Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Property Industry Eye. Read the original article for full details.
YouGov and System1 chiefs to headline Voice of the Agent Conference in Oxford
Two senior figures from outside the property industry will address estate and letting agents at The Voice of the Agent Conference later this year. Will Ullstein, chief executive of YouGov UK, and Andrew Tindall, chief growth officer for advertising at System1, have been confirmed as keynote speakers at the event, which takes place at the University of Oxford on Friday 20 November.
What delegates can expect
Ullstein, who leads YouGov's UK business, will examine the latest public opinion data covering the economy, politics, social issues and technology. His session will also look at how attitudes differ between landlords, tenants and home movers, a topic directly relevant to letting agents working with both sides of the market.
Tindall will focus on advertising effectiveness, examining what makes marketing attract attention, remain memorable and contribute to commercial growth. He is the author of The Creative Dividend, published with Effie Worldwide, and a columnist for The Drum.
The choice to look beyond the property sector was deliberate, according to conference organiser Simon Leadbetter. Estate and letting agencies spend an extraordinary amount of money trying to attract customers, he said, but rarely ask whether they really understand the customer and whether their advertising actually works. He added that the ambition for The Voice of the Agent is to get outside the industry's own echo chamber and bring genuinely different thinking back into agency.
Research programme and speaker line-up
The conference, held at Oxford's Examination Schools, concludes the 2026 Voice of the Agent research programme. Research during the year has covered agency fees, portals and marketing, AI and PropTech, staffing and salaries, consumer behaviour, regulation, politics, housing and the property transaction.
Other confirmed speakers include Kate Faulkner OBE, Russell Quirk, Christopher Watkin, Kristjan Byfield and Clare Yates, with Jo Bourne, Danielle Nash, Rajeev Nayyar and Simon Gates also appearing. Panel discussions will examine the state of estate agency and the property transaction, along with the future of PropTech and AI. An Oxford-style debate will consider whether politics and housing will have a greater impact on the property market than technology and AI.
Leadbetter said he wants delegates to leave Oxford knowing something their competitors who stayed at home do not, whether that is a better understanding of tomorrow's customer, evidence that changes how they spend their marketing budget, or a different perspective on technology.
The Voice of the Agent Conference 2026, held in association with Street, takes place on Friday 20 November at the University of Oxford.
Source: Property Industry Eye