The First Official BAI Alumni Weekend
Four days on the Basque Coast in the first weekend of July. A reunion dinner in San Sebastián on Saturday evening. A surf lesson Sunday afternoon. Two days of governance workshop with Cathal McCarthy — Chief Strategy Officer at Kore.ai — alongside the BAI summer school cohort. And a professional certification you earn before you fly home Tuesday evening.
The occasion is built around the AI governance workshop we have been developing with Kore.ai. The weekend from Saturday through Sunday is organised by Yanick Fischer and the alumni network — the only fixed points are the Saturday evening dinner, the Sunday surf lesson, and what happens Monday and Tuesday.
The Four Days
Arrive on the Basque Coast. In the evening, dinner together in San Sebastián — the Parte Vieja, a long table, the group properly assembled for the first time. The weekend begins here.
Surf lesson in the afternoon on the beach at Chambre d'Amour — one of the best stretches of Atlantic coast in Europe. The rest of the day is yours. This is the day the alumni network owns.
Governance case analysis and design sprint. You work through a real FSI scenario alongside graduate students and Cathal McCarthy — building a governance architecture for an agentic AI deployment. Evening: fireside dinner with Cathal.
Groups defend their governance architecture under Kore.ai cross-examination. Closing lunch. The certification offer. Fly home Tuesday evening.
What You Earn on Tuesday
🎯 Deliverables you take home
- A governance architecture document — designed for your sector, professionally examined by Cathal McCarthy, taken home and used in your own organisation.
- A peer intelligence package from the Monday fireside — aggregated, anonymised, returned within 72 hours.
- The BAI Certificate in Agentic Governance Design — co-badged with Kore.ai, listed in the public certification registry, recognised by your employer.
🏆 The Certificate
- Assessed by BAI against the same five criteria as the full Kore Governance Arc Certification — the enterprise programme launching October 2026.
- Cathal McCarthy is the practitioner-examiner — Kore.ai has been involved in 400+ enterprise AI deployments.
- Co-badged with Kore.ai and listed in the public certification registry, searchable by sector.
- The credential is not offered until 12:15 on Tuesday, after you have completed the case analysis, the design sprint, and the cross-examination.
It is the recognised entry point to the full certification programme, which launches at enterprise scale in October 2026. You earn it or you do not.
Your Practitioner-Examiner
Cathal leads strategy at Kore.ai, the enterprise AI orchestration platform deployed across 400+ Global 2000 organisations including Morgan Stanley, whose partnership is the teaching case at the summer school. At the alumni weekend he serves as practitioner-examiner — asking the questions a CSO asks when reviewing a governance architecture with a gap in it. His cross-examination begins from the assumption each group names as least confident. His closing observation — what surprised him most across all group designs — is the moment participants will quote when they describe the weekend to colleagues.
Why the Alumni Weekend?
The Basque Coast in July
San Sebastián on Saturday evening. Chambre d'Amour on Sunday afternoon. The Basque Coast in early July is not a setting that needs a programme. Come for the weekend; stay for the work.
The Community You Built at BAI
The alumni weekend brings together people who went through the BAI programme and have since been building or governing AI in real organisations. The peer exchange at the Monday fireside produces intelligence you cannot access anywhere else.
The EU AI Act Enforcement Window
Articles 9–15 take effect 2 August 2026. Organisations in financial services, insurance, and healthcare are making governance architecture decisions now. The workshop gives you a structured format to work through yours — in the company of peers facing the same pressure.
A Credential You Actually Earn
The certificate is mentioned for the first time at 12:15 on Tuesday — after you have completed the case analysis, the design sprint, and the cross-examination. You do not arrive knowing it is attached to the work. You discover it after you have already done something worth certifying.
Work You Take Home
The governance architecture document produced in the design sprint is not an academic exercise. It is built for your sector, examined by a CSO who has seen these systems fail in production, and returned to you the same afternoon. Participants use it in their own organisations.
The Founding Practitioner Cohort
The full Kore Governance Arc Certification launches at enterprise scale in October 2026. Alumni weekend participants are the programme's first practitioner cohort — listed in the public registry before the enterprise launch.
From Our Community
"The hands-on approach of the BAI programme was exactly what I needed. Learning analytical tools actually used in the financial industry while experiencing the beautiful Basque Coast made this an unforgettable and career-changing experience."
Register for the Alumni Weekend
What €300 includes
- Saturday arrival through Tuesday departure
- Sunday dinner in San Sebastián
- Sunday surf lesson at Chambre d'Amour
- Monday–Tuesday governance workshop with Cathal McCarthy
- BAI Certificate in Agentic Governance Design — assessment included
- Peer intelligence package — returned within 72 hours
The Monday–Tuesday workshop costs are covered by Kore.ai under the BAI partnership. The €300 is a commitment signal — enough to ensure that people who register intend to come, not so much that it creates any barrier.
Places are limited. To register or ask a question, contact Yanick Fischer and the alumni network at the address below.