DataSnipper Connect London 2026

Previous Industry Thought Leaders

Finn Magnus Aamodt

Change & Adoption Leader at Deloitte Norway, Audit & Assurance

As artificial intelligence continues to revolutionize financial services, the conversation often focuses on broad, theoretical possibilities. Finn helped shift the narrative.

Connect '25 Amsterdam

Will Hyde

Audit Data Analytics Specialist at Moore Kingston Smith

Buy v.s. Build: Making the right call in the Age of AI. The decision to build your own solutions or buy them has never been more critical! Will helped make sense of the differences.

Connect '25 Amsterdam

Simone Segnalini

Digital, Risk & Transformation Leader at RSM Italy

Regardless of your job or level, you’ll have to develop a working relationship with AI. Simone helped us understand the steps to make it happen.

Connect '25 Amsterdam

About

DataSnipper Connect is THE premier event for forward-thinking, AI-driven Audit & Finance professionals

3 Categories, 9 sessions with Exceptional speakers

Join industry leaders and innovators who are transforming the future of financial operations through cutting-edge technology and intelligent automation. Whether you're looking to revolutionize your audit processes, leverage AI for smarter financial insights, or connect with peers pushing the boundaries of what's possible—this is where the future of the profession comes together.

Recognizing Auditors and Finance Professionals world-wide

Your work ensures transparency, accountability, and integrity in an increasingly complex world. Join fellow professionals who are advancing the profession through innovation, collaboration, and a shared commitment to excellence. This is where those who protect financial trust come together to shape its future.

Learn more about last year's Connect 2025!

Datasnipper's Audit Awards 2026

Every year, we honor the extraordinary achievements of audit professionals who are making a difference with DataSnipper. Meet the remarkable winners of last year’s Audit Awards - leaders, innovators, and heroes shaping the future of audit.

Newcomer of the Year

Mapula Sebati

Auditor-General of South africa (AGSA) Audit Trainer

Hero of the year

Katie Freeman

MarksNelson,Manager

Audit MVP of the Year

Mary Mantes

Moore Australia,
CPA Audit Senior

Experience exceptional speakers & session across three of the most important categories in our space

Trusted AI Evidence

The audit profession stands at a critical juncture: AI is entering workflows rapidly, but can it be trusted as audit evidence? This track examines how to adopt AI that supports, not replaces, professional judgment.

The Technology-Driven Firm

Audit and finance organizations are undergoing their most significant transformation in decades. This track explores how firms are becoming technology enterprises: requiring new technical capabilities, governance structures, and talent models.

The Augmented Auditor

AI's real value isn't in chatbots, it's in agentic systems that amplify human capability. This track moves beyond surface-level automation to explore AI that actively strengthens professional judgment

Agenda

Day 1

Day 2

12:30 PM - 12:35 PM

5 min

Main stage

Welcome & Opening Remarks

12:35 PM - 12:55 PM

20 min

Main stage

Keynote - Opening

DataSnipper CEO Vidya kicks off Connect London 26' sharing the key trends taking shape in audit and finance, where the industry is headed and the vision DataSnipper is building toward. Includes a live customer interview.

Vidya Peters

CEO at DataSnipper

12:55 PM - 1:40 PM

45 min

Main stage

Keynote - Product Updates

In this session, Thilo Richter and the DataSnipper product team walk through all the latest updates, the decisions behind them, and a live look at what Excel Agents mean for how auditors actually work day to day. This is also where you hear where the product is going next.

Thilo Richter

VP, Product and Engineering at DataSnipper

1:40 PM - 2:10 PM

30 min

Main stage

Keynote - Fireside Chat: From automation to insight:
using metadata to strengthen the Financial Reporting workflow

Dan Barker, Managing Director at Barclays, walks through how metadata transforms financial reporting from a mechanical process into a source of real insight, covering what changes when automation moves beyond data extraction into structured, auditable workflows.

Speaker: Dan Barker

Managing Director at Barclays

Host: Remco de Vries

VP Marketing at DataSnipper

Break: 2:10 PM - 2:40 PM

2:40 PM – 3:40 PM

60 min

Main stage

Breakout

CPE credit eligible

Session: What Are You Signing? Judgment, Accountability,
and the 7 Things AI Is Doing to Your Audit Function

Auditors are the human judgment layer in the global financial system. Their role is not merely procedural - it is moral. When an auditor signs off on a set of accounts, they are making a claim about truth on behalf of the institutions and markets that depend on it. That claim has always rested on professional judgment, trained scepticism, and human accountability.

Richard Foster-Fletcher

Chair, MKAI, Founder at Reality & Reason

2:40 PM – 3:40 PM

60 min

Balcony

Breakout

CPE credit eligible

Session: What It Actually Takes to Lead a
Technology-Driven Audit Firm

Most audit firms know they need to become technology-driven. Far fewer know what that actually requires of their leadership. Chet Patel, CTO for Audit and Assurance across North and South Europe at Deloitte, has led that transformation inside one of the world's most complex professional services environments. He covers the harder truth: stakeholder buy-in, roadmaps that survive the business, and building a culture where technology drives audit quality.

Chet Patel

Chief Technology Officer - Audit & Assurance at Deloitte UK

Break: 3:40 PM - 3:55 PM

3:55 PM - 4:55 PM

60 min

Main stage

Breakout

Session: Aligning the Audit Committee: Communicating AI Risk to the Board

Boards are asking harder questions about AI risk, and internal audit is uniquely positioned to provide credible, independent answers - if it can speak the right language. This session explores how audit professionals can translate AI risk into business terms, establish a clear governance lens for what internal audit owns versus management, and apply ready-to-use talk-tracks for the most common and challenging board scenarios.

Speaker: Sebastian Stockle

Chief Technology Officer, Audit, KPMG Germany

Host: Vidya Peters

CEO at DataSnipper

3:55 PM - 4:55 PM

60 min

Balcony

Breakout

Session: AI in Action: How CROP Accountants got their teams AI-confident

Audit & Finance teams across the globe are being asked to participate in the AI Revolution. But, that doesn't just happen by itself. It requires clear use-cases, frameworks and guidelines. Finally, you need internal champions to help everyone join in. In this session, two speakers from CROP accountants will give you a practical inside-look on how it's done.

Gert-Jan Brouwer

Partner, CROP Accountants), Mark Rijksen (Sr. Staff Assurance, CAROP Accountants

3:55 PM - 4:50 PM

60 min

Executive meeting room

Workshop: Al Confidence in Public Sector Teams

Public sector agencies are under the same pressure to modernize as their private counterparts, with far less room to get it wrong. In this peer discussion, Stephen Barr, Microsoft's EMEA Public Finance Lead, joins the room to talk through how public sector teams are building confidence in Al adoption and what that looks like in practice.

Stephen Barr

EMEA Public Finance Lead at Microsoft

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

60 min

Main stage

CPE credit eligible

Closing Keynote: Inside the FRC's new AI guidance - What it
Means for Your Firm Now

Join Ramana McConnon, Head of Assurance Technology at the UK's Financial Reporting Council, as he unpacks the FRC's newly published Generative and Agentic AI guidance. Understand the risk framework for AI-enabled audit procedures, what firms are expected to do, and why human accountability remains unchanged as agentic AI takes on more of the work.

Ramana McConnon

Head of Assurance Technology at the UK's Financial Reporting Council

Day 1

Day 2

12:30 PM - 12:35 PM

5 min

Main stage