9.00am – 10.00am: Registration

10.00am – 10.30am: Katy Moses, managing director of sector insight consultancy KAM, presents exclusive research on the current state of recruitment and retention across the sector, and where the industry could be doing better.

10.30am – 11.00am: Dawn Browne, people and talent director at Fuller’s, discusses how the company seeks to thrives on creating a generational balance across its circa 5,000-strong workforce, how they have attracted and rewarded different age groups, what that balance brings and how to build it sustainably.

11.00am – 11.30am: Wagamama head of people experience Becky Galligan talks about how a people experience can drive not just engagement but also operational efficiency/effectiveness, and how that continues to be a huge focus for the leading brand, especially with its multi-generational workforce.

11.30am – 12.00pm: COREcruitment founder Krishnan Doyle talks to Clare Lawson, commercial excellence director at Merlin Entertainment, and Alyson Hancock, group people director at The Wonderfield Group, about the challenges the industry faces around working with debilitating diseases in the workplace.

12.00pm – 1.00pm: Lunch

1.00pm – 1.30pm: Creating Industry Leading Internal Progression – Abi Dunn, founder at Sixty Eight People talks to a panel of Pineapple’s top ‘Internal Progression’ performers including Anna-Maria Tsili, head of HR and talent at Itsu, Gina Knight head of people at Flat Iron, and Chris Morgan, learning and development manager at Parogon Group, as they delve into the benefits of internal progression, how these top performers have ensured their talent is ready for the next step and what is the optimum percentage.

1.30pm – 2.00pm: World Class Engagement – Abi Dunn, founder at Sixty Eight People, is joined by Hayley Whitfield, people director at Pizza Pilgrims, Rachel Woodcock, people director at Hickory’s, and Josie Adams, people director at Incipio Group, to discuss how they have helped to create cultures that have led to some of the highest eNPS results in the sector.

2.00pm – 2.30pm: Founders on people – Abi Dunn, founder at Sixty Eight People, talks to Brother Marcus co-founder Alex Large about the role he plays as a founder in creating culture, how he sees this changing as they grow and what his people strategy is at this stage in their journey.

2.30pm – 3.00pm: Coffee Break

3.00pm – 3.30pm: Karen Turton, founder of Purple Story, talks to Paul Barnham and Fran Carpenter, co-founder and people director, respectively, of Red Engine, the Flight Club and Electric Shuffle operator, about the challenges of building a culture in a fast-growing business across multiple concepts and multiple territories.

3.30pm – 4.00pm: Dishoom’s people director Andrew O’Callaghan discusses the continuing evolution of the leading restaurant company’s award-winning people culture, and how it has lowered recruitment fees and staff turnover in the process.

4.00pm – 4.30pm: Mat Finch, managing director of Cornish Bakery, recognised as an outstanding employer in the Best Companies to Work for list, talks about putting a people culture front-and-centre of the business, staff recognition and rewards, the importance of the local community, and its commitment to employee development and recognition.

4.30pm – 4.50pm: Jonathan Lawson, chief executive of Butcombe Group – one of the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For, discusses how all of the group’s employees are as individual as its pubs with no two being the same, how it continues to invest in training and development to underpin that ethos, and how he sees the employee/employer relationship developing.

4.50pm – 5.20pm: Mandy Hickson was rejected twice by the RAF after failing its aptitude test before becoming the second female pilot to fly the Tornado GR4, undertaking 45 combat missions over Iraq. Her career in the RAF provided her valuable lessons in leadership, teamwork, team-building and human error. She talks about how determination and resilience were key to proving inclusivity is important in every organisation.