AI Insights

An unforgettable voyage: Godel’s ultimate summer send-off

Godel Technologies proudly celebrated its 4th Annual Summer Party, trading office views for London’s most iconic landmarks. We came together with tech leaders from across the UK to celebrate the strength of our community and the partnerships that drive it forward.

The celebration unfolded aboard the incredible Driftwood Vessel, which sailed down the iconic River Thames. Guests enjoyed delicious food and drinks, engaged in inspiring keynote conversations, and raised a toast to partnerships and collaboration.

The evening began with embarkation at Tower Bridge Quay, where attendees were greeted with drinks and the mellow, soothing notes of a live saxophone.

Building Engineering Teams in the Age of Automation

The highlight of the night featured three keynote speakers, who delivered insightful perspectives on the tech landscape and how businesses can harness AI, data, and transformation to drive success.

Meng Muk, VP of Engineering at Automata, kick-started the first engaging conversation. Meng is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience scaling engineering teams across data platforms, travel technology, and digital media. She is passionate about building inclusive, high-performing teams, driving diversity initiatives, and guiding organisations through transformations from enterprise systems to cloud-native platforms. She offers a unique perspective on evolving engineering practices through industry shifts.

Meng highlighted the parallels between DevOps and today’s AI shift, stressing that roles evolve rather than vanish. AI should be adopted gradually, with humans guiding critical decisions and organisations investing in their existing teams. While AI can boost productivity, it often introduces extra debugging and overhead. Junior engineers are vital for adoption due to their AI fluency, while senior engineers must provide governance and oversight. “You’re adding expertise to multiply your existing team’s capabilities, not replacing them. AI is a multiplier, but you can’t multiply by zero. You need to have solid team foundations to begin with”.

Fractional Leadership in Practice

Following Meng’s insightful talk, we welcomed Mal Minhas, Fractional CTO, to the stage. Mal is a Board Technology Advisor with 30+ years’ experience spanning startups to big tech. He has held CPTO, CTO, and VP roles, leading multidisciplinary teams in innovation, product development, transformation, and re-platforming, with a strong interest in sustainable marketplace businesses.

He explained the evolving role of the CTO, highlighting how it is widely misunderstood and often changes as businesses grow. To fill gaps, two fractional models have emerged: Interim CTO (ICTO) and Fractional CTO (FCTO). Using the McKinsey Three Horizons model, he demonstrated how these roles align with tactical, programmatic, and strategic needs. He shared examples from his own experience, where he helped legacy firms modernise and guided boards through restructuring and AI adoption. The CTO’s real job is to bridge business and technology, focusing as much on people and enablement as on tech itself. “All of these three roles have one purpose: to bridge between business, execution, and technology. At scale, being a CTO is not really a technology job; it’s a people job about business enablement and execution.”

The AI Billionaire Speedrun: Your 24-Month Guide to Obscene Wealth

Finally, we welcomed on stage Paul Ronan, CTO, and a seasoned financial technology executive with over 25 years of experience building and leading technology organisations across capital markets, brokerage, private banking, and energy trading. Paul has held senior roles in leading banks and FinTech firms, specialising in derivatives trading systems, risk management, and multi-asset e-commerce platforms. He is known for building high-performing teams and delivering innovative architectures while fostering strong business and board-level partnerships.

He outlined two unicorn models for the AI era. Model 1 focuses on disrupting complacent incumbents (“fat cats”) with simple, AI-driven products, moving fast, building domain expertise, and avoiding vanity metrics. He dismissed AI agents as overhyped, arguing real value comes from contextual, outcome-driven platforms. Opportunities lie in trillion-dollar markets like retail AI, gaming, entertainment, and security, with small teams already proving success through rapid acquisitions. Model 2 looks ahead to the next major platform shift, signalled by big tech’s massive spending. His message: the AI supercycle is the new oil, build or invest, but don’t sit out. “It’s never been easier for you to be a disruptor, but remember, after six months, you could become the next fat cat yourself. Agility is everything”.

After the inspiring keynotes, guests enjoyed delicious bowl food, free-flowing drinks, and unlimited treats from the all-you-can-eat Pick ’n’ Mix stand.

The Godel summer party is always a fantastic evening, but hosting it on a private boat along the River Thames this year really took it to the next level. These events aren’t just about celebrating with our clients, they’re also about welcoming new faces into the Godel network. Bringing IT leaders from across the UK together sparks conversations, new ideas and shared learning, which is exactly why we love running them. A huge thank you as well to our brilliant keynote speakers, Meng, Mal and Paul, for sharing their insights and helping make the night even more special.

Jack Snelling, Chief Sales Officer

What a great venue for an event! I have attended loads of events during my career, and this has by far been the best

Mal Minhas, Fractional CTO

Huge thanks to our incredible keynote speakers for sparking such thought-provoking conversations, and to all our amazing attendees for bringing energy, support, and enthusiasm to the Godel Summer Party 2025.

---

If you would like to find out about future events at Godel, please get in touch.