Name
Innovation Level Up: Scale Smart, Stay Sane
Description

Innovation Level Up: Scale Smart, Stay Sane (Throwing AI at everything isn’t a strategy—it’s a sci-fi pilot!)

Tech innovation feels like trying to upgrade a plane while it’s mid-flight… in a storm… with one wing on fire. Developers, DevOps engineers, and tech leaders are constantly caught between modernizing legacy systems, adopting shiny new technologies, and keeping their teams from burning out faster than last year’s trendy JavaScript framework.

In this high-energy, interactive talk, I’ll dive into real-world innovation strategies that actually work. We’ll bust some myths (No, AI won’t fix your tech debt overnight), explore cutting-edge solutions, and tackle the soft skills that make or break a team (Spoiler: It's not just about code).
Innovation isn’t just about adopting the latest tech—it’s about making the right choices at the right time while ensuring your teams remain engaged, productive, and resilient.

Expect:
✔️ Live problem-solving challenges where you’ll tackle real-world innovation blockers.
✔️ Rapid-fire case studies of DevOps, AI automation, and cloud-native transformations that went right (and wrong).
✔️ Team-based innovation exercises to practice applying Agile thinking to real scenarios.
✔️ Honest lessons from high-performing teams on modernizing legacy systems without breaking everything.
✔️ A practical playbook to balance innovation, psychological safety, and delivery velocity.

Come for the insights, stay for the war stories—because learning from failures is way more fun when they aren’t yours.

Anneleen Naidoo
Session Type
Talk
Learning Objectives
Innovation ≠ Chaos – How to modernize without turning your team into a group of over-caffeinated stress balls.

Tech Trends: Hype vs. Reality – AI, blockchain, quantum computing—what’s actually worth your time, and what’s just another buzzword parade?

Legacy Systems: Love Them or Leave Them? – The art of refactoring (or knowing when to just walk away and never look back).

💡 Leadership in Tech: Jedi Mind Tricks & Psychological Safety – How to foster innovation and keep your team from fleeing to that startup with unlimited kombucha.