The 2026 Agenda

• We open with the brilliant Kate Richardson-Walsh, connecting the Summit’s core themes of leading yourself, leading others, sustaining people and culture, learning through pressure, failure and fun, and the future environment of human and technology.
• Kate will share how you can make the most of the Summit by moving beyond inspiration and turning ideas into action inside your own teams, organisations and environments. 

In this session you will go inside Emma Hayes’ leadership journey, from building one of the most successful teams in women’s football at Chelsea to leading the US Women’s National Team into a new cycle of international competition.

You will learn:

• How to lead yourself and lead others when you’re on the world stage and the pressure is on.
• What preparation for the next major tournament, phase, game can teach you about how to work with today’s athletes, new expectations and staying present when the stakes keep rising.

Drawing on their work with executive teams across global organisations, Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner explore why most organisations do not fail because they cannot change, but because they are trapped in repeated cycles of reset.

Together you’ll explore:

• The recurring “anti-patterns” that keep teams, systems and leaders stuck, and the practical levers that help organisations become more adaptable over time.
• What performance can learn from the world of enterprise transformation about pace, uncertainty, technology adoption and building the discipline for continuous change.

Kate will introduce three interactive sessions that explore the Summit themes in greater depth. You’ll then choose the session most relevant to you before moving to the corresponding room.

This session will explore how performance technology, data and innovation can enhance human capability without losing sight of the people at the centre of performance. As performance environments become more specialised, success increasingly depends on translating knowledge across disciplines.

You will learn: 

• How leading organisations connect coaching, medical, performance, technology and leadership expertise to make better decisions.
• What you can do to break down silos, improve alignment and build performance systems with both tech and humans in mind.

In this session you will: 

• Explore practical techniques for bringing ideas to life, building support across different stakeholders and influencing change when you may not have the final say.
• Map out the people shaping your environment, from cultural architects and guardians to missing or counter-cultural influences, and identify who needs to be engaged for an idea to gain traction.

Brought to you by Management Futures

In this session you will: 

• Explore the psychological work involved in releasing a plan, an identity and making sense of what comes next when we see failure.
• Learn how you can support themselves and their team through periods of transition without demanding immediate answers or interpreting uncertainty.

In this session you will learn:

• What para sport can teach leaders about challenging assumptions and unlocking potential.
• Why the best environments start with understanding individuals rather than treating everyone the same.
• How inclusive thinking and design leads to better experiences and better performance for everyone.

Reconnect, reflect and reset for the day ahead

What does it take to consistently cultivate the top talent? For decades, The Royal Shakespeare Company has stood as the undisputed world leader in performing arts education, operating a high-performance system unmatched.

In this session, you will:

• Explore what the Secret Sauce to getting the best actors back time and time again.
• Examine what role pressure, failure and fun play in their learning environments.
   

Kate will introduce three highly interactive sessions are designed to help you tackle real-world performance challenges. You’ll then choose the session most relevant to you before moving to the corresponding room. Following an expert-led insight or stimulus, you’ll join peers to workshop ideas, share experiences and explore practical solutions that can be applied in your own context. 

What you’ll experience: 

• A catalyst for discussion: Hear fresh perspectives from industry experts before exploring the topic through facilitated peer discussion. 
• Practical tools and actionable ideas: Leave with frameworks, experiments and approaches you can apply to drive performance in your organisation. 

In this session, you’ll explore:

• Learn about three new franchises and what they are facing in the initial stages of performance.
• What organisations can learn from approaches developed in different countries, sports and competitive landscapes.
• Which trends are emerging globally and what they could mean for the future of performance.

In this session you will look at how athletes shape their identity as a teammate, a captain, balancing their own leadership instincts with the needs of the players, the coach and the wider team.  

What you’ll experience: 

• Insights from athlete leaders on translating a coach’s vision, representing the team or organisation, supporting teammates, and the challenges they face in fulfilling these responsibilities. 
• Practical discussion on belonging and culture, exploring how athletes can strengthen connection, trust and psychological safety to foster a greater sense of belonging within high-performance environments.