Keyrus & Friends 9th Edition: Bringing the Data and Digital Community Together
On Tuesday, September 22, Keyrus & Friends returned to Gare Maritime in Brussels for its ninth edition, bringing together the data and digital community for an afternoon of practical insights, conversations, and networking.
The idea behind Keyrus & Friends remains the same across every edition: technology amplifies, but the people around the table are what differentiate.
Rather than a traditional conference, Keyrus & Friends brings together practitioners and leaders to share real experiences, practical lessons, and the challenges behind putting data, digital, and AI into action.
This ninth edition continued that tradition, combining practitioner-led content sessions with an evening of meaningful networking.
Event details
Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Location: Gare Maritime, Brussels
Format: Content sessions and networking event
Organiser: Keyrus
Time: 3:30 PM–9:00 PM
The sessions
Real-time CX with Confluent
Herman Nielens from IBM explored how organisations can move beyond customer experiences powered by yesterday's data.
Using Confluent, the session demonstrated how omnichannel events can be streamed into a customer view that continuously updates as behaviour happens — creating a foundation for next-best actions, real-time recommendations, and more consistent experiences across channels.
The discussion offered a practical look at what changes when AI and customer experience teams can work with live data.
Repair, replace, or rebuild? The path to an AI-ready analytics stack
Farah Chaari from Piano and Tanguy Stienlet from Keyrus explored a challenge many organisations face when working with legacy analytics platforms: whether to patch what already exists, replace it, or rebuild the stack.
Through real-world case studies, the session looked at what organisations gained after making that decision, including faster insights, improved activation, and measurable progress in sales, loyalty, and retention.
Building a customer-centric ERP with AI
Dries Van Craen from Keyrus joined Werkers to share the story behind an AI-driven, customer-centric ERP built with AI-assisted development — from the first prompt to production.
The session explored where AI coding accelerated development, where human design remained essential, and what it takes to bring a staffing operation onto a smart, live matching platform.
The evolution of marketing operations at Colruyt Group
Kathleen Bauwens from Colruyt Group and Danaë Geurten from Keyrus shared how Colruyt Group transformed its marketing operations across multiple retail brands.
The session looked at the journey from fragmented processes and inconsistent ways of working to a more structured, standardised, and self-service operating model supporting hundreds of marketers, briefers, and validators.
It also highlighted the lessons learned along the way and the foundations put in place for the next stage of the journey.
Buy,build or combine? The Edenred journey with MDM
Lionel Neirynck from Edenred shared the company's approach to a key master data management question: buy or build?
The session explored the trade-offs behind the decision, from quality and enrichment to stewardship, and how a governed data foundation,supported in part by Databricks, can enable data management at scale.
Connected planning at Umicore
Jan Vandewalle and Amber Vluymans from Umicore explained how the company simplified planning across business units by bringing budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning together on one connected platform.
The session highlighted how connecting processes, data, and planning cycles can help organisations create a more consistent view and adapt more effectively as business needs change.
More than content sessions
The spirit of Keyrus & Friends goes beyond the sessions themselves.
Following the afternoon programme, attendees came together for an evening of drinks, food, and networking . Together they created a space to continue conversations, exchange experiences and build connections around shared challenges and ideas.
Across the ninth edition, the discussions reflected a common theme: turning intelligence into action requires more than technology. It requires the right people, processes, data and decisions working together.
Explore what’s next
Were you unable to join us at Keyrus & Friends 9th Edition, or are you looking to explore one of the topics discussed in more detail?
Contact our experts to discuss your organisation's data, digital, AI or analytics challenges and explore how Keyrus can help turn them into opportunities.
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It's a recurring evening for the data and digital community, built around practical content sessions and genuine networking. Each edition follows the same principle: technology amplifies, the people in the room differentiate.
Data, AI, Digital professionals who want to connect with peers, exchange ideas, and hear from practitioners operationalizing intelligence in the field.
Yes. Attendance is free, but registration is required because places are limited.
Yes. During registration, you can indicate whether you would like to attend the content sessions, the networking reception, or both.