_> Events
EXEC DINNERS_
>> Exclusive gatherings for engineering leaders. No sales pitches - Chatham House rules and peers who skip small talk.The vibe in 2026: AI literacy is table stakes; the harder questions are craft vs. output, silent agents, what we protect from automation, and how we lead when the stack - and the mood - keeps shifting.
150+
Leaders Attended
Select CTOs, Heads of Engineering, and Product & Tech Leaders shaping digital platforms.
17
Events Hosted
Intimate dinners across London, Berlin, Copenhagen, and Austin.
Confidential
Discussions
Safe space to share challenges openly. Learn from peers.
_> About
What are EXEC DINNERS?
EXEC DINNERS are private dinners for select CTOs, Heads of Engineering, and Product & Tech Leaders shaping the future of digital platforms. No fluff - just real conversations about what it takes to scale teams, ship under pressure, and lead with clarity in 2026, when AI literacy is table stakes and the real debate is what stays human. No panels. No pitches. Chatham House rules: sharp takes on hiring, compliance-heavy builds, agents, data sovereignty, and aligning execution with business outcomes. Expect real stories, honest failures, and frameworks that work - over great food with people who operate at your pace.
The Format
- Curated group of 6-14 engineering leaders
- Premium venue with fine dining experience
- Themed discussions led by industry practitioners
- No sales pitches - pure knowledge exchange
- Confidential discussions for candid conversation
Who Attends
- CTOs and Heads of Engineering
- Product & Tech Leaders from scale-ups and enterprises
- Leaders shaping the future of digital platforms
- Engineering leaders who operate at your pace
Open Discussion
No sales, pure knowledge
Confidential
Safe space for candid talks
Peer Network
Connect with fellow leaders
Real Insights
Battle-tested strategies
>>> Past dinners
_> Moments from our previous EXEC DINNERS - intimate gatherings for engineering leaders.
_> Past Events
Event History
Insights and highlights from our previous EXEC DINNERS • 150+ attendees across 17 events
London Executive Dinner 8.0: Building Smarter for 2026
"The consensus: we are losing the "why" in the rush to "how." Our job as leaders in 2026 is to be gatekeepers of human creativity and strategic intent."
- Opening provocation: What part of product or engineering culture are you protecting from AI - because the human version is simply better? Strategy in 2026 may be as much about what you refuse to automate as what you ship.
- Cognitive load: Not every user wants the backstage tour (how email is sent, where power comes from). If AI does not add value, it is noise - not help.
- Vibe coding vs. deep design: We are shipping faster than ever - but are we skipping design? Quick-code tools can amplify a problem nobody needed solved.
- AI as Thor's hammer: Powerful and dangerous without a framework - like handing a sledgehammer to someone who has not seen the blueprints.
- The blank page: Starting from AI may cost creativity and ownership; discernment and judgment remain the human premium no LLM replicates.
- AI is not just LLMs - from ML to heuristics - naming it demystifies the magic and makes it usable.
- The trust gap: Would you want your doctor's diagnosis outsourced to AI? We are implementing faster than we understand sustainability and ethics.
Berlin Executive Dinner 6.0: Building Smarter in 2026
"The Lean-Everything world is here - and it is ruthless. One line held: high-velocity optimism meets a sober Human Premium; from hiring bar to silent agents, the through-line is judgment under pressure."
- Cold open: "If they refuse to use AI, I can't have them on my team anymore." We are past the experimentation phase - in 2026, AI proficiency is not a bonus; it is a prerequisite.
- The death of the craft: Is code quality becoming irrelevant? When speed is the only metric left, craft trades for output. AI makes experts formidable and everyone else faster at accruing debt.
- CTO as psychotherapist: Engineering leaders spend less time on architecture and more time managing existential dread - de-risking the future for people afraid of being replaced.
- The "silent" agent risk: We babysit autonomous agents like toddlers - if Slack goes quiet, something may be hallucinating in a corner. Silence is a red flag.
- SaaS on life support: With custom internal AI layers on the rise, can the traditional SaaS model survive 2026?
- The European dilemma: Data still flows toward the US - is "GDPR compliant" quietly becoming "GDPR friendly" to keep pace, or are we sleepwalking into a security nightmare?
- The room: high-velocity optimism plus a sober look at the Human Premium - if demand drops ~30% from efficiency, what happens to people and policy?
- With thanks to Marianna (Marie) Bröckelmann, Matthias Heicke, Stefan Anca, Roberto Duessmann, Andreas Tschritter, Florentine Eitelbach, Filip S. Perišić, and Peter Schlecht.
Berlin Executive Dinner 5.0
"ChatGPT is an RPG for dumb people to make them think they're intelligent - one of the hot takes that sparked debate on managing 'fast fashion' code vs getting buried by it."
- Fast Code as the new Fast Fashion: discussing 'disposable code' and whether craft coding is becoming a niche luxury
- The AI Halo effect: debating the danger of inherently trusting LLM-generated code
- Culture discussion: Is culture actually top-down, or a myth leaders tell themselves?
- End of typing: debating if typing is going the way of handwriting
London Executive Dinner 7.0
"The consensus was that outside of a limited few traditionalists, human-made entertainment will eventually go the way of vinyl records for the vast majority."
- Debating if AI is creative and whether we even care anymore
- The death of the keyboard: voice notes and talking to apps killing typing skills
- Engineering lab-grown meat vs engineering human behavior change
- Human-made entertainment going the way of vinyl records
Berlin Executive Dinner 4.0
"What is going to carry us through is the eventual suspension of disbelief - with healthy skepticism and curiosity about AI's role in strategy and creativity."
- AI audiobooks that adapt to your pace and preferences for personalized listening
- AI doing our 'technical laundry' so we can be more creative - or stealing creativity too?
- The market's tilt toward generalists
- Would you trust AI to invest your money? Is SEO still relevant?
London Executive Dinner 6.0
"AI was called 'the new microchip' - except this time it's not tucked away on a board, it's loud, visible, and in everyone's hands."
- Companies collecting data for 20 years only now figuring out what to do with it
- Theme parks mapping visitor behavior to impact revenue
- Card activity patterns that can predict divorces
- The endless debate: buy vs. build your AI stack
- Deepfaked CFO that moved real money - fraud and security tales
London Executive Dinner 5.0
"We kept the conversation beyond the hype and focused on real-life use-cases, team rewiring, and the hard lessons from AI hallucinations and false starts."
- Trust-vs-ROI dilemma: If your flight was 50% off, but flown by AI... would you still get on?
- Real-life AI use-cases, team rewiring, and hard lessons from hallucinations
- Introductions wrapped up three hours in due to engrossing discussion
London CTO Private Dinner 4.0
- Fostering creative problem-solving and rapid adaptation to new technologies
- Strategies for recruiting, developing, and retaining top engineering talent
- CTO's role in aligning technical capabilities with business objectives
London CTO Private Dinner 3.0
"London was buzzing with innovation as the brightest tech leaders dove deep into the essence of a true winning engineering culture."
- Deploying straight to production and the mindset shift it requires
- The importance of processes and procedures when scaling the company
- Software dev companies vs freelancers: preventing cultural dilution
- The reality of VC-backed projects and the gains and strings behind them
- Assessing dev skills: trade-off between hard and soft skills and cultural fit
Berlin CTO Beer-to-Peer 1.0
"A perfect opportunity to connect, share, and grow together - specifically curated for CTOs and engineering leaders at the forefront of technological innovation."
- Engaging conversation, shared experiences, and a relaxed atmosphere
- A hub for leaders to share struggles and exchange valuable advice
- Stimulating discussions over beer in a great networking atmosphere
London CTO Private Dinner 2.0
- Challenges and opportunities of utilizing AI to communicate and uphold company culture
- How AI can assist with building a development and production team given project characteristics
- Addressing skill gaps within development teams using AI
- Handling sensitive data in AI-facilitated learning environments
- How AI can help maintain consistent coding style across projects
Copenhagen CTO Private Dinner 1.0
- When is the right time to scale? Staying cost-effective while scaling
- The importance of hiring in maintaining the engineering culture
- Models of scaling technical teams - lessons from growing a team from X to XX to XXX people
- In-house vs external provider. Single components or whole chunks of code?
- Hiring span, the lifecycle of the in-house engineer, and poaching risk
Berlin CTO Private Dinner 3.0
- When is the right time to scale? Staying cost-effective while scaling
- The importance of hiring in maintaining the engineering culture
- Models of scaling technical teams - lessons from growing a team from X to XX to XXX people
- In-house vs external provider. Single components or whole chunks of code?
- Hiring span, the lifecycle of the in-house engineer, and poaching risk
Berlin CTO Private Dinner 2.0
- When is the right time to scale? Staying cost-effective while scaling
- The importance of hiring in maintaining the engineering culture
- Models of scaling technical teams - lessons from growing a team from X to XX to XXX people
- In-house vs external provider. Single components or whole chunks of code?
- Hiring span, the lifecycle of the in-house engineer, and poaching risk
Berlin CTO Private Dinner 1.0
- When is the right time to scale? Staying cost-effective while scaling
- The importance of hiring in maintaining the engineering culture
- Models of scaling technical teams - lessons from growing a team from X to XX to XXX people
- In-house vs external provider. Single components or whole chunks of code?
- Hiring span, the lifecycle of the in-house engineer, and poaching risk
London Startup CTO Private Dinner 1.0
- When it's the right time to scale? Staying cost-effective while scaling
- The importance of hiring in maintaining the engineering culture
- Models of scaling technical teams - lessons from growing a team from X to XX to XXX people
- In-house vs external provider. Single components or whole chunks of code?
- Hiring span, the lifecycle of the in-house engineer, and poaching risk
Austin CTO Private Dinner 1.0
- Private C-level dinner for CTOs in Austin
- Part of Apptension US launch
- 100% NPS from participants
_> Insights
Key Takeaways from Our Community
"The consensus: we are losing the "why" in the rush to "how." Our job as leaders in 2026 is to be gatekeepers of human creativity and strategic intent."
"The Lean-Everything world is here - and it is ruthless. One line held: high-velocity optimism meets a sober Human Premium; from hiring bar to silent agents, the through-line is judgment under pressure."
"ChatGPT is an RPG for dumb people to make them think they're intelligent - one of the hot takes that sparked debate on managing 'fast fashion' code vs getting buried by it."
"The consensus was that outside of a limited few traditionalists, human-made entertainment will eventually go the way of vinyl records for the vast majority."