The Strategic Pause
Our annual flagship conference. One room, six speakers, and eight hours of unhurried strategy conversation for one hundred and twenty senior practitioners who would rather think than react.
About the day
The Strategic Pause is the day we built the practice around. One hundred and twenty senior leaders, six commissioned talks, no sponsor stages, no exhibition hall, and a deliberately long lunch in the middle of the day. Each speaker has been briefed by the chair for three months in advance, and every attendee receives a printed reader in the post two weeks before the event.
The point is not novelty, and it is not headline names. The point is to give you the company of peers who have read the same material in advance, the time to disagree in public without performing, and a chair who will not let any session run shallow. We programme The Strategic Pause once a year, in October, and the room is the product. The patron seats tend to go in May, the standard tickets close in August.
What you will leave with
- A shortlist of three strategic moves you intend to make before year end.
- Direct contact with forty to sixty senior peers across sectors.
- A printed reader you will quote from for the next twelve months.
The chair
Dr Aisha Okonkwo, Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London School of Economics, chairs The Strategic Pause each October.
Dr Aisha Okonkwo, chair.Most organisations do not have an information problem. They have an attention problem dressed up as one.
The schedule
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09:00
Registration and coffee
Printed readers and name cards on the table. The chair opens at half past.
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09:30
Chair’s framing
Dr Aisha Okonkwo
The case for slower thinking inside organisations that reward speed.
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10:00
The cost of the always-on board
Margaret Holroyd
What two decades of board observation tell us about decisions made in the wrong rooms.
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11:15
Reading the second memo
Niall Brennan
Why the most useful document in any organisation is the one written for the meeting after the one you are in.
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12:30
Lunch, properly
Ninety minutes, seated, no panels. The phones stay in the cloakroom.
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14:00
On attention as a professional discipline
Priya Ramanathan
A working talk on how senior operators protect their thinking time, in practice.
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15:15
The negotiation you postponed
Tomas Eriksson
Case studies from cross-border commercial negotiations, with the names changed.
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16:30
Closing conversation and Q and A
All speakers
Forty-five minutes, fully open floor, chaired.
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17:30
Drinks until late
The bar is open until the conversations finish.
Tickets
Early bird
£580
Released in May, capped at thirty seats. Includes printed reader and post-event booklet.
Standard
£880
Full programme, printed reader, lunch, drinks reception, and the post-event booklet.
Patron
£1,280
Front-table seating, pre-event dinner with two of the speakers on the evening of the fourteenth, and a year of priority booking.
A note on the room. The patron seats tend to go in May, and the standard tickets close in August. If you need a hotel near Conway Hall we can recommend two within a five-minute walk. Email hello@thinkprofessionally.com for details.
How to book
Booking is in pounds sterling, payment is in full at the point of booking, and we issue a VAT invoice automatically. Transfers to a named colleague are free up to seven days before the event. The full refund window closes twenty-eight days before. For details, see the terms and conditions.
If you have any questions before booking, email hello@thinkprofessionally.com and we will reply between nine and six, Monday to Thursday, and Friday mornings.