High Potential Talent Summit 2026
An intimate, one-day curated experience for senior leaders.
Insights and practical tools you can use tomorrow.
November 12th 2026, London
Last year sold out!
Join the leaders who’ve already stepped in the room
Leaders have joined us from large global businesses to smaller organisations across the creative, tech and professional service landscape. With just 75 seats available, you won't want to miss your chance to join them.
- Dani Wallace, Founder of I Am The Queen Bee, shares why she joined the High Potential Talent Summit:
Why This Matters?
Leadership today is harder than ever. You’re delivering results, managing teams, navigating change, and still expected to keep growing yourself. The pressure can feel relentless.
That’s why we created the High Potential Talent Summit. On 12th November 2026, we will create a space to step back from the noise, connect with other ambitious leaders, and walk away with tools you can actually use the next morning.
Proudly Supported by:
Meet Our Exceptional Speakers
David McQueen
Executive Advisor, Author and Keynote Speaker
Executive Advisor, Author and Keynote Speaker
David McQueen is an executive advisor, author, and keynote speaker working at the intersection of decision intelligence and leadership. He advises CEOs, founders, and senior executives at the moments that carry real consequence — scaling, capital events, board conflict, and founder transition. A 3x TEDx speaker, he has worked with organisations including Google, Meta, Bloomberg, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, and Shopify.
He is the author of The BRAVE Leader: Better Decisions for Inclusive Leadership and writes on decision intelligence, entrepreneurship, and leadership through his blog, The Quiet Work. David is also a community builder and Non-Executive Director for two charities
Vanesa Pazos
Founding Partner of NoBa and founder of EmpowerHER
Founder
Vanesa Pazos is the Founding Partner of NoBa and founder of EmpowerHER.
Through NoBa, she supports ambitious founders building the future of work, combining investment, founder programmes and a hands-on community to help early-stage businesses grow and scale. NoBa focuses on companies reimagining how people find work, do work, learn, earn and thrive.
She also founded EmpowerHER, a community bringing together women from all walks of life to connect, learn and support one another. From founders and investors to corporate leaders and women navigating new chapters, EmpowerHER creates meaningful opportunities for collaboration, growth and belonging.
With a background in people leadership, culture and organisational transformation, Vanesa is passionate about unlocking potential, breaking down barriers and creating spaces where people and ideas can flourish. She is a regular speaker on leadership, entrepreneurship, community building and the future of work.
Dr Rob Archer
Chartered Psychologist
Chartered Psychologist
Dr Rob Archer is a Chartered Psychologist specialising in helping organisations and individuals build resilience, improve mental health and sustain high performance.
Having trained at the University of London and Ashridge Business School, Rob now provides training, coaching and consultancy for a wide range of clients including within financial and professional services and elite sporting teams.
He is a sought-after keynote speaker and consultant, with recent clients including PwC, HSBC, Bain & Co, RBC, and large international law firms.
Rob also works in elite sport, supporting players, coaches and managers in Premiership and league football, Olympics and cricket teams and two Formula 1 teams.
A published researcher, Rob’s concept of High Performance Routines (HPRs) has been shown to have a major impact on performance, health and resilience.
He has just led the largest research trial of its kind in this area and speaks regularly at international conferences on these topics.
Rob is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Chartered member of the Divisions of Occupational and Coaching Psychologists.
Susie Ashfield
Speech & Communication Coach and Author
Speech & Communication Coach and Author
Susie Ashfield is an expert communications and speech coach who helps leaders, executives, and public figures look good, sound good, and feel great when it matters most.
Known for transforming even the most reluctant speakers into confident, compelling communicators, Susie works at the intersection of performance, authenticity, and impact. Her clients range from FTSE-listed CEOs and senior investment leaders to global brands, academics, and creative entrepreneurs — people who need their message to land, not just be heard.
Susie is a regular presence in the media and has been featured extensively by Forbes, the BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, Elle, and The New York Post, among others. Her practical, no-nonsense approach to communication has earned her a reputation for cutting through fluff and helping people speak with clarity, confidence, and authority. She has delivered talks and training on stages around the world — from Adidas and Rolls-Royce to King’s College London and the University of Cambridge — and her digital work has reached a global audience, with over one million views on TikTok alone.
Giles Smith
CEO
CEO
Giles Smith is the Chief Executive Officer of Mediazoo Group, a specialist human performance company helping people and organisations perform at their absolute maximum in a world of uncertainty and AI.
With nearly thirty years of experience in the sector, Giles is a recognised industry figure known for driving innovation and transformation at scale. He operates at group level, leading across all three of the group’s businesses: Uncertainty Experts, Mediazoo, and Finer Vision.
Together, the group delivers a connected three-stage process underpinned by behavioural science, creativity, and technology. Uncertainty Experts builds uncertainty-ready leaders with the behaviours and storytelling skills to connect with their people. Mediazoo turns those stories into high-impact content through film, learning design, change communications, and live facilitation. Finer Vision uses AI to scale that content into tools organisations can keep evolving long after a project ends.
Throughout his career, Giles has championed creative and tech-enabled approaches that engage, empower, and deliver measurable results. His thought leadership has made him a trusted partner for organisations seeking to modernise their learning strategies and build cultures of continuous development.
As a strategic and commercially focused leader, Giles is committed to building strong partnerships through open communication, agility, and tailored solutions. Outside work, his interests include golf, cricket, live music, travel, and family.
Jenny Garrett OBE
Chief Executive, Author
Chief Executive, Author
Jenny Garrett OBE is an award-winning CEO, author, and changemaker dedicated to helping people lead with their whole selves. From a council estate in North West London to the boardroom, her journey fuels her mission: a world where no one is left behind. Founder of Jenny Garrett Global, she empowers leaders through three pillars:
Inclusive Leadership
Jenny’s work is about giving leaders the tools to create environments where people feel they genuinely belong.
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Jenny helps people and teams embrace a mindset of curiosity and courage, turning challenges into opportunities and new ideas into impactful solutions.
Humanising AI Adoption
Jenny’s consultancy advises on making sure AI adoption is equitable and strategic. Between direct consulting and her podcast AI for Equity, which she co-hosts with her daughter, Jenny ensures technology serves humanity, not the other way around
Author of Rocking Your Role for female breadwinners, Equality vs Equity on race in the workplace, and upcoming book AI for Equity, Jenny is also co-founder of Rocking Ur Teens, inspiring young people. Honoured with an OBE, she is a trusted partner for leaders ready to build fairness, impact, and lasting change.
Jess Lambourne
Head of People
Head of People
Jess Lambourne is Head of People at Mediazoo Group, specialist human performance company helping people and organisations perform at their absolute maximum in a world of uncertainty and AI.
Jess leads the entire people function from culture and strategy to employment law and organisational design. With nearly a decade of HR experience spanning in-house and consultancy roles, Jess has worked across a wide range of organisations and sectors before joining Mediazoo in 2023.
At the heart of everything Jess does is a deep commitment to her people and culture, creating a space where people thrive, work is meaningful & colleagues feel valued and look forward to walking through the door each morning. She brings a pragmatic perspective to every people challenge and always focused on the humans behind the strategy.
Over the past two years with Mediazoo’s AI transformation they have been navigating the very human side of a company-wide shift to AI-powered working. That’s meant managing the anxiety, reframing the narrative (Mediazoo now talks about “AI driven by creativity”), designing internal training programmes, and helping people find their place in a business that looks quite different from the one they joined.
… and more to be announced.
What We’ll Cover
We’ve designed the summit around the real challenges leaders told us they’re facing:
What Does High Performance Really Look Like? – Go beyond hitting targets and build a shared language for what high-performance actually looks, feels and sounds like in your team.
Psychological Safety in Practice – Real tools for creating environments where people speak up, challenge ideas and admit mistakes, and an honest look at where AI helps or hinders.
Stories That Move People to Act – A simple, memorable narrative framework practised live in the room. You'll leave with a tool that turns a good message into a compelling one.
Feedback, Accountability and Trust – Get under the hood of what stops feedback happening, then leave with a practical toolkit for saying the hard thing without damaging relationships.
AI as a Team Performance Tool – An honest conversation about how leaders are actually using AI to remove friction and free up human bandwidth, with case studies and real examples.
Ask a CEO Anything – An unscripted conversation with C-Suite leaders about what leading at the top really takes.
- Don't take our word for it. Here's why those who attended in 2025 bought their tickets for 2026 before they'd even left the room.
Who it’s for
This summit is for:
Founders, Senior managers, commercial heads, and general managers who want to lead with more confidence, clarity, and impact.
Ambitious individuals ready to invest in their growth and take the next step.
Organisations that want to invest in their leadership and management teams, knowing that commercial success depends on retaining and developing high-performing talent.
Whether you’re investing in your staff, or choosing to back yourself, the outcome is the same: you’ll leave sharper, more self-aware, and better equipped to lead with impact.
What you’ll leave with
Clarity on what high performance actually looks like in your organisation.
Practical tools for psychological safety, feedback and accountability.
A storytelling framework that makes your message land.
Greater self-awareness to stay grounded under pressure.
Honest, unscripted insight from leaders who've walked the path you’re on.
Takeaways you can action immediately, not just another pile of notes.
Why Be in the Room?
This isn’t another corporate away day. It’s one day, 75 people, and real conversations that mirror the reality of leadership today.
12 November 2026 · London
Last year sold out - don’t be the one left off the guest list!
- Leadership is backing yourself, taking risks, and carrying fear with you not waiting for it to disappear. Michelle Moore, award-winning author & leadership expert.