Insights into the BA Festival in a Day
Julia has nearly 20 years of experience as a Business Analyst across financial services, utilities and not-for-profit. She classes herself as a proud introvert, quiet leader, with occasional bursts of boldness.
Julia has spent many years volunteering with IIBA UK; chairing IIBA Scotland and as an IIBA UK Community Director. She has also participated several times as a mentor with IIBA UK's mentoring programme, helping people get to their next point in their career – and has been a mentee too!
Julia became Co-Founder & Director of BA Life, a global BA community with delegates from 28 countries. She has spoken several times at BA Life and jointly runs the successful 'What Would a BA Do?' Podcast.
She is the 2025 winner of the Scotland Women in Tech's Unsung Hero Award.
Linda Parker
Linda has over 30 years of experience as a Business Analyst across a variety of organisations, both commercial and public sector. She is a self-confessed BA Nerd.
Her path is similar to Julia's, as she also spent many years volunteering on the committee with IIBA Scotland. She has also participated several times as a mentor with IIBA UK's mentoring programme, seeing it as a great privilege to work with BAs to share knowledge and skills.
After being inspired by winning the European Business Analyst of the Year Award in 2019, she became Co-Founder & Director of BA Life, a global BA community with delegates from 28 countries.
Linda has been a speaker several times at the European BA conference and at BA Life, and jointly runs the successful 'What Would a BA Do?' podcast.
In this session, Linda and Julia, co‑founders and Directors of BA Life, will share how the BA Festival in a Day evolved from a small Scottish conference into a global, community‑driven event shaped by core BA techniques. They will outline how online delivery, structured processes and continuous feedback guides future improvements in accessibility, design and delegate experience. Attendees will also get a preview of upcoming programme themes and the thinking behind BA Life’s 2026 direction.
Key Takeaways
How BA techniques guide event design and prioritisation
How feedback and documentation supports continuous improvement
How community insight shapes future themes and speaker topics