Fourth edition · One day, one room

Nine people who actually run things, for one day.

No panels, no sponsor keynotes, no networking app. Nine operators walk through one decision each — the numbers behind it, what it cost, and what they would do differently. Then you eat lunch with them.

Saturday 9 October 2027 · 08:30 doors, 09:00 start, 17:30 close
Halden Hall, 14 Bridgewater Street · 240 seats, one auditorium
Lunch, workbook, recordings and the attendee list included
Book a seat — $180 Read the programme first

Early price holds until 15 August 2027 or the first 120 seats, whichever goes first. 182 of 240 seats are already gone.

Seminar audience of participants seated in a conference hall interior
182 / 240 seats taken as of this morning
Early price $180 until 15 August · Lunch and recordings included · Transferable to a colleague, free

Why we built the day this way

Three rules, decided after the first edition went badly in exactly these three ways.

01

One decision per speaker

Not a career retrospective. Each talk covers one call the speaker made, the numbers on both sides of it, and what happened in the twelve months after. Six of the nine include a decision that went wrong.

02

Nobody sells anything from the stage

Speakers are paid a fee and are not permitted to pitch. If a tool comes up it is because the story requires it, and the slide says what it costs.

03

Lunch is the second programme

Ninety minutes at tables of eight, each with a speaker and a named topic on the card. Most people say afterwards that a table conversation was the reason the day paid for itself.

The full day, hour by hour

Morning is finance and operations; afternoon is people and growth. You can switch rooms between talks — the two tracks share the same breaks on purpose.

09:00

Opening: the numbers nine companies would rather not publish

A twenty-minute walk through the aggregate figures collected from the speakers — margin, headcount per million in revenue, the real cost of a support ticket — shown side by side and unattributed.

Nadia Okonjo · Chair
09:30

We cut our product line from forty items to nine

What it did to revenue in the first two quarters (it fell), what it did to the third (it did not recover yet), and why they still say it was right.

Tomás Ferreira · Operations lead, household goods
10:15

Bringing fulfilment back in-house — the full sum

Warehouse lease, four hires, the software, and the eleven months where the outsourced provider was cheaper. The break-even model is handed out as a spreadsheet.

Priya Raghunathan · Founder, direct-to-consumer
11:00

Break · coffee in the foyer

Thirty minutes. The speakers stay in the room rather than going backstage.

11:30

The pricing change that lost us our biggest customer

How the loss was modelled, why they went ahead, and what the account concentration looked like eighteen months later.

Erik Sandström · Managing director, B2B services
12:10

Twenty minutes of questions, no moderation

Floor microphones, first come first served. This slot has run over at every edition; we now schedule the overrun.

The nine on stage

Every speaker still runs the thing they will be talking about. None of them are full-time speakers, which is the entire selection criterion.

Portrait of speaker Nadia Okonjo
Nadia OkonjoChair · former COO, retail groupOpening & closing panel
Portrait of speaker Tomás Ferreira
Tomás FerreiraOperations lead, household goodsCutting the product line
Portrait of speaker Priya Raghunathan
Priya RaghunathanFounder, direct-to-consumerFulfilment in-house
Portrait of speaker Erik Sandström
Erik SandströmManaging director, B2B servicesThe pricing change
Portrait of speaker Marisol Vega
Marisol VegaFounder, agencyThe first manager
Portrait of speaker Daniel Achebe
Daniel AchebeHead of people, logisticsPublishing salary bands
Portrait of speaker Yuki Tanabe
Yuki TanabeMarketing director, softwareThe $180k rebrand
Portrait of speaker Hala Mansour
Hala MansourFinance director, manufacturingTable host · unit economics
In the ticket

What $180 actually buys

Everything below is included in every ticket type. The premium tier adds access, not essentials — nobody should have to upgrade to be able to eat.

  • A seat in the auditoriumNumbered, chosen when you book, with a working power socket at every second seat.
  • Lunch at a hosted tableHot food, dietary requirements collected at booking, ninety minutes rather than a rushed forty.
  • The workbookSixty pages: every speaker's numbers, the spreadsheets, the redacted internal memos, and space to write.
  • Recordings of all nine talksPublished within two weeks and yours permanently. The closing panel is audio only, by request of the speakers.
  • The attendee listName, role and company for everyone who opted in — sent the morning of the event, not a week later.
Participants in discussion at a hosted lunch table during the seminar

Tickets

Prices rise on 15 August and again on 25 September. They never come down, and there is no discount code — the early price is the discount.

Standard

$180
until 15 August · then $240
  • Auditorium seat, chosen at booking
  • Hosted lunch and refreshments
  • Workbook and all recordings
  • Attendee list and evening drinks
Book standard
Only 40 of these

Front table

$310
until 15 August · then $380
  • Everything in Standard
  • Front six rows and priority at the floor mic
  • Speaker breakfast, 07:45, before doors
  • Printed transcripts posted after the event
Book front table

Team of five

$720
five seats · one invoice
  • Five standard seats, seated together
  • Names can be changed until 1 October
  • Invoice with PO reference, net 30
  • A debrief pack for the colleagues who stayed behind
Book for a team

Every ticket is transferable to a colleague free of charge up to 24 hours before the doors open — just reply to your confirmation with the new name. Refunds in full until 25 September; after that the catering is already paid for.

Getting there

Halden Hall, 14 Bridgewater Street

A 1908 grain exchange with one 240-seat auditorium and a foyer big enough that the breaks do not turn into a queue. Step-free from the street to every room, and the lift reaches all three floors.

By train: eight minutes on foot from Central station, exit 3. A steward meets the 08:12 and the 08:40.
Parking: 90 spaces beneath the building, $9 for the day, booked through the ticket confirmation email.
Doors 08:30. Badges are pre-printed by surname at three desks; arriving at 08:55 still gets you seated before the opening.
Accessibility: step-free throughout, hearing loop in the auditorium, and two quiet rooms on the first floor.
Map showing the location of Halden Hall and the nearby station

Partners, and what they get

Five partners fund the catering and the recordings. They get a table in the foyer and their name here. They do not get stage time, the attendee list, or a say in the programme.

Partner company logo Partner company logo Partner company logo Partner company logo Partner company logo

Practical questions

Yes, free of charge, up to 24 hours before doors. Reply to your confirmation with the new name, role and dietary requirement and we reprint the badge. After that cut-off the badges are already boxed, but reception will handwrite one.

Full refund until 25 September. After that the catering and the room are paid whether you come or not, so we offer a transfer to a colleague or a credit against next year instead. If you are ill on the day, tell us and take the credit — nobody has to prove anything.

All nine talks are recorded and sent to ticket holders within two weeks; they are not published publicly. The closing panel is audio only and the lunch conversations are not recorded at all, which is why people say things at them.

Not a live stream, deliberately — a half-attended stream changes how people speak in the room. There is a recordings-only pass at $70, released after the event, which includes the workbook but not the attendee list.

Yes on the team ticket, net 30, with a PO reference and a tax-compliant invoice. Single tickets are card only. If your procurement process needs a supplier form completed, send it with your booking and it comes back the same week.

Something to write with — the workbook is paper on purpose. A laptop is fine but the auditorium wifi is deliberately modest, and there is no charging at the front tables. Dress is whatever you wore to work last Tuesday.

Booking

58 seats left at the early price

Fill this in and the payment link, the seat map and the dietary form arrive within the hour. If you would rather talk to a person first, WhatsApp us and someone answers between 09:00 and 18:00 on weekdays.

  • $180 until 15 AugustThen $240, and $290 from 25 September.
  • Free transfer to a colleagueUp to 24 hours before doors open.
  • Full refund until 25 SeptemberCredit or transfer after that date.
Ask a question on WhatsApp

Reserve your seat

One confirmation email, one reminder the week before, and the attendee list on the morning. That is the entire mailing schedule.