EIC 2025 Through a First-Time Attendee’s Lens
What I saw, Learned, Loved, and My Takeaways
I had the incredible opportunity to attend the European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC 2025) last week, from May 6–9, at the Berlin Congress Center, Germany — and what a ride it was! As a first-time attendee, I was blown away by the depth of insights, the energy of the community, and the countless meaningful conversations that filled every hallway and session room. From thought-provoking keynotes and breakout sessions to casual chats over coffee, lunch and scenic moments on the Spree River Cruise, EIC 2025 delivered far beyond my expectations.
It wasn’t just another industry event — it marked a major milestone in my identity career and a personal turning point I’ll carry forward for years to come.
A Nervous Start Turned Warm Welcome
Leading up to the event, I wasn’t sure what to expect. While I’d been engaged in SCIM working group and contributed to mailing list discussions, interacted with few identity professionals via emails or chats, I had never met identity professionals in-person outside of my own organization.
Honestly, I was nervous. Would I be able to connect with the brilliant minds I had only read about or interacted with online? Would I fit in among the experienced attendees and industry veterans?
But all of that changed within the first few hours.
Stepping into the venue and chatting with fellow attendees , especially during the pre-conference workshops and around the booths , instantly put me at ease. Everyone was approachable, eager to share ideas and knowledge, and genuinely welcoming. It wasn’t just a gathering of experts; it was a community, and I was now a part of it.
That sense of community and connection made my first session even more special.
IDPro® Session — A Full Circle Moment
A defining part of my IAM journey was becoming an IDPro® member and earning my CIDPRO certification in 2022, shortly after gaining hands-on experience in the IAM domain. So it felt incredibly fitting to kick-off my first identity conference with an IDPro-led pre-conference workshop.
The session, titled “How to Find and Educate Your IAM Team,” was led by none other than Heather Flanagan and Elizabeth Garber — two powerhouse leaders in the IAM field.
The session offered practical, actionable strategies for building effective IAM teams — from crafting role-specific job descriptions and assessing team capabilities to designing impactful training programs. The attendees gave more insights to shape the IDPro defined IAM role based job descriptions further. It provided valuable insights into nurturing skilled identity teams in today’s rapidly evolving security landscape. Their insights were deeply relevant in today’s dynamic security environment, where building and scaling identity teams is more challenging and more critical than ever.
And on a personal note, I had the chance to speak with both Heather and Elizabeth. They were not only insightful but also incredibly encouraging.
I left that room more inspired than ever to contribute to the IDPro Body of Knowledge (BoK) as soon as possible and help grow the newbies to this amazing professional community.
Coming out of that session, I felt more confident and connected and eager to explore other spaces where important identity conversations were taking place.
Keynote Takeaways — Looking Ahead of Identity Fabric for 2040
The visionary keynote from Martin Kuppinger, titled “The Identity Fabric for the 2040s” set the tone for the entire conference.
Why 2040? Martin laid it out perfectly:
“Two years of planning, three years of implementation, and ten years of use — starting now.”
He laid out a bold framework: a decentralized, decoupled mesh of identity services, built on orchestration, APIs, and real-time signals — designed for flexibility and longevity.
💡My highlight from the keynote? The 7 transformative trends Martin shared that will reshape IAM in the next 15+ years. A few that stood out:
- AI as a key driver of identity evolution
- A shift away from rigid architectures to adaptive, signal-driven ecosystems
- The critical importance of modularity and orchestration
It’s exciting to see how our products at WSO2 — Asgardeo and WSO2 Identity Server are already aligned with this future-forward vision.
His talk left me eager to explore how these trends were being applied today. Then, the followed keynotes and the breakout sessions didn’t disappoint.
Breakout Sessions — AI, B2B, EUDI Wallets, OIDF updates
The breakout sessions at EIC 2025 offered a rich variety of deep dives into the evolving identity landscape. I made it a point to attend those that closely align with both my personal interests and ongoing work at WSO2. A few highlights stood out:
🤖 IAM for AI
One of the hottest topics at EIC 2025 was IAM for AI, especially how we manage identity and access for AI agents that act on behalf of humans. As AI becomes more capable and independent, it introduces new challenges we can’t ignore.
One session highlighted several key risks from OWASP’s Top 10 are for GenAI, including:
- Tool misuse
- Privilege compromise
- Identity spoofing and impersonation
- Attacks on multi-agent systems
which can be mitigated with proper IAM solutions based on strict tool access verification, granular permission control by granting just enough access on just enough time, develop comprehensive identity validation frameworks, restrict agent delegation and auditing.
The takeaway message was: We must start solving the identity challenge now — before AI goes wild. IAM for AI isn’t a futuristic problem. It’s a current imperative, and it must be built on solid answers to the following key questions:
- Agency & Constraints: How do we set controls to ensure AI agents act within defined boundaries and don’t go rogue?
- Access Governance: Who governs what AI agents can access? How do we protect data both consumed and generated by AI?
- Policy & Model Control: How do we define and enforce access policies when AI systems reason in data — not functions?
- Contextual Identity: How can AI behave appropriately when operating under different human or organizational identities?
- Consent & Learnability: How do we ensure AI agents only learn what they’re permitted to, and only from users who have consented?
- Accountability & Auditing: How do we trace actions taken by AI on behalf of users and verify that those actions were authorized?
- How do we identify an AI: By human owner? identifying marker ?behavior ? who’s behalf it is acting? who it communicates with?
🤝 B2B Onboarding and B2B Identity Management
One of the sessions I attended highlighted a crucial truth: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for B2B IAM. Each organization’s use case demands a tailored approach depending on factors like onboarding flows, authentication and authorization models, self-service capabilities, and delegated administration. I couldn’t agree more with that perspective.
Another session featured a compelling case study from the insurance sector, demonstrating how enabling federated login for partner organizations led to significant benefits: improved data protection, reduced manual identity management overhead, and faster, more secure cross-organizational collaboration. It was a clear illustration of how B2B IAM, done right, directly contributes to operational efficiency and trust.
Sessions like these reminded me why federated identity is such a critical capability in the B2B world and also raised an important question: Why are so many companies still building complex B2B IAM solutions in-house, despite the availability of mature B2B CIAM platforms?
The answer may lie in how these B2B CIAM solutions are positioned in the market. B2B CIAM solution providers must focus on making their offerings more accessible, better packaged, and clearly aligned with real-world B2B challenges. Bridging the gap between capability and market clarity could help more organizations adopt robust out-of-the-box solutions without reinventing the wheel.
🪪 EUDI Wallets
Another standout topic at EIC 2025 was the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) which is a major step toward making secure, convenient digital identity a reality for everyone in the EU.
Today, proving who you are online can be slow, inconvenient, and insecure. Think video calls for KYC, emailing scanned IDs, or clunky onboarding flows. The EUDI Wallet changes that by letting people store and share trusted digital credentials right from their mobile device just like a payment wallet.
By December 2026, every EU member state must provide citizens with a wallet either developed by themselves, commissioned through a provider, or using a certified solution.
But the wallet is just one part. For it to truly work, the whole ecosystem : users(holders), issuers, and service providers(verifiers) must be engaged.
To unlock adoption, the sessions explored how to make the EUDI Wallet ecosystem sustainable, especially when it comes to paying for credential issuance and verification. The Namirial team introduced three potential funding models:
- User Paying Issuer: Citizens cover the cost of credentials when obtaining or renewing identity credentials or attributes like national ID, password renewals. However, this is a financial burden for individuals.
- Issuer Paying: Governments or public agencies fund it, it’s good for essential services, but less scalable.
- Verifier Paying Issuer(the most promising): Service providers (like banks) pay a small fee when verifying credentials — this encourages growth without putting the cost on users.
Beyond the economics, the use cases for digital wallets are wide-ranging and powerful:
- Prove your identity without carrying a physical ID card
- Sign documents digitally, for free, using your phone
- Verify your age or other attributes without revealing full identity
- Share only the information you choose, when you choose
- Act digitally on behalf of your company or organization
- Make secure payments using the future digital euro
These capabilities highlight the wallet’s potential not just as a digital ID, but as a trusted enabler for a wide range of personal and business interactions.
With the right incentives and infrastructure in place, EUDI Wallets could become a cornerstone of digital life across Europe.
🔄 OIDF Updates
One of the most highly attended sessions of the week covered updates from the OpenID Foundation (OIDF). It offered a comprehensive look into the latest ongoing work across working groups and community groups ranging from Digital Credential protocols, FAPI, to AuthZen, Shared Signals, AI white paper and more. We also got a glimpse into the outcomes of recent interoperability events and what’s next in line.
A personal highlight was discovering the Interoperability Profiling for Secure Identity in the Enterprise (IPSIE) Work Group, SIDI Hub, and Death and the Digital Estate (DADE) Community Group. I’m keen to explore this further — it feels like a promising space to dig in.
With so many valuable sessions running in parallel tracks, it wasn’t possible to attend everything live. I’m looking forward to catching up on the recordings and presentation materials to absorb even more of the insights shared throughout the week. The learning journey from EIC 2025 definitely doesn’t stop here.
Women in Identity Networking Lunch — Empowered Conversations
One of those spaces was the Women in Identity networking lunch, which turned out to be one of the meaningful networking sessions of the entire conference.
It wasn’t just a social gathering ; it was a space for conversations about real challenges women face in the identity industry. Some of the topics we explored:
- The current gender dynamics within IAM teams
- How women’s voices are perceived by customers and colleagues
- The internal barriers many women face when pursuing leadership roles or new challenges
💡 My takeaway: As Women in Identity, we must trust our talent, step out of our comfort zones, and continue pushing boundaries — even when we don’t feel 100% “ready.”
It was a pleasure to meet Kay Chopard and Angelika Steinacker in person. Their insights and presence made this session incredibly impactful.
Speaking of my team, one of the most rewarding parts of EIC 2025 was representing WSO2 on the expo floor.
WSO2 Booth — Conversations, Demos, and Feedback
The energy at the WSO2 booth was nonstop — and the engagement we had with attendees was truly inspiring.
Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to:
- Connect with IAM professionals who’ve used and loved our open-source platform
- Share the excitement around our AI roadmap and future capabilities
- Deliver live demos of Asgardeo, AI usages for IAM, How are we planning to model AI agents and secure them and our robust B2B CIAM features
- Receive direct feedback from users and prospects on what’s working well, and where we can do even better
I was especially proud to hear strong feedback on our B2B offering — a product area I’ve contributed heavily on building and now leading. There’s nothing more value than seeing people light up when a solution clicks for their use case.
And after so many meaningful conversations and new connections, it was time to unwind in true Berlin style.
Sunset Networking — Cruise on the Spree
Midweek, DigiIdentity hosted a memorable Spree River cruise, and I was fortunate to secure a spot. It was the perfect blend of networking, relaxation, and soaking in the scenic beauty of Berlin.
Over dinner, I had the pleasure of connecting with Etienne Plouvier and his colleagues from Worldline. We shared stories about Netherlands and Sri Lanka history, culture etc, and even enjoyed a few laughs as the boat glided Berlin’s iconic landmarks.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the evening left me with a lasting impression of meaningful connections made and the exciting journey still ahead in the identity world.
Final Thoughts
EIC 2025 was more than just a conference. It was a launchpad for ideas, learning, and lasting connections.
As a first-time attendee, I stepped in with a mix of nerves and curiosity. I stepped out with inspiration, clarity, and a strong sense of belonging in the global identity community.
Whether it was sharing space with thought leaders, swapping stories over lunch, coffee or dinner, or seeing someone’s eyes light up during a live demo —this week reaffirmed that IAM isn’t just my profession; it’s my passion.
If you’re considering attending EIC for the first time next year, don’t hesitate. You’ll learn, connect, and grow in ways you can’t imagine.
Let’s keep shaping the future of identity together.
Last but not least, A heartfelt thanks to WSO2 for making this experience possible. I’m excited to bring these insights back to the team and keep pushing our product forward.
