Boardwave and Mindstone announce new partnership to address the critical AI skills and knowledge gap in the UK and European software industry

Collaboration between the two communities will deliver significant value to software leaders and their teams within Europe 

LONDON – 26 February 2024: Boardwave, the ultimate networking community exclusively created for UK and European software leaders, and Mindstone, a global community focused on the practical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), today announce a partnership to extend Mindstone’s increasingly popular AI Meetup Community to all Boardwave members and their employees. Adjacent to this, Boardwave membership is also being made available to each of the software founders and CEOs within the Mindstone Meetup Community.

AI will revolutionise every aspect of how we do business, and it’s estimated it will deliver €600 billion in gross value added (GVA) revenue to the European economy by 2030(1). However, there is a skills and knowledge gap that exists within the founder and C-suite community that, while not widely acknowledged, has the potential to severely limit the practical application and potential of AI. In order for UK and European software companies to remain competitive, it is imperative that these leaders, and not just the general workforce, are upskilled in AI and leverage AI technology within all aspects of their business. Creating a step-change, and an industry that is tooled and ready to help other sectors lead on AI, will help the UK and European software industry to gain stronger momentum against its global competitors in this digital revolution.

Accelerating the rate of adoption of AI

The partnership will make AI more accessible to software leaders and their teams, by providing practical advice, guidance and training, for free. Boardwave’s rapidly growing community of  1,400 members and their teams are now able to attend any of the Mindstone Meetup community events in Europe. Mindstone has already delivered programmes to more than 3,500 senior-level attendees in seven major cities including London, Madrid, Istanbul, Helsinki and Sofia. Boardwave’s members can also register for the Mindstone AI Mastery Program of online training.

Building sustainable AI start-ups & scale-ups

Mindstone’s 5,000 Meetup community members, who are AI CEOs or Founders, can also apply to join the Boardwave community of 1,400 other software leaders in Europe at no cost. Through networking, sharing ideas, knowledge sharing, best practices and mentoring Boardwave empowers European software leaders to accelerate and scale their businesses more successfully. First time AI founders now have access to a network that helps them become a leading force in the industry.

Delivering significant value to the software industry

Phill Robinson, CEO and Co-Founder of Boardwave, commented: “Currently, when it comes to AI adoption, Europe is being overshadowed by the United States and China. Europe has been quietly struggling with a growing competitiveness crisis and technology gap for almost 20 years. However, there is a real and present opportunity to shift this position. Europe contains an exceptionally vibrant technology sector and home to a plethora of businesses with deep industry knowledge and market-leading opportunity. With AI better embedded across the sector, we believe that by 2033 the European Software industry can move from laggard to leader. Key to this will be expertise, knowledge sharing and collaboration to efficiently help deliver against this objective. Strategic, European-wide partnerships, such as this one, will allow us to remove some of the barriers we face across the continent and instead address this challenge as a single market.”

Joshua Wöhle, CEO and Co-Founder at Mindstone, added: “CTOs and founders are now demanding more of their workforce; there is a real emphasis on being adaptable and leveraging technology such as AI to improve productivity. However, these very same people need to lead from the front, and there is a critical gap in their own knowledge and skill sets that needs to be addressed. I’m pleased to be able to extend our AI Meetup Community to all Boardwave members and their employees, and help their extensive network of European software founders and CEOs accelerate their business growth through the practical application of AI.”