THE FOCUS IS ON YOU

Jeremy became Managing Director of the company in 2015. He has overseen UKSV grow from a small team of passionate event professionals, to a specialist event company holding live events across the globe for some of the globe’s most recognisable brands such as the AA, BT, Vodafone, IBM and more. Jeremy has spent over 30 years in the event industry which has seen him plan a wide selection of live eve

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Lukas Zenk works as Professor for Innovation and Network Research and is the head of the research lab "Collaborative Creativity and Innovation" at the Department of Knowledge and Communication Management at Danube University Krems, Austria. In applied research projects, he investigates how people network in organizations and during events and how creativity and innovation emerge, e.g. using LEGO® Serious Play®. He also uses this experience to consult international companies to collaboratively solve complex problems and to gain insights how to improvise professionally in dynamic environments. He has received several awards for his projects and keynotes, amongst others for a new method to design innovative events. More on www.lukaszenk.at

Simona Andrijauskaite is a Co-Founder of www.interactio.io – live audio streaming system that replaces simultaneous translation equipment in live events. Interactio is the winner of World Summit Award for mobile innovations, initiated by the United Nations. Interactio was also selected among top 10 technology at IBTM world by Reed Exhibitions and supports over 250 events per month. Simona is a frequent speaker in the event industry's events on the topics of innovation, event tech trends and remote interpretation. 

Elif began her career in the communications field, spending 20 years in various positions in the media, advertising, meeting and hospitality industries, before being appointed as ICCA Regional Director (Europe) in January 2018.

Before joining ICCA, Elif spent 15 years with the Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau, where she held senior sales and marketing positions before serving for over three years as General Manager. During this time, she was an extremely active contributor to the ICCA community. She has been a speaker, mentor and regular Congress attendee, chaired ICCA’s Mediterranean Chapter, and regularly participated in Client-Supplier workshops. She also played a major role in the bidding team and Local Host Committee of the 2014 ICCA Congress in Antalya, and has hands-on experience of using a wide variety of ICCA’s business tools.

Elif is currently continuing her academic career, and is writing her PhD thesis about the role strategic communications plays in building a destination’s image.

Sean first started in the conference and events industry back in 1994 as a technician for one of the first wired interactive keypad voting systems. From there he moved into new media where he specialised as a graphics operator as a PowerPoint specialist and also produced regular CD-ROM projects for pharmaceutical companies to use as sales aids.

After freelancing for a few years, Sean joined a multi-media production agency as a conference producer and production manager in addition to graphics operator working on conferences and roadshows for a variety of clients in multi-industries.

In 2006, Sean returned to freelancing specialising in PowerPoint design and, taking the knowledge from his early days decided to expand back into the world of interactive technology for events using keypads.

Realising that keypads weren’t providing all the answers to audience engagement, Sean spent time working with clients and developed an audience response system that can be tailored to all audiences and all industries to create the best return.

Having spent many hours as a freelancer based in a bedroom office, Sean now runs Cube-i with 9 employees specialising in audience response systems and, as a software writer continues to look at new ways to support clients to create innovative ways to continually evolve audience engagement.

Heading up the UK’s no.1 venue finding website is something that Michael takes in his stride and developing new opportunities and innovations is something he thrives on. Achieving this by working with the amazing team at venudirectory.com is what makes him get out of bed every morning. His passion comes through in everything he sets his mind to, working with the leading venue groups, meeting planners or technology partners and working together to move the MICE industry forward and break new ground.

Tom Bennett is the Business Development Manager at IET London: Savoy Place, where he drives new business at London’s leading STEM venue. He pro-actively generates new business through promoting, managing and converting enquiries, building lasting relationships with new and existing stakeholders and oversees seamless delivery with the event operations and co-ordination teams. After graduating from the University of Kent with an impressive Event Design degree, Tom has worked in the events industry for 10 years at several of London’s unique venues. Having worked in both operational and sales roles, he has gained extensive knowledge and understanding of clients’ needs and how to engage new audiences. When he’s not generating new business for Savoy Place, he can be found on long walks with his rescued Greyhound. 

For the last 15 years, Guy has been delivering award-winning consulting services focused on helping cities, governments, corporations and associations step up, scale up and speed up their sustainability programmes and operational practices. Guy leads sustainability at the Smart City Council, and is the Managing Director of the Global Destinations Sustainability Index; a multi-stakeholder partnership to accelerate the development and performance of sustainable business tourism destinations. Guy was previously the President of the Green Meeting Industry Council, and was the Sustainability Director of MCI, the world’s largest association management, communications and events agency.

Joe is ….

Tracey has over 30 years experience in the hotel and travel industry, 15 of which have been with HRG. She is responsible for the management of global operations within HRG’s Meetings, Groups & Events (MGE) division. Her role focuses on the planning, direction and co-ordination of the overall MGE service offering. She has a thorough understanding of the issues and opportunities that arise from doing business across regions with consideration on culture, language and system boundaries. Tracey works with all of HRG’s offices to deliver a consistent service offering that is constantly being redefined in accordance with changing business conditions. Meetings technology has had a significant impact on the MGE industry, especially as it begins to align itself with transient travel so Tracey’s experience of working with key suppliers in this market has meant that HRG has had a ‘seat at the development table’ to ensure that tools are being developed in line with client needs. Tracey graduated with a degree in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management and spent the early part of her career working in Australia and South Africa. Prior to joining HRG she worked for Forte & Le Meridien Hotels in roles spanning Sales, Account Management and Operations. 6 of those years were spent as Director of Conference & Incentive Sales/North America market at Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Tracey has two children who keep her busy with sports, cookery and eating nice food.

Emma has over 20 years' experience in the events services sector having served as Conference Sales Manager for Linton Lodge Hotel and Business Development Manager for 5 MacDonald Hotel properties, before joining Imago in 2002. Emma also served as a Director and then Chairman of the Board of Directors for Venuemasters (now known as Academic Venue Solutions) between 2008 - 2010. Emma heads up a team of twenty sales office staff covering Business Development, Revenue Management, Marketing, Enquiry handlers and Reservations teams. Emma is responsible for generating all sales income from meetings, conferencing and events for the Imago Venues portfolio.

As one of the co-founders of Top Banana, CEO Richard Bridge has travelled the world delivering projects for a stellar collection of well-known brands. His passion is to transform strategy into action and deliver creative solutions that create engagement and transform the organisation he works with…always working hard to push creative boundaries to create a measurable difference for his clients. His infectious energy and endless passion for this industry as well as his curiosity for future industry trends and technology is what keeps us ahead of the game.

Mia Butler firmly believes ‘vanilla’ is not an option.

Creator of Pistachio View and Director of Like a Boss Consulting, Mia is an entrepreneur, business consultant, thought leader, facilitator and passionate EventProf. Recognised for her commitment to sales, with 25 years’ experience on the sales frontline, Mia knows exactly how to create a winning edge.

Driven, and now encouraging sales professionals to ‘show up’ and do more, Mia is creating change with Pistachio View making personalised video a part of everyday sales.

Consultant to the hospitality industry, Mia is often called upon to help facilitate learning and panel discussions and can be regularly found supporting key industry events.

Dan is one of the co-founders of Firebird, widely known as the Abstract Specialists. Dan started Firebird to bring in the advances in technology that seemed to have bypassed the submission and review process of the events industry! Dan has been both a professional programmer and a butler at the highest level so brings together the best of both Worlds – the latest technology with a customer focused outlook, something that has been sorely missed in the industry, until now!

Dan has been at the forefront of developments in the submission and review process, asking his customers to challenge their current processes to find out if they are really running their event their way or the way previous suppliers have limited them to.

“It has been liberating to show customers that they don’t have to follow all their old processes – we can show them new ways of achieving the same results, with much less effort and completely stress-free! Change is slow but inevitable and we want to be leading people at their own speed, maybe with the slightest nudge into the future!”

James Carruthers

Managing Director for Cluego LTD and Fradley Croft Corporate Events LTD with over 20 years’ experience in the team building and corporate events industry.

James launched Cluego LTD in 2014 as dedicated tech based events company specialising in corporate experiences through a partnership with Moove utilising the Moove suite of apps.

With the use of technology and gamification Cluego serve clients throughout the globe looking to experience everything from team building days to onboarding, induction courses and school education programs.

Liz Co-Founded CCD in 1994, having gained experience at various previous companies from The Savoy hotel to Walt Disney World Florida. Whilst her primary focus is on ensuring the continued success and development of the company, she is still very much involved with the day to day operation of the business and client relationships.

Away from work, Liz is on her bike cycling crazy distances across Europe helping to raise money for a charity close to her heart, her chosen reward at the finish line, smoked salmon a glass of prosecco! 

Neil’s career at UKSV started as a video editor and he now works as a Senior Account Manager. Neil is responsible for developing opportunities for UKSV’s clients and ensuring that events are engaging whilst following the client’s objective. As well as these responsibilities, Neil also runs the visual media department which designs event brand design, multimedia solutions, video concepts and animations.

Aileen is Head of Conventions at the award-winning Glasgow Convention Bureau, responsible for the successful positioning of Glasgow as a conference destination for national and international association meetings.

As a keen supporter of the meetings industry, Aileen is currently the lead for the Business Tourism Workstream within Glasgow’s Tourism & Visitor Plan 2023, Depute Chair of ICCA UK & Ireland and ICCA Destination Co-Chair.

For Aileen, collaboration is key, it’s all about Glasgow’s team approach, where working together, building alliances and successful partnerships benefits the client and ultimately this enhances the delegate experience.

Jenny is a respected travel and meetings industry professional with an extensive background in business travel, travel for meetings and strategic meetings management. She has in depth experience of the unique challenges in the Healthcare industry relating to reporting and compliance restrictions and has supported numerous customers in this sector over many years.

Her key area of expertise is Account Management covering implementation, client management and communication.

Maxence is what you would call a “digital guru”. He has extensive experience and renown expertise in the fields of website creation, online marketing, disruptive business modelling and digital transformation. He has gained his expertise from over 20 years of experience in the field of digital communication. Over the years, he has created and/or developed several renown corporate communications agencies, the most recent one being idweaver, of which he held the role of CEO for the last 7 years. For Maxence, corporate communications isn’t just about communication or online presence. It’s about conveying the right messages in the right ways and creating a complete and balanced digital communications’ ecosystem around each client’s company or organization. It’s this global thinking that truly created the most value for his clients. Today, Maxence is regularly invited as a guest speaker to digital conventions and meetings to share his expertise in the field.

Jonti is a behavioural designer – an award-winning digital transformation consultant who draws on a rare combination of expertise as both a business psychologist and human-centered designer. In his current role he helps business travellers think and choose better. He designs and implements behaviour change initiatives to successfully achieve and sustain digital transformations and extract business value from behavioural insight, eg, nudge theory. He has worked with clients across local government, and in the utilities, travel and insurance sectors.

Jon’s passion for food started whilst studying at the University of York when he took on the role of kitchen porter in Café Rouge. He quickly worked his way through the culinary ranks to chef-de-partie and made the decision to pursue a long-term career in hospitality.

After securing a place on the graduate scheme with Sodexho UK, Jon quickly exceled through both management and strategic research roles. The subsequent years however, proved truly formative as Jon established himself as a pre-eminent sales director in the catering industry in roles with Elior, Baxter Storey and Centerplate. This culminated in Jon being named Salesperson of the year in the 2013 Foodservice Cateys.

In 2014, Jon joined the Compass family as Levy UK’s business development director. After a period of impressive growth Jon transitioned into a leadership role as managing director of Levy Leisure before taking his current role as managing director of Levy UK.

He now takes Levy UK into an exciting period; honing sustainable practices, implanting meaningful technology to enhance the guest (and staff) experience and true culinary innovation.

Ciaran is the Founder of Meetingsbooker.com, a global marketplace reinventing how to discover and book venues around the world. Ciaran is a strategic meetings management expert with experience in destination, hotel and meetings technology. 

With over ten years’ experience in the conferences and events industry, Daniel Elliott’s current role at Center Parcs confirms he is an advocate for spending time in the great outdoors to relieve stress and improve overall wellbeing, achieving balance across his personal and professional life.

Martin describes himself as a lucky man. “I work with an incredible team of events professionals who don’t understand the concept of problems; they make everything run smoothly and my life is so much easier because of them”. He is our go-to person for unusual ideas, and our go-away person when we hear some of them. His loves are rugby, food, travel and languages, although he professes to not being very good at any of them. In 2016 he completed a 300 mile charity walk for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. This benefited both the charity and the office, as he was away for 10 days. Martin is also a director of the Alliance of Independent Events Agencies

Rob Eveleigh, Founder and Managing Director of Brightelm.

Rob is a highly experienced events professional who, over his 20 years plus experience, he has worked with some of the leading, and most diverse, medical, scientific and trade associations in the world.

His clients have included European Society of Cardiology, European Federation of Biotechnology, Personal Finance Society, European Society of Periodontology, World Endometriosis Society, the European Orthodontic Society and more.

Nigel joined the Home Office as an Immigration Officer following a Short Service Commission in the British Army. After a number of years working on the entry control at Dover he moved into enforcement and worked in this area for approx 15 years. This period included responsibility for establishing the first immigration arrest teams and overseeing their national expansion. A move into the policy arena followed, initially with responsibility for illegal working policy and then migration policy. He is currently Head of Border Security, Visa and Identity Policy, a role he has held for the past four years. 

A communication strategist, facilitator, meeting designer and presenter coach, Tim brings multiple stakeholders together to define communication objectives, establish clear messages, and align on priorities. Teams who work with Tim value the energy and passion he brings to every project

As a presenter coach, Tim has developed practical techniques that are straightforward and effective. Presenters discover they can always elevate their performance and expand their comfort zone, no matter where their starting point may be. 

Tim has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as in financial and professional services. He resides in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he is leading the expansion of Audience into the European and Asian markets.

Connecting people and building meaningful relationships is core to Adam's philosophy. Whilst recognising the value of technology, it's still his humanistic approach driving the ambition he has in the startup world.

Brecht Fourneau is a solutions-oriented, tech-savvy individual driven by his passion for creating products and strategies that deliver. Currently, he’s responsible for defining and rolling out Aventri's EMEA and APAC Marketing strategy, constantly looking for new ways to drive pipeline through both in-person and digital marketing efforts. He joined Aventri in 2015 through the acquisition of TapCrowd, a mobile event tech startup he co-founded in 2009. When he’s not at work, you can find him spending time with his family, behind the piano or in the kitchen.

Leanne leads the business development team for strategic meetings management (SMM) at specialist meetings & events agency, NYS (part of Capita Travel and Events). Challenging the status quo, she is working with customers to deliver a refreshed SMM proposition blending people with technology, to support; a future agile workforce through virtual collaboration, maximise internal estate and bring the booking of external meeting management online as part of a wider meetings strategy. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the industry, holding a number of positions in hotels and within a Travel, Meetings & Event Management Company including; Operational Management, Team Management, Account Management and Business Development.

In addition, she holds voluntary roles at the ITM as a Supplier Board Director and is a member of Europe’s, Global Business Travel Association’s Meetings Committee.

Kate Gaskin is one of the Directors with Right Angle Corporate Events - An award winning events agency specialising in Teambuilding (with a niche of Crime but with a breadth of other activities), Team Development, Meetings and Events.

Following a 25 year career in the Metropolitan Police which included, in addition to regular policing and management roles, management training, curriculum design and development, evaluation and extensive planning of large public order events (once you have been involved with events like Notting Hill Carnival most other things don't seem daunting).

In conjunction with their team development events, they offer mental health wellbeing workshops and have recently conducted an audit of the mental health of the events industry. Kate has a passion for staff welfare

Steve Gaskin was a senior, Metropolitan Police, detective in London. During this period Steve rose to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. He was responsible for the investigation of serious and series crime including murder and terrorism. In 2007, Steve took his policing skills and entrepreneurial flair founding Right Angle Corporate Limited (RAC). RAC is a team building and team development agency, also catering for corporate entertainment. The company has won many National Awards

Emily Girdwood is an experienced events professional with over 9 years’ experience in the industry. Since graduating with a BA (Hons) Events Management degree from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2011, Emily has worked in a range of roles covering production and events for private and public sector.

Emily has been an Event Manager within the Barclays International events team for nearly 4 years. She works with the business to bring their content to life on a variety of different events. Also a member of ‘Team Green’, Emily works with other committee members to share best practice to help make their events more sustainable.

Louise Goalen has worked in the events industry since 1985. After 11 years working in different hotels, she joined Ashfield Meetings & Events where she spent 20 years. Her time spent on the venue side combines with more recent agency experience to bring a unique perspective to her role as Director of Venues at creative communications agency Top Banana. As Chair of the HBAA for 2 years (2017/2018), Louise is passionate about helping agencies and venues work together for the benefit of all parties. She sees building new partnerships and developing existing ones as an important element in her role at Top Banana. Louise Goalen has worked in the events industry since 1985. After 11 years working in different hotels, she joined Ashfield Meetings & Events where she spent 20 years. Her time spent on the venue side combines with more recent agency experience to bring a unique perspective to her role as Director of Venues at creative communications agency Top Banana. As Chair of the HBAA for 2 years (2017/2018), Louise is passionate about helping agencies and venues work together for the benefit of all parties. She sees building new partnerships and developing existing ones as an important element in her role at Top Banana.

With a firm belief that successful events which deliver maximum ROI for both attendees and organisers can be held anywhere, even a cow shed, Nick Gold draws on his 20+ years consulting experience working with 7,500 speakers and servicing 1,000+ events per year to address the pain-points and opportunities that exist for event professionals. With a background in the era of the first dotcom boom and bust, and then some more ‘grounded’ work life with a major FTSE100 company in IT and project management, Nick found himself in the mid-1990s looking for the opportunity to grow his own company and create something new. And so his story with Speakers Corner began. Initially a bespoke entertainment bookings agency, Nick has turned the business into a market-leading speaker bureau and consultancy working with 6,500+ speakers and servicing 1,000+ events each year, which sits at the heart of the events industry Nick also manages the business with his brother Tim, which also makes him well placed to comment on how family and business can work together! Nick is President Elect of the International Association of Speaker Bureaus (IASB) and was formerly the Chairman of the EASB (European Association of Speaker Bureaus). He has been published extensively across UK media outlets, including: The Telegraph, City AM, Huffington Post UK, GQ.com and Raconteur, and has previously spoken at events including Confex, BNC and The Business Show. Before his Speakers Corner adventure began in the mid-1990s, Nick previously worked in the energy sector at Power Costs Inc. (PCI) and Centrica, where he specialised in project management, business development, business analysis and bid tendering. A warm character who speaks with passion and authority on content, the events industry and measuring ROI, not to mention entrepreneurship, managing SME’s, creating an inclusive culture and motivating a workforce to go above and beyond, Nick inspires audience interaction with questions from the floor during his sessions and delights in sharing stories with delegates after the talk has finished.

Anna Golden is Commercial Director, Olympia London. Her responsibilities are predominantly focused on maximising sales revenue for the venue. Managing the Marketing strategy in conjunction with the long term sales plan and overseeing all communications internally and externally.

James joined Stagestruck in 2016. Before joining, James has consulted for a number of clients in the UK and USA. He was Group Head of Brand at Tesco and has over 23 years of experience working in advertising, brand, design, experiential and digital agencies, helping clients such as Apple, Zurich, Cadbury, Volvo, Sony, Heineken, The Macallan, Tesco, Converse, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Foot Locker and Visa address their brand and communications challenges.

Thorben is a seasoned event planner and marketer with more than a decade of experience. He joined EventMobi in 2012 and heads up the company’s European office. As General Manager, Thorben built a multi-disciplinary team of passionate marketers, sales and support staff and grew EventMobi into one of Europe’s leading event technology brands. 

Paul has over 30 years’ experience in the management of festivals and events including the Aldeburgh Festival, Bury St Edmunds Festival, City of London Festival, Durham International Brass Festival and 8 years as Director of the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Paul also runs his own consultancy working on a wide range of festival projects internationally with partners including the British Council, Events Tasmania, The New Zealand Association of Event Professionals, Festivals and Events Ontario, Tourism Queensland and Abu Dhabi Tourism Development Co.

Magnus GT Hamann has a postdoctoral position at Loughborough University. He has a PhD in interaction research and uses conversation analysis to investigate the underlying systematics of every-day and professional interaction. He has been working with themes such as "interaction with brain damage", "communication about cancer", "adapting business practices to virtual meeting rooms", "Using slideware in teaching", and "human-object/machine interaction". In addition, he has given more than 100+ public lectures about language, culture, perception and the brain, and in his Danish education-consultancy, he has developed solutions for the Danish Ministry of Education.

Alice has been with BEYOND since 2013 and has made her mark as ‘the creative’, injecting creativity into events with brand identity and values running through each element. Also qualified in adult education, Alice delivers in-house training to staff tasked with managing events themselves

A recognized expert in meetings and events with over 20 years strategic and tactical experience.

A career starting in the hotel sector took Mark via a number of operational roles to a position as a Director of World Events a Global Event Management company where he delivered bottom line growth and service differentiation for over 15 years. As Head of Global Events for F. Hoffmann La Roche Mark was the principal architect to the successful consolidation of above market activities, considered by many to be an industry benchmark integrating over 35 markets into a centralized solution. More recently he enjoyed a role as subject matter expert at Grass Roots, where he worked with international offices to create an aligned multi market offer.

Prior to creating Healthcare Venues Mark was Managing Director of 3Sixty Event Consulting, a specialist meetings and events consultancy specialising in the development of regional and national meetings strategies for corporate clients.

Jon has worked freelance and in-house across many industries with one common feature - Helping event organisers and exhibitors transform their Events into “Experiences for Visitors”. Focusing primarily on strategic objectives, marketing, and content distribution. Jon has a wealth of experience assisting clients in making the most out of their marketing and digital investments through a wide range of innovative event technology.

Currently responsible for delivering in-event solutions for a wide range of clients including Google, Facebook, Barclays, GES, PWC, SAP etc. Jon also heads up many event partnerships including The Meeting Show, Confex, Mobile World Congress, IGB Live, Fin Tech Connect and many more. These partnerships focus on a wide-range of digital transformation objectives such as App Adoption, Sponsorships, Engagement, and Sustainability.

Jon is currently Head of Global Sales at Giant iTab. Utilising his extensive clientele list and supplier relationships to manage key accounts, events, and furthering Giant iTabs global partnership network.

James has been in the event and hospitality industry for over 15 years. Having run his own agency for 9 years, James is now a Director of Eventwell and the General Manager of the Event Marketing Association. James has first-hand experience of the pressures we all face within the event industry. James suffers with anxiety and depression and after many years of working at a fast pace suffered burn out and had to make a number of lifestyle changes to improve his mental and physical wellbeing which includes living in recovery from substance misuse and an eating disorder. As well as keeping himself busy with EMA & Eventwell James is training to be an addictions counsellor and life coach.

Ruth is a committed sustainability professional with experience working in a FTSE250 and FTSE100 environment delivering sustainability strategy, high level reporting, stakeholder and employee engagement, supply chain management and business change. She is passionate about sustainable business and producing results whilst retaining a commercial focus.

Ruth was previously Group Head of Sustainability for the Thomas Cook Group plc, where she was responsible for leading and overseeing the Group wide sustainability functions; developing, implementing and coordinating strategy and operations across 22 countries and in a FTSE100 business. She drove the development of sustainability strategy in the UK travel industry as part of the committee which led the creation and development of the Travelife Sustainability in Tourism scheme.

Ruth has presented internationally at events such as World Travel Market and World Green Tourism in Abu Dhabi on implementation of sustainability and practical steps to create positive change.

She set up her own business in 2012, following the birth of her second child and has been working with several businesses since, supporting their implementation of sustainability and working with them towards certification. Ruth also advises businesses on HR matters and recently achieved a CIPD Diploma in Human Resources Management.

After graduating from the University of Leeds in 2000 with a Joint Honours degree in French and Management, Ruth started her career working in ecommerce before moving into sustainability in 2005. She holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University.

Ruth currently works with events companies and venues as well as tourism businesses to support strategic sustainability implementation and creation of better business. She supports education on sustainability in the events industry and passionately believes that sustainable business is just about doing business better.

A meetings professional with 28 years experience in both conferences and exhibitions dealing with the creation, administration and marketing of conferences, meetings and special events. Previously with Blenheim Plc, Reed Elsevier group and EMAP McClaren working on both UK and overseas events e.g. Confex, In-Cosmetics, Graphic Design Show, Anita has experience in dealing with events for up to 10, 000 visitors and 400 exhibitors. Anita has a reputation in the events industry for her ‘can do’ attitude. She is passionate about the role of academia and technology in society and commerce. Anita has extensive experience and skills liaising across company, other agencies and contractors. In 2014, Anita and fellow founders came up with the idea for the International Corporate Event Awards as a way of rewarding the in-house event organiser for their hard work.

Before setting up BEYOND, Kate worked as a Senior Project Manager, creating bespoke hospitality around major international sports tournaments, film premieres and music events, a highlight of which was a 6 day hospitality programme entertaining 2,500 VIPs at Madonna’s “Drowned World” Tour. From there she broadened her experience, working in sports sponsorship then running the Marketing Department for an American law firm in Mayfair. Kate set up BEYOND in 2004, an event agency specialising in project management and consultancy to deliver “intelligent events”. Project management: the “intelligent event” not only delivers a seamless project, it meets marketing objectives and hits return on investment targets. Consultancy: to help clients “DIY” (or manage their own events) with training in key areas from concept creation to post-event reconciliation. BEYOND’s name evokes the 3 parts of the company’s ethos: the level of personal service; the ambition to always coax clients out of their comfort zone and challenge their thinking; to reflect our expertise in events abroad. (We have managed projects in Central America, the United States, throughout Europe and Dubai.) BEYOND’s mission is to make agency and client work more collaboratively together as one integrated team, not as two separate entities with the same goal. BEYOND has worked for some of the biggest names in the City but works across all business sectors from corporate to charity. Before setting up BEYOND, Kate worked as a Senior Project Manager, creating bespoke hospitality around major international sports tournaments, film premieres and music events, a highlight of which was a 6 day hospitality programme entertaining 2,500 VIPs at Madonna’s “Drowned World” Tour. From there she broadened her experience, working in sports sponsorship then running the Marketing Department for an American law firm in Mayfair. Kate set up BEYOND in 2004, an event agency specialising in project management and consultancy to deliver “intelligent events”. Project management: the “intelligent event” not only delivers a seamless project, it meets marketing objectives and hits return on investment targets. Consultancy: to help clients “DIY” (or manage their own events) with training in key areas from concept creation to post-event reconciliation. BEYOND’s name evokes the 3 parts of the company’s ethos: the level of personal service; the ambition to always coax clients out of their comfort zone and challenge their thinking; to reflect our expertise in events abroad. (We have managed projects in Central America, the United States, throughout Europe and Dubai.) BEYOND’s mission is to make agency and client work more collaboratively together as one integrated team, not as two separate entities with the same goal. BEYOND has worked for some of the biggest names in the City but works across all business sectors from corporate to charity.

Patrick has been working in the Associations and Sectors team at VisitScotland for 3 years. Patrick has been a core member of the team which devised and is delivering Scotland’s first ever national digital marketing campaign targeted at the associations market – Legends. In October 2018 Legends won the ICCA Best Marketing Award and the campaign has continued to grow since then with increased engagement and market awareness.

Legends has transformed Scotland’s attitude and perspective towards associations and has ushered in an exciting new direction of travel for VisitScotland based around a recognition of the long-term impact of associations on a host destination, and the unparalleled opportunity an association congress presents for local knowledge clusters to engage with a worldwide audience.

VisitScotland is now working with Scotland’s Innovation Centres, Universities and research hubs, not just to attract new associations to Scotland, but to provide a resource for all incoming events to be able to connect and engage with the world leading research taking place in Scotland. Not only this, VisitScotland is actively working with these centres to develop original content and stories to share and promote internationally to the associations market.

Patrick has been working on these projects at VisitScotland since 2016. Prior to joining VisitScotland Patrick had a varied career including working for a local NGO in Afghanistan on project management and bid development, was part of the team that organised the first ever TEDx Kabul in 2012, has managed in leading London restaurants and worked in hotels in Austria.

Patrick gained a 1st class MA in Management and Marketing from Heriot Watt University, and an MA in International Relations and European Politics from the University of Westminster. During his thesis work Patrick discussed the impact of ‘Nation Branding’ on destinations, and how the correct profile of publicly supported events can transform a country internally and reshape its image abroad.

Mike Leeson is General Manager, Europe, ETM. In his 14 years in events, Mike has worked in operational, commercial and senior management roles across sectors from youth engagement and brand experience to global conferences and incentive travel. Having joined ETM in 2014, he is now responsible for the general management and strategic direction of the ETM Europe team, helping them to deliver ‘connected experiences’ to a diverse range of global clients.

After hitchhiking to Afghanistan from London, Richard had caught the travel ‘bug’. He has now spent over 35 years in hospitality, media companies and service industries. He’s visited 88 countries - working internationally for 16 years in seven of them. 

Senior roles include: Travel & Tourism what3words, CEO Best Western Hotels GB; CEO Beacon; MD Preferred Hotel Group EMEA; VP CNN International; CEO Whisper Hotels; CEO Landmark Hotels.  

He has a deep understanding of Digital Transformation and Disruptive Innovation after helping to pioneer changing travel booking patterns as COO with WorldRes in the late 1990s and, as MD, launching Clickworker’s crowdsourcing platform in the UK in 2010.  

Along the way, he invented a word game, launched by Hasbro as 

Boggle Master! 

After hitchhiking to Afghanistan from London, Richard had caught the travel ‘bug’. He has now spent over 35 years in hospitality, media companies and service industries. He’s visited 88 countries - working internationally for 16 years in seven of them. Senior roles include: Travel & Tourism what3words, CEO Best Western Hotels GB; CEO Beacon; MD Preferred Hotel Group EMEA; VP CNN International; CEO Whisper Hotels; CEO Landmark Hotels. He has a deep understanding of Digital Transformation and Disruptive Innovation after helping to pioneer changing travel booking patterns as COO with WorldRes in the late 1990s and, as MD, launching Clickworker’s crowdsourcing platform in the UK in 2010. Along the way, he invented a word game, launched by Hasbro as Boggle Master!

Founded in 2008 by Emma Little, who had no previous knowledge of the industry, no industry contacts or existing clients, ExecSpace is a business focussed on what the client needs and wants, rather than because it’s the way it’s always been done. Now one of the UK’s leading venue finding agencies, placing approximately £8million of conference and event business across the UK and internationally, ExecSpace works primarily with large corporates and government organisations. Their current clients include Standard Life Aberdeen, Grant Thornton, Aegon, Nucleus Financial, Aggreko, Mazars, Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and the SQA. They offer a free venue finding service for clients looking to gain the most value and return on investment from their meetings and events budgets. For more information visit – www.execspace.co.uk

Kim Ludvigsen was born 1958 and grew up in Denmark. He lives in Zürich and graduated in Civil Engineering from the ETH in 1981 and has an MBA from INSEAD 1986. He worked for Accenture, Apax Partners and Ernst & Young and later co-founded several start-ups.

In 2014 he met with Peter Frei, a former colleagues form the Swiss Post, with whom he conceived the Interprefy business idea.

Economist and author, Gerard Lyons is an expert in financial markets and the global economy. Formerly Boris Johnson's chief economic advisor and the former Chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank, Gerard is a specialist in all financial domains. Accumulating 25 years in the city, Gerard is knowledgeable in all areas of international banking. An erudite economic strategist and consummate keynote speaker

Caroline has worked in the medical and healthcare meetings sector for almost 30 years. She has developed an in depth understanding of healthcare events gained from 12 years spent within the medical communication industry, managing meetings and congress participation for several top 5 global pharmaceutical companies, and 17 years as a PCO and Association consultant,  providing meetings management and compliance guidance to; national and international medical associations, venues and CVBs.

She has a keen interest in the medical meetings sector and the impact that Healthcare Compliance is having, and will continue to have, as part of the evolution of medical congresses and meetings.

Caroline is Founder / Director of consulting company Global Association Partners and is Operations Director for Open Audience, audience engagement experts who also provide full service event delivery to corporate healthcare and medical association sectors.

Colin Maclachlan, star of Channel Four's captivating reality TV drama SAS: Who Dares Wins and Channel 5’s ‘Secrets of the SAS’ is an operator with over 25 years of security and risk related experience. Having had both an exciting and varied career, Colin is an excellent speaker on a wide variety of topics including Resilience, Teamwork, Leadership, Risk, Motivation, Conflict Resolution, Change Management, Negotiation and Performance

Kerrin, a leading industry figure, has a wealth of senior level international business tourism experience within the convention bureau, association, hotel and convention centre sectors.

In her role at VisitBritain/VisitEngland, Kerrin is building the sector and help secure major international business events across the UK, developing the national strategy to win more international events, reinforcing partnerships across Government and industry, and continuing to build Britain’s international brand for business events.

Prior to this, Kerrin was Director of Conference and Exhibition Sales for 11 years with ACC Liverpool where she played a key role in driving business growth for the venue and the Liverpool City Region, in addition to developing the successful Ambassador Programme, ‘Club Liverpool’.

Kerrin is former chair of the UK and Ireland Chapter of ICCA and has sat on numerous industry boards and groups, including BVEP, ABPCO and The Meetings Show Advisory board.

Having worked closely with the team at Conference Care through various roles in hotels and venues, it was only a matter of time before I became one of them!

My background has included working for both independent venues, larger venue chains, hotel chain as well as Serviced Apartments. But my heart has always been with meetings and events. My role here is to be all things London with our extensive London client base. This includes developing our existing clients, whilst driving new business as well.

I love that no day is the same. Client requirements are so varied which makes the role exciting. One day it is a hotel, the next day it might a warehouse! The most rewarding part of this job is surprising my clients with a solution that they have not heard of.

Outside of work, I like to stay fit. This is mainly because I also enjoy eating. I also love travelling and seeing new places and I have a very long bucket list. 

Josh joined Kenes Group in 2013 as a Marketing Manager, developing and implementing marketing strategies for leading international events in the medical industry. He has presented marketing, business and political strategies on over 60 Universities and at numerous conferences worldwide over the last 10 years. Before working at Kenes Group, he worked and consulted with many nonprofit organizations and startups. He focuses on leadership development, lead generation and networking strategy to maximize attendance at every event. Josh joined Kenes Group in 2013 as a Marketing Manager, developing and implementing marketing strategies for leading international events in the medical industry. He has presented marketing, business and political strategies on over 60 Universities and at numerous conferences worldwide over the last 10 years. Before working at Kenes Group, he worked and consulted with many nonprofit organizations and startups. He focuses on leadership development, lead generation and networking strategy to maximize attendance at every event.

Christine has over 25 years’ experience in B2B magazine publishing. Her career spans senior sales, marketing, publishing and MD roles. She was MD of Dennis Publishing’s IT portfolio (1997 to 2002) and VNU/Nielsen’s Literary Group (2003 – 2005), leading large multi-disciplinary teams across both print and online platforms and securing robust revenue and margin growth. She has also co-founded two specialist publishing/C–suite networking businesses, successfully exiting both by trade sale to William Reed (2002) and Mondiale Publishing (2014) respectively. She is passionate about building brands and communities to deliver commercial success. She is a previous winner of the prestigious PPA Publisher of the Year Award.

Christine joined GES as marketing director in 2015 and leads both the marketing team across EMEA and the exhibitor sales and service teams in UK.

Ellie studied Event Management at University before joining Goodwood in 2010. She has worked in both a reactive and proactive sales role at Goodwood with a focus on the agency and third-party business. Her client base is incredibly varied working with Meetings and Events agencies, hospitality agencies, location sourcing managers and private event planners. She has been involved with the HBAA for 5 years supporting their mission to better the relationships between venues and agencies.

John has over 30 years experience in the events industry as a PCO and technology specialist. He spent the first 14 years of his career as a PCO, before founding Shocklogic in 1997, where he now leads an international team to deliver event management technology. Thanks to his experience as a PCO, he understands from inside-out the opportunities and challenges that any membership-based organisation may face. As well as being an ICCA member for 26 years, he has also been on the ICCA board of directors, and a technology faculty member for the IAPCO seminars for 10 years. John has a PHD in Quantum Physics from MIT and has previously been named as one of the "Top 100 Movers & Shakers in Events" by Eventbrite.

Johnny leads the marketing and business development front at Shocklogic. He has been working with events and associations for the past 8 years, since his time as Events Coordinator at the Global Poverty Project and his role as Performance Coordinator at One World Week. He is now a seasoned contributor in several event publications and moderates regular discussions on social media such as the #EventPlannerTalks with The MICE Blog. In 2017, Johnny became part of the PCMA ‘20 in Their Twenties’ class, as well as the EN ‘30 Under Thirty’ class.

Angie has a wealth of experience in event management, hotel booking and venue finding. In 1991, she opened her first venue finding agency and the business was later merged with one of the UK’s top 20 full service agencies. She has served as an executive committee member of the HBAA, becoming Chairman in 2003. She has also served on the UK board for the Meeting Professionals International (MPI)

Pritesh has over 11 years of experience in the events industry, and worked on hundreds of events. He is the Technical Support Manager and Account Manager at Shocklogic, and is one of the original employees of the company. Pritesh leads his team to continuously find the best solutions for event organisers, and strives to make an impact in the industry through technology.

I believe you can't replace face-to-face and that software should be a tool to nudge the introverts out of their shells, to connect people on mutual interests and then get out of the way for real conversations to take place. Authentic conversations are the atomic unit of value upon which relationships blossom. And I've focused my energy on creating experiences that combine the digital and physical realms, with the goal of building trust upon which deep, meaningful conversations can take place. 

Phil McMichael is business development director at Blitz, a GES company. Phil’s previous role was at 9 Yards Creative, a digital production agency specialising in interactive activations & audio visual installations for live events, conferences and exhibitions, where he led the commercial team who were instrumental in supporting clients and producing events for companies such as Takeda, Silverstone Race Circuits, Vodafone & LG Electronics

With over 20 years’ experience in the event Services, retail & leisure sectors, Phil’s passion is delivering great results for his customers. He is passionate about the event industry and in creating unique experiences for his clients.

Caroline has worked at NYS, now part of Capita Travel and Events, in the role of director of events since May 2008. She is responsible for VIP customers within the business and looking after the top-level executives across our customer base. Caroline was presented with the prestigious ‘Meetings and Event Manager of the Year’ at the industry’s 2017 People Awards. With over 20 years’ industry experience, Caroline’s previous roles include national sales manager for various four and five star hotel groups, sales director for two event management agencies and account director for key accounts, including our highly regulated pharmaceutical customers.

Andrew has worked within the events industry for over 19 years. Over this period of time he has worked across multiple sectors ranging from engineering, media & culture through to healthcare. His career started in logistical event management, progressed to account management before moving to operational finance and performance roles with a strong focus on strategic meetings management and healthcare compliance. Andrew’s knowledge and enthusiasm in these fields has seen him become a thought leader within the business and provide consultancy to our clients.

   

Andrew’s most recent role as Client Partnership Director sees him working directly with a leading international pharmaceutical business. Andrew’s experience in strategic event management combined with his composite understanding of the regulatory environment acts as an enabler to creating change, challenge operational performance and add value for his client. He has successfully lead the implementation of new technologies, both from an enhanced reporting and delegate engagement perspective.

James Morgan has been marketing and producing events since 1989. He is a Senior Lecturer in Events at the University of Westminster, London and the Founder of Event Tech Lab, a partnership community for event technology start-ups, developers, event professionals and investors. He is also Founder of event crowd sourcing platform SharedXP. As a respected speaker, writer and industry commentator, James has judged industry awards internationally and is passionate about educating the event professionals of the future. He takes an avid interest in promoting quality standards and professionalism in the events industry. He has been named as one of Eventbrite’s Top 100 Event Professionals in 2017. He was also voted one of 20 Industry Changemakers by the US publication Meetings Net magazine in 2017. James has also served in various positions in ILEA. He has served as VP of Education and VP at Large for Sustainability and Special Projects for the UK Chapter. He also served as ILEA Affiliate Chair for EMEA from 2014-2016. He was awarded the J Robert Graves Pioneer Awards for 2014-2015.

Miguel is a passionate social media advocate and experienced events professional who consults, trains and speaks on digital marketing and event technology. Miguel has focused on online engagement for the events industry since 2009 and from 2011 to 2017 he managed the IMEX Group’s social media strategy and implementation. In 2017 he created his own micro-agency dedicated to helping other organisations be social on social media. Miguel sits on the International Board of Directors of the Meeting Professionals International, he is a member of the Events Industry Council’s Industry Insights Committee and holds a master’s degree in Conference and Events Management from the University of Westminster.

Owner and Managing Director of Visions Group. Chris is an expert in the field of Technical Production and as such keeps himself up to date with the latest trends, techniques and equipment. For 20 years Chris has worked on events of a varying scale in the UK and Internationally.

Matthijs Otto (29) is the founder of NetworkTables, a very easy online tool designed with event organizers, that helps event attendees meet the right people and make networking more efficient. He is known for his creative mind and hands on mentality to turn challenges into opportunities

Matthijs has become an expert in event matchmaking as NetworkTables has helped more than 250+ events improve their ROI by giving event managers plug and play tools to facilitate roundtables, one-on-one meetings and workshops. 5 years ago he saw that event attendees were not interested in complicated processes, like downloading event apps, instead he saw a demand for an effortless 1-step solutions that would have a huge impact for events. Within a short time, Matthijs built NetworkTables without any external funding. NetworkTables developed rapidly since the start of 2015 and it now has a 30% quarterly growth and happy customers in more than 39 countries. NetworkTables won 3 major industry awards in the last 2 years.

Matthijs is committed to getting things done. He is passionate about adding value and solving problems that event managers face and he is driven to bring the right people together and make networking more efficient.

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com (EIN) is a global online event magazine. EIN is read by organisers, promoters, event management and production companies, suppliers, experiential agencies, the corporate sector, local government and organisations that host exhibitions and conferences.

Leo has over 20 years first-hand experience in marketing and communications and from a grass roots level has developed into an award-winning company director. Leo holds a CIM post graduate diploma in Marketing as well as a BSc (Hons) in Event Management. Prior to founding Leopold Marketing, Leo held the position of Managing Director at one of the world’s largest event management agencies. During his career Leo has overseen the delivery of a complete range of high-profile campaigns for a broad spectrum of clients. Leo is a dynamic, resourceful and professional director that understands the unique needs of each client and has the tenacity to ensure the very best results.

Graham joined Blitz in 2006. In his capacity of Group Commercial Director, Graham and his team are the first point of contact for event organisers and are instrumental in supporting clients delivering the very best events. Customer centric and results driven in his approach, Graham believes that long-terms relationships are the key to success. He is passionate about the event industry and in creating unique experiences for his clients.

Katrina A Prentice, is a experienced corporate trainer with over 15 years extensive experience helping diverse organisations retain staff- British Airways, London Eye, Virgin Airways, BT plc, DHL, Barclays HSBC, CitiBank, Hilton, Royal Mail, Microsoft.

Katrina has also been involved in the design and delivery of bespoke programmes and the ongoing management of learning and development within organisations.

Graduated from university in Event Management and started in the hospitality industry in a number of stadiums up and down the country. A proven career as an Event Professional having worked around the world and on events with high pressured stakeholders such as LOCOG London Olympics 2012, FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 and the UKs largest Business Festival in 2016 operated within the public sector. Now working within a large corporate organisation as Head of Events and Group Travel for an international travel company. 

Graduated from university in Event Management and started in the hospitality industry in a number of stadiums up and down the country. A proven career as an Event Professional having worked around the world and on events with high pressured stakeholders such as LOCOG London Olympics 2012, FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 and the UKs largest Business Festival in 2016 operated within the public sector. Now working within a large corporate organisation as Head of Events and Group Travel for an international travel company. 

Despite all the social tech we use, loneliness and depression are on the uprise. We are more connected at this moment than in all history, yet feel more isolated than we’ve ever been.

I believe it's because we’ve confused community with social media groups, conversations with likes/tweets/reposts, and real relationships with followers and connections.

My work is deeply focused on correcting for this crisis of community, conversation, and trust. I’m fascinated by how tech can facilitate trust. I’m obsessed with how tech can nudge people towards real, authentic, and meaningful conversations. I’m committed to cracking the code on how tech can power real communities, both offline and online. I believe tech has the power to bring us all closer together, instead of becoming more isolated than ever.

My obsession with understanding and solving for this crisis of community has led me to cofounding Veterati, the #1 digital mentoring platform for the military, where we designed a platform where any Veteran or military spouse is able to connect instantly to successful professionals for mentoring conversations. Check out Veterati.com to get involved.

Today I run growth and innovation at DoubleDutch, the only Silicon Valley company I know of that is rooted firmly in both the digital world of scale AND the real world of live events and face-to-face gatherings. At DoubleDutch, I work with corporate & government leaders to leverage our live engagement platform to facilitate trust, conversations, and real communities that bridge the offline and online worlds.

Chris is a management consultant and professional coach specialising in business development, reputation management and communications. He joined ICS Ltd. after many successful years as consultant to The World Bank, Executive Director of AIJA, the International Association of Young Lawyers, and Executive Director of the European Society of Association Executives. He has strong ties with civil society organisations and the international association sector, in particular, the professional (legal and medical) sectors.

Chris is a frequent speaker at industry events and has studied Law and Economics with a Masters degree in Social and Organisational Psychology as well as an MBA from Henley Business School.

Janet Rawson is a professional actor, playwright and author. She has been involved in drama-based training for over twenty-five years. Janet was one of the founders of the use theatre to tackle staffing issues within organizations including supporting training and development within the workplace.

She has a wealth of experience designing training programmes for diverse organizations including Pfizer, SmithKline, Glaxo, Sony, Netflix, NHS.

Janet is passionate about the use of drama for behavioural change within organisations.

Albert have been a leader in information technology sales and sales management with a focus on the mission critical environments and international marketplace. As a co-founder and CEO at MooveTeam, he manages all aspects of sales and marketing of MooveTeam international sales and expansion. Under his leadership, MooveTeam international business has consistently earned recognition and awards for performance and profitability achievements.

Additionally, he manages Sales Consulting and Business Development, and lead other companies strategies and customer satisfaction programs. His responsibilities include ensuring MooveTeam products meet the needs of the market by working closely with customer advisory boards and the company’s Development organization.

He is good on PR and in find the right solutions for the problems that arise on negotiations and international deals. And loves high tech products and finding the way to implement them into his daily business.

Albert have been a leader in information technology sales and sales management with a focus on the mission critical environments and international marketplace. As a co-founder and CEO at MooveTeam, he manages all aspects of sales and marketing of MooveTeam international sales and expansion. Under his leadership, MooveTeam international business has consistently earned recognition and awards for performance and profitability achievements.

Additionally, he manages Sales Consulting and Business Development, and lead other companies strategies and customer satisfaction programs. His responsibilities include ensuring MooveTeam products meet the needs of the market by working closely with customer advisory boards and the company’s Development organization.

He is good on PR and in find the right solutions for the problems that arise on negotiations and international deals. And loves high tech products and finding the way to implement them into his daily business.

Coming from an administrative background, Kate 1st entered the world of travel & event management by building up a comprehensive travel programme for the business units of the Petrofac Group. She now manages a multimillion pound spend with a global footprint. As global category lead for Travel plus Meeting & Events at G4S Plc. The global secure solutions provider. Kate is skilled in delivering smart solutions for the business and driving key stakeholder engagement within a large company to achieve savings and control over travel related spend.

Giles grew up in Hastings with the town – so reliant on the tourism trade – and part-time jobs at Hastings Castle and the Smuggler’s Caves giving him an early insight into the tourism sector. On graduating from University, Giles had a brief spell in the City before joining the Department of Trade and Industry. Whilst in that department and its various guises, Giles worked as a Private Secretary and on a range of policy areas, including European employment law, energy and planning policy. Most recently he has been leading work aimed at supporting the growth, innovation and skills of the UK’s Cyber Security sector. Giles was appointed Head of Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Diplomacy in November 2016

Danny Stevens is a pioneer of the Belgian Event industry, as a founder and CEO of the leading event agency Event Masters since 1991 he managed over 3000 events and understands the needs of meeting and event planners as no other. In a spinoff company he created an in house developed event management platform EventDrive and focused on the added value of technology for the meeting industry. Fielddrive is his most recent challenge, a disruptive and global approach for onsite badging services and visitor tracking. He is a passionate traveller and photographer and always in for an adventure

Elizabeth Stokoe is Professor of Social Interaction in the School of Social Sciences at Loughborough University; Professor II at University of South-Eastern Norway, and an Industry Fellow at Typeform. She uses conversation analysis to understand how talk works - from first dates to medical communication and from sales encounters to hostage negotiation. Outside the university, she runs workshops with doctors, mediators, salespeople, police and other professionals using her research-based communication training method called the "Conversation Analytic Role-play Method". She is a WIRED Innovation Fellow and her research and biography were featured on the BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific. In addition to publishing over 120 scientific papers and books, she is passionate about science communication, translating the world of conversation analysis for audiences of all kinds. She has given TED, New Scientist, Google and Royal Institution lectures, and performed at Latitude Festival (in the Wellcome Trust/British Psychological Society stage) and Cheltenham Science Festivals. Her book, Talk: The Science of Conversation, is published by Little, Brown (2018).

Felix co-founded CrowdComms in 2011 with the intent of providing a game changing event experience for delegates through the intelligent adoption of technology. Since then CrowdComms has built a reputation of delivering amazing tech along with best in class service and support, which was recognised at the Event Technology awards with CrowdComms winning the Best Event App award.

With over ten years' experience in the events industry and currently leading a social media committee to initiate platforms and build the brand presence for Historic Royal Palaces, Milan Thakrar's background is in the heritage venue sector and currently promotes the palaces to both UK and international markets.

Chris set up his own sustainability consultancy in 2011, to train and coach SME's in how to manage their businesses more sustainably. He currently works with events companies and venues, corporates, international associations and Governments to help them integrate more sustainable practices into their everyday operations.

Graduating from the Universities of East Anglia and Leeds, Chris taught secondary school science until starting a career in tourism in 1991. Working in a range of tour operating roles, he accumulated a very broad and detailed understanding of the industry.

In 2003, he was recruited to manage and co-ordinate the responsible tourism activities for the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) and to manage the industry arm of the Travel Foundation Charity. He developed a sustainable supply chain management solution for tour operators, primarily aimed at improving the sustainability of tourist accommodations and attractions. The tool, called the Travelife Sustainability System, has grown into an internationally recognised certification programme.

Chris has managed and participated in a broad variety of sustainable tourism projects, from the creation of tourism standards, animal welfare policies and sustainable marine recreation guidelines to the establishment of multi-stakeholder partnerships and sustainability cooperation agreements. He was involved in the development of the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council concept and was a member of the Temporary Board during the establishment of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

Chris is an experienced auditor in both Health & Safety and Sustainability, having performed over 1000 audits of businesses all around the world. His experience as a teacher has made him a confident and skilled trainer and coach.

He was awarded the Advanced Diploma in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University as part of their Programme for Industry.

 

Martijn’s career started in customer experience marketing at ​Disney​, ​Marriott​ and ​Singapore Airlines​, He wrote business plans and strategic value propositions for start-ups and served as Director/CFO at Toneelgroep Amsterdam​ working with award winning stage director,​ ​Ivo van Hove​.

 As an event advisor, producer and designer he worked for clients such as: ​Amsterdam RAI​,​ ​ASN Bank​, ​ ​Amsterdam City​, ​Booking​, ​ ​Bridgelux​ ​ ​ ​Intel​, ​MCI​,,​ ​Rijkswaterstaat​, ​ ​Wind River​, ​Seasun Games​ and ​ZAAM

 To bridge the gap between strategy and execution of experiences with impact, he developed a number of successful concepts and tools, such as ​The Red Line Project​ and ​Event StoryBoard Canvas. With Event Storyboard they trained over 1300 event professionals and partnered with Alzheimer Lab​, ​VUmc​,​ ​DDB​,​ ​McKinsey​ and​ ​KPMG​. On his mission to unleash creativity faster, he joined innovators collective, ​PlaybookToolkit​. In 2019 he created the ​Storyboarding Toolkit​, a DIY way into the world of storyboarding to empower (event) innovators save time, money and improve results.

 Martijn is a member of the​ ​Meeting Design Institute​, a ​collaborator at​ ​Meet4Impact​ Global.​ and partner/consultant at ​Token.Agency​,​ a boutique blockchain consultancy firm.

 Martijn has a keen interest in intrinsic motivation, personal growth, and organizational culture. In his approach Martijn embeds a mixture of theories: besides design thinking techniques, he is inspired by Storytelling/Expressive writing, (Prof. James Pennebaker), Theory U (Dr. O. Scharmer), Self Determination Theory (Deci, E.L., & Ryan), Appreciative Inquiry (D. Cooperrider), Placemaking and MIT Lifelong Kindergarten (Prof. Mitchel Resnick).

 

Maarten Vanneste has been active in the industry since 1982. His background is Meeting Design, Production, AV and Technology. As the author of ‘Meeting Architecture, a manifesto’ (2008) he was the founder of a movement developing education for the disciplines around meeting design.

In 2011, in Orlando, Florida, he was the recipient of the MPI Rise Award for Industry Leadership. He is a CMM and a CMA.

As founding member of the Meeting Design Institute in 2006 he has always been on the frontline of innovation in Meeting

Arvi has specialised in meetings, events and travel technology since 2006 when he joined a meetings agency in London. Since then, he has gone on to implement event automation solutions for TMCs, events agencies and corporations including global strategic meetings management programs and event spend management systems.

Arvi is a qualified GDPR practitioner and a strong advocate of data privacy within the events industry, which processes large volumes of personal data. With Brexit looming and uncertainty rife, Arvi will highlight the areas event businesses need to consider to prepare for Brexit in the short and medium terms, focussing on the processing and transfer of personal data.

Having started a career in Hotel Management in the Midlands Richard moved to London in 1980 forging his career in the city running events and hospitality at the Stock Exchange prior to moving to SG Warburgs (now part of UBS) In 1990 he opened Spencer House for Lord Rothschild and then launched his own agency First Protocol in ’96 - exited in 2012 through a MBO. Richard founded EMA in 2013 with a number of senior corporate contacts to create a network and voice for the corporate event planner. The association has grown over the years to become the recognised national association exclusively for in-house corporate event professionals with Richard representing our voice at the table of the BVEP – the national body for all industry related associations. Richard is an active investor and mentor across the events industry and holds a number of Non Exec Directorships as well as being a sort after speaker at key industry events.

Lesley is an award-winning public relations and marketing communications consultant, who has worked both in-house as a senior PR manager and in various freelance and permanent agency roles before joining Custard in March 2016.

Combining both consumer and business-to-business skills, her experience is multi-industry and has seen her successfully head up creative campaigns for luxury venues and numerous event and hospitality clients as well prestigious shows such as The Edible Garden Show, Blenheim Palace Flower Show and Hylands Flower Show.

At Custard Lesley is using her extensive contacts and in-depth media knowledge to deliver dynamic, results-driven campaigns that meet our clients’ strategic objectives. She is responsible for the overall steer and direction of PR plans, campaign development and media strategy for a range of clients including the Meetings Industry Association, The Meetings Show, QEII Centre, Glaziers Hall and Westminster Venue Collection.

With over 20 years’ experience Alison is Head of Events for L’Oréal Professional Products UK and Ireland where she leads the events offering across 10 brands within the UK and Ireland. She acts as a consultant to the rest of the brands within the L’Oréal portfolio and for larger international events run by L’Oréal across the world. She is responsible for delivering live experiences that include country-wide roadshows, large-scale exhibitions, large scale award ceremonies, fashion shows, parties, conferences, seminars, photo shoots, consumer-facing experiential events, incentives, sponsorship activities & corporate hospitality which take place both in the UK and across the globe.

Alison is responsible for overseeing the delivery of all advertising, media, marketing, design, digital and social media and talent management to support all activities in addition to all logistics, production, venue and catering involved in the management of all these events. Alison has been a judge on panels at numerous recognized national event management awards and in 2017 saw her listed in the Event Magazine 100 Club 2017 listing the 100 most influential people within the UK events industry – 2nd out of the 100.

George is a classically trained marketer, an event enthusiast, and the Head of Growth of Toronto-based event technology company, PheedLoop. He loves events and feels so fortunate to be working with some of Canada’s leading organizers. Prior to PheedLoop, George worked in traditional CPG brand management as a marketing manager leading iconic household brands such as Mountain Dew and Tropicana. He also helped lead Google’s largest SMB marketing program in Canada. Now he is on a mission to help drive the future of events forward. George is recognized by the Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s Top Young Marketers. In his spare time, he is involved with Toronto’s tech community and organizes monthly community tours in downtown Chinatown.

Kursha Woodgate is global Brand and Communications Director at Slido, an award-winning Q&A and polling platform for live events. With a career in communications spanning more than 20 years, Kursha has been a trade journalist, PR agency Account Director, Marcomms Director and Managing Director of her multi award-winning consultancy, Mexia Communications, which she grew and managed for almost 12 years. Through her consultancy work, Kursha has crafted and delivered numerous award-winning PR and marketing campaigns. She has worked with a wide range of technology companies, world-class venues, including Somerset House, Twickenham Experience and The Royal College of Physicians, a number of international tourism bodies and more. A CIM qualified marketer, trained interpreter and full CIPR member, Kursha speaks French, Spanish and Italian, holds a black belt in Shotokan Karate and is a qualified yoga instructor.

Having worked across the financial, pharmaceutical, telecoms, professional service and FMCG sectors in a corporate and agency capacity for 20 years, WRIGHT focuses on providing strategic input to drive operational and service excellence within the field of events and communications. Sarah has provided consultancy on business development, operational design, coaching and training, procurement and event design for a range of clients, most latterly the Department of International Trade, Roche Pharmaceuticals and SABMiller. Sarah is passionate about talent development across the industry and set up the Event Management Apprenticeship Programme in 2012. She is the Chair of the Events Industry Board Skills, Talent and HR Working Party and is the Director for Employer Engagement on the Event Management Apprenticeship Programme Board.

Rieke Zantinge (1980) is a creative event strategist and founder of a full-service event company. Rieke and her team are responsible for inspiring corporate events, strategic management meetings and incentive travels all over the world. These are experiences and gatherings with a strong artful influence. After getting her Master degree in Educational Sciences at the University of Groningen in 2008, Rieke worked in Education for 10 years. As a behavioral scientist and teacher she focused mainly on finding out how people actually learn. Partly on the basis of that specialism, she started her own company where she developed a unique concept to inspire organizations and their employees in an impactful way, in order to motivate and connect: Inspirators Factory. Inspirators Factory stands for creative events and programs. With inspiring speakers like influencers and artists. The events created by IF are ideal for the "digital natives" generation; millennials, generation Y and Z where personal leadership and talent development is key. At inspirators Factory, all elements are designed to fit the theme of the event. From location to speakers. And from food to creative artwork, before and during the event. This way we create unique experiences that have a lasting impact.