Building a sustainable IT strategy in the AI era
Is your IT strategy ready for the long-term impact of artificial intelligence? Have you balanced the unprecedented opportunities for innovation and productivity with the growing demands on infrastructure, energy, talent, governance and budgets? As organisations accelerate their AI ambitions, CIOs face a fundamental challenge: embracing innovation while keeping IT strategy resilient, sustainable and aligned with long-term business objectives.
08 / 10 / 26
13:00
Hotel Reylof, Gent
At this Beltug event, we’ll explore how organisations are addressing the challenges in practice. Through real-world experiences and peer discussion, we’ll examine how to prepare infrastructure for growing AI demands, build resilient IT teams, align AI initiatives with organisational values and governance principles, and make conscious choices that maximise business value while managing costs, complexity and environmental impact.
HPE will start us off with a look at weighing AI infrastructure demands against sustainability and resilience. VAB will focus on building resilient IT teams for long-term success. BetterTech will explore how Frugal AI can align business value, cost and environmental impact. We’ll wrap up with Solidaris Brabant, who will show how GenAI can support inclusive communication and organisational values.
Beltug’s corporate basic and corporate premium membership allow you to pass on this invitation. We think this session might interest many of your colleagues: enterprise architects, AI leaders, HR leaders and governance professionals. Unsure about your membership? Check out your My Beltug page.
Agenda
If you have registered for the event and cannot make it, please inform us in advance. If you do not inform us, and do not show up for the event, we reserve the right to charge you a € 25 ‘no-show’ fee.
13:00
Welcome coffee
13:30
(in English) Introduction: Participants’ expectations around the table
Tom Samyn, Community Manager, Beltug
13:45
(in English) In the AI era, data centre challenges intersect with enterprise sustainability
AI workloads are transforming infrastructure requirements across core and edge environments. Find out about the options available for supporting dense AI compute for core and edge deployments. Covering agentic AI readiness, liquid and hybrid cooling technologies, and power and energy optimisation, this session will give you actionable recommendations for balancing performance, sustainability, compliance and operational resilience while avoiding vendor lock-in.
Stefan Boutsen, Segment Portfolio & GTM – WW Data Center Solutions, HPE
14:15
Discussion: your experiences, questions and best practices
14:30
(in English) User story: Creating sustainable and resilient IT teams
What keeps an IT team strong and effective over the long term? When change is a constant, operational excellence is simply not enough. Explore how trust, connection, resilience and meaningful KPIs can help IT teams adapt and innovate, while keeping costs under control and delivering long-term value.
Guido De Smet, IT Operations Manager, VAB
15:00
Discussion: your experiences, questions and best practices
15:15
Coffee break
15:45
(in English, remotely) Why future-focused companies are shifting to ‘Frugal AI’
As organisations scale their AI ambitions, bigger models and greater compute power are often seen as the default path forward. But is that the only way? Discover how organisations can challenge that assumption by selecting the right level of AI for each use case: cutting environmental impact and costs, and maximising business value. Real-world examples will give you insights into how organisations are putting Frugal AI into practice today.
James Martin, Founder, BetterTech
16:15
Discussion: your experiences, questions and best practices
16:30
(in English) User story: AI with purpose: from productivity to inclusive communication
While many organisations deploy GenAI to improve efficiency, for Solidaris Brabant, the focus was on a different question: how can AI help organisations communicate in a way that better reflects their values? Meet Taalio, a tailored AI assistant that supports writing, translation and reformulation in both French and Dutch while promoting accessibility, gender-inclusive language, consistency and service quality. The project shows how AI can deliver value beyond productivity, supporting more inclusive communication that stays aligned with organisational values and responsible governance.
Laurent Bourgois, Head of Business Solutions, Solidaris Brabant
17:00
Discussion: your experiences, questions and best practices
17:15
Wrap-up & closing drink
18:00
End