DINNER
Tuesday 24th November 2026
The Stock Exchange Grill
18.45
Drinks reception
19:40
Opening Remarks
Co-Founder & CEO, Fast Growth Icons
19:45
Welcome Address from our Dinner Sponsor
Barclays
19.50
Seated Dinner
Enjoy three courses from The Stock Exchange’s exclusive menu
22.30
Carriages
MAIN DAY
Wednesday 25th November 2026
The Edwardian Manchester
08.00
Breakfast & networking
09.00
Host
Uday Singh
Co-Founder & CEO, Fast Growth Icons
09.25
Welcome address by our Lead Sponsor
Shahbaz Qasim
Managing Director, Rothschild & Co
09.30
Building a Culture of Excellence: Operating Principles,
Feedback and Assessment
Heather Staff
Co-Founder, Street Group
To create and maintain rapid growth, you can’t have passengers. But how do you build being excellent into the day-to-day of running a business? Heather replaced Street Group’s values with nine operating principles, and built their own people management system to manage performance. We’ll discuss how they evaluate high performers and how they create a culture of feedback.
09.55
Leading Through the Hard Stuff
Verona Frankish
CEO, Yopa
A candid look at what leadership really demands when the stakes are high: making difficult people decisions, navigating board and shareholder tension, balancing growth with profit, and building a culture that can move fast without breaking and keeping trust.
10.20
What Keeps People Awake at Night?
Is it managing underperforming teams, difficult board relationships, balancing growth with profitability, or maintaining culture while scaling? An open discussion of the challenges founders face and how others have tackled them.
11.10
Morning Break
11.35
The Acquirer’s Playbook: How Professional Buyers Value Businesses, and What to Expect When You Sell
Dave Stevinson
Group CEO, QBS Software
This session will look at how a serial acquirer sources and values businesses through a dispassionate lens. Dave will present their acquisitions process and key considerations on what makes a good target, We’ll then flip the discussion to ask what this means for you when you come to sell and what to expect.
12.00
Roundtable Networking & Discussion Sessions
13.00
Seated lunch
Seated founder’s lunch by the chef at the Edwardian
14.35
Strategic Value Creation: Building with the End in Mind
Mike Bristow
Founder, CrowdProperty
How does your strategy define how you win in your market? How does thinking about the buyers’ long-term value creation help you build a more valuable business? What are the key mistakes people make when they think about selling their business? Mike will draw on his experience of building and selling CrowdProperty as well as his career in advising and investing in businesses.
15.00
Topic to Be Announced Shortly
John Warburton
CEO, Konsileo
15.25
Roundtable Networking & Discussion Sessions
Coffee served to the tables
16.25
Closing Address
Uday Singh
Co-Founder & CEO, Fast Growth Icons
16.30
Champagne Reception
17.30
Close
