Convene was delighted to be back at The Chartered Governance Institute’s annual conference in Hammersmith last week (7- 8 July), bringing together governance professionals for two days of keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions. AI was the dominant thread running through both days, but the programme also covered cyber governance, corporate reporting reform, and board culture.
AI in the Boardroom
At our breakout session on Day 1, Arturo Dell and Paul Johnston, founder of the AI Working Group for Company Secretaries, discussed the role AI is already playing in the boardroom and how that will affect Company Secretaries going forward.
Key discussion points included:
- Current state of AI use – Adoption among company secretaries and board members is real but inconsistent. Survey data presented in the session showed executive concerns clustering around data security and privacy, compliance and governance gaps, over-reliance on AI outputs, unclear accountability, and inconsistent output quality.
- Getting AI into the boardroom – The practical steps: start from the risk taxonomy, choose tools built with security and accountability by design, and keep company secretarial judgement central to any AI-assisted process.
- Where governance fits – Paul presented the work of the AI Working Group for Company Secretaries, formed to help the profession shape its own response to AI rather than have it defined externally. The Group’s first output is a map of the profession’s core functions, intended to clarify what can responsibly be delegated to AI and what requires continued human oversight.
- Convene’s AI capabilities – Arturo outlined the security architecture behind Convene’s AI features, built on AWS Bedrock and framed around a “secure by design” approach, then demonstrated two live applications: AI-assisted minute-taking and an in-app AI companion that summarises documents, answers questions on meeting materials, and helps administrators manage tasks and notifications.
Across both days of talks, one theme was unavoidable: governance teams are being asked to have a considered position on AI, not just a policy. Our session’s contribution was to ground that in something practical – a clear view of the risks, a secure and purpose-built platform response, and a professional body actively shaping its own future rather than reacting to one set by others.
On the exhbition floor
Alongside the breakout session, the Convene team welcomed visitors to our stand across both days of the conference. Conversations with existing customers and new prospects focused on our full governance suite – from our core board portal to our new board evaluation solution, our ESG reporting tool and our entity management software. It was a valuable chance to hear directly from company secretaries and governance teams about where these solutions are delivering strong impact and how priorities are evolving, helping to shape both the product roadmap and the next phase of thought leadership.
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