Whether you're a student starting out, a finance professional planning a career pivot, or a startup founder facing a specific business challenge, Pay It Forward connects you with established industry professionals for face-to-face, one-to-one mentorship. It's a chance to get advice from people who have already worked through the challenges you're facing. Sessions are 15 minutes long and take place at the Pay It Forward Lounge in Hall 3, from 18 to 20 November, 12.30pm to 4.30pm. Come with one specific question or challenge, and leave with focused, practical advice.

Talent rewiring is redrawing the map itself, institutions now follow people first, capital and headquarters second. Financial institutions increasingly decide where to build based on where the talent already is, not just where capital or headquarters sit. This discussion looks at how that dynamic is redrawing where financial institutions locate technology and operations, and what it means for markets competing to become talent hubs rather than just financial centres. The key question it looks to answer: is the future of finance shaped more by where the talent is than by where the capital is?

Universities are some of the most productive IP engines in the world. Researchers and students build new technology, file patents and often ship working prototypes. Then too much of it stalls. The people who invent are rarely the people who raise money, price a licence or find a first customer. Tech transfer offices work to academic timelines while capital works to market ones, so good IP sits on the shelf.

This panel asks two questions. First, what should universities change so their IP becomes investable: spin-out terms, founder support, equity and licensing models, and incentives for faculty? Second, should investors stop waiting for deals to show up and go into campuses to find them? We'll look at what each side gets wrong about the other, and what a working lab-to-market pipeline looks like.