Roundtable: The Data Friction Tax

Every leadership team wants the same things: faster decisions, forecasts they can actually plan around, and AI that delivers rather than disappoints.

Most don't have them yet, and it's rarely down to a lack of ambition. Reports that don't quite match. Decisions that take longer than they should. A growth plan built on numbers that everyone quietly hedges when they present them.

It rarely gets named as a data problem. It gets called “just how things are here.”

What is that actually costing your business?

For many organisations, the reality looks something like this:

• Multiple versions of the truth, depending who you ask.

• Decisions slowed by manual reconciliation and workarounds nobody remembers agreeing to.

• A new system bought to fix it, and it hasn't.

This isn't a technology failure. It's friction, and it's quietly taxing every decision your business makes, and every output that depends on it.

This executive breakfast roundtable brings together a small group of senior leaders to have a grounded conversation about where that friction actually comes from. What it's costing in slower decisions and missed opportunities, and what it takes to get faster decisions, forecasts you can plan around, and AI that actually earns its place.

Rather than focusing on tools or technical fixes, the discussion will explore:

• Where data friction is already costing growth, even in businesses that look well-run from the outside

• Why the problem is rarely the systems themselves, and what actually causes it

• What “good” looks like in practice, and how to know where you stand today

• Where AI genuinely fits into this picture, and where it's being asked to do a job it can't yet do

• The real business outcomes that follow once decision confidence improves

The goal of the session is simple: to help leaders see how faster decisions, reliable forecasting and AI that works are within reach, and leave with a clearer sense of what to fix first to get there.

This is a small, closed-door discussion designed for leaders who want an honest conversation about what's really slowing their business down, without a vendor pitch attached.

This will be a Chatham House ruled event. Places are limited to encourage open discussion. Breakfast will be provided.

James Ridgway, Founder & CTO, The Curve:

James Ridgway, Founder and CTO James brings more than 10 years of hands-on development and consulting experience, having led major software initiatives across a range of industries. His delivery strategy is grounded in technical excellence, consistency and best practice, the foundations that ensure projects don’t just ship, but succeed.

Simon Devine, MD, Hopton Analytics

Simon co-founded Hopton Analytics, building it into a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data and AI serving mid-market businesses across the UK and Ireland. He leads the commercial side of the business and stays close to client work, because he thinks that's where the interesting problems are. Before Hopton, Simon was Operations Director at a leading Microsoft Dynamics partner.

That grounding in Microsoft business applications shapes how Hopton approaches analytics and AI: not technology for its own sake, but tools that change how a business actually operates day to day. Simon is a regular speaker on data and AI, and is based in Yorkshire, where Hopton is proudly headquartered in Leeds.