Winning for the customer,
wins the customer
Customer Alpha
12th May 2026 | London, UK
Competing on experience,
winning the customer
Customer Alpha
Customer Alpha is a leading customer experience event bringing together a cross-industry community of professionals who never stop striving to better understand and deliver for customers. It’s a platform for learning about the behaviours and complex drivers that underpin decision making, and the tools and technologies that help win the hearts and minds of customers.
By leveraging leading edge tools and technologies, forward looking firms gain the customer insights needed for market success. Whether you’re from a large organisation or a small enterprise, outdated assumptions about customers no longer suffice. Join a diverse community of brands and come away with the knowledge and tools to build a successful customer strategy.
Check out the 2026 preview
Key event stats
Senior
attendees
Day of
innovative content
Rockstar speakers
across all stages
Stages
of content
Key themes
Understanding the modern customer
The modern customer moves at a fast pace. From changes in preferences and needs, to the growth of the digital channels and emerging technologies, end users both shape and are shaped by the digital revolution. But customers aren’t fully reliable when sharing what drives them. It has never been more important to the success of an enterprise to keep up to speed with the factors and behaviours that motivate the modern customer.
Designing a winning customer experience
Winning and retaining customers means delivering the kind of journeys that translate into sales and retention. A poorly designed customer journey across any channel can turn the customer away in moments. From decision, to purchase, to ongoing engagement, discover how successful companies are winning and retaining the customer.
Data as a way of knowing
Data is at the core of understanding customers and knowing how to create the best products and services. It also informs how, when and where customers are most likely to respond. Data driven personalisation, AI tools and technologies, and algorithms that deliver great outcomes are all key components of the modern tool kit for successful businesses.
Tools and strategies for brand success
Modern customers, whether interacting physically or digitally, have high expectations. Building and maintaining a successful brand requires effort but a single bad experience can quickly damage reputations and undermine trust. Understand various models for building and maintaining customer relationships and the tools and technologies supporting success. Explore the drivers of customer loyalty in a world where choice is just a Google search away – or handed over completely to an AI agent.
Past attendees include
Financial institutions, customer experience leaders, technology providers & policymakers
Sponsors
5 star sponsor
4 star sponsors
3 star sponsors
2 star sponsors
1 star sponsor
Rockstar speakers
Our line-up is growing daily. Check back for updates...
Trustpilot
Booking.com
Commerce
Frasers
Bolt
The Very Group Limited
Jaja Finance
Phorest Salon Software
Zilch
Glovo
Lloyds Banking Group
Mollie
Barclays
Glovo
Lycamoney
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking
Youlend
AMINA Bank
Moonrise by Lunar
Klarna
HSBC
Virgin Media
NatWest
Stripe
Bank of America
Marqeta
BEES
TSB Bank
Tide
CarTrawler
Independent
YouLend
The Whisky Exchange
Venga
Starling
Natwest
Nationwide Building Society
Allica Bank
NatWest
Host of Experience by Design Podcast at Bentley University
WorldFirst
BPG Strategy
Celent
University of Oxford
S&P Global Inc.
Abarta Consulting
May Business Consulting
Pockit & Monese
Agenda
11:20 – 11:25 - Welcome to Customer Alpha Stage
11:25 – 11:40 - Keynote
Dr. Gary David, Professor of Sociology and Experience Design, Bentley University
11:40 – 12:15 - Please speak to my agent
12:15 – 12:50 – I only want to ask once: Mastering unified customer experience
Speaker
Alicia Skubic, Chief Customer Officer, TrustPilot
Rachel Magnay, Global Marketing Leader, Brand, Growth & Customer Strategy
Nessa O’Gorman, Director, Product Management, Expedia
Carl McCartney, Global Sales Enablement Director, Les Mills
12:50 – 13:40 – Lunch and networking break
13:40 – 13:45 – Welcome back to Customer Alpha
13:45 – 14:20 – Designing for the generations
14:20 – 14:55 – Smarter ways to engage
Speakers:
Michiel Smet, Head of Operations, Pockit & Monese
14:55 – 15:25 – Networking and refreshments break
15:25 – 15:30 – Welcome back to Customer Alpha
15:30 – 16:05 – Is loyalty a programme?
Moderator:
Lisa Addison, Chief Growth, Sales & Revenue Officer, Independent
Speaker:
Natalie Gray, Senior Marketing Manager – Brand & Loyalty, Frasers Group
Aleksander Kaczmarek, VP of Loyalty, CarTrawler
16:05 – 16:40 – Social scroll to seamless buy
16:40 – 16:45 – Closing remarks
16:45 – 17:30 – Networking and drinks reception
Content, community & experience
Look forward to lively conversations, new connections, and good times
Iconic London
venue
Customer Alpha will take place at Convene 22 Bishopsgate.
The perfect space to experience our live content sessions and busy exhibition area, right in the heart of London.
Drinks
reception
To finish off a day of inspiring content and smart networking, attendees can join a drinks reception on the expo floor whilst networking with strategic partners.
VIP Hosted Meetings
Programme
Fast-track access to the industry leaders and technology providers you want to meet with efficiency and ease. Look no further to strengthen existing partnerships and build new connections.
Co-located with
One event day, unlimited opportunities and an interconnected community
FTT Payments is dedicated to exploring the latest trends, technologies, and business model innovations across the payments industry creating a gateway to the future of transactions, offering a unique platform to learn, share, and shape the next wave of payment solutions.
Future Identity Customer will bring together 600+ key players in identity and customer experience to explore how consumer facing businesses in retail, gaming, mobility, entertainment, travel, healthcare and other key sectors, are approaching digital identity.
FID IAM brings together top minds to crack the code on everything from identity orchestration that makes friction vanish, IAM strategies that empower both employees and customers, and to cutting-edge solutions for managing the growing army of non-human identities.
Sponsorship & exhibition
opportunities
Discover the unique sponsorship and exhibition opportunities available at Customer Alpha 2026. Click on the button below to find out more and how you can get involved.
What does our community think?
"The Customer Alpha event was an extremely relevant and detailed event which was of benefit to companies across many industries. The VC Innovations preparation for the event was very professional and it was a pleasure to be a part of."
LEE TAYLOR
ONLYFANS
"Customer Alpha was a wonderfully curated event with some of the best insights I’ve heard to date around CX.I particularly enjoyed working with Giovanna Mefli, John Sills and Susannah Simmons on our panel discussion and I also enjoyed hearing Livia Bernadini from Zag on the panel titled, “how can businesses better serve customers during a time of rising prices and stretched incomes.” I thought this topic was extremely relevant and timely.Looking forward to participating in more conferences organized by VC Innovations!"
ELENA CICCOTELLI
TELEPERFORMANCE
"The organization of the event was remarkable. Although there were countless speakers, I could sense the people in-charge provided personal attention to any request and question. At the event itself, from the very first moment I could feel completely aware of how things are handled and what should I do. An untrivial point was the panel actually started exactly on time.
Also the speakers that shared the stage with me – Andrew (Disruption Banking), Alexandra (Bike Club) and Edward (Pret A Manger) – handled the event professionally and I could sense we had a nice chemistry."
SAGI AVITAN
PAYLOW
"Customer Alpha was an excellent experience. Talking on a panel gave me exposure to a wide range of perspectives and allowed me to field questions from peers. Listening in to other speakers and asking questions was valuable to my organization's pressing needs. Beyond the panels, networking with peers was smooth and productive. I'm looking forward to opportunities surfaced through that process."
WESLEY MANN
ETSY
"I had a great time networking and engaging in insightful and thought provoking discussions. This was a very well organized event and it was fun meeting some old acquaintances and making new ones. I would highly recommend these events to anyone looking to hone their networking skills, meet some great people and brainstorm together to expand their perspectives. Enjoyed every minute of it."
DMITRIY KURBANOV
DISH
“The depth of expertise and diversity of thought at Customer Alpha made it one of the most interesting and helpful conferences I've attended this year. It felt less like a conference and more like a community of intelligent, curious, and connected people who share similar professional and career goals.”
TREVOR MENGEL
CLOUTDESK
Industry partners
Contact us
Reach out to the Customer Alpha team with queries on how to get involved through sponsorship, exhibition, speaking or media partnership opportunities
Sponsorship & exhibition enquiries
Marketing & media enquiries
Content & speaking enquiries
Marketing & media enquiries