Why we built a festival, not a conference

The honest answer is that I don't think the world needs another conference. Most of us have sat through enough panels in enough hotel ballrooms to last a lifetime. They're fine, and you usually learn something. But I don't know many people who'd say the most important connection of their career happened in a breakout room.

People Buy From People

My first job was selling door to door in the valleys, and it taught me something I've never forgotten. People buy from people. Not from a brochure or a slick pitch, but from someone they've met and decided to trust. Everything I've seen since, working with entrepreneurs, has only backed that up.

What AI Is Changing

AI is taking on more of our work every month. It drafts, it researches, it gets through the admin. I use it every day and I think it's brilliant. But I've noticed something. The more of our working day happens through a screen, the more people want the things a screen can't give them: a proper conversation, a bit of real time with someone, the kind of chance meeting that ends up mattering. You can't really plan for those moments, but you can make them far more likely.

"The more of our work AI does, the more the human bits matter."

Frankie James, Founder, Ideas Fest

Why The Field Works

That's what a festival does better than any conference. People slow down. Nobody's racing between meeting rooms or keeping one eye on the clock. You wander between zones, stop for a coffee, and end up chatting to whoever's next to you.

At Ideas Fest that might happen in one of the big tops, in the Unapologetic space, at the UK StartUp Awards final on the first night, or in the queue for lunch or even, as has happened many times before, the queue for the toilets.

This year 6,000 business leaders and entrepreneurs spent two days with us at Champneys in Tring. Seeing that many people properly talking to each other is the best proof I've got that we're onto something.

Come & See It For Yourself

Ideas Fest 2027 is on 8th and 9th September, back at Champneys. If you've only ever done conferences, I'd love you to come and see the difference.