Our Speakers 2024

Roxy heads up marketing for NCASS, a trade association that supports independent hospitality businesses, including thousands of event and festival caterers across the UK. She has worked with small businesses in the events, festival and creative industries years for 14 years across business development, marketing, communications, event management and project management.

Emma Britton is a well-known former BBC local radio presenter across Somerset, Bath and Bristol. As a broadcaster, Emma interviewed thousands of people over the 10+ years she was on air, from members of the public to authority figures, to famous people.

Emma is now enjoying working as a freelance presenter, professional event host and a civil celebrant.

Very much a “people person”, Emma is outgoing, approachable, engaging and empathetic. As a guest speaker, her talks have been described as inspirational and uplifting!

When it comes to events, she has recently completed eight years as a volunteer on the organising committee of Bridgwater Carnival, considered to be the biggest illuminated carnival in Europe.

Gaby Cartwright is the Head of Partnerships at LIVE (Live music Industry Venues and Entertainment), whose members are a federation of fifteen live music industry associations representing 3,159 businesses, over 34,000 British artists & 2,000 backstage workers. She has worked in the UK live music sector for over a decade and prior to joining LIVE in 2022 she held positions at Cato Music, WME & Live Nation, alongside Tour Managing artists on the road.

Gaby also oversees and produces the highly successful LIVE Awards, an annual event which honours and celebrates the work of promoters, venues, agents, festivals, artist managers and others working in the UK live music sector.

She is also Chair of the organisation’s ‘Misogyny in Music’ group, which is committed to promoting gender equality and creating a safe & inclusive environment for all, and is a strong advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (EDI) in the live music industry.

As Managing Director of Redwood Event Solutions, Jim Davey has built a multi award winning events company and a solid reputation within the industry. Jim’s experience is gleaned from some of the largest, most challenging, uplifting and special events in the world working with a safety, operational and or a production hat on.

His years within the industry have resulted in the delivery of creative and practical solutions whilst managing safety, production and welfare teams on site at events through highly challenging situations and timelines. Jim’s expertise is founded in taking an initial brief or idea and creating an event or solution that exceeds expectations. In short, his approach is you can do or achieve anything you want; you just have to think about it first.

Matt has been with See Tickets for over four years, and within the ticketing ticketing industry a further seven. Matt heads up See Tickets’ relationships with our festival, exhibition and attraction client portfolio, including English Heritage, ZSL, Raymond Gubbay and IMG. Over this time Matt has built a good understanding of what challenges our clients face, pre event, on site and post event. Helping clients, new and long term, navigate the world of ticketing. Matt also manages our Groups, Coach and Travel Trade team who are an integral part of the outdoor events industry.

Clair Greenaway is a highly experienced strategic cultural manager and educator. She was Executive Director of Cheltenham Literature Festival from 2005-2011, overseeing the dramatic expansion of the Festival and relocation to a new outdoor site. Clair has been a Board member of the British Arts Festivals Association and a funding evaluator for the Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England. In 2011 she became a Senior Lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire, and in 2015 was appointed Academic Course Leader for Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Clair was the recipient of the University’s inaugural Staff Award for Excellence in Sustainability. Her pedagogic work in this area has been recognised by the United Nations University as an example of best practice in sustainability education.

Jules is a dynamic communications specialist with a proven track record of over 25 years in the art, entertainment, and media sectors. She has partnered leading brands and agencies including The Guardian, Channel 4, Tate, Wolff Olins, Amplify and Somerset House to deliver audience engagement strategies. Leveraging her expertise in audience behavior and the power of narrative, Jules helps brands to understand and connect with their target audiences on a deeper level. By identifying the key emotional drivers, decision-making processes, and triggers that influence audience interaction, she enables her clients to develop targeted campaigns that resonate and engage.

Grace Mosuro is a Nigerian-born, UK-raised mother, breast cancer thriver, and a leading authority in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). With expertise in intersectionality and cultural competency, she leverages her lived experiences and professional background in Business Management, Leadership Development, and EDI to drive meaningful change across diverse sectors.

Grace’s personal journey, including overcoming breast cancer, has amplified her commitment to fostering workplaces that not only celebrate diversity but also acknowledge and address the complexities of intersectional identities. As the Founder and CEO of Aquaintz Consulting and the Acting CEO and Chair of Trustees at Every Future Foundation, an anti-racism education charity, Grace uses her expertise to help organisations build inclusive cultures where individuals from all backgrounds can bring their authentic selves to work.

Her authentic leadership, dedication to cultural competency, and passion for intersectional inclusivity make her a trailblazer in shaping organisational cultures that prioritise equity and belonging.

Chris first became involved with events at Glastonbury Festival in 1979, whilst working as a GP in Somerset. He has been with FMS since its beginning over forty years ago, occupying a variety of roles. The organisation, which covers Glastonbury, Reading, WOMAD and several other events, is unusual in being a not-for-profit charity, staffed by volunteers and making grants to medical and humanitarian projects around the world. It was recently honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
In addition to event cover, FMS is a training provider and has been heavily involved in the NHS Covid vaccination programme in the West Country. Recently it has partnered with World Extreme Medicine to produce and ship bespoke boxes of trauma equipment to medical colleagues in Ukraine.

Chris has considerable experience of providing medical input into SAGs and event working groups. Now retired from NHS practice, he lives in Somerset with his wife and two cats.

Bev Osborne specialises in developing and delivering training solutions addressing the crisis management and emergency response needs of events and venues, companies and organisations in the UK and overseas. She became involved in the Resilience Sector by leading a 5-year programme to design and deliver multi-agency, simulation based, training exercises for Strategic Commanders in the Public Sector in 2007; and in 2011 launched Training 4 Resilience with her Business Partner Adrian Seward. She has designed and delivered over 150 crisis management and emergency exercises since 2007 for a wide portfolio of clients including Premiership Football and Rugby Clubs; Music Festivals and Concerts; the NATO Summit; the Tour de France and all London 2012 Olympic Venues.

Carol joined the Royal Bath & west of England Society in July 2022. Carol was previously working for Puma Private Equity running Rosebourne, a chain of garden centres. Prior to that Carol was the CEO of The Horticultural Trades Association. Carol also sat on a number of external Boards including The British Retail Consortium, AHDB Horticulture & The Horticultural Innovation Parnership.

The Royal Bath & West runs its own Main Show, Dairy Show, a Food & Drink Festival and new this year, Landalive a regenerative food and farming conference. The rest of the time the showground is let to third party events to raise money for the Society.

Rick co-founded Smyle Group. It owns leading creative agency Smyle, a £50m t/o agency employing 180 full time staff that was acquired by The Human Network, which also owns Identity. Smyle has won UK Event Agency of the Year award a record 13 times in the last 15 years. Rick also launched The Power of Events in 2023, to effectively deliver for the first time a map of the industry’s now defined seven core sectors. It is supported by an unprecedented level of over 700+ organisers, agencies, venues and supplier partners from across the industry. It also launched the Event Industry Insight App in October 23 as tool for the industry to use to collate advanced data. A new Careers Hub section of the platform in Feb 24 and a UK wide Schools Engagement Programme aimed at engaging with all the 4000+ secondary schools in the UK within 5 years.

Ayesha is a DE&I advocate, currently working as a Client and Careers Community Manager at DIVERSE. With a focus on underrepresented groups, her current role focuses on upskilling and building the confidence of Gen Z talent before connecting them with top UK employers. She also leads on the recruitment and community management for #Merky FC, a careers programme with adidas and Stormzy to increase representation within the business of football.

Ayesha studied Psychology at the University of Warwick, before starting a career in recruitment and talent acquisition. She has recruited within life sciences, finance, marketing, and tech across the UK, Europe and the US, from entry-level through to C-Suite. Diversity and inclusion have always been at the forefront of her work, championing this in both agency and in-house recruitment.

Ayesha also led the Ethnicity Employee Resource Group in a previous role, where she worked internally to promote open and honest conversations in-house, as well as hosting events around workplace wellness and equitable workspaces for all. Understanding the importance of mentorship to young talent, Ayesha has also spent time mentoring young people, helping them with CV and interview tips as well as how to build confidence and the power of positivity.

Gill began her career at Capital Radio, becoming the Head of Entertainment at the station. Having produced the first ever 100,000 capacity Party in the Park at Hyde Park in 1998, she fell in love with live events and started her own events business, entertee. During the 26 years of entertee, Gill has produced many high-profile events, including working with the Royal Parks, producing events for many prestigious brands and producing a series of regional Party in the Parks. In 2004 Gill co-founded entertee Hire offering a quality fencing solution that was affordable for smaller events. In 2018 Gill co-founded Black Deer festival of Americana, using all the experience gained from her many years in the producing events and festivals for other promoters.

James has over 25 years’ experience in the event industry. His career began in the hospitality sector before making the move to leading temporary structure supplier Arena where he was a senior project manager for numerous global sporting events including London 2012, Commonwealth Games 2014 and HSBC Abu Dhabi Golf Championships. He joined Qdos Event Hire as commercial director in 2014. Multiple high profile contract wins including a five-year deal with Goodwood Estates catapulted him to the role of managing director in 2016. He has spearheaded the company’s rapid growth and it’s now established as one of the industry’s leading suppliers. Qdos has supported almost every notable sporting event, public event and state occasion held in the UK over the last 10 years.