Throughout his career, Sanjay Shringarpure has developed a reputation for doing what most technology leaders aspire to but few consistently achieve: using technology to reimagine what’s possible for companies and entire industries. He has successfully led transformation across multiple sectors and currently serves as CIO of The Freeman Company, a collective of brands that delivers complex live events, at scale.
Shringarpure is a master at the intangibles of leadership. In a recent episode of the Tech Whisperers podcast, we explored how he leverages those key differentiators — including his ability to see patterns early, move with healthy impatience, challenge people candidly but respectfully, and build belief in what’s possible — to become a true force multiplier for the companies where he’s worked.
After the episode wrapped, we spent some time exploring his playbook for reimagining and reinventing industries, a particularly timely conversation considering how fast things are moving today. In this Q&A, edited for length and clarity, Shringarpure shares how technology leaders can identify new opportunities, mobilize organizations around bold ideas, and turn innovation into real business impact.
Dan Roberts: What areas are you focusing on at The Freeman Company as you think about reinventing the experience itself, not just improving the technology behind it?
Sanjay Shringarpure: I’m primarily focused on three things: One, creating a digital experience through digital twinning. Two, simultaneously making sure the digital twin and the physical live event come together — through an ecommerce platform, from a purchasing perspective, execution perspective, all of that. And third, opening new avenues for efficiency and value driven by AI, whether that’s for insight generation or simply doing rote tasks better, or using Claude to rewrite applications that traditionally would be custom off-the-shelf applications that you’d buy.
Where AI code development is right now, we’re getting to a point where the barriers for custom software have dramatically disappeared. So the idea is, can I leverage this for the core competitive advantages that I have? For ecom platforms, demand engines, digital twinning, digital asset management — things that we can potentially build from scratch in weeks what would have taken nine or 10 months and millions of dollars previously. What we’re trying to figure right now is, how do you create that across our enterprise?
The Freeman Company is also at a unique point where the digital and the physical world are colliding, whether it be robotics, virtual events, virtual digital activations of customers who then translate into physical interactions, or vice versa. How do we create a technological foundation and a layer that accelerates that and makes it one seamless live event experience, even if it’s in the digital world?
There’s another component as well. Because of AI, the technological layer doesn’t have to be built for humans. That sounds a little bit weird, right? Everything we build in software today is because a human uses it. As agentic AI and synthetic capital start evolving, and synthetics start being built out, it’s synthetics talking to synthetics, avatars talking to avatars. You’re consuming the output of those interactions. When it comes to writing software, it needs to interact in that way. You can’t apply the same patterns that have been applied for the last 50 years.
How do you envision data and AI transforming the way events are designed, experienced, and measured in the years ahead?
In the age of AI, data is the currency; it’s how you measure value. And it’s not just raw data. It’s raw data plus context around that data — the data halo of context. Today, I think The Freeman Company is in that unique position to have all of this. We are now building out not just contextual capture across events through digital twinning, AI, and raw data coming in; we’re housing that inside our data lake, powered by Snowflake, and then applying AI models to generate insights out of that through my data analytics arm.
Is this going to be easy to achieve? No, because contextual data changes at speed. We’re hoping with the introduction of AI that speed will be handled and insights will be generated in a timely way for the action to be timely. It’s about how to compress data collection, insight generation, and action into days and weeks, rather than the months it takes today. Right now, what happens is the insight gets generated, then it takes forever for it to be actioned, and by the time it’s actioned, the insight is stale. You’re fighting last year’s war.
Do you see the industry evolving toward year-round experience platforms? What role will technology play in extending the value of events beyond the physical venue?
It would be easy to say everything’s going to be digital. But what I’m finding as I get into the industry more is that live events are becoming more important to every generation. The reason is, the digital has overtaken our day-to-day lives, and we crave the physical interaction, the experiential interaction. And we’re willing to pay more for that, because the value we get from that is crucial.
That is not to say we shouldn’t create simultaneous events for agents, or interaction for agents with the physical event. The folks who are going to win in this space are those who build the best physical, experiential events, layered with an interaction in the digital world. In the physical world, there are limitations. I can only attend so many booths, so many sessions, so many interactions. And yes, they’re now virtual, so I can record them and look at them. But by creating an agentic interface, you could have your agents attend all of these in real-time and provide you a day-to-day synopsis of how insights from every session can potentially be leveraged in your strategy.
This is probably sci-fi-ish right now, but I don’t think it’s that far away. The events company that can harness all of this together, and I think we’re well on our way to doing that, will have a moat and a competitive advantage and deliver incredible value to its customer base, whether it be associations, corporations, Major League Baseball and sporting events, whatever it is. The question is, how do we get there fast enough? I think the investments [CEO] Janet Dell has allowed us to make are getting us there. We just have to tell our story better, and we’re getting there.
Speaking of science fiction, just a few years ago concepts like digital twins of venues, AI-driven attendee journeys, immersive hybrid environments, and autonomous services sounded futuristic. Which emerging technologies do you believe will have the biggest impact on the future of experiences, and what is the new killer app that is going to completely disrupt this space?
I think what is going to disrupt the space is more foundational. One, I think custom software development at the speed of light that the AI has enabled will open new worlds we’ve never thought of. You’re not limited by your CRM or your ERP or your ecommerce engine anymore. You think it, it gets built within days, it gets moved to production within weeks. “Agile on steroids” is what AI has enabled.
Second, the killer app is the merger of the physical and the digital world together into a cadence of information flow to you to make decisions. It’s hard to envision that yet, because you go to a conference, association event, Major League Baseball event, or Cricket World Cup, and they give you an app. But they’re not merging your physical experience with the digital experience to a point where they’re now curating your journey. Today, they are point interactions. What would be ideal would be a curated journey that just knows you and knows what you like and helps you achieve your goals, whether it’s selling more of your product at CES, or making contacts at AWS, or generating a CMO network, or promoting what you’re trying to sell.
One of the themes you and I talk about often is the idea of being a “net giver” as a leader. Can you expand on what that means and how that mindset shaped the way you build teams and lead transformation, especially in high-stakes, fast-moving environments?
Servant leadership is a behavior I truly believe in. A true team can only be built when a leader focuses not just on business outcomes but on the development needs of each individual. Your success as a leader is ultimately amplified by the growth of your team. I make it a point to spend at least 30% of my one-on-one time focused on development plans, growth opportunities, and helping people stretch into what they’re capable of becoming.
But for me, this goes beyond traditional notions of servant leadership. Operating with a net giver mindset means investing in people without keeping score, creating opportunities before they’re asked for, and building belief in individuals sometimes before they see it in themselves. In high-stakes, fast-moving environments, you don’t have the luxury of carrying passengers; you need leaders at every level. That only happens when people feel genuinely supported, challenged, and trusted to step into bigger roles.
When you consistently show up this way, it creates a multiplier effect. Teams move faster because trust is already established. They take smarter risks because they know they’re backed. And they push beyond perceived limits because someone has invested in their growth along the way. In transformation, technology may set the direction, but it’s the development of people and the belief you instill in them that ultimately determines how far and how fast you can go.
During the podcast, you emphasized that the most effective CIOs don’t just deploy technology, they use it to redefine what’s possible for their organizations and industries. What advice would you give the next generation of CIOs who aspire to lead that kind of transformation?
First is make the investment of time in learning. You have to learn the patterns of the industry that you’re in, the give and take, the execution patterns, the way-we-make-money patterns. Then you have to apply a base philosophy of how you’re going to help the transformation. I start with, how do I want to organize my department? How do I create focus? Then I add the guiding principles of transparency, accountability, surprise and delight, all of those basic things — build that into cadences of interaction that create a self-fulfilling, virtuous cycle. And then rinse and repeat every week.
Build your network, but don’t build it at scale. Build your network incredibly choice-fully. Pick people who make you smarter. There’s a reason why I spend time with you or certain other folks. I’m very selective. You don’t see me out there at industry events at scale. I’m not networking every two minutes. Because I’m not looking for my next job. What I’m trying to do is build something great, and then the next job automatically comes. You don’t have to go find it; it finds you.
Focus on building. Focus on you. Focus on your team. Focus on driving value for the company. If you do it, the outside marketing happens by itself. And don’t try to chase the dollars. If you continually chase the dollars every three years, you’ll have two gigs, maybe three, and then you’re done.
I also think the crucible projects, crucible events, are important. You’ve got to run to them. Not, “Okay, I’m gonna do it.” No, you’ve got to create the craving for them. And be okay with the consequences. I’ve failed many times in my career, and it’s okay. You deal with a consequence, knowing that this isn’t forever, and your next win will wipe all that away.
Sanjay Shringarpure has developed a distinctive leadership playbook that has enabled him to thrive across multiple industries, building trust, unlocking belief, elevating teams to levels they didn’t think they could reach, and reinventing entire companies and industries in the process. For a true masterclass on the intangibles of leadership that matter, tune in to my conversation with Shringarpure on the Tech Whisperers podcast.