Conferences

The Forum holds key conferences through out the year including our flagship Spring Customer Strategy and Planning, Summer Best Practice Showcase and Autumn #RaisingStandards conferences that offer a great opportunity to learn, share and network.

2026 Customer Strategy & Planning Conference (In-person)

Tuesday 28th April 2026, Grand Hotel Gosforth Park, Newcastle

Learn WHY we need to keep “Raising Standards in Customer Operations" 
Our flagship Conference, this highly rated event is far more than just a conference. Designed specifically to focus on the hot topics within the industry and thought leadership whilst also delivering practical skills with new ways of thinking that will enhance you as a person. 

2026 Best Practice Showcase (Virtual)

Summer 2026

Learn WHAT our award finalists are doing to continue “Raising Standards in Customer Operations”
This conference offers a unique chance for you to learn directly from our Awards winners. You will hear from the teams and individuals who are making a difference in their business, powerful partnerships whether that is with a technology provider or an outsource partnership. Finally, you can discover how large transformation projects have made massive changes in any business.

2026 Best Practice Showcase (In-person)

Thursday 25th June 2026, Queens Hotel, Leeds

Learn WHAT our award finalists are doing to continue “Raising Standards in Customer Operations”
This conference offers a unique chance for you to learn directly from our Awards winners. You will hear from the teams and individuals who are making a difference in their business, powerful partnerships whether that is with a technology provider or an outsource partnership. Finally, you can discover how large transformation projects have made massive changes in any business.

2026: #RaisingStandards (Virtual)

12th - 16th October 2025

Learn HOW you can apply "Best Practice"
Designed specifically for Planning, Insight and Quality & Customer Experience Professionals. Learn first-hand from practitioners and business leaders who are delivering successful change whilst having the opportunity to collaborate with others. Bring new ideas and techniques back that will raise standards within your “Customer Operation”.

2026 Conference #RaisingStandards (In-Person)

Tuesday 3rd November 2026, Park Hall Hotel & Spa, Wolverhampton

Learn HOW our community is applying “Best Practice”
This conference is designed specifically for Planning, Insight and Quality & Customer Experience Professionals. Learn first-hand from practitioners and business leaders who are delivering successful change whilst having the opportunity to collaborate with others. Bring new ideas and techniques back that will raise standards within your “Customer Operation”.

On-Demand Conferences

Catch up on the presentations from our previous conferences.
Keynote: Redefining Data, Analytics & Insight

Keynote: Redefining Data, Analytics & Insight

Originally broadcasted on Thursday 19th March, 09:30

Resetting Insight explores how data, analytics and AI are moving from reporting to responsible, autonomous decision-making, and how organisations can embed insight directly into the systems that shape customer and colleague experiences.

Technology Showcase

Technology Showcase

Originally broadcasted on Wednesday 18th March, 12:30

Join QStory's David Preece for a tech showcase of our Back Office solution, Work Item Manager. This session will demonstrate how the system acts as a "Back Office ACD'" to accurately capture true handling times, measure agent productivity, and replace gut-feel planning with reliable, data-driven metrics.

Keynote: Redefining Operational Improvement

Keynote: Redefining Operational Improvement

Originally broadcasted on Wednesday 18th March, 09:30

Resetting Improvement explores how Quality, Learning, Knowledge and Continuous Improvement must evolve for a new era of customer operations, moving beyond legacy habits and outdated metrics toward adaptive frameworks, evidence‑based readiness and human‑centred performance that can thrive in the complexity of 2026 and beyond. 

Apect Technology Showcase

Apect Technology Showcase

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March, 12:30

From Excel to Execution: A New Way to Plan Capacity
Most contact centres still rely on spreadsheets to plan capacity and staffing, even though the pace of change has outgrown static models. In this 45-minute joint technology workshop, Aspect and Cinareo will show why moving beyond Excel is no longer optional, and what good capacity planning discipline looks like in practice.

Keynote: Redefining Workforce Planning

Keynote: Redefining Workforce Planning

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March, 09:30

This keynote challenges outdated thinking in Resource Planning and redefines forecasting, insight, scheduling and Real-Time as a single system of strategic intelligence.

Hiya Technology Showcase

Hiya Technology Showcase

Originally broadcast on Monday 16th March, 13:30

Join Hiya for a focused session on Branded Calling and how verified, identifiable outbound calls are transforming customer communication. As trust becomes critical to engagement, branded calling helps organizations improve answer rates, reduce call hesitation, and build confidence at the moment of contact. We’ll explore why it matters, how it aligns with evolving customer expectations, and practical ways to strengthen voice engagement.

Verint Technology Showcase

Verint Technology Showcase

Originally broadcast on Monday 16th March, 12:30

The Real-Time Workforce, Realign the Moment: How Real-Time Insights Reshape Performance
Our Gold Sponsors Verint explore how moving beyond traditional WFM unlocks a new era of performance and employee experience. We’ll walk through the journey to Reset, Redefine and Realign—resetting long‑held assumptions about coaching, redefining performance through real‑time behavioural insight, and empowering agents to realign instantly with live coaching, instant EX scoring, and flexible scheduling tools. 

BPG26: Commercial Metrics

BPG26: Commercial Metrics

Lastly, we come to the commercial metrics. These are largely financial measures and, in the private sector, they help us understand whether the business is succeeding.
BPG26: Employee Metrics

BPG26: Employee Metrics

Next, we turn to employee metrics. Vince Lombardi, one of the most successful American football coaches of all time, once said, “Happy employees lead to happy customers, which in turn leads to a successful business.”
BPG26: Customer Metrics

BPG26: Customer Metrics

Next come the customer metrics, the measures we use to understand whether we are meeting customer expectations.
BPG26: Planning Metrics

BPG26: Planning Metrics

The first group of measures and targets we will look at are planning metrics.
Technology Showcase: Route 101

Technology Showcase: Route 101

Originally Broadcast Thursday 16th October, 12:30

Join Route 101 for a dynamic session exploring how Zendesk can revolutionise back-office operations through intelligent omnichannel routing and email management.Discover how unstructured inboxes can be transformed into structured workflows, enabling smarter task planning, queue categorisation, and actionable analytics. With insights from Route 101’s systems integration experts, this showcase will highlight real-world examples and integrations - bridging the gap between back-office tasks, CCaaS, WFM and QM to unlock new efficiencies. 

Technology Showcase: National Support Network

Technology Showcase: National Support Network

Originally Broadcast Wednesday 15th October, 12:30

Compassion fatigue and how to help your teams to care without burning out. Every day, our colleagues are expected to show up with empathy for customers in vulnerable circumstances. But what happens when empathy itself becomes exhausting? That’s compassion fatigue. It’s not burnout - yet - but if ignored, it can take us there. Join Helen from the National Support Network in an interactive session. 

Technology Showcase: Calabrio

Technology Showcase: Calabrio

Originally Broadcast Tuesday 14th October, 12:30

What if supervisors and agents could chat to your WFM solution? What if resolving staffing issues took just one click? Workforce management (WFM) is entering a new era. Artificial intelligence is transforming the process of forecasting, scheduling, and employee engagement. In this session, Scott Budding from Calabrio unveils new Gen-AI capabilities with their award winning WFM including Agent and Supervisor Assist and Predictive Actions. The future of WFM is Workforce Intelligence. 

Technology Showcase: Verint

Technology Showcase: Verint

Originally Broadcast Monday 13th October, 12:30

Smarter. Faster. Stronger: How Verint Co-pilot Bots Supercharge Contact Centres. In today’s fast-paced customer experience landscape, efficiency and personalisation are no longer optional- they’re essential. Join us for an exclusive session as we reveal how Verint’s Co-pilot Bots are reshaping contact centres by automating micro-workflows, reducing average handling times, and significantly increasing agent capacity.

Opening Keynote #RaisingStandards

Opening Keynote #RaisingStandards

Originally Broadcast Monday 13th October, 10:30

Reset, Redefine & Raise Standards
This keynote launches the week by challenging us to turn intent into action. Explore how learning, reflection and ownership drive personal growth and organisational progress. Discover how tools like the Learning Tracker, Reflective Method, and the Learning Pyramid support continuous improvement. We'll explore how to break out of firefighting, align strategy with daily action, and shift from “being busy” to “making a difference”. It's time to reset habits, redefine success, and commit to doing things differently. Because done will always beat intended.

Planning for Messaging: Making It Work, Not Just Happen

Planning for Messaging: Making It Work, Not Just Happen

Messaging is popping up all over customer service teams. WhatsApp, in-app chat, SMS – you name it, someone’s testing it. But here’s the truth: just launching a messaging channel isn’t enough. Doing it well takes some serious thought.

Bridges: From here to there

Bridges: From here to there

The picture above, many will recognise, is the Severn Bridge. It is also the view from my friend’s back garden. It’s a magnificent view and connects England with Wales across a huge and extraordinary expanse of water. Bridges connect places: some are huge, others exceedingly small. Some are incredible feats of engineering, others a plank across a muddy gap. We use the word ‘bridge’ as a verb. Something we do. We ‘bridge the gap,’ and it is the gap that interests me more than the bridge. We ‘abridge’ books, shorten them into easier to access chunks, and it is the parts we choose to include, and exclude, that draws my attention.

The Evolution of Speech Analytics

The Evolution of Speech Analytics

Speech analytics has revolutionised how organisations manage customer interactions, progressing from its origins in large contact centres to becoming a critical enabler of real-time customer engagement. Historically, it was a resource-intensive tool housed on on-premise servers, primarily adopted by enterprises to optimise quality assurance (QA) processes, extract insights from customer interactions, and, in some cases, improve sales performance. Today, advancements in real-time analytics and large language models (LLMs) have vastly expanded its capabilities, introducing automation, efficiency, and real-time problem-solving into operational workflows.

AI and the future of Contact Centre Quality Assurance

AI and the future of Contact Centre Quality Assurance

Whether you love it or hate it, AI is here. AI has had a bigger impact on Contact Centres than Analytics, WFM, Quality Management, Insight Dashboards, and other technologies we’ve used over the years. It’s as significant in our lives as mobile phones, broadband at home, smart devices and IoT have been.

10 Things They Won’t Tell You About Forecasting

10 Things They Won’t Tell You About Forecasting

We all get fixed on forecasts, but none of us can see into the future. A forecast is basically a guess – an educated guess. What we can do is study what has happened in the past. By analysing past data for patterns and trends, we can make an educated guess about future outcomes. Unless we get lucky, it will probably be wrong.

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