The C&IT Festival of Forums is heading to Liverpool – and we’re doing things a bit differently. We’re bringing together the UK’s top corporate, agency, and association planners for three days of high-impact connection in a city that’s world-famous for its big ideas, energy and hospitality. This isn’t about sitting in a dark conference hall for eight hours. It’s about getting away from your desk and actually having the headspace to think. We’ve traded the usual trade show noise for something much more human: real conversations, smarter meetings, and social experiences that you’ll actually enjoy.

The #AEME2026 overarching theme is ‘Events for a Changing World: Responsibility, Equity, and Impact’ which will explore events as sites of responsibility and contestation, as well as spaces for imagination and meaningful impact. In particular, the Forum welcomes work that critically engages with events education, its pedagogies, curricula, institutional contexts, and partnerships as a key lever for shaping ethical practice, inclusive futures, and socially responsive event professionals in an uncertain world.

The Clarion Awards celebrate film, live and audio experiences that use creativity, craft and influence to create measurable positive impact for people, communities and the planet. They recognise work that goes beyond commercial success to drive progress through, environmental responsibility, social good, education, wellbeing, inclusion and innovation, demonstrating how our industry can be a force for positive change.