Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Susi O’Neill She translates frontier technology into language non-technical executives can act on, drawing on years running global brand content for Kaspersky, the world’s largest privately owned cybersecurity firm. Her practice is built around the adoption gap, not the technology itself, which is why she resonates with leaders whose AI rollouts have stalled at proof-of-concept. She brings a builder’s track record in tech storytelling, including the Platinum MarCom Award winning Insight Story podcast for Kaspersky and Editor-in-Chief roles on Secure Futures magazine and the Tomorrow Unlocked channel. Through EVA and her Rethinking the Hype Cycle newsletter, she works with leaders on inclusive AI adoption, including the lag in women’s engagement with AI tools and what closing it changes about who benefits from the technology. Biography highlights Founder and Executive Director of EVA, a London-based technology and communications consultancy. Former Head of B2B Brand Content (Global) at Kaspersky. Editor-in-Chief of Kaspersky’s Secure Futures magazine and Tomorrow Unlocked cyberculture channel. Creator and host of the Platinum MarCom Award winning Insight Story podcast. Named in Pepper Content’s Top 50 Global Women in Content 2023. Author of the Rethinking the Hype Cycle newsletter on AI and frontier technology adoption. Biography The hard part of AI is rarely the model. It is the distance between an executive sponsor and the team being asked to use a new tool by Friday. O’Neill has spent her career working that distance, first inside one of the world’s largest cybersecurity firms, now from the outside through her consultancy EVA. At Kaspersky, she ran global B2B brand content and edited Secure Futures, the company’s business-leader magazine, alongside the Tomorrow Unlocked cyberculture channel. She commissioned and hosted Insight Story, a podcast unpacking tech trends for executives that won a Platinum MarCom Award in 2023. The work taught her how senior buyers actually absorb information about complex technology, and where the standard tech-marketing playbook fails them. EVA, the practice she founded next, takes that experience into client work on AI strategy, responsible technology and adoption. Her newsletter Rethinking the Hype Cycle puts the same question to a wider audience: what does a serious organisation do once the AI announcement is out and the cultural work begins. She also writes and speaks on inclusive adoption, including the documented lag in women’s use of generative AI tools and what it costs organisations that ignore it. Earlier brand-content programmes for EY, GSK and Unilever, and a recognition in Pepper Content’s Top 50 Global Women in Content, sit behind that current work. The throughline is consistent. Technology only changes a business when the people inside it are willing to use it, and most organisations are still under-investing in the communications and trust work that makes that happen. Key speaking topics AI adoption and the hype cycle Responsible and trusted technology Frontier and emerging technologies for business Inclusive AI and women in technology Tech communications and thought leadership Cybersecurity culture and digital trust Ideal for CIO, CTO and Chief Digital Officer audiences whose AI programmes have stalled in pilot. CMO, communications and brand leaders building tech credibility with non-technical buyers. Boards and executive teams setting AI governance and responsible-use principles. Diversity, talent and L&D leaders working on inclusive AI capability across the workforce. Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where their organisation actually sits on the AI hype cycle, and which moves are worth making next. A practical sense of how to bring sceptical or hesitant employees with them, instead of around them. Specific examples of how serious organisations are translating frontier tech into adoption, not just announcements. A sharper view of inclusive AI as a capability question, including who is using these tools and who is being left behind.

Why organisations work with Ross Reekie He brings primary research material that most engagement speakers do not have: the Fun Jobs Project is a multi-year field experiment in which he personally took on roles from ski instructor to stand-up comedian to test where meaning actually originates at work. He treats meaning as a performance variable, not a wellbeing variable. The argument lands with operating leaders who have stopped believing engagement programmes pay back. His academic base is serious. An Engineering degree from Edinburgh, an MBA and a Master’s in Sustainable Leadership from MGSM Sydney, and PhD-track research at Macquarie give him a credible research spine to sit alongside the field work. He is built for interactive formats. His keynote uses live experiments, props and audience participation rather than slide narration, which suits internal leadership offsites and culture-launch events. He has tested the same content across two continents and across sectors, with named conference platforms including TEDxMonashUniversity, TEDxGlasgowCaledonianUniversity, and the Urban Future Global Conference. Biography highlights Founder of Rise Consulting, Sydney, working with leadership teams on meaningful work and workplace culture. TEDx speaker at TEDxMonashUniversity (2019) and TEDxGlasgowCaledonianUniversity (2019). Creator of the Fun Jobs Project, a live research experiment into the sources of meaning at work. Host of The Meaning of Work podcast, with hundreds of interviews from interns to chief executives. MBA and Master’s in Sustainable Leadership from MGSM Sydney; Engineering degree from the University of Edinburgh; Master’s in Research underway at Macquarie University. Twenty years of consulting work with leadership teams across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. Biography Most organisations have stopped believing their own engagement data. Scores hold steady, but discretionary effort drains away, and the standard interventions of values workshops, recognition platforms and mission refreshes no longer change behaviour. The interesting question is no longer whether people are engaged. It is what they are committing to, and why. Ross Reekie has spent two decades inside that question. He founded Rise Consulting in Sydney to work with leadership teams on meaningful work and workplace culture, building on twenty years of consulting across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. His academic base sits alongside the practice: an Engineering degree from the University of Edinburgh, an MBA and a Master’s in Sustainable Leadership from MGSM Sydney, and Master’s research at Macquarie University on what makes work matter. The Fun Jobs Project is what sets the work apart. After burning out as the meaningful-work expert who had lost meaning in his own work, Reekie ran a live experiment on himself, taking roles from ski instructor to stand-up comedian to opera extra to test where engagement actually comes from. The output is a model of meaning that starts with a playful, exploratory mindset rather than with mission statements, and that treats curiosity and connection as performance inputs. He brings the same material to TEDx stages at Monash and Glasgow Caledonian, to the Urban Future Global Conference, and to private leadership rooms. His keynote runs as a live, interactive session rather than a talk, with props and audience experiments built in. For a senior people or transformation leader trying to revive a tired culture, he gives them a research-grounded argument they can hand to an operating board. Key speaking topics Meaningful work and workplace culture Employee engagement and the social contract of work Purpose and authenticity in leadership Burnout and recovery in senior teams Belonging and team connection Fear as a performance blocker Playful curiosity as a leadership capability Ideal for CHROs and chief people officers rebuilding engagement after a period of flat scores or fatigued change programmes Heads of culture and internal communications launching or refreshing a purpose narrative Leadership teams and executive offsites looking for a working session rather than a talk Conference organisers in the future-of-work, employee experience, and urban or civic-leadership space Audience outcomes A research-grounded view of why meaning at work is a performance question, not a wellbeing question A clear distinction between engagement programmes that move behaviour and those that do not Specific language for the mindset shifts that produce more discretionary commitment at work Practical prompts for leaders to test on their own teams before changing anything organisation-wide A felt experience of a working session, not a lecture, that participants can replicate in their own offsites

Why organisations work with Robin Ince Sixteen years co-hosting The Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox gave him a working method for translating serious ideas into language a general audience can act on. Few speakers have practised that craft at that scale. His account of late-diagnosed ADHD in Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal is one of the most widely read first-person treatments of adult neurodiversity from a recognisably high-functioning public figure. That makes him useful to leadership audiences who do not see themselves in standard neurodiversity training. He brings genuine comedy timing to material that is usually delivered flat. Boards and senior leadership offsites can absorb difficult content from him that they would resist from a clinical speaker. He carries credentials that survive scrutiny in any room: Honorary Fellow at UCL, honorary doctorate from Royal Holloway, Fellow of the British Science Association, Booksellers Association Author of the Year. Biography highlights Co-host of BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox, 2009 to 2025; the show won the 2011 Sony Gold Award for Best Speech Programme. Honorary Fellow of University College London and honorary Doctor of Science of Royal Holloway, University of London. Author of I’m a Joke and So Are You, The Importance of Being Interested, Bibliomaniac, and Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity; co-author with Brian Cox of How to Build a Universe. Booksellers Association Author of the Year, 2022; Time Out Outstanding Contribution to Comedy, 2006; multiple Chortle Awards including Best Compere. Co-founder of the Cosmic Shambles Network and creator of Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People, the annual science variety show that has run since 2008. Public advocate on adult ADHD and neurodiversity following his own late diagnosis, anchoring his current touring show The Universe and the Neurodiverse. Biography The Infinite Monkey Cage ran on BBC Radio 4 for sixteen years and won the Sony Gold Award for Best Speech Programme along the way. Robin Ince co-presented it with the physicist Brian Cox throughout, and the working method he developed there sits at the centre of what he now offers organisations: serious science, philosophy and literature delivered in language a general audience will actually use. That method has produced four solo books and one co-authored with Cox. The Importance of Being Interested and Bibliomaniac established him as a writer on curiosity and reading culture. Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, published by Macmillan in 2025, did something different. Following his own late ADHD diagnosis, he wrote a first-person account of adult neurodiversity that has been unusually well received by readers who do not see themselves in standard workplace material on the subject. The credentials behind the work are real. He is an Honorary Fellow of University College London and an Honorary Doctor of Science of Royal Holloway. He is a Fellow of the British Science Association and was Booksellers Association Author of the Year in 2022. He co-founded the Cosmic Shambles Network and has curated the Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People science variety show every December since 2008. For corporate audiences the proposition is specific. He is useful when a leadership team wants to talk seriously about neurodiversity and curiosity without flattening either into HR language, and he is one of very few speakers who can take a room from a research finding to a usable insight to a genuine laugh in the same minute. Key speaking topics Adult neurodiversity and late ADHD diagnosis Scientific curiosity as a habit of mind Communicating complex ideas to non-specialist audiences Humour and humanity Reading culture and the value of attention Science, music and comedy as a single conversation Ideal for Leadership teams and HR directors building neurodiversity work that goes beyond policy Boards and senior offsites looking for substantive content delivered with comedy timing Innovation, R&D and learning functions who want to reset what curiosity looks like in practice Conference organisers programming a science, culture or curiosity strand Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for talking about adult ADHD and neurodiversity in senior settings A clearer sense of why attention, not information, is the scarce resource in their organisation Specific examples from sixteen years of putting scientists in front of general audiences, with the lessons that translate Permission to be more interested in their own work, which most leaders need more than they admit

Why organisations work with Patrick Renvoise A tested, codified persuasion framework. NeuroMap® is a four-step model SalesBrain has applied in client engagements since 2002, turning cognitive science research into specific decisions about messaging and value proposition design. Co-author of two of the earliest commercial books on neuromarketing. The Persuasion Code (Wiley, 2018) received an Axiom Business Book Award and builds directly on the work of Nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler. Authority earned in enterprise sales before brain science. He sold multi-million-dollar supercomputers at Silicon Graphics and LinuxCare to clients including NASA, Boeing, Airbus and Shell. The framework is shaped by what closes deals in real B2B selling. Recognition from named bodies that buyers respect: an American Marketing Association Next Big Thing in Marketing award (2009) and three Advertising Research Foundation Innovation in Research Awards (2011, 2014, 2015). Trained more than 100,000 executives across 24 nationalities at companies including PayPal, Microsoft, Hitachi, Siemens and GE, giving sales and marketing teams a shared scientific language for messaging decisions. Biography highlights Co-founder and Chief Neuromarketing Officer of SalesBrain, the first dedicated neuromarketing agency, founded in 2002. Developer of NeuroMap®, a four-step persuasion framework used in SalesBrain’s advisory and training programmes. Co-author of The Persuasion Code: How Neuromarketing Can Help You Persuade Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime (Wiley, 2018) and Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Button in Your Customer’s Brain (2007). Recipient of the American Marketing Association “Next Big Thing in Marketing” award (2009), three Advertising Research Foundation Innovation in Research Awards (2011, 2014, 2015), and a Vistage “Above and Beyond” speaker award (2008). Former senior business development executive at Silicon Graphics and LinuxCare, where he sold multi-million-dollar supercomputers to NASA, Boeing, Shell, Airbus, BMW and Canon. TEDxBend speaker (“Is There a Buy Button Inside the Brain?”) and trainer of more than 100,000 executives at companies including PayPal, Microsoft, Hitachi, Siemens, Facebook and GE. Biography In 2002, the discipline of neuromarketing did not exist as a commercial practice. Patrick Renvoise and Dr. Christophe Morin co-founded SalesBrain that year to build it. Their premise was that two decades of cognitive science research could be translated into a working method for sales and marketing teams whose campaigns were not delivering. Most marketing assumes buyers can articulate what they want. Two decades of brain research suggest otherwise. The bulk of purchasing decisions are made by what Daniel Kahneman called System 1, the part of the brain that does not respond to logical argument or feature lists. SalesBrain’s NeuroMap® is a four-step framework. The steps are diagnose the pain, differentiate the claims, demonstrate the gain and address the primal brain. It translates cognitive science into specific decisions about messaging and value proposition design. Renvoise’s path to brain science came through enterprise sales. At Silicon Graphics and LinuxCare he sold multi-million-dollar supercomputers to NASA, Boeing, Shell, Airbus, BMW and Canon. After watching what worked and what did not in those rooms, he spent two years researching how the brain processes commercial messages. The result was published in 2007 as Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Button in Your Customer’s Brain. The expanded second book, The Persuasion Code, followed in 2018 from Wiley, building directly on the System 1 and System 2 work of Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler. The methodology has earned recognition from named bodies that buyers respect. The American Marketing Association named NeuroMap its Next Big Thing in Marketing in 2009. The Advertising Research Foundation followed with three Innovation in Research Awards. The Persuasion Code received an Axiom Business Book Award. SalesBrain has now trained more than 100,000 executives across 24 nationalities at companies including PayPal, Microsoft, Siemens, Hitachi, Facebook, GE and Airbus. Key speaking topics Neuromarketing The science of persuasion Sales messaging and value proposition design Brain science applied to decision-making Marketing strategy and effectiveness Complex B2B and enterprise sales Customer communication and influence Ideal for Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Revenue Officers accountable for marketing and sales return. Sales leaders and B2B teams selling complex or high-value solutions where messaging is a competitive differentiator. Marketing and brand teams responsible for messaging, value proposition and campaign performance. Founder-led companies whose growth depends on the persuasiveness of their commercial communication. Audience outcomes The six stimuli that trigger the brain’s primal decision-making system, and why most traditional messaging fails to reach it. The four steps of NeuroMap®, applied to their own messaging during the session. A clearer view of why customer surveys produce misleading data, and what to use instead. Specific changes to make to current marketing materials and sales conversations.

Why organisations work with Tim Calkins A practical authority on defensive strategy, a discipline most marketing teams do not formally teach. Defending Your Brand was named 2013 Marketing Book of the Year by Expert Marketer Magazine and remains one of the few named texts on how incumbents respond to competitive attack A decade of operating credibility at Kraft Foods running brands including Miracle Whip, DiGiorno, Taco Bell and A.1. Steak Sauce, with responsibility for more than two dozen new product launches A teaching record that boards take seriously: twice-winner of Kellogg’s Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, one of six faculty to do so in its 40-plus year history Direct, current consulting work with Abbott, Amgen, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Kraft Heinz through Class 5 Consulting, which keeps the frameworks tested against live commercial pressure A specialism in biomedical and healthcare marketing that makes him useful to pharmaceutical and medtech leadership teams that find generic brand keynotes irrelevant Biography highlights Clinical Professor of Marketing and Associate Chair of the Marketing Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Almost 11 years at Kraft Foods leading brands including Miracle Whip, DiGiorno, Taco Bell, Parkay and A.1. Steak Sauce; responsible for more than two dozen new product launches Author of Defending Your Brand (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, 2012); co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (Wiley, 2005) and Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World (Wiley, 2019) How to Wash a Chicken: Mastering the Business Presentation (Page Two, 2018) won Top Business Book at the IndieReader Discovery Awards and the Gold Prize for Business and Economics at the Foreword Indies Two-time winner of Kellogg’s Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award (2006, 2013); also recipient of the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award and the Kellogg-WHU Top Professor Award Founder of Class 5 Consulting, advising Abbott, Amgen, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Kraft Heinz and Hearst on brand and growth strategy BA History (cum laude), Yale; MBA, Harvard Business School Biography Most marketing teams are trained to launch and to build. Very few are trained to defend. That asymmetry is what Tim Calkins has spent two decades teaching against, first as a brand operator at Kraft Foods, then at Kellogg, where he holds the Associate Chair of the Marketing Department and is Clinical Professor of Marketing. His book Defending Your Brand (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) is one of the few named texts on how incumbents respond to a credible competitive attack. Expert Marketer Magazine called it the 2013 Marketing Book of the Year. The thinking sits on top of close to 11 years inside Kraft, running brands including Miracle Whip, DiGiorno, Taco Bell and A.1. Steak Sauce, and launching more than two dozen new products. Through Class 5 Consulting, his current clients include Abbott, Amgen, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Kraft Heinz and Hearst, work that keeps his frameworks tested against live margin and share pressure. At Kellogg he teaches Marketing Strategy, Strategic Marketing Decisions, Biomedical Marketing and Marketing Strategy for Growth and Defense, and co-edited the school’s flagship branding texts, Kellogg on Branding (Wiley, 2005) and Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World (Wiley, 2019). His standing inside the school is itself a credential. He is one of only six faculty in the 40-plus year history of Kellogg’s Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award to have won it twice, in 2006 and 2013. His later book, How to Wash a Chicken: Mastering the Business Presentation (Page Two, 2018), took Top Business Book at the IndieReader Discovery Awards and the Gold Prize for Business and Economics at the Foreword Indies, and is read inside Fortune 500 communications and commercial teams as a practical text on how senior executives lose, and win, the room. Key speaking topics Brand strategy and brand building Defensive strategy and competitive response Marketing planning and growth strategy Brand portfolio management Healthcare and biomedical marketing Business presentations and senior executive communication Lessons from Super Bowl advertising Ideal for CMOs, brand directors and category leaders inside established consumer, healthcare and B2B brand businesses Pharmaceutical, medtech and biotech commercial leadership teams running launch or defence on a regulated product Senior executives preparing for high-stakes internal and external presentations Executive education and leadership programmes inside Fortune 500 marketing and commercial functions Audience outcomes A working framework for defending a brand position against a credible competitive attack, drawn from Defending Your Brand A clearer view of how to allocate marketing investment across the brand portfolio under pressure on margin Specific, named tactics for sharper marketing plans, applicable inside the audience’s own planning cycle Practical correction on the recurring failure modes of senior executive presentations, drawn from How to Wash a Chicken Sector-specific application for healthcare and biomedical audiences, where most generic brand content does not land

Why organisations work with David Avrin He names, in operational detail, the specific behaviours and processes that cause customers to leave. His 24-reason framework in Why Customers Leave gives commercial and operations teams a working diagnostic, not a slogan. He separates customer service from customer experience and makes the distinction commercially useful. Service is what staff do; experience is what customers feel about the entire buying journey, including everything that happens before a human is involved. His content is built for revenue-facing teams: sales, marketing, customer success, frontline operations. It translates directly into process changes, not cultural aspirations. He has delivered keynotes for the commercial leadership of organisations including Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, and Fidelity Investments, and frames customer experience in the terms those rooms respond to: margin and retention. Forbes named Why Customers Leave one of its Top 10 Books of 2019. The book is published in six languages and is used as a reference text by CX teams internationally. Biography highlights Author of seven books, including Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With, The Morning Huddle, and Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back) Why Customers Leave named one of Forbes’ Top 10 Books of 2019, published in six languages Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and Global Speaking Fellow, the two highest professional designations in the global speaking industry Recent keynote clients include Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, Hilton, Fidelity Investments, and RE/MAX, with two main-stage appearances at the Million Dollar Round Table Has delivered keynotes in 28 countries, including Singapore, Dubai, London, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Melbourne, and Barcelona A 25-year body of work on customer experience and commercial differentiation in saturated markets Biography Most customer-facing organisations now compete in markets where the buyer has effectively unlimited substitutes a click away. The cost of being slightly harder to deal with than a competitor has changed. It used to be measured in complaints. Now it is measured in defection. David Avrin has spent twenty-five years working on the operational side of that problem. His seven books, including Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back), named one of Forbes’ Top 10 Books of 2019, and Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With, are practitioner texts. They name the specific points in a buying journey where customers disengage, and what commercial teams can do about each one. That commercial register comes from the rooms he works in. Avrin’s recent keynote clients include Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, Hilton, Fidelity Investments, and RE/MAX, and he has twice taken the main stage at the Million Dollar Round Table. He makes the case for customer experience in the language of margin and retention. He holds CSP and Global Speaking Fellow designations, the two senior credentials in the international speaking industry, and has delivered keynotes in 28 countries. The argument running through Avrin’s work is that service quality is now table stakes. The remaining differentiator is friction, every avoidable obstacle between a prospect’s intent and their purchase, and between a customer’s need and its resolution. Removing it is harder, slower, and more commercially valuable than most organisations recognise until they lose share. Key speaking topics Customer experience strategy Friction reduction in buying journeys Customer retention and defection Sales and revenue growth Customer service versus customer experience Ease and convenience as competitive advantage Ideal for Chief customer officers, CX directors, and customer success leaders rebuilding the post-sale experience CMOs and commercial directors under pressure to defend margin in saturated categories Sales, service, and frontline operations teams responsible for the moments where customers decide to stay or leave Franchise networks, retail organisations, and multi-site businesses needing consistency in customer experience across locations Audience outcomes A working diagnostic of where customers are silently leaving and why A clear separation between customer service and customer experience, and the commercial implications of each Specific friction points to remove in their own buying and service journeys A reframing of customer experience as a revenue and retention lever rather than a service-quality metric

Why organisations work with Libby Jackson She ran live operations on the European module of the International Space Station as Columbus Flight Director, a seat where decisions are made in minutes with crew lives in the loop. That experience is rare on a corporate stage. She built and led the UK Space Agency education programme for Tim Peake’s Principia mission, an outreach effort that reached more than two million students and around one in three UK schools, evidence of operational leadership at national scale. Her account of decision-making under pressure draws on procedures used in mission control rooms, not metaphor, giving senior teams a working vocabulary for handling ambiguity and failure. An OBE for services to the space sector and the 2023 Leif Erikson Exploration History Award place her credentials inside the small group of British human spaceflight leaders that buyers can name. She translates highly technical environments for non-technical audiences without softening the substance, useful for boards and leadership teams that want rigour without the jargon. Biography highlights Columbus Flight Director, European Space Agency Mission Control for the International Space Station, Munich. Head of Space, Science Museum, London, since March 2025, the first holder of the role. Former Head of Space Exploration, UK Space Agency, with prior responsibility for the Human Exploration Programme. OBE, 2023 New Year Honours, for services to the Space Sector. 2023 Leif Erikson Exploration History Award, Exploration Museum, Iceland. BSc Physics, Imperial College London; MSc Astronautics and Space Engineering, Cranfield. Honorary DSc, University of Kent. Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Author of A Galaxy of Her Own (2017) and Space Explorers (2020), both Penguin. Regular BBC science contributor including Stargazing Live. Biography A Flight Director on the International Space Station has minutes, not hours, to make calls that involve crew safety, multinational politics, and millions of pounds of hardware. Libby Jackson held that seat at the European Space Agency’s Columbus Control Centre in Munich, the European module of the ISS. Seven years inside mission control gave her a working knowledge of how senior teams hold together when consequences are immediate and irreversible. She moved to the UK Space Agency in 2014, where she ran education and outreach for Tim Peake’s Principia mission, the British astronaut’s flight to the ISS. The programme reached more than two million students and around one in three UK schools, an operational result on a national scale. She later became Head of Space Exploration, coordinating UK investments across human and robotic missions, the ISS, and lunar and Mars activity. In March 2025 she took up a new post as Head of Space at the Science Museum in London, the first person to hold that title. Her two books, A Galaxy of Her Own and Space Explorers, both published by Penguin, sit alongside an OBE for services to the space sector and the 2023 Leif Erikson Exploration History Award from the Exploration Museum in Iceland. For corporate audiences, the value sits in what mission control teaches about composure, sequencing and trust under load. Jackson does not offer the space career as inspiration. She uses it as a working case study in how trained teams make decisions when the data is incomplete, the clock is short, and the cost of error is absolute. Key speaking topics Decision-making under operational pressure Mission control leadership and team coordination Human spaceflight and the future of exploration Risk, failure, and recovery in complex systems The Artemis programme and the return to the Moon Women in science and engineering Translating technical work for non-technical audiences Ideal for Boards and executive teams preparing for crisis decision-making and incident leadership Heads of operations, engineering and safety in high-consequence sectors such as energy, aviation, healthcare and defence Transformation and innovation leaders working through high-stakes technical change Corporate STEM, early careers and women in leadership programmes seeking a credible British voice in space Audience outcomes A working picture of how mission control teams structure decisions when consequences are immediate Specific lessons from the Columbus and Principia missions on coordination across multinational expert teams A clearer view of where corporate decision processes break down compared with operational environments built around failure Renewed confidence in the value of preparation, role clarity and handover discipline as leadership tools A sharper sense of where the next decade of human spaceflight is heading, and what that means for industries adjacent to it

Why organisations work with Kofi Smiles Brings the on-air discipline of a daily BBC Breakfast Show host to corporate stages: live timing, interview craft, and recovery when an agenda slips Steers difficult panels with humour, including conversations on inclusion, youth voice and culture, without lowering the tone Carries credibility with younger and culturally diverse audiences through his BBC No Filter work and youth broadcasting background Comfortable across formats: keynote interviewer, awards host, fireside chair, conference moderator, internal town-hall facilitator Biography highlights Host, BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show Presenter, BBC Radio 4 The Listening Project; has hosted Pick of the Week Selected as the BBC’s Face of Hull for UK City of Culture 2017, chosen from more than 200 candidates Co-winner, O2 Media Award for Digital Journalism (Hull 2017 coverage) Founder of BBC No Filter, a platform amplifying young voices Co-founder of CTK Media, producing political satire and pop culture content; University of Northumbria graduate Biography A live BBC Breakfast Show is unforgiving. The clock does not slip, the guests do not always show, and the host has to keep the listener with them through every link. Kofi Smiles has run that format every morning at BBC Radio Humberside, and the discipline travels into the rooms he chairs for corporate clients. He came to national attention as the BBC’s Face of Hull for the UK City of Culture 2017, chosen from more than 200 candidates and appearing across Radio 4, BBC One and the News Channel. The team coverage won an O2 Media Award for Digital Journalism. Since then he has hosted Radio 4’s The Listening Project and Pick of the Week, two formats that depend on getting a stranger to open up on tape. That interview craft is what he brings to the stage. He chairs panels, moderates leadership conversations, and hosts awards and conferences. He is comfortable with conversations about inclusion, culture and youth voice, having built BBC No Filter to amplify young people on the platform, and he can hold those conversations without flattening them. The work he does outside the BBC, including political satire and pop culture content through CTK Media, shows up in the room as range. He can switch register from a serious board panel to an evening awards host without dropping the thread. Key speaking topics Event hosting and moderation Conference and awards emcee Panel chairing on inclusion and youth voice Storytelling and broadcast interviewing Culture, media and pop culture commentary Internal town-hall and leadership Q&A facilitation Ideal for Corporate event organisers needing a credible broadcast host or moderator CHRO and DEI leads running internal events on inclusion, culture, or employee voice Brand and marketing teams hosting awards nights, customer conferences, or media launches Internal communications leads commissioning all-hands or leadership Q&A formats Audience outcomes A tighter, better-paced event with clean transitions between sessions Panels that surface a substantive point from each speaker, not just airtime Difficult topics handled with warmth, so the room stays with the conversation A host who lands the close, so the audience leaves on a note the organiser chose

Why organisations work with Sarah Hewson Two decades at Sky News presenting Breakfast, News At Ten and her own weekly programme, which means she handles live, unscripted rooms the way most events directors only hope for. Has interviewed the last five UK prime ministers and six senior members of the royal family, so she chairs ministers, executives and chairs without deference or theatre. Anchored Sky’s coverage of two royal weddings, the Diamond Jubilee and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, which is the highest pressure live broadcast work in British television. Reports across CNN, BBC, The Washington Post, Times Radio, ITV’s Lorraine, Sky News Australia and Nine’s Today Show, giving her a register that travels across international audiences in the same room. Active Royal Editor at TalkTV, so her booking weight, name recognition and currency on the news cycle are still in service, not retired into the speaking circuit. Biography highlights Royal Editor, TalkTV. Hosts The Royal Tea and the Friday Breakfast Show. Twenty plus years at Sky News, including Royal Correspondent and presenter of Sky News with Sarah Hewson. Anchored Sky’s coverage of two royal weddings, royal births, the Diamond Jubilee and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. Interviewed the last five UK prime ministers and six senior royal family members. Regular contributor to The Washington Post, Times Radio, CNN, BBC, ITV’s Lorraine, Sky News Australia and Nine’s Today Show. Patron of OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour charity. Biography Live television is unforgiving in a way that conference stages rarely are. The presenter has to listen, edit, redirect and close, in front of millions of viewers, on a clock measured in seconds. Sarah Hewson spent two decades doing exactly that at Sky News, presenting every programme from Breakfast through to News At Ten, and hosting her own weekly show. As Sky’s Royal Correspondent she anchored two royal weddings, royal births, the Diamond Jubilee and the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh. Hard-news assignments ran in parallel: the 7/7 bombings, the London Bridge terror attack, the death of Osama Bin Laden, Brexit negotiations and the coronavirus pandemic. She has interviewed the last five UK prime ministers and six senior members of the royal family, plus senior figures from business, sport and entertainment. She is now Royal Editor at TalkTV, hosting The Royal Tea and the Friday Breakfast Show, and reporting across The Washington Post, Times Radio, CNN, BBC, ITV’s Lorraine, Sky News Australia and Nine’s Today Show. The mix of UK political reporting and international royal coverage gives her unusual range when a room contains both domestic policy and global media interest. That is the toolkit she brings to corporate events. She chairs panels of ministers, regulators and chief executives the way she conducts a live broadcast: timed, awake to the news cycle, and quick to push back when an answer dodges the question. Key speaking topics Conference and summit hosting Panel moderation Awards ceremonies and gala dinners Fireside interviews with senior leaders Royal affairs and the British monarchy UK politics and Westminster reporting Media, broadcasting and the modern news cycle Ideal for Corporate annual conferences, leadership offsites and customer summits requiring an experienced broadcast host. Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and high-profile evening events seeking a recognisable national television presenter. Public affairs and policy events where panels include ministers, regulators or senior civil servants. Industry events commissioning a royal commentator for cultural moments tied to the monarchy. Audience outcomes Panels stay on schedule, on the brief and on the record, with senior speakers held to substantive answers. Q and A sessions land with clean, well-framed questions instead of long-form audience commentary. Programmes feel produced and paced at television standard, with clear transitions between sessions and speakers. Corporate messages reach the room without dominating it, with the host carrying the editorial line.

Why organisations work with Juliet Mann Two decades anchoring live business news on CNN, CNBC, Sky News, Reuters, TRT World and CGTN Europe, which means she can chair a senior panel without rehearsal scaffolding and recover any conversation that starts to slide. A working interviewer’s instinct built on direct exchanges with EU policymakers, with CEOs at Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox and Lafarge, and with figures including Sir James Dyson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Comfortable across the editorial range a serious corporate programme actually demands: macroeconomics, geopolitics, sustainability, digital and entrepreneurship, rather than a single specialism that limits the brief. Current host of CGTN Europe’s The Agenda, a weekly current affairs talk show, which keeps her in daily practice with the format most conferences are trying to emulate on stage. Bilingual in English and French, which matters for pan-European audiences, multinational client events and continental press engagements. Biography highlights Host of The Agenda, CGTN Europe’s weekly current affairs talk show. Former anchor and correspondent for CNN’s Marketplace Europe, the network’s weekly European business programme. Newsroom postings with CNBC, Sky News, TRT World and Reuters in London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt. Interview credits include Sir James Dyson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu (for the BBC), David Beckham (during London’s successful 2012 Olympic bid), and CEOs of Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox and Lafarge. Corporate broadcast credits with EY TV and HSBC TV; podcast A Week in my Flexible Working Life; freelance features for The Daily Telegraph and Economia. Politics degree, University of Bristol; works in English and French. Biography Live business television is the most exposed form of moderation there is. The anchor has to read an executive in real time, hold a line through interruptions, and translate a balance sheet, a geopolitical risk and a customer story into one coherent conversation, on air, with no edit. That is the practice Juliet Mann has been in for more than two decades. She has anchored from the London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt newsrooms of CNBC, CNN, Sky News, TRT World and Reuters. At CNN’s Marketplace Europe she sat opposite EU policymakers and the chief executives of Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox and Lafarge. At Sky News she interviewed David Beckham the morning London won the 2012 Olympics and rode the last transatlantic Concorde. For the BBC she interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Today she hosts The Agenda, CGTN Europe’s weekly current affairs programme, where the brief is to take a single international story, build a panel around it and keep the conversation tight enough to publish. That is the working repertoire she brings to the corporate stage: chairing a CEO interview, moderating a board-level panel on growth or sustainability, anchoring an awards ceremony, hosting a Brussels policy roundtable. She works in English and French. She prepares like a journalist, not like a host-for-hire, which is the difference clients notice in the room. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and moderation Executive interviews and on-stage CEO conversations Awards ceremonies and corporate compering Panel moderation on business, sustainability and entrepreneurship European policy and EU-facing discussion forums Bilingual English and French event hosting Ideal for Corporate conferences, AGMs and customer summits that need an experienced live business anchor in the chair. Awards ceremonies and gala dinners where presence and pace decide the evening. Board-level panels and CEO fireside formats on sustainability, growth, geopolitics or digital. Pan-European events and Brussels policy forums requiring bilingual English and French hosting. Audience outcomes A programme that runs to time and lands its key messages. Executive interviews that produce substantive, quotable answers rather than rehearsed lines. Panels that stay on the topic the audience came to hear, with each contributor properly drawn in. A professional broadcast register on stage, suitable for filmed content and post-event clips.

Why organisations work with Clare McDonnell She is the voice that announces the news to the UK on BBC Radio 5 Live Drive each evening, and she brings that same authority and composure to a corporate stage. She presents Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 and anchored Newsday on the BBC World Service, which means she can interview a chief executive, a campaigner, and a minister inside the same hour without losing the audience. She has covered live, unscripted moments of national consequence including the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the resignations of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, which is the kind of pressure that makes a conference room feel manageable. She moves from a five-thousand-seat venue at ExCeL London to a small charity dinner without changing register, which is what awards hosts and panel chairs are actually paid for. She is a working journalist, not a former one, which means panellists are interviewed by someone who is still asking questions of national figures every weekday. Biography highlights Daily presenter, BBC Radio 5 Live Drive. Regular presenter, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. Original launch presenter, BBC 6 Music, March 2002 to March 2010. Anchor, Newsday, BBC World Service; presenter on the Global News podcast. Reporter, BBC One’s The One Show; former reporter on BBC Three’s Liquid News. Sports presenting credits include the Wimbledon Championships and the UEFA Women’s European Football Championships. Biography The presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live Drive is, for several million UK listeners each weekday evening, the voice that explains the news as it happens. Clare McDonnell has held that chair through Westminster confidence votes, two Conservative leadership exits, and the moment she announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II live on national radio. She is also a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, anchored Newsday on the BBC World Service, and presents on the Global News podcast, the BBC’s most-downloaded news podcast. She was one of the original launch presenters of BBC 6 Music in 2002 and reported on BBC Three’s Liquid News before moving into mainstream news and sports anchoring, including the Wimbledon Championships and the UEFA Women’s European Football Championships. For organisations, the relevant point is the craft. Hosting a conference is not the same job as presenting a radio show, but it draws on the same muscles: keeping a panel honest, hearing what was actually said, moving an audience through a long programme without losing them, and asking the question the room is thinking but cannot phrase. McDonnell does that work daily on live national radio. She has covered enough unpredictable moments to be unbothered by the small ones that derail a conference: a missing panellist, a slide deck that fails, a CEO who answers a different question. The pressure of a corporate stage is, for her, the easier version of a Tuesday at five. She is represented by Knight Ayton Management and chairs panels, hosts awards, and moderates audience Q and As from the ExCeL Arena in London to small charity events. Key speaking topics Awards hosting Panel moderation Live event hosting Audience Q and A chairing Conference and gala hosting UK and global news interviews Ideal for Awards ceremonies looking for a host with national broadcast presence. Leadership conferences needing a panel chair who can interview chief executives and policy figures. Corporate galas and customer events where the host carries the evening across multiple segments. Charity dinners and advocacy events that need a host with newsroom credibility. Audience outcomes A programme that runs to time without feeling rushed. Panels that stay on the question the audience cares about, not the answer the speaker prepared. Senior figures interviewed in a way that gets a real answer, not a press line. An audience that feels addressed by someone they recognise from national radio. A host who absorbs the unexpected without the audience noticing.

Why organisations work with Mike Bushell Twenty years of live national television experience on BBC Breakfast, which translates directly into the composure conferences and awards need from the person holding the room. A recognisable face from one of the UK’s largest morning audiences and a 2019 Strictly Come Dancing series, which adds warmth and recognition to internal events and client-facing nights. A genuine interactive format, Sport or Spoof, that he runs with corporate audiences using sports drawn from his on-air library, giving organisations a built-in entertainment slot rather than a generic keynote. An on-record body of work on activity, participation and trying-the-untried that lends a credible voice to wellbeing, engagement and active-lifestyle programmes inside organisations. Reporting experience from Olympics, Paralympics and multiple World Cups, which gives him native fluency on stage with athletes, sports federations and sponsorship audiences. Biography highlights Longest-serving sports presenter in BBC Breakfast history, joined the programme in 2006. Has personally tried and profiled more than 550 sports on BBC One, from Quidditch and shin-kicking to Kabaddi with the Indian national team at the Asian Games in Doha. Held a Guinness World Record for travelling across water in an inflatable ball, set for Sport Relief in 2012. Contestant on Strictly Come Dancing series 17 in 2019, partnered with Katya Jones. Has reported on the Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games and football, rugby and cricket World Cups. Author of Bushell’s Best Bits (2013), drawn from his sports-discovery slot. Career began at BBC Radio Solent in 1990, with earlier reporting roles at the Derby Evening Telegraph and the Windsor and Slough Observer. Biography Live sports presentation on BBC Breakfast is one of the more exposed jobs in UK broadcasting. The presenter takes the chair every Saturday morning, on national television, with no second take. Mike Bushell has held that chair longer than anyone in the programme’s history, joining BBC Breakfast in 2006 after starting his career at BBC Radio Solent in 1990. The on-air work is built around a simple proposition: every week, try a sport. The list now runs past 550 and includes shin-kicking, worm charming, Quidditch, swamp soccer, Rush hockey and Kabaddi with the Indian team at the Asian Games in Doha. The book that came out of it, Bushell’s Best Bits, was published in 2013. The format is the source of the interactive Sport or Spoof game he runs with corporate audiences. The wider reporting CV covers Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games and football, rugby and cricket World Cups. In 2019 he was a contestant on series 17 of Strictly Come Dancing with Katya Jones, which is the credit most internal-event audiences recognise on sight. For organisations, the offer is straightforward. Bushell hosts conferences, moderates panels, runs awards nights and gives after-dinner talks. When the brief calls for it, he also speaks on activity, participation and getting people off the sofa, drawn directly from the on-air body of work. Key speaking topics Event hosting and conference moderation Awards night presenting Active lifestyles and sports participation Workplace wellbeing through movement Resilience and trying the unfamiliar Sports broadcasting and the Olympic and World Cup beat Interactive audience formats including Sport or Spoof Ideal for Internal conferences, sales kick-offs and all-hands looking for a recognisable host Awards nights and sponsor evenings in sport, media and consumer sectors Wellbeing, HR and people-team programmes built around activity and participation Charity galas, fundraising dinners and sports federation events Audience outcomes A programme run cleanly from the front of the room, with live moments handled without losing the audience A shared moment of entertainment through the Sport or Spoof format, tuned to the audience in the room A direct, lived case for getting more active and the corporate-wellbeing argument that follows Behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Strictly, the Olympics, World Cups and 550 sports on national television