Join FlexMR, and a roster of 13 insight leaders, on April 21 at The Lowry in Manchester for an afternoon dedicated to exploring how communities, closeness, communications and CX improve Customer Salience.

Ready to turbocharge your insight team and take the lead in building a customer-centric culture? This exclusive, Northern event explores the practical steps research teams can take to deliver long-term value, create a culture of customer-centric decision making and solve some of the most pressing commercial challenges.

The event will run from 12:00 noon with a hot fork buffet served on arrival. You'll hear inspiring presentations, witness the return on the infamous Customer Insight Room 101 and be treated to a brand new panel experience. So join FlexMR, plus a soon-to-be announcened roster of experts to learn the secrets of Customer Salience and how to effectively operationalise it. Agenda to be announced soon.

This event acts as a companion to the annual Customer Salience Summit, held in central London every October. Hear what delegates have previously had to say about the event, which has been consistently. rated 4.5+ / 5 by attendees:

"The day was really inspiring. I've come away with lots of new ideas" - Rose Hadden, Head of Customer & Market Insight at City & Guilds

"A fantastically organised event with great speakers and content offering food for thought plus many actionable tips" - Anna Apostolopoulos, Global Director of Insights at Pearson

"Really relevant, engaging and honest speakers. Plus the summit was great for networking too" - Andy Smith, Customer Insight Manager at NFU Mutual

Tickets are free to clientside researchers, marketing and customer experience professionals - but spaces are limited. Reserve your seat for free today.

What's on the Agenda?

Despite running for one afternoon only, we've packed this agenda full of practical sessions and take-home advice. You'll hear from a diverse range of clientside leaders across insight, CX and marketing, plus a curated set of experts. We'll dissect the challenges facing the market research and insight industry today, the intersection of data, customer experience and driving marketing success. Here's a taster of what to expect:

• Presentation - The State of Customer Salience: Dispatches from the Age of AI

  Join FlexMR CEO Paul Hudson for a review of how customer insight is changing in 2026 and what it takes to place customers at the heart of decisions.
   

• Presentation - Communities & Closeness: The #1 Formula for Shaping a Customer-Centric Culture

  An in-depth case study from Ellie Osborne, Senior Insight Lead at Saga, that explores how to build interest in customers (and shatter misconceptions) through a potent combination of insight communities and closeness.

• Panel - Customer Insight Room 101

  Back after a two year hiatus, Room 101 pits two teams of researchers against each other - competing to convince you of what hinders Customer Salience that should be banished from the insutry for good.

• Address - Realising the Strategic Mandate of Customer Insight

  What elevates insight to influence? Join MRS CEO Jane Frost to explore how insight teams can capitalise on the mandate of market research to become strategic partners to senior leadership and promote evidence-based decision making.

• Fireside Chat - How to Build an Effective Voice of Customer Programme

  A casual conversation with Daniel Lewis, Head of Marketing at Hodge Bank, about what makes a successful voice of customer programme, how customer perspectives support marketing outcomes and how to gain internal influence.

• Panel - Talk It Out: The Key to Better Client-Agency Relationships

  Join Claire Rainey, Head of Insight at VMO2 and Gurpinder Sidhu of Curiouser Insights for an electrifying debate about what causes client-agency relationships to break down - and they talk through solutions that benefit both sides.

• Panel - The Hot Seat: Customer Insight Lessons Learnt the Hard Way

  We learn from failure, but rarely talk about it. This grounbreaking and thought provoking panel aims to change that with brave clientside panellists sharing the mistakes and challenges that helped them find future success.

• Plenary - What You Can Do (Now) to Re-Wire Business Decision-Making

  Join Paul Hudson one last time for a roundup of strategies and tactics from the day, plus a forward-looking challenge that asks what you'll do next.

Who Can Attend?

This event is exclusively designed for clientside researchers, marketers and customer experience professionals. Due to limited capacity, we are unable to accommodate agency or independent attendees.

The event is free, but attendance requires advance registration. Your ticket includes lunch on arrival, access to all sessions - including the popular Room 101 panel - and post-event networking.

A Primer on Customer Salience

About FlexMR

FlexMR is the Insights Empowerment Company. As markets grow and consumers evolve, brands must fight to stay at the forefront of industry. To succeed in this competitive landscape, research teams need an insights partner they can rely on. A partner dedicated to their success. That’s what we do. We thrive on making insight more relevant, more accessible and more impactful - whilst overcoming the challenges that modern research, product and marketing teams face.