Jessie Schofer is an Australian, Berlin based founder with 15+ years of experience across corporates, startups and unicorns. She is ex-HR and the founder of Stakkd, an HR tech discovery platform, and secureless.ai, an AI powered external security scanner for tech vendors. She is known for her practical insights in building modern workplaces and her passion for supporting women entrepreneurs. She believes that trusted, secure tech, built for humans is what we need to make work better for everyone.

Delayering, player-coaches, spans of control blowing out.

The manager role is being rewritten and nobody agreed on the new job description. Two teams go head to head on one question: do we need managers anymore?

Expect unfiltered positions from people who have added management layers and taken them out again inside real companies, a moderator keeping them honest, and a live audience vote that settles it.

Bring your own view. You'll need it when voting opens.

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What you'll leave with:

1. A working definition of what a manager is actually for in 2026, including where new model holds up (if there is one) and where it falls over.
2. The strongest case from both sides, argued properly, so you can pressure-test your own structure instead of copying whatever the last big flattening announcement did.
3. Practical signals for when to add or strip a management layer, and what you have to fund instead when you take one out.