Cutting Through the AI Noise to Drive Real Business Value (Stockport)

The programme will be delivered by Phil Birchenall, founder of Diagonal Thinking. Phil is a business strategist who has worked hands-on to help companies improve their operations through the pragmatic application of technology for over two decades. Phil’s interest in Artificial Intelligence in creating operational advantage began in his role as MD of an international TV formats research business, where he commissioned an AI-powered intelligence system tracking trends across the global TV sector, working with a first-to-market AI development team, Morse.

Having continued to develop his understanding of how AI can be deployed in businesses, he is now called upon to create and deliver workshops, courses and presentations on the
utilisation of AI for large-scale corporates, public sector organisations, educators, alongside freelancers and SMEs. His work is featured in a case study video on the OpenAI website, and
has been featured on Forbes and in two best-selling edtech books, The AI Classroom and Infinite Education.

Phil’s clients include Northumbrian Water Group, the largest STEM education resource in the world, Discovery Education (where Phil delivered a pilot project for the global media brand),
Port of Tyne, Vistage, MMU, Creative UK, GM Chamber, Salford University, Sharp Futures, Manchester Histories and South Gloucestershire & Stroud College. He is co-founder of The AI Cafe: a regular meet-up for professionals developing solutions that utilise AI. Prior to establishing Diagonal Thinking, Phil built his business experience through roles a wide range of organisations. As MD of global TV trends company, Phil expanded a small media operation with a handful of staff to a core team of 15 with a network of international stringers, working with around 100 clients, including Netflix, Disney and Amazon Studios.

Rebecca Fox is a strategic technology and business leader, founder of Relentica, and a two-time CIO 100 UK award winner (2024 and 2025). In 2026 she was named Northern Power Women ‘Game Changer’ Power List, recognising her impact on leadership, transformation, and commercial performance.

With more than two decades of experience, including serving as Group CIO of a global cyber and technology business, Rebecca has led complex international transformations across AI, cyber, digital, data, cloud, and operating models. Her focus has always been commercial – improving revenue performance, strengthening margin, and reducing risk through disciplined and relentless execution.

As founder of Relentica, she works with CEOs, CTO/CIOs, investors, and executive teams to simplify complexity, align leadership, and turn strategy into measurable outcomes. Her work spans fractional CxO leadership, strategy and advisory, AI and automation, cost optimisation, and delivery assurance.

Rebecca is an accomplished keynote speaker and event host, known for her direct, intelligent style and practical insight. She speaks on leadership, technology strategy, AI, growth, and performance, and regularly chairs executive roundtables and industry forums where clarity and challenge are required in equal measure.

Rob is the Founder of Mimir Data, a data services consultancy providing expertise on Data Science in particular.

Passionate about:

– Personalised healthcare for patients.

– Practical use of ML and LLMs to automate business processes, generate new data, augment existing data.

– Providing business intelligence to internal teams in order to take action where necessary.

– Turning data into viable data products and data assets.

Previously studied a Masters in Neuroscience at King’s College London and before that an undergraduate degree in Biomedicine at Birkbeck College (University of London).

Dan Mousley is co-founder of Upmotion AI, a consultancy that helps businesses discover, build and implement secure AI solutions that save time, cut costs and create opportunities.

Dan comes to AI from a technical background as a senior software engineer, but pairs it with business experience from KPMG and the teaching and leadership skills he built as a headteacher.

He began his career in Financial Advisory at KPMG, then moved to Vietnam to teach, and went on to lead a school as headteacher. He later retrained as a software developer, building and leading the delivery of production systems for enterprise clients including national broadcasters and cultural institutions. Watching demand for AI projects climb in that work, he saw a real opportunity to help businesses get genuine value from it.

He then founded Upmotion AI with Bob Chen, a Cambridge University-educated technical lead with a decade of experience building and leading enterprise software projects.

The company works mainly with SMEs, helping them identify use cases for AI and implement them in a secure and reliable manner that drives genuine value. Recent projects include a source-cited knowledge assistant for an EV-charging company, a streamlined email attachment processing system for a property consultancy, and a qualitative analytics system for a consumer research firm.