In a world of relentless disruption, transformation and competing priorities, many organisations are working harder than ever yet still struggling to accelerate growth and deliver their strategic ambitions. Often, the greatest obstacles are not external. They are the behaviours, decisions, ways of working and leadership habits that organisations have gradually learned to live with.

Please join us for this boardroom discussion led by expert facilitators Amanda Fajak and Jo Boxer, where we will explore a simple but provocative question: What are we tolerating today that is limiting our ability to grow, adapt and execute tomorrow?

Together, we will examine the role leaders play in setting standards, shaping ways of working and creating the conditions for sustainable performance in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

As technology, markets, and workforce expectations evolve more rapidly and intensively than ever, organisations are being challenged to become more adaptive, responsive, and human - often all at once. In this keynote, Perry Timms explores the idea of the Polymorphic Organisation — organisations designed not around static structures, but around continuous evolution.

Rather than treating change as a one-off transformation programme, Perry shows how future-ready cultures are built incrementally through practical shifts in leadership, collaboration, skills, decision-making, and ways of working.

Blending systems thinking, organisational science, and real-world examples, this session offers a hopeful and grounded perspective on how organisations can begin building cultures fit for a world where flux has become the norm.

Across research from Gartner, i4cp and UK employers, one pattern is consistent: manager capability is the weakest link in most HR and transformation strategies. Change stalls, wellbeing suffers, hybrid working fractures and AI adoption falters – not because the strategy is wrong, but because managers are stretched beyond capacity and support.

In this session, Oliver Sturgeon will share how Pernod Ricard UK tackled this challenge head‑on by redesigning leadership development around the realities of the middle manager role. Faced with three very different businesses and a manager population disengaged from traditional programmes, Pernod Ricard launched INSPIRE – a coaching‑led, culture‑embedded approach with a bold ambition: to reach 100% of managers within 18 months.

Rather than treating development as a course to attend, INSPIRE positioned coaching as a way of leading, equipping managers to navigate complexity, build confidence and act as culture shapers. The result was visible behavioural and cultural change: stronger peer connection, senior advocacy and managers better equipped to lead through pressure rather than absorb it.

The session closes by addressing a critical question for HR and business leaders: are we asking the impossible of middle managers – or simply asking it in the wrong way?

In a world where disruption is constant, adaptability is becoming the ultimate competitive advantage.

Despite decades of investment in change management, organisations are experiencing greater change fatigue, lower resilience and increasing uncertainty. The challenge is no longer managing change. It is building an organisation that can thrive because of it.

In this provocative and practical keynote, Amanda Fajak explores why adaptability is emerging as the defining organisational capability of the next decade. Drawing on global research, leading organisations and real-world transformation experience, she reveals how culture, leadership and organisational design can either accelerate or constrain an organisation's ability to respond to change.

Participants will discover why traditional approaches are reaching their limits, what the world's most adaptable organisations do differently, and how leaders can build the resilience, learning agility and psychological safety needed to thrive in an environment of continuous disruption.

Key Takeaways
• Why adaptability is the new competitive advantage
• What is really driving change fatigue and organisational overload
• The cultural and leadership behaviours that accelerate adaptability
• How to build an organisation that learns, responds and evolves faster

Key Message
The winners of the next decade won't be the organisations with the best plan. They'll be the organisations that can change their plan fastest without losing their purpose.

As boards face increasing pressure to deliver growth, productivity and long-term value, they are asking tougher questions about investment in people, culture and employee experience. They want clearer evidence of impact, stronger links to business performance and greater confidence that culture is helping, rather than hindering, strategy execution. At the same time, many organisations are experiencing what some describe as culture atrophy: where values remain visible but no longer meaningfully shape decisions, behaviours or outcomes.

Please join us for this peer discussion facilitated by Phil Spratt, CEO & Founder of Deltabase, where we'll explore what it takes to engage boards in meaningful conversations about culture, performance and organisational effectiveness. We'll discuss how culture shows up in difficult business decisions, whether values truly survive under pressure, which culture metrics leaders trust most, and how to ensure culture remains a driver of delivery rather than becoming disconnected from business reality.

How do you know whether people, purpose and strategy are genuinely aligned and contributing to organisational success? In this session, Business Culture Certification co-creator Cath Longfield will briefly introduce the evidence-based Certification framework, developed in partnership with Hult International Business School to provide organisations with an independent way of benchmarking, recognising and celebrating cultures that are clearly contributing to organisational performance. Cath is joined by Sharon Lowrie and Laura Mwamba, CEO and Director of Business Development and Innovation, from certified organisation Be Caring, for a fireside conversation exploring how the organisation has aligned its purpose, people practices and business objectives to support sustainable growth, innovation and high-quality care in the social care sector. They will share their impressive culture journey, including lessons learned and reflections on the choices, investments and leadership behaviours that have helped create alignment across the organisation and a positive impact on the communities Be Caring serves.

The Employment Rights Act 2025-26 represents the most significant overhaul of UK employment law in years. While awareness of the changes is high, many organisations are still grappling with what they will mean in practice, not only from a compliance perspective, but for leadership, management capability and workplace culture. For many HR leaders, the challenge is no longer understanding the legislation itself. It is helping managers navigate new expectations, ensuring HR is seen as an enabler rather than a blocker, and embedding changes in a way that strengthens rather than disrupts organisational culture.

Please join us for this peer discussion facilitated by Janette Lucas, Partner and Head of the London Labour & Employment Team at Squire Patton Boggs, where we'll explore the practical implications of the Act and the opportunities and challenges it presents for organisations. Together, we'll discuss which changes are already creating friction for managers, how organisations are preparing leaders for new responsibilities, whether the new rights will ultimately harden or humanise workplace culture, and how HR teams can balance compliance with positive employee experience.

Organisations have unprecedented access to people and culture data, yet many still struggle to turn insight into meaningful action. As employee listening becomes more sophisticated and AI opens up new possibilities for understanding workforce sentiment, leaders face a more important challenge: deciding what matters, prioritising where to act, and creating accountability for change. Research from more than 150 organisations for this recent whitepaper suggests that while data collection is increasing, many organisations still find it difficult to connect insight to business outcomes and sustained cultural improvement.

In this panel discussion, experts from research, financial services, inclusion and people leadership will explore how organisations can move beyond measuring culture to actively shaping it. Drawing on experience from organisations including Ipsos, Standard Life and Alzheimer's Society, and informed by Kerri O’Neill's recent work on rapid reculturing at pace and scale, panellists will discuss how to combine data, judgement and leadership action to create cultures that drive performance, engagement and long-term success.

What if doing good wasn’t separate from doing business, but fundamental to how the business works?

Recycling Lives proves it can be. They combine commercial materials processing with employment and rehabilitation, running prison workshops and employing people on Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL), creating routes back into work and cutting reoffending.

Their partnership with British Gas shows this in action. Waste from British Gas's meter replacement programme is processed through prison workshops, recovering materials for recycling and reuse. The gold from the circuit boards is even recovered and turned into jewellery with the Royal Mint.

Purpose that's good for people, planet, and business.

Most organisations say culture matters. The tougher question is whether it contributes meaningfully to growth, performance and competitive advantage. In this candid panel discussion, senior people leaders will explore where culture creates measurable business value and where it can become a barrier to progress. Drawing on experiences from financial services, technology, housing and other high-performance environments, panellists will discuss the link between culture, inclusion, leadership and organisational success, sharing practical examples of what they've seen work in practice. The conversation will also tackle one of the most challenging questions facing HR leaders today: if culture deserves investment, how do we demonstrate the return?

How do you build a future-ready culture while adopting AI responsibly? This session explores how the Financial Times is preparing its people and organisation for a changing world of work. It will share practical lessons from the FT’s approach to AI fluency, responsible and ethical AI, immersive learning and experimentation, alongside how its operating model is evolving to support adoption at scale.

ECL was at a pivotal point in its evolution. A new Business plan and People Strategy had set an ambitious direction for the future, but delivering them successfully in a challenging and rapidly changing social care environment would require far more than a new plan – it demanded a fundamental shift in culture, collaboration and collective leadership.

This session explores how ECL and ETS partnered to turn that ambition into reality. Jenni and Graham will share the challenges they faced, both before and during. They’ll also set out the evidence-based, co-designed approach they took to overcome them, and the lessons learned along the way. They will explore how strengthening leadership capability – both individually and collectively – created greater organisational alignment, laid the foundations for sustainable cultural transformation, and ultimately helped future-proof ECL for the challenges that lie ahead.