CX / UX / MR 2026

09.45 Welcome from the Chair

Jamie Halliday, Behavioural Science Director, Walnut, part of Accenture Song

10.00 IKEA’s blueprint for success: from products to seamless services

By 2030, consumer spending on services is likely to overtake spending on products globally and so IKEA has been considering different service categories for exploration. In 2024, IKEA started combining data, research and service design in a new way to work closely with customers to co-create future service propositions.

This presentation examines how embedding customer and co-worker voice in the design of new services, has dramatically increased speed of creating blueprints for new business models. Hear how the approach has enabled IKEA to de-risked common challenges, educate and upskill IKEA markets in new ways of working and built influence with stakeholders throughout the process.

Hetal Patel, Associate Director, Research and Insights, Transform UK

Olga Smits-Möhlmann, IKEA Retail Experience Insights leader, Inter IKEA

Karen Reeves, IKEA Global services leader, Inter IKEA

10.30 Keeping insight alive: embedding experience-led insight to drive user-centred innovation at HSBC

In customer-centric organisations, research should illuminate real human experience and actively shape what gets built next.

This session shares how HSBC and ImpactSense co-created a partnership model designed to keep user insight raw, alive, and deeply embedded in experience design. Drawing on ever-richer experience data and cross-disciplinary collaboration, this session will explore how the research team broke down silos between market research, UX, CX and product to bring human truth into a highly regulated environment where creativity and compliance must constantly coexist.

Examine the three-pillar integrated experience approach: iterative insight sprints, cross-functional researcher pairing, and an adaptive, real-time insight ecosystem.

Veronica Naguib, Managing Director, ImpactSense

Elwin McSheffrey, Research Lead, ImpactSense

Serena Verdenicci, Behavioural Design Lead, Experience Design, HSBC

11.00 Lights, camera, action! The challenge of researching streaming services

Researching streaming services isn’t easy. This dynamic sector presents unique challenges when it comes to accessing authentic, in-home viewing experiences. Unlike many other digital products, researching streamers requires us to understand household dynamics, the living room tech ecosystem and the impact of highly personalised UIs.

In this session MTM and UKTV will explore how in-situ testing reveals how users interact with interfaces, devices as well as other household members. It will show how combining in-situ testing with behavioural methods like eye-tracking, observation and diary studies, captures cross-platform, cross-device and interpersonal behaviours that remote testing can’t access.

Michael Thompson, Head of UX Research, MTM

Yasmine Djadoudi, Insight Manager, UKTV 

11.30 Morning refreshments

12.00 Designing for real life: embedding real-world experience insight into health innovation

Testing of health technology traditionally focuses on ‘efficacy’ and frequently does not provide insight into whether diverse people, with complex lives, can or will use a product.

In this case study, Humanly and Asthma + Lung UK will share how a novel, 12-month co-design project which combined experience insight, usage data and design ideas delivered an innovation accelerator programme that identified and supported healthtech innovations which were welcomed by real users.

Hear how mobile ethnography, usage data and interviews, delivered a rich and authentic picture of people’s journeys over time and helped heathcare designers understand users’ emotional journeys, engagement and impact.

Jenni Parker, Founder & Director, Humanly

Ali Fawkes, Head of Social Innovation, Humanly

Erika Kennington, Head of Research + Innovation, Asthma + Lung UK

12.30 Making user journeys work for everyone: inclusive research and culture change at Autotrader

Autotrader and Nexer Digital work together to embed accessibility across their research, design, and engineering capabilities. This conversation we will look at the barriers people face across the full car buying journey. It will share findings from inclusive usability research that explored how people with different access needs move through Autotrader’s Deal Builder service and connected product areas. It will show how inclusive research uncovered cross journey barriers, strengthened collaboration, supported long term cultural change and lead to more accessible and resilient user journeys for all users.

Chris Bush, Design Lead, Nexer Digital

In conversation with

Natalie Methley, Principal User Researcher and Accessibility Lead, Autotrader

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Measuring the bond between UX and brand desire: a methodological innovation

This session showcases an innovative Ipsos methodology that connects traditionally separate research disciplines with the aim of proving the relationship UX quality and brand equity.

Using a real-life banking case study, Ipsos demonstrates how its three-stage method which combines pre-survey brand assessment, large-scale unmoderated UX testing, and post-interaction brand re-measurement, isolates the causal impact of digital experiences on brand perception and precisely quantifies the effect of UX on brand equity.

Hear how this innovative framework, which thinks across silos, reveals measurable business value of superior user experience design.

Tanya Lidstone, Head of UX, Ipsos

Gillian Drewett, Global Head of Offer & Innovation, Ipsos

14.30 How a novel integrated measurement ecosystem transformed brand strategy at Molson Coors

In a sales-driven organisation like Molson Coors, justifying brand investment requires more than traditional metrics. While Share of Voice demonstrates weak correlation with market share, the innovative Share of Experience methodology shows a powerful correlation. But what happens when you integrate Share of Experience tracking with brand health metrics? The results are transformational. This case study reveals groundbreaking discoveries from combining  brand health tracking with Share of Experience measurement.

Fiona Blades, President & Chief Experience Officer, MESH Experience

Sherissa Naicker, Head of Insights, Traction

Mark Perry, Director of Category & Brand Insight, Molson Coors

15.00 Afternoon break

15.30 Panel - From ‘interesting’ to ‘actionable’: how consumer closeness drives real impact across the whole business

Consumer closeness sessions are powerful in the moment, but how do we ensure they lead to meaningful and lasting action within the business? In this session, client-side insight leaders come together to share how they’ve embedded customer centricity far beyond the insights team, breaking down silos between CX, UX and Market Research to build a shared culture of experience-led decision-making.

Join a fast-paced, practical discussion packed with strategies for embedding customer experience across departments, energising stakeholders at every level, securing buy-in, and keeping momentum alive.

Chair

Emily Chapman, Head of Consumer Closeness, The Mix Global

Panel

Alex Hardy, Consumer & Market Insight and Analytics Director, Nomad

Louise Stone, Senior Insight Manager, Silverspoon

Abigail Sandberg, Consumer and Brand Insights Lead – Beverages, Pepsico

16.00 SPONSOR SESSION

Measuring early-stage CX with AI-moderated interviews: validating communication for a new entertainment experience

Customer experience in entertainment begins before participation, with visuals, videos, and digital touchpoints shaping expectations, emotional response, and intent to engage.

This session showcases a project where AI-moderated interviews were embedded in a large-scale quantitative study to evaluate and optimise pre-experience communications for a new entertainment offering. The research examined how effectively these touchpoints set expectations, evoke emotional connection, maintain visual coherence, and encourage trial as part of the wider CX journey. Hear practical insights into using AI-moderated research for asset testing to measure and improve early-stage CX and UX in entertainment.

Matteo Cera, Founder, Glaut

Marco Gastaut, CEO, EUMETRA

16.20 Collaborative research in practice: breaking down silos between MR, CX and UX teams

Research silos create fragmented customer understanding. Market research, customer experience, and user experience teams often work in parallel, duplicating effort whilst missing opportunities for richer insights. This workshop tackles the practical challenges of cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Through hands-on exercises, participants will explore why silos persist despite good intentions, and develop concrete strategies for collaborative working. The session introduces practical frameworks for integrated insight generation. Participants will leave with actionable tools and renewed confidence to champion collaborative research in their organisations.

Chris Rourke, Executive Director, Industry Engagement, User Vision

16.50 End of conference