Evolving programme is subject to slight change
Day 2 - Wednesday 8 July 2026
08:30 Registration and exhibition hall open
09:30 Conference begins and welcome
Main Auditorium
09:35 AI, the future of work and the role of the board
Artificial intelligence is transforming the corporate world, forcing it to enter into new technological realms. But it’s also reshaping jobs, decision-making, productivity and the structure of work itself. For many directors discussions remain narrowly focused on the technical risk. This session explores the board’s expanding responsibility in governing AI as a workforce and organisational issue.
As companies automate tasks, redesign roles and rethink hiring, boards face difficult questions around accountability, skills, corporate culture, resilience and responsible employment. In the age of AI, how should boards balance efficiency gains with being ethical employers? How should companies adopt AI while managing its consequences for the workforce and the future of the organisation itself?
Speaker: Anjli Raval, Management Editor, Financial Times
Main Auditorium
10:15 What’s keeping your board awake?
This panel brings together experienced governance professionals and industry leaders to explore best practices for engaging with boards, managing complex issues, and building trust.
Gain practical tips on framing discussions, anticipating challenges, and ensuring alignment between leadership teams and board priorities.
Moderator: Kerry Round FCG, Founding Director, Round Governance
Speaker:
- Sophie Gauthier-Beaudoin, Director & Head of Board Leadership Centre, KMPG
- Tim Greenwell, Consultant, Experienced COO, Chief Legal & Risk Officer & Non-Executive Director in men’s & women’s football, Squire Patton Boggs
- Jaime Tham FCG, Former Company Secretary, Kier Group and Tate & Lyle
10:50 Refreshment break
Main Auditorium
11:20 Leadership, legacy, and the power of diversity
Explore how young leaders and diverse teams are shaping the future of governance and organisational success. This session brings together students and early-career professionals eager to step into leadership roles, alongside governance experts who recognize the transformative power of diversity in leadership.
Moderator: Kayla Schembri, Head of Policy, The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland
Speakers:
- Gary Ford, Co-founder, Men for Inclusion
- Kako Mavalla ACG, Deputy Company Secretary
- Eileen Mullan Cdir, Director, Strictly Boardroom
Main Auditorium
12:00 Demystifying the next generation of governance
What does the future of governance look like? This panel explores how to support emerging leaders, maintain inspiration, and create space for new voices and how shared insight and experience can build a stronger, more dynamic profession.
Moderator: Bunmi Obisesan ACG, Assistant Company Secretary, Wise
Speakers:
- Ruth Odih ACG, Head of Secretariat, Centrica
- April Skipp FCG, Company Secretarial SME and Compliance Advisor, Diligent
- James Wickham ACG, Head of Corporate Governance, Aviva plc
12:40 Lunch break
Lunch and refreshments for all, taking place in the exhibition space
Breakout Room 2 - During the lunch break
13:15 Built for What's Next: Equipping the CoSec Function for the AI Era
The role of the Company Secretary is being redefined — and the profession knows it. Diligent's 2026 Global State of Legal Entity Compliance research finds that AI governance and technology literacy now top the list of critical skills for the next three years, ahead of every traditional legal capability. This session explores what that shift means in practice — and the training programme Diligent built with CGI UKI to help CoSec teams get there first.
Main Auditorium
13:40 Too late is not a strategy: Preparing boards for the crisis they don't see coming
This session is built on war stories. The warning that was smoothed over in the minutes. The risk register that was too neat. The board that believed it was in control until the morning it discovered it was not. Erika Eliasson-Norris has spent two decades inside the boardroom, and serves as the Governance Assessor to the Chair of the Post Office Horizon IT Public Inquiry. She has seen how organisations fail. More importantly, she has seen how they come back.
This is not a talk about theory. Every story carries a practical lesson you can use on Monday. How to tell a survivable problem from an existential one. What to do in the first seventy-two hours, when everything is urgent and nothing is calm. How to rebuild trust once it is gone, with your people, your regulators, and the public. And how to run a board when the board itself is part of the problem.
You will leave with a clear view of what separates the organisations that recover from the ones that never do. And the questions every board should be asking now, long before the crisis arrives.
Speaker: Erika Eliasson-Norris FCG, Founder & CEO, Beyond Governance Limited
14:10 Breakout sessions
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BREAKOUT 1 Dematerialisation: The future of share ownership and what it means for issuers
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Speakers:
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BREAKOUT ROOM 2 The Accidental Company Secretary |
What advantages can a non-linear background bring to governance professionals? Joining us virtually from Australia, Brad Boyle FCG shares how his unique journey, from police officer to federal prosecutor, mining executive, to working in Health during Covid pandemic to leading governance for an iconic aeromedical charity, shaped his approach to boardroom excellence. This session offers the opportunity to gain valuable cross-jurisdictional insights, challenge traditional mindsets, and discover how to leverage an unconventional career path as a strategic advantage. Bring your questions for a live audience Q&A. Speaker: Bradley Boyle FGIA FCG, General Counsel & Company Secretary, Royal Flying Doctor Service (WA) |
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BREAKOUT ROOM 3 From data to decisions: Elevating entity management to reduce governance risk |
In today’s governance landscape, fragmented entity data isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a risk multiplier. In this breakout session we will unpack what 'good' data really means and explore how organisations can shift from reactive compliance to proactive, insight led governance by transforming raw entity information into a reliable single source of truth. Speakers:
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14:45 Refreshment break
30-minute break before heading back to your next breakout session
15:15 Breakout sessions
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BREAKOUT 1 Sustainability under Siege |
Sustainability is under pressure from political backlash, litigation risk and the operational realities of climate change. Shifting geopolitical attitudes and complexity - the “Trumpian effect” - are challenging Sustainability and putting Non Financial Reporting (NFR) in the spotlight. Moderator: Richard Young, Editor – Governance & Compliance, The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland Speaker: Tracey Groves ACA, Director and Founder, Intelligence Ethics |
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BREAKOUT ROOM 2 Creating a governance career that's right for you with a focus on supplementary NED roles |
This session explores pathways within governance roles, the skills boards and organisations value most, and how to position yourself for long-term success. Gain insights into building a career that aligns with your strengths and the evolving governance landscape. Moderator:
Speakers:
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BREAKOUT ROOM 3 Governing cyber risk in an era of deep fakes, fraud and new regulation |
Deep fakes, AI-enabled fraud and new regulations are reshaping the cyber risk landscape. Join Barnett Waddingham as they explore the key threats facing organisations today and the governance practices needed to build resilience and stay compliant.
Session sponsored by Barnett Waddingham (part of Howden) |
15:50 Movement break
Head back to the main auditorium
Main Auditorium
15:55 Closing keynote
Psychological Safety: The hidden driver of high quality governance
In this energising 35 minute session, Tracey explores psychological safety not as a ‘soft’ cultural ideal but as a core governance capability that directly shapes financial and non financial risk, strategic alignment, wellbeing and the quality of organisational decision making.
She demystifies and shines a light on what psychological safety is - a climate where people can speak up, challenge assumptions and surface risks early, and what it is not - including the common misconception that it means being endlessly polite or lowering standards.
Drawing on compelling real world examples and the latest neuroscience, Tracey explains how a lack of psychological safety in the workplace triggers the brain’s threat response, shutting down the very cognitive functions leaders rely on for sound judgment, creativity and ethical reasoning.
The session offers practical, actionable ways leaders can create environments where candour thrives and early warnings are welcomed, while also highlighting the unintended consequences when organisations get this wrong. Attendees will leave with a renewed understanding of why psychological safety is fundamental to effective governance, and how every leader can strengthen it through small, deliberate acts of courage and clarity.
Speaker:
Tracey Groves ACA, Director and Founder, Intelligence Ethics
16:30 Closing remarks
Linda Ford CEO, The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland