The Conversation the Industry Has Been Avoiding.
Vibe coding is already happening inside most organisations. Product managers are building pricing tools. Operations teams are automating workflows. Finance leads are writing reconciliation scripts. None of it went through IT. Most of it works. And increasingly, teams are quietly depending on it.
The conversation this has generated tends to sit at two extremes. Either vibe coding is democratising software development in ways that will fundamentally change how organisations operate, or it is producing a wave of unreviewed, undocumented tools that will create serious problems the moment something goes wrong.
Both positions contain something real. Neither is the complete picture.
This debate brings together a panel of practitioners to work through the argument properly, examining:
Where vibe coding genuinely accelerates value and for whom
Where the output gap sits between what gets built and what was actually needed
What happens to ownership, accountability and governance when the barrier to building software disappears
How organisations should be drawing the line between what can be built informally and what cannot
Whether the risk is in the tool itself, or in the absence of process around it
The format is structured debate, not consensus. Expect disagreement, direct challenge and positions that are genuinely held.
This is not a conversation about whether vibe coding is useful. It demonstrably is. It is a conversation about whether most organisations have yet built the conditions to use it responsibly, and what the cost of getting that wrong actually looks like.
Bethan Vincent,Founder and Managing Partner of Open Velocity:
Bethan Vincent is the Founder and Managing Partner of Open Velocity, a strategic marketing consultancy for high-growth, tech-led businesses. With over a decade of experience in senior marketing roles, Bethan has led successful go-to-market strategies, repositioned brands and built high-performing teams across competitive global markets. Bethan is also branching out into AI - building a synthetic audience message testing platform.
Richard Costeloe, Founder, Casla:
Richard is the founder of Casla, a B2B marketing agency based in Sheffield. Thier mission is to help B2B SMEs with high-value, complex propositions develop the capability to acquire new customers in a predictable and scalable way. Richard believes that B2B marketing should lead to meaningful commercial outcomes and work sustainably over the long term. He thinks that the best marketing provides value in and of itself.
Paul Howell, Strategic Technology Leader:
Paul has spent more than 25 years building and growing technology businesses that challenge the way industries traditionally operate. His background sits at the intersection of technology, operations and strategic growth, with a particular focus on software-led businesses, innovation and scaling organisations through periods of change. Over the years, Paul has worked across technology, healthcare and operational services, helping businesses evolve their products, strengthen leadership teams and create clearer long-term direction.
Jilly Cross, Founder of Independent Digital Agency, Bravand. Co-Founder of Fresh Meet CIC:
Jilly is the Founder of Team Bravand (www.bravand.com), an independent digital agency that uses a collective model to deliver great design, development and support to clients across education, e-commerce, charity / NFP and B2B. They work with start-ups, scale ups and established firms that want a nimble, responsive and energetic team to support their goals and business success.
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.