Recognising excellence in the production and delivery of digital events

Dr James Morgan is a Principal Lecturer in Event Design and Technology and course leader for the BA Honours Tourism and Events Management degree at the University of Westminster, London. He is also the founder of Event Tech Lab, a partnership community for event technology companies, event professionals and investors. He was voted as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the Events Industry in the Eventex Global Awards in 2020 and 2019. Other awards include being in Eventbrite’s Top 100 Event Professionals in 2016; as well as being awarded the International Live Events Association’s top accolade, the J Robert Graves Pioneer Award for for his services to the association in the same year. He was also voted as one of the Top 20 Industry Changemakers for 2017 by US publication Meetings Net magazine. As a respected international speaker, writer for Mash Media and previously for Event MB, James judge’s industry awards in Europe, North America and the Middle East each year. As a truly international event professional, he is passionate about researching topics on experience design, attendee engagement and technology.

Damion is currently Group Managing Director of Montgomery Group. He started his career in the exhibition industry working for Single Market Events and running what was then the London Programme Market. In 1998 he changed careers to work in Brand Management and spent seven years developing children’s intellectual properties for TV, video, publishing and consumer products.

In 2005, Damion moved to South Africa and completed an MBA at the University of Cape Town. On coming back to the UK in 2006 he returned to the exhibition industry and joined Montgomery as New Business Development Director.

Damion has spent the last fourteen years growing Montgomery as an ‘umbrella’ brand that represents the interests of over fifteen different companies. These companies manage a wide range of businesses across the exhibition industry covering trade shows, consumer shows, art and photography fairs, awards programmes, agency sales and consultancy. Montgomery is also a shareholder in the Johannesburg Expo centre.

As Group Managing Director, Damion continues to develop the Montgomery business across Europe, Africa and Asia and to look for new opportunities within some of the more challenging global emerging markets.

In addition to his role within Montgomery, Damion is also heavily involved in the Association of Event Organisers (AEO) in the UK which he chaired in 2017/18. He is also a Board member of SISO.

Amanda’s experience spans publishing, digital media, membership, events, conferences, and exhibitions. She led a management buy-out of Faversham House in 2010 and subsequently bought out her private equity partners. With her fellow directors, she has been responsible for repositioning the company as an omni-channel digital data and intelligence business building on the company’s strong brands in utilities, sustainability, and visual communications.

Kim’s experience in events for the Advanced Therapy community spans a 7 year period. In her role as Event Director Kim designs the creative vision/strategy for each event and manages marketing, sales, production and operations to deliver on this vision. Creating a culture of insights, clarity and recognition is key to motivating the team to perform at their best and deliver the high quality events that are expected from them. Kim is responsible for event P&L across the Clarion life science portfolio and works alongside the Portfolio Director on the strategic direction of the Phacilitate brand as a whole.

Matt Benyon’s career in exhibitions and events spans 25 years since joining Montgomery where he remained for 12 years, enjoying a truly global role across their markets. Following a stint at Expomedia, Matt joined Easyfairs when the company was new to the market, initially responsible for the UK division. Over the last decade, Matt has played a significant role in the growth of Easyfairs into one of the top 20 exhibition organisers in the world and the largest privately owned. Matt is now responsible for the UK and global divisions, including UK, Algeria, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal and has run events in numerous other countries including Holland, Belgium, Germany, the US and China.

Luke Bilton has 18 years experience in the world’s leading events and media businesses including Future, UBM and most recently at Informa as Vice President for Digital. He has a track-record of designing, launching and growing commercially successful virtual events and online communities.

Luke has recently joined ExpoPlatform with responsibility for accelerating the growth of the event tech company through product, marketing and sales. He knows first-hand the challenges faced by event organisers in finding the right technology partner and how to structure themselves for success in delivering new digital-first experiences.

Ruth Carter has forged a successful international CEO career leading high growth B2B and B2C businesses in the exhibition, conference, publishing and media sectors. She has held executive leadership positions in key organisations such as the Daily Telegraph, Informa, UBM and Emap. She has a proven track record in founding and growing significant and highly respected global businesses and has launched companies in China, South East Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe and North and South America.

She is currently Director at Red Fox Advisory, a specialist consultancy working with global B2B and B2C companies to drive growth, acquisition plans and transformation strategies for both physical and digital products. She is also Guest Editor at Exhibition News.

Ruth is passionate about her role as Non-Executive Director of Inclusive Companies Ltd, the premier cross-industry network harnessing best practice and innovation to drive inclusion and encourage diversity, and the organisers behind the National Diversity Awards which attracts over 25,000 entries each year.

She is an Executive Mentor on the Government backed ‘Be the Business’ scheme developed to support and grow C-suite executives of SMEs through the challenges they are currently facing and works with a diverse range of organisations from carbon neutral construction companies through to national dental practices.

Ruth is a regular speaker at events, reflecting not only her long-standing involvement with international business development but also her passion for growing and developing talented individuals around the world. She holds a degree in music from Trinity College of Music, London.

Heading up Showcase, Ben is passionate about creating events that push boundaries both creatively and technically on a global scale. Ben has been involved in the event industry all his working life and over those years he’s worked for a number of production and AV companies, including Showcase AVi which he set up in 2013. He dropped the AVi this year to reflect Showcase’s movement that has demonstrated the creative and end to end direction they fulfil to their clients, including the new technology they had developed that enables Ben and his colleagues to bring live production values to hybrid and virtual events. Ben’s commitment to outstanding customer service, however remains the same and is reflected through the many high profile agencies, event organisers and end users within the events forum.

Paul Cook has been immersed in events for over 20 years, as a writer, researcher, speaker, facilitator, educator, advisor and producer.

Building on his event risk management roots, his experience at Pinewood Film Studios and working with new technologies has naturally led Paul to working in and developing the application of hybrid and virtual events for business growth.

Paul is the Founder of the Hybrid Event Centre. He is Past President of Meeting Professionals International – UK Chapter and he is a Part Time Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster.

In September 2020, Matt launched the Waves Connects Podcast to share stories and experiences for those that are looking at what’s next for them in the events industry enabling them to better prepare for their future. A regular contributor, speaker and eventtech evangelist, Matt has over 15 years of experience of working in the events and exhibitions industry with a broad knowledge and network of organising, design, digital and insight based products, opportunities and experiences. Link www.wavesconnects.com/podcast

Julie Driscoll is the Retail and Fashion Managing Director at Hyve Group plc. Uniting key stakeholders behind ambitious omnichannel strategy informed by customer intelligence is how she inspires and empowers organisations. Julie is a board director of the AEO and sits on various other advisory boards and committees including the NEC, the Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry and the Giftware Association and is a judge for various awards. She recently completed an MBA from Imperial College Business School where she was awarded the prestigious scholarship for ‘most inspiring business leader’ with a specialisation in digital business transformation.

Michelle is a seasoned event design and project management professional – delivering high level conferences and events worldwide. She has 20+ years’ experience of researching, planning and managing successful conferences and events in a diverse range of industry sectors from HR to Construction, however her niche specialisms are Aviation, Healthcare & Trade & Investment.

She set up Dynamyk Events (recently rebranded to The Conference Director - her own consultancy) in 2009 which provides conference and events research, design and delivery services to a range of clients. Her professional life was spent with Informa and UBM with clients such as The Economist Group, EMAP, Centaur Media, Liverpool Vision and Clarion Events.

She has developed into an excellent all-round event professional taking events seamlessly from research and concept design to delivery and on-site management – managing teams up to 20 people and budgets of £2m+ .

Michelle has worked on a range of event models in different industry sectors from niche high level strategy meetings to annual international industry events and liaised with Government Ministers, Celebrity Motivational Speakers, well known industry figures, business leaders and key pioneers in their respective fields. She has international project management experience and delivered events all over the world. She has completed four lectureships at the University of West London to first year and final year events management degree students and final year International Event Management degree students at Anglia Ruskin University and is a frequent guest lecturer at various universities across the country, delivering courses in France and across the UK.

Michelle has developed a passion for spreading this wonderful practice with the world – managing yoga retreats for teachers. She launched her 2nd business Dynamyk Yoga (www.dynamykyoga) – in July 2018, which is an online video subscription website for Yoga beginners – collaborating with her amazing local teachers, hoping to bring this wonderful practice to local people and taking the website viral to the world. She is a wellbeing advocate and Yoga Ambassador – with more than 20 years of personal practice.

Mike Fletcher has been writing about the meetings and events industry for almost 20 years as a former editor at Haymarket Media Group, and then as a freelance writer and stand-in editor for Mash Media titles including Exhibition News, Exhibition World and Access All Areas. Since 2008, he’s also written extensively about media and advertising trends and developed digital strategies for clients. He currently runs his own content agency, Slippy Media, catering for a wide-range of client requirements, including social strategy, long-form, event photography, event videography, reports, blogs and ghost-written material.

Evan Gappelberg is the CEO of NexTech AR, one of the leaders in the quickly growing augmented reality market, and an accomplished entrepreneur with an expertise in creating, funding and running start-ups.

Originally trained in theatrical production, Simon moved into the world of corporate live events at the end of the 80’s. He formed his own agency – Acclaim- with two others. Working with clients such as Microsoft, as they grew from the ground up. In 2010 Acclaim merged with Crown, and in 2020 he led an MBO of Crown simultaneous merger with Communique, to form what is now Strata. At the heart of everything he does is a passion for the event industry and creative communication, and while Covid has created many challenges, digital has been one of the big opportunities. Simon believes that the inherent creativity within the industry means that many agencies will make that switch successfully, and it will ultimately lead to new ways of doing things previously not envisaged.

Lisa Hannant is Group Managing Director of Clarion Events. Lisa has 30 years’ experience working across a broad range of products and international markets. Lisa is responsible for the strategic development and growth of Clarion’s portfolios internationally and has extensive experience of building market leading brands and positions both organically and through acquisition.

Alison is Group Managing Director at Nineteen Group. With over twenty five years’ experience of trade exhibitions with a strong track record of delivering value in both privately owned and Plc environments. Background in managing multi million pound portfolios of events and related products, across various industry sectors combined with an excellent track record in developing events as well as experience in running joint ventures, acquisitions and divestments.

Alison is Group MD of the fast growing Nineteen Event group. She is extremely curious about digital touch points for communities rather than replicating physical events online. Nineteen Group have experimented with many formats and feel that digital touch points are here to stay and complement physical events perfectly.

Jemma is responsible for Pageant Media’s operational events portfolio of around 200 events, including industry-leading summits and awards, topic-led breakfast briefings, private dinners, roundtables and webinars that provide senior-level attendees with exceptional learning and networking opportunities. Pageant quickly pivoted to virtual events, with a webinar series in early April followed by an interactive event, a service provider awards ceremony remodelled into a half day of content featuring the award announcements in mid-May. Jemma began her career in B2B information and events at Emap in their conference and awards division. She later moved to i2i Events Group to lead the global marketing team working on international exhibitions and summits.

With a wealth of experience in events and activations, Ben has worked with the most respected and revered clients and understands the challenges it takes to put on a world class event.

As a judge, Ben brings to the table a vast knowledge of all aspects of an event, including and not forgetting strategy, build, production, post analytics and the ability to measure results. Leading Collaborate Global’s clients through successful physical events and now having forged a path in the virtual event space Ben has the full 360º vision and understanding of what is needed to excel in this space.

Brian brings a wealth of industry knowledge to the ICC Sydney team as the Director of Audio Visual Services for Australia’s premier convention, exhibition and entertainment venue.

Having spent the majority of his life on, near or around a stage, Brian has an immense passion and dedication for event production.

With more than 30 years’ experience, he is an exceptionally experienced operator who has worked on numerous touring productions, festivals and venues including the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Brian and his team of more than 200 technology experts are responsible for sourcing, testing and delivering creative audio-visual (AV) systems and processes to support a year-round calendar of events across multiple spaces at ICC Sydney.

He oversees the installation, testing, commissioning and operational readiness of all systems and equipment to ensure a seamless transition between the testing and operating phases of events, delivering extraordinary sound, visuals and technology for ICC Sydney clients every time.

Part of ICC Sydney’s landmark opening team, Brian is highly regarded as an industry veteran who has set a new benchmark for venue technology including the launch of ICC Sydney’s world leading Hybrid Event Solutions model, developed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Gavin Newman is a leading specialist in virtual events, CEO at iVent and university lecturer on digital event solutions

Samantha Salisbury has been in the events industry for over 20 years, initially working as an events manager for the likes of Wembley, American Express and the New South Wales Cabinet Office – managing events all over the world covering sectors including sport, academia, pharmaceuticals, banking, and public sector.

In 2006, Samantha set up her own business - Jonsam Events – which has grown into an established provider of academic conferences and corporate events for a portfolio of high-profile clients in Cambridge and the surrounding area.

Samantha holds a PGCert qualification and is an Online Tutor for the MA in Creative Events Management at Falmouth University where she teaches students all over the world via weekly webinars.

At the start of 2020 Samantha set up the Facebook Group – “Get Ahead in Events” which has grown to a community of nearly 800 event profs based around the globe and is run by a committee of event profs with regular networking and speaker sessions. She won an ABPCO Lockdown Hero Award for a series of events she organised in 2020 helping events profs to elevate their events career.

Samantha also set up the Events Career Club in July 2020 which is a membership for event professionals looking to raise their profile, get more visible to potential clients/employers and take that next step in their events career.

In November 2020 Samantha published The Planner 2021 – a planner/diary to help event profs manage all aspects for their lives including business & career, personal commitments, family, health & fitness.

Mike is the CEO and Founder of Raccoon Events, an exhibition company focussed on health and well-being markets both domestically and overseas. Raccoon Events has won multiple industry awards and is the company behind the National Running Show, the National Outdoor Expo and the National Snow Show.

Mike has a wide range of experience across B2C and B2B, including multiple events overseas in a variety of countries Prior to launching Raccoon Events, Mike worked for a number of major event organisers including VMG, UBM, Centaur, Closer Still Media and Clarion Events

Driven by an absolute passion and commitment for effective experiential, Andy oversees 2LK’s intelligent, insight-led approach to creative solutions. From digital activations to tradeshow installations to global events, he directs high-level brand experience design for the likes of Canon, Cannes Lions, Fabergé, Honda, HSBC, Intel and Oracle. His ambition and vision is a key driver to the agency’s ongoing success and award-winning work they produce.

Laura has been working for CloserStill Media for over nine years rising through the ranks from Sales Manager to Group Event Director as well as, additionally, the General Manager for the Midlands office. Laura has a strong sales and marketing background with twenty years of expertise within the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries predominantly with service providers, publishers, events and exhibition organizers. This year at the start of the pandemic, Laura launched the first CSM webinar series and created and ran the first virtual event for the healthcare team in September.

Natalie is responsible for leading the planning and execution of Morningstar’s events programme across EMEA. This includes the flagship Morningstar Investment Conferences, regional forums, awards ceremonies, product launches and webinars, supporting the business’ lead-generation needs and enhancing Morningstar’s brand reach in key segments. 

Natalie is responsible for building scalable, high-quality and consistent delegate experiences, ensuring brand consistency through the organisation’s live and digital events, and reporting success metrics back to the executive leadership.

Prior to joining Morningstar, Natalie was senior events operations manager for Richmond Events, hosting a series of large-scale conferences for the finance, IT, HR and marketing sectors. She has over 14 years’ experience in corporate events and holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Hons) in Geography from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Raphael Sofoluke is the Visionary, Founder and CEO behind The UK Black Business Show (https://ukblackbusinessshow.co.uk/)

The UK Black Business Show is an annual conference and exhibition show which takes place during Black History Month to highlight and promote the amazing businesses founded by people from the black community.

The show highlights the achievements and contributions black businesses have made to the economy and attendees have the opportunity to hear insights and advice in entrepreneurship, leadership and business from some of the UK’s leading black business professionals.

2019 marked the show’s third year and was a resounding success with over 2,500 attendees and 110 businesses exhibiting from across the UK, Europe, US & Africa. The show has been shown on ITV News, discussed on BBC Radio London and endorsed by Sadiq Khan the Mayor of London and David Lammy MP for Tottenham.

Raphael has spoken for and featured on several well-known platforms including Natwest, Labour, BBC, ITV News, Forbes, CBS, Facebook & BET as well as a personal invite to 10 Downing street.

Raphael has also launched the Black Tech Achievement Awards (https://btaawards.com/) Sponsored by JP Morgan which is set-up to celebrate and acknowledge black role models and innovators within the tech sector and to help illuminate the pathways to greater black representation of the community within the industry. The show was also sponsored by Goldman Sachs, BT and Facebook with BBC News Filming and broadcasting the event on the day.

Raphael is also the Co-Author of Twice as Hard book alongside his wife. The book is set to be released in the UK and US in June 2021. Twice as Hard will share valuable lessons from 40 Black trailblazers from across the UK and US and will address the real challenges faced by Black people navigating predominantly white spaces while providing tried and tested recommendations on how to navigate these environments to create personal and professional success. The Book will include interviews with Mathew Knowles (Beyoncé & Solange Dad), Trevor Nelson MBE, Angelica Nwandu (Founder of the Shade Room) and many more

Juliet is your go-to for all things event strategy and personal development. With 10 years' experience in the industry, she's Deputy Head of Global Events at Chemical Watch, producing International and Virtual B2B conferences. Juliet is a professional speaker and moderator, is a Conference News 30 under 30 award winner and empowers ambitious eventprofs to reach their goals through her membership and coaching: Event Goal Getters.

Yacco Vijn is an award-winning creative leader. His longest tenure was almost 5 years at TBWA, eventually becoming Partner. During that time TBWA won its first accolades for digital projects and was nominated Digital Agency of The Year for global work on clients such as Adidas and McDonald's. Yacco is passionate about the future of the industry and the transformative effect that ideas driven by data and technology can have on brands and businesses.