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.
The event takes place at the University of Oxford on Friday 20 November.
Their sessions will focus on two issues facing agency businesses: changing consumer attitudes and advertising effectiveness.
Ullstein leads YouGov’s UK business. He will examine the latest public opinion data covering the economy, politics, social issues and technology.
He will also look at how attitudes differ between landlords, tenants and home movers.
Tindall will focus on advertising effectiveness. His session will examine 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.
Conference organiser Simon Leadbetter said the decision to bring in speakers from outside the property sector was deliberate.
“Estate and letting agencies spend an extraordinary amount of money trying to attract customers, but we rarely stop to ask two fundamental questions: do we really understand the customer, and does our advertising actually work?
“Will can help us understand who the customer is becoming. Andrew can show us what the evidence says about how you communicate with them effectively.
“These are people working with evidence from well beyond the property industry. That matters because one of the ambitions for The Voice of the Agent is to get outside our own echo chamber and bring genuinely different thinking back into agency.”
The conference will be held at Oxford’s Examination Schools. It 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. It has also examined consumer behaviour, regulation, politics, housing and the property transaction.
Other speakers include Kate Faulkner OBE, Russell Quirk, Christopher Watkin, Kristjan Byfield and Clare Yates. Jo Bourne, Danielle Nash, Rajeev Nayyar and Simon Gates will also appear.
Panel discussions will examine the state of estate agency and the property transaction. The future of PropTech and AI will also be discussed.
An Oxford-style debate will consider whether politics and housing will have a greater impact on the property market than technology and AI.
Leadbetter added: “I want delegates to leave Oxford knowing something their competitors who stayed at home do not.
“That might be a better understanding of tomorrow’s customer, evidence that changes the way they spend their marketing budget, an idea that improves their operation or a completely different perspective on technology.
“The point is not simply to have an interesting day. It is to give people insight they can use to make better decisions and grow stronger businesses.”
The Voice of the Agent Conference 2026, held in association with Street, takes place on Friday 20 November at the University of Oxford.
