You operate in systems where small shifts can trigger large consequences. External shocks rarely stay isolated. They ripple through markets, organizations and decisions. Chaos is not noise to eliminate. It is a reality to navigate.

In this opening keynote, you step straight into the heart of that dynamic. Together with Margot Ribberink, former storm chaser, and scientifically trained meteorologist, you explore what happens when complex systems come under pressure. Not through spectacle, but through analysis.

Together, you explore how extreme weather systems unfold, how patterns emerge in apparent randomness, and where predictability proves its value and where its limits lie. Chaos is rarely accidental. Small disturbances can trigger large effects, often far beyond the original epicenter.
In the eye of the storm, something unexpected appears: clarity. Not because everything stands still, but because you learn to recognize which signals matter when everything is in motion.

This opening does not offer ready-made answers. It sharpens your perception, expands your frame of reference, and sets the starting point for a day about holding direction within forces you cannot fully control.
 

How do you create clarity when everything around you is shifting at the same time?
In a world where signals contradict each other, risks shift overnight and the pressure on finance keeps rising, clarity becomes a competitive advantage. In this conversation, moderated by Rens de Jong, Charlotte Hanneman (CFO Philips), Pieter Everard (CFO Picnic) and Steven Zaat (CFO KLM) share how they cut through the noise, bring focus when their organisations are being pulled in multiple directions and make confident decisions in moments of uncertainty. 

Budgets were designed to create control. Yet for many CFOs today, they do the opposite. They create illusions of control. Plans break faster than reporting cycles. Targets become outdated before the year has even started. Rigid detailed cost budgets prevent fast responses. And the gap between what the numbers say and what the business actually needs keeps widening.

In this keynote, Bjarte Bogsnes does not argue for less discipline, less accountability, or financial looseness. He challenges something more fundamental: whether traditional management through fixed annual budgets are still the right instrument in a world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

Drawing on (nearly) thirty years of experience with Beyond Budgeting in complex, global organizations, Bogsnes explores how CFOs can regain better control by shifting focus from static plans to adaptive decision-making.
From compliance to confidence.
From prediction to preparedness.
From fighting uncertainty and ambiguity to accepting and embracing it.
From managing performance to enabling performance.

This is a session for CFOs and finance leaders who feel the tension between structure and reality every day.
Who know that tighter rules do not automatically lead to better outcomes. And who are ready to rethink what financial leadership looks like when certainty is no longer guaranteed.

Not a plea to abandon control, but an invitation to redefine it.