Call for Speakers: May conference on change
One-day Conference Fit for Change: Thriving in an evolving research landscape
PLEASE NOTE: THIS CALL FOR SPEAKERS CLOSED ON 26 FEBRUARY 2026
The research and insights profession is operating in an environment of continuous change, driven by rapid advances in AI and automation, shifting client expectations around speed, cost and value driving a need to do more in less time and with fewer people, to name just some of the pressures.
Add to this the barriers to change inherent from needing to respect established good practice in the methodologies that underpin research, and commercial constraints that can mean changes are taking place while work is live and is under the client’s gaze.
The pressure to move faster and cheaper can sit uncomfortably alongside professional standards built for care, rigour and defensibility. As presenters at our most recent conference Beyond the Hype: Mastering GenAI for Real World Insight Applications demonstrated, AI has a positive role to play in this, but that requires skilled management to effect change.
Fit for Change aims to present practical ways to adapt to today’s new landscape as individuals, teams and organisations, without losing quality, confidence or professional identity, by being, in part:
- Human-centred as well as technology led
- Pragmatic rather than speculative
- Supportive rather than prescriptive
- Facilitating change across the spectrum from individual to organisational
Proposed conference structure: Three pillars
To give coherence to the agenda and clarity to audience and to speakers, the conference will be structured around these three interlocking pillars:
Pillar 1: The personal lens – Staying effective
Pillar 2: Getting work done without breaking things
Pillar 3: Helping change work in real teams
These pillars focus on the everyday realities of building, running and supporting survey and insight work; not change for its own sake. We are seeking presenters who can address one or more than one of these pillars.
In responding to this call for presenters, please help us to understand which pillars you will address and how.
Pillar 1: The personal lens – Staying effective
Focus: how people doing the work stay effective, credible and sane as tools, expectations and roles keep shifting.
Example topics:
- Keeping your skills useful when the tools keep changing
- Coping with overload, speed and constant “new stuff”
- Knowing where you add value beyond just building or executing
- Learning what you need quickly, without running yourself into the ground
Key question: How do I keep doing good work and staying relevant when the ground keeps moving?
Pillar 2: Getting work done without breaking things
Focus: how surveys, data and insight work gets delivered in the real world.
Example topics:
- Changing how work is done without losing quality or trust
- Deciding what to automate and what still needs human control
- Keeping standards high when workflows are evolving fast
- Trying new tools or approaches without risking live work or client delivery
Key question: How do we change how we work without breaking surveys, data or client commitments?
Pillar 3: Helping change work in real teams
Focus: How teams deal with change
Example topics:
- Leading teams when people have very different reactions to change
- Upskilling people without overwhelming or alienating them
- Dealing with scepticism, resistance and change fatigue
- Knowing when to pause, stabilise and stop changing things for a while
- Traditional training course approaches being made redundant to self-guided experimentation and curiosity
Key question: How do we help teams adapt without exhausting or losing people?
Who this conference is for
Fit for Change is designed for people working across the research and insights ecosystem who are navigating ongoing change in how work is delivered, supported and valued.
The conference will be valuable for:
- Practitioners involved in designing, building, running or supporting surveys and insight work, who want to remain effective as tools, processes and expectations evolve
- Operations, delivery and support teams who want to understand how change affects their roles and how they can adapt, embrace and support new ways of working
- Technical, methodological and hybrid roles balancing innovation with quality, stability and day-to-day delivery
- Team leads and managers helping others navigate change while maintaining service levels and client trust
- Client-side insight and research operations professionals managing scale, governance and internal expectations
What we want delegates to do differently after the conference
Rather than focusing on what delegates will know, this conference is designed around what we want them to do differently once they return to their roles.
After attending Fit for Change, we hope that delegates will be more likely to:
- Make clearer, more confident decisions about when to adopt new tools, approaches or ways of working and when to hold back
- Actively redesign small parts of their own workflows or roles, rather than waiting for large-scale transformation programmes
- Talk more openly and constructively about change with colleagues, clients and teams, using shared language and practical examples
- Prioritise effort more deliberately, letting go of practices that add little value while protecting quality where it matters most
- Experiment safely and pragmatically, applying incremental improvements rather than pursuing perfection
The deadline for proposals was Monday 26th February 2026. THIS CALL IS NOW CLOSED.
For further information and to submit your proposal please visit https://ascconference.org/call-for-speakers-may26
Please note:
- Presenters are given 20 mins to speak plus 5 minutes for Q&A.
- One free-of-charge ticket to the event is offered to each accepted presentation. Additional co-presenters are welcome to attend for a reduced fee.
- This is an in-person event, and subject to funding, we aim also to live-stream the event to an international audience and to make each presentation available to view after the event on the ASC website.
- In line with ASC’s policy of sharing knowledge freely, presenters agree to allow ASC to make their presentation available to view on the ASC website after the event.
- We will inform everyone responding to this call for speakers if their proposal has been accepted by the beginning of September.
- Please keep the 21st May free in case you are invited to present.
Please contact admin@asc.org.uk if you have any questions