ILPA's flagship LP-led European forum: over 100 institutional LPs convene in London, with GP admission capped at 35 top-ranked firms selected by LP vote.
ILPA Forum EMEA is the European flagship of the Institutional Limited Partners Association, held annually in London. It is structured around the LP community: LPs receive dedicated programming, exclusive roundtables, and peer networking that GPs cannot access. General Partners are admitted in capped numbers, and their selection is driven by LP demand rather than by open registration. The 2026 edition, held 27–29 April at the Waldorf Hilton, covers AI, secondaries, co-investments, retail capital, and sector themes including technology, healthcare, and defence.
ILPA, the Institutional Limited Partners Association, is the global membership body for institutional investors in private markets. Founded to give LPs a collective voice against GPs in fund governance, fee transparency, and reporting standards, ILPA runs a parallel conference circuit to its US flagship: the North American ILPA Summit, and the European edition that became ILPA Forum EMEA.
The LP-first model shapes every element of the programme. LPs set the agenda through input into topic selection; LP-only sessions run in parallel to joint programming; and the Meetings on Demand format lets LPs schedule individual meetings with GPs on their own terms. This is not a neutral forum where GPs and LPs share equal standing. LPs arrive as principals; GPs are invited to serve LP due diligence needs.
The 2026 edition represents a deliberate reimagining of the prior format. Earlier editions ran under the name ILPA Summit Europe (through 2025), using a mutual-ranking algorithm to pair LPs and GPs. The 2026 rebrand to "ILPA Forum EMEA" signals a sharper LP focus: expanded LP-only content, the new Meetings on Demand scheduling system, and a stricter LP-led GP selection process replacing the bilateral algorithm.
GP admission is not open. ILPA caps participation at 35 general partner firms across three tiers: Emerging Managers, Established Managers, and Large Established Managers. Applications open in December and close in January; LP members then review submissions and select firms that match their strategic interests. The top-ranked 35 firms across all tiers receive invitations.
Each admitted GP firm may send up to four representatives. They gain access to four formal one-on-one meetings with LPs, plus additional meetings based on LP demand. Full content-session access begins mid-day on 28 April. GPs also receive a dedicated meeting room, the full attendee list one week before the event, and access to networking activities.
The practical effect is significant. A GP that has not established LP relationships strong enough to generate demand from attending LPs will not be ranked into the top 35. Admission signals market validation that no amount of sponsorship can replicate, since GP admission and sponsorship are separate tracks.
The 2026 agenda is organised around five thematic areas that reflect current LP investment committee concerns: artificial intelligence and its implications for portfolio companies, the secondaries market and LP liquidity management, co-investment deal flow and governance, the growth of retail capital in private markets, and sector-focused sessions in technology, healthcare, and defence.
LP-only programming runs as a distinct strand throughout the first day and part of the second, covering peer benchmarking, portfolio construction, and regulatory topics that LPs discuss without GP presence. Joint sessions from mid-day on 28 April allow GPs to participate in panel content alongside LPs. Networking activities including a pub quiz, fitness sessions, and cocktail receptions run across the three days.
ILPA, the Institutional Limited Partners Association, is a global membership organisation representing institutional investors in private equity, private credit, real assets, and venture capital. Members include pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, and fund of funds. ILPA develops the ILPA Principles on fund governance, fee transparency, and reporting standards, and uses its conference programme to facilitate direct LP-GP dialogue on those terms.
The cap exists because ILPA's mandate is to serve LPs. Admitting hundreds of GPs would transform the event into a fundraising fair where GPs set the social dynamic. By limiting GP presence to 35 firms, and making those 35 firms earn their places through LP-ranked applications, the Forum preserves the LP-first character that makes it worth attending for institutional investors. LPs are more candid, more willing to discuss fund performance and governance concerns, and more engaged in peer sessions when they are not outnumbered by fundraising GPs.
They are the same event under a changed name. Through 2025, ILPA's European flagship ran under the name ILPA Summit Europe. The 2026 edition was rebranded as ILPA Forum EMEA, reflecting a reimagined format: more LP-only content, the new Meetings on Demand scheduling system, and a revised GP selection process that replaces the prior mutual-ranking algorithm with LP-driven selection. The URL /ilpa-summit-europe/ on ILPA's website now redirects to the ILPA Forum EMEA page. The two names refer to the same recurring event in the same London venue.
GPs who are not already known to ILPA's LP membership will struggle. If no attending LPs have flagged interest in your firm's strategy, the application process will not rank you into the top 35. Service providers and advisers attend as sponsors under the separate service-provider track, not as GP participants. For LPs, the event is relevant primarily to institutional investors with existing or prospective allocations to private equity and private credit funds. Family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals are not the target audience.
The Institutional Limited Partners Association was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Washington, DC. Its membership comprises over 600 LP organisations globally, representing more than USD 2 trillion in private market assets. ILPA publishes the ILPA Principles, a set of governance standards for LP-GP relationships that has become the reference framework for fund terms negotiation across the industry.
ILPA's conference programme serves a dual function: facilitating LP peer exchange on portfolio and governance matters, and creating structured LP-GP dialogue on the terms and practices that ILPA's Principles address. The Forum EMEA is ILPA's primary European expression of that mission, complementing the North American ILPA Summit held separately in New York.
The GP cap is the product. Thirty-five spots, selected by LP vote, none available for purchase: this is one of the very few forums in European private capital where a GP's presence signals something independently meaningful. For LPs, that changes the quality of the room. For GPs, it changes the stakes of the application. The 2026 rebrand from ILPA Summit Europe to ILPA Forum EMEA is not cosmetic: the new Meetings on Demand format and the shift from mutual ranking to LP-led selection tilt the event further toward LP control. Whether that makes it a better GP meeting or simply a harder one to enter is the question every GP applying in December 2026 will be working through.
LP registration is open to ILPA members with priority, and non-member LPs may also register. Registration for the 2026 edition closed on 10 April 2026. Pricing is not published on the public-facing event pages; registered users and ILPA members access pricing details through the member portal. ILPA's events team can be contacted at summit@ilpa.org for registration enquiries.
GP registration follows the separate application process described above. GPs apply between December and January; LP-ranked results determine which 35 firms receive invitations. Tiered GP registration pricing is referenced on the GP subpage but specific rates are not disclosed publicly.
Service providers attend under a distinct sponsorship and registration track. Sponsor tiers for 2026 include Premier, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze, with named sponsors confirmed across all tiers.
GP applications open in mid-December and close in late January. Firms submit their application through ILPA's event portal, specifying their strategy, fund stage, and relevant LP relationships. ILPA's LP members then review submissions and rank firms according to their investment interests. The top 35 firms across all three tiers (Emerging Managers, Established Managers, Large Established Managers) receive invitations. Unranked firms are not admitted regardless of willingness to pay. Admitted firms may send up to four representatives.
Pricing is not disclosed on ILPA's public pages. ILPA members receive priority access and are understood to benefit from member pricing; the specific fee structure is available through ILPA's member portal or by contacting the events team at summit@ilpa.org.
The 2026 edition is held at the Waldorf Hilton London, located on Aldwych in central London (WC2B 4DD). The same venue hosted the 2025 edition under the prior ILPA Summit Europe name. ILPA has used the Waldorf Hilton for multiple consecutive European editions.
| Official event page | https://ilpa.org/conference/ilpa-forum-emea/ |
| Legacy URL (redirects to above) | https://ilpa.org/conference/ilpa-summit-europe/ |
| GP and Fund of Funds registration | https://ilpa.org/conference/ilpa-summit-europe/for-gps-fund-of-funds/ |
| Emerging Manager Showcase | https://ilpa.org/conference/ilpa-summit-europe/emerging-manager-showcase/ |
| Service provider registration | https://ilpa.org/conference/ilpa-forum-emea/ilpa-forum-emea-service-providers/ |
| ILPA events calendar | https://ilpa.org/events/ |