BEHIND THE BOARDS: HOW THE 2027 PROGRAMME WAS BUILT

Every October the same thing happens: the pitch form closes, I export the spreadsheet, and four hundred session ideas stare back at me. Seventy-two slots. You do the maths, then you make tea, then you start reading.

THE WALL DECIDES

Each pitch becomes one index card: title, format, who it is for. The cards go on the wall in the programming room, and for two weeks that wall is the whole summit. Cards move, cluster, argue with each other. A keynote about stagecraft pulls a workshop about prototyping next to it. A quiet mentoring format finds its audience between two loud panels.

About a third of the wall survives. The test is never “is this good” — nearly everything pitched is good. The test is “does this make its neighbours better”. A programme is a sequence, not a list.

WHAT CHANGED THIS YEAR

Three things. First, workshops got longer and fewer: ninety minutes each, capped at forty people, so everyone leaves with something they made. Second, the mentor tables moved to the middle of day two instead of hiding at the edges. Third — and this one took the most arguing — the closing party is part of the programme, not an afterthought. The roof, the visuals, the whole thing.

• 400 pitches read, every one answered personally
• 72 sessions across three stages and the workshop floor
• 19 first-time speakers, 9 returning favourites

If your pitch did not make it this year, pitch again. Half of this year's keynotes were second-time applicants — the idea needed a year, not a rejection.

ProgrammeBackstage2027 Edition