Harvard researchers just coined a term for what your AI is handing you. It’s called “Trendslop.” And the antidote has nothing to do with better prompts.

SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2026
Three-Day Virtual Event

TWO PASSES
Visitor Pass – Full Ticket

FULLY VIRTUAL
Global Access – Parity Pricing

IMMEDIATE ACCESS
Content Begins on Registration

THE PROBLEM

Your Team (Or Client) Has Already Decided You Are Behind on AI. They Are Just Not Saying It.

The most damaging moment in a strategist’s AI journey is rarely said aloud. It happens when a colleague stops raising the topic in your meetings. When a client drops a careful hint. When the chairman pulls you aside over coffee — not in the boardroom — and suggests you read something over the weekend.

You’ve tried the tools. You’ve fed the hard questions into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. The answers came back in seconds: polished, balanced, articulate. They mentioned differentiation. Long-term thinking. Augmenting your team rather than replacing them. They read like advice from a Harvard Business School case writer.

“If everyone is getting roughly the same advice, in roughly the same shape, dressed in roughly the same words – is anyone actually getting strategy at all?“

Something is off. A colleague at a different firm, different industry, different sized organization described what AI told her. It sounded suspiciously like what yours told you. Because it was.

The global rush to master AI tools is the more predictable mistake strategists are making in 2026. The professionals separating themselves from the pack are doing something quieter, harder, and almost invisible from the outside. This conference puts it on the stage.

THE RESEARCH

Harvard Named It. The Data is Damning.

In March 2026, researchers Romasanta, Thomas and Levina published findings in Harvard Business Review that named what practitioners had been sensing for months: “Trendslop” – AI’s tendency to return the same cluster of popular, socially desirable answers regardless of the company, industry or situation.

7LLMS

All tested. All returned the same strategic direction.

7Tensions

Core strategic choice – exploit vs. explore, automate vs. augment, and five more.

22%

Maximum shift from better prompting. Most of it from just flipping the order of options.

25%

Of cases: AI picked both options. Strategy dressed as sophistication. Michael Porter called it being stuck in the middle.

Every model chose the same answers: differentiation over commoditization, augmentation over automation, long-term over short-term, collaboration over competition – regardless of the specific business situation provided.

The researcher’s conclusion: “An LLM can sound highly tailored to your situation while quietly steering you toward the same cluster of modern management trends.” The models weren’t analyzing your business. They were predicting the most socially desirable response – the average thinking of the internet, returned with maximum eloquence.

“Researchers Asked LLMs for Strategic Advice. They Got “Trendslop” in Return.” Harvard Business Review, March 2026

THE DIVERGENCE

Two Strategists Adopted AI in the Same Quarter. Three Years Later, Their Careers Looked Nothing Alike.

Both adopted AI in early 2023. One asked the tools to improve current operations – faster reports, cleaner decks, sharper summaries. The other spent the first ninety days doing something less glamorous: articulating — in precise detail — the actual process her organization uses to create long-term strategy. Then she pointed AI at specific stages of that process, for specific tasks, with specific intent.

PATH ONE – TOOL-FIRST
Adopted AI for speed and output quality
Faster reports. Better-looking decks. More polished language. The process stayed the same. AI was bolted on top. When the board asked for the strategic rationale, the answers sounded the same because they were. Trendslop, delivered with executive confidence.

PATH TWO – PROCESS FIRST
Baselined the process before touching a tool
Mapped every stage of the strategy creation process. Identified where AI added genuine signal and where would only accelerate fog. Built focused AI personas for diagnosis, option generation, and stress-testing. Three years on, the divergence is structural – and widening monthly.

THE EXPERIENCE

This Is Not a Webinar Series. It is an EPCOT for Strategy Thinking.

Most conferences are designed for Season Two learning: hard skill acquisition, deliberate practice, practical takeaways. That is the wrong format for the problem we are solving. The executive who leaves a conference frustrated has been trying to extract the wrong thing from the right environment.

LTSP 2026 is designed for Season One: curated idea exposure, joyful cognitive surprise, first-contact with thinking you didn’t know you needed. Like a great interactive museum, it is built to open minds — not fill them. The insights that seed the deepest change rarely feel like learning at the time.

The core mechanism is the AI Persona — not Claude, not Gemini, not “an LLM.” A persona is a focused, process-aware AI instrument built to help you interrogate a single subprocess in strategy creation. Where the generic tool gives you Trendslop, the trained persona offers you a surgical deep dive into a specific stage of real strategic work. Here are four illustrative examples:

Interview Inez (Prototype)
An expert in pre-retreat interviews, she knows how to do more than gather data. She prepares attendees for an event where the most difficult, demanding and confronting decisions will be made. How? Ask her.

Activation Annie
She helps leaders move from strategic insight to action. Her purpose is to surface what is preventing a strategic insight, decision, or strategic intention buried in a document from becoming meaningful action.

Limitations Lina
She has read all five of the most salient documents describing the shortfalls of AI in Strategy Creation. You won’t have to do the heavy lifting or academic readings. Instead, ask Lina.

Workflow Wally
During the conference you will learn that a “Workflow First” approach far surpasses an “AI Automation First” approach. The ideas are powerful and he’s ready to guide you through a real case in your work.

You will encounter these personas in real-time chats — from practitioners who built them inside real strategy engagements, with real organizations, and are prepared to show you the thinking behind the design. You may leave with prompts, frameworks, or simply the clarity of having seen what is possible when process comes before automation.

WHY THIS CONFERENCE

Sixty Long-Term Strategy Engagements. One Variable That Predicted AI Readiness

Francis Wade has spent two decades facilitating strategy with fifteen to thirty-year horizons for organizations across four continents. The LTSP Conference is built on that body of work — not on theory, not on tooling trends, but on what actually happened inside sixty game-changing strategic planning processes.

Across those engagements, one variable predicted AI readiness more reliably than budget, talent, or infrastructure. It is not what most boards expect. The companies positioned to extract genuine value from AI or other technologies shared a single, unglamorous practice — and they had been doing it long before AI arrived.

Other Features of LTSP26

The EndPoint Method — a six-stage strategy creation framework refined over two decades, used as the structural anchor for all AI persona design at the conference

First-hand accounts from practitioners who have applied AI inside real strategy retreats — not simulations, not case studies, not hypotheticals

Global Parity Pricing — ticket prices adjust to your country of residence so that geography does not determine access
Immediate content access — once you register, your experience begins. You do not wait for September.

REGISTRATION

Choose Your Pass

Two levels of access. Both begin the moment you register — not in September. Set your own price for the Visitor Pass, or commit to the Full Ticket for a year of access, the complete toolkit, and priority access to live sessions.

BASIC ENTRY

Visitor’s Pass

Pay what you choose: $0-$49

  • 72-hour limited, scheduled access to select conference content
  • Attendance at live sessions
  • Immediate membership in the online community
  • Set your own price — including complimentary access

COMPLETE ACCESS

Full Ticket

Global Parity Pricing – Adjusts to your country. US$199 or less.

  • Immediate access to pre-recorded conference content as it becomes available
  • Full library from the 2024 Long-Term Strategy Conference
  • Attendance at all interactive sessions — live speakers and panels
  • One year on-demand access to all pre-recorded presentations
  • 12-month JumpLeap Newsletter and Podcast Subscription
  • Customizable Strategy Blueprint Workbook
  • Corporate group discount available

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