We love to collaborate

Our events bring together university leaders, international recruitment professionals, and sector partners to share insights, explore challenges, and shape solutions. From large-scale conferences to smaller private roundtables, we create spaces where ideas can grow into practical strategies that influence our technical solutions.

Our inaugural conference highlighted the importance of compliance, quality, and innovation in international student recruitment, and it was only the beginning. We’re already planning next year’s conference, with details to be announced soon.

Keep an eye on this page for updates, placeholders, and invitations, so you can secure a place early.

Up coming events

Details to follow later in the year.

Our Managing Director, Shamim Ghani and Business Development Manager, David Cliffe are delighted to be returning to ICEF Berlin for the third consecutive year, an event that continues to set the benchmark for quality, professionalism, and global collaboration in international education. Our thanks to the ICEF team for consistently delivering such a well-organised and engaging platform, and to the exceptional network of institutions, agents, and service providers who make this event truly world-class.

This year, we’re again showcasing our SAMS CRM for agents, alongside our latest innovation, SAMS Manage a purpose-built solution helping institutions streamline agent relationships, enhance recruitment performance, and gain complete visibility across their international operations. SAMS CRM is going from strength to strength with continuous improvements, including our events module and email drip campaign functionality, being recent additions.

If you’re attending ICEF Berlin, come and meet the SAMS Global team to explore how we’re helping institutions worldwide move from spreadsheets to strategy.

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Previous events

Our first annual SAMS Global Conference marked a major milestone in bringing together UK higher education leaders, international recruitment professionals, and sector partners to explore the future of international student recruitment.

The event created space for open discussion on compliance, agent quality, digital transformation, and commission management—all central themes for universities navigating today’s rapidly changing landscape.

Guest speakers included representatives from across the sector, alongside our own team, who showcased how SAMS360 and SAMS Pay are designed to help universities strengthen oversight, improve efficiency, and demonstrate alignment with the Agent Quality Framework (AQF).

With more than 50 delegates in attendance, the conference provided valuable networking opportunities and sparked conversations that will continue to shape our solutions and the sector.

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Our first foray to North America was to Boston with The PIE. We have been approached by several US and Canadian institutions looking to adopt systems for agent commission and Boston was a good way to gauge further interest.

The event was an excellent way to showcase our products to a brand new market and understand the nuanced differences in pain points, but also identify similarities that are shared by institutions on our side of the pond.

In November 2024, SAMS Global attended both ICEF Digital and ICEF Berlin, two of the most influential gatherings in the international education calendar. At ICEF Digital, our Managing Director was invited to host a fireside chat with leading agencies, exploring the growing need for robust CRM systems to manage student recruitment at scale. The discussion highlighted the importance of data accuracy, process efficiency, and compliance in today’s competitive environment.

Alongside this, our presence at ICEF Berlin provided the opportunity to connect with global partners, strengthen relationships, and showcase how solutions such as SAMS CRM and SAMS Pay are designed to support both universities and agencies in building transparent, sustainable recruitment networks.

In partnership with The PIE News, SAMS Global hosted an exclusive lunch event at The Delaney Restaurant, Covent Garden, bringing together representatives from 12 UK universities to discuss one of the sector’s most complex challenges—agent commission.

The lunch focused on the importance of accuracy, transparency, and control in commission processing, and the significant value these principles bring to both universities and their agent networks.

We were delighted to have the University of Sheffield, a current SAMS Pay client, share their experience of adopting the platform. Their insights gave guests a first-hand look at how SAMS Pay is helping institutions manage commissions with greater confidence, streamline financial processes, and demonstrate compliance in line with sector expectations.

The event fostered open dialogue, peer-to-peer exchange, and genuine exploration of how technology can address long-standing challenges in international student recruitment.

SAMS Global was proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the BUILA 19th Annual Conference, the leading gathering for international recruitment and partnerships professionals across the UK higher education sector.

Our team attended to connect with key stakeholders, strengthen relationships, and gain firsthand insight into the issues shaping the sector. The conversations and perspectives we gathered are helping to inform the ongoing development of our solutions—ensuring that SAMS Global continues to respond directly to the needs and priorities of UK universities.

In June 2024, SAMS Global hosted a collaborative roundtable with representatives from eight UK universities to form a working group dedicated to the design and development of our SAMS360 suite of products.

We were delighted to welcome colleagues from the University of Dundee, University of York, University of Leeds, University of Huddersfield, Anglia Ruskin University, University of Essex, and University of Southampton. Together, we explored how universities want to measure, manage, and enhance their international agent recruitment activity, ensuring SAMS360 reflects the real challenges and priorities of the sector.

The working group format encouraged open discussion, peer learning, and practical feedback, helping us to shape SAMS360 into a solution that delivers genuine value for universities. The group has since expanded to include the University of Sheffield and continues to work together with our team.

All of the partners are actively using SAMS Manage and are working with us to shape SAMS Perform.

In March 2024, SAMS Global attended NET24 in Istanbul, an event that brought together universities, agencies, and technology providers from across the international education sector.

We used the platform to showcase the capabilities of our SAMS CRM, highlighting how it enables agencies to manage student recruitment more effectively through streamlined workflows, better data visibility, and enhanced compliance. The event provided an excellent opportunity to connect with regional partners and demonstrate how technology can simplify complex recruitment processes.

The ICEF South Asia Conference in February 2024 offered another valuable opportunity to engage directly with agencies and universities from across the region. At the event, we promoted our SAMS CRM system, focusing on how it supports agencies in managing large student pipelines, maintaining accurate records, and strengthening collaboration with subagents and university partners.

The conversations we had in South Asia underscored the growing demand for digital tools that ensure efficiency and transparency in student recruitment.

November 2023 marked a milestone for SAMS Global as we made our debut on the international stage at ICEF Digital and ICEF Berlin. As headline sponsors of ICEF Digital, we were proud to introduce our brand and vision to the sector, showcasing how SAMS Global is committed to delivering innovative solutions that bring accuracy, transparency, and efficiency to international student recruitment.

These events were not only our first-ever ICEF participation, but also our first major outing as SAMS Global. They provided a platform to connect with agencies, universities, and sector partners from around the world, laying the foundations for many of the collaborations and conversations that continue to shape our journey today.