On 23rd - 25th September the annual BA Conference Europe took place at the Radisson
Blu Hotel, Portman Square, London. The event brought together more than 350 Business analysts from a wide range of business sectors.
Over the 3 days, business analysts from more than 20 countries attended seminars,
presentations and key note speeches. During
breaks and networking sessions, attendees were also given the opportunity
to share best practice and experiences with fellow
members of their profession.

Keynote

The conference featured some excellent keynote speeches -
Professor Joe Peppard discussed Business Innovation, Andrew Strauss covered
leadership and Max McKeown highlighted how we can create a better future
through innovation. Tuesday afternoon's Keynote was
delivered by our very own Debra Paul,
whose presentation, Business Analysis - the Third Wave, considered thenew era of business analysis and the
challenges this will present to BAs now and in the future. To view the slides
from this speech, click here.

Business Analyst of the Year

During the Conference the winner of the prestigious Business Analyst
of the Year Award was announced. The award was first presented in 2008 and
recognises excellence in the BA profession. This
year the judges found it impossible to choose between our joint winners - Clare
Coomber of Allianz and Dale Jacobs of Asda. Both winners fought off stiff competition from runners up Laura
Firth, Terri Lydiard, Ken Van Der Lely and Stephen Thomson.We send our congratulations to the winners
and to all those who were shortlisted in a
year when the standard of entries was extremely
high. To read more about the finalists, click here.

AssistKD's Diploma Ducks

If you attended the conference you are
sure to have bumped in to our flotilla of AssistKD Diploma Ducks. As well as being extremely cute, each duck
had a unique number on its base and meant we could use the duck numbers for our daily
prize draw. Our congratulations go to Anisha Bhagwani and William Nicols who both won a copy of a BCS
book and to Catherine Plumridge who took home the esteemed Golden
duck prize and won £250 worth of Amazon
vouchers.

Thank you

Finally, we'd like to say thank you to everyone who visited our stand at the conference. It was great to meet so many friendly,like-minded and talented business
analysts. We look forward to seeing you all again
next year.

To view the picture gallery from the event, click here.