Programme

Chair of the Conference Kian Bayat warmly welcomes you to the plenary hall during Digital Identity & Trust Conference 2026 and will walk you through today’s agenda.

Agentic AI introduces a new IAM challenge: machines that act autonomously across systems. This session presents KBC’s real-world approach to defining agent identities, aligning IAM platforms, and building cross – platform governance. A practical story of how to start small – and scale securely.

Autonomous AI is reshaping the digital landscape, but how do you ensure it operates responsibly? In this session, learn how Identity Security serves as the control plane for managing AI agents, providing the visibility and governance needed to align autonomous AI with your business objectives. Key takeaways: Understand the critical role of Identity Security in AI governance. Gain visibility and control over autonomous AI agents. Learn how to align AI-driven capabilities with business goals and risk management requirements. Join this session to explore how Identity Security can help organizations unlock the potential of autonomous AI while ensuring security, trust, and accountability.

AI is transforming both innovation and fraud at breathtaking speed. Deepfakes, synthetic identities, automated account takeover and highly personalised scams can now be created and scaled faster than traditional, human-paced security controls can respond. At the same time, autonomous AI agents are beginning to act on behalf of people and organisations, creating an urgent new question: in a world of human and machine interactions, who – or what – can truly be trusted? In this session, Ping Identity will explore why identity must evolve into the trust control plane for every human and agent action. We will show how organisations can establish trust throughout the AI journey – from verifying identity and human ownership to controlling authorisation, preventing fraud, governing access and continuously monitoring behaviour.

Most IGA projects don’t fail because of the technology. They fail because important conversations happen too late.   In this session, Mathieu Ahlstrom from IdentIT walks through three conversations every organisation should have before starting an IGA project: with HR, to turn JML into a documented business process; with application owners, to separate realistic scope from wishful thinking; and with IT operations, to make sure IGA fits properly into the existing service management landscape.   Drawing on what IdentIT sees in IGA projects today, Mathieu will share where organisations typically run into trouble and what they can do differently from the start.

Building an IAM architecture is one thing. Making it fit your business, scale with change, and deliver real value is another.   In this interactive workshop, we’ll introduce the Identity Fabric, a practical, modular framework for designing, reviewing and evolving your IAM landscape. Whether you’re starting from scratch or modernizing what you already have, you’ll see how the framework can help you spot gaps and overlaps, simplify services, and focus investment where it matters most.   In one session, we’ll move from concept to business context to practical application to your own maturity. You’ll:            1.     See the Fabric: Understand the concept, its building blocks and a sample reference architecture.            2.     Connect IAM to business value: See how business context, priorities and value drivers shape your direction.            3.     Put the framework to work: Learn how to apply the approach to assess, design and evolve your IAM landscape.            4.     Find out where you stand: See a real-world example, then put the framework to work through an interactive IAM maturity assessment. Bring your experience and questions, compare perspectives with fellow practitioners, and leave with practical insights into where you are today and what to tackle next.

In this session, we'll explore why identity-first API design is essential for building systems that scale, moving beyond perimeter security to fine-grained authorization that scales for humans and AI agents alike. We'll look at future-proof API design: Leveraging modern standards (OAuth, OIDC, OpenID Authzen, MCP) with pragmatic patterns that work.

Shared accounts, unlocked workstations and limited traceability created security and compliance risks across Darta’s factory environments. In this practical case study, Ralph Houthoofdt and Jamie Pattyn explain how Darta introduced badge-based authentication and single sign-on across sites in Belgium, the United Kingdom and Portugal.   They will share the technical and operational choices behind the project, including securing shared devices, distributing and managing badges, supporting users outside regular business hours and driving adoption among factory employees. The session offers practical insights into strengthening accountability, access security and user adoption in environments where shared devices and operational continuity are critical.

As AI reshapes the cybersecurity landscape, it is also changing the skills and competences required across cybersecurity roles. The ENISA Cybersecurity Skills Framework is evolving to reflect these emerging AI competences and their impact on the future of cybersecurity.   Learning Outcomes: Participants will explore how AI is expected to transform CISO activities and cybersecurity roles, and learn how to develop and align their competences to meet the evolving demands of the profession.

In most organisations, physical and logical access are managed separately. Facilities manages access to buildings and restricted areas, while IT manages access to systems and applications. The problem is that the identity behind both is often the same. At Brussels Airport, we are bringing these two worlds together into a converged identity and access governance model covering more than 40,000 identities. In this keynote, Vincent explains how Brussels Airport approaches physical and logical access through a common identity lifecycle, from joiner and mover processes to access changes and offboarding. He will discuss how segregation of duties and identity risk can be applied across both IT systems and physical access, including highly restricted airport environments. The session covers the architecture behind this approach, the integration between IAM platforms and physical access systems, and the organisational challenges that come with it. Vincent will also share lessons learned, common pitfalls and a pragmatic roadmap for organisations looking to move towards converged access governance, including the impact of NIS2.

Identity and Access Management is often approached as a technical control, focused on authentication, permissions and compliance. But as organisations increasingly rely on cloud platforms, APIs, connected machines and AI agents, IAM has become a fundamental business capability. In this keynote, Kian Bayat explores how organisations can move beyond traditional access management and establish governance and assurance across human and non-human identities. He will explain why the return on IAM is not limited to reducing security risks, but also lies in simplifying complexity, enabling innovation and supporting trusted digital growth. While Zero Trust remains essential, modern identity strategies must become more adaptive, contextual and risk-aware. Attendees will gain a strategic perspective on how IAM can evolve into a foundation for resilience, trust and sustainable digital transformation.