Why attend Drapers Inner Circle Summit
Step away from the day to day and join the only truly intimate gathering designed exclusively for founders, CEOs and senior leaders shaping the future of fashion retail.
For 20 years, Drapers has united the most influential voices in UK fashion to discuss challenges, share solutions and spark new ideas. Drapers Inner Circle Summit continues that legacy with a one-day experience built for honest conversation, strategic thinking and meaningful connection.
What makes this summit unmissable
- A room of 100+ leaders The summit creates a unique opportunity where every conversation is high value and every attendee is a peer operating at the top of the industry.
- Content designed for decision makers Through probing panels, candid interviews, TED-style talks and expert-led discussions, you’ll gain fresh perspectives on leadership, growth, culture, transformation and the evolving pressures facing fashion retail.
- Collaborative “collab” sessions These small-group breakouts are a hallmark of the event – an opportunity to dig into real-world challenges, exchange practical solutions and explore what modern leadership truly requires.
- A space to think differently Held in the luxe setting of the Ham Yard Hotel, the summit gives leaders the breathing room to step back, reflect, and return to their teams with renewed clarity and inspiration.
- Insights from trailblazers Hear directly from the people driving change across the sector – from brand founders to global retail executives –through conversations that go beyond the headlines.
- A network that lasts Attendees consistently praise the quality, diversity and openness of the people in the room. This is where new partnerships form, ideas sharpen and future strategies take shape.
Venue
Ham Yard Hotel,
1 Ham Yard,
London W1D 7DT
In the heart of Soho and moments from Mayfair, Ham Yard Hotel has an urban village feel, with a tree-filled courtyard and bronze sculpture centrepiece by Tony Cragg. Interiors are designed by Kit Kemp in her award-winning modern British style.
Sustainability
Drapers is working with a carbon consultancy to measure the carbon footprint of this event, taking recommendations on how to improve our performance and impact on the environment. We will publish the results of this report after the event. The results of our 2025 event can be found here
Our company commitment to sustainability at events can be found below:
Minimising the environmental impact of Drapers Inner Circle Summit is important to us. As part of our commitment to a more sustainable future, we are taking practical steps to reduce and offset our carbon emissions, and we encourage our event partners to do the same. Below are some of the measures we are implementing to reduce waste and energy consumption, and to minimise the carbon footprint of the event:
Our event attendees
SWAG Is it valuable to the attendee? We ask to keep this to a minimum with the aim of using sustainable, recyclable or compostable materials.
No single-use bottles We provide water stations and encourage attendees to bring their own reusable drinking bottles.
Getting to our events Directions for public transport only are detailed on the event website.
Our event venue
Ham Yard Hotel’s statement on sustainability:
Our food is sourced on flavour, and during the summer months 80% of our fruit and vegetables are sourced from the UK. We try to use UK produce as much as we can across the Firmdale Group. As we make everything in house, we are lucky that we can do this and pick the best produce. For example, our milk is from a small farm in Lancashire and has a higher selenium content, all our eggs are organic, 70% of our fish is caught of the south coast, and meat is farmed in small parts of the West Country, Ireland and Scotland. Chickens are “nature and respect” standard. Our group executive head chef personally visits our suppliers throughout the year to check on all aspects from farming practices to asparagus fields and dry store units. We do make sure all the produce and companies that supply us are of the same standard.
We use the rooftop garden produce, mainly in the restaurant at Ham Yard Hotel as the specials and menu consume most of what we produce. The events kitchen is run slightly differently as we take pre-orders further in advance, with clients wanting the same menus year on year. That said, all the food we purchase across the group is held to the same standards. Our bees produce honey and we have a herb garden on the rooftop that also supplies the hotel.
Ham Yard Hotel is awarded the BREEAM “excellent” rating. BREEAM is a methodology to assess the sustainability and environmental performance of buildings and it was launched by the Building Research Establishment in 1990. BREEAM is one of the first sustainability assessment tools established in the world and it was later used as a basis for LEED green building certification programme. BREEAM reviews building performance in different categories and compares them with the established benchmarks. Ham Yard Hotel has an “excellent” energy performance rating.
Our event suppliers
Drapers chooses its suppliers with a bias towards those partners who take sustainability seriously.
Event collateral, signage and exhibition stands
Our event guide programmes and tickets are electronic instead of printed. The signage we use is from Insite Graphics, which holds ISO14001 certification. Event signage is all either recyclable, reusable or used to provide community power at end of life – none will go to landfill. All the ink is water based and much of our signage is moving to cardboard-based alternatives, recyclable in generic paper waste collections. For more information click here.
AV supplier We have chosen our AV supplier based on its positive sustainability policy, which you can read here.
Couriers We request electric vehicles for our preferred courier, Santis Global. For more information click here.
Transport Employees are encouraged to take public transport to the event or to travel using our Uber Green company account. For more information click here.