Brian Fending
Talks & Workshops

From briefings to workshops to keynotes, get a fresh, informed perspective in front of your audience. Whether strategic or technical, I meet people where they are.

Keynote · Workshop · Briefing

AI Governance That Actually Works

Governance people follow, not policies that collect dust

Most organizations treat governance and enablement as opposing forces. They're the same program. This talk covers how to stand up AI governance that developers actually follow, surface shadow AI usage, and stop writing policies that collect dust.

  • Why governance and enablement move together, not in opposition
  • Surfacing shadow AI usage without creating a surveillance culture
  • Designing guardrails technical and non-technical staff actually follow
  • Speed of innovation vs. speed of risk management (andfinding the right balance)
  • Moving from policy documents to embedded controls
Workshop · Keynote

Writing with AI (Without Sounding Like An Idiot)

Editorial partner - not a ghostwriter, not a crutch

AI doesn't replace writing skill. It reveals how much of it you actually have. This talk covers how to use AI as an editorial partner without surrendering your voice, and where the line is between tool use and intellectual dishonesty.

  • What AI writing tools reveal about your actual writing ability
  • Using AI as an editorial partner without surrendering your voice
  • The line between tool use and intellectual dishonesty
  • Prompt patterns that improve output without homogenizing it
  • Detecting and eliminating AI-generated tells in your AI-assisted work
Keynote · Briefing

Integration Architecture Is Strategy

How you select and connect systems is how you run the business

How your systems connect is a strategic decision, not a technical one. Most organizations let integration happen accidentally and then wonder why nothing works together. This talk makes the case that your integration architecture is your business architecture, whether you designed it that way or not.

  • Integration as a strategic decision, not a technical afterthought
  • How accidental integration architecture constrains the business (case studies)
  • Evaluating build vs. buy vs. connect trade-offs in an AI-driven environment
  • Data flow in organizational design
  • Signs your integration debt is becoming a business liability
Keynote · Workshop

The Modern IT Function

Product thinking for teams that aren't building products

Internal IT is still structured like a help desk at most organizations. Tickets in, fixes out, nobody thinking about outcomes. This talk covers the shift from project-based delivery to product thinking, and why the org chart is usually the first thing that needs to change.

  • The shift from project-based delivery to product thinking
  • Outcome-oriented IT vs. ticket-oriented IT
  • No Wrong Door Policy
  • Why the org chart is usually the first thing that needs to change
  • Measuring IT effectiveness beyond uptime and ticket volume
Keynote · Briefing

Why Digital Transformations Fail

Systems thinking and pattern recognition will save your initiative

I've walked into organizations mid-transformation and post-failure. The patterns are remarkably consistent. This talk is a diagnostic framework for spotting the structural problems that kill initiatives before anyone admits they're failing.

  • Why initiative failure is usually visible long before anyone admits it
  • The consistent patterns behind transformation failures
  • Structural problems vs. execution failures
  • Systems thinking as a diagnostic tool for transformation health
  • Recovery patterns: what to do when you pick something up mid-failure
Keynote · Workshop · Briefing

Nobody Gives a **** About Your Stupid Policy

Seriously, stop writing and start listening

You have a 40-page acceptable use policy. Nobody has read it. Your compliance program assumes rational actors reading documents, and that's why it doesn't work. This talk is about building security and compliance programs around how people actually behave instead of how you wish they would.

  • Compliance programs built on rational-actor assumptions fail
  • Designing security around actual human behavior
  • The gap between policy coverage and policy effectiveness
  • Behavioral nudges that outperform written mandates
  • Building a governance-forward culture without becoming the Department of No
Past Engagements

Scottsdale, AZ

Generative AI, Healthcare, and Governance: Opening the black box to deliver results and safety for patients

AAPL Fall Institute (Vanguard Meeting)

Kicking off a day of discussion around AI disruption and governance in healthcare, attended by leaders of hospital systems and payors.

Salesforce Project Management Success

DemandBlue Customer Success Webinar Series

An interactive webinar hosted by DemandBlue, tag teaming questions with Henry Svendblad, CTO of Company Nurse.

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Every session is tailored to the audience and the format. Conferences, leadership offsites, team workshops, board briefings.

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