Customer Strategy & Planning - Keynotes
Join us live to hear from a fantastic panel of keynote speakers as they set alight key themes for Customer Strategy & Planning 2021. Or catch up on recordings after the event for a truly inspirational learning boxset.
View more details on other sessions | Keynotes | Technology Showcases | Workshops |
Monday 26th April, 09:30
You are the Key: unlocking opportunities
Our own Director at The Forum, Phil Anderson, kicks off this conference week with the opening keynote on our 2021 Best Practice Theme. Understand how disruption can pave the way for new opportunities and how you can become key to unlocking change and development. Volatility, uncertainty and complexity have always existed, but this new level of disruption gives us permission to say: we don’t know what we are doing. This can allow us to search for new ideas and approaches, where previously we may have accepted the status quo. This is not a false hope, or just a positive spin, but the genuine opportunity we can all grasp. 45mins
Monday 26th April, 14:15
Planning Keynote: Workforce Strategy
Hear from Zoff Makda, Head of Operational Planning, MI and Workflow at Legal & General. Zoff will speak about the evolution of 
planning, to both deliver today and prepare for the future. As an experienced Planning Professional and Awards Judge, he shares experience from the work of his award-winning teams. Discover how Zoff has shaped the role and influence of the planning team to drive strategic change and build a diverse function that can evolve and adapt to keep delivering benefits. 45mins
Tuesday 27th April, 09:30
Harnessing AI & Automation
What is meant by AI and why does it matter? Join Stu Dorman, Chief Innovation Officer at Sabio as explores how AI can be a toolkit for automating analysis as well as providing valuable information to your business. We will cover how you can identify the role of AI in your customer service strategy, and the practical ways you can implement it. 45mins
Tuesday 27th April, 14:15
Learning & Leadership: how do we prioritise our development?
Hear from Ivan Smith, Head of Communications, Learning & Development at Motability Operations. Without learning, can there 
be real leadership? Understand how we connect learning with creating new ideas, so that we can provide vision and leadership to others. Ivan explores different layers of development – from goals set by others, to evolving our own goals or how we combine existing ideas to create new ones. Be challenged on your own approach and re-evaluate how you enable career development as professionals, for you and others. Ivan brings long experience as a Customer Operations Professional and a previous Awards Judge. 45mins
Wednesday 28th April, 09:30
Digital Transformation and the Human Touch
Hear from Emma Botfield, Managing Director UK & Ireland at RS Components. Emma will speak about their digital transformation and how this is complimented with a human touch. Understand how a traditional organisation has approached change, taking their customer and colleagues on a transformational journey. Emma is a Professional Fellow at The Forum and a previous Awards Judge. 45mins
Wednesday 28th April, 12:30
Creative Call Centre Planning at Virgin Media – Consistency, Consolidation & Collaboration
Virgin Media publish their brand values as ‘Insatiable Curiosity’ and ‘Delightfully Surprising’. Mark Brown, Head of Service Delivery at Virgin Media has applied this thinking with rigour to his call centre planning mandate. Discover how Virgin Media plan with consistency, consolidation and collaboration across an expansive model of 7,500 FTE’s with four billion cells of data. 45mins
Wednesday 28th April, 14:15
Returning To Work – Planning & Strategies
The past 12 months have been rocked by disruption; and with lockdown lifting, what are the important factors and considerations you should take into account when planning for your teams to return to the office? Join Chris Haggis, Chief Operating Officer at Sabio as he shares Sabio’s plans and provides his insights into the challenges, research, attitudes, safety protocols, systems/processes and long-term plans you should be thinking about. 45mins
Thursday 29th April, 09:30
Planning Keynote: Workforce Strategy
Hear from Jas Thiara, Head of Group Planning & Scheduling at Severn Trent Water. As an experienced Planning Professional and Awards 
Judge, he shares experience from his current team and his previous roles including roles in Finance. Look at how planning can go beyond the contact centre and form a key part in organisational strategy. Understand the potential for developing the team, bringing in outside thinking and unlocking the potential of talented analysts as their scope of opportunity increases. 45mins
Thursday 29th April, 14:15
Investing in Real-time
Hear from Jen Lee (Chief Strategy Officer) & Paul Milloy (Forefront Executive Council Chair) on how leading organisations are investing in real time capabilities to optimise customer channels, increasing support for agents and creating improved experiences with less effort by leveraging data and Intelligent Automation to deliver increased optimisation.
- The challenge of delivering multi-channel and multi-skilling optimisation is increasing.
- The expectations of customers to manage their contacts effectively is growing.
- The benefits of remote working are being proven but requires cultural and capability changes to become effective & enduring.
- The opportunity to exploit data and intelligent automation in support of the above is now a reality.
45 mins
Friday 30th April, 09:30
Conference Endnote: unlocking opportunities
Hear from Phil Anderson, Director at The Forum on moving from Impossible to Inevitable. Closing Customer Strategy & Planning 2021 and inspiring a year of unlocking opportunities, this endnote will explore different ways to transform as a person, as a team and as an organisation. Take a closer look at key professional skills and hear from a panel of professionals who have all demonstrated how they are key to unlocking opportunities, several of them graduates from our Leadership Assisted Learning Pathway. 45mins