Shaping the Future of Workplace Culture, Employee Health and Wellbeing
Thursday 26th November, Convene, 155 Bishopsgate, London
Welcome! We’re thrilled to share this year’s MAD World Summit agenda with you. From visionary plenary sessions to deep-dive workshops, there’s so much to explore and experience. Dive into the program below and join us in shaping the future of workplace culture, health, and wellbeing.
REGISTRATION, BREAKFAST & NETWORKING EXHIBITION
Doors open for registration, a hosted networking breakfast and the exhibition. The exhibition hall is open from the start of the day. Sponsors and exhibitors are available for conversation from 08:00, with a dedicated 1-to-1 meeting schedule running throughout the morning for delegates who have pre-booked time with exhibitors or sponsors.
9:00 – Delegates move to main auditorium
08:00 to 09:00
Morning Plenary – One Track – Broadgate Suite
09:00 to 10:30
Welcome to MAD World 2026
9:00 AM
Broadgate Suite
Keynote
The chair welcomes delegates, sets the tone for the day and names what the room has in common: a shared belief that work can and should be better for the people doing it. A brief provocation to frame the day ahead, not a summary of what is coming but a challenge about what each person […]
Speaker
Dr Amrita Sen Mukherjee
Founder and Wellbeing Expert, Your Wellbeing Doctor
The State of the Nation: Taking Stock of Workplace Mental Health
9:10 AM
Broadgate Suite
Keynote
After more than two decades of workplace mental health moving up the organisational agenda, where do we stand today? This keynote offers an honest stocktake of the current landscape, examining where meaningful progress has been made, where the evidence suggests change has stalled, and the challenges that continue to shape the relationship between work and […]
Speaker
Dame Carol Black GBE
Independent Adviser & Chair, Centre for Ageing Better,
The Neuroscience of Performance: Why Wellbeing is the Strategy, Not the Support Act
9:30 AM
Broadgate Suite
In Conversation With
A deep, unhurried conversation exploring what the science of human performance actually says, not the simplified version that circulates in leadership training. How stress, recovery and psychological safety interact at a neurological level. Why organisations that treat wellbeing as a separate workstream are building on unstable foundations. What it genuinely takes to create conditions for […]
The AI Question: What Is It Doing to Us?
10:00 AM
Broadgate Suite
Fireside Conversation
Beyond the productivity debate lies a harder conversation: what is constant connectivity, algorithmic pressure and AI-mediated work actually doing to human cognition, identity and mental health? This fireside brings together an expert in digital wellbeing and a senior people leader for an honest exchange. Not a pitch for solutions, but a genuine grappling with the […]
Speaker
Petra Velzeboer
Author, Digital Wellbeing,
Morning Break
40 Minutes • Exhibition Hall Open • 1-to-1 Sponsor Meetings Active
10:30 to 11:10
PRE-LUNCH · TWO CONCURRENT TRACKS
11:10 to 12:30
CHAIR: Dr Amrita Sen Mukherjee, Founder and Wellbeing Expert, Your Wellbeing Doctor
Making the Case: How Do You Get Leadership to Actually Care?
11:10 AM
Broadgate 1
Panel Discussion
The most consistently cited frustration from wellbeing and HR professionals is the gap between evidence and action at board level. This panel opens with two short data-led case studies from practitioners who have built the business case successfully, then broadens into a frank discussion about what actually works. What data convinced decision-makers? What language landed? […]
Speakers
Claire Joseph
Wellbeing Manager, Pinset Masons, Chair, LawCare,
Peter Cheese
Former Chief Executive, CPID,
Dr Amrita Sen Mukherjee
Founder and Wellbeing Expert, Your Wellbeing Doctor
Susan Gee
Group Occupational Health & Wellbeing Manager, Yorkshire Water
Hayley Farrell
Global Health, Safety, Wellbeing Director, Arcadis
I Got It Wrong: What It Actually Takes to Change a Culture
11:50 AM
Broadgate 1
In Conversation With
Opens with a 10-minute structured case study: specific initiatives, specific data, specific outcomes both positive and negative. The senior executive then stays on stage for an extended conversation that goes deeper into the decisions behind the data. Not a polished retrospective but a genuine account of what systemic change costs, what breaks along the way, […]
Speakers
Louise Wilkinson
Founder, Culture Minds
Annisha Taylor
Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Ofcom and former BBC Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
CHAIR: Emily Warren, Founder and Director, Flourisher
Good Mental Health as a Performance Strategy: Reframing the Whole Conversation
11:10 AM
Broadgate 2
Panel Discussion
The workplace wellbeing conversation is dominated by crisis, deficit and damage limitation. This panel argues for a different starting point: that good mental health is not the absence of illness but an active state that drives better performance, stronger relationships, more creative thinking and more resilient organisations. What does it look like to build for […]
Speakers
Chimen Chauhan
Head of Benefits for EMEA, Disney,
Sobia Afridi
Equality Diversity Inclusion Specialist, Talent Team, People Services,
Nimisha Overton
EMEA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Lead, Canon
Lauren Lunniss
Health & Wellbeing Lead, BNP Paribas
Benefits Design and Financial Wellbeing: What Employers Can Actually Do
11:50 AM
Broadgate 2
Fireside Conversation
Opens with a 10-minute data-led overview: the statistics on financial stress and mental health, what benefits packages currently look like versus what employees say they need, and what the evidence shows about which interventions work. The fireside then examines what meaningful benefits design looks like in practice: moving beyond generic EAP signposting, connecting financial, physical […]
Speaker
Dr Sabrina Robinson
Wellbeing Lead – People & Organisation Development, Essex County Council
Lunch
1 Hour • Buffet in Exhibition Hall • 1-to-1 Sponsor Meetings Active
12:20 to 13:20
POST-LUNCH · TWO CONCURRENT TRACKS
13:20 to 14:3
CHAIR: Dr Amrita Sen Mukherjee, Founder and Wellbeing Expert, Your Wellbeing Doctor
From Risk Assessment to Real Change: Psychosocial Hazards in Practice
1:25 PM
Broadgate 1
Fireside Conversation
The regulatory landscape around psychosocial risk is shifting, but most organisations are still treating it as a compliance exercise rather than a genuine lever for culture change. This panel brings together practitioners who have moved beyond tick-box risk assessments to systemic approaches. What does a meaningful psychosocial hazard framework look like from end to end? […]
Speakers
Nathan Palmer
Senior Consultant, Affinity Health at Work
Kerrie Smith
Global Health and Wellbeing Lead, Mace,
Building Modern Occupational Health Services: Lessons from the European Patent Office’s Transformation
2:05 PM
Broadgate 1
Case Study
This session examines how the European Patent Office redesigned its Occupational Health and Wellbeing services to create a digitally enabled, trusted and employee-centred operating model. Through a practical case study, it explores the role of governance, AI, digital self-service and integrated HR workflows in delivering more efficient, accessible and sustainable services while safeguarding sensitive health […]
Speaker
Silvia Analia Echagüe-Wehling
Director People Services and Well-being – D423, European Patent Office,
CHAIR: Emily Warren, Founder and Director, Flourisher
Men’s Mental Health: Why Generic Wellbeing Fails Half the Workforce
1:25 PM
Broadgate 2
Panel Discussion
Men remain significantly harder to reach through conventional wellbeing programmes and the gap is widening. This panel is a direct, unvarnished conversation about why that is, what approaches have broken through, and what the workplace can realistically do. Contributors address the cultural and social dynamics that make men reluctant to engage, what peer-led and community-based […]
Speakers
Ben Aldis
Health and Wellbeing Specialist, Pelaton,
Dr. Dapo Olafimihan
Lead Clinical Psychologist, Latitude Psychology,
Fiona McAslan
Head of Wellbeing and Occupational Health, Royal Mail Group,
Jamie Broadley
Group Head of Health and Wellbeing, Serco
Inclusion, DEI and the Geopolitical Moment: Holding the Line When the Ground Is Shifting
2:05 PM
Broadgate 2
Fireside Conversation
Opens with a 10-minute case study presenting real data: what happened to psychological safety scores, engagement, and mental health indicators in an organisation that navigated DEI pressure publicly. The fireside then broadens the conversation to examine what employers face more widely: the direct connections between inclusion commitments, psychological safety and employee mental health, how different […]
Speaker
Simon Blake OBE
CEO, Stonewall
AFTERNOON BREAK
40 Minutes • Exhibition Hall Open • 1-to-1 Sponsor Meetings Active
14:35 to 15:15
WORKSHOP ROUND ONE · CHOOSE ONE OF THREE
15:15 to 16:10
Burnout: Spotting It, Stopping It, and Building Systems That Do Not Create It
3:25 PM
Broadgate 1
Interactive Workshop
This workshop moves away from individual resilience frameworks and into organisational design. Working in small groups, delegates map the conditions in their own organisations that generate burnout risk: workload, role clarity, autonomy, recognition, fairness, community. Using real examples brought by participants, the group develops a practical prevention framework that targets the system rather than the […]
Early Careers and the Next Generation: What They Actually Need
3:25 PM
Broadgate 2
Interactive Workshop
Organisations are finding that early-career talent has different expectations, communication norms and mental health challenges than previous cohorts, and that programmes designed for an earlier era are failing them. This workshop examines what sustainable high performance looks like for a generation entering work in an AI-accelerated world, what managers need to do differently, and how […]
Speakers
Rosie Ellis
EMEA and APAC Early Careers Lead, AON
Helen Payne
Principal Human Capital Consultant Strategic Accounts, AON
Beyond the Office: Building Wellbeing for Shift Workers, Night Workers and Field Teams
3:25 PM
Bishopsgate 1
Roundtable
Standard wellbeing programmes are built around office hours and desk-based work. This workshop is for practitioners trying to reach the rest of their workforce: shift workers, night workers, those in manufacturing or production environments, field-based and customer-facing staff, and employees working across time zones. In small groups, delegates map the specific barriers in their own […]
WORKSHOP ROUND TWO · CHOOSE ONE OF THREE
16:10 to 16:55
Benefits Design and the Employee Lifecycle: Making Wellbeing the Default
4:10 PM
Broadgate 1
Interactive Workshop
Wellbeing as a standalone programme is structurally weak. This session works through the full employment lifecycle: attraction, onboarding, development conversations, performance processes, transitions and exits, examining where wellbeing and benefits design can be embedded rather than bolted on. Particular focus on how benefits packages can be made genuinely responsive to different employee groups rather than […]
Neurodiversity, Inclusion and the Wellbeing Environment
4:10 PM
Broadgate 2
Interactive Workshop
How organisations design physical environments, communication norms and support structures has a disproportionate impact on neurodivergent employees, and often improves things for everyone else too. This workshop examines the direct connections between neurodiversity, psychological safety and mental health outcomes, with practical focus on how wellbeing infrastructure can either welcome or exhaust people who process the […]
Speaker
Getting Line Managers to Actually Role-Model Wellbeing
4:10 PM
Bishopsgate 1
Roundtable
Line managers are the most important variable in employee wellbeing and the most common point of failure. This workshop examines why training alone rarely changes manager behaviour, what accountability structures are needed, and how to build genuine psychological safety in teams rather than performing it. Using real scenarios brought by participants, the group practises the […]
Room Reset
10 Minutes • Chairs and partition to be moved before closing plenary
16:55 to 17:05
CLOSING PLENARY
17:10 to 19:00
Even a bunny can make a difference: How to connect your team to the feeling of purpose.
5:05 PM
Broadgate Suite
Keynote
Purpose is powerful—but only when people feel connected to it.Ross creates a deep connection to purpose through warmth, humour, and raw emotion. With stories from his time as an Opera Extra (including a stint on stage as a giant rabbit), playful interaction, and thoughtful reflection, Ross shows leaders how to help their teams feel more […]
Speaker
Ross Reekie
Founder, Rise Consulting
From Conversation to Commitment
5:25 PM
Broadgate Suite
Keynote
The chair draws together the threads of the day, not as a summary but as a challenge. What has the room decided? What is the one thing that has to change? The closing address names the gap between knowing and doing, and asks directly what each person in the room will do differently in the […]
Speaker
Dr Amrita Sen Mukherjee
Founder and Wellbeing Expert, Your Wellbeing Doctor
Drinks Reception, Exhibition Hall and Peer Networking
5:30 PM
Networking / Break
The formal programme ends. The exhibition hall reopens with provider stands, informal conversations and space to follow up on connections made during the day. A colour-coded badge system allows delegates to identify others by role. QR codes on badges enable instant LinkedIn or email connection without exchanging cards. A quiet, low-light room is available for […]
Download the 2026 Programme
Explore the MAD World Leaders Summit 2026 live agenda. Our program is now nearly complete, bringing together core tracks, interactive workshops, and plenary sessions across Workplace Culture, Employee Health, and Wellbeing—addressing key employer challenges including systemic burnout, shifting workforce demographics, and AI acceleration.
Thursday 26th November 2026 | Convene, 155 Bishopsgate, London
Please note: Final timings, session titles, and speakers are subject to change as the final programme locks in.