Internationally recognised art and literary critic, writer and cultural producer. Published in ELLE, Glamour, Esquire and Cosmopolitan; member of the Union of Writers.
CC Forum returns to London from 27 to 30 October 2026 for its fourteenth global edition, two working conference days at the May Fair Hotel in Mayfair, an evening reception at the House of Lords, and a Friday salon devoted to women investors. Max Studennikoff, who founded the forum in 2018, describes the audience as family offices, general partners, limited partners, venture capitalists, angels and founders. I attended the March edition as an accredited media partner and wrote about what it revealed. This is a look at what the October agenda actually asks, who is on it, what it costs, and who should make the trip.
The shape of the four days
The conference occupies Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 October at the May Fair Hotel, Stratton Street, London W1J 8LT. Both days follow the same pattern: coffee from 8am on Wednesday and 8.30am on Thursday, panels and keynotes in short blocks, lunch from 1.55pm, then on Thursday a split into two afternoon tracks. Wednesday ends with a VIP reception at the House of Lords from 7pm to 9.30pm. Thursday ends with a green carpet reception at 7pm and the gala dinner and awards from 8pm until midnight.
Two of the four days have no venue attached. Tuesday 27 October opens with welcoming drinks from 7pm to 10pm, listed as to be confirmed, and Friday 30 October is given to the Fem Capital Salon, also unplaced. For the March edition the salon ran at Dartmouth House, so a Mayfair townhouse is the likely pattern, but the organisers have not said so.
There is a date outside the four-day run. On Thursday 8 October, a fortnight before the forum opens, CC Forum and Rathbones host an invitation-only evening at Rathbones’ headquarters in the City on impact investment and wealth management in the age of artificial intelligence. Rathbones reported funds under management and administration of £120.7 billion at 30 June 2026, up 10.7 per cent year on year. The guest list is family offices, wealth managers, funds, venture capital, angels and founders. It is closed by invitation, which is worth knowing before planning a London trip around it.
What the agenda actually asks
The published agenda is unusually honest for an event of this kind, because several of its central slots are framed as disputes rather than conclusions.
Two sessions are billed as debates. On Wednesday lunchtime the forum asks: should the world double down on net zero investment, or reassess the economic case? On Thursday the question is sharper still: is ESG a force for good, or a tool of economic and geopolitical control? The ESG debate lists Terrence Keeley, formerly of BlackRock, Simon Littlewood, Christopher Marquis of the University of Cambridge and Ben Banerjee, with Studennikoff moderating. The net zero debate has no names attached yet.
The climate science panel on Wednesday afternoon is titled as a question about time: how much time do we have? It brings Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at Newcastle University, Ian Redmond OBE, who was the UN Convention on Migratory Species ambassador from 2010 to 2024 and is now head of conservation at Ecoflix, Lee White OBE, a former minister in Gabon for water, forests, sea and the environment, and Oliver Hilton of Hemington International. Thursday carries the parallel anxiety in a different register, asking whether the water crisis is approaching a planetary tipping point or whether there are investment-based answers. Deborah Brosnan, an ocean scientist, sits on that panel with Karen Sumser-Lupson of 751 Earth and HRM Queen Diambi Kabatusuila of the Elikia Hope Foundation.
Artificial intelligence gets three slots in two days. One panel asks whether it is the biggest threat humanity is facing today, with Dinis Guarda of Ztudium and Phil Lane Jr. among the speakers. The chairman takes the stage on the question of whether to invest in AI or in the future of humanity. On Thursday a fireside chat pairs quantum physics with renewable energy, with the founder of the International Space Federation opposite the founder of Integrative AI.
The Wednesday morning sequence is the part that distinguishes this forum from a general sustainability conference, because it is built around capital rather than around sentiment. A panel on geopolitics asks where sustainable capital will flow now that global economies are reordering, with Lord Marland of Odstock of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and Per Wimmer of the Wimmer Family Office among the participants. The next asks whether sustainability is still reshaping how private wealth is preserved and passed on, and who is reshaping it. Thursday opens by asking whether family offices are leading a new investment paradigm, moving from wealth preservation to world preservation, and later turns to legacy: investing capital for generations of impact, and creating lasting impact for people and planet.
There is one session with a direct interest to anyone reading a culture publication. Can entertainment and media shift behaviour in the climate fight, or are they still underused? Nik Gowing of Thinking the Unthinkable, Lawrence Freiberg of Soul Planet and Norah Casey of Harmonia Publishing are on it, together with the investment banker and producer George Edde.
Two things are worth flagging about the agenda as published. Around six slots across the two days still read as reserved or carry no name, including two keynotes on Thursday morning and a fireside chat on Wednesday. And the political register is unusual for an investor conference: Ed Gemmell, leader of the Climate Party, and Lord Nat Wei of Shoreditch are asked whether the UK can genuinely become a sustainability superpower or whether that is political rhetoric.
Who is on it
Studennikoff chairs and moderates more panels than any other participant. Around him sit Lord Zac Goldsmith of the Bezos Earth Fund, who gives a keynote on Wednesday and returns for the legacy panel on Thursday, Lord Tony Sewell CBE of Generating Genius, on Wednesday’s opening panel, Dr Gunter Pauli, who chairs the forum’s advisory board and gives the other opening keynote, Professor Michael Mainelli, president of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Lord Mayor of London from 2023 to 2024, and Christopher Marquis, Sinyi Professor of Management at the University of Cambridge, who joins the ESG debate on Thursday.
The private wealth side is the thickest part of the roster. Bradley Hilton of the Hilton Family Office, Simon Littlewood of the LI Family Office and SDG Global Group, Rosemary Sagar of the Sagar Family Office, Rayhaan Survé of the Survé Family Office, Runa Alam of Development Partners International, Alicia Castillo Holley of the Wealthing VC Fund, Per Wimmer and Paul Hutchinson of the Bridge Investment Group. Kiera Chaplin, founder of the Chaplin Awards, is listed with the Desert Flower Foundation France on the legacy panel. Robert Rubinstein of TBLI Group and Alessa Berg of Top Tier Impact lead the session on turning investor networks into action, alongside Steve Kenzie of the UN Global Compact Network UK and Lyndsay Howard of Bloomberg.
If you have a company
The forum runs four routes for startups and scaleups, and they are commercial rather than competitive, except the last.
A five-minute pitching slot in the Investors’ Lounge comes with questions and answers. The organisers ask that the slot state the business problem crisply, what the project solves, what makes it distinct and the rate of return. Exhibition space ranges from a high table with a few chairs to a fully fitted booth of up to fifteen square metres, with branding left to the exhibitor. Corporate packages at platinum, gold and silver level bundle a mainstage speaking opportunity, exhibition space, branding and VIP passes.
The one genuinely competitive opportunity is on Thursday afternoon, when Track I closes with a pitching competition between 5pm and 5.50pm. Track II runs workshops on longevity, regenerative agriculture, and real estate in the same slot, so a founder pitching there competes with an audience that has just spent the afternoon in a workshop on water and food.
What it costs, and how to get in for nothing
Tickets are sold in four tiers, and the third, the on-time rate, closed on 30 September 2026. A visitor pass covering the conference and coffee is £170 at the earliest rate, £280 in the second tier, £349 on time, and £399 at the last-minute rate that now runs until 27 October. A gala pass, covering the green carpet reception and the awards dinner, runs £700, £900, £1,150 and £1,400 across the same four tiers. A VIP pass, adding the House of Lords reception, the VIP lunch, the Fem Capital Salon and the networking programme, runs £1,400, £1,800, £2,300 and £2,800. Twenty per cent VAT is added to all of them.
Investors in sustainability may qualify for a complimentary visitor delegate pass covering the conference only, by application form or by writing to the organisers. The organisers state the test plainly: if you believe your participation would benefit the forum or its delegates, ask.
Whether to go
The honest case for is narrow and specific. If your work sits where family capital meets a real project, the family office sessions on Wednesday and Thursday mornings are the reason to be in the room, and in the Investors’ Lounge delegate meetings are scheduled back to back through the afternoon. The House of Lords reception is the evening to attend if you want the room rather than the programme.
The honest case against is that part of the two days is commercial platform. The organisers sell corporate packages that include a mainstage speaking slot, so not every seat on the stage was chosen on editorial grounds alone. The least scripted material is where the organisers have framed disputes: the net zero debate on Wednesday, the ESG debate on Thursday, and the questions about climate timelines and water. Those are the sessions most likely to produce something that was not in the press release, and a delegate should weigh the rest of the programme accordingly.
One last practical note. The May Fair Hotel is the working venue for two days only, and no agenda is final until the reserved slots are filled. Dates, venues, prices and pass terms have all moved between editions. Confirm on cc-forum.com before booking anything.
Photo: the Victoria Tower and the House of Lords, Palace of Westminster, by ChiralJon, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
