The following are some of the speakers that we have had and those that have helped at past events:
Stephen Waddington
Stephen Waddington chaired our event in Nov 2011.
Stephen is a PR moderniser. He most recently co-founded Speed, the UK agency at the forefront of helping brands such as The Associated Press, Nikon, Symantec, The Economist, Tesco and Virgin Media Business manage their reputation in traditional, online and social media.
A trained journalist, Stephen understands how the media landscape works online and offline and champions good practice as a writer, conference speaker and award winning-blogger. He sits on the PRCA Council, the CIPR Council and is a member of the CIPR’s Social Media Panel.
Prior to Speed, Stephen co-founded Rainier PR which was acquired by Loewy in 2007. Stephen is also chairman of Admiral PR & Marketing. He is married with three children and splits his time between London and home in the North East.
Crispin Reed
Crispin is Managing Director of Brandhouse spoke in Nov 2011 on ‘How to unearth really killer customer insights’
Crispin has a well-rounded perspective on brands, having worked in leading global advertising and design agencies (both in Europe and Asia), brand consultancies and client-side in as Marketing Director in the fine fragrance sector.
He worked for 13 years for advertising agency Leo Burnett both in London and in Singapore before going on to run the London office of the German advertising agency, Springer & Jacoby. He then moved client side with Cradle Holdings, which owns a range of fine fragrance and skin care brands. He took his first steps in to the brand agency world running the London office of New York based Sterling Brands.
In August 2007 he joined Brandhouse. Brandhouse helps companies use emotion to build stronger, more profitable brands. Clients include Asda, Britvic, CNN, Kellogg’s, Mars, Marks and Spencer, Pepsi, SABMiller and Thomson Reuters.
Crispin is an Associate of Ashridge Management College, a member of the Superbrands Council and sits on the Advisory Boards for the Global Marketing Network and Branded Content Marketing Association.
Crispin is a regular speaker at conferences. Recent platforms include the World Marketing Forum in Ghana, Sensory Solutions in Australia and the World Brand Congress in India.
Julia Tybura
Julia is Managing Director of Zenon Consulting and spoke in Nov 2011 with Steve Toft on ‘The world is changing fast, how can we keep up and make change stick’.
Julia set up Zenon Consulting in June 1998 and is currently Managing Director. As a senior HR and OD practitioner with over twenty years’ experience in HR, general management and Board level roles, Julia combines national policy level access and thinking with a deep understanding of specific culture issues and their solutions. Her skills lie in providing innovative support to organisations experiencing considerable change. Her exposure to a variety of sectors offers clients a wide range of support and tools in strategic HR, change and reputation management and organisational politics. She is passionate about HR and its role in transforming people and services. Julia is a columnist in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) and speaks/chairs at conferences on HR, OD and organizational politics.
Steve Toft
Steve is a Director of Crucible Consulting and spoke in Nov 2011 with Julia Tybura on ‘The world is changing fast, how can we keep up and make change stick’.
Steve has more than twenty years experience of managing change in organisations. As a line executive and a business consultant, he has worked in more than thirty organisations across Europe and the Middle-East. Steve has led projects on business planning, IT implementation, performance management, culture change and post merger integration. He has also acted as a coach and advisor to senior managers during periods of organisational and personal change.
Before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management consultant, he worked for NatWest, British Gas and RAC Motoring Services. Steve has a particular interest in organisational culture. When he’s not working Steve blogs at Flip Chart Fairy Tales and at The Guardian.
Martin Howe
Martin has over 25 years experience in the design and delivery of creative learning solutions producing customer service excellence and spoke in Nov 2011 on ‘How Customers Can Rally Your Troops’.
Now as ‘Time for Change? People Development‘ he provides consultancy and training to the UK’s leading Customer Service teams including Cadbury UK, Scottish Power, LoveFilm, Merseyside Police and major Local Authorities, specialising in practical implementation of Employee Engagement interventions.
Increasingly, consultancy is being delivered in partnership with Customer First UK the awarding body for Putting the Customer First ®, the National Standard for Customer Service and The WOW! Awards® which is a customer nominated employee recognition scheme that celebrates excellence in Customer Service.
Filip Matous
As a Gen Y-er, Filip spoke in Nov 2011 on how to ‘Get the most out of Gen Z and Gen Y’. Besides working with Gen Y as an online project manager, Filip is a co-founder and regular blogger at Enviable Workplace. He brainstorms with thought leaders and CEOs how to mix different workplace elements and generations to create enviable company culture.
Gen Y stay an average of 18 months in a job before moving on. They loathe middle managers and prefer to have their results judged – not the process to get there. The 9 to 5 structure is a remnant from the industrial era – what motivates Gen Y is creating their lifestyle. Understand their lifestyle to get the most from them.
Like the differences between Gen X and Y, Filip believes the clash between Y and Z (born in the 90’s) will be much more evident at work. Gen Z will be smarter, faster with tech, independent and even more impatient.
Guy Letts
Guy is the Founder of CustomerSure and spoke in Nov 2011 on ‘Creating a customer centric business’.
CustomerSure provides simple, web-based software that helps small and medium sized companies grow their business by improving customer satisfaction. They make it easy to provide responsive service, to get customer feedback and, more importantly, to make sure the feedback is seen and dealt with.
Guy has worked in the software industry since 1984 and has held roles at Logica, British Airways and Sage. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and qualified in Engineering at the University of Exeter.
His roles at Sage included R&D Director, followed by a commercial role as Head of Customer Services with responsibility for services revenue and customer experience for mid-market customers.
He founded CustomerSure in 2010 after seeing how showing customers’ words directly to the people delivering the service had a dramatic effect on customer satisfaction, retention and their propensity to recommend.
Wendy Kerr
Wendy is the Founder of Business Momentum and spoke in Nov 2011 on ‘Being a Leader now’.
Originally from New Zealand, Wendy had a successful corporate career living all over the world for over 18 years. In this time she created many successful start-ups for multinational corporations, designing and implementing the business and marketing strategy. Over the course of her career she has developed the marketing for famous brands; Colgate Toothpaste, Smirnoff Vodka, Tia Maria, Quicken and Apple. Most recently she was General Manager at FTyourmoney.com, personal finance website of the FT.
Eight years ago she created a Coaching and Consulting business to help people feel more inspired and motivated with their businesses and work. She has worked with a range of corporate clients including Betfair, Lexis Nexus, Pearson, The Financial Times, The Economist and the Department of Work and Pensions.
Business Momentum offers coaching, mentoring and courses designed to help clients get more focus, feel more in control and to thrive.
Jemima Gibbons
Jemima heads up All About Brands’ social media arm, AAB Engage, and spoke in Nov 2011 on ‘What will our customers want in the future’. She is an award-winning business consultant and author of “Monkeys With Typewriters: myths and realities of social media at work” (Triarchy, 2009). She picked up her media skills in the 1990s, producing TV talk shows. The love of Jerry Springer-esque drama and fascination with everyday stories made her a sucker for social networks and user generated content. In 2001, she took an MBA in eBusiness, won a distinction for her dissertation at RDF Media, and spent the next eight years advising film, TV and media organisations how to harness interactive, digital technologies. Jemima has taught at masters level at Cass Business School and Kings College London. She is a founder member of the Hospital Club (London’s club for creative entrepreneurs) and an elected member of the RSA’s Fellowship Council, where she leads the working group on digital engagement.
Jan McGinley
Jan McGinley helped with the PR, promotion and partnership building elements of the first RARE Forum. Jan is a networking extraordinaire. Having started her first business at the age of 16. Jan also has extensive experience in managing projects for blue-chip Organisations. This on-the-ground experience of enterprise allows Jan to really understand business and the way people work. With a measured and intuitive talent for developing successful business relationships, Jan’s contacts are second-to-none. Whether it’s respected entrepreneurs to give credibility to a client’s brand, or partnerships with like-minded brands, Jan knows the right number to call.
Roxanne Persaud
Roxanne Persaud was RareForum’s Nov 2011 social reporter and ‘tweeter in residence’. She is a social innovation champion and social media strategist for conferences and events. Follow her sociopreneurial commentaries on twitter @commutiny.
Emerald Mosley
Emerald Mosley is a graduate of Camberwell College of Art and has worked in London and New York as a graphic designer. She is curious about connecting the dots between thinking, designing, business, illustration, tech & sculpture (as well as performing with go-go dance troupe The Actionettes!). She was around in Nov 2011 with a sketchbook, making visual notes of the day. Follow her on twitter @goldtopgirl.
