Scottish tech conference ScotSoft has revealed a packed agenda as its organiser, ScotlandIS turns 25, headlined by keynotes from tech entrepreneur and ScotlandIS founder Peter Palmer, and futurist and ecocentrist K D Adamson.

Now more than 30-years-old, ScotSoft remains one of Scotland’s largest software conferences, offering a full-day programme for technical professionals and sector leaders. 

This year’s event, which takes place during Scotland’s inaugural National Innovation Week, will combine technical excellence with leadership insight through keynote sessions, breakout discussions, and networking opportunities.

The event will give attendees an unparalleled opportunity to gain invaluable insights from industry leaders, collaborate with peers, and explore the latest industry trends. Beyond this, ScotSoft2025 is CPD-certified, allowing participants to earn up to six hours of CPD points.

The conference will once again host the Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards Dinner, celebrating the achievements of recent computer science graduates, with winners selected by a panel of industry experts.

Commenting, ScotlandIS CEO Karen Meechan said: “This year’s ScotSoft is extra special as we mark 25 years of ScotlandIS at the heart of Scotland’s tech community.

“The conference has always been about bringing people together to share knowledge, challenge thinking, and spark innovation and in 2025, we’re raising the bar even higher. With world-class speakers, technical deep dives, and unparalleled networking, ScotSoft remains the place where Scotland’s digital future takes shape.

“This year we’re also proud to launch the inaugural Innovation Summit, shining a spotlight on the outstanding innovation happening across Scotland and celebrating the talent driving it forward.”

Keynotes

The keynotes will see Peter Palmer (MBE, MA, MSc, DPhil, MBCS) — co-founder of Spider Systems, AXON Networks and ScotlandIS — reflect on the growth of his pioneering ventures and the contrasting market forces of Scotland and the US. 

Drawing on decades of experience in building and selling technology companies, Palmer will share the lessons learned from scaling across very different business landscapes.

K D Adamson will deliver Pivot Point: Back to the Future, exploring the shift from an era of technological optimisation to one focused on resilience. 

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She will challenge leaders to rethink entrenched assumptions, arguing that overconfidence in the present is a greater risk than uncertainty about the future, and outline how evolving moral, economic and environmental realities demand that businesses “pivot” just as startups do.

Who Else is Speaking?

Alongside the keynote presentations, ScotSoft2025 will feature talks from industry figures including:

• Daniel Llewellyn — Director of Technology, CreateFuture — Attacks and Defences for lLMs
• Pete Gordon — Principal Consultant, Waracle — Designing Your Ideal Agentic Employee: From Rapid Prototyping to Responsible Integration
• Charlie Maclean-Bristol — Director, PlanB Consulting — How Hackers are Using AI (and What We Can Do About It)
• Cheryl Hung — Senior Director, Head of Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm — 10k and counting: Insights and Trends from Cloud Native London
• Dylan Beattie — Founder and Director, Ursatile — There’s No Such Thing as Plain Text
• Tracy Pound — Managing Director, Maximity Limited — Strategic Thinking and Action – Tools and Techniques for Business Success
• John Ockenden — Senior Full-Stack Engineering Consultant, Accenture — Beyond Compliance: Leading the industry and transforming developer experience with bold automation
• Mark Parsons — Director, EPCC, The University of Edinburgh — £750m for a supercomputer?!
• Jamie Graves — Managing Director, L-Point Ltd — From Theory to Practice: Lessons from the AI Integration Frontier
• Robin Klusman — Manager Security Architect, Resillion — Cyber Threats in the Supply Chain: How Major UK Retailers got attacked
• Gary Crawford — Founder and Chief Advisor, Owendale Advisory — Agentic AI: Software Steps into the Labour Market
• Richard Marshall — Principal, Concept Gap Ltd — Coping with constant change: the realities of embedding AI

To see the full agenda and secure your ticket for ScotSoft 2025, click here.