A Guest Speaker at DTW Ignite

I was invited to DTW Ignite, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2024, as a guest speaker. There, I shared my work on building a Hyper-Customised user experience and showcased the work BT and EPAM had been working on.

🌍 DTW Ignite, Copenhagen, Denmark | 2024 | Hyper-Customised AI

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Speaking at DTW Ignite, Live with a 50-plus audience & application demo.

In 2024, EPAM asked me to join them as their guest speaker at DTW. We wanted to share the work we had been building with growth hacking proof of concept to grow traffic into the IoT segment of BT Group.

From Vision to Reality: Using GenAI to Grow IoT

It started with a vision—to grow IoT traffic and conversion using GenAI. IoT is a challenge to sell. It’s not a product—it’s a technology. Customers don’t wake up thinking, I need IoT today. The real challenge? Bridging that gap without overwhelming them with technical jargon.

In early 2024, I sat down with the team at EPAM to tackle this problem head-on. We didn’t just want to drive traffic—we wanted to redefine how IoT was discovered, understood, and adopted. After intensive ideation sessions, breaking down pain points and mapping customer behaviours, we landed on two core concepts:

1. AI-Generated Blog Content → Self-Service Ordering Journeys

   • Using GenAI, we would pull trending open-source content, filter it for relevance, and transform it into compelling, informative blogs. These blogs wouldn’t just educate but seamlessly redirect readers to self-service ordering journeys that matched their needs.

2. Hyper-Customized AI Experiences → Problem → Solution → Sale

   • Instead of forcing customers to understand IoT, we would flip the script. A customer could describe a problem—connectivity, fleet tracking, logistics efficiency—and the AI would offer an instant, tailored IoT solution—no need for education, no complexity, just a clear path from need to solution.

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The excitement built as we moved from concept to proof of concept (POC). Seeing these ideas materialise, watching the AI generate intelligent, targeted content in real-time, and building a system that could simplify an entire sales funnel was electrifying.

Then came the moment of truth. We published the POC within BT Group.

That’s when things took off. People across the business saw its potential—not just for IoT but for countless other areas. It became clear that this wasn’t just a tool for one segment. It could drive sales and streamline self-service across the entire company.

But beyond the business impact, this project taught us invaluable lessons about technology, AI’s role in content strategy, and customer behaviour. The power of automation, personalisation, and intelligent lead-to-cash solutions became undeniable.

What started as a vision—a simple idea to drive IoT traffic—became a blueprint for scalable, AI-driven sales enablement. And this is just the beginning.

Public Speaking & Resilience – Owning the Moment When Everything Goes Wrong

The mic is on, the stage lights are hot, and the audience is waiting. This is where resilience is tested.

At DTW, I learned that public speaking isn’t just about preparation but adaptability under pressure.

I had spent weeks crafting my presentation, fine-tuning every slide and rehearsing my delivery until it felt effortless. I was ready. Then, 15 minutes before stepping on stage, disaster hit.

There was an admin error. My 30-minute talk was cut to 15 minutes. There was no time to adjust properly—just a frantic attempt to cut slides, condense points, and hope for the best. I had seconds to rethink weeks of planning.

Then, as I stepped onto the stage, an absolute disaster struck.

The wrong deck was live—the full 30-minute presentation. My notes—carefully structured to keep me on track—were now completely useless. At that moment, I had two choices: let the situation control me or take control of the situation.

So, I adapted. I didn’t panic—I pivoted. Instead of following my script, I focused on what mattered. I delivered key insights, skipped what wasn’t essential, and read the audience in real-time. And here’s the lesson: no one knew there was a problem. The audience was hooked. They asked great questions. The conversations afterwards showed that, despite everything, the message had landed.

Resilience in leadership isn’t just about preventing problems—it’s about handling them when they happen. Future managers and leaders won’t always have perfect conditions. Success belongs to those who can think on their feet, adapt, and keep moving forward. Because in public speaking and leadership, nothing ever goes 100% to plan. But if you own the moment, that’s all that matters.

Thomas Archer