IDC Quorum Europe 2027 brings together Tech Leaders (CIOs, CDOs, CISOs…) and Business Leaders (CFOs, CMOs, CHROs…) from across the region to decide on AI in practice, security and trust, intelligent infrastructure, and growth. The event gives European enterprises strategic insight from IDC analysts and peer collaboration as they move AI from pilot to production.
Gain clarity on the AI and digital trends reshaping European enterprises, and leave with practical frameworks, peer insights and a roadmap for leading AI at scale.
New business models: AI-native offerings and outcome-based pricing
Meredith Whalen is IDC’s Chief Research & Data Intelligence Officer, responsible for the global organization of analysts and data scientists who create the technology intelligence the world’s leading vendors and enterprises run on. She sets IDC’s research agenda — shaping the methodologies, frameworks, and priorities that produce IDC’s market-defining insights.
Meredith has spent her career building research practices at IDC, pioneering the analytical frameworks that define how the industry measures and understands technology markets. She is also driving IDC’s transformation into the intelligence infrastructure layer of the AI economy, including the strategy behind IDC Quanta, IDC’s AI platform grounded in 60+ years of proprietary data and 15 billion data points.
A sought-after keynote speaker, Meredith regularly advises CIOs and senior technology executives on AI strategy, market trends, and what it takes to turn intelligence into competitive advantage.
From Ambition to Strategy: What It Actually Takes to Run AI at Scale
Matthew Eastwood is Senior Vice President of IDC’s enterprise infrastructure, cloud, telecom, security, developers, channels and enabling technology research groups. Mr. Eastwood and his team research people, process and technology trends affecting the enterprise technology marketplace worldwide. Mr. Eastwood first joined IDC in 2000 as part of the server team and his responsibilities have evolved and expanded during his tenure. In his current role, he leads a team of more than 100 analysts providing insights and analysis to IT suppliers, buyers, investors, and distributors through more than 75 syndicated research programs. Mr. Eastwood also leads IDC’s BuyerView primary research programs which are focused on defining emerging trends in cloud, developers, service providers, edge, AI and security.
Mr. Eastwood joined IDC in 2000. He provides in-depth market analysis, research, and consulting on all aspects of the enterprise infrastructure marketplace to IT professionals, investors, resellers and technology suppliers. During his tenure at IDC, Mr. Eastwood has led IDC primary research focused on emerging trends in enterprise systems and data centers. This primary research allows IDC to make continuous assessments regarding how customers are deploying and using enterprise infrastructure power digital transformation. Recent topics covered in Mr. Eastwood’s research include: Software Defined Infrastructure, Integrated infrastructure, Convergence, Disaggregated Infrastructure, Virtualization & Automation, Cloud Computing, High Availability, Platform Migration and Datacenter Workloads. Mr. Eastwood also serves as IDC’s lead analyst covering Dell and VMware.
Prior to joining IDC, Mr. Eastwood worked for twelve years as a senior project manager and environmental consultant at CDM Smith in Boston. Mr. Eastwood was responsible for managing the planning and design of large environmental infrastructure projects including wastewater collection and treatment facilities. In addition, Mr. Eastwood served as Operations Manager of the firm’s New England practice.
Mr. Eastwood received a bachelor’s degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston and earned his MS in Engineering Project Management from WPI in Worcester, MA. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Massachusetts.
Bob Parker is a Senior Vice President responsible for several areas of research at IDC. Bob leads the global industry research teams which includes coverage of healthcare, government, retail, energy, manufacturing, and financial services as well as a cross industry group looking at emerging topics such as blockchain and robotics. Additionally, Bob leads our teams in the enterprise applications space, services, and the IDC coverage of data intelligence which includes coverage of artificial intelligence.
Bob has been conducting industry research for over twenty years including five years at AMR Research before joining IDC. Prior to entering the research field, Bob spent over fifteen years in various Information Technology and Operational management roles in the manufacturing industry including serving as the Chief Information Officer at Eastern Technologies, a defense contractor.
Thomas Meyer joined IDC in January 1999 and is currently responsible for managing IDC’s IT Research in Europe. This includes coverage of software, services and hardware markets focused on topics such as datacenter transformation, cloud computing, virtualization, business continuity, sustainability and print services. Additionally Meyer also manages IDC Europe’s cross-domain Practices which provide insight and advisory on 3rd Platform industry transformation such Internet of Things, Cloud, Mobility, Big Data and Customer Experience IT to ICT vendors and end users.
Meyer frequently speaks at IDC, industry, customer and CIO events such as CeBIT, IDC’s EMEA CIO Summit Series, IDC’s Virtualization and Cloud Conferences and the Mobile Commerce Conference. He often contributes to articles in publications across Europe, including the Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, Focus, Le Monde Informatique, and IT Week, and has also appeared on the BBC World Business Report and Breakfast Business Update.
Before joining IDC, Thomas Meyer worked as an IT media analyst. He holds degrees from the University of London in economics and German and an MA with a focus on European management concepts.
Roberta Bigliani is a Group Vice President at IDC, and Global Lead for Energy Insights, Retail Insights, and the IDC Industry Hub.
She leads IDC’s global research, data, and custom delivery agendas for energy, utilities, and retail, and oversees the Industry Hub, which drives cross-industry initiatives and collaboration.
A recognized expert in industry and business transformation, with longstanding experience in energy and utilities, Roberta’s work centers on how AI and digital technologies are reshaping the industry – enabling new business and operating models, enhancing operations and customer experiences, and effectively integrating IT and operational technology.
Her work combines deep sector expertise with a cross-industry lens, helping organizations understand how disruption and innovation propagate across sectors and markets.
Roberta regularly advises senior managers and executives at both technology suppliers and end-user organizations, speaks at international conferences, and moderates executive-level discussions.
She is based in Milan, Italy.
Duncan Brown is associate vice president, European Security Practice, at IDC EMEA and leads the firm’s security research program in Europe. He specializes in providing strategic advice to his clients, informing and validating their corporate, product, and marketing plans. Brown is an expert in analyzing the security market globally, and his list of security-related clients includes enterprises, central banks, government organizations, and security product suppliers and services providers. Brown’s expertise spans the gamut of security topics including incident response, threat intelligence, and global privacy issues. He established and leads IDC’s coverage of the global impact of the GDPR, the RPEC (ePrivacy Directive update) and NIS Directive on technology companies and their customers. His analysis and opinions are widely sought by industry leaders and investors, while his comments on industry trends and developments frequently appear in the leading business and trade publications.
Alessandro Perilli is a Vice President leading the Agentic AI Platforms and Strategies research program. Alessandro’s core research coverage includes emerging AI technologies, global AI market trends, the state of enterprise AI, and sovereign AI.
Most recently, Alessandro founded Unstable Reality, an AI R&D lab in London, where he worked as Chief of Research, developing synthetic media generation solutions for creative studios, ad agencies, and large end-user organizations.
Among other projects, Alessandro published a weekly newsletter dedicated to tracking how AI is reshaping jobs, workforce productivity, and business operations.
Previously, Alessandro served as a senior leader at Red Hat, focused on business and product strategy. Across roles, Alessandro has also worked as an advisor to Fortune Global 2000 companies, helping IT decision makers translate emerging technology shifts into actionable and risk-informed strategies.
Throughout his career, Alessandro has often delivered keynotes at industry and vendor events, focusing on the state of the union and emerging trends in cybersecurity, virtualization, and cloud computing.
Jen Thomson has more than 20 years’ experience advising IT Vendors, senior IT, and business execs on their digital business optimization and transformation strategies. She leads European Research for Accelerated App Delivery, Cloud, and Services. Her core goal is to drive synergies and growth across these research areas, with a central focus on thought leadership.
She specializes in providing insights on the investment strategies and decisions of European enterprises as they transition to modern application architectures. Her research explores app dev and delivery capabilities required to operate in a digital economy, and how this impacts enterprise organizational structures, culture, processes, tools, and skill sets. She leads the Future of Digital Innovation research for IDC Europe, exploring software innovation strategies and what this means in terms of end-user strategies, investment priorities, software sourcing, and KPIs. Thomson’s core research also explores enterprise maturity and strategies towards enterprise scale and empowered DevOps.
She is responsible for the execution of a broad range of consulting and advisory projects. As IDC’s European expert on application development and delivery strategies, Thomson is an experienced public speaker and regularly presents at conferences and IDC partner and end-user events.
She started her career at Compaq Computer EMEA as a senior research analyst. She has a bachelor’s degree in international business with German from Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom) and Pforzheim Fachhochschule (Germany).
Andrea Siviero leads IDC’s European Digital Business and Future of Work Research group. The group provides market research insights to foster a purposeful and fair adoption of technologies supporting digital societies, businesses and workforce and empower tech providers in strategic decision making, planning and go-to-market activities. Siviero also co-leads the IDC Worldwide MacroTech Research program, focused on the intertwined connection between the Economical and Digital worlds – analyzing the impact key MacroEconomic factors have on the digital landscape and viceversa, how technologies are impacting economies around the world.
Siviero advises IT players on building a forward-looking digital business and workforce strategy, while providing an in-depth view on future of work technology adoption, key digital use cases, macroeconomic digital impact, and digital regulations and emerging technology, via qualitative subscriptions and custom consulting projects. He has extensive experience with large strategy and go-to-market projects with IT providers. He is a member of IDC’s global Tech Storytellers taskforce and he is passionate about public speaking and customer engagement opportunities.
He joined IDC’s European team in 2014 and has become a recognized independent analyst across Europe and beyond in the vertical markets and digital business space. He is based in Italy and he holds a joint PhD in mathematics between the Université Bordeaux I (France) and the Universiteit Leiden (the Netherlands). During his PhD, he covered scientific research, academic teaching, and vocational training. He is a native Italian speaker and he is fluent in English and French.
Carla Arend is a senior program director with the European software and infrastructure research team, and heads up IDC’s European cloud research. Arend provides industry clients with key insight into market dynamics, vendor activities, and end-user adoption trends in the European cloud market. As part of her research, she covers topics such as how European organizations are adopting cloud, how cloud drivers and inhibitors are evolving, cloud management, cloud security, data management in the cloud, IoT and cloud, AI and cloud, Devops and cloud, as well as GDPR impact on cloud and cloud code of conduct.
In addition to syndicated research, Arend has worked on many custom consulting projects identifying opportunities in the European cloud market and has authored white papers on subjects such as cloud management, cloud security, data management in the cloud.
Arend is regularly asked to speak at industry events, strategy workshops, sales kick-offs and training, partner events, and end-user events.
Arend holds a BA in business administration from University of Mannheim and an MSc in business administration and management of technology from Copenhagen Business School, in addition to course work at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok.
61% of Western European organizations now use sovereign cloud, the highest of any region, and 73% say geopolitical turmoil has raised their interest in digital sovereignty over the past year.
Worldwide AI services revenue will grow from $106.2 billion in 2025 to $351.7 billion in 2030, a 27.0% CAGR, with growth peaking at 34.1% in 2026.
Generative AI is the main engine, rising from 32.9% to 49.9% of the total as enterprises scale AI from pilots into production and agentic AI creates a new services layer. For leadership teams, AI is now a delivery, governance and budget decision, not only a technology one.
Located in Madrid’s financial district, close to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding combines contemporary design with advanced conference facilities. Its bright, flexible meeting spaces provide an elegant setting for inspiring discussions, networking and business connections.
Beyond the formal sessions, continue the conversation and get to know fellow attendees in a welcoming atmosphere.
10 -12 IDC analysts run sessions, join panels and hold 1:1 briefings
Invitation-only lounge, analyst briefings and a private dinner
Projects with measurable impact shortlisted and celebrated on Day 2
Enterprises now dedicate 16.7% of AI spend to governance, learn how CIOs should architect agent identity, audit trails, and risk controls.
Cyber risk is now a board-level business issue. Learn how CISOs can translate cyber risk into business impact and align with board expectations in 2026.
Europe is racing to build sovereign AI infrastructure. IDC’s GITEX AI Europe 2026 recap covers HPE, SUSE, Red Hat, and the hardware bottleneck ahead.
Explore the conversations that matter to you.
You will discuss how to fund AI on evidence rather than promises, and how to know what it is returning before the next budget round:
You will discuss what changes when your next customer or channel is an AI agent, and how your brand stays visible and trusted when buyers start with an assistant instead of a search engine:
You will discuss how roles, skills and culture decide whether AI delivers, and what your organization needs to change for people to work well alongside AI agents:
You will discuss where AI moves from handling tickets to changing operating results, and who owns the outcome when it does.
You will discuss how to take AI from pilot to production and answer for its economics, with architecture choices that hold up as the market changes:
You will discuss the data readiness that AI depends on, and how to give the business data it can trust enough to act on:
You will discuss how to keep AI secure and trusted as regulation tightens, without slowing the business down:
You will discuss how AI changes what you build and how you build it, and which technology bets give the business a lasting edge:
You will discuss where AI sits on the CEO agenda: how to set the direction, what to hand to AI and what must stay with people, and how to stay accountable for the result.