Who you will learn from

Executive coach · Ghana · Opening keynote: The Human Edge

Twenty years coaching executives through the kind of change that cannot be project-managed. Her doctorate looked at what clients actually take away from a coaching relationship a year after it ends, and the answer surprised her enough to rebuild her own practice around it. She works in Accra and London.

Team coach · Ireland · Workshop: Contracting with a whole team

Works with leadership teams that have agreed to be coached without agreeing on what for. Her workshop is about the conversation that should happen before the work starts, and what it costs when it does not. Fifteen years in team coaching, most of them in organisations going through a merger.

Supervisor · Sweden · Workshop: Supervision that changes practice

A supervisor to coaches across the Nordics, and a persistent critic of supervision that makes everyone feel better and changes nothing. He will bring a real case, take it apart in the room, and ask the people watching what they would have done differently.

Leadership coach · India · Panel: Coaching in complexity

Coaches senior leaders in organisations where the right answer changes faster than it can be agreed. She came to coaching from twelve years in operations, which is why her questions tend to be about what will actually happen on Monday rather than about how the client feels.

Coaching psychologist · UK · Workshop: Evidence a client can feel

Spends half his week coaching and the other half reading the research so his clients do not have to. His session is about the gap between what the evidence supports and what sells well, and how to talk about the difference to a sceptical client without sounding defensive.

Systemic coach · Italy · Panel: Coaching in complexity

Works systemically with family businesses, where the organisation chart and the real one are rarely the same document. Twenty years of it has left her with strong views about whose problem is actually being brought to the session, and she is happy to be argued with.

Career coach · Nigeria · Workshop: The conversation nobody starts

Coaches people through career decisions they have been circling for years. Her workshop is about the opening question - the one that gets a client to say the thing they came to say - and why most of us ask it far too late in the relationship.

Somatic coach · Spain · Closing reflections

Brings the body into work that is usually done entirely in language. He is sceptical of his own field's more extravagant claims and says so often, which is roughly why he was asked to close the day rather than open it.