It’s been one whole week since the biggest (and our best!) Evolution ever. The sore feet may have disappeared, but the smiles remain as we settle back into some sort of post-Evo normality.

With a mix of panel discussions, informative presentations, insightful fireside chats, and a sprinkle of surprises in the mix, Evolution seamlessly fused brilliant insights from industry trailblazers with the chance to brainstorm alongside peers. And just like we always do at Verve, we had a blast while doing it!

We scored a top-notch keynote! ⚽️

Feedback has already been flooding in with delegates star-struck by our keynote speaker – Jill Scott MBE, who was fresh back from Australia where she’d been the official pundit for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Jill spoke about the challenges she faced being a woman in a traditionally male environment and how ‘as humans we can educate people more than anything’ on how to close that gap that still exists between males and females. We’re all still in awe (and slightly worried about how we’re going to top such a great keynote next year…if you’ve got any tips, let us know as we set to work on finding our ‘top talker’ for next year!)

To Hot Shot, or not to Hot Shot, that is the question… 🤔

At Evolution, we wanted our delegates to leave feeling enriched with real, tangible takeaways – tools, tips and techniques that they could immediately integrate into their firms the next day. And so, this year we introduced a new concept to our programme – ‘Verve Hot Shots’. Four 4 mini sessions, designed to be just 5 minutes long – no waffle, just cut straight to the chase, were hosted by subject-matter experts from across the team.

• Abbie King – The Art of Digital Marketing
• Jo Campbell – Super Suitability Reports
• Kim Binks – Top Training Tips
• Christian Markwick – Perfecting Business Proposition

We were confident when designing the programme that they’d be well received and exactly the kind of bitesize info delegates would value, however, the speed at which people scribbled and the resounding feedback we’ve had about them, means you can expect to see them become a regular series. If there’s a topic that springs to mind for you, get in touch and we’ll consider them when plotting sessions.

We want to Dex you up! 💻

One of the most notable parts of the day was our official launch of Dextera™– our new bespoke technology. For the first time, Cathi shared the motivation and vision for Dex, a dashboard designed to support firms in managing their business operations from one platform – whether it be a firm framework with deadlines and reminders personal to them, annual testing and CPD tracking for the whole team and live bulletins, templates, checklists and guides. You can start a 7-day free trial here and see for yourself…

Picture this 📸

This year, we planned to capture the day in lots of different formats and so we tried something slightly different – a visual scribe. Gone are the day of boring meeting minutes, instead, a graffiti-like wall full of visual illustrations of the event highlights, key moments, bright ideas, speakers and even award winners! Take a look at how it turned out, we love it.

There can only be five winners… 🏆

And if we hadn’t already packed enough into the day, we finished with our prestigious Verve Awards hosted by comedian, Jamie Sutherland. It was so great to give back to an industry that encourages fresh minds every day and gives individuals who embody the Verve values, the recognition they deserve. To recap on our winners…

• The Thrive Award: Phil Bray from The Yardstick Agency
• The Attraction Award: Alice Lording from Saltus.
• The Innovation Award: Anthony Massie from Herbert & Webster
• The Emerging Award: Sioned James from Positive Wealth Creation
• The Verve Award: Ruth Handcock from Octopus Money

Phew and that’s the round-up complete. The preparation for next year has already begun – standing still is going backwards after all – and we cannot wait to bring you #VerveEvolution24! We’ll keep you posted…

Abbie King, Digital Marketing Specialist

–The Verve Group

One final thank you to our event partners…