The 2026 Agenda

• Moving beyond inspiration, we will be turning ideas into action inside your own teams, organisations and environments by connecting to the Summit’s core themes of leading yourself and leading others, sustaining people and culture, learning through pressure, failure and fun and the future environment of human and technology. 

• 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, including the upcoming 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil. 

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 and new expectations. 

• 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. 

You will learn: 

• 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 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.

In this session, you will: 

• Hear from a new franchise on an aligned organisational identity from day one.  

• Design techniques that force athletes to make micro-decisions and take ownership of their preparation.  

• Rebalancing data and human connection to ensure athletes and staff feel valued, inspired and empowered to perform creatively. 

In this session, you’ll explore: 

• The science of persuasion and motivation: how language, emotion and storytelling capture attention and inspire athletes and teams to act. 

• Practical techniques to craft and deliver messages that build connection, create lasting impact and move people again and again.

Brought to you by Management Futures

This session will look beyond the AI hype to explore how better use of data, technology and scientific research can create more personalised training and sharper decision-making. We’ll also examine the trade-offs: how organisations adopt intelligent systems without creating new silos, losing context or weakening trust. 

You will learn: 

• Where AI can remove friction from the day-to-day work of performance teams and give people more time for the work that matters. 

• Why the most valuable data in your organisation may be the data you’re using least. 

• What are specific use cases for those in player health, coaching, strategy and alignment.

From Olympic gold medals to leading Britain’s America’s Cup challenge, Sir Ben Ainslie has built a career on pushing the boundaries of performance. Now, as he prepares GB1 for the 2027 America’s Cup in Naples, AI, advanced engineering and data-driven design are opening new frontiers in competitive sailing. 

Leading across the America’s Cup, SailGP and talent development, Ainslie faces challenges that extend beyond the water. You will learn: 

• The unique qualities and skills of a resilient team and leadership 

• The pressures, setbacks, learnings and fun involved in this America’s Cup preparation 

• How to innovate with performance resources and investment 

• 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 talent back time and time again 
  • Examine what role pressure, failure and fun play in their learning environments 
  • Learn about the trials and tribulations of collaborative leadership and how it creates new opportunities for the team

   

Kate will introduce 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.

These highly interactive sessions are designed to help you tackle real-world performance challenges. 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. 

You will leave with: 

• 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 

After more than five decades of near misses, heartbreak and expectation, the New York Knicks are NBA champions once again. In June, the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs to secure its first title since 1973. Behind the breakthrough was a multi-year effort to reshape the organisation, assemble the right roster and build a team capable of delivering when the stakes were at their highest. Gersson Rosas, who joined the Knicks’ front office in 2022 was part of the leadership group behind that transformation. 

You will learn: 

• The key decisions behind this defining moment: how recruitment, roster construction and collective judgement helped turn championship ambition into reality. 

• What it takes to build a team under extraordinary pressure: balancing individual talent, shared purpose and the expectations that come with representing one of the most renowned fanbases in the world. 

• The lessons behind a 53-year wait: what sustained belief, strategic patience and the ability to deliver when it felt like  

• One habit to stop, one to strengthen and one experiment to begin.  

• Use the collective intelligence in the room to challenge assumptions and sharpen next steps