Emese Pogácsás
Leadership Coach & Advisor
Conversations on leadership challenges
A curated, in-person forum for engineering and tech leaders.
We start with a panel. We stay for the conversations.
Real situations, difficult decisions, and lessons learned the hard way.
Tech Leaders' Forum sessions start with a moderated panel discussion and evolve into an open conversation with the room.
Attendance is intentionally limited to keep the atmosphere personal, thoughtful, and honest. The goal is not to create another conference experience, but a professional community where tech leaders can exchange perspectives without the usual performance mode.
Hosts
Hosted by practitioners who care about the real work of leadership.
Péter Szász
Engineering Leadership Mentor
Next Forum Session
Should Agent Smith conduct your performance reviews?
August 2026 · Budapest
Why join
Beyond the polished version
Panels are just the starting point; the most interesting conversations happen when audience members contribute their questions and experiences.
You're not alone in this
The messy decisions, the trade-offs, the doubts, the loneliness. They're more common than it feels like. Be a part of a community that shares the same challenges.
Conversations that stick
No slides, no lectures. Just ideas, first-hand experiences, and questions that stay with you.
What happens here
A small group from the local ecosystem. Different contexts, similar responsibilities.
Each session starts with a panel: people who have actually been in the situations we talk about. Then we open it up: questions can get more practical, answers less certain, and at some point the conversation might become more interesting than the panel itself.
How it works
- Panel discussion: real stories, not theory
- Open conversation: challenge, question, expand
- Informal networking afterwards: continue the discussion, make new connections
House rules
- What's shared here stays here
- Challenge ideas, not people
- No pitching, no selling
- Leave space for others
In the room
How the meetup looks in practice.
More than a meetup series
Helping build a real tech leadership community in Budapest.
Throughout the year, we host focused TLF sessions in smaller interactive formats.
At larger conferences like Craft and Compass, we also create dedicated Tech Leaders programs and discussion spaces.
Different formats, same goal: helping engineering leaders learn from each other and build meaningful connections.
Not just theory
Leaders from startups through scale-ups to enterprises, all dealing with similar kinds of problems.
Ákos Barta
Sr. Director, AI Strategist
LastPass
Balázs Bozsogi
Chief Delivery Officer
Aliz
Lucy Woodhead
Engineering Manager
Treatwell
Máté Marjai
Engineering Manager
Primer
Tamás Michelberger
Tech Lead, Applied AI
WorldQuant
Tamás Tajti
Development Manager
Slice
Where you'll find us
Tech Leaders' Forum sessions
Smaller, focused community events for engineering and tech leaders.
Upcoming
Craft Conference · Tech Leaders Lounge
Facilitated discussions
- What Are We, Exactly? Redefining the Tech Manager Role
- What Do I Do With My Developers? Product Ownership, Agentic Craft, and Shifting Expectations
Should Agent Smith conduct your performance reviews?
A discussion about feedback, AI, trust, and where human judgment still matters.
View session detailsCompass AI & Tech Summit · Tech Leaders Track
Tech Leaders' Forum special session as part of the Leadership track.
Explore the conference