cONference 2024 by Operations Nation - Event Recordings

Rewatch the talks from Operations Nation's cONference 2024 - Europe's largest conference for operations leaders! 🎉

Here's a quick guide to all the recordings inside:

PANEL · How to Navigate a Squiggly Ops Career Path

• ​Freddy Hare, Ops Director @ Islands Chocolate. Formerly COO @ Vitl
• Jie Low, Business Impact Manager at Modulr. Formerly Chief of Staff @ Lantum, Head of Ops & People @ Beam, COO @ ManíLife.
• Souky Dolinsek, COO @ Goodsted, fractional COO/Director of Operations. Formerly Founding CEO @ ZING, Head of Finance & Ops @ Valuedynamx.
• Filip Szczecinski, Business Operations Manager @ Plane, Operations Consultant @ Exciting Ops. Formerly Head of Ops @ HCM Deck, CallPage.io.
• ​Moderated by Charlene Chen, Co-Founder of Operations Nation, Ex-COO of AZA Finance

How would you describe your ops career path? 🤔 

If your answer is along the lines of "squiggly", "ambiguous", or "full of twists", then you'll LOVE our first cONference panel which is all about how to navigate a squiggly ops career. ✨

Operations leaders are born from diverse paths, each carving their unique journey through the dynamic world of operations. 🔀

Operations Nation Co-Founder Charlene Chen (with a squiggly ops career of her own) chatted with four operations leaders from our community about their career journeys so far, the most crucial skills they gained along the way, and where they're headed next. 🚀

PANEL · How to Leverage AI to Scale Your Operations

• ​Sarah Touzani, Co-Founder & CEO @ Waggle AI. Formerly COO @ Creditspring, Director of Ops @ PassFort.
• Brian Snyder, Co-Founder & COO @ Aide Health. Formerly COO @ Black Swan Data, Executive Business Director @ AKQA.
• Minisha Goel, Founder @ MindShift AI, Gen AI Consultant and Trainer. Formerly Head of Ops @ Faethm by Pearson, Management Consultant @ BCS Consulting (part of Accenture) and Cognizant.
• Moderated by Laura Rosenberger, Co-founder of Laylo, ex-COO of Naked Wines

How are you using AI to scale your operations? 🤖

Whether you're just wrapping your head around all the new tools or already implementing AI solutions, you'll love our cONference panel on How to Leverage AI to Scale Your Operations. 💡

Watch this to learn about... 💡

• how to develop an AI-first mindset and get your team on board 🧠
• what steps you can take today to lead your business to an AI-powered future 🚀
• what risks and limitations you should be keeping an eye out for ⚠️

PANEL · How to Show VCs the Power of Operational Excellence

• ​Elani Buchan, Fractional COO, Head of Operations @ Bondaval. Formerly COO @ Concured, Head of Operations @ Mint & Co, ex-Venture Partner @ Republic.
• Will Herrmann, Fractional COO/CFO, CFO @ Cubitts. Formerly Chief Strategy Officer @ Campaign Against Living Miserably, Financial Director @ ScaleUp Capital, Chief Financial Officer @ Forward Partners, COO @ MyRecovery.
• ​Moderated by Bethany Ayers, Co-host of The Operations Room podcast, COO @ Peak, Sr VP Strategy @ NewVoiceMedia.

What’s the secret to unlocking unstoppable growth? Spoiler alert: It’s powered by incredible operations leaders! ✨

Are you ready to challenge the status quo and dive into the REAL backbone of business growth?

Here's what you can expect ✅

• Hear from fellow operations leaders who have a front-row seat to how investors think of Ops 👀
• A spicy debate on how Ops SHOULD be viewed 🔥
• Practical tips and tools to help you shift mindsets and and prove the value of Operations 💡

KEYNOTE · Comedic Keynote

• ​Sharath Jeevan OBE, Executive Chairman @ Intrinsic Labs. Founder & CEO @ STIR Education. Formerly Founding CEO @ Ambition School Leadership, Founding Head of eBay for Charity. Globally recognised author supporting leaders and organisations.

Our keynote speaker Sharath Jeevan OBE is a man of many talents:

• he's a serial Founder who has supported leadership teams at companies like Skyscanner and Shopify ✅
• he's a globally recognised advisor, speaker and author on the topics of leadership at inflection moments and generational success 📚
• he teaches at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge 🎓
• and he's... a stand-up comedian?! 🤯

You're probably wondering why a CEO is our keynote speaker at an ops conference - and it's all because of inflection moments. 💡

In case you're not familiar with the term: inflection moments are critical opportunities for leaders to reassess their direction, understand the potential of their teams, and redefine their goals. 🧠

Being an ops leader is a never-ending series of inflection moments, and they are absolutely essential to the evolution of our career, business, and the profession as a whole - which just so happens to be the theme of our cONference this year. 🌱

Thus, we couldn't think of a better person than Sharath to help us summarise the key takeaways of Day 1 - and make us laugh along the way. 🙌

FIRESIDE CHAT · How to Evolve as an Ops Leader as an Organisation Evolves

• ​Elain Tse, COO @ Ember. Formerly COO @ Bird Eats Bug, Sideways 6, Passion.io
• ​Pranuthi Chander, COO @ Subak. Formerly Head of Ops @ Faculty, Corethree, Head of Product & Proposition @ GDPQ.

How do you juggle scaling #operations and developing your career? 🤔

Join our fireside chat to learn about…

• evolving from tactical execution to strategic leadership 🧠
• the stages of organisational growth and the common challenges within 🌱
• how to approach challenges from a mindset of continuous learning and reflection 🎓

When was the last time you had a chance to learn from the real-life stories of operations leaders? 🤔

Now’s your chance to hear powerful ops stories (TEDx style!) that challenge the norms and offer fresh perspectives on leadership! 🔥

STORYTELLING SESSION · Ops Talks (3x)

Ty Wolfe-Jones - How “Evolution” is the Ops Super Power

Early COO & Ops Leader Coach. Co-Founder & Co-Host at Climate Mayhem podcast. Formerly Director, People Systems & Talent Development @ Assurance IQ, COO @ Wrench, General Manager @ DoorDash, Ops & Logistics @ Uber, Ops Director @ Tango Card.

Learn from Ty about how being a generalist and thriving in ambiguity can equip leaders to scale effectively in an ever-changing world. 💪

Milly Barker - The Future is Fractional

Founder and Fractional COO @ Pay As You Go COO. Serial COO across industries and sectors. Formerly Chief of Staff @ Cognism, Business Development & Strategic Consultancy @ Amazon UK.

Reflect with Milly about her raw and inspiring journey to becoming a fractional COO - including the highs and the lows. 🚀

Pete Finlay - Has your CEO got unmanaged ADHD?

Fractional COO. Formerly COO @ Encore Musicians, Coconut and Songkick, Co-Founder & CEO @ Silicon Milkroundabout.

Pete shows you what it's like to be a business leader ADHD - and shares his advice for folks in similar situations. 🧠

MUSICAL SESSION · How to Find Your Voice in Operations

Lizzie Holmes, Head of Operations @ SurrealDB, Founder @ DEBUT, Opera Singer.

Accompanied by Sam Peña and Jorge Carlo Mariani.

How do you find your own unique voice as an #operations leader? 🗣️

Join us at to learn all about:

• The skills that you need to survive and thrive in the ops world
• How to develop the mindset it takes to transfer skills from one area to another
• How to integrate our personal strengths with our careers to become authentic, powerful leaders

... through a musical session hosted by Lizzie Holmes! ✨

We met Lizzie earlier this year when she applied to join our community and we were instantly blown away by her unique career:

She was the first hire and is currently Head of Operations at SurrealDB by day... ☀️ 🏙️

... and an opera singer and Founder of DEBUT (an innovative and intimate classical concert series) by night. 🌙

Lizzie brings a unique and dynamic perspective to all her endeavours - and she's keen to share her insights on how she developed her (non-singing) voice to help her build communities and push boundaries in the worlds of tech and classical music. 💡

Thank you for watching and supporting us! 🍿

Interested in more content from Operations Nation?

Read our Survival Guide for COOs - Chapter 5 coming very soon! 📚
We’re on a mission to share with you the world’s first-ever book for startup COOs, by startup COOs. There are hundreds of books and articles written for CEOs, but very few designed for the second-in-command - so after many years of dreaming about this very book, we’re finally creating it.

Follow us on LinkedIn 📢
We post frequently on social media and share all sorts of news and interesting articles from our own feeds, along with some behind-the-scenes details about how we’re building our company with a wONderful team of creatives and a community of ops people.