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The UK’s leading trade association conference, growing year on year

Client: Trade Association Forum

Year: 2021-present

The UK’s leading trade association conference, growing year on year

The Brief

TAF is the UK's association of associations, with more than 180 members who between them represent over 200,000 businesses. Its Best Practice Exchange (BPEx) is the only one-day conference in the country focused exclusively on trade associations, and it has to do two jobs at once. It needs to give association leaders a programme worth taking a day out of the diary for, and it needs to generate the surplus that funds TAF's wider member offer. Inflect was asked to grow both, without pricing members out: member tickets are sold at cost.

The Work

We run BPEx end to end, covering programme design, speaker recruitment, sponsorship sales and account management, delegate marketing, the conference website and delivery on the day.

The programme is built around what associations are actually grappling with. The 2026 agenda tackles political and regulatory volatility, technology transformation and AI, and closes with member-led roundtables hosted by award-winning associations. We secure speakers who bring real authority to the room, including Blair McDougall MP, Minister for Small Business, alongside senior figures from the CBI, BCC, Make UK and the Institute for Government.

Commercially, we have built a sponsor base that both returns and expands, matching suppliers to a highly targeted association audience and managing partners from first approach through to delivery.

The Impact

BPEx has grown every year since Inflect took on the secretariat:

  • 300 delegates in 2026, up from 275 in 2025
  • 24 sponsors and partners
  • Delegate income and sponsorship targets both exceeded ahead of the event
  • Over 80% of TAF members rate the flagship events as useful or essential to their membership
  • Member ticket prices held at cost, with the surplus reinvested into TAF’s services

The conference has also become a recruitment driver in its own right, with TAF consistently seeing membership applications rise ahead of and after the event.

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