Innovation Pipelines Conference 2026

09.00 Registration & coffee 

09.40 Welcome from the Chair 

Dr Nicki Morely, Global Innovation Lead, Kantar 

09.45 How Mars Petcare embraces a non-linear approach to innovation 

Every innovation project generates valuable consumer learning, but too often it's created 'on demand' to meet a specific objective at one point in time. We miss opportunities to explore interesting threads, uncover insights we didn't even know were waiting for us and follow our noses in unexpected directions. 

Mandy Seal, Global CMI Director at Mars Petcare, joins Babita Earle, International Managing Director at Zappi, to explore how Mars is embracing a non-linear approach to early-stage innovation. The session will examine how agile research enables teams to move forwards, backwards and sideways as new learning emerges - creating space to follow unexpected opportunities and make faster, more confident innovation decisions. 

Mandy Seal, Global CMI Director at Mars Petcare 

Babita Earle, Managing Director, International, Zappi 

10.15 Spotting unknown unknowns: How Puratos uses GenAI to accelerate the bakery innovation pipeline 

In the highly competitive global bakery sector, tracking established trends is no longer enough. Find out how Puratos is using GenAI to uncover the "unknown unknowns" - emerging ingredients, product concepts and consumer needs before they reach the mainstream. Hear how its Taste Tomorrow programme combines AI-powered analysis of millions of social conversations with search data to identify high-potential innovation opportunities and accelerate product development across more than 50 markets.  

Delegates will gain practical approaches to using GenAI for insight generation, combining multiple data sources to reduce innovation risk, and turning early digital signals into commercially successful products faster. 

Pavel Lebedev, Director - Synthesio Service Line, Ipsos, UK 

Nanno Palte, Group Marketing Intelligence Manager, Puratos 

10.45 Can synthetic respondents be trusted? Predicting concept success using behaviourally validated AI 

Join Reckitt and NielsenIQ as they demonstrate how behaviourally validated AI is helping teams screen and optimise concepts before traditional consumer testing. In this session, you’ll hear why Reckitt integrated NIQ BASES AI Screener into its innovation process, how synthetic respondents are grounded in real purchasing behaviour through continuously refreshed consumer panel data, and where this approach adds value over AI models based solely on generated responses.  

Delegates will leave with practical insights into how AI-powered concept screening can accelerate learning, prioritise stronger ideas and support more confident innovation decisions. 

Antoine Saunier, Vice President, Strategic Analytics & Insights, NielsenIQ 

Dr Elaine Rodrigo, Chief Insights & Analytics Officer, Reckitt 

11.15 Morning refreshments 

11.45 From ambition to advantage: how pladis and Kantar built a human + AI innovation system 

pladis and Kantar share how they transformed innovation from a linear process into an agile, iterative and insight-led engine for growth while keeping human insight, creativity and strategic judgement firmly at the centre. 

Examine how combining AI with existing learning, category signals, demand spaces and brand frameworks enabled the team to generate and evaluate hundreds of opportunities at speed, expanding exploration far beyond traditional ideation. Hear how human expertise and AI worked together to identify higher-potential concepts, optimise investment decisions and build a more responsive, effective and commercially powerful innovation pipeline. 

Eileen Molinari, Senior Client Director, Kantar 

Jack Nagle, Consumer Insight Controller, pladis 

12.15 Beyond liking: the missing drivers of product adoption  

Is consumer liking enough to guarantee product success? Find out why leading FMCG companies are looking beyond traditional product testing measures to make more confident innovation decisions.   

MMR Research Worldwide presents a practical framework for evaluating product experiences across four complementary dimensions that the product must fulfil to drive longer-term adoption. Using real-world examples, hear how this approach uncovers opportunities and risks that would have been missed by relying on liking alone, enabling optimisation before launch and increasing confidence in recommendations. This session offers practical ideas for evolving product testing approaches to better predict lasting consumer adoption and commercial success.  

Simon Harris, Global Innovation Director, MMR Research Worldwide 

12.45 Lunch 

14.00 To launch or not to launch: using advanced analytics to de-risk innovation 

This case study explores how advanced analytics helped shape a critical subscription strategy decision for The Economist. Faced with competing opportunities to drive acquisition or increase customer value, the business needed to understand likely commercial outcomes, not just customer preferences. 

By combining adaptive conjoint modelling with commercial data and behavioural simulation, the team modelled thousands of market scenarios to predict revenue impact and subscriber behaviour, producing findings that challenged stakeholders' assumptions. 

Examine how insight delivered robust evidence that accelerated decision-making, revealed key strategic pivots and protected commercial outcomes, demonstrating how advanced analytics can help organisations innovate with greater confidence. 

Sam Gardner, Head of Analytics / Director, Boxclever 

Seema Hope, Global Head of Consumer Research, The Economist 

14.30 Using ‘Demand Moments’ to focus innovation 

In a business where insight is a developing capability, the Samworth Brothers Insight Team has transformed how innovation is delivered by embedding consumer-centric thinking across the organisation. Their ‘Demand Moments’ framework provides clarity on where to play and how to win, focusing innovation on the highest-value opportunities while aligning teams around a common language. 

Hear how the team has gone beyond driving growth to deliver significant cost savings by bringing strategy, creative development, and validation in-house, while integrating AI into their workflows to accelerate delivery and enhance quality. Leave with practical ideas for increasing the influence and impact of insight, even with limited budgets. 

Katherine Hardwick, Group Insight Director, Samworth Brothers 

Jessica Wing, Group Insight Manager, Samworth Brothers 

15.00 Session title to be confirmed 

Conveo 

15.30 Afternoon refreshments 

15.55 What’s cooking in innovation? 

Innovation has never mattered more or been harder to deliver. Budgets are tighter, teams are leaner, and yet expectations keep rising. In this fireside chat, innovation leads from Cspace and a leading UK brand will discuss what’s really working - and what isn’t - when it comes to innovating under pressure. 

Drawing on insights from The Innovation Cookbook, a practical guide developed by C Space, and real-world experiences, speakers will discuss three principles for customer led innovation: 1. Start with problems, not solutions. 2. Break category rules for breakthrough growth. 3. Co-create early, often, and with everyone who matters. 

Risham Nadeem, Innovation Director, Cspace 

Client to be confirmed 

16.25 The future of innovation research: how Agentic Commerce will rewrite the rules of innovation in the next 3 Years 

Innovation research is entering a new era. As Agentic Commerce reshapes how products are discovered, evaluated and purchased, research methods must evolve to optimise innovation for both human consumers and AI purchasing agents. This session explores how the rules of concept, product and packaging development will change over the next three years and the practical migration path organisations can take today. Through FMCG case studies using synthetic data, AI agents and multi-sensory AI, discover the emerging research approaches that will help innovation teams design, test and optimise products for an increasingly algorithm-driven marketplace. 

Helen Wing, Head of Offer & Expertise, UK Innovation, Ipsos 

16.55 Closing comments from the Chair 

17.00 End of conference