On a warm Thursday afternoon in London, a room full of recruitment leaders gathered at The Ivy Tower Bridge for something that's becoming increasingly rare in a world of webinars and slide decks – a proper conversation.
Hosted by Jon Abraham from Bullhorn, the occasion delivered exactly what it promised. No keynotes. No pitches. Just sharp minds, candid talk, and a few hours that moved the dial.
The big themes? AI- but not as you've heard it before.
The room went deep on the operational reality of agentic AI. How autonomous agents are beginning to take on entire recruitment workflows. What that means for how your agency is structured. And whether your team is ready for a world where some of their daily tasks are handled before they've had their morning coffee.
Digital workers came into sharp focus too. The blend is already happening – the question leaders are wrestling with isn't if, it's how. How do you manage a team that's part human, part automated? How do you maintain culture, quality, and accountability when the lines are shifting?
But the conversation didn't stay in the tech weeds. There was a strong thread running through the afternoon about what makes recruitment, well, recruitment – the human instinct, the relationship, the read of a room that no agent can replicate. Automation has a place. But so does protecting the soul of what we do.
The peer-to-peer market session rounded things off as it always does – candid, unfiltered, and genuinely useful. What are leaders seeing out there? How are they responding? What's coming next?
No one left with a brochure. Everyone left with a clearer head.
Great spending time with Jen Kinnear, Sachin Ruparelia, Rohan Shah, Roxanne Kirkhope-Winnan, Elliot Lack, Sarah Wixon, Will Gardner, Naseem Khan, Matt Fox, Janine Cresswell, Rupert McSheehy, Dan Sherratt, Clare Persey, Gareth McNeill, Gareth Jones, Andy Hinxman, Kathy Walker, Coleen Clohery.
