Impact Week 2018
26 February 2018

After Caitlin Moran closed day one of Impact 2017, the lady sitting next to me leaned over and asked, “how are you going to top that?” It’s a question I’ve been asked year-on-year by delegates as our Annual Conference has attracted increasingly inspirational keynotes and fascinating content from practitioners and clients working at the forefront of the sector. And it’s a question we at MRS constantly ask ourselves when putting together the programme.

By now you’ll have seen that the team have outdone themselves this year. Impact 2018 has become Impact Week – a five-day festival of activities showcasing London as a global centre of excellence for research, insight and intelligence. With so much going on, I wanted to highlight some of the things I’m personally looking forward to.

We have four great women keynote speakers: Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia CBE, space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE, ‘the wizard of connection’ Julia Hobsbawm OBE and award-winning crime novelist Val McDermid. I’ll also be asking Ian Hislop whether he’s a Brexiteer or not!

Choosing between the sessions – there’s 26 in total and over 100 speakers – is going to be a challenge as usual. The Encounter Zone, our workshop stream, has some particularly intriguing prospects – though I expect I’ll have to give way to the stampede there.

Then there’s the new Open House Trail, which will see some of the sector’s biggest clients throwing open their doors to show you how they are using insight to make an impact. These bite-size sessions are free to attend, so even if you don’t have the time or budget to attend the Conference, there’s no excuse not to get along to one.

However you choose to engage with Impact Week, I think there’s something to inspire everyone - and do stop to say hello if you see me around. I’m always open to your feedback, though maybe hold off on asking me how we’re going to top it until I’ve had a bit of a holiday!

Go to the Impact Week 2018 website

Find out more about the week and how to buy tickets.

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