Sharing experiences and building a community within the software industry play a central role in Main's corporate philosophy on Value Creation. The Main CTO Day is an example of this, and the fact that we are organizing this event for the 11th time underlines the institutionalized nature of this meeting.
The Main CTO Day 2025 took place at the Van der Valk in Utrecht, organized for CTOs and tech leaders from across our network
Building on the momentum of last year’s edition, this year’s program centered around a theme that will define the next decade of technology: Integration and Automation. During the event, participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas on the topic and network with like-minded professionals from the enterprise software industry.
Key learnings from the day 💡
🔷 Sara Maldon from Make introduced The Agentic Playbook: Building and Scaling an AI-first Startup. She walked us through the journey of going AI-first: from the initial excitement and steep learning curve to scaling, rethinking, and leading with AI. With practical examples like AI-powered PR approval bots, discovery agents, and integration maintenance, she showed how scale-ups can leverage agentic AI to achieve real business impact, reduce inefficiencies, and accelerate product delivery. Her core message: unprecedented growth is possible if you dare to experiment and embrace adaptability.
🔷 Paul den Dekker from Databricks shared how organizations can automate and accelerate data workflows by breaking down silos and embracing unified governance. He demonstrated how fragmented data estates and proprietary lock-ins slow innovation, and why the key to scaling AI responsibly lies in open formats, unified governance, and automation at every step of the data journey. His message was clear: everything starts with good data.
🔷 Making AI automation stick – Susanna Klinga Gefwert’s keynote
Seamless automation depends on three essentials – leadership support, a clear “why,” and building the right team.
🔷 Leverage data integration within software solutions for customer value optimization – Panel take-away with Nextway Software, FleetGO & Infor
Data is the moat: customers want value unlocked from operational data.
🔷 Beyond automation with agentic AI – Amazon Web Services keynote from Tomas Sykora
Think in model stacks- not single models- to balance cost, performance, and reliability.
At Main, we support our portfolio companies in navigating these changes with practical playbooks & tools, peer exchange, and knowledge-sharing. The dialogue today showed just how quickly the landscape is evolving, and how important it is to build strong foundations to capture AI’s full potential.
Take a look at the other community events organized by Main.
The CFO Day is hosted annually for our close community of CFOs and controllers from our portfolio companies to facilitate a space for knowledge-sharing and networking.
The Main CEO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of CEOs and non-executive board members of our portfolio companies.
The CTO Day is an event organized exclusively for the close community of CTOs and Lead Developers in our portfolio companies.
The CFO Day is hosted annually for our close community of CFOs and controllers from our portfolio companies to facilitate a space for knowledge-sharing and networking.
The Main CEO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of CEOs and non-executive board members of our portfolio companies.
The CTO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of Technology Leaders across our portfolio companies.
The CFO Day is hosted annually for our close community of CFOs and controllers from our portfolio companies to facilitate a space for knowledge-sharing and networking.
The CEO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of CEOs and non-executive board members of our portfolio companies.
The CTO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of Technology Leaders across our portfolio companies.
The CFO Day is hosted annually for our close community of CFOs and controllers from our portfolio companies to facilitate a space for knowledge-sharing and networking.
The CEO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of CEOs and non-executive board members of our portfolio companies.
The CTO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of Technology Leaders across our portfolio companies.
The CFO Day is hosted annually for our close community of CFOs and controllers from our portfolio companies to facilitate a space for knowledge-sharing and networking.
The CEO Day is an event that is exclusively organized for close community of CEOs and non-executive board members of our portfolio companies.