Reflections from the Thesis SM Exchange User Forum, 15 -16 July 2026
In July, Thesis SM spent two days with clients from across the UK, Canada and Ireland at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London for this year's Thesis SM Exchange User Forum. A huge thank you to RCM for hosting us so generously, and to Elly Taylor, who helped pull it all together and still found time to join a panel on Day Two.
As a Customer Success Manager, I already knew many people in the room. Even so, I was surprised by how much more I learned about them, their experiences and the perspectives they brought. Last year's feedback shaped the agenda, and every session became a conversation, not a presentation.
Several people told me the Registry panel, 'From Hype to Impact', was the highlight of the event. It looked at where AI and automation are actually helping registry teams do more with less. Alison Tesh, our Director Solutions Consulting, facilitated, with:
The panellists spoke openly about what has changed in their day-to-day work, not the hype around it. Three key takeaways particularly stood out to Alison.:
Hearing colleagues from such different institutions describe such similar experiences set the tone for the rest of the day.
On Day One, Cerys Owen (Director of Product) showed the design for our new self-service portal, then ran a hands-on workshop. Each group took one role: applicant, student, sponsor or agent. They worked through what that role needs from the portal, then dot-voted in silence on the priorities for our teams.
On Day Two, Jamie, Cerys and I ran a two-part AI workshop. First, we shared how we've rolled out AI within Thesis SM: pilot, expand and embed. Then we explored what clients want built into the platform next. The room worked through four stations built around day-to-day needs, not the technology, and closed with an AI roadmap prioritisation session.
Adam Legge (CTO) and Nicolaas Matthijs (Product Direction Adviser) gave the room its first look at Project Aristotle, our new agentic AI capability. Your team asks a question in everyday English and gets an answer pulled straight from your live systems, instead of running the same manual check for the twentieth time. In the demo, it found a duplicate student support number buried in a funding file in under a minute, and turned enrolment figures into a chart on request. It logs every read, write and change, and a person must approve anything before it touches live data. It isn't live yet, but it was one of the biggest talking points of the event. We'll share more soon.
Kishan Chavda from Global Banking School put it better than I could:
"The User Forum was a fantastic opportunity to meet the vendor face to face and build stronger relationships beyond the usual online interactions. The event encouraged open and engaging discussions by allowing attendees to share their experiences, challenges and ideas in a collaborative space. I particularly enjoyed hearing how other clients use the platform and learning about different ways of working which provided valuable insights and new perspectives. Overall, it was an informative, engaging and enjoyable experience that highlighted the value of bringing users together to learn from one another."
And from Nicola Peacock at the Royal College of Music, our hosts:
"The forum was a great opportunity to learn more about the future direction of travel, give feedback on new developments and, most importantly, build connections with users at other institutions."
Some of the best conversations weren't in any session. They happened over coffee, on the walk to lunch and at dinner at San Carlo: the "actually, while I've got you" moments a formal call rarely allows. After dinner, some headed to Flight Club for darts while others watched the World Cup semi-final. With attendees from three countries, people found their challenges look remarkably similar on either side of the Atlantic.
We closed by asking the room what matters most to them. The feedback was very positive: people valued the time together, found the forum useful and are looking forward to doing it again. Next year, we'll build in more time for the conversations that don't fit an agenda, and more space for clients to hear from each other, not just from us.
Thank you to everyone who came and spoke so openly. See you at the next one! Scott Phillips has over ten years in Customer Success and Service Management and joined Thesis SM six months ago. He focuses on long-term client relationships and is building a client success framework that combines health scoring, structured engagement and clearer management of risk and opportunity.
To find out more about how Thesis SM supports higher education institutions in the UK, Ireland and Canada, visit www.thesis.sm or book a demo