CTO Networking Breakfast 1

CTO Networking Breakfast #1

London

17 June 2026

Dead Code, Live
Agents:
Modernising
Legacy Systems
the Smart Way

A morning briefing on how senior IT leaders define their AI roadmap and start moving on it. Without vendor lock‑in, with low risk, one step at a time. UK and international enterprise examples.

Reserve my seat ➜

Your registration is reviewed and confirmed
by the Gloster team within 48 hours by
email.

Legacy vs AI

17.06.2026

CTO Networking Breakfast #1

Seats reserved

18 / 40

Date

Wednesday, 17 June 2026

08:30 – 11:15

Venue

The Army & Navy Club

Pall Mall, London

Format

Max 40 people

Invitation-only · free event

Organised by

Gloster Digital Group

20+ years

400+ clients

Microsoft Solutions Partner

AWS Partner

Cloudflare Partner

The Problem

Often a single decision decides your competitive position.

For years, every industry conference has carried the same line: “We will take our
enterprise IT to the next level.” Then reality follows. The 12-year-old ERP, the
undocumented integrations, the senior developer who is the only one who fully
understands the payroll module. AI does not stall because the model is wrong. It stalls
because the organisation will not touch what came before. In this briefing we show how
it can be done differently.

“60% of the development budget goes on maintenance.”

The team is firefighting the old stack instead of building new features. The board asks for a new product line, the tech lead can see no capacity to deliver it.

“One bad migration can take us down for weeks.”

Around 70% of classic big-bang projects slip or overrun. The CFO would rather not touch it. The legacy stays, the AI does not arrive.

“Large vendors trap you inside their ecosystem.”

The platform vendor solves the problem. In exchange, it owns your stack, your data and your budget for the next five years. A meaningful share of IT leaders pick “no decision” for this reason.

Good news

By 2026, a third way exists. Agent-assisted, stepwise modernisation. Low risk, a traceable roadmap, no vendor lock-in.

The catch

A growing number of UK enterprises have already begun. Those who delay this decision give up ground on capability and on cost.

Reserve my seat ➜

What you will take away

Three concrete tools for planning
your AI adoption differently.

Not an inspirational talk. 2.5 hours of examples, dilemmas, decision points and a
roadmap, drawn from UK and international enterprise practice, with concrete numbers.

Methodology without
vendor lock-in

How to modernise a legacy system without committing to a single vendor for the next five years. An approach that holds up across three markets: UK, DACH and Hungary.

Concrete business
outcome

How much time and budget an agentic refactoring programme takes in midmarket and enterprise environments. ROI ranges, risk points, the internal capability you need. With examples, not with marketing claims.

Stepwise decision
framework

What to migrate, what to leave alone, and what to replace outright. Based on risk and return, set out as a decision tree you can take back to your own roadmap.

Featured GUEST SPEAKER

Your operating model is
legacy code.

Engineers know how to refactor legacy systems strangle the monolith, consolidate vendors, ship incrementally. But most services firms run their operating model on the equivalent of a legacy codebase: context lost in handoffs, knowledge locked in chat histories, every project wired up bespoke. Jon Busby applies modernisation thinking to how a multi-practice agency group is refactoring its delivery system.

“Agentic development doesn't just write code faster,
it compresses the friction between disciplines.”

Jon Busby · Pretzl

GUEST SPEAKER

Jon Busby

Executive Director, Product · Pretzl

Agenda

2.5 hours of fresh perspectives,
working examples, and live
discussion with senior enterprise
leaders.

Dilemmas, solutions, roadmaps. The morning is built around two talks, a Q&A facilitated
by an independent advisor, and continued networking. Each part stands on its own.
One relevant session is reason enough to come.

08:30 – 08:45

Arrival, tea and coffee in the Drawing Room

Introductions and first conversations. Badges by sector, so you can find the people in the room you
most want to meet.

08:45 – 09:25

English breakfast and networking

Round tables of 8 to 10. Continued conversations over a full English breakfast.

09:30 – 09:40

Welcome

Welcome address

Majid Shah · Director, Gloster Digital UK

Round tables of 8 to 10. Continued conversations over a full English breakfast.

09:40 – 10:05

Keynote

Keynote · Dead Code, Live Agents

András Leskó · CTO, Gloster Digital

A working approach to modernising a 10+ year old enterprise codebase with AI agents.
Methodology, lessons learned, measurement points.

10:05 – 10:25

GUEST SPEAKER

Your operating model is legacy code

Jon Busby · Executive Director, Product at Pretzl

Your Operating Model Is Legacy Code Applying Modernisation Patterns to How Teams Deliver

10:25 – 10:40

Q&A

Facilitated by Andrew Wilmot, Advisor, Gloster Digital UK Board

Open questions to the speakers, moderated selection.

10:40 – 10:50

Session summary and closing

Andrew Wilmot and Majid Shah

Key takeaways, how to implement the learnings to your next project.

10:50 – 11:15

Continued networking

The closing session is often the most valuable part of the morning.
This is where partnerships, follow-ups and introductions take shape.

Reserve my seat ➜

Speakers

Four voices. 60+ years of
aggregated enterprise experience.

Every speaker runs complex, competitive IT systems today.
Real practitioners, not commentators.

Host

Majid Shah

Director, Gloster Digital UK

Leads Gloster Digital’s UK business, with two decades of experience delivering enterprise-grade IT products and platforms to clients across EMEA and APAC. He combines a strong focus on innovation with a proven ability to drive scalable business outcomes.

Keynote

András Leskó

CTO, Gloster Digital

20+ years of software
architecture experience,
including two decades on three
of Sony's critical enterprise
systems (royalty calculation,
contract management, release
scheduling). The last 18 months
focused on agentic refactoring
and AI-assisted legacy
modernisation.

GUEST SPEAKER

Jon Busby

Executive Director, Product at Pretzl

Jon’s talk applies modernisation thinking to how a multi-practice agency group is refactoring its delivery system replacing copy-paste workflows with shared context layers, consolidating fragmented AI tool usage into governed registries, and using agentic development not just to write code.

Facilitator

Andrew Wilmot

Advisor, Gloster Digital UK Board

Portfolio CTO, NED and consultant with senior fintech experience, including Head of IT at Blackhawk Network's GVS Prepaid Europe. Brings technology strategy, governance and delivery to organisations operating in regulated, fast-changing markets.

Strategic partners

Microsoft Solutions Partner

AWS

Cloudflare

Anthropic

Who is this for

This briefing is for you, if:

CIO / IT Director

Midmarket and
enterprise

You are accountable for keeping the board's AI ambition from colliding with the 12-year-old ERP. You need a decision framework, not a slogan. Your competitive position is shaped by the next modernisation decision you make.

CTO / Tech Lead

Your team is firefighting the legacy. You know the refactor is needed, but the risk has to be presentable to the executive committee. With numbers, dilemmas and decision points.

Head of Engineering

Director of
Development

You allocate your team's capacity between tech debt and new features. AI adoption against legacy refactor: the headline dilemma of your first half of 2026. The morning is built around it.

Director of Digital
Transformation

Modernisation is not a cost line, it is competitive capability. But only when it is measurable. This morning brings a concrete roadmap, the dilemmas, and UK and international enterprise examples.

This briefing is not designed for individual developers or junior IT specialists. The conversation runs at a senior decision-making level, which is why we hold the cap at 40 people and operate on an application basis.

Why Gloster

An enterprise IT company doing the same thing in its own house.

Gloster Digital Group is not new to this work. 20+ years of enterprise software development, three markets, and a working AI strategy that is running today.

20+ years

In enterprise software development.
Sony, BMW, Audi and further enterprise
references available on request.

400+ clients

Across the UK, the DACH region, USA and Hungary, including 200+ cloud migration programmes.

4 regions

DACH, UK, Hungary, US. Four regions of working knowledge in one team.

Strategic partners

Microsoft Solutions Partner

AWS

Cloudflare

Anthropic

Registration

Reserve your seat.

Within 48 hours of your registration, the Gloster team replies by email. The morning is complimentary, and seats are confirmed individually because of the limited capacity.

Date

Wed 17 June 2026 · 08:30–11:15

Venue

The Army & Navy Club · Pall Mall, London

Format

Max 40 people · invitation-only · complimentary

Köszönjük! Beküldését sikeresen rögzítettük!

Hoppá! Valami hiba történt az űrlap elküldése közben.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Seven questions we receive most often. Anything else, the team will answer when they reply to your registration.

Is it really complimentary?

Yes. There is no fee to attend, and breakfast is included. Gloster Digital hosts the morning.
Nothing is sold from the stage, and there is no follow-up sales call attached to your seat.

What does “invitation-only” mean?

We cap the room at 40 to keep the conversations useful. Registration is open, but seats are confirmed on review. We aim for a senior peer group CTOs, CIOs, Heads of Engineering, Heads of IT and equivalent roles working on the same kinds of problems.

What if I cannot attend after registering?

Let us know as early as you can, ideally at least 72 hours before the event. With only 40 seats, every cancellation opens a place for someone on the waiting list. Just reply to your confirmation email.

Can I bring a colleague?

Yes, if the role fits the room. Send us their name, title and email, and we will confirm subject to capacity. We keep the group small and senior on purpose, so a quick check first helps everyone.

What will I not hear?

No product pitches. No vendor decks. No keynote abstractions disconnected from delivery.
Every speaker runs the systems they are talking about as practitioners, not commentators.

Dress code, location and transport?

Dress code: the Army & Navy Club requires members and guests to dress smartly and with a degree of formality. This includes smart trouser suits, smart trousers, skirts and dresses, with shoes that are not designed or used for sports. Sweatshirts, fleeces, sportswear, vest tops, leggings (including jeggings), baseball caps, casual zipped jackets or leather jackets are not permitted. Mobile phones may not be used for making or receiving calls except in specified areas.

Location: The Army & Navy Club, 36 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JN.

Transport: nearest tube stations are Piccadilly Circus, Green Park and Charing Cross, all within a 5 to 10 minute walk. On-street parking is limited around Pall Mall, so public transport or taxi is the easiest option.

Will the event be recorded?

The discussion itself runs under Chatham House Rule, so no audio or full-session recording will be made. What is said in the room can be used afterwards, but the source is not identified. This keeps the Q&A and the networking honest.
We will, however, have a photographer and a short video crew on site to capture atmosphere shots, B-roll and brief interview clips for an after-event recap video. If you prefer not to appear in any photo or video material, just let us know on arrival and we will make sure you are not featured.

10 · STAY IN TOUCH

Interested, but can't make it?

The CTO Networking Breakfast is an invitation-only series for senior engineering and technology leaders.
If this date doesn't work for you, leave your details below and we'll let you know about the next one.
Invitations go out by email before registration opens to the public.

Köszönjük! Beküldését sikeresen rögzítettük!

Hoppá! Valami hiba történt az űrlap elküldése közben.