables
Grab a coffee and join a roundtable discussing the following themes:
- Maturity – scaling AI (Enterprise) – Siva Moduga, Co-founder & CEO, & Ahron Menghani, Chief Growth Officer, Supervity
- Supplier Intelligence – Bob Naify, NPI
- Intelligent Intake Focus: Driving real ROI with agentic AI: How to measure impact & prove value post-pilot – Jason Powell, Managing Director, Enterprise Transformation, Zip
- Maturity – scaling AI (Mid-market/high growth)
- 10:45 AM
Extended Coffee and Live Demos
Demo Hubs enable you to gather in groups and evaluate vendor products and services – with live demos, offering a unique opportunity to explore, compare and discover how peers might leverage the tech within their organizations. (20 mins)
HUB 1
11.00 Sponsor Demo – Sheldon, the AI Buyer for Every Tail-Spend Request
Hala Jalwan, Co-founder & CEO, Rivio
11.25 Sponsor Demo – Real AI agents built for procurement
Garret Johnston, Lead Solution Engineer, Zip
HUB 2
11.00 Sponsor Demo – Agentic Procurement Operations & Orchestration: Practical Demo
Tim Schwab, Sales Account Executive, Opstream
11.25 Sponsor Demo – Vendor Insight to Deal Leverage: Applying AI in IT Sourcing
Jeff Muscarella, Chief Innovation Officer, NPI
MAIN STAGE
- 11:55 AM
Interview with Amit Patel - Where Software is Trending and How Tech is Evolving
Amit Patel, Strategic Sourcing & Supply Chain Leader, Silicon Valley Tech
Host: Jason Powell, MD, Enterprise Transformation, Zip
MAIN STAGE
- 12:15 PM
Interview with Ashish Gupta - Change Readiness for Modern Procurement
How do you encourage and empower your team to use AI without producing low quality content. Training your workforce.
AI-native, fully automated procurement operating systems are no longer hype — they’re critical. But while the technology is accelerating, adoption isn’t. The real blocker isn’t tools, it’s change management.
- AI-native procurement: why evolution is no longer optional
- Why change management matters more than technology
- Reducing fear by focusing on augmentation, not replacement
- Creating momentum through small, visible wins
- Moving from isolated AI usage to an embedded operating model
Ashish Gupta, Director Procurement Excellence, The Clorox company
Omer Abdullah, Founder, Proquria
MAIN STAGE
- 12:45 PM
Roadmap for Change – How To Get Your Organization Ready to Move Forward with AI
- What you need to kick-start agentic – cognitive architecture, software engineers? building an actionable roadmap
- The journey to purposeful ai – ideal state vs. what you can do right now
- Operating models for agentic procurement: how to scale execution without scaling headcount
Joao Carlos Neves, Lead Program Manager – Procurement Strategy, Rivian
Bawana Radhakrishnan, Digital Transformation Advisor, former Colgate-Palmolive
Doug Daniels, VP of Procurement Transformation, Opstream
Sunita Palla, Executive Leader, Strategic Sourcing & Global Procurement, Contingent Workforce Transformation
Moderator: Jeff Muscarella, Chief Innovation Officer, NPI
- 1:15 PM
Lunch and Networking
MAIN STAGE
- 2:00 PM
AI Agent Build: Live Build
Watch the build of a working AI agent from scratch in real-time. Showing the tools to tackle a real procurement use case, highlighting the technical decisions and trade-offs that come. Building live and showing you what it takes to go from idea to working agent.
Led by: Meteb Alfayez, Procurement Director, Cribl
- 2:45 PM
Coffee and Networking
Live Demos
HUB 1
3.00 Sponsor Demo – Watch an AI Employee Close a PO – Start to Finish
Siva Moduga, Co-founder and CEO, & Ahron Menghani, Chief Growth Officer, Supervity / Gruve
3.25 Sponsor Demo – AI Agents in Action: Orchestrating Procurement Workflows
Kasie Stamp, Senior Presales Solutions Consultant, ORO Labs
HUB 2
3.00 Sponsor Demo – Meet Flo: Your Autonomous Procurement Workforce
Rajiv Ramanan, Co-founder & CRO, Spendflo
3.25 Sponsor Demo – The Truth Isn’t in Your Systems, It’s in Your Inbox
Matthew Whiting, CEO and Head of Product, Cotiss
MAIN STAGE
- 3:55 PM
When Can We Let the Robots Take Over Our Supply Chains?
- From Optimization to Autonomy: Most AI in procurement optimizes workflows – the real breakthrough is agentic AI that can execute sourcing, negotiation, and risk tasks with limited human intervention
- Startups as the Acceleration Engine: AI-native startups move faster than large enterprises by taking calculated risks, avoiding legacy constraints, and building procurement systems designed for autonomy from day one
- Are We Ready for Agents? The technology is advancing toward autonomous procurement workflows, but most organizations remain in “copilot mode” due to trust, cultural, and structural barriers
- Frontier Bets + Built-in Risk Management: Leading innovators are embedding audit trails, policy guardrails, explainability, and risk-aware decision models directly into AI systems to enable safe autonomy
- The Strategic Shift for Procurement Leaders: The future role isn’t doing the work, it’s orchestrating AI agents, managing governance frameworks, and deciding when to hand over control
Justin Dillon, CEO and Founder, FRDM AI
MAIN STAGE
- 4:25 PM
AI Security, Governance and Trust
As AI becomes more embedded in vendor products and workflows, buyers’ procurement teams are applying increasing scrutiny to how customer data is handled, stored, and protected. For many vendors, questions around AI use on customer data have become a critical checkpoint in the purchasing process, with security, privacy, and compliance concerns often shaping buying decisions. This session will address those concerns head-on, exploring what customers need to feel confident that their data is protected and how vendors can respond with clarity, transparency, and trust. Steven will speak to the growing importance of customer data security and share perspective on how organizations can reassure procurement teams while still embracing AI innovation.
Steven Walcheck, Founder & CEO, Liminal AI
MAIN STAGE
- 4:55 PM
Future-Proofing the Procurement Practitioner for a Post-AI World
AI isn’t just automating purchase orders. It’s coming for the cognitive work – the analysis, decision support work, the category intelligence – that most procurement professionals consider the core of what they do. 60–80% of practitioners aren’t ready for this shift.
And while there’s a lot of talk about “the value of the human”, there is very little work being done to answer the question of who will survive this shift and how?
In this session, Omer Abdullah draws on Proquria’s deep-dive research series – which does exactly that – to lay out what’s at stake for Procurement organizations and for the individuals inside them. He’ll walk through:
- The organizational levers leaders need to rethink (beyond just buying better technology)
- The psychological shift practitioners need to make before any upskilling occurs
- A practical framework for assessing which work stays human and which doesn’t
- How to start future-proofing yourself for what comes next.
This is not a talk about AI tools. It’s a talk about the people who need to work alongside them – and a roadmap for making sure you’re still in the room when the dust settles.
Omer Abdullah, Founder, Proquria
- 5:30 PM
Close & Thank You & Drinks at the Bar!
Testimonials
praise from PAST ATTENDEES
"KonnectHouse stands out as a premier hub for procurement professionals and industry vendors alike. The blend of high-caliber networking opportunities and cutting-edge, actionable insights ensures that every participant walks away with tangible value. The exceptional organization and forward-thinking discussions on topics like AI make KonnectHouse the ultimate destination for anyone looking to stay ahead in the procurement field. Whether you're an executive seeking to refine your strategies or a vendor aiming to connect with key decision-makers, KonnectHouse offers unparalleled opportunities."
"KonnectHouse put us in front of exactly the right people. The conversations were meaningful, the leads were real, and the partnership has delivered far more value than any other conference we’ve attended."