Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.

Elise's experience gives her a unique perspective on the challenges of communicating in the rapidly transforming health and wellness sector – from a background in public health and social development in North America and Europe, she jumped the fence into the brand and marketing world and has an award-winning portfolio of clients across non-profit, corporate, consumer, and public sectors. Depending on your point of view, that was either ridiculous or genius.

She is also a global spirits judge and former restauranteur and hosts of one of London’s most popular whisky tasting groups, Whisky Squad.

Charles is a Co-Founder, a fourth generation foodie, an expert in food futures and a ‘champion of change’. Cooking at his mother's side in the kitchen is where Charles' obsession for food began!

He and his business thefoodpeople are known for shifting the future of food and drink by harnessing the power of trends. Charles has spent the past 25 years in the food industry working across all sectors including food service, fine dining, hotels, food brands and food retailing.

thefoodpeople, established for over 15 years, are a global trends business, specialising in future foresight in the food and beverage sector. A united group of trend spotters and innovators, we’re a team of psychologists, chefs, marketeers, product developers, academics, flavourists, historians and anthropologists. But more than that TFP are ‘champions of change’ that bring their inherent experience, as well as an obsession for food and drink, natural curiosity, intuition and tenacity. This is underpinned by our vision ‘to shift the future of food and drink’. What drives us is our desire to shape a better future across society by harnessing the power of trends.

Paul is Director of Policy and Research at the think tank Centre for Cities, which tracks the performance of the UK’s 63 largest urban areas. He is a regular regional and national media commentator, including print, radio and TV, and speaks at conferences across the UK on subjects relating to the performance of city economies.

Simon Potts is CEO of The Alchemist, the UK’s leading creative cocktail bar and restaurant brand. The concept was established in Manchester in 2010 and has since grown to 20 locations, including; London, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Simon has worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years and joined the business in 2015, following a private equity buyout. Since then, he has grown revenues from £11m to £50m, and The Alchemist has won multiple awards for its drinks and its designs, as well as accolades for their approach to its people and the environment. The brand has a strong online presence and has built a successful ecommerce platform; offering a range of at home cocktails and a recipe book celebrating 10 years of theatrical drinks. In 2018 his team launched ‘Aether’ a development bar concept in Liverpool.

With a wealth of experience in technology and hospitality sales, Olivia leads Zonal's sales and marketing functions. Prior to joining Zonal in 2021, Olivia ran her own consultancy business and held previous roles including MD of Majestic Wine Commercial and UK MD at Planday. Passionate about using tech to enhance customers' experiences, Olivia has broad expertise in developing and implementing commercial strategies within the hospitality sector.

Katy is founder and MD of KAM Media. She is passionate about pubs, bars and restaurants and helping KAM’s clients understand their customers. Katy founded KAM Media in 2014 as she saw a gap in the market for a hospitality and grocery insight agency that puts creativity at its heart.

Katy is also a Bii Trustee, an advisor for both Pub Aid and Only a Pavement Away charities. She is also a judge of the Bii Licensee of the Year award & the Quality Food Awards and the Scottish food and Drink awards, as well as being proud to be a Plan B Mentor. Katy and KAM created Pedalling for Pubs, the annual hospitality initiative that raises money for the LTC and OAPA.

Alan has a passion for “telling the story”: presenting strategy, analysis and results to management, employees and Boards of Directors over his 16 years of experience leading fast casual, QSR, casual dining restaurants as CEO, President and CFO in both Europe and the USA. Alan is currently the CEO of Vapiano and Love & Food Restaurant Holding since mid-2020. He has been charged with the turnaround of the beloved Italian fast casual brand with over 200 stores in over 30 countries, post bankruptcy and the onset of the global pandemic.

Prior to Vapiano, Alan was the President of Burger King AmRest in CE including Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria, helping to build out of 35 stores in 3 new markets totaling 80 stores across the region from 2018 to 2020. For that he received Franchisee of the Year award, Burger King EMEA 2019.

Originally from Estonia, Heleri has lived in seven countries and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from New York University in Economics and Business, as well as an executive MBA in Hospitality Administration from École Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Switzerland. After leading Puccini Group’s growth in EMEA for two years, she has partnered with Think Hospitality to deliver on F&B strategy projects helping brands and owners assess the market, find the right concept positioning and/or operator & chef for the properties. Her portfolio includes the likes of Accor, Hilton, Kempinski, EC4 Hotels, SuperCity Group and Marriott.

Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.

Russell has spent the majority of his career working in brands across the globe, specifically in marketing, innovation and strategy roles. Brands include Tesco, YUM Brands, KFC, P&O Cruises, Cunard & UK pub groups Greene King & Punch Pubs & Co. Becoming famous for challenging the 'status quo' and delivering big change in big business.  Russell is acknowledged as having an ability to predict human behaviour and in particular how technology is impacting the way we interact with the world and the subsequent changes on big business. His unique ability to see what is on the horizon and translate this for business, coupled with his ability to build structure and strategy has built him the reputation as the man who knows the 'art of the possible' and led to the creation of the Future Factory London (FFLDN) in 2017.  Russell now leads the charge as the Marketing & Strategy Director at Punch Pubs & Co where he is been in role since 2018.

Claire is Director of Innovation at Elior UK, leading digital, NPD and concept innovation. Prior to this she spent 3 years at SSP as Head of Commercial of Own Brands including Upper Crust and Pasty Shop. Graduating from Cambridge with a degree in Natural Sciences, she transitioned into the hospitality sector, as Brand Manager for Frankie & Benny’s at the Restaurant Group and Group Marketing Manager at ETM.

James Brown is Managing Director at BrewDog Retail and Founder of Cashless Tipping Platform TiPJAR. Leading over 1800 staff globally James spends most of his time on the road travelling between BrewDog’s global location of Bars and Breweries.

Sara Stark joined Dishoom in 2011. Dishoom now has five restaurants in London, and three outside (Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham), ten delivery kitchens and a successful online store. Sara has overseen the launches and growth of every restaurant along with a lot of other stuff, including releasing a best-selling cookbook, a record, at-home meal-kits and other products, and various events including an immersive theatre production! Dishoom is one of the most admired brands in the industry. Sara and the Dishoom team care enormously about creating beautiful and democratic shared spaces which pay homage to the old Irani cafés of Bombay. They also care deeply about charity – donating 11 million meals so far – and about creating an awesome place to work – the top employer in hospitality and 4th best in the whole of the UK, according to the most recent Best Companies survey.

Nicci joined Punch Pubs & Co in July 2020 to head up the Marketing function. Her role focuses on shaping Punch’s marketing strategy building concept lead marketing capabilities and investing in brand and marketing campaigns that exceed guest expectation and drive business growth. Nicci is a brand and marketing specialist, with a track record of leading brands though transformational change. Before joining Punch and the hospitality industry, she lead marketing, creative and digital teams at Emma Bridgewater and The Co-op. She is passionate about learning and developing in the ever changing world we live and supports programmes to mentoring and coaching future marketing leaders.

Julian set up Wireless Social from scratch in 2013. His vision, to provide collaborative solutions and by forming strong partnerships with the leaders in the hospitality sector. Wireless Social quickly developed into a powerful marketing tool allowing customers to access Wi-Fi via their social media platforms, which gives businesses the ability to capture data in a safe, secure and legal manner and to target customers with relevant communication. To date, Wireless Social has over 50 partnerships with the leading technology providers and has nearly 10 million active users of its social Wi-Fi solution. Clients include Carluccios, Azzurri Group, TGI Fridays, Cote, Itsu, Patisserie Valerie, Turtle Bay, Leon, and many more.

Oliver Taylor has lead Consumer and Market Insights for Greene King, which operates 2700 pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK, since January 2019. Previously Insight Director at Elliotts consultancy, Oliver acted as Greene King’s voice of the customer throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, and also takes ownership of their tracking of the competitive landscape. Oliver is a previous Restaurant Marketer & Innovator 30 under 30 alumni.

Mark McCulloch is one of the leading Food, Drink and Hospitality brand and marketing minds in the world. Mark has over 20 years Brand, Marketing, Digital and Social Media experience holding senior and board level positions at lastminute.com, Barclaycard, YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger. Mark co-founded multi-award winning Brand and Marketing agency WE ARE Spectacular in 2012 which is still going strong today. Mark is now fulfilling his lifelong ambition to live and work by the sea in Brighton where he is a Virtual Chief Marketing Officer and Brand Strategist for the best Hospitality, Tech and B2B brands in the UK and beyond. Mark is also a popular thought leader, speaker and broadcaster, the highlight of which being in 2018 when Mark began podcasting and his Mark McC Supersonic Food Marketing Podcast hosting guests including the greatest digital mind in the world Gary Vaynerchuk plus music legends Fatboy Slim and Alan McGee (the man who discovered rock band Oasis). Mark’s podcast has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and has reached the top 10 in the UK iTunes business charts and is a regular Top 100 podcast in multiple countries around the world helping educate, entertain and inspire both the marketing and business community. 

Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.

Experienced Marketing Director with a passion for the hospitality industry. 
Skilled in integrated marketing strategy, brand experience and consumer understanding. 
A creative professional with particular interest in menu design engineering and growth strategy for the hospitality industry.

Anna Sulan is a writer, editor and academic based in London, with a focus on food and drink she explores issues around equality and sustainability. She launched Sourced, a public research project that investigates global culinary systems, with fellow academic and writer Chloe-Rose Crabtree. She is one half of event series and podcast Voices At The Table, in 2021 she launched Cheese Magazine where she is Editor-in-Chief, and she is co-founder of communications agency A+F Creative. Anna Sulan has hosted panels and been a keynote speaker at events such as ArktisMat in Norway, Eater London, Stylus Trends Intelligence Summit and WGSN’s trends day.

Dan joined TGI Fridays UK as Chief Marketing Officer in December 2019. He has extensive brand, digital and e-commerce experience for both client and agency across a variety of sectors including gaming, retail and sports & leisure. Dan has worked in senior marketing and commercial roles for leading brands enjoying rapid growth and transformational change including Betfair, WiggleChainReaction, Checkatrade and Ladbrokes, where he was UK Marketing Director UK. The strategic focus at Fridays has been to improve relevance, quality and simplicity with the ambition of making Fridays famous again.

Loui Blake is a restaurateur & investor focused on plant-based hospitality. A partner at Gamechangers investments & founder of concepts including Erpingham House & Vegan Dough Co, Loui is passionate about plant-based food & sustainable business. Loui won future marketer of the year at 2019 RMI.

Juliane Caillouette-Noble came to the Sustainable Restaurant Association as Development Director in 2016 after five years of running Jamie Oliver’s programmes for improving school food and food education across the UK. The SRA is a not for profit membership organisation committed to accelerating change toward an environmentally restorative and socially progressive hospitality sector in the UK. As Development Director, Juliane’s role included designing and developing strategic partnerships and campaigns, ensuring that the impact and influence of the SRA grows along with the size of the membership body. Juliane became the Managing Director of the SRA in January and looks forward to working with the industry to build back better and greener post Covid.

Jack is a former Brand Manager, PR Manager and Campaign Manager for New World Trading Company and now currently heading up all things creative for Lane7 in their newly formed Manchester hub. A lover of mischievous low-cost, high impact PR and campaigns, Jack was an inaugural member of the NWTC marketing department after their sale from Living Ventures growing the number of sites from 8 to 33 and from 4 brands 9 in just 5 years. His campaigns have featured across Sky New, LadBible, BBC News and repeatedly. During that spell, Jack was named in 2020 RMI 30 under 30, shortlisted for Future Marketing Leader and recently named in 2021 Acorn 30 Under 30. Outside Hospitality, Jack worked for Altrincham FC where he co-conceived the viral 'rainbow' football kit before being sacked for trying to sell the football club on Zoopla.

Rosie is a creative marketer with experience and knowledge of integrated marketing communications, marketing strategy and project management.  Most recently of Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, where she revolutionised content production across the restaurant group, adding a sense of agility within the team, rallying the business behind a joint vision on their own channels and building a solid network of engaged champions.

Kieran Corbitt is the Brand PR & Social Manager for The Alchemist, leading the brand’s creative assets, social media platforms and connecting The Alchemist brand with national PR presence by curating innovative marketing campaigns. He is obsessed with all things pop culture and fuses this with F&B to ensure the brand’s campaigns are ahead of the curve, which highlighted him to win the 2020 RMI 30 under 30 award.

From starting the agency with £17.22 in her bank account, the business now works with some of the UK’s most loved brands, artists, and businesses. A regular contributor to Campaign, PR Week, AdAge and The Marketing Society, Charlotte and her agency are committed to driving hype, demand and legacy for brands. Earlier this year Charlotte made the Ad Age ‘’Top 20 Leading women in marketing, media and advertising in Europe’’ list. Charlotte has worked her way to the boardroom by becoming a conduit between stakeholders and their guest/ customer, simplifying the evolving landscape. She will frequently be heard commenting that the book, ‘The Tanning of America’ influenced her outlook and empowered her to embrace her cultural differences, to add further value to her client’s marketing communications. Her ability to connect a client’s brand and proposition to make an interesting story steeped in culture and experience for a customer is unrivalled. This, paired with her 'get sh*t done' attitude has resulted in The Fitting Room delivering some of UK’s most well-known campaigns and events. Clients will tell you, ‘’Charlotte is the person you want at the table if you’re really looking to drive change’’. She will challenge, educate and get you comfortable with the uncomfortable, which will in turn, drive a better outcome.From global brands like Bugaboo, to household names like Idris Elba, to our favourite eateries like Wagamama, Charlotte is committed to creating hype, demand and legacy.
 

Lover of digital, mayonnaise and booze. Not necessarily in that order. 
Look after all things marketing for Mission Mars, an award-winning multi-concept operator based in the North West with venues including Albert’s Schloss, Albert Hall & Rudy's Neapolitan Pizza & Zumhof Biergarten.

Sophie has over 10 years’ experience within the hospitality sector and has worked for a variety of late night brands with her most recent ones heading up the marketing teams for Be At One Cocktail Bars and Puttshack. She joined London Cocktail Club in August 2021 to lead the marketing strategy to grow the brand following the Nightcap acquisition at the beginning of the year.

Anthony joined Incipio Group in 2020 where in his role as Sales and Marketing Director he leads the group’s marketing strategy and creative direction for venues including Pergola, Lost in Brixton and The Prince. Prior to Incipio Anthony was Managing Director of hospitality strategy agency, Elliotts and has been responsible for launching and marketing some of London’s most popular bars and nightclubs including Mahiki, Steam & Rye and Tropicana Beach Club. Anthony was named Restaurant Marketer and Innovator’s Future Marketing Leader of The Year in 2018.

With foundations in brand and brand communications in some of London’s top agencies (Lambie-Nairn, Moving Brands and Construct), San’s experience covers the management and delivery of successful branding programmes across a wide range of sectors, media and geography. Hands-on and creative/strategic navigation of a cross-functional team often scattered across the globe, her responsibility is to support the client throughout, and often beyond delivery. Clients include Claridge’s, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Raffles Hotels & Resorts, BBC, Hewlett Packard, British Land and Harvey Nichols.

In my 10 years working in the PR and Marketing industry I have worked across both B2B and B2C, ranging from events to restaurants and bars. I’m currently heading up the marketing & PR for PPHE Hotel Group Restaurants and Bars division, marketing 14 destination restaurants for both the UK and Netherlands most recently working on the exciting launch of ARCA Amsterdam, a concept headed up by two Michelin Starred chef Henrique sá Pessoa.

Loui Blake is a restaurateur & investor focused on plant-based hospitality. A partner at Gamechangers investments & founder of concepts including Erpingham House & Vegan Dough Co, Loui is passionate about plant-based food & sustainable business. Loui won future marketer of the year at 2019 RMI.

Simon is CEO of KERB, incorporating Seven Dials Market, events catering business and a social enterprise - concerned with creating opportunities for young people in hospitality. He is passionate about independent food and drink, and developing the people and businesses within the KERB ecosystem.

Libby Andrews is an award-winning marketer with significant experience across the US and UK food and drink industries. She has worked on leading-sector campaigns for a broad mix of well-known operators and organisations, including the likes of Jamie Oliver, The Julia Child Foundation, Action Against Hunger, Hearst Magazines, Sweet Chick and Chilango. She is currently marketing director of Pho, where she heads up all communications for the fast-growing, national Vietnamese restaurant group. Libby has also been recognised by the Evening Standard as one of London's most influential people for her work as co-founder of Ladies of Restaurants, a national collective that supports and nurtures women in hospitality. In the summer of 2020, Libby launched Today’s Special, an initiative which raised £250k to support hospitality’s most vulnerable people during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Jules Pearson is the VP of F&B Creative Development at Ennismore. Jules leads the creative, working on the development of restaurants and bars across the Carte Blanched portfolio. Prior to concept creation and programming spaces, Jules gathers marketing insights to ensure each outlet opens with a bang and remains relevant long into the future. She’s been at Ennismore since the beginning, eats out more than anyone else in the company and has one of the best black books in the biz, thanks to her side hustle, London On The Inside which is now the biggest independent lifestyle website in London.

Lucy Noone Blake is a Hospitality and Experience consultant specialising in Marketing and PR. As founder director of Pear, a multi disciplinary collective of freelancers based in Manchester, Lucy and her collaborators work on local, national and global brands and are known for creative, considered campaigns and strategies rooted in centering both operational understanding and guest experience.

Tanith started working in hospitality in bars and pubs as a teenager. Her family had a brasserie in Nottingham when she was growing up, and then later moved and opened a bar in Thailand where Tanith worked. She originally got into marketing through copywriting and branding working at grab-and-go salad brand Tossed in 2014 as Social Media Manager, where she worked her way up to Head of Marketing pretty quickly. She managed some great campaigns around Veganuary, health conscious eating and launching Europe’s first cashless sites with the Tossed brand. She moved over to burger giant Honest Burgers as Marketing Manager in 2018 and opened up their demographic to gluten free folks, as well as working on projects to harness the power of the social media influencer and strengthening the brand digitally. She worked on new site launches in Manchester, Brighton, Liverpool, London Bridge, Cardiff, Liverpool St during her time with Honest.
She joined BoneDaddies as Head of Marketing in early 2020, in what was the first true in-house marketing function for the brand. Tanith spent her first year with Bone Daddies getting everything optimised and working efficiently, as well as managing the successful Tour of Ramen campaign, launching the Bone At Home delivery service during last year's lockdown and introducing some epic monthly ramen collabs. She also oversaw the launch of Bone Daddies' new Wing Daddies concept which won the R200 Innovation Award in late 2021. She's now working on an annual calendar of events and collaborations for 2022, which will see the Bone Daddies brand celebrate its 10th year anniversary.

Gavin Smith is MD at Pizza Pilgrims, joining in 2018 after 4 years with Wahaca. Previous to this spent 9 years with MAB, 7 with premium Pubs and 2 years with Browns restaurants. Gavin began his carer as a Chef in the Lake District and subsequently completed every job in a restaurant / pub, loving every one of them.

I have many highlights in my life of which I am proud and have taken every opportunity to progress and make a positive impact in a sector which is my one true love. Having spent over 20 years in the hospitality sector – beginning as a waitress and progressing to various roles such as Head of Sales for Novus Leisure and LateNightLondon, Director of Sales for Drake & Morgan, and Sales & Marketing Consultant with The Deltic Group and Casual Dining Group – I have an enduring love of the sector which has motivated me throughout my working life.
I founded Bums on Seats in January 2019, and I’m proud to have created a business with such a fantastic and diverse client portfolio. Our Clients span across multisite UK wide corporate enterprises, along with smaller independents and groups. We want to impact positively on as many pubs, bars and restaurants as we can. 
We are a team of highly experienced sales and marketing experts passionate about identifying sales opportunities, driving organic growth, and increasing your customer loyalty for hospitality operators UK wide.
We have a fast-growing reputation for identifying successful business development plans, increasing sales, and securing long term business resilience. We spend time to ensure we are on top of ever changing trends in consumer behaviours and technology, and we base our decisions — and our strategy —  on fact and experience.

Chief Operating Officer responsible for organisational strategy and its implementation through building and developing teams in Product Development, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Talent, L&D and Engagement. Being a previously highly successful People Director I utilise coaching and communication skills to my advantage in working to create a pioneering and successful business.

With The New World Trading Company I have both seen and contributed to the delivery of a multi-award-winning operation consisting of 33 sites and counting. NWTC is one of the country’s most exciting brands in the restaurant market consisting of The Oast House, The Botanist, The Smugglers Cove, The Club House, The Trading House, The Canal House ,The Florist and The Furnace. As a company, we have been voted 10th (2017), 7th (2018) and 5th (2019) in the Sunday Times Top 100.

Experienced Marketing Director with a passion for the hospitality industry. 
Skilled in integrated marketing strategy, brand experience and consumer understanding. 
A creative professional with particular interest in menu design engineering and growth strategy for the hospitality industry.

Martin made a great impact when starting his career with Whitbread in 1990 after graduating from Leeds University. Starting out as their youngest manager and being promoted rapidly through key operations and marketing roles. In 2000 Martin co-founded Arc Inspirations and set up the first of its 18, soon to be 19 sites. Arc has 3 lead brands Box, Manahatta and Banyan employing 800 operating in the North of England. He has a fantastic passion for the industry and his energy is contagious, proving to be an outstanding respected leader over the past 30 years.

Ann has over 30 years’ experience of living and breathing hospitality. She works with businesses to solve strategic questions by focussing on customer needs, cutting through the noise and getting to the crux of an operator challenge. Ann understands and loves the industry bringing insight, people and creative solutions together. Supporting and connecting industry leaders and giving them a chance to grow, network and most importantly have a voice is incredibly important to her.

She is a NED, a speaker and facilitator, a co-founder of Plan B mentoring, a founder of the Hartwell Dinner Group, an Arena board member, a member of both the UKH events and casual dining committees, and a regular contributor to Propel events.
 

Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.