Cambridge, 14–15 September.

Chief Education Officer, Cambridge University Press & Assessment. The first person ever in this role, appointed July 2026, so she is currently defining what it covers. Before this she led Cambridge Partnership for Education, the arm that works with governments to turn education policy into implementation: teacher development, curriculum reform, system improvement. Her career sits exactly on the line between what a system requires and what schools can actually do.

Why now CUP&A is the organisation most likely to grasp "a mandate without an instrument" in commercial terms: they sell assessment and teaching materials into the same systems our research maps. A new CEO in a new role is also actively looking for the themes that will define her tenure.

Draft objective Routing, not validation. She leaves having told us where inside Cambridge this belongs and to whom: a name in assessment, one in international education, one in research. We never ask her to endorse Embreier.

Angles we see 1 · Two organisations looking at the same gap: open with the policy brief as shared ground, a systems conversation between peers. 2 · The Swiss reference market: a live national mandate, the capacités transversales, with a working delivery model inside it, which is the kind of case her international work trades in. 3 · Teacher development: the credential and annual recertification as the vehicle that assessment organisations name but do not themselves run.

For your view Which of her three hats to lead with: assessment, international education, or partnership work. What a first meeting with a newly appointed CEO should deliberately not attempt. And what we must not claim while our own measurement is still entering validation.

Director of the PEDAL Centre at the Faculty of Education, and the LEGO Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning. A practising child and adolescent psychiatrist by background, which is rare in an education faculty: he designs and runs controlled intervention trials with children, and PEDAL's stated purpose is bridging research to practice and policy. He has spent his career asking exactly our question: does a structured activity change something measurable in a child.

Why now The scientific core of the validation pathway. If the evidence design is wrong, everything downstream weakens; if a PEDAL-class researcher shapes it, the study is credible before it begins.

Draft objective His advice, not his agreement. What separates a serious intervention study from a weak programme evaluation, what to measure before, during and after, and what Cambridge researchers would need to see before becoming involved.

Angles we see 1 · The consultation angle: arrive as a founder asking a scientist how to be tested properly, which is both honest and the approach a researcher respects. 2 · Fidelity as a research object: a written, scored delivery standard is itself something study-able, and unusual in this field. 3 · The play adjacency: the Make and Belong phases speak his centre's language without borrowing it.

For your view Whether the commercial layer belongs in a first conversation at all, or stays entirely out. What a realistic first vehicle looks like: an advisory conversation, a studentship, a small observational study. And whether the play framing helps or distracts.

Group Chief Education Officer of Cognita Schools: 90+ private schools across 21 countries, including Stamford American and the Australian International School in Singapore. He owns education quality across the group, and Cognita has form in structural partnerships with outside institutions, including university collaboration on teacher development. A group this size buys systems, not programmes.

Why now The first real test of whether the model works across a school group, and the UK, global and Singapore bridge inside one company. One serious school-group conversation strengthens the next funding round more than another investor coffee.

Draft objective Learn how a group CEO evaluates an external method: what evidence, what pilot shape, what internal champion he would need before a structured conversation is worth his time.

Angles we see 1 · The consistency problem: delivering the same developmental quality across 21 countries is exactly what a certified, audited method exists for. 2 · Singapore: their schools there sit under the character and citizenship mandate our research maps. 3 · Educator development: the credential as something the group gives its own teachers, a retention offer as much as a curriculum one.

For your view Whether the group education function is the right door, or whether a single named school head converts faster and safer. And what the minimum proof pack is before this conversation opens at all.

Head of Product & Programming for David Lloyd Clubs, central UK team: 149 premium clubs, roughly a quarter of members under 16, and an active pattern of partnering with outside providers on family programming. Their known weakness, by their own industry's account, is holding the child past about age seven, when generic kids' clubs stop being enough.

Why now The family-distribution lane: their environment, membership and footfall, our method, credential and measurement. The Geneva relationship gives us a warm route most UK founders do not have.

Draft objective "Is there a strategic fit between what you have built and what we have built?" Never "can we run classes at David Lloyd." The first meeting establishes peer footing or nothing.

Angles we see 1 · The seven-plus problem: the Arc is designed to hold exactly the child their kids' offer loses. 2 · The parent proposition in one line: gym time for you is development for your child. 3 · Measured programming as their differentiator against every other club chain's generic activities.

For your view Timing above all: open now on the warm route, or after the UK education story is stronger. And whether a premium leisure partner this early helps or complicates the institutional positioning.

125 premium schools, roughly 95,000 students, positioned at the top of the private market. Acquired Geneva English School in January 2026, so they now own a major school in our home region.

Why now The cleanest Swiss bridge of any school group: the opening line writes itself. Currently ranked behind Cognita, ahead of Nord Anglia.

Angles we see 1 · The Geneva school as a natural first site in a market we already serve. 2 · Premium positioning that matches ours without translation.

For your view Keep, move, or park. And whether the ranking behind Cognita is right, given the Geneva asset.

Europe's most active edtech fund. Ben Wirz, partner leading the London office; Isabella Vahdati, principal. Their published thesis: as software gets more intelligent, human skills and capability become more valuable.

Why now Their thesis is our headline nearly verbatim, and the Cambridge trip is a natural occasion to convert a cold name into a conversation.

For your view Light touch only: whether anything in the education evidence story argues for meeting them a quarter later instead, with the UK validation conversations already open.

Founder and GP. $75M pre-seed fund for the future of learning and work; cheques $0.5 to 2.5M; writes publicly about human capital infrastructure.

Why now Method, credential and measurement as one system is precisely his stated frame. Anchor or co-investor profile at our size.

Amy Weatherup and Robert Swann, co-chairs. Founder-heavy angel network centred on the Cambridge ecosystem.

Why now Optionality, not core. The short thesis at the drinks; a proper meeting only if someone bites.

CEO of St John's Innovation Centre, our host, and on the Monday panel. Once the delegation flies home, he is the standing Cambridge relationship.

The meeting is for "Who are the two people in Cambridge you think we really should know?" His answer routes the next visit.

Managing Director, on both panels, and the person who knows both ends of the Lausanne to Cambridge corridor.

The meeting is for The same question, privately. He also knows whom not to spend time on, which is worth as much.

Editor of the region's business paper, with his office inside SJIC. The annual awards dinner is at Queens' College on the Wednesday, invitation-only.

Why now Meet the editor, never pitch a feature. The story writes itself: Swiss company, Cambridge corridor, human capacity after AI.

The university's commercialisation arm, and the independent-schools umbrella bodies.

Why now One question at the Tuesday lunch is enough: "If we develop research with Cambridge, where do you become relevant?" ISC waits for UK evidence; IAPS (prep schools, from age 2) fits our 4 to 9 band best when that day comes.