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The Power of Partnerships Conference brings together businesses and universities to focus on how we maximise access to talent in the East Midlands. Our region has the lowest level of graduate retention in the UK, and the Power of Partnerships Conference aims to do something about that.

For our 2026 event we're hosted by the University of Derby and have Fliss Miller, Director of Employment and Skills at The East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) as our keynote speaker.

PoP ’26 is predominantly a morning event with registration starting at 9am, a welcome and introduction at 9.30am followed by a keynote speak from Fliss Miller (EMCCA) at 9.45am. We have two lots of breakout workshops taking place at 10.45am and 11.30am with a student panel discussion at 12.30pm before closing with lunch at 1.15pm.

In between the keynote, workshops and discussion panels we’ve built in plenty of time for visitors to network and tour our exhibition.