Beyond Boundaries Global Festival Barcelona 2026

Back for its second edition! Join us in Barcelona for the ultimate experience for professionals shaping the future of generative AI and conversational AI.

Brought to you by The CDI Foundation and its partners, Beyond Boundaries 2026 is more than a conference, it’s where the global AI community comes together to learn, connect, and create impact.

Watch the BBB24 aftermovie! It offers a vibrant sneak peek into what awaits you at BBB26, from groundbreaking workshops and keynote speeches by industry leaders to global networking opportunities.

Experience one of Europe’s most dynamic cities—Barcelona. From its iconic architecture and vibrant markets to its rich culture and cuisine, this is the perfect setting to network, collaborate, and explore new partnerships in the heart of Europe.

This year, we have 4 key categories that people can nominate which are:

• Best AI Assistant
• Best Conversational AI Team
• Emerging Talent In Conversational AI
• Outstanding Impact in Inclusive AI
  
  You can nominate yourself or your own team (or alternatively another individual or team) and fill out the submission criteria in the form link below.
  
  All awards will be announced and presented at the 2026 Beyond Boundaries Global Festival, on April 29 in Barcelona.
  
  To submit your entry (and see all the criteria) you can fill out the submission form .

Hosted by the CDI Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to promoting human-centric, inclusive AI through research, education, and community development. Our partners range from leading multinationals to innovative startups, all committed to advancing the future of Conversational AI.

Interested in sponsorship? Get in touch and let’s shape the future of AI together.

Olaf Igesz

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Info: Delivering content into LLM-heavy delivery solutions means adjusting how we create, structure, and process content. This session discusses what can be done by content developers, what is under the control of others, and how to influence the accuracy of queries. This presentation will explore the intersection between editorial, technical, and structural techniques for improving content delivery outcomes. Rahel is the Content Solutions Director of Technically Write IT

Info: This keynote will discuss how Conversation Design is changing in the world of Agenticism, and how Conversation Designers can keep up, upskill, and thrive. Braden is the CEO of Voiceflow

Info: Yes containment is important when assessing the performance of an AI Assistant … but what about connection?

What is the value of the emotional engagement a customer has when interacting with an organisation’s chatbot? Is it built to reflect the best of that brand, or developed with a pure, sterile focus on efficiency? And what is the real cost (or debt) of approaching things without thinking about empathy?

This session will unpack these using the CDI Standards Framework as a lens to understand what is quintessential to leading AI Assistants today. Hans is the Founder and CEO of Conversation Design Institute

Info: Learn about how Hoppy - Heineken’s generative AI chatbot - integrates data from multiple internal sources to navigate global standards, ways of working and processes, boosting productivity within finance teams. Pim is the Global BI Lead at Heinken Company

Info: Chatbots have firmly established their place as an essential "UX crutch": people reach to the chatbot when the UI in front of them fails. Use cases for how chatbots can help have bedded down and have become a multi-billion dollar business.


Software agents have arrived and bring with them a form of agency that will transform every single app in the world in a very fundamental way. In my talk I talk about 3 core, strategic business metrics which will be completely transformed once in-app agents are added to your apps, and how.

Julian is the Founder of Making AI Agents

Info: In 2025, Lisa completed research with creative AI ecosystem player Charismatic.ai on AI’s impact on the creative industries, specifically film, TV and other forms of content production. The project looked at how generative AI can be used in storytelling and content production, with a focus on how to get the tool into the hands of those who have been disadvantaged in the industry.


The work explored the impact that AI will have on creativity, business models, and skills.


In this talk Lisa will:

- Discuss the main findings of the project.

- Share insights into how technology is impacting creative and critical thinking.

- Explore different ways we can respond, challenge and reshape the narratives and expectations that are being normalised by ‘Big Tech.’

Lisa is a Digital Sociologist and Board Member of CDI Foundation

Info: This session will delve into some of Verint’s ongoing global research and insights into the emerging trends in the world of CX, with an eye to what is really going on with Conversational AI and where it is actually adding value to organizations. Steve Bell is Verint’s VP EMEA of Solutions Consulting

Info: Impressive generative voice experiences are everywhere, but most fail when pushed into production. In this session, Alan Nichol shares how enterprises can shift from siloed proofs of concept to structured, scalable multimodal voice AI. You’ll learn why fluency alone isn’t enough, what it takes to operationalize real-time voice interactions, and how a modular, logic-aware architecture unlocks reliability across channels. We’ll walk through the design principles behind Rasa’s CALM framework and how it enables multimodal assistants that perform under real-world conditions. Alan is the Co-Founder and CTO of Rasa

Info: In this session, I will address the issue of the ‘conversationability’ of conversational products. As LLMs proliferate, research and commentary continually point to their failures and achievements. But what are the often-tacit norms or metrics that underpin these evaluations? Conversation analysis has identified and described the robust and systematic interactional machinery that scaffolds all human-human conversation, and so – even when interactions themselves are full of misunderstandings, are egregious, toxic, dangerous, etc. – participants themselves cannot be ‘wrong’ or ‘poor’ in their deployment of the machinery. I consider what we can learn from examples of interactions that are full of such misunderstandings and other problems when leveraging conversation into products. Liz is Professor and Academic Director of Impact at LSE

Info: This presentation will explore a case study of work done with DHL actual results of a project we did comparing the impact of a traditional chatbot UI with a Digital Human. It will also examine some of the latest developments happening globally, along with some other successful deployments. Guido is the Founder of Virtually Human

Info: FESTIVAL OPENING: Just as Antoni Gaudí’s visionary architecture transformed the landscape and identity of Barcelona, cultivating a vibrant global Conversational AI community needs creativity, bold vision, and original thinking. Beyond Boundaries is not just an event. It's an ongoing commitment from all of us and the cornerstone of a broader, sustained effort to build and nurture a global community dedicated to ethical, inclusive, and human-centered Conversational AI.

Peter Thomas is the Chair of CDI Foundation and Director of RMIT FORWARD - The Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation

Info: So, you're looking for real results with Conversational AI? And perhaps you've already started, and have an AI Agent or chatbot. But how do you get the most value? How do you achieve long term goals? Can you wing it and see, or would you like to make sure you're taking it step, by successful step. CDI works with global companies building strong Conversational AI succes stories. Join this interactive and fun workshop to see how you can define you next steps so you won't have to 'fake it till you make it'.

The session will be delivered by CDI's very own Conversational AI Consultants Jasper Klimbie and Jurgen Gravestein

Info: L&D is not the sexiest topic. And training teams are traditionally stretched, lacking the capability, capacity, and/or investments needed to innovate and leverage emerging technologies like generative AI. DignifyX, a Singapore-based insuretech startup, is seeking to disrupt this space with an AI-powered app that supports reflective practice in the flow of work for insurance advisors. But it's not just about the app. Getting knowledge transfer out of the classroom opens up a whole new field of possibilities for instructor-led training, allowing the humans to do the value-added work of building skills and amplifying uniquely human qualities. This is a business case example of AI augmenting rather than replacing the humans. Matt is the Founder of Dignify X

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