Adam Proto is a well respected and accomplished Event Director, with over twenty five years experience in the field. His career has involved the production of countless events ranging from three year roadshows to large budget corporate events.

Adam’s technical knowledge and creative skill is the foundation of a career that has taken him and his work all over the world working on events in Motorsport, Conferencing, Experiential Marketing, Live Events, Opening Ceremonies, Launch Events, Music, Festivals, Exhibitions etc.

In 2010 Adam moved to Dubai on a two year secondment to work for HQ Creative LLC in the role of Production Director after working in the UAE for a number of years based out of the UK.

Whilst working for HQ Creative LLC, Adams role in directing the Production Department has included working directly on the pitching and delivery of Abu Dhabi Art 2010/11, The first Transforming Education Summit, The State Visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Abu Dhabi, Mubadala F1 Experience, The Aspen Forum, and various other high profile events.

He has held a senior lecturing position at City University and Kings College London, focusing on the training of Event Management to students. He has recently sat on the ratification board for the BA Open University Course at Regents College, London and in 2009 Adam completed the first academic qualification in Health and Safety for events at Derby University.   

In 2007 he founded a family festival focused on health and education for children. The outdoor event is the largest event of its kind in the South of England. The event has run successfully every year since and in 2010 the children and crew broke three World Records. In 2008 he pioneered a festival designed for Special Needs children and their families. This unique event continues to run successfully, breaking new ground every year. 
 
Special projects have included the design, build and implementation of various bespoke vehicles including unique consumer experiences such as the Airwaves Drop Slide and two transportable Skydive Simulators.  

Joanna is multi lingual. She interpreted for the COOB (Olympic committee) at the Barcelona Olympic games in 1992, has run conferences and events throughout Europe and launched and marketed products on UK and European road shows.

Currently, she is working with McCann Worldwide, the Official Marketing Services Provider for London 2012. She organised the launch event for this relationship held in the new headquarters of the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association with the support of London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) Chair, Seb Coe. Joanna also runs her own successful Event Management Company, Turquoise Blue Ltd.

With over 20 years experience in the industry, Caroline's career began managing the sales and marketing activities of an International Business Centre in central London progressing to National Sales Manager responsible for the conference agent market for a UK hotel chain and Reservations Manager for a venue finding company.

She then moved into the corporate world, firstly setting up the EMEA Meetings & Events Department at Cisco Systems, then joining the pharmaceutical industry, heading up the Conference & Events Department at Roche Products Ltd.  This team managed a portfolio of International events (500+ per annum) including the Annual Sales Conference (550 pax), Annual Incentive Trip (70 pax), Congresses and other events.  

In addition to the responsibility for the smooth and cost effective running of these events, specific focus was also given to achieving excellent customer service to delegates.  This in turn emphasised the ROI value to the company strategic performance and bottom line.

Most recently, before setting up her own consultancy Eventful Solutions, Caroline held the position of Client Services Director with UniversalProcon, an event management company specialising in the pharmaceutical arena.  

EVENTFUL SOLUTIONS offers a range of consultancy services to the meetings and travel industry including:

•    Process and Project Management
•    Sales & Operational Recruitment and Training
•    Event Management
•    Strategic Meetings Management

Specialising in creating bespoke solutions to assist organisations reach and indeed exceed their strategic objectives, recent projects have included

•    Greenfield Opening Ceremony Launch (750 pax) for Japanese Pharmaceutical’s  new European HQ
•    Pharmaceutical Product Launch (100 pax)
•    Fireworks Extravaganza (15,000 pax) held at historical stately home
•    Development of an Incentive Strategy for UK destination
•    Teaching Corporate/Conference Planning modules on Event Management Diploma course
•    Training Assessment for Venue Event Management Staff
•    Event Sponsorship Proposal for stately home venue
•    Implementation of EMEA SMM solution within a blue chip Pharmaceutical Company

An enterprising business professional, with extensive International experience in event management Caroline brings not only sales and operational expertise but also a high level of strategic insight and value to understanding our client requirements.

Caroline's dedication to the meetings industry is borne out by her active involvement in Meeting Professionals International (MPI).  She is a former President of the Association’s European Council and is a current member of the MPI International Board of Directors.  For the past 6 years, she has also been a judge for the Meeting Industry Marketing Awards (MIMA)

With a passion for communication and a lifelong love of cars, a role in Public Relations at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was the ultimate job for Andrew Ball. Working for the world’s best known car company, renowned for super luxury and quality of engineering, is both an honour and a challenge.

Drawing on a varied career across the communications spectrum, encompassing photography and design through marketing, consultancy and employee communications, Andrew draws on real-world examples to bring the world of PR to life.

A true petrol-head at heart, Andrew has eclectic automotive tastes and dreams of one day having a Delorean in his garage. When not playing cars, Andrew can be found out on the water in his dinghy, rebuilding his house (again) or, most likely, playing with his two young daughters.

Chris Woodford first jumped into the events world purely by accident in 1994, when asked to help out a local school event in Birmingham.  Within 3 weeks he was running the mobile events roadshow for a local radio station and loving every minute of it.  

The local radio station happened to be owned by a national station and Chris’s first break into the Health & Safety aspect of events appeared in the shape of TV & Radio personality, Chris Tarrant.  

Spending the next 14 days looking after the welfare and safety of 7 gorgeous females who were physically chained together 24hrs a day, (whilst visiting all of London’s top tourist attractions), was not easy but ultimately one thing led to another... and in 2002 Chris found himself appointed as the Safety Officer at Buckingham Palace for the Queens Golden Jubilee concerts.  

Chris has worked extensively at many major music and sporting events across the UK both as a Safety Officer, Production Manager and as an Events Manager in his own right.

Being an avid sports fan, Chris spent many years working on all the major European Football Cup Finals and Rugby Internationals, and his claim to fame is being told to ‘go away quite quickly’ by the then England Rugby Captain Martin Johnson, whilst trying to brief the England and New Zealand teams on Pyrotechnics safety.  Needless to say, Chris is still in one piece and did as he was told!

Chris has supported the Course Director Adam Proto on many occasions, but none more enjoyable and fulfilling than working hand in hand every year on the ultimate kids festival, Kidz Stuff.

Paul Kennedy is both Executive Chairman of Meetings Review Ltd and has his own meetings industry consultancy, Kennedy Consulting. Meetings Review has the largest circulation of any media title in the global meetings industry and Paul joined with the brief to re-engineer the strategic direction of the company moving the title from a news channel to an on-line marketplace. His consultancy focuses on destination and venue strategic  business development and his current clients include the convention bureaus of Sicily, Slovenia and starting in the Autumn Florence.

Paul is very well known throughout the global meetings industry having been Group Exhibition Director for Reed Travel Exhibitions  global portfolio of meetings and incentive events. Paul restructured and expanded this struggling business to become the leading group of events in the world  taking place annually in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australasia and a planned event for 2011 in North America hosting a total of some 25,000 participants. Each of the shows are award winning and had enjoyed a sustained period of growth.

Paul is also well known for his period as Managing Director of the multi award winning Commonwealth Conference and Events Centre winning a total of eight UK awards.

A strong advocate of strategic partnerships  both as a vehicle for corporate development and in providing high quality customer service Paul ensures his businesses  have been, and are, very close indeed to the  clients and market they serve and ensures a close focus on strategic supply chain management. Paul has served on a number of boards and panels including four years of the Board of Directors of Meeting Professional International ( MPI), and the UNWTO Steering Committee on the economic impact of the meetings industry. In December 2008 he was appointed as Advisor to the Beijing Municipal Government and in September 2009 to the Board of Deeper Blue, an international event management company ,the European Foundation of MPI. And the new Conventions Authority in Egypt.

In June 2000 Paul became the first ever European to win an MPI International award as Leader of Tomorrow and then the first person ever to win both this award and the Marion N. Kershner award as Chapter Leader. He was voted UK Meeting and Incentive Personality of the Year Award in 2001 a year in which he was awarded and presented with the  Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ( MBE). Paul was placed in the Top ten of the C&IT magazine Power 50 of the leading figures in the UK conference and incentive industry for three successive years 2006-08, and also in 2008 placed in the top ten of the most influential people in the global meetings industry.

A  regular speaker and presenter Paul has presented as far a field as the USA, Canada, Australia, China, Singapore, the UAE,  Oman,Jordan and in over a dozen European countries. Paul is a judge for the UK Meetings Industry Marketing Awards, the Asia Travel weekly Awards and is a regular columnist for magazines in the UK, Slovenia, China,, and the Gulf.

Paul has a degree in Economics, a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Management and the Institute of Leadership and Management.

David Foster has a background in Event Marketing, an Executive MBA from London Business School and now brings his creativity to bear, through his company Rally Strategic, on clients in need of change management or disruptive business and marketing strategies. 

David’s event career kicked off in the early 1990's as one of BFP’s first Event Managers.  By 1995 he had worked his way up to Director level and co-founded The Really BIG Promotions Company, which pioneered product sampling on an intensive scale.  In 1997 both companies were bought out and assumed a new role as the cornerstone of McCann Erickson's Momentum brand in London.  Really BIG later became the foundation for Raisley when David left McCann Erickson in 1999.
 
As founder of Raisley, a niche Brand Experience marketing agency, David instigated face-to-face campaigns on behalf of more than 80 brands, including Twinings Tea, Sainsbury’s, Bacardi Breezer and the Post Office. Over a seven year period Raisley delivered over 25 million direct, face-to-face communications. 
 
David now uses his business acumen and event marketing experience, in conjunction  with his MBA training, to advise SMEs and small corporate teams on change management, particularly in challenging or crisis situations.  Highly differentiated marketing is an integral part of many of these projects.  This year, for example, David’s work with a small Australian company has resulted in an award winning exhibition stand.  On its first outing it generated more than AUS$750,000 worth of business, equivalent to 25% of the company’s turnover for the previous year.

Chris Browne first got into music at the age of 12 when wanting to learn to play the guitar was told by his music master at school that he also had to learn a classical instrument so because he fancied a girl who played cello, he decided that that was the instrument for him.

Chris has tour managed major music tours and run a touring sound and lighting company. His career has taken him in many directions varying from playing bass guitar in a punk band to owning a rehearsal studio which morphed into a 24 track recording studio.

During the 80’s Chris was front of house sound engineer for many bands of the day touring worldwide and it was whilst on tour with Jon Michel Jarre that he was approached by the tour sponsors “Swatch” to be their event consultant.
With Swatch, Chris worked on many of the companies events world wide including the Atlanta Olympic Games, Expo 98 in Lisbon, the Swatch Wave Tour and at one time manager of the Swatch New York Time Ship store on 5th Avenue (very strange).

Since leaving Swatch Chris has gone onto work at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, The London Olympic bid, the International and Internal Olympic torch relay for the Beijing Games.

Chris is now semi retired so can work back at his first passion music and at the time of writing is currently in Russia with a strange Anglo/German outfit called Gregorian...chanting monks backed by a rock band... Rock on comrade!

Joel is a Director in the Strategy team at Octagon, having joined four years ago from the UK largest media planning & buying agency, MediaCom. Prior to MediaCom, Joel was a consultant at PwC in London.

At Octagon, Joel’s main responsibilities currently include day to day lead on the Cisco London 2012 Olympics programme, and strategic output across MasterCard’s European Sponsorship portfolio, which includes the strategic assessment and evaluation of new sponsorship opportunities. Joel is also involved in growing the agency’s international business, including working with clients on Sochi 2014 and the IPL.

In addition to these client roles, he is also responsible for the development of Octagon’s bespoke property selection tool kit, and the agency’s overall insights and research capabilities, including managing the UK Passion DriversTM study, which examines fans’ emotional connection to sport.

Selina has a track record of raising significant income both from charitable corporate partnerships and events in the voluntary sector.

Selina worked at Save the Children (until 2010) where she managed a range of flagship event partnerships (including Thomson Financials’ IFR Awards) and royal gala fundraising events, such as Summer in the City. Selina also managed corporate partnerships including Bulgari [a global cause related marketing activity] and Twinings. During her tenure, Selina raised over £7m for the charity.

Selina, currently divides her time between the National Autistic Society securing new business and Limelight Sports, helping to deliver high profile sports events like Sports Relief, JPMorgan Chase and Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. Selina also freelances in the delivery of other projects, e.g. an Olympic Test Event at The London to Surrey Cycle Classic.