Welsh Food & Drink Insight Programme Annual Conference 2026 - Navigating Change: Agility, Health and What's Next?

Cost: Free

FOOD & DRINK WALES’ INSIGHT PROGRAMME ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2026

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Navigating Change: Agility, Health and What’s Next?

The annual Insight Conference, held by Food & Drink Wales, is designed to equip Welsh food and drink businesses with the insight they need to thrive in a fast-changing marketplace. The programme delivers high-impact insight into consumer trends, health and policy shifts, retail and out-of-home dynamics, and emerging growth opportunities. Through expert-led sessions, panels and practical case studies, participants will leave with sharper market understanding, new perspectives and clear actions to future-proof their business and drive success in 2026 and beyond.

 

This year’s lineup of speakers and panellists features global industry leaders: IGD, NIQ (NielsenIQ), thefoodpeople, Niras, Samworth Brothers, Worldpanel by Numerator (Kantar), and CGA by NIQ.

 

17th March (9.30am to 11.00am) – Remaining Agile in Current Economic Climate

17th March (11.30am to 12.45pm) – Export: Where to Next?

18th March (9.30am to 11.40am) – What’s Next in the Future of Food and Drink?

24th March (9.30am to 11.15am) – Navigating Change in Retail in 2026

25th March (9.30am to 11.30am) – Navigating Change in Out of Home with the TDP and the Drinks Cluster

 

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17th March (9.30am to 11.00am) – Remaining Agile in Current Economic Climate

• Good News and Uncertain News in the Economy – Donald Webb: Managing Director of Brookdale Consulting

• Building Sustainability into Production – Adrian Nicholls: Head of Sustainability at Niras

• Panel Discussion - Matt Newell: Co-Founder of Hive Mind Mead & Brew Co and Dorota Cartwright: Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Frostkone Food Group

 

17th March (11.30am to 12.45pm) – Export: Where to Next?

• Where to Next? Focus on Ireland and Canada – Donald Webb: Managing Director of Brookdale Consulting

• Panel Discussion – Richard Newton-Jones: Commercial Director of Snowdonia Cheese and Ray D'Arcy: Managing Director of Tregroes Waffles

 

18th March (9.30am to 11.40am) – What’s Next in the Future of Food and Drink?

Focus on Impact of GLP-1 Drugs and HFSS Legislation

• Disruptions in Food and Drink with a Focus on HFSS and Weight Loss Drugs – Shokofeh Hejazi: Head of Insight at thefoodpeople

• Watch Me Think - TBC

• HFSS Implementation in England and Impact/Implementations for Wales – Cathy Capelin: Health and Nutrition Expert

• Panel Discussion on “How businesses have adapted to GLP-1 and HFSS” – Katherine Hardwick: Group Insight Director at Samworth Brothers

 

24th March (9.30am to 11.15am) – Navigating Change in Retail in 2026

• State of the Nation in Retail – Mike Watkins: Head of Retailer and Business and Insight at NIQ (NielsenIQ)

• Retailer Investment and New Concepts in Stores – David Warren: Director of IGD

• Discussion and Case Study on “How we use insight to drive our business” – Rebecca Ross: Category Insight Manager at Castle Dairies

• Q&A

 

25th March (9.30am to 11.30am) – Navigating Change in Out of Home with the TDP and the Drinks Cluster

• State of the Nation in the Out of Home Food – Hywel Davies: Strategic Insight Director at Worldpanel by Numerator

• State of the Nation in the On Trade – Phil Montgomery: Business Unit Director for UK and Ireland at NIQ On Trade

• Value of Welshness Out of Home 2025 – Sophie Colquhoun: Director of Insight Programme

• Discussion and Case Study on “How to launch successfully in OOH and then into retail” – TBC

• Q&A

 

PLEASE NOTE: Registration for this event is ONLY available for food and drink manufacturing businesses in Wales as well as members of the Welsh Government’s food and drink Cluster network - This event is NOT available for those outside of Wales.

For this year's Insight Conference, every effort has been made to secure Welsh language speakers and make this event bilingual. In the circumstances where our conference speakers only speak English, Welsh language will be included in presentations where possible. Attendees are encouraged to engage with the conference materials and sessions in their preferred language.

Welsh Government Insight Conference 2026 Privacy Notice

 

Background

The Welsh Government (‘we’) is the Data Controller for any personal data processed for the purposes of the Market Insight Conference 2026. Brookdale Consulting and Category-Insight UK Ltd are the  Data Processors, and   data will be shared with them to organise the conference. Registration for the event will complete through the ‘Business Wales Event Finder’ site, Welsh Governments corporate event management system.

Data will be processed under Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR legislation as part of Welsh Government’s public task in supporting and promoting the food sector in Wales. The public task is established in section 60 of the Government of Wales Act 2006.

 

What data will be collected?

The following essential personal data will be collected at registration; name, contact email and address and language preference. To establish if you are a Welsh Food and Drink business, we will also ask for your company name and company address.

 

What we do with your data

We will use your personal data to manage your registration, communicate important information about the conference, and ensure you are able to participate fully in the Welsh Government Insight Conference 2026. This includes. 

• confirming your registration and managing attendance, 

• sending joining instructions, 

• agenda updates and event information, 

• ensuring we can contact you about any changes to the event, 

• checking eligibility so that the event is reaching the intended audience of Welsh Food and Drink businesses, 

• carrying out a conference evaluation so that we can understand whether our support is effective and targeted.

 

We may also use your contact details to run a conference evaluation. We do this to ensure our information is reaching the right customer base so that our funding and programs are effective and impactful. 

Should you prefer to opt out of this, then please let us know at FPSU@gov.wales.

 

Who do we share your information with?

Your personal data will only be accessed by staff who need it to deliver the Welsh Government Insight Conference 2026. 

 

This includes the following.

•  Food Division officials  are responsible for managing the conference and monitoring participation.

• Welsh Government officials in the Business Wales Events Team who administer the Business Wales Event Finder registration system.

• Brookdale Consulting and Category-Insight UK Ltd staff who are acting as our appointed delivery partner and who require access to your registration details to organise and deliver the conference.

• Welsh Government Digital and Data teams and contracted IT service providers, but only where this is necessary to maintain or support Welsh Government systems.

 

Your information will not be shared with any other third parties unless we are legally required to do so.

 

How long will we retain your information?

We will retain your personal data for one year ending March 2027 after which time it will be securely deleted. 

 

Your rights

Under the data protection legislation, you have the right:

•   to access the personal data the Welsh Government holds on you.

•   to require us to rectify inaccuracies in that data

•   to (in certain circumstances) object to or restrict processing

•   for (in certain circumstances) your data to be ‘erased’

•   to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection

 

For assistance with any of the above rights then please contact FPSU@gov.wales.

 

Contact information.

For further information on your information rights please contact:

Data Protection Officer

Welsh Government

Cathays Park

Cardiff

CF10 3NQ

 

E-mail: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales  

 

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are:

Customer Contact

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire, SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 01625 545 745 or 0303 123 1113

Website: www.ico.gov.uk

We reserve the right to cancel or amend the timings of these sessions at any point up to the stated start time of the session.

 

Delegates may also cancel their booking at any time by following the link in their confirmation email.

 

Delegates are responsible for ensuring that they can access the website where the conference is delivered and for any charges incurred during attendance of the sessions.

 

Content Delivery by Programme

·         Presentations will be shared with WG Stakeholders after the event and through the WG Food and Drink Insight Hub

·         For specific projects or ad hoc pieces of work, Welsh companies attending/registering for the events may access the presentations. Depending on the data supplier agreement, the data will not be made available on the Insight hub for other companies to access for 6 months.

·         For other outputs, including downloads from data providers’ on-line portals, parts of reports, presentations or data may be shared with Welsh companies e.g. individual slides, depending on the data agreements with each data provider.

 

Company Sharing Rules

·         Companies cannot share slides or data to any 3^rd party; they can only use it internally within their company.  The only exception is that a company may share a few slides/ or some data as part of their presentations to customers. No whole presentations or reports can be forwarded to any 3^rd Party.

·         No data can be shared onto any public forum.

·         Any company that is found to break these rules will be liable for any subsequent action pursued by the data provider.

·         If in doubt, please seek advice from the Brookdale team.

 

No variation to these conditions shall be binding unless agreed in writing between the authorised representatives of the training provider and the delegate and/or their sponsoring organisation. The delegate and their sponsoring organisation acknowledge that these terms and conditions supersede any written or verbal communication.