Thought Provoking Insights, AI Challenges and More at ElevateHER 2026
Thought Provoking Insights, AI Challenges and More at ElevateHER 2026
There are conferences where you sit, listen, take a few notes and head home. Then there are conferences that actively challenge the way you think, encourage you to contribute, and leave you with new relationships as well as new ideas.
ElevateHER 2026 was firmly in the second category.
Hosted by St Prex Consulting and Founder Paul Nelson, who listeners of The Business of Football Podcast will also recognise as a previous guest, the event was designed to be much more than a series of presentations. It created an environment where delegates were encouraged to collaborate, challenge one another and step outside their comfort zones in support of the continued growth of the women's game.
The perfect start at UA92
The conference began with Wednesday's pre conference event at the UA92 Academy, led by Chris Mumford.
Rather than opening with introductions centred around job titles and organisations, Chris challenged everyone in the room to think differently about personal branding through one simple exercise.
Your origin story.
The framework itself was straightforward.
Beginning
Create the hook, set the tone, introduce your personality and establish the challenge.
Middle
Demonstrate three of your defining qualities through real experiences.
End
Circle back to your opening and leave people with something memorable.
One point Chris made really stood out.
Give people a reason to remember you, not to impress them.
It sounds simple, but it completely changes the way you introduce yourself.
We were placed into new tables and worked on developing our own origin stories before pairing with someone we had never met. We then took turns sharing our stories and receiving feedback.
As an experience at a conference, it broke the ice almost immediately because we were forced to share who we were before our titles. It created a level of personality that is rare at many football business conferences. The conversations for the rest of the two days became much easier because everyone had already experienced those authentic introductions together.
Chris also delivered a brilliant session around creating a digital LinkedIn CV.
Some of the standout advice included:
Start with a concise summary of the value you provide.
Focus your work experience on measurable achievements and statistics.
Keep education concise.
Finish with personal interests that make you memorable as a person.
We even had the opportunity to review each other's profiles, another subtle but effective way of encouraging conversations and helping delegates build genuine relationships.
Learning by doing
The conference then shifted gears.
Rather than sitting through presentations all day, delegates were immersed in practical simulations that mirrored the kinds of challenges football organisations face every day.
Our first challenge focused on the commercial growth of Castlefield FC Women.
The fictional board had approved a £50,000 investment alongside limited staff capacity, and our objective was to design a realistic commercial growth system that the club could actually deliver.
Immediately the room transformed.
Every table became a boardroom.
Ideas were debated, priorities challenged and different perspectives emerged as each group worked under genuine time pressure.
What made the exercise particularly engaging was that the simulated stakeholders had their own briefing papers and objectives. It wasn't simply about producing a strategy. It was about communicating it, defending it and adapting it in response to questions and competing priorities.
It created a real sense of teamwork.
Everyone became involved.
Everyone contributed.
It encouraged autonomy, stepping outside comfort zones and demonstrating leadership, even from delegates who may have initially been quieter.
Performance under pressure
The final day's simulation followed a similar format but focused on performance rather than commercial operations.
This time the challenge centred around improving player availability, reducing injuries, strengthening promotion prospects and maximising the return on an annual performance investment.
Once again, the workshop format proved incredibly effective.
Rather than passively listening to theories, delegates were actively applying them.
You could see different leadership styles emerging across every group. Some naturally facilitated discussion, others analysed data, while others challenged assumptions and brought fresh perspectives into the conversation.
It was learning through experience rather than learning through observation.
AI that started conversations rather than ended them
One of the highlights of the conference came during the afternoon AI session.
Rather than presenting artificial intelligence as a finished solution, the discussion encouraged delegates to think critically about where AI could genuinely support football organisations.
The conversation explored how automation could improve operations, remove repetitive administrative work and allow clubs to spend more time focusing on people rather than processes.
More importantly, it sparked discussion.
Every answer seemed to create three new questions.
Delegates challenged one another, explored different possibilities and uncovered a wealth of new ideas that could support the growth of the women's game in practical and sustainable ways.
The session demonstrated something that is often forgotten when discussing AI.
Technology is only valuable when it creates better conversations, better decisions and better outcomes for people.
More than a conference
What impressed me most throughout ElevateHER was the balance between teaching and participation.
Many conferences are content heavy.
Others are networking events with very little substance.
ElevateHER managed to strike an excellent balance between the two.
Delegates learned things they had never encountered before while also being given the space to demonstrate their own expertise, contribute their own experiences and challenge each other's thinking.
The simulations created engagement.
The workshops created collaboration.
The discussions created curiosity.
By the end of the event it genuinely felt like everyone in the room had contributed to the experience rather than simply attended it.
Final thoughts
ElevateHER 2026 was a resounding success.
It combined practical learning, thought provoking discussions, meaningful networking and challenging simulations in a way that kept every delegate engaged from start to finish.
The women's game continues to evolve at an incredible pace and conferences like this play an important role in preparing the next generation of leaders, practitioners and innovators to help shape its future.
A huge thank you to Paul Nelson and the team at St Prex Consulting for creating such an engaging experience, to Chris Mumford for setting the tone with an unforgettable opening session, and to everyone I had the opportunity to meet across the three days.
I left Manchester with pages of notes, new connections and plenty of ideas that I am looking forward to putting into practice.
Sometimes the best conferences do not just teach you something new.
They change the way you think.
