Executive Discovery Forum

Unlocking Digital
Business Resilience

Driving Growth and Securing Your Future in the Age of AI.

Setting the Scene

Get ready to connect, learn, and grow at the Splunk and Somerford Discovery Forum. Starting with a complimentary lunch, this in-person event offers a unique opportunity to network with peers and hear directly from customer speakers.

You’ll also gain exclusive insights from Splunk .conf25, including the latest developments in agentic AI, digital resilience, and how the Splunk and Cisco partnership is shaping the future of data.

Join us for an afternoon of real-world insights, strategies, and networking — including highlights from Splunk’s work with F1, Flight Simulator expertise, and first-hand experiences from customers using Splunk to solve complex challenges.

Agenda

12 PM - 12:55 PM

Arrival & Networking Lunch

12 PM - 12:55 PM
12:55 PM - 1 PM

Introductions, Setting the Scene and Forum Housekeeping

Featuring John Dee, Strategy Director, Somerford Associates

12:55 PM - 1 PM
1 PM - 1:30 PM

Key Note from James Hodge, GVP & Chief Strategy Advisor - EMEA at Splunk

Business success today depends on an organisation’s ability to thrive in the face of disruption.

Hear from James Hodge, GVP & Chief Strategy Advisor - EMEA at Splunk, in a keynote that explores the future of digital resilience, moving beyond traditional security and observability to a unified strategy for a new era. Learn how the powerful combination of Splunk and Cisco is leveraging AI to transform how executives manage risk, accelerate innovation, and protect critical business services.

This session will provide a strategic roadmap for building an intelligent, adaptive enterprise.

1 PM - 1:30 PM
1:30 PM - 2 PM

How Splunk Fits Into Specsavers’ Observability and AIOps Ecosystem

Featuring Andy Slater, Observability & Automation Lead, Specsavers

ITSM integrations, payloads, webhooks, and automated runbooks: discover how the Specsavers team utilises Splunk as part of its toolset to manage complex infrastructure and automate incident response, positively impacting key incident management metrics like MTTR.

1:30 PM - 2 PM
2 PM - 2:30 PM

The Role of Observability in Digital Resilience

Featuring Dan Gray, Senior Observability Expert at Somerford Associates

Explore how a unified approach to observability with Splunk helps you eliminate blind spots and make data-driven decisions, ensuring the resilience and performance of your critical business services.

2 PM - 2:30 PM
2:30 PM - 3 PM

Driving Digital Resilience with Splunk Security

Featuring Ben Marrable, Senior Splunk Security Expert, Somerford Associates

Discover the evolution of the SOC from a reactive incident response team to a proactive force that prevents major disruptions. This session will explore how a single platform can centralise security data for unified threat detection and response, allowing for faster and more accurate threat investigation.

We’ll also cover how Splunk’s capabilities support regulatory compliance and risk assessment, and the role of AI and automation in accelerating detection while reducing manual workloads.

2:30 PM - 3 PM
3 PM - 3:30 PM

Refreshments & Networking

3 PM - 3:30 PM
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Overcoming the Visibility Challenge

Featuring Martyn Wheeler, Client Partner Executive at ThousandEyes (part of Cisco)

Organisations today are grappling with a complex set of challenges in their digital environments. The primary struggle is a lack of visibility into networks and services they don't own or control.

Hear from Martyn on how to overcome a lack of visibility into your digital ecosystem by providing end-to-end monitoring of applications and networks, on the public internet, in the cloud, and within a remote workforce. Ultimately, this ensures a reliable and seamless digital experience for both customers and employees, which is crucial for protecting revenue and brand reputation.

3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
4 PM - 5 PM

Splunk Immersive Experience (SIE) - Splunk Hosted

Get inspired with our immersive experience centre

Explore how Splunk and Amazon Web Services (AWS) tackle industry-specific challenges and deliver tangible business outcomes. You’ll have the opportunity to discover new possibilities and see how Splunk can unlock greater value for your organisation.

4 PM - 5 PM
5 PM - 5:30 PM

Fireside Chat: Business Digital Resilience

Featuring John Dee, Andy Slater, Ben Marrable and Dan Gray

We will explore how a unified observability platform can enhance operational efficiency, improve incident management, and strengthen business resilience. Learn how moving from reactive, siloed monitoring to a proactive approach enables organisations to demonstrate value through technical insights and support key initiatives such as digital transformation and global expansion.

The discussion will be grounded in the practical experience of Specsavers.

5 PM - 5:30 PM
5:30 PM - Close

End of Day Drinks: F1 and Flight Simulator in the Buttercup Arms

5:30 PM - Close

Register

Additional Resources

Who are Somerford Associates?

We are a passionate group of people delivering innovation to our customers on their digital transformation journey.

Splunk Partner

Splunk Partner in the UK&I with one of the largest practice of Splunk Consultants in EMEA.

Somerford in the Public Sector

Empowering public sector agency to thrive in the digital era with tailored solutions.

Have any Questions?

Feel free to reach out to us with any questions you have about our events.

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