Gavin Hewitt

Gavin Hewitt is a prominent writer and broadcaster. He was until recently Chief Correspondent at BBC News. From 2009 to 2015 he was the BBC’s Europe Editor.

He has had a front row seat at many of the world’s major events.

In 2016 he covered the Trump campaign in the United States. He was in East Berlin the night the Berlin Wall came down and in Moscow for the end of Soviet Communism. He covered the 9/11 attacks in the United States and reported from New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina. He was embedded with the American Third infantry for the war in Iraq and covered the Obama campaign in 2008.

He has given speeches in New York, Toronto, Italy, Germany, Brussels and Luxembourg.

Gavin has four main corporate speeches:

The Battles of the Mind: drawing on experiences including covering war and natural disasters he talks about resilience, courage, failure, survival and moral dilemmas.

The Disruptors: Using some personal stories he talks about how the information revolution is changing the world of work, shaking up politics and challenging democracy.

Portraits of power: Using a mixture of stories and anecdotes he talks about power, what it does to people, and how modern leadership is changing.

Global Shocks: Having spent five years in Brussels and having covered the Trump campaign he talks about Brexit and anti establishment politics and the modern era of insecurity.

Gavin has written three books including the ‘Lost Continent’ on the political and economic crisis in Europe. His blog was voted one of the most influential in Europe.

Before that Gavin wrote ‘A Soul on Ice’ about his experiences as a frontline correspondent. It was described as a ‘breath-taking recollection of real stories’ and was later used as the basis for a West End play.

In the eighties he lived in Toronto Canada and worked for Canadian Broadcasting. He has written articles for the Outlook Section of the Washington Post.

He has won a Bafta, an Emmy, an RTS and a Peabody award.

 

Iain Hennessey

Iain Hennessey currently leads an Innovation Team which is working with world leading companies and local small businesses, using gaming technology, sensors and cognitive computing to predict the progression of illnesses and plan individualised treatments.

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with honours degrees in Medicine, Surgery and Anatomical sciences, before going on to train as a paediatric surgeon in the United Kingdom and Australia. He has always been interested in innovation, helping found a startup surgical simulation company as a trainee and then progressing to become the clinical director of innovation at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Notable achievements have included forming partnerships with large multi national companies such as Sony and IBM, building a unique underground 1000sqm innovation facility for collaboration with the tech sector and developing a team of clinician entrepreneurs to drive change within the NHS.

He founded the world’s first cognitive hospital AI project for patient support. This was a healthcare innovation ecosystem at Alder Hey, centred on a 1000m2 health innovation hub which also featured an award-winning team.

As Director of Innovation Iain is passionate about working with companies who are at the leading edge of technology; for example, trying out new kit such as virtual reality headsets, or visiting a super computer to see how it crunches data to produce the best care plan for a patient.

Alder Hey is pioneering the use of 3D printed body organs which can be taken into operating theatres, to help guide surgery; and they are helping to develop gaming and the use of artificial intelligence to communicate, entertain and reduce stress in child patients.

He is currently developing a long term strategy to build the worlds first “Living hospital” by adapting emerging technologies to enable the building to care for the children within it, both medically and holistically.

In 2017, he was presented with a gold award for his pioneering leadership of innovation. In 2020 Iain was appointed Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Liverpool.

TALK TOPICS INCLUDE:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Living/learning from mistakes
Human factors in the operating room
Creating a culture of innovation
Dealing with fear

 

Tim Reid

Tim has worked for some of the world’s most creative organisations, including global ad agencies, innovation consultancies and the BBC. He has helped clients from beer brands to broadcasters, confectioners to condom makers reimagine the future and re-invent their businesses.

Tim is quite possibly unique in the world of advertising having worked in every discipline available in an ad agency. He started his career as an adman at J Walter Thompson as a Media Planner, before moving to McCann Erickson as an Account Director, then Strategic Planner, and finally as an award winning Copywriter. Tim’s unwillingness to be boxed in by a job title or discipline reflects his approach to creativity, and his ethos in inspiring creative thinking in others.

During the process of writing, developing, and filming a major sitcom for BBC One, Tim learned first hand how many of the same tools and techniques of creativity and idea generation are used by writers, comedians and commercial innovators alike. Tim has drawn together a practical guide to applying the trade secrets used by top creative professionals, comedians and writers.

Tim is a master at keeping audiences actively engaged and positively energised. Whether it’s getting people on their feet and playfully interacting, or switching on different parts of their brains through quick mental exercises, Tim can make sure your audience is alive, alert and full of energy throughout your event.

David Taylor

David is one of the world’s top 50 leading marketing thinkers according to the CIM, and a Fellow of the Marketing Society.

David is Founder & Managing Partner of the brandgym, a network of brand growth coaches. He has written five brandgym books: “The brandgym”, “Brand Stretch”, “Brand Vision”, “Grow the Core” and “Where’s the Sausage?” David also leads the writing of the brandgym blog, one of the top 60 branding blogs in the world.

He’s worked with a wide range of sectors, covering everything from beer to banking, in both B2C and B2B. His expertise is in brand vision to action, brand architecture and turbo charging marketing plans. Prior to founding the brandgym in 2002, David worked in brand management for P&G, received an MBA from INSEAD and then started and ran Added Value’s Paris office.

David speaks on a range of branding issues including growing the core, brand stretch and brand leadership. His speeches are consistently praised for their practical, provocative and entertaining style.

David speaks both at company-specific events for global clients (Kraft, Mondelez, HSBC, Mars, Unilever) and at leading conferences (Brand Manage Camp (Las Vegas), the Marketing Society Conference, London Business Forum). He has also written publications for The Guardian, Marketing, Market Leader, Brand Strategy and Marketing Business.

David also teaches on brand strategy at London Business School, in addition to designing and delivering “Action Learning” training programs for clients including SAB Miller, Mars and United Biscuits.

Dr. Guy Meadows

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Ranked as the ‘UK’s leading sleep expert’, Dr Guy Meadows helps individuals improve the quality of their sleep and day time performance.

Dr Guy Meadows is a sleep physiologist, with a doctorate from Imperial College, London. He has been working in sleep for the past twelve years, eight of which have been dedicated purely to helping clients overcome insomnia.

Guy spent four and half years working within the sleep research laboratories of the Royal Brompton and Charing Cross hospitals. He is trained in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), pioneering the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Insomnia (ACT-i). Guy regularly talks and runs training workshops for therapists and General Practitioners.

Guy is a published author and co-founder of Sleep To Perform & The Sleep School. He has been named the ‘UK’s leading sleep expert’ by The Times and has worked with thousands of employees helping to improve the quality of their sleep and daytime performance.

SESSION OUTLINES:

Managing stress and anxiety for better sleep
Detaching from work at the end of the day for better sleep
Mindfulness
How to get better sleep – experiential tools and techniques session
Managing jet-lag
How to overcome insomnia and other sleep disorders
Parent and baby/toddler sleep
Parent and school-age child sleep
Managing shift work
Parent and teenager sleep

Dr. Graeme Codrington

Graeme is the co-founder and a senior partner of TommorowToday, a global firm of futurists and business strategies. Graeme’s breadth of knowledge and expertise make him highly relevant in today’s rapidly evolving business world.

Graeme has a particular interest in trends affecting how people live, work, interact and connect with each other. He speaks on the TIDES of change – the five disruptive forces shaping the new world of work in the next decade: Technology institutional change, Demographics, the Environment and shifting Social values.

He has shared platforms with the likes of Edward de Bono, Jonas Ridderstrale, Allan Pease, Sir Ken Robinson and Neil Armstrong.

Geoff Cousins

Armed with an entrepreneurial mindset, Geoff Cousins has the ability and skill needed to drive innovative strategies and deliver real results for businesses of all sizes.

During his career Geoff has held a number of C-Suite positions within the iconic Jaguar Land Rover Brands which include; Chief Financial Officer of North America for JLR and Volvo, Director of Sales, Manufacturing and Planning for JLR, UK Managing Director and Global Sponsorships and Brand Partners Director for JLR, and currently he is the Chairman of G&P. As a result he is well known and respected throughout the industry.

Geoff’s global experience and track record of personal business achievements provides a unique mix of big business process capability and innovative thinking that delivers transformational but pragmatic business solutions to entrepreneurs, innovation start ups and SME’s. His experience allows businesses and leaders to optimise performance, deliver results and lead transformation initiatives, while cutting through complex issues.

Geoff is currently the Non-Executive Director of Performance Communications, advising on strategy, operational performance and business growth initiatives. He is also the Managing Director of Geoff Cousins Associates, a Business Consultancy advising their clients on areas such as; Leadership and People Performance, PR and Marketing, Product Planning and Distribution, Strategic and Business Development and Executive Recruitment.

His most recent project is the creation of a cutting edge brain development product known as Zing Performance. Inspired by the latest neurological research, Zing Business improves human performance by enhancing the brain body connection. It does so by developing neural pathways to improve cognitive, emotional and social abilities.

Geoff is a visiting Professor of Global Governance at the University of South Wales where he delivers master classes on international business, chairs the course student conference and assesses group simulation exercises. He holds a number of external positions in the fields of charity and sports administration.

Inma Martinez

Inma is a pioneer in the mobile industry, a technology product maverick and data scientist, having been behind the major innovation advances in web and mobile, such as data-mining and A.I, Behavioural Learning and Sentiment Analysis.

These and other computational analyses have powered e-commerce, fintech, development of mobile data services, mobile personalisation in real-time, mobile music and image streaming as well as film & TV content delivery across various platforms.

Inma is an inspirational speaker often engaged to predict the future digitalisation of various sectors, and she has delivered keynotes, participated in industry panels or acted as chairperson at major conferences in Europe, the Middle East and the United States since 2000. From industry events such as the GSMA Mobile World Congress to top multinational private events (IBM Smart Planet, BDO, Deloitte, BusinessWeek, Euromoney) and technology summits (TechCrunch, GigaOm), Inma is recognised by Fortune and Time as one of the top talents in social engagement through technology.

In one of her current roles she is currently consulting as a Data Scientist and Product Innovator for Securus, a cyber security company. She has also consulted for Preadly, a company that publishes and syndicates internationally the top local blogs in every country via web and app. It turns the posts into interactive, searcheable data that users can save and share via private and social media channels.

In 2010 Inma was asked by the British government to serve the UK Trade & Industry Catalyst Programme as a technology business leader sharing with foreign governments and business enterprises the British innovation advances and export opportunities.

In 2005 Red Herring ranked her 25th out of the top 40 women in technology, labelling her a “free radical”, whereas FastCompany has defined her as a “firestarter”.

Jane Young

Jane Young is a technology entrepreneur and an exciting speaker on the topic of social media. She has a fresh, quirky and highly engaging approach.

Avoiding university as the obvious route to a career, she represents a new breed of entrepreneur who has an ease with technology and the opportunities it presents us, particularly in the space of social business. Jane is the founder of Scramblr, a platform that enables creative teams to set up their own online studios. Prior to this she founded London-based boutique digital agency Kanbee, delivering online and film projects. She is also a regular blogger at resonanceblog.com.

As a speaker, Jane finds a way of weaving really complex problems into a story that inspires, even if she’s talking about a technology subject to non-technical people. Jane helps her audiences to see past the jargon, hype and worms’ eye view of today’s social media tools. She looks towards a bigger picture for using social media to drive growth in the 21st Century; exploring how we can solve age old business problems using new knowledge and technological capabilities. Jane speaks about the concept of “social business” and differentiates between red herrings (Do I need a presence on Facebook?) to exploring answers about why social media really matters in business today.

Jane has worked with brands such as Dixons, Curry’s, PC World, Vodafone, Wildfire Word of Mouth, Grey and Procter & Gamble.