Partner Article

Why Business Leaders Should Deep Dive into the Value of Events

By Rachael Clamp, Director of Ardesey with Kevin Sorkin, CEO, Pendragon International Media

Kevin Sorkin, CEO at Global Government Forum (GGF), discussed how due to the size and complexity of the public sector, identifying and reaching the right leaders is often a major challenge for businesses. This is where well attended, focused public sector events offer a golden opportunity for business to share knowledge and insights to establish important connections.

Direct access to decision-makers driving change

One of the most compelling reasons for business leaders to attend Innovation 2026 is the calibre of public-sector participation. The event convenes senior leaders from across central government, defence, health, and security-individuals actively responsible for implementing policy and operational change.
“If you are a private-sector organisation, you will meet people you would never have expected to meet from the public sector,” says Sorkin. “These are real leaders driving real change.”

For companies seeking to work with government, the opportunity extends beyond marketing visibility. Participation allows organisations to better understand the operational challenges departments are facing and to position their solutions within a clearly defined transformation agenda.

 

Understanding the real priorities behind government transformation

Innovation was originally created to solve a key challenge facing public servants: identifying the right networks, expertise, and solutions needed to respond to increasing citizen expectations, faster technological change, and a more volatile geopolitical landscape. That same environment is now shaping procurement, partnerships, and policy direction-making insight into these priorities highly valuable for business leaders.

“We have spent a significant amount of time identifying what leaders actually need in terms of knowledge and insight to accelerate change,” Sorkin explains. “The information shared at the event is focused on practical delivery, helping organisations do things more effectively and efficiently when they return to the office.”
The programme itself is developed through structured engagement with public-sector leadership, including interviews with senior officials such as Permanent Secretaries. This ensures that the event agenda reflects real operational priorities rather than theoretical discussions-providing private-sector participants with a clear understanding of where investment and collaboration opportunities are emerging.

A cross-sector environment that mirrors real-world challenges

Innovation 2026 is structured around three interconnected strands: the core innovation programme, defence and security (including cyber and resilience), and health. This design reflects the reality of today’s public-sector challenges -digital transformation, resilience, data, and service delivery- cut across departmental boundaries.
“The content will be more diverse than ever,” Sorkin notes. “Delegates will hear from experts across government, defence, security, resilience, and health, both in the UK and internationally. Where topics are cross-sector relevant, they will be discussed collectively; where challenges are specific, delegates will receive more targeted insight.”

For business leaders, this cross-sector perspective provides a more complete view of how different parts of government approach transformation, enabling companies to identify opportunities to apply solutions across multiple domains rather than engaging departments in isolation.

A trusted environment for building strategic relationships

Beyond formal sessions, the event plays a significant role as a trusted networking environment where public-sector leaders can engage openly with peers and commercial partners. In a period where global collaboration structures are evolving and traditional institutional networks are under pressure, practitioner-level relationships are becoming increasingly valuable.

Innovation creates a space where leaders can identify the right people working on similar challenges and build relationships that continue well beyond the event itself,” says Sorkin. “That is important for public servants, and it is equally important for organisations that want to support them.”

Delivering measurable value for attendees

The success of the event is evaluated through detailed audience feedback, including Net Promoter Score and product-level satisfaction measures, alongside practical indicators such as repeat attendance across the two-day programme. For Sorkin, however, the ultimate measure is whether delegates leave with actionable insight that improves their day-to-day effectiveness.

“Every attendee’s time is extremely valuable,” he says. “If the event does not add value to their day job, then it has not done its job. Our aim is to ensure that the time spent at Innovation is returned many times over through improved effectiveness and stronger networks.”

A platform for long-term strategic engagement

As governments accelerate transformation programmes across digital infrastructure, resilience, security, and public-service delivery, the ability for business leaders to understand emerging needs -and to build trusted partnerships early- has become a significant competitive advantage. Innovation 2026 offers a forum where those connections can be established within a context focused on practical outcomes rather than theoretical discussion.

“If you want to be part of helping government deliver change, this is where those relationships are made and strengthened,” Sorkin concludes. “You are not only investing in visibility; you are investing in the ecosystem that enables transformation.
For business leaders seeking insight, influence, and access to the people shaping the future of public-sector delivery, that ecosystem is precisely what makes such an event worth prioritising.”

 

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Moya Galal .