Events Professional Services

Professional Services

Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit 2026

Trade-orientedBoutiqueIn-personNational draw
📅 14 September 2026 – 15 September 📍 The Manchester Deansgate Hotel, Manchester, GB ↗ 🏢 Forum Events Ltd 🔁 irregular

65

Attendees

An exclusive, invitation-only networking summit that connects senior contact centre and customer service decision-makers with leading industry solution providers through a structured schedule of pre-arranged, personalized one-to-one business meetings and educational seminars.

Digital TransformationSoftware SaasB2b Trade Sourcing contact centrecustomer servicecustomer experiencecall centercrmb2b matchmakingcustomer support

Filter this event to your ICP.

Hundreds of exhibitors here. You probably care about 20–30. Tell us your ICP, we'll find them.

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Delivery within 24 hours · $1,250

⚠️ The exhibitor list for this event isn't publicly accessible yet. We'll work on it once you submit a request.

Venue

The Manchester Deansgate Hotel

Hotel venue · 1,821 m² · 1 halls · ~600 people

A 4-star hotel located in Manchester's first skyscraper (Beetham Tower) on Deansgate. It features extensive, flexible meeting and event space including the 600-capacity Deansgate Suite and Cloud 23 sky bar, commonly used for conferences, exhibitions, gala dinners, and corporate networking events in Manchester city centre.

📍 303 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4LQ, United Kingdom

Operated by IHG Hotels & Resorts

4 events tracked at this venue → Venue website ↗

Organizer

Forum Events Ltd

Private · Hertford, United Kingdom · Founded 1996

An events-led organization providing corporate business matchmaking and networking through tailored forums and summits.

Runs 10 events → LinkedIn ↗

Why people attend

To efficiently discover targeted software solutions and engage in direct, private commercial negotiations with pre-matched tech vendors without navigating a noisy exhibition floor.

Who attends

Senior contact centre and customer services decision makersbudget holdersand professional solutions providers or suppliers.

Exhibitor categories

Artificial Intelligence & AutomationCall Centre Technology VendorsCRM & Customer Service SoftwareOmnichannel Communication IntegrationAgent Coaching & Monitoring Solutions

Sample matches

Filtered to a Series-B SaaS ICP. Your filter will be different.

Sample Match A

example.com

91 — High
Enterprise SaaS200–500 employeesAmsterdam, NL

"Strong ICP match: Series B, EU expansion, VP Engineering and CTO attending."

Sample Match B

example.io

79 — Medium
Cloud platform50–200 employeesLondon, UK

"Mid-stage SaaS with active GTM motion; product-led growth signals align with ICP."

████████ ██████

████████.io

██ — Medium
████████████ 200–500 employees ████, ██

"████████████████████████████████████████."

Submit your ICP
to unlock all matches

Request intelligence →

████████ ██████

████████.io

██ — Medium
████████████ 200–500 employees ████, ██

"████████████████████████████████████████."

Submit your ICP
to unlock all matches

Request intelligence →

Speakers

20 speakers at Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit

N

Nali Giliana

Vice President of Digital Experience · OpenText

"What's on your CX agenda for 2020?"

customer experiencehyper-personalisationvoice search
A

Anubhav Mohanty

SVP, Product & Operations · Callbotics

"Choosing the Right AI Partner for the Contact Centre: A Practical Buyer’s Playbook"

Bio

Anubhav Mohanty is the SVP of Product and Operations at CallBotics, where he leads product strategy, enterprise deployments, and operational scale for the company’s conversational AI platform. With over 15 years of experience in contact centre operations, he has spent the last several years focused on leveraging AI to automate complex, high-volume customer service workflows. His work is centered on transforming traditional contact centre models into outcome-driven, AI-powered operations. At CallBotics, Anubhav is responsible for taking the platform from concept to production, partnering with enterprise organizations to deploy voice AI agents that go beyond conversations to execute end-to-end workflows. He brings a strong blend of operational depth and product leadership, working closely with enterprise leaders across healthcare, telecom, and customer experience to drive large-scale automation and measurable business impact

conversational AIcontact centre automationAI procurement
R

Rachael Abitogun

Head of Customer Care · Wio Bank PJSC

"Choosing the Right AI Partner for the Contact Centre: A Practical Buyer’s Playbook"

Bio

I am an Award winning, versatile, customer obsessed, enthusiastic and proactive leader of people possessing a wealth of commercial skills and knowledge acquired across a range of demanding roles. I have delivered many customer experience and business process improvements over the last 30 years covering many sectors and 5-star brands, including Fintech, eCommerce, Telecoms, Health & Lifestyle, Cargo and Logistics and the Travel industry (Airlines, Trains and Online Travel). Having led teams to success at Qatar Airways, Expedia, Careem, Mumzworld, Virgin Trains are more, I am delighted to be here at the Contact Centre Summit to share ideas and best practices with fellow industry experts

customer experiencecontact centre operationsfintech customer care
R

Rajab Khalid

Director of Customer Experience · International Cineworld, CCI & Picturehouse Cinemas

"Choosing the Right AI Partner for the Contact Centre: A Practical Buyer’s Playbook"

Bio

A background in Operations and Technical project management, Rajab is continually ensuring customers across Regal Cineworld’s cinemas are the focus of the company. Allowing customer feedback and data to tailor experiences and utilising creative innovations and AI-driven automations, Regal Cineworld is ensuring that the guest experience provides an exceptional one, whilst simultaneously meeting various KPIs.

customer experienceAI automationcustomer feedback
C

Chris Brown

Associate Publisher · Automotive Fleet / Bobit Business Media

"Choosing the Right AI Partner for the Contact Centre: A Practical Buyer’s Playbook"

Bio

As associate publisher of Automotive Fleet Chris Brown covers all aspects of fleets, transportation, and mobility. Chris produces and emcees Bobit’s annual Fleet Week, which consists of the Global Fleet Conference, Fleet Forward Conference, and Fleet Safety Conference, along with related regional Fleet Forward Tour stops. Since 2006, Chris has also overseen, produced, and emceed the International Car Rental Show, the largest event serving the auto rental industry worldwide. Chris has won publishing awards for editorial excellence including a Jesse H. Neal Award, three Folio: Eddie Awards, and three Maggie Awards. As an internationally recognized expert on fleets and mobility, Chris has spoken at industry events in the U.S., Brazil, Ireland, and China. He has been sourced and quoted in national media such as Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio.

fleet mobilityfleet managementAI in fleet operations

Also speaking at Fleet Forward Conference, DevOps Live London 2027, WA Mining Conference & Exhibition

E

Edward Winfield

VP of Global Partnerships · Wavenet

"The New Operating Reality – How We Harness True Value in an AI World"

Bio

Edward Winfield manages the development of key partner relationships and driving growth into international markets, focusing on building a global partner eco-system. He has worked with the company since 2007 when he worked for Cable and Wireless and then Vodafone Global Enterprise, where he had extensive experience selling storm to a variety of customers. Since joining Content Guru in 2017, he has built and managed a variety of new routes to market. He manages a range of key partners to deliver value within their consult, build and run practices – by driving opportunities globally and helping them with their market strategy and proposition development.

AI in CXtechnological advancescustomer value creation
J

Jack Barmby

CEO · Gnatta

"From Zero to One with AI in Customer Service"

Bio

Jack is an entrepreneur focused on building practical, scalable technology that improves how businesses serve their customers. For over a decade he has worked at the intersection of customer experience, automation, and growth, driven by a belief that great service should be both human-centred and operationally efficient. He is the founder and CEO of Gnatta, an AI-powered customer experience platform that helps B2C businesses connect channels, data, and AI agents into a single, coherent service operation. Jack leads product vision and strategy, with a particular focus on responsible AI adoption in customer service.

AI adoptioncustomer service automationCX governance
L

Leigh Hopwood

CEO · CCMA

"From Promise to Practice: A New Era for the Contact Centre"

Bio

As CEO of the CCMA since 2020, Leigh draws on her 25 years’ business experience to champion the contact centre industry, holding leadership positions in a number of membership organisations and as a professional marketer. Her mission is to elevate the importance of the contact centre industry, give it a voice in society and to support those that work within it. Leigh has been an awards judge since 2006, is a renowned industry speaker and host of the popular podcast, CareerTalk. She represents the contact centre industry to the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), is Chair of the European Customer Contact Alliance, is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Chartered Marketer.

contact centre trendsAI transformationfuture job roles
G

Gareth Bray

Business Development Director · Premier CX

"How to Start, Grow, and Save with WhatsApp"

Bio

Gareth Bray is a recognised industry leader in conversational commerce and enterprise messaging strategy. As Meta’s third employee in Europe focused on the WhatsApp Business Platform, he was instrumental in architecting the platform’s strategy, building the partner ecosystem, and launching its go-to-market approach across EMEA – growing the business from inception to a multi-million-dollar operation. Over the years, Gareth has advised C-level stakeholders on some of the most complex and high-impact WhatsApp implementations worldwide. His deep expertise spans both the technology stack and the operational realities of deploying messaging at scale. At Premier CX, Gareth acts as a strategic advisor to global communication centres, helping them leverage best-in-class technologies and proven frameworks to transform customer engagement through the WhatsApp platform.

WhatsApp Businessconversational commercecustomer engagement automation
E

Emma Campbell

Inspirational Speaker

"The Vulnerable Caller – Be Calm in Someone’s Chaos"

Bio

Emma Campbell is an author and podcast host known on Instagram as Limitless Em and a speaker on resilience, overcoming adversity and the menopause. Emma has over 66,000 followers on Instagram where she shares aspects of the incredible journey she’s been on as a long term cancer survivor, single mum of teenage triplets and so much more.

vulnerable customersempathy in customer serviceresilience

Also speaking at The Photography & Video Show

A

Andrew Lilley

Senior Director, Sales Engineering EMEA · Wavenet

"Next-Level CX: Powered by Human Intuition and AI Insight"

Bio

Andrew has over 30 years of experience in cloud computing, contact centre, telephony and security industries. His broad technical experience and strong commercial, sales, strategy and leadership skills have equipped him with the skills and passion to identify communication solutions that will prepare businesses for the challenges ahead.

human-AI collaborationagent productivitycloud computing

Also speaking at Clinical Pharmacy Congress North, Clinical Pharmacy Congress London

G

Gerard Dunn

Dispute Solver

"Conflict in the Workplace….Problem or Opportunity?"

Bio

Gerry, known in speaking circles as ‘The Dispute Dissolver’, brings to the stage a treasure trove of insights from 40 years of experience in the delicate art of conflict resolution. With his Scottish charm and an arsenal of humour, he tackles the serious business of workplace disagreements, turning potential discord into opportunities for team cohesion and growth. He has worked with companies of all sizes from start-ups and family businesses to multinationals. He has also served on the Mediation Panel for Sheriff Courts in Scotland for over 12 years. He has received many accolades for public speaking including the Distinguished Toastmaster award.

conflict resolutionworkplace mediationteam cohesion
K

Kirsty Ferguson

Key Account Director · Premier CX

"Video Inside and Out with Premier CX and ESPO"

Bio

Kirsty Ferguson is a trusted CX advisor and Key Account Director at Premier CX. With decades of experience, she has significantly improved customer journeys for major clients on a global scale. Kirsty has been awarded the Customer Service Excellence Award and is recognised as a Top 50 Women in CX. She is also a contributing author on the Good CX Guide and the Good Video Guide.

video in CXcustomer self-serviceemployee engagement

Also speaking at Learning Places Scotland & EdTech Scotland

R

Rachael Stone-Browning

Head of Customer Experience · ESPO

"Video Inside and Out with Premier CX and ESPO"

Bio

Rachael has over 30 years’ experience of working in the Customer Service sector and is currently the Head of Customer Experience at ESPO, one of the largest public sector buying organisations in the UK. In this role, Rachael leads a dedicated team focused on enhancing customer experience and interactions across all touchpoints. With a strong commitment to excellence. With extended experience, she implements innovative strategies that significantly improve customer engagement and loyalty. Rachael brings extensive experience in setting up and leading contact centres with a background spanning local government, outsourcing, and utilities industries.

video in CXcustomer self-servicepublic sector CX
M

Martin Brown

Managing Director · FM Outsource

"Could automation be sending your customers to competitors?"

Bio

Martin is one of the founders at FM Outsource and his main passion is around the changing face of customer service. With over 20 years in the industry, he is a true veteran. A self-confessed nerd with a strong background in digital, tech and finance, he is passionate about helping clients prepare their businesses for future change. Martin has seen how technology can impact different industries and sees the customer service sector as largely unprepared. Customer service requirements as radically changing in the here and now. He has worked with impressive household names such as Superdrug and Asos to help transform their customer service through tech, outsourcing and consultancy. Martin is also one of the founders of the customer service communications tool, Gnatta.

customer service automationdigital transformationoutsourcing strategy

Also speaking at High Wycombe Business Expo, Bristol Business Expo

D

Daniel Lewis

Customer Experience Expert, Owner · Daniel's Chai Bar

"The elevated experience: how to rocket launch your customer experience & your team at the same time!"

customer experienceteam motivationleadership

Also speaking at Business Brilliance 2026, Nordic Business Forum, ILEA Live 2026 Chicago

+ 4 more speakers at this event.

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Frequently asked questions

When is Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit?+
Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit takes place on 14 September 2026 to 15 September 2026.
Where is Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit held?+
Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit is held at The Manchester Deansgate Hotel, Manchester, GB.
Who organises Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit?+
Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit is organised by Forum Events Ltd.
How often is Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit held?+
Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit is held irregular.

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