Excellent opportunity to meet 10 years worth of contacts.
Head of HR
Opal Telecoms Ltd
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Conference
The conference programme aims to give senior HR practitioners access to new ideas, solutions and innovations to help take their departments and companies forward. Through open discussions on best practice and debate among the industry’s top players, delegates will get a unique insight into strategies being used by their peers.
Full details on the 2010 conference programme can be found below.
If you would like to recommend any speakers or topics please contact Victoria Coles on 020 8487 2266.
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Opening Keynote Address 2010
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| Where next for Great Britain economically and politically? |
| Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England & Justin Urquhart Stewart, Seven Investment Management |
By June 2010 we will have a newly elected Government but what will be the state of the economy and the environment for British Business?
Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management will set the economic scene on this issue before introducing Daniel Hannan MEP who will put the economic future into the context of both UK and European Political reality.
Questions Daniel will tackle are; what options the new Government has, what the British public will find acceptable, just how much power Europe really possess over us and what can, and might be done to rebalance this issue.
Daniel will also talk about the role of the digital arena (so successful in Barrack Obama’s campaign) in the British Election, and the new digital communications environment that we live in, both for Business and for Politics.
Dan Hannan, during an address to the European Parliament, advised Gordon Brown to stop talking nonsense and wasting the country’s money, attracting over 2 million hits on YouTube. Dan understands the EU and tells it as he sees it.
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Thursday Keynote Address
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| The rise & fall and rise again of Gerald Ratner |
| Gerald Ratner |
Gerald Ratner was the millionaire chief executive of the British jewellery chain Ratners Jewellery, which he built into the world’s largest jewellery retailer business consisting of 2500 shops, making £125m, with a turnover £2billion. After some uncomplimentary remarks Gerald made at the Institute of Directors regarding product quality, the company suffered financial losses, and was renamed Signet Group in 1993.
Gerald has now gone on to re-launch his career in the jewellery sector with an online company. Come and hear his story about how he rose and fell and has now managed to rise again, a true tale of succeeding against the odds.
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Industry update on employment & labour law developments
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| Industry Seminar |
| Nic Hart, Partner, Employment Department, Davenport Lyons |
2009 to 2010 has been a busy year for Employment Law, with a range of cases and legislation changing many day-to-day HR practices. This session will review the year and deal in particular with:
• Age discrimination and the default retirement age;
• Changes to the accrual of holiday for employees on short-term and long-term sick leave;
• Discrimination, including:
- the Equality Bill,
- discrimination by association,
- indirect disability discrimination
- religion and belief discrimination
• Temporary workers and equal treatment
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Harnessing technology to boost performance and improve returns: Emerging methods for ensuring learning is transferred back to the workplace
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| Industry Seminar |
| Helen Tracy, Capability Development Consultant, Hemsley Fraser |
Over the past 18 months we have experienced a significant refocus on the potential and opportunities offered by all forms of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). At the same time, and perhaps related to this renewed interest, many organisations have had their training budgets cut at a time when improving performance and productivity are seen as the key to gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage.
There is evidence that organisations that are ‘mature’ in terms of their TEL usage are making careful and considered decisions as to where, when and how to use technologies within learning and development. The basis of these decisions rests, as with any learning solution, in truly understanding the learning needs, where the organisation is culturally and strategically, and where both the organisation and the individual needs the learning to take them.
This session will cover:
• Where, when and how to use technologies within learning and development.
• Adopting flexible and emerging approaches to TEL that support high performance and improve returns.
• How to work in partnership to ensure learning is effectively transferred back to the workplace.
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Crucial Confrontations - Improving accountability and performance
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| Industry Seminar |
| Richard Pound, Director, Grahame Robb Associates Ltd |
This session will look at how to address and resolve difficult performance and accountability issues to improve individual, team and organisational performance.
Research has shown that peoples’ reluctance to speak up and have open and honest discussions with others about poor performance, bad behaviour or failed expectations, has a major impact on individual, team and organisational performance.
The session will help you appreciate the importance of breaking this 'culture of silence' and how a leader’s own accountability is vital for increasing organisational performance. It will introduce a powerful set of principles that will enable you to effectively step up and discuss gaps in performance or expectations in a way that solves the problem, and improves the relationship. Positive consequences from holding these ‘Crucial Confrontations’ include:
- greater accountability and fewer missed deadlines
- better face to face performance discussions
- increased individual, team and organisational performance
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Successfully managing culture change after a mergers & acquisition: case-study of Santander UK
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| Industry Seminar |
| Mark Adams, Human Resources Director, Santander |
“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.” Although these are the words of Henry Ford they are very apt to any company looking to succeed after M&A activity.
Mark Adams, HR Director at Santander will share with the audience just how Santander achieved a highly successful change management programme to rebrand, and merge the cultures at the 3 banks it acquired between 2004 and 2009.
Santander, which is expected to be the most profitable retail bank in the world, managed this by using a number of methods, including engaging employees in the process.
If your company is active in, or going to embark on M&A activity, this is a must see session.
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Internal communications and change on a massive scale: the Crossrail story
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| Industry Seminar |
| Dan Dobson-Smith, Head of Organisational Development & Change Management, Crossrail |
Crossrail is the largest construction project in Europe and the largest single addition to the London transport network for 50 years. At £15.9 billion, it has a bigger budget than the Olympics, and overseeing 14 000 construction workers is no small feat.
Dan Dobson-Smith has been charged with the difficult task of transforming Crossrail internally from a Parliamentary approval body into a high-performing delivery vehicle in an extremely short timeframe. To do this, not only will he will need to design a new Organisational Development Strategy based on a new set of corporate values, improved leadership and increased capabilities, but ensure it is internally communicated clearly and effectively. Buy-in to these new beliefs will be paramount to success, as the scope and breadth of change is colossal.
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HR leaders of the future
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| Industry Seminar |
| Martin Tiplady, Group HR Director, Metropolitan Police |
| What are the qualities of future HR leaders? And how do they differ from the current offering? What are the demands on future HR departments - and are we fit to provide them? This session will explore the qualities required and put these in the context of a contemporary HR function. Drawing on examples and experiences from his period as HR Director of The Metropolitan Police Service - London’s largest organisation - and his background in both private and public sectors, Martin Tiplady will offer his views on where the HR industry is deficient and what we all need to do to place HR in a longer-term operating environment. |
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Discover the truth about talent
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| Industry Seminar |
| Jacqueline Davies, former Head of Talent and Executive Resourcing, Lloyds Banking Group |
A presentation that introduces groundbreaking, global research that signals a change is needed in the practice of talent management. The session will share these findings and the recommendations of Jacqueline's forthcoming book, The Truth About Talent. You are invited to join the debate which will focus on:
- Why its time to re-think our beliefs about Talent
- New definitions for a new world
- The vital importance of your business strategy
- How Diversity strengthens your Talent pool
- Why building a talented organisation is key
- What HR will have do change
- How Leaders will make this difference
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Vapour Trails: what’s the smallest thing you can do right now that will have the greatest positive impact?
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| Industry Seminar |
| Clive Gott, Inspirational Humorist |
Vapour trails is a down to earth sometimes serious, and sometimes darn right funny presentation about how by taking small achievable steps, you can achieve extra-ordinary things in your life and more importantly leave a message for others to follow.
Clive will introduce you to immediately applicable skills and techniques that you can use to grow, and maintain, a positive winning outlook in your business and personal life by repeatedly asking yourself “What’s the smallest thing I can do right now that will have the greatest positive impact?”
Clive, often described as the highlight of the day combines the perfect mix of inspirational stories linked with personal achievements backed up with a memorable spread of humour to really hit the button for so many people.
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The things you wanted to know about social media but were afraid to ask
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| Non-Industry Specific Seminar |
| Matthew Jeffery, Global Head of Talent Brand, Electronic Arts |
Social media is constantly changing: It grows, it innovates…it evolves. So much so that, if you don’t have a basic understanding of it’s inner workings and benefits already, you can feel like you have been left behind.
Join this foundation-building session for anyone who wants to wrap their head around where social media is going today and where it could go tomorrow.
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All aboard the revolution: four steps every company can take now to reduce costs, increase sales and connect to a new generation of consumers
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| Non-Industry Specfic Seminar |
| Dr Graeme Codrington, Co-Founder, TomorrowToday |
Sustainability, energy efficiency and diminishing resources present clear risks but also significant opportunities for every company as long as they are taken seriously and not just viewed as “nice to have” PR opportunities.
This session, far from being all 'doom & gloom', will focus on how, and why your company should put sustainability at the heart of it’s business strategy. In addition to the moral and legal imperatives, this session will highlight the ‘business case’, including: reduced costs, increased profits and revenue opportunities, as well as the growing demands of ethical consumers.
This is not just a session for do-gooders but one that will benefit every business everywhere. And don’t forget, even if you are not convinced, your competitors just might be! And is that a risk you can afford to take?
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Post-Election Pensions
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| Non-Industry Specific Seminar |
| Steve Bee, Managing Pensions Partner, Paradigm Pensions |
A session looking at how:
• The state basic pension is being reformed
• The state second pension is being reformed
• A million new private sector funded workplace pension schemes are about to be formed
• This is the start of the most important five-year period in UK pensions history in over half a century
• The industry must ensure that as many of the one million new workplace pension schemes as possible are constructed to provide good levels of pension benefit above the minimum that the legislation requires
• The next five years will determine the shape of UK pensions provision for generations of 21st Century retirees
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Virgin Galactic - the dream becomes reality
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| Non-Industry Specific Seminar |
| Will Whitehorn, President, Virgin Galactic |
Will Whitehorn, President, will outline the progress in developing the world's first private sector space launch system which will be capable of carrying humans and science payloads into space.
As the former Virgin Corporate Affairs Director and current President of Virgin Galactic, Will will outline specifically some issues of such a massive groundbreaking project, and how Virgin Galactic have overcome them, one by one.
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The Hamish Taylor Masterclass Seminars
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| Professional Development |
| Hamish Taylor |
In these master class sessions, Hamish will mix his own experiences in driving turnarounds at Procter and Gamble, BA, Eurostar, and Sainsbury’s and his many worldwide consultancy clients with lessons from other arena outside business. Case studies, adverts, easy to use tools and even a rugby ball and a relay baton will all make appearances!
Topic One: Your personal and/or team “Brand” Value
Have you ever thought of yourself or your HR/IT or Communication team as a soap powder brand? This masterclass takes the principles used by major consumer brands and shows how they can be used to improve personal and/or team effectiveness by creating more impact with your internal customers.
From the war stories, cases and exercises, you will emerge with a practical set of tools that you and/or your team can start to use the following day as you implement your “Brand Plan”.
So, what if you or your team was a brand and the customer was your boss or another department?
• How would you write your brand proposition? If you cannot position what you are doing in terms of the value you are adding to your customer, then the brand model says you will fail! Who’s language do you use – yours ...or your customer’s?
• Great brands are built on Customer Insights. Have you really immersed yourself in your customer’s world?
• Techniques used to maximise advertising communication effectiveness can be applied to all forms of communication from corridor conversations to full presentations.
• What techniques does BA use to influence service behaviours? How can we adapt these for ourselves?
• Successful brands build their product and service from their strengths.
Topic Two: Accelerating Innovation
What do a rugby referee and a Yacht designer have in common? Answer: they’ve both been used by major organisations to help accelerate innovation. Whether putting beds into aircraft at British Airways or helping Sainsbury’s Bank to behave like a grocery retailer, Hamish Taylor has learned that...
“If you want a breakthrough, look outside your current environment!”
This masterclass will look at the building blocks and tools required to create breakthroughs in your product and service delivery by looking beyond the usual sources of inspiration.
Topics covered will include:-
• The need to immerse yourself in the customers world to spot insights that others might miss – but only if you look at it with the right pair of lenses!
• The “ambition statement” as the key to breakthroughs
• The “stretch model” as a way of helping yourself and your team to look for ideas from new sources outside your current frame of reference including other industries, sport, the arts, the armed and rescue services and many more.
So, prepare to look at your challenges from a new and exciting perspective – how other people might look at them!
Topic Three: Leading Change
When you play football, there are 22 players and a referee on the park. When you play “reverse” football there are 22 referees for every player!! This is how Hamish was introduced to his new role at British Airways and the challenge of driving change through the organisation. You know what you want to do and yet the most difficult challenge is to take other people with you.
Lessons from BA, Eurostar, and sport are used to look for new ways to take others with you.
Topics covered will include:-
• Do you describe your leadership in terms of your abilities or the benefit you bring to others?
• What can you learn from advertising models and philosophy for how to influence others?
• What is the balance of the team you build around you? Clones of you, or filling your gaps?
• How are you making it easy for others to deliver what you want?
• When do you involve others?
Please note delegates are highly unlikely to be able to attend all three sessions.
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Presentation skills – learning from the rules of magic
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| Professional Development |
| Nick Fitzherbert, Magician & Member of the Magic Circle |
By combining his marketing experience with research of The Magic Circle’s archives and knowledge gained through access to some of the world’s top magicians, Nick Fitzherbert has identified The Rules of Magic - 20 principles that are used instinctively by the best magicians and prove equally effective in business.
In this introductory talk, Nick demonstrates with practical examples of both magic and business communication how magicians’ know-how can be put to much better use than simply pulling rabbits out of hats or making handkerchiefs disappear!
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Risk-taking and decision-making in poker, business and life
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| Professional Development |
| Caspar Berry, Former Professional Poker Player |
Focusing on the science of decision-making, this session discusses how risk works before demonstrating how we use this knowledge at a conscious and subconscious level in order to make every decision we have ever made: from trying something new for lunch to starting a new life working abroad.
Using the metaphor of poker and gambling, this fun session is effectively about WHY anyone makes a decision to DO anything, with the overall aim to give us all a unique and profoundly important tool to help us lead our lives: a tool which Caspar learnt as a professional poker player tasked with embracing risk on a daily basis.
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Additionally Confirmed Speakers: 2010
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| Industry & Professional Development Speakers |
| Further information to follow shortly |
Graham White, Head of HR & OD, Westminster City Council
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Highlights from Past Conference Programmes
Highlights form the 2009 Conference Programme
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| Keynotes, Industry Sessions & Professional Development |
| Sessions & Speakers |
Keynotes:
- Sir Clive Woodward - “Talent alone is not enough”
- Anja Foerster and Peter Kreuz - “Anything but ordinary – leaving marks not just dust”
Seminars:
- The ascent of engagement – empowering your workforce to influence management behaviours
- Creating economically viable change programmes
- Improving leadership capabilities to enhance retention and performance
- Corporate Responsibility – why your organisation can’t survive without it
- Developing and managing a compelling Employer Brand
- The state of HR – what do you think?
Workshops:
- Getting the CEO's full attention - and holding onto it!
- Knowledge is power
- Leadership values and ethics – secrets of leadership success
- The contagious nature of the optimistic leader
- Realise organisational goals through effective talent management
Round Table Discussion Groups:
- Aligning learning to the needs of the organisation
- Improving practitioner standards and best practice in HR
- Developing senior managers – understanding their needs and providing the right opportunities
- Making the move from senior management to non-executive director
Professional Dvelopment Sessions:
- Everyday creativity – seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary
- Push your boundaries
- Communicate with impact
- The psychology of stress
- Tough questions and how to handle them
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Director, Human Resources
AOL Europe
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HR Director
Caffe Nero
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Head of Executive Reward
E.ON UK plc
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Head of Shared Services
Marks & Spencer
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Head of HR, Europe
HSBC Bank plc
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More Delegates
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