Name: Emerging Talent Summit, London
Start: 2026-06-10T09:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-06-10T14:30:00+01:00
Location: The Cumberland Hotel, London

About this Event

Date June 10 @ 9:00 AM - 2:30 PM BST

Venue / Location The Cumberland Hotel, London Free

Delegates are welcome to join us from 08:30 for refreshments and the opportunity to network with peers ahead of the main programme.

Our Emerging Talent Summit returns this June, bringing together senior Talent Acquisition, HR and workforce leaders for a high‑impact morning of insight, challenge and practical discussion.

As organisations enter 2026, early‑career and emerging‑talent functions face a new set of pressures: AI reshaping candidate behaviour, shifting policy landscapes, and increased scrutiny on budgets, diversity initiatives and programme impact. Rather than a shortage of early‑career applicants, employers are grappling with high application volumes, AI‑generated content, and the need to differentiate genuine potential from noise.

This highly interactive event creates a trusted space to explore what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to change. Through expert‑led discussion, real case studies and peer‑to‑peer insight sharing, we’ll examine how organisations can optimise their emerging‑talent strategies to meet higher expectations for transparency, skills development and long‑term career pathways.

Key Themes

• Building Skills‑Forward Early Talent Programmes – With entry‑level roles evolving and mid‑level pipelines becoming more critical, organisations are redesigning early‑career programmes to develop capabilities faster and create clearer progression routes. This includes more intentional skills mapping, accelerated development paths and better alignment between early‑talent roles and future workforce needs.

• AI & the New Candidate Journey – Two‑thirds of students now use AI during the application process, fundamentally reshaping employer expectations for assessment, authenticity and experience. We’ll explore how attraction, screening and assessment are being redesigned for an AI‑enabled generation — and how organisations can ensure fairness, reliability and trust.

• Diversity Beyond Compliance – We’ll look at what’s driving real outcomes in early‑career cohorts — versus what no longer meets regulatory, cultural or leadership expectations.

• Skills Over Pedigree – Employers are increasingly prioritising skills signals, adjacent potential and demonstrable learning agility. This shift is accelerated by AI‑driven role evolutions and shorter skill half‑lives. We’ll examine how forward‑thinking organisations are adapting their hiring frameworks.

• Evolving the Candidate Experience & EVP – We’ll explore how organisations are adapting their employee value proposition and early‑career experience to support engagement, wellbeing and longer‑term retention in 2026 and beyond.

In an environment where ROI and impact are under greater scrutiny than ever, this Summit will help you make confident, evidence‑based decisions about what to prioritise — and how to demonstrate the value of your emerging‑talent strategy.

This event is invitation only for Talent, HR and workforce leaders.

Agenda

08:30 - 09:00 Registration, Coffee & Networking Welcome breakfast and informal networking to set the tone for the day.
09:00 - 09:30 Opening Remarks, Ken Brotherston, CEO, TALiNT Partners
09:30 - 10:00 Unifrog Presentation and Q&A
10:00 - 10:30 Keynote with Asif Sadiq, Chief Inclusion Officer, Warner Bros. Discovery Belonging at Work: Embedding Inclusion in Your Organization
10:30 - 10:50 Coffee and Networking
10:50 - 11:20 Panel Q&A: Key trends in Emerging Talent
11:20 - 11:50 Roundtable: Building Your Priorities
11:50 - 12:20 Panel Q&A: Engagement in the age of AI
12:20 - 13:00 Lunch & Networking
13:00 - 13:10 Instant Impact Presentation, Simon Russell
13:10 - 13:30 Debate Sessions
13:30 - 13:40 Presentation with Sabina Socias Garcia, Harver: Assessing AI Skills
13:40 - 14:10 Panel Q&A: Driving Fair and Effective Assessment to Build Long Term Employability
14:10 - 14:30 Reflections & Wrap‑Up
14:30 - 15:30 Networking Drinks Reception Relaxed discussion and networking among speakers, delegates, and sponsors.

Speakers

Brian Sinclair Aon UK Early Careers Talent Acquisition Manager

Brian is a strategic and inclusive Early Careers Recruitment Leader with over 20 years’ experience delivering innovative attraction, engagement and development programmes across the UK and Europe. Brian has designed and executed employer brand strategies that attract diverse early talent to pan-European graduate, intern, apprentice and MBA programmes. Brian is adept at managing cross-functional relationships with business leaders, marketing, and HR teams to ensure aligned messaging, compelling campus engagement, and a best-in-class candidate experience. Brian is a recognised LinkedIn thought leader and industry speaker on early careers recruitment, DEI, and candidate experience.
Asif Sadiq Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Inclusion Officer

Dr. Asif Sadiq MBE is Chief Inclusion Officer at Warner Bros. Discovery. He previously served as Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Impact at adidas and has held senior leadership roles at The Telegraph Media Group, EY Financial Services, and the City of London Police. With over 20 years of global experience across Europe, the Americas, Middle East, Africa, and Asia, Asif is a recognized leader in diversity, equity, inclusion, sustainability, and social impact. He serves on the board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and advises Kaplan International. A multi‑award‑winning practitioner, he was awarded an MBE in 2017 and received an honorary doctorate from The Open University in 2023.
Orianne Wightman Arm Emerging Talent Director

Orianne Wightman is a high impact Early Careers and Emerging Talent leader with over 10 years of experience across agency, in house, and consultancy. Known for turning ambition into action, she continues to build thoughtful strategies that connect attraction, hiring, and development to real business outcomes. Expect pace, high standards, and a bias for action wherever she goes.
Lucy Browne Shell Integrated Resourcing - Delivery and Expertise
Bethan McAuley Astroscale Head of Talent

Bethan currently heads up talent for leading space sustainability company Astroscale in the UK, and has worked in the space industry for over 7 years. Her prior recruitment career spans many industries, and she studied for Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology at the University of London.

Bethan is passionate about skills development, early careers and supporting access to the space industry for more than just engineers! Her recent achievements include roles within the Space Skills Advisory Panel, and Advanced Manufacturing Equality Taskforce, delivering a world-first In-Orbit Servicing Graduate Scheme, and founding an HR Community for the UK Space Industry – ConstellHR.
Milena Davis VINCI Construction Head of Early Careers

With a strong foundation in learning and development, Milena has led a range of impactful initiatives that support apprentices, placement students, and graduates. Her approach fosters a culture of inclusion, empowerment, and continuous learning—ensuring every individual feels supported and valued from day one. She works in close partnership with colleges, universities, and training providers to ensure high-quality programme delivery and to help apprentices thrive, progressing confidently in their career journeys.
Sarahjane Potter Mastercard Director, Campus Talent Acquisition - EMEA

Sj is an early in career talent professional with 15 years of experience transforming how organisations attract, develop, and champion emerging talent. She is driven by a passion for building scalable strategies, securing business advocacy for entry‑level hiring, and designing standout onboarding experiences that accelerate the development of future leaders. In her role at Mastercard, Sj implements global emerging talent strategies while advocating for the unique nuances of the EMEA region, ensuring programmes are not only globally aligned but locally impactful.
Caroline Collins Unifrog Head of Employer Partnerships

Unifrog, the universal destinations platform, supports over 2.3 million students to make informed decisions about their future and build successful applications. A certified B Corp on a mission to level the destinations playing field, Unifrog is used by over 65% of UK state schools and colleges, has 35,000 student logins per day, and is fully embedded in our partner school curriculums. Unifrog helps you to supercharge your early careers recruitment and inspire your future workforce with access to the biggest, most engaged community of students from every background. Raise brand awareness amongst a diverse talent pool, upskill the next generation of your workforce, and develop a talent pipeline of engaged students. We also enable you to connect with motivated teachers and careers leaders through the Unifrog online community and in-person conferences.

Visit their website to find out more: www.unifrog.org/employers
Rhian Harris Unifrog Employer Partnerships Manager

Unifrog, the universal destinations platform, supports over 2.3 million students to make informed decisions about their future and build successful applications. A certified B Corp on a mission to level the destinations playing field, Unifrog is used by over 65% of UK state schools and colleges, has 35,000 student logins per day, and is fully embedded in our partner school curriculums. Unifrog helps you to supercharge your early careers recruitment and inspire your future workforce with access to the biggest, most engaged community of students from every background. Raise brand awareness amongst a diverse talent pool, upskill the next generation of your workforce, and develop a talent pipeline of engaged students. We also enable you to connect with motivated teachers and careers leaders through the Unifrog online community and in-person conferences.

Visit their website to find out more: www.unifrog.org/employers
Oscar Sadler Wiser Head of Client Strategy

Wiser is a London-based early talent specialist and full-service employer branding partner, on a mission to change the way people think about work. We combine research, strategy, creative, and activation to help organisations attract, engage, and retain the next generation of talent. Taking a people-first, insight-led approach, we build standout early careers strategies and bring them to life through content that cuts through the noise. Outside of our 150 in-house creatives, our ecosystem includes Wiser Academy, our network of 250+ student ambassadors across 65 UK universities enabling authentic, peer-to-peer connection and recruitment on the ground. We’ve partnered with leading brands including Sky, BBC, and Clifford Chance to create inclusive, high-performing early careers brands and application processes that cuts down volume, focuses on quality and delivers on the promise made to your candidates. Find out more at wearewiser.com
Sabina Socias Garcia Harver Director of People Science

Harver is the industry-leading hiring solution that helps organizations optimize their talent decisions. Rooted in over 35 years of rich data insights backed by I-O psychology and cognitive science, Harver delivers a suite of automated solutions that enable organizations to engage, hire, and develop the right talent in a fast and fundamentally less biased way. Having processed over 100 million candidates, Harver provides trusted, data-driven, and adaptable offerings, including assessments, video interviews, scheduling, and reference checking. Harver has helped more than 1,300 customers take the smart path to the right talent.

Visit their website to find out more: www.harver.com
Johnson Adeyanju Handshake Senior Account Executive

Handshake partners with leading employers across the UK and Europe to build stronger early talent pipelines through precision hiring. With over 1 million verified students and graduates in Europe Handshake enables organisations to identify, engage and convert high-intent candidates at scale.
By combining targeted outreach, behavioural insight and employer brand visibility, Handshake helps early careers teams move beyond volume-led recruitment to more strategic, data-informed and student-centred hiring.

Visit their website to find out more: https://joinhandshake.co.uk/employers
Simon Russel Instant Impact Director Data and AI

Hire like you mean it.

Instant Impact is the embedded recruitment partner for ambitious businesses that want to turn talent acquisition into a competitive advantage. We put industry-specialist recruiters and an AI-enabled tech stack inside your business, so every hire builds capability that belongs to you, not a function you rent from an agency.

Working as an extension of your team, we bring market-leading technology and flexible expertise to give clients control where there’s chaos and momentum where there’s friction. The result: faster time to fill, lower cost per hire, reduced agency dependency, and a hiring function that gets sharper every month. See our case studies and client portfolio: instant-impact.com