Customer Experience & Marketing

Why organisations work with Jodie Kidd A recognisable on-camera presenter with two decades of live broadcast experience, including Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show and ITV’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT, equally at home with a live audience and a camera. Genuine credibility in automotive, motorsport and lifestyle briefs: a former Maserati Trofeo Series driver, Mille Miglia competitor, and Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” series leader. An operating entrepreneur, not a name on a brand. Owner since 2017 of The Half Moon in Kirdford, an AA 2-Rosette gastropub featured at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park; co-owner of beauty brand Skin & Tonic. A reinvention story with substance behind it: Vogue covers and the McQueen debut runway, then a Maserati seat, then a working pub through the post-pandemic hospitality squeeze. Useful when a brief calls for a panel voice on backing yourself outside a single career lane. Polished, warm, unflappable on stage. The kind of host clients rebook for the second year because the first one ran on time. Biography highlights International fashion model from age 15. Vogue covers, opened for John Galliano, walked Givenchy and Alexander McQueen’s debut runway show. Maserati Trofeo Series racing driver. Competed in the Mille Miglia for Jaguar. Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”: topped the leader board across an entire series, becoming a long-running Top Gear reference point. Co-presenter, Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show, and ITV’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT. Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One, 2008) and Celebrity MasterChef finalist. Owner since 2017 of The Half Moon, Kirdford, a Grade II listed gastropub holding AA 2 Rosettes four years running and featured at Pub in the Park from 2019 to 2022. Author of Balance Your Life (2019); co-owner of beauty brand Skin & Tonic; host of YouTube automotive channel Kidd in a Sweet Shop. Biography Television careers built on a single specialism are easier to write about than ones built across several. Jodie Kidd has covered fashion, motorsport, lifestyle and food on BBC, ITV and Channel 5 over more than two decades, and the through-line is the live work: a host who can carry an awards room, a paddock interview, a cookery final or a panel on hospitality. The starting point was modelling. Discovered at 15, she was on the cover of British Vogue at 17, opened shows for John Galliano and walked Alexander McQueen’s debut runway. The pivot into broadcast came through cars. She raced in the Maserati Trofeo Series, competed in the Mille Miglia for Jaguar, and topped the Top Gear leader board for an entire series, which translated into long-running automotive presenting on Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show and ITV’s Isle of Man TT coverage. In 2017 she took on The Half Moon in Kirdford with two business partners, learning the gastropub business from the kitchen out. The pub holds AA 2 Rosettes four years running and has appeared at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park. She co-owns the beauty brand Skin & Tonic and wrote Balance Your Life, a six-week diet and exercise book published in 2019. For event organisers, the value is straightforward. A senior buyer hiring Kidd is hiring an experienced live broadcaster with genuine subject footing in automotive, lifestyle and small-business hospitality, and a calm hand on a long evening. She works as host, awards presenter, panel moderator and panellist, and as a speaker on her own reinvention across fashion, motorsport and entrepreneurship. Key speaking topics Awards hosting and event presenting Panel moderation Automotive, motorsport and the classic car world Hospitality and independent pub ownership Entrepreneurship and brand-building outside a primary career Reinvention across industries Health, wellbeing and lifestyle Ideal for Brand and consumer events in automotive, lifestyle, fashion and hospitality Industry awards evenings looking for a recognisable, experienced live host Conference panels on entrepreneurship, small-business hospitality, or career reinvention Internal leadership or sales conferences wanting an after-dinner speaker with a broad public profile Audience outcomes A live event that runs on time, with an audience that stays in the room Panel conversations that draw out senior speakers without drifting A first-hand account of building and running a working hospitality business through a difficult market A frank reinvention story across modelling, motorsport, broadcasting and small business For automotive and motorsport audiences, an interviewer who knows the subject

Dr. Jonah Berger: Unlocking the Science of Influence Through Language, Behavior and Ideas How can we use language to communicate more effectively and increase our influence? Why do some products, ideas, and behaviors catch on? And how can we be more effective at changing minds and organizations? Professor Jonah Berger examines the behavioral science behind these and other questions. Millions of copies of his books are in print in over 35 countries around the world. Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way. Almost everything we do involves words. From emails and power points to phone calls and pitch meetings, words are how we persuade, communicate, and connect. But certain words are more impactful than others. They’re better at changing minds, engaging listeners, and driving action. What are these magic words, and how can we take advantage of their power? Learn the words that convince clients, captivate audiences, and deepen social connection. How to ask the right questions, hold attention, speak with confidence, and design presentations, pitches, and other types of content for maximum impact. And how the words others use reveal hidden information about their interests, actions, and intent. Whether you’re trying to persuade a customer, motivate a team, or get a whole organization to see things differently, this course will show you how to leverage the power of magic words. The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind. Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change customers’ minds and leaders want to change organizations. Startups want to change industries and non-profits want to change the world. But change is hard. We push and push, but often nothing happens. Could there be a better way? This book introduces a revolutionary approach to change. Successful change isn’t about pushing harder or exerting more energy. It’s about removing barriers. Overcoming resistance by reducing friction and lowering the hurdles to action. Discover the five hidden factors that impede change, and how by mitigating them, you can become a catalyst. Contagious: Why Things Catch On reveals the secret science behind why products, services, and ideas become popular. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to catch on. If you’ve ever wondered why certain stories get shared, brands get more word of mouth, or videos go viral, this book will explain why, and show you how to leverage these ideas to craft contagious content. Contagious was New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post bestseller and has been translated into over 35 languages. Amazon named it one of the best books of the year and it received the Berry Book Prize from the American Marketing Association as the year’s best marketing book. Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. Ever wish you could be more influential? Be better at motivating yourself and others? Make smarter decisions and shape group opinion? This book will show you how. Invisible Influence spent more than three months on the New York Times bestseller list. It was also a Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller and has been translated into over 25 languages. Berger has been recognized with a number of awards for both scholarship and teaching, including various early career awards. He was named one of the top 30 leaders in business by the American Management Association and one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company magazine. His research has been featured multiple times in the New York Times Magazine’s “Year in Ideas” and Wharton gave him the Iron Professor award for awesome faculty research. Dr. Berger has helped hundreds of companies like Apple, Google, Nike, and GE get their products, services, and ideas to catch on. He’s helped Facebook launch new hardware, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sharpen messaging, and small start-ups, political campaigns, and nonprofit organizations change minds and drive action. He’s also keynoted hundreds of major conferences and events like SXSW and Cannes Lions, and spoken to audiences from 10 to 10,000 people around the world. He received a BA from Stanford University in Human Judgment and Decision Making, and a PhD from Stanford in Marketing.

Why organisations work with DJ Target He was inside grime before it was a marketing category. As a founding member of Roll Deep with Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Flowdan, his account of how the genre formed is first-hand, not retrofitted. His book Grime Kids became the definitive insider history of the scene and the source text for a BBC Three drama adaptation written by Theresa Ikoko. Few cultural movements are documented this directly by a participant. The Rap Game UK, which he co-hosts with Krept and Konan, earned a BAFTA nomination for Entertainment Programme, giving him broadcast craft alongside scene credibility. Eden’s Bloom, the freeze-dried baby food brand he co-founded with his wife Eva, gives him a working perspective on building a consumer brand from scratch outside the music industry. He brings the hosting craft of a daily 1Xtra slot to corporate panels, awards and culture-led conversations, where the bar is keeping a senior audience interested without scripting every line. Biography highlights Founding member of Roll Deep alongside Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Flowdan; co-producer of the UK Top 20 single “Champagne Dance”. BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter since 2007, former co-music lead of the station. Co-host of BBC Three’s BAFTA-nominated The Rap Game UK with Krept and Konan. Author of Grime Kids: The Inside Story of the Global Grime Takeover (Trapeze, 2018). Executive producer on the BBC Three drama adaptation of Grime Kids, written by Theresa Ikoko and produced by Mammoth Screen. Co-founder of Eden’s Bloom, a freeze-dried baby food brand built with his wife Eva Joseph. Biography Grime did not arrive fully formed. It was built on pirate radio in East London by teenagers who had no expectation that anyone outside their estates would listen. Roll Deep was one of the collectives at the centre of that, and DJ Target was one of its founding members alongside Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Flowdan. Their 2002 single “Champagne Dance” reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and signalled that the scene could cross over without losing what made it. That experience gave him the source material for Grime Kids: The Inside Story of the Global Grime Takeover, published by Trapeze in 2018. The book became the canonical insider account of the genre, later adapted into a BBC Three drama series written by Theresa Ikoko and produced by Mammoth Screen, with DJ Target as executive producer. He is one of the few participants in a cultural movement who has gone on to write its history and shape its dramatisation. His broadcasting career sits alongside this. He has presented on BBC Radio 1Xtra since 2007, served as the station’s co-music lead, and co-hosts BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK with Krept and Konan, a series that earned a BAFTA nomination for Entertainment Programme. The hosting craft is the part senior audiences feel directly: keeping a room engaged, threading a conversation, working without a script. Outside music he co-founded Eden’s Bloom with his wife Eva Joseph, a freeze-dried baby food brand named after their daughter. The venture gives him a working view of consumer brand-building from product to shelf, and a second story to draw on when the brief is entrepreneurship rather than culture. Key speaking topics UK grime, garage and the rise of British Black music Cultural authenticity in brand and youth marketing Building a creative scene from the ground up Broadcasting and panel hosting Founder experience in consumer goods Ideal for CMOs and brand leaders working on youth, music or culture-led campaigns Internal culture and DEI programmes that want substance rather than slogans Awards hosting, panel moderation and after-dinner sets where craft and cultural authority both matter Founder communities and accelerator audiences interested in consumer brand-building Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how grime moved from pirate radio to global recognition, told by someone who was there A clearer read on what makes brand engagement with youth culture credible and what makes it fall flat A working founder’s view of building a consumer product brand alongside a creative career A hosted conversation that lands with audiences who can spot a scripted moderator from the back of the room

Why organisations work with Scott Deming He ran the agency before he ran the keynote. Deming built Ryan Communications to 70 staff and around USD 30m in revenue, serving clients including Benjamin Moore and The Scotts Company, so his views on brand and customer experience come from operating accountability rather than observation. His thesis in The Brand Who Cried Wolf (Wiley, 2007) is unusually concrete for the category: brand is the cumulative outcome of every customer interaction, and most brands fail because they over-promise in marketing and under-deliver in operations. Powered by Purpose gives leadership teams a working language for connecting individual values to customer-facing behaviour, which is where most culture programmes break down. Client list spans regulated and operationally complex environments: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, General Motors, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Delta Airlines, PwC, U.S. Treasury, McDonald’s of Eastern Europe. Useful when buyers want a speaker who has worked inside their kind of complexity, not adjacent to it. He writes regularly for Entrepreneur on customer experience, leadership and innovation, which keeps the material in active circulation rather than locked to a single book cycle. Biography highlights Author, The Brand Who Cried Wolf: Deliver on Your Company’s Promise and Create Customers for Life (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). Author, Powered by Purpose: Identify Your Values, Discover Your Purpose, and Build Success for Life! Founder of Deming Advertising in 1986, later Ryan Communications Inc.; grew the agency to 70 employees and approximately USD 30m in annual revenue before exit in 2003. Regular contributor to Entrepreneur on customer experience, brand, leadership and innovation. Keynote and training work for AT&T, Verizon Wireless, General Motors, Delta Airlines, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, PricewaterhouseCoopers, U.S. Treasury, Hershey Foods, McDonald’s of Eastern Europe, 3M, Chipotle and Frito-Lay, among others. Founder and former board member, Service Nation / Service Roundtable. Biography Brand promises are written in marketing and broken in operations. The book that captures this most directly is The Brand Who Cried Wolf, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2007. Its argument is that customer loyalty is built or destroyed in the routine interactions that no advertising campaign can paper over. That argument has a particular weight because the author spent seventeen years running the kind of agency that produces those campaigns. Scott Deming founded Deming Advertising in 1986 and rebuilt it as Ryan Communications Inc., growing the agency to around 70 staff and USD 30m in revenue before exiting in 2003. Clients included Benjamin Moore and The Scotts Company. The view of brand as an operating outcome, not a creative output, was formed inside that business. His second book, Powered by Purpose, extends the thesis inward. Customer experience is downstream of culture, and culture is downstream of whether individual employees understand their own values and how those values show up in the work. The book is the basis for his leadership keynote, which leaders use as the language for connecting purpose to customer-facing behaviour. The platform work spans large, operationally complex organisations: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, General Motors, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Delta Airlines, PricewaterhouseCoopers, U.S. Treasury, McDonald’s of Eastern Europe and others. He writes regularly for Entrepreneur on customer experience, brand, leadership and innovation, and he was a founding board member of Service Nation / Service Roundtable, the network for service-business owners in the trades. Key speaking topics Customer experience and brand loyalty Brand strategy and brand promise Purpose-driven leadership and culture Employee engagement and customer-facing behaviour Sales and customer service performance Innovation in customer-led organisations Ideal for CMOs, CXOs and brand leaders looking to close the gap between marketing promise and customer reality. CEOs and operating leaders accountable for culture as a commercial lever, not an HR slogan. Heads of customer service, sales and retail operations in regulated or franchised environments. Franchise networks, dealer groups and service-business associations where the brand is delivered by independently operated front lines. Audience outcomes A clearer test for whether your brand promise survives contact with your actual customer journey. A working model for connecting employee purpose and values to customer-facing decisions. Practical changes to customer service routines, from frontline scripts to escalation policy, that compound into loyalty. Confidence that culture work has a measurable commercial return, not just a wellbeing one. A shared internal language for talking about brand as an operational discipline rather than a creative one.

Why organisations work with Jahkini Bisselink She sits inside Whetston Strategic Foresight, a practice built for long-range corporate planning, which means her insights arrive as briefable strategy inputs rather than generational commentary. She is one of the few speakers who is both a member of Generation Z and a trained foresight researcher of it, which closes the gap between authentic voice and analytical distance. Her UN Youth Representative work involved structured consultations with more than 4,000 young people, giving her data depth most generational speakers cannot match. Senior clients including Deutsche Telekom, the European Parliament, and Lloyds Banking Group have used her to shape leadership conversations about Gen Z, not as a panel novelty. She works in English and Dutch, and she presents to boards, HR functions, and customer experience teams without translating the message between them. Biography highlights Dutch United Nations Youth Representative, 2017 to 2019, elected through open national election. First UN General Assembly speech delivered at age 18. Youth expert at Whetston Strategic Foresight, Amsterdam, since 2020. TEDxYouth@Maastricht speaker, March 2019, “Why Youth Participation is Key”. Named in MIPAD (Most Influential People of African Descent) Class of 2023. Corporate clients include Deutsche Telekom, the European Parliament, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank, R/GA, and AVEVA. Biography A quarter of the workforce is now Generation Z, and most leadership teams are still describing them in language borrowed from coverage of millennials a decade earlier. The result is a steady mismatch between what organisations design for younger employees and customers, and what those groups actually want. Closing that gap is now a board-level problem, not an HR one. Bisselink works inside Whetston Strategic Foresight in Amsterdam, where her job is to translate generational research into corporate strategy. Whetston is a foresight practice, not a marketing agency, which shapes how her work lands: she briefs leadership teams the way a strategy consultant would, with a defined argument and named implications, rather than offering generational colour. Her credibility on Gen Z is built on two layers. She is a member of the generation, born in Amsterdam in 1999. She also spent two years as the Dutch United Nations Youth Representative, running structured consultations with more than 4,000 young people across the country and presenting their views at the UN General Assembly in New York. That fieldwork, conducted before she joined Whetston, is the data foundation under her current commercial work. Boards and HR functions at Deutsche Telekom, Lloyds Banking Group, the European Parliament, and Rabobank have used her to pressure-test assumptions about how their next generation of employees and customers actually decide. She was recognised in the MIPAD Class of 2023 for the same body of work. Key speaking topics Generation Z in the workforce The multigenerational workplace Future of customer experience Strategic foresight and generational trends Corporate purpose and youth activism Talent attraction and retention for the next generation Ideal for CHROs and heads of talent rebuilding attraction and retention strategies around a Gen Z-majority workforce CMOs and customer experience leaders whose growth segment is now Gen Z Executive teams and boards reviewing workforce, culture, and brand strategy through a generational lens Public sector and policy bodies that need a credible Gen Z voice in stakeholder conversations Audience outcomes A clearer read on what Gen Z employees and customers actually decide on, separated from common media generalisations. Specific implications for how attraction, retention, and customer strategy need to change inside the audience’s own organisation. A working understanding of the friction points between four working generations and where leaders are still managing on outdated assumptions. Direct exposure to a Gen Z researcher whose evidence base is consultation work, not commentary.

Why organisations work with Peter Avis A career from dishwasher to General Manager of Galvin at Windows at the London Hilton on Park Lane, giving him operational credibility with both frontline teams and executive leadership in the same room. Fifteen years inside the Virgin Group, working alongside Sir Richard Branson on the London Roof Gardens, Mont Rochelle and Kasbah Tamadot, where service culture is a measurable commercial asset. UK Restaurant Manager of the Year in 2009 and Chairman of the UK Guild of Restaurant Services, recognised credentials that translate hospitality language into commercially serious customer experience. A working operator’s view of employee engagement, not a consultant’s deck: how rosters, recognition and recruitment actually change guest outcomes. Biography highlights General Manager of Galvin at Windows and 10 Degrees Bar at the London Hilton on Park Lane from February 2020, succeeding Fred Sirieix. UK Restaurant Manager of the Year, 2009, while running Babylon Restaurant at The Roof Gardens, which won Best London Restaurant at the Visit London Awards in 2008. More than 15 years with the Virgin Group, including involvement in the launches of Virgin Limited Edition properties Mont Rochelle in South Africa and Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco. Chairman of the UK Guild of Restaurant Services and Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality. Recipient of the 2014 Richard Branson Special Award for Services to the Community and the 2014 Carey Award Manager of the Year. Awarded the Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022 and inducted into the Seal of Excellence at the House of Lords for services to hospitality. Biography Service businesses can describe their brand promise clearly. The difficulty is keeping it intact across a 14-hour service, three sittings, a kitchen running short and a new starter on the floor. That gap, between corporate standard and the table the guest is actually sitting at, is the problem Peter Avis has spent a career solving. He began as a dishwasher in Liverpool and ran kitchens, floors and rooms up through the ranks at named London venues. By 2009 he was UK Restaurant Manager of the Year at Babylon Restaurant in The Roof Gardens, Kensington. Babylon had taken Best London Restaurant at the Visit London Awards a year earlier under his management. Fifteen years inside the Virgin Group followed, working closely with Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Limited Edition team. He was part of the launch teams for Mont Rochelle in South Africa and Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, brands where service is the product. In 2020 he was appointed General Manager of Galvin at Windows and 10 Degrees Bar at the London Hilton on Park Lane, succeeding Fred Sirieix. That breadth gives him an unusually grounded view of engagement, recognition and service culture. He chairs the UK Guild of Restaurant Services and holds Fellow status at the Institute of Hospitality. Boards and operational leaders book him because he can talk about engagement, retention and customer experience in the language of a working operator, not a consultant. Key speaking topics Customer service and guest experience Employee engagement in service businesses Building high-performing hospitality teams Leadership in service operations Delivering on a brand promise Recognition, retention and culture in frontline industries Ideal for Hospitality, leisure and retail leadership teams and operations directors Customer experience and service excellence functions across consumer-facing industries HR and people leaders working on engagement and retention in frontline workforces Conferences focused on service culture, brand delivery and operational excellence Audience outcomes A practical view of how recognition, recruitment and floor leadership change guest outcomes A clearer understanding of where brand promise breaks down between executive intent and frontline delivery Specific examples from named flagship operations rather than generic service theory Confidence that service excellence is a managed system, not a personality trait

Why organisations work with Mohamed Isa He has actually run the P&L. Former CFO of INOVEST B.S.C., a Bahrain Bourse-listed investment company, and former Regional Finance Manager at Unilever for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, he speaks about service and engagement from inside the numbers. Original published work behind the commercial argument. Chai Karak: A Customer Service Story is now in its third illustrated edition and used by management teams as a discussion tool for service culture. His content rests on a published book with a specific thesis. Native bilingual delivery. Equally fluent in Arabic and English, he can hold a Gulf executive audience in either language without flattening the argument, which matters for regional events and for global firms operating across the GCC. Track record across very different rooms. Booked sessions include Google, American Express, BASF, KPMG, and SDAIA (the Saudi Authority for Data and AI), giving him unusual range across multinationals, professional services and Saudi public-sector audiences. Personal experience that earns the airtime. The 2022 Everest Base Camp trek to 5,364 metres gives him a concrete reference point for talks on persistence and pressure. The story is his own. Biography highlights Former Chief Financial Officer of INOVEST B.S.C., a Bahrain Bourse-listed investment company, with prior senior finance roles at Unilever covering the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey Author of Chai Karak: A Customer Service Story, now in its third illustrated edition, with international keynote bookings drawn from the book including Google, American Express and BASF Contributing author to The Success Blueprint alongside Brian Tracy, recognised with a Quilly Award from the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors in the United States Holds CPA, MBA and Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) credentials Trekked to Everest Base Camp at 5,364 metres, the experiential frame for his leadership keynotes Delivers in Arabic and English, with audiences including KPMG, SDAIA (Saudi Authority for Data and AI) and GGI Middle East & Africa Regional Conferences Biography In commoditised markets, the firm that competes on price loses. The firm that competes on service quality often wins on margin and retention, but most organisations cannot prove the link in their own numbers. Mohamed Isa spent more than a decade as Chief Financial Officer of INOVEST B.S.C., a Bahrain Bourse-listed investment company. Before that, he was Regional Finance Manager at Unilever, covering the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. That background gives him an unusual angle on customer experience. He argues for it in the language of revenue, retention and margin. Chai Karak: A Customer Service Story is the centre of his commercial content. Now in its third illustrated edition, the book is used by managers as a discussion tool with their teams. Customers in price-driven categories have enormous switching power, so service quality is where margin actually gets defended. The book has driven keynote bookings at Google, American Express, BASF and KPMG, alongside regional engagements with SDAIA and GGI Middle East & Africa. The Everest Base Camp trek to 5,364 metres is the experiential frame he uses for leadership material on persistence and pressure. He delivers in Arabic and English, which makes him one of the few speakers in the Gulf who can hold an executive audience in either language without simplifying the content. Key speaking topics Customer experience and commercial performance Service culture in commoditised markets Employee engagement and profitability Sales growth and profit maximisation Leadership under pressure Resilience in demanding conditions Ideal for Chief Customer Officers and customer experience leaders responsible for tying service investment to commercial outcomes Chief Sales Officers and commercial leaders facing margin pressure in commoditised markets CHROs and engagement leaders looking for an evidence-based link between people experience and revenue Regional conferences and leadership events in the GCC where audiences mix Arabic and English speakers Audience outcomes A thesis on why service quality outperforms price in defending margin in commoditised markets A worked example of how engagement levels show up in the P&L, drawn from inside CFO experience A specific tool from Chai Karak that managers can put to work with their service teams A reframing of leadership and resilience anchored in a specific endurance experience the audience has not heard before A regionally-aware perspective from a speaker who has held Gulf, multinational and US-technology audiences in both Arabic and English

Why organisations work with Amy Thomson A founder who has actually built and sold in consumer markets twice, once in brand communications with Nike, Microsoft and Instagram as clients, and once in femtech with a venture-backed app and a Penguin-published book underneath it. Specific operating knowledge of category creation in stigmatised territory: how to position, fundraise, and market around hormonal health without the wellness-industry shortcuts that erode trust. A published Penguin title grounded in research from gynaecologists, endocrinologists and nutritionists, which means consumer health and pharma teams get a speaker with editorial credibility, not just a founder pitch. A first-person account of hormonal burnout as a CEO that resonates with leadership audiences, then connects to a commercial argument about why workforce health is being misread by employers. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Moody Month, awarded “Top Female Health App” by Apple Author, Moody: A 21st Century Hormone Guide, Penguin Founder, SEEN brand agency, clients including Nike, Microsoft, RBS, Instagram and Diageo; sold to Captivate Group Co-founder, Future Girl Corp, with Sharmadean Reid, partnered with Google and Diageo Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London Keynote engagements include Apple HQ and Vogue Biography Most consumer health products built for women have been designed without a serious commercial thesis attached to female physiology. Thomson started Moody Month to close that gap, building a venture-backed app that tracks hormonal and mental health across the menstrual cycle. Apple named it “Top Female Health App” and featured it on the App Store Today Tab. Her route to femtech was operational. She founded SEEN at 23, a brand and content agency working with Nike, Microsoft, RBS, Instagram and Diageo, before selling the company to Captivate Group. A hormonal burnout, driven by years of high-intensity client work, forced her to stop. The decision to study what had happened to her body became the foundation for Moody and for her Penguin book, Moody: A 21st Century Hormone Guide, which draws on gynaecologists, endocrinologists and nutritionists rather than wellness orthodoxy. That dual track, agency exit then femtech category creation, gives her a particular usefulness to consumer health, FMCG and pharma teams trying to build credibly in physiology markets. She has co-founded Future Girl Corp with Sharmadean Reid, partnered Google and Diageo into that programme, and raised institutional capital around a product category most investors still find awkward to underwrite. The commercial argument she makes is concrete: hormonal health is a consumer market that has been mispriced by incumbents and underserved by wellness branding. For leadership audiences, the burnout story carries a sharper edge than the wellness circuit typically allows. It is told by a founder who walked away from a profitable agency, rebuilt around a physiological problem her own body forced her to take seriously, and then commercialised the answer. Key speaking topics Femtech and women’s health as a commercial category Consumer brand building in stigmatised markets Founder-led category creation Hormonal health, data and machine learning Raising venture capital as a female founder Burnout, physiology and executive performance Ideal for CMOs, brand directors and consumer innovation teams in FMCG, pharma and health Investor audiences in femtech, digital health and consumer technology Founder programmes and scale-up leadership networks Boards and leadership teams reviewing workforce health beyond standard wellbeing programming Audience outcomes A working commercial frame for women’s health as a consumer category, not a CSR line A founder’s account of fundraising in stigmatised markets, with the patterns that move investors A first-person view of hormonal burnout at CEO level and what it changed about her operating model A clearer read on why hormonal data is becoming a serious input for consumer product and workforce health

Why organisations work with Philip Sheppard He has actually built and runs an AI creative business. LifeScore, the generative music platform he co-founded with Siri creator Tom Gruber, has raised £11m and ships to Warner Music Group and Octopus Ventures-backed commercial partners. The argument is grounded in a working company, not a slide on disruption. He brings a working composer’s view of human-AI collaboration. Most AI commentary is by analysts. His comes from sitting at the boundary where a human writes the musical raw materials and the machine selects, layers and mixes them in real time, which is the same architectural question now facing design, copy, video and brand teams. The credentials carry weight in a creative-leadership audience. A Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music, an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Music Branch membership, and conducting all 205 national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road are not transferable credentials. He has a track record of speaking to technology buyers, not music audiences. Keynotes for Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Google, Facebook, YouTube and Kyu Collective, and on stages including C2MTL, TTI Vanguard and Business Innovation Factory. He turns an abstract debate into a live demonstration. He performs and composes on stage using a six-string electric cello, which makes the argument about generative systems and human craft visible rather than theoretical. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of LifeScore, an AI adaptive music platform co-founded with Tom Gruber, co-creator of Siri at Apple; backed by Warner Music Group and Octopus Ventures. Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, awarded as a lifetime recognition of services to music and education. Composer of more than 65 scores for film, television, gaming and theatre, including Detroit: Become Human (Sony), the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Comic Con trailer, Mercury 13 (Netflix), In the Shadow of the Moon and Meru. Conducted and arranged all 205 national anthems for the London 2012 Olympic winners’ ceremonies, recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Music director for the London handover at the 2008 Beijing Olympics closing ceremony; music producer for the Tour de France, Rugby World Cup and the COP21 Paris climate summit. Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Music Branch (2017) and the Television Academy; author of Music Makes Your Child Smarter (Schirmer Trade Books). Biography LifeScore was incubated inside Abbey Road Studios for a reason. The company was set up to answer a question that now matters far beyond music. If a machine can generate plausible creative output on demand, what exactly is the human still meant to do? Philip Sheppard, a composer and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, co-founded the platform with Tom Gruber, co-creator of Siri at Apple, and now runs it as CEO. Warner Music Group and Octopus Ventures have backed it through an £11m funding round. The architecture of LifeScore is, in effect, the architecture of any serious human-AI creative system. Composers and musicians build the raw musical materials. The machine selects, layers, sequences and mixes them in real time around the listener’s environment. The output is generated, but the judgement, taste and craft that make it sound human are not. That is the model Sheppard now describes to technology and creative leaders trying to industrialise generative AI without losing what made their work recognisable in the first place. The credentials behind the argument are concrete. Sheppard has composed more than 65 scores for film, television and gaming, including Detroit: Become Human, the Mercury 13 documentary for Netflix and In the Shadow of the Moon. He conducted and arranged all 205 national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road, and was music director for the London handover at the Beijing 2008 closing ceremony. He sits as a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy, and wrote Music Makes Your Child Smarter for Schirmer Trade Books. His keynote audiences are mostly outside the music industry. Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Google, Facebook, YouTube and Kyu Collective have all booked him, alongside stages such as C2MTL, TTI Vanguard and Business Innovation Factory. The reason is the same in each case. He is one of the few people who can speak about generative AI and creative work from the position of having shipped a company that does it, and a body of work that depends on it being done well. Key speaking topics Human-AI collaboration in creative work Generative AI and the future of creative industries Building an AI venture from inside a creative practice Music, data and adaptive systems Innovation and creativity as a managed discipline The role of craft in machine-augmented teams Ideal for Chief technology, AI and digital officers shaping how generative AI is deployed across creative, brand and design functions Chief marketing, brand and customer-experience leaders whose teams now produce content with generative tools Innovation, R&D and product leadership at media, entertainment, consumer and platform businesses Leadership offsites at technology, consulting and professional services firms looking for a credible voice on creativity and AI Audience outcomes A clearer account of what generative AI changes about creative production, and what it does not A working mental model for dividing labour between human judgement and machine generation in creative workflows Named examples of how an AI creative venture is actually built, funded and run, drawn from LifeScore’s own history A sharper sense of where craft and taste still differentiate a brand or product in a generative environment A live demonstration of human-machine creative collaboration through performance, not slides

Why organisations work with Tom Fishburne His Marketoonist series has run weekly since 2002 and reaches 500,000 business readers – giving him a live, continuously updated signal on where marketing and organisational thinking is currently stuck, rather than a fixed body of research. His argument is structural, not motivational: that customer engagement fails and innovation stalls for cultural reasons, and that humour is a functional tool for surfacing those reasons – not a tone choice, not entertainment. This gives leadership teams a lever that most change programmes do not include. His Marketoonist studio has built campaigns for over 200 organisations including Google, Adobe, DBS Bank, and PwC – meaning every argument he makes on stage is backed by commercial execution, not only observation. He provides a shared visual vocabulary that allows cross-functional teams to discuss what is actually blocking performance – poor customer experience, idea killers, AI adoption gaps – without triggering defensiveness. As Stanford GSB’s Cartoonist-in-Residence for the course on humour in business, and a regular guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, his framework has academic validation alongside its commercial track record. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Marketoonist, a cartoon-led content marketing and culture change studio; 200+ campaigns for Google, Adobe, LinkedIn, DBS Bank, PwC, and Unilever Creator of the Marketoonist weekly cartoon series, published since 2002; 500,000 weekly readers; featured by the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and The New York Times; weekly contributor to MarketingWeek since 2007 Harvard Business School alumnus; Cartoonist-in-Residence and Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business course on humour in business; regular guest lecturer at Harvard Business School Author of Your Ad Ignored Here; illustrator of three Deloitte business books – Provoke (WSJ Bestseller), Detonate (National Bestseller), and Work Disrupted Former Interim CMO at HotelTonight (acquired by Airbnb); Marketing VP at Method Products (European brand launch named Brand Launch of the Year, The Grocer); brand management at Nestlé and General Mills Speaker at TED Salon: Unconventional, TED World Theater, New York; 200+ keynotes delivered in more than 30 countries Biography Tom Fishburne started drawing cartoons on the backs of Harvard Business School cases in 2000 and has published the Marketoonist series weekly since 2002. That series now reaches 500,000 readers a week and has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and The New York Times. The reason it travels is not novelty – it is recognition. The cartoons name what people in organisations already know but rarely say aloud. His argument, developed across a marketing career at Nestlé, General Mills, Method Products, and HotelTonight, is that most marketing underperformance and most innovation failure is cultural in origin. Customer journeys break not because teams lack data, but because organisational dynamics prevent anyone from acting on it. Ideas lose momentum between brainstorm and launch not because of resource constraints, but because of unspoken idea killers that no one has named. Humour, Fishburne argues, is a functional diagnostic tool for exactly these problems – not a way to make difficult conversations comfortable, but a way to make them possible. In 2010, he expanded Marketoonist into a creative studio. The studio has since built cartoon-led content and culture change campaigns for more than 200 organisations, including Google, Adobe, DBS Bank, and PwC. He is Cartoonist-in-Residence at Stanford GSB for the course on humour in business and returns regularly to guest lecture at Harvard Business School. He illustrated three bestselling Deloitte business books – Provoke, Detonate, and Work Disrupted – and authored Your Ad Ignored Here. A senior buyer leaving his session does not leave with a framework to file. They leave with a vocabulary for conversations their team has been avoiding – and a demonstrated method for making those conversations productive. Key speaking topics Marketing effectiveness and customer engagement Innovation culture and idea management Humour as a strategic tool for culture change AI adoption and organisational readiness Visual communication and storytelling in business Challenger brand thinking Creative culture and overcoming idea killers Ideal for Chief Marketing Officers and senior marketing leadership teams Chief People Officers and culture change leads Innovation and digital transformation leads Leadership conferences where marketing, creative culture, or organisational change is on the agenda Audience outcomes A clear diagnostic framework for identifying where marketing efforts break down and why Practical understanding of the cultural conditions that allow creative ideas to survive from brainstorm to launch A shared vocabulary for discussing organisational blockers – customer experience failures, AI adoption gaps, innovation stalls – without defensiveness Insight into humour as a repeatable strategic tool for culture change, distinct from motivation or entertainment A more honest assessment of whether technology and AI initiatives are failing for technical reasons or organisational ones

About Sam Silverstein Sam Silverstein is a globally recognized authority on accountability, organizational culture, and leadership, celebrated for his powerful ability to transform business performance and employee engagement through values-driven action and authentic leadership. Founder of The Accountability Institute™ and creator of The Culture Audit™, Sam partners with organizations worldwide to embed accountability as a core cultural advantage. Named one of the world’s top organizational culture professionals by Global Gurus, he has been inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame and served as Past President of the National Speakers Association.​ Sam empowers leaders to overcome critical business obstacles, such as disengagement, change fatigue, ethical gaps, and lack of trust, by helping them build cultures where accountability, trust, and collaboration fuel sustainable growth. Drawing on his extensive experience as a business owner, including a successful exit to a Fortune 500 company, Sam brings practical insights that drive measurable results across sectors, from Fortune 500 enterprises to government agencies and associations. As an advisor, consultant, and keynote speaker, he works closely with CEOs and leadership teams to translate mission, vision, and values into actionable strategies that yield higher performance, stronger communities, and resilient teams.​ Business Challenges Addressed Sam Silverstein specializes in addressing issues that matter most for today’s leaders: Cultivating workplace cultures that retain great talent and accelerate innovation​ Eliminating “quiet quitting,” disengagement, and excuse-making by fostering commitment at every organizational level​ Aligning business strategy with core values to improve decision-making and customer experience​ Counteracting change resistance by equipping teams with mindsets and tools to embrace, and thrive through constant change​ Building resilient leaders and organizations able to adapt, communicate, and collaborate, even in the face of adversity​ Closing the gap between ethics and culture by empowering authentic leadership and value-driven behaviors​ Driving sustainable growth, profitability, and productivity through accountability-based frameworks and actionable insights With over 30 years of leadership research and hands-on experience, Sam is renowned for his dynamic, interactive presentations that combine practical strategies with inspirational storytelling. He leverages proven tools, like The Culture Audit™ and his Accountability Equation, to diagnose culture pain points and collaboratively design actionable roadmaps to high performance.

Meet Irita Marriott Irita is an exciting new on-screen antiques dealer. She has a particular passion for porcelain items and you will often find her at antiques shows around the UK as well as her regular appearances on BBC1’s Antiques Road Trip and Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. She is one of their newest antiques experts to join the BBC team and is creating quite a stir with her flaming red hair, wonderful humour and ability to spot a bargain. Irita is also an expert on BBC1 Bargain Hunt and Channel 4’s The Greatest Auction. She is presenter of her own series entitled ‘The Derbyshire Auction House’ on Really. Irita was born in Latvia in 1984. Her early years were very humble and far from plain sailing. She lived on a country farm that was fully self-sufficient with her numerous siblings until she was 6 years At school she wouldn’t describe herself as studious and she remembers an English teacher saying to her “You will be a no one! You won’t make it in life without English”. So, she applied for an au pair job in the US and set off on her way to New York with barely any English language knowledge at all – just an English dictionary in hand. Being thrown in the deep end worked and 3 months later she could speak and understand everything around her. After two years in the USA, she decided to visit her family back in Latvia planning to return to the US straight after… but life had other plans. One thing led to another, and she ended up on a bus to the U.K. She was just 20 years old and has never looked back. Her first job was as a temporary Christmas worker in a garden centre where she soon worked her way up to run the department. She also became a buyer which has come in handy in her current work as a dealer. After meeting her husband, she moved to Derbyshire and that is when she found her new passion and desire for a career in antiques. Prior to finding her vocation in antique dealing she had never knowingly handled an antique (!) so was really throwing herself into deep end. To help get a fuller understanding of the business she took a part time job in a local auction house as a salesroom assistant where she had an opportunity to work with a huge variety of antiques and learn on the job. She stayed at the auction house for 7 years whilst dealing independently on the side. She started with a few car boot sales and small antiques fairs but very quickly realised that she wanted a wider audience for her purchases and sales, so she expanded into international fairs and has built a client portfolio from all around the world. Irita is ambitious to do more television as she absolutely loves working in front of the camera and she aims to encourage others to try their hand at antique dealing and follow her footsteps into this exciting area of business.