Founder and Executive Creative Director, YourStudio Howard’s belief is that creativity has an energy that can transform how we think, feel and do. Working from the premise of purpose and magic, he's fuelled to create pioneering and trail-blazing experiences, working on YourStudio's studios creative vision globally, across their studios in London, Amsterdam and Melbourne. Howard studied Architecture and Interiors at London's Royal College of Art after graduating with a first class degree from Furniture and Product Design Brighton University. He's worked in exhibition design, architecture and now brand and experience design, always driven by a relentless quest for the translation of creative thinking into meaningful, human environments. As Executive Creative Director of WeAreYourStudio, the agency he founded with business partner Tom, Howard focuses on the how the business grows their cutting-edge process and sincere culture, working with clients worldwide. Howard is a visiting lecturer at London's Royal College of Art and supports the D&AD Shift and New Blood programmes. He is a regular judge at the Retail Design Expo Student Awards, FRAME Awards 2020 and more.

Multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and creative director based in London. Founder of Sideline Collective.

Kati heads up digital media and publishing at the Victoria and Albert Museum, managing a team that works in technology, design and content. She’s responsible for the brand and user experience of the V&A’s digital estate and oversees content commissioning and production across digital and print. Since graduating from the V&A/Royal College of Art history of design Masters programme, Kati has specialised in content and communications, with experience in brand, PR, marketing and digital media. Over the past 20 years, she has worked with a number of design-led organisations, from non-profits like the Design Council and design charity the Sorrell Foundation, to high-end retailers SCP and Vitsoe. Passionate about user-centred design, content and the digital realm, Kati has worked on award winning digital products and services, is a mentor and coach and regularly speaks at international conferences.

Louise is Creative Director at Clear Channel responsible for inspiring, driving and delivering the most creative OOH ideas and executions for clients and agencies. An OOH expert with 13 years in the industry under her belt, she joined Clear Channel 5 years ago as Sales director working on super premium digital product, Storm. Louise is an enthusiastic fledgling skier and wakeboarder with a flare for baking. Prior to joining Clear Channel, Louise’s career in media spanned press, cinema and outdoor with various roles at the Telegraph, DCM and Primesight.

Matthew leads the brand marketing team at Audible UK. Responsible for growing the business by increasing brand awareness, perceptions and demand, he owns all aspects of advertising, creative, brand, social, agency management and creative research. Highlights include significant growth of Audible’s brand and business via some great campaigns, leading some lovely and talented colleagues and once chatting to Thomas Turgoose in the lunch queue. Prior to Audible, Matthew led the Marketing team at D&AD, championing the very best in global advertising and design. Before that he led brand & creative at PayPal across Europe, Middle East and Africa and spent his early career working at a then-fledgling new company called “eBay”. When not working, he spends his time in his loft, playing various musical instruments with questionable talent.

Paul is an award winning designer and creative director based in London. He's worked with some of the worlds biggest brand behemoths, SMEs and start up disruptors over the last 20 years, defining and creating numerous identity programmes for clients such as O2, Shell, Unilever, Heal’s, Mulberry, London Design Festival and Royal Academy. With a passion for beautiful, compelling ideas manifesting across multiple channels, his work spans a spectrum of disciplines including branding, environmental design, packaging and digital. Prior to his current Creative Director role at Superunion he worked at various design agencies including Pentagram, The Partners, Hat-trick and Lippa Pearce as well as co-founding his own studio Shaw+Skerm. A strong believer in the power of creativity to help business change, he has an unswerving talent to inspire and surprise.

Sarah is an Associate Creative Director at Mcgarrybowen, London. She has been in the industry for over 10 years, with 6 years spent at BBH learning from some of the industry’s finest. Sarah enjoys working across a huge roster of clients, and has created work she is proud of for a wide range of brands including Mothercare, Mentos, DAZN, Tesco, and Virgin Media. Sarah has won industry accolades for her work, as well as starting a movement or two, and she is also currently named as one of Pitch Magazine’s 100 Superwomen.

I am a Senior Freelance Creative Artworker who has been lucky enough to work for many internationally renowned advertising agencies. I have had the pleasure of working on numerous projects, in London and The U.S., and I am firm believer that hard work eventually pays off.

Zoë is an integrated creative and lover of big, impactful ideas full of imagination and insight. With over ten years in the industry, she’s worked on everything from integrated global campaigns, to branding, to experiential activations, for clients such as Cadbury, De Beers Jewellers, Cartoon Network, Kate Spade, EA Sports and Bookatable. Highlights have been branding a fictitious boyband, set-designing a haunted mansion for Scooby-Doo and opening a shop where customers could only pay for items with words.

Andy is a Founder, Creative Partner and Innovation Director @ Work Club. He's passionate about the Internet as a power source for business and social change. Recent projects include The 'McLaren Pitwall' which mixes live data from an F1 car, pit lane chatter and Facebook creating up-to-the-micro-second status updates, A live animated Tattoo and the D&AD White Pencil. A prominent member of institutions championing creativity such as the Creative Social and a mentor for The Marketing Academy, Andy is a regular speaker on advertising futures. Andy is already embedded within D&AD helping guide digital vision, new blood, and recently as foreman for the Digital Design jury. Previously he was CD @ Agency Republic, a TV channel brander, designer, game designer, 3D animator and originally an illustrator who got frustrated that his airbrush did not have 'cmd z'. You can follow him on the streets of South London or @sandoz.

Beta is a freelance Snr Product Designer with over 12 years experience designing within in-house teams and agencies. Originally from Sydney, now working and living in London. Experienced in enterprise level projects. Started as a digital native visual designer and morphing through the years into a UI designer with a strong UX lean. Using user research and data to inform design. Projects include: Farfetch, The White Company, The Modist, Abcam, Timberland, Evans Cycles A mentor for Ladies, wine & Design - London

Cheryl is a creative/ design director leading the art department within the Guardian's branded content department. She has 20 years of creative industry experience in both Sydney and London.

Gemma is a Head of Design for Everyday Banking at Barclays, leading a team of digital designers and overseeing core journey experiences for all segments of customer. She plays a key role in pivoting the bank’s mindset to put customer research, insight and design at the heart of every proposition and financial service. Gemma is passionate about understanding how unexpected changes in circumstances and our emotional states effect our judgement and decision making on money. Vulnerability exists in all types of people and doesn’t discriminate based on the size of your bank balance, Gemma is keen to drive empathy and understanding of human conditions and behaviours to help transform the way the bank supports its customers. Gemma has 18 years commercial experience, crafting delightful and award winning user experiences. Prior to Barclays, she also led design teams at the BBC and worked across Sport, CBBC, CBeebies and Bitesize.

Melodie Hoke is a digital product design lead, who crafts forward-thinking experiences that are as seamless as they are delightful for customers to use. Throughout the course of her career she's worked in her native Chicago and here in London, at agencies including Proximity, The BIO Agency and now Publicis Sapient. Outside of office hours, Melodie has volunteered as a mentor with Flipside and Who's Your Momma, helping new diverse talent to thrive as they break into the industry. Melodie's work has been recognised with a variety of awards, and in 2018 she was honoured with a place on The Drum's '50 Under 30' list.

Rob is the Head of Design Research at Barclays bank. He leads a team of researchers, delivering key customer insights to product teams creating award winning digital experiences for over 25 million Barclays customers. He is passionate about putting customers first, championing user-centred design thinking and practice; while building digital experiences to help transform the second oldest brand in the UK. He has led multiple design teams at Barclays, working across many different products and services and building the Barclays internal design system. He has over 20 years commercial experience, delivering compelling customer focused digital experiences for major brands across global markets, prior to Barclays, he lead international design teams at Nokia and Microsoft

Having carried out research for brands such as Nike, Google & the BBC for over a decade, Tarik co-founded ON ROAD in 2017. Applying Tarik's anthropological approach to problem solving, ON ROAD uses its access to culture and communities to build networks of exchange between brands and real people.

Ben is a designer and CEO at Public Digital which helps governments and large organisations around the world adapt to the internet era. He's a Royal Designer for Industry, the first ever for Service Design. He has won a D&AD Black Pencil, the Design Museum's Design of the Year and been inducted into the Design Week Hall of Fame. He's a Governor of University of the Arts London, a member of the HS2 Design Panel and an advisor to the London Design Festival. Previously Ben was Group Design Director at the Co-op, Director of Design at the Government Digital Service and Design Director at Wieden + Kennedy London. He co-founded Newspaper Club which he exited after a sale in 2015.

Clara is an intrepid designer, inventor and creative director committed to enriching the lives of people through hopeful product innovation. Whether this means helping the elderly to engage with technology, reimagining the playground, or devising systems that help us focus on the present, Clara’s concepts bring empathy, optimism and clarity to where society needs it. The daughter of a mechanical engineer and a fashion boutique owner, she studied industrial design in Italy before setting up her own fashion label in Berlin, only to get back into design engineering a few years later, this time in London. Consequently, her design method is defined by an unparalleled ability to integrate seemingly disparate realms and elements: art and engineering, purpose and aestheticism, the physical and the digital. When she’s not the colourful and multifaceted co-founder and creative director of Special Projects, Clara is a spirited design-thinking speaker and visiting senior lecturer at the Royal College of Art and at Queen Mary University of London and a faculty member of Oxford University Said Business School OSLP.

I'm Head of Creative at BFerraz Agency based in Sao Paulo leading all the creative work in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Before that, I was Creative Director at Africa Advertising and Associate Creative Director at R/GA. I also was Senior Art Director of BBH Brazil, DDB Brazil, AgênciaClick Isobar and Associate Creative Director in Garage Interactive Marketing and Sinc Digital. I worked for brands such as YouTube, Google, Waze, Next Bank, Coca-Cola, TIM Telecom and Bradesco Bank, Vivo Telecom, FIAT, Renault, LG, Diageo, Ab InBev, ESPN and Mentos. I've collected more than 70 awards, including Cannes, D&AD, El Ojo, Effie, Fiap, Wave, Sinos, Cristal, Mobile Marketing Association, Creative Club of Sao Paulo and publications on Lürzer's Archive and Shots Magazine. I was a founder of 3D Cine, the first stereoscopic 3D cine in the country and in 2008 was invited by Microsoft to Artists in Residence Program, in Redmond, where I created projects using technology. I did my post grad studies of business administration at ESPM and I also teach art direction at Cuca Advertising School. I really believe this is the way to give back to future generations in advertising what I've learned so far in the business. I was jury member of NY Festivals, Effie Awards, Clio Health, Prêmio Abradi (Brazilian Digital Awards), Ampro Globes Awards and I represented Brazil as final jury on Ad Stars Awards in South Korea.

Gloria started her journey as Digital Designer at We Are Social Milano in Italy, to quickly discover her love for the Entertainment industry. She then moved to London to work for the BBC as Digital Art Director and Creative, originating and delivering digital campaigns for the broadcast’s series and documentaries. She is now Digital Creative Manager at Universal Pictures International working on online advertising campaigns for the studio’s films across EMEA, LATAM and APAC countries. Gloria is also one of the hosts of Ladies, Wine & Design London, a non-profit global organisation that aims to empower women in the creative industry through meet-ups networking, and themed events. She likes to learn a new thing every month.

Helen is Design Director of the award-winning digital product studio ustwo. There she leads a hugely talented team of product and service designers across the London, Lisbon and Tokyo studios. With over 20 years of experience designing innovative digital experiences across sectors, she has always been motivated to create impactful work that not only resonates with audiences but helps move businesses forward with confidence in their future. Her work has received industry-wide recognition and she has served on a number of juries, including Cannes, D&AD, Creative Circle and BIMA. She has always believed diversity of thought creates the strongest ideas and throughout her career, she has been involved in lecturing and mentoring new talent within digital design. She sits on the advisory board for Creative equals and Flipside - an education programme that supports underrepresented groups from East London enter the industry.

Karen is responsible for developing VMLY&R’s CX capability in the EMEA region and growing clients’ engagement. She drives the creation of world-class consumer engagement experiences and platforms at the intersection of technology, creativity and culture to create connected brands. With 15+ years’ experience across every sector, Karen has led world-class brands and organisations forwards from both a strategic and implementation perspective, weaving together ideas and people in a politically agile way to gain momentum, both outwardly as a brand and inwardly as an effective organisation. She previously held roles as Head of Innovation at Adam&EveDDB and Global Client Lead at AKQA. She is also the founder of tech startup THEI.A Cognition. Karen was winner of the IPA’s 2016 Women of Tomorrow awards in Tech & Innovation, named as one Google’s ‘Top 10 Female Creatives to Watch for 2017, 2018 and 2019, named on the Global Top 100 of the Drum’s Most Influential Digerati of the last decade and one of the Drum's ‘Top 25 from the last 25 years’ Women shaping digital 2019.

Nick Ritchie is a Principal designer in the BBC's UX&D team.

Senior UI Designer at Karamarama. I'm more of a product designer, with skills ranging from UX & UI. I focus on the overall experience of products and like to push the boundaries to create new and engaging experiences for the end user. I've worked on business transformation projects for launching new train operators, asset management companies, start ups as well as B2B Telecom delivery programmes.

Steve is Head of User Experience and Design at the BBC. With a portfolio ranging from Radio & Music to BBC iPlayer, Steve is responsible for crafting experiences that resonate with audiences wherever they find them and keep people coming back for more.

Fletcher+Edwards love to help businesses look their very best, by providing creative and strategic direction for all things branded. Before founding Fletcher+Edwards in 2006, I worked predominantly at Interbrand as a Director. With over 25 years of experience, I have led creative development for many major clients including Barclays and Marks & Spencer and have been awarded a D&AD gold and Design Effectiveness awards. More recently, I have created brand identities for a fascinating range of new businesses as well as consulting for more established companies who want to keep their brands fresh.

James joined Karmarama in 2016 as a Creative Director, leading Autotrader, Kenco, Confused.com and the multi-award winning Army account. Prior to joining Karmarama, James worked at McCann London for ten years, creating famous campaigns for Shredded Wheat, Subway, The Wimbledon Championships and Bisto. James’ passion and eye for art direction has gained him recognition over the years from numerous industry awards, including five prestigious Cannes Lions for 2019's Army campaign.

As a Senior Designer at Williams Murray Hamm, Jane has recently led the rebrand of British jewellers Hirsh London, designed campaigns for Network Rail and created the identity of a new single malt collection from Chivas Brothers.    Jane is also a published book jacket designer, following a stint working on commissions for Harper Collins before following a full-time career in Branding, eventually working for The Partners and Williams Murray Hamm. Past and present clients include: Arte, Chivas Brothers, Network Rail, and Schillings among many others.   Jane regularly undertakes folio reviews for the placement scheme at WMH; giving guidance to under-grads, graduates and D&AD shift mentees. Jane is also a judge for New Blood and mentoring through Kerning the Gap this year.

Mark Nichols Design Director Taxi Studio An experienced multi-disciplinary designer with experience across a variety of sectors and an active desire to support the next creative generation. Mark thrives in taking a small gem of an idea and expanding this across all touchpoints to create exciting wider brand expressions.

As Research & Strategy Director at Tangent, I lead the strategy team across the agency's brand portfolio. My role sees me working closely with the experience design team to define and develop digital solutions that meet both business requirements and customer needs. From client workshops and competitive analysis to customer interviews and user testing, I help deliver customer experiences that have been tested and proven to work.

A graduate of Architecture & Interiors from the Royal College of Art, Nick began his career working for some of the world’s leading architects, such as Richard Rogers, Eva Jiricna, FAT, and ORMS. After searching for a company that embraced design and communications in a more integrated way, he instead opted to do it himself and founded ODD with Simon Glover in 2002. As the agency’s ECD, Nick has overseen the creative output of some of the world’s best-loved fashion and lifestyle brands including Dr. Martens, Marks & Spencer, Benefit, Primark, Uniqlo, Levi's and Lacoste.

I’m a brand-led digital experience Design Director. I’m known for my passion towards big picture ideas followed through by detailed execution and the sweet-spot where innovative user experiences are backed by real storytelling and creative technology. I’ve worked with some award-winning clients from Aggreko, BBC to British Gas. In the past years I’ve partnered with places such as D&AD and LCC to help new graduates get their first break in the industry under our RAW Academy internship program. In my spare time, I’m painting my selfies, watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and trying my hand at ceramics. Talk to me if you’re into design systems and seeing diversity and equality in our industry.

I’m a design leader and creative director with a love for building companies, brands and products that disrupt traditional models of business and have delightful customer experiences. I’m excited by ideas that are delivered using digital technology, solve a real pain point and give people who use the product or service an unforgettably great experience.

Becky gets tetchy when asked how long she’s worked in the world of advertising but it’s more than twenty years. She trained in graphic design but quickly fell in love with the digital world, winning her first Grand Prix for a digital campaign in 1999. Becky has led creative teams in both London and Paris (where she became overly fond of cheese) for Digitas, FullSix Group and DLKW Lowe, and has worked in just about every industry sector, with legions of happy clients. Becky joined Mindshare UK in 2015, and is their first Creative Director.

Giulia Camilla Braga is Program Manager of the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate (C4C) global partnership program and Communications Officer in the Advocacy & Campaigns unit. A communications professional passionate about the role of storytelling and visual media in creating a better world, Giulia has international experience in development communication, global advocacy campaigns, youth engagement, public-private partnerships, donor and stakeholder engagement. She leads the creative production and strategic communication of high-profile international projects and events, such as the “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home” public art projection at the Vatican and the “#All4TheGreen” series of 80+ events during the Italian G7 Presidency. An Italian national, Giulia has extensive work experience working with international organizations, academia, donors, governments, NGOs, and the private sector in Europe and North America.

With over 18 years’ experience in the creative industry, Harvey has worked both within brands and across a wide variety of agencies. From global consumer brand communications to crafting start-up strategy; Harvey brings his depth and breadth of experience to produce engaging work that turns heads and changes perceptions. Working with brands ranging from Adidas to Diagio, Tommy Hilfiger to Sky, Fifa to Honda. Now a working at Futerra, Harvey has the opportunity to manifest the ethic of Design for Good. A belief where creatives have a duty to use our creative power to shift mindsets and to encourage positive cultural change. Always asking the question "Does this make us better?”.

Jade is a Creative Adventurer who's since graduating from St. Martins in 2008 worked for advertising giant Bartle Bogle Hegarty to Cx boutique Hugo & Cat. With 10 years of diverse creative industry experience across a range of lifestyle brands from Sony, Starbucks, Levi’s, Ford Mustang to Burberry. She found her home last year where she could build a hybrid of ideas, story-telling and creative innovation at Total Experience Agency Tribal Worldwide London, DDB where she joined the leadership team as Creative Director. She has maintained her belief in the value of creativity through the Information & Connected Age. In 2015 her passion and curiosity led to her side hustle CreativeAdventur.es where she runs a Journal & Workshop series for modern founders and young go-getters. Jade was Campaign’s Faces to Watch in 2009, selected for Cannes Lion ‘See It Be It’ programme 2016 and named Creative Equals & Campaign’s ‘30 Future Female Leaders’ in 2017 and one of Campaign's ‘Trailblazers of the Future’ at the end of 2018. She is also a proud Judge and mentor in the industry from D&AD New Blood, Academy & Shift Programme to Creative Mentor Network, The Dots Masterclasses to SheSays Who’sYourMomma mentor.

Despite a degree in biochemistry and a family hell bent on her becoming a doctor. Katie found her way into advertising through work experience at CDP over 20 years ago. No career advisor had ever told her that jobs existed where you could simultaneously use your left and right brain and Katie was sold. She worked at Saatchi & Saatchi and BBH, before arriving at Leo Burnett where she worked on McDonald’s, Homebase and COI before becoming Marketing Director and latterly Managing Director. She left big agency world fascinated by the world of small, ambitious start ups with a different offering and perspective on the world. She was Gravity Road's first Managing Director, helping to grow and structure the business as it became a respected independent agency. She then worked at Sunshine. She had a disastrous 21 days at Y&R before it merged with VML but never have the words 'everything happens for a reason' been truer because Katie is now CEO of Lucky Generals. Probably the best job in the world.

Lee is currently global creative director at Spark44, the position he has held for 2 years now, concentrating on the creative and design output for Jaguar / Land Rover. Lee arrived from Y&R where he was design director on a wide portfolio of clients. He helped raise the creative profile of the agency, overseeing all traditional and digital design output and worked on winning pitches for BBC, Chanel, Premier League, Marks & Spencer, Virgin Atlantic and Land Rover, for which he won numerous accolades for craft: including 'Land Rover Passport', the most awarded print ad of 2011. He has also won an impressive array of awards over the years at Cannes, D&AD, Campaign Big, Clios and Epica, for Oxfam, Randolph Engineering and the Royal British Legion.

Lisa Berenson is a creative director, copywriter and content strategist with 13 years of experience working in advertising and technology. She has worked at Isobar, adam&eveDDB, pd3, Google, Phantom and currently works at Facebook. She teaches advertising at Central Saint Martins. And likes to run digital activism projects when she's not using her words for work, including environmental campaigns "Flood the Streets" and "Vote for Climate or Die."

Naresh Ramchandani is a writer, partner at Pentagram and co-founder of environmental non-profit Do The Green Thing. In 1990, one of the first commercials he wrote - for Maxell cassettes - won the best ad in the world at Cannes. In 1995 he co-founded and creative directed London’s only co-operative agency St Luke’s which became the UK’s Agency of The Year in 1999. In 1997 he created the Chuck Out Your Chintz campaign that put IKEA on the British map and into the British living room. In 2003, Naresh was part of a team that created the Make Tea Not War poster for the anti-Iraq war march that featured on the front page of the Sunday Times and was showcased in the Economist and V&A but failed to prevent an unjust war. Between 2005 and 2008, Naresh wrote over 60 columns for The Guardian on the subject of consumer engagement, turning his attention to political parties, cars, phones, televisions, airlines, festivals, retailers, soft drinks, television channels, charities and practitioners of commercial sustainability and how they can best engage consumers in this day and age. In 2007 Naresh co-founded Green Thing, the creativity-versus-climate-change charity that has inspired more than 50m people in 200 countries to live a greener life, taking on many traditions and institutions in the process. As a result, Naresh penned the creativity-versus-climate change talk that featured in TED 2008, has run green communication workshops at Tate and RCA and has spoken at The Houses of Parliament, Oxford University and around the world. Naresh joined Pentagram design in 2011 where he has created campaigns for YouTube, Google, Saks Fifth Avenue, Landmark in Hong Kong, University of Sussex and others, and his given talks about sustainability, his favourite words and his own (mediocre) attempts at music.

Creative Lead at DraftLine London

William Skeaping is an activist with Extinction Rebellion. With a background in Art History, he started something like a career as an early employee at Google UK, leaving to join Lex Records as label manager and A&R, working in London and NYC to take specialist content projects to the mainstream. Developing brand-funded collaborations with rappers like MF DOOM and graphic novelist Alan Moore led to creative and brand strategy roles with start-ups, a tour of duty in advertising at McCann London before going freelance (with a side-gig composing soundtracks for fashion films). Will briefly tried to escape from the climate and ecological crisis by moving to Copenhagen and developing his own online video series exploring the bookshelves and artefacts of the world's most interesting people... but came rushing back to the UK for the launch of XR, immediately going full-time. He is currently working in XR's media & messaging team and with spin-off projects including Culture Declares Emergency and a recent challenge to the advertising industry. He co-edited of Extinction Rebellion's best-selling handbook 'This Is Not A Drill' (Penguin) and is currently working on a sequel.

“You’re from Enfield. You should be putting up the adverts, not writing them” said Andy’s Mum, many moons ago. Eventually advertising found a place for Andy. That place happened to be DDB during one of its golden eras. He played absolutely no role in the agency’s greatness, but created work he and his VW, Walkers and Marmite clients still love to this day. Soon after Fallon set up in London and made Andy its first creative. Whilst there he wrote populist work for the BBC, Skoda, Sony and Timex. This time however playing an integral part in creating a golden era for the agency. He later moved on to what became his spiritual home - Mother. Where he worked on Stella Artois, Coca Cola and managed to grow and win - awards, plaudits, effectiveness, you name it he won it. The “dehydrated-noodle-double” being a particular highlight when he managed to create iconic work for both Pot Noodle AND Supernoodles. All the while creating work that made himself proud, his Mum smile and Britain think again. His next step across London was to become ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi. Where he worked on HSBC, Direct Line, Visa, Toyota, Carlsberg and many others. He famously launched the new brand EE after the merger of Orange and T-Mobile. Since late 2017 Andy has been the CCO of TBWA\London. As part of a new leadership team tasked with bringing The Disruption Company back with a bang. During his time, he’s won 19 pencils at D&AD, except the award he’s most proud of is this recognition from his Mum: “I hate adverts. Apart from the adverts Andy does” she said very recently.

My earliest memory of being creative was when my mum allowed me and my brother to name her new hairdressing salon. We spent weeks drawing logo's coming up with ideas. We called it 'Max Headroom' after our favorite TV show character. Mum approved the name and 'my' logo and I still think it's one of the best things I've ever made. I moved to London when I was 18 with no job, no money and no qualifications to show from a college or university, but a natural flair for creating visuals, graphics, photography and film. I (luckily) got a job working for D&AD for a few years as an awards co-ordinator. That was my apprenticeship. 15 years later, I've married, had 5 beautiful daughters, and try to live a balanced life of love and laughter next to the sea. I've worked with global brands on global projects. We've worked for charities for nothing. I like to use creativity as a problem solver, to help grow someones business, or their belief. I try, whenever possible, to keep things simple. Specialties: Art Direction / Film / Animation / Graphics / Fatherhood.

I’m Emily Yates, a 28-year-old, pink-haired wheelchair user with a Yorkshire accent that just seems to be getting stronger, the further away from my hometown I move. I work for Enhance the UK, a user-led disability awareness charity. Our core team is made up of a bunch of strong, brilliant and beautiful women I wish I’d had in my phonebook when I was 15, and laying in bed at night terrified about how I would navigate sex and relationships as a disabled person. Enhance the UK provides disability awareness training, British Sign Language workshops and accessibility audits to businesses and organisations all over the UK and further afield. As a user-led charity, all of our trainers have impairments themselves. As well as training, we focus on the sexual rights and responsibilities of disabled people. Disabled women are three times as likely as their non-disabled peers to be sexually abused, and sex education in schools is still far from inclusive. We set up the 'Undressing Disability' campaign to support disabled people in having romantic lives that are both safe and fulfilling, and we do this by providing free resources, giving talks at relevant conferences and events, and running our Love Lounge, a Q and A forum that encourages disabled people and their loved ones to write in (anonymously, if they wish) with any questions surrounding love, sex, dating and relationships. We call ourselves the ‘non-expert sexperts’ and if we don’t know the answer, we’ll find someone that does! Until we are all able to have safe, fun and fulfilling romantic relationships, there’s plenty for us to be getting on with.

Ete is the CEO of ENGINE Creative, the creative pillar of ENGINE – a full stack creative and consultancy offering designed to help organisations navigate disruption and thrive in the future. With over 15 years’ experience working at some of the UK’s top digital agencies including AnalogFolk, AKQA, Tribal DDB, Modem Media (Digitas) and SixandCo; He’s gained experience across varying sectors from Financial Services, to Technology, Retail, Health, FMCG and Automotive; leading and working across innovative and award-winning projects ranging from global digital campaigns to business transformation, as well as digital products, platforms and services. Away from ENGINE, Ete is also co-founder of WeAreStripes and CultureHeroes, both are initiatives whose missions are to create opportunities for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) talent, across the creative industries. A Drum Digerati “Top 100 people in UK Digital” 2017 and 2018 Alumni, Ete was recognised in the BIMA 100 in 2017, 2018 and 2019; in Creative Pool’s ‘Top 100 Influencers’ 2018 and 2019; also Campaign Magazines 'Top 10 Trailblazers’ in 2017 and 2018.

1979: Born in Croydon. Chances of never leaving and getting a regrettable tattoo statistically high. 2000: Actually left Croydon for the glamour and bright lights of Stoke. 2003: Left Stoke Uni with a Graphic Design degree for the equally glamorous Watford. And had an amazing year learning from the legendary Tony Cunningham. 2005-06: Placements at DDB, TBWA, CHI and Rainey Kelly. 2006-11: Hired by Trevor Beattie at BMB. Watched it grow from six people to a hundred people in a great and highly beneficial five years (Plus I met my wife there.) Left because I wanted to try something new. 2011-13: I freelanced as the ACD at Saint, then as a senior creative at RKCR and Grey London. 2013-17: I worked as a senior creative at Grey London. I lead the Scope and Jacobs accounts with Lex Down and together we wrote award-winning work for Bose, HSBC, the Tate and The Times. 2017-18: I spent 18 months as both the Creative Head of Youth and a Creative Director at BBC Creative. I oversaw a remake of Perfect Day for BBC Three and the launch of BBC Sounds. 2019: I’m currently at AMV, in a partnership with award-winning creative, Prabs Wignarajah. I write in my spare time and am on the second draft of a screenplay about the world’s most useless football hooligans. I also have a couple of children books that I’m working on with my wife. And in case you were wondering, I never did get a regrettable tattoo, but there’s still time.

After 15 years in advertising Julie flipped over to the other side, joining Facebook & Instagram as Creative Strategist. As part of the Creative Shop team Julie helps brands, ad agencies and media agencies to make the best possible creative work for the platforms through consultancy and co-creation. Julie is also a huge proponent of diversity initiatives and feminism, and is disabled, using a wheelchair or walking stick much of the time. She judges many awards, hosts, creates, sponsors and speaks at events to help nurture and support minority talent, and writes articles on everything from gender stereotypes in advertising to 'mean girls' in company culture. As a huge fan of New Blood, Julie has spent the last few years scouring the students work and collecting cards with the express desire to give students their first big ad campaign 'break'. In her spare time Julie also writes plays, books and screenplays.

One of The Drum’s 50 under 30 Women in Digital 2017 and a D&AD New Blood Awards judge 2018 & 2019. I am a Senior Conceptual Designer and Art Director that has had much experience being creative lead on global brands; from ideation through to production. I’m currently leading a team for Beauty & Personal Care at Unilever for their in-house creative agency, U-Studio - working on a variety of different projects with AXE/LYNX, Rexona/Sure, Dove, TRESemmé, Love, Beauty & Planet and more... recently creative leading on Simple skincare social. I'm also working on non-beauty brands too - including social content for both Magnum and Surf (predominantly storyboarding and art directing). I have also had the role as Keith Weed's Presentation Creative Director. Concepting and designing his Cannes 2018 & LEAD 2019 presentations (his first as President of the Advertising Association) and more - and through this recognition, winning the opportunity to concept and art direct Alan Jope's (Unilever CEO) Cannes 2019 presentation. OTHER SKILLS Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Camera raw. Others: Wacom, Keynote, PowerPoint, MS Office, Mac OS X.

Lynsey is the Executive Creative Director of 4Creative, Channel 4’s in house creative agency, responsible for making risky, innovative and culturally potent work across all Channel 4 brands and services. Prior to being in TV land, Lynsey spent three years as Creative Director at Havas London, in charge of Durex, Carling and Heathrow Airport as well as creating multiple-award winning work for the Department for Education. She moved to this role from Head of Creative at Conde Nast Video (British Vogue, British GQ and WIRED UK), creating films for editorial as well as brands like Burberry, Gucci and Intel – that were awarded Webbys, Lovies and Shots Awards. Lynsey started her career as a designer for Neville Brody before co-founding the printing / publishing company, Ditto. Specialising in counter-culture, the company released titles such as ‘Pigs Disco’, ‘Ninja Turtle Sex Museum’ and 'How to Disappear: A Memoir for Misfits’, which was awarded the prestigious English PEN/Ackerley. She curve-balled into advertising as a creative strategist at BBH – working across high profile entertainment brands such as ITV, Virgin Media and The Guardian – whose brand campaign ‘The Three Little Pigs’ was the UK’s most awarded film in 2012. Lynsey is from the North East of England and studied at Camberwell College of Art in London.

Serafima has been working in communication industry since 2008. She started her career in The Walt Disney company PR department. In 2009 Serafima switched to the agency side and since 2015 she's developing her own PR studio RODNYA. The studio's approach to communication is wider than a set of traditional PR tools: it's developing creative ideas and making them newsworthy. As for now RODNYA is the only PR agency ranked in the national creativity rating of Russia. Serafima is also an independent expert of ICCO (International Communication Consultancy Organisation). Member of WCFA (World Communication Forum Association).

Shane Kerr is the Global Brand Equity Director for Durex at RB. He leads the equity team that are in charge of driving creative excellence and brand identity across the globe. In previous roles in RB, Shane has lead the regional communications and equity team for Scholl footcare. Controlling the companies biggest brand production budget, he worked on multiple new campaigns across segments and a refresh of the global brand footprint and guidelines. He was Europe Business Director for Health leading marketing and comms capability drives across the region. He was also worked on the global Durex team before, leading innovation and equity projects including sex ed, #CondomEmoji and the Someone Like Me youth and World AIDs Day campaigns. Shane started his career in P&G across a number of business and innovation roles on the Pampers brand. Launching the first digital only support model in EU and setting the regional penetration and consumer segmentation drives.

Disabled AF Exploratory Storyteller and Adventurer. Creating relationships, stories, and magic. A Continual WIP. I am an independent consultant, speaker, and writer on Disability, Creativity, and Equitability (characterised by equity or fairness; just and right; fair; reasonable: equitable treatment of all citizens). The igniter of hearts creatively, a South Asian disabled wheelchair user exploratory storyteller and adventurer, I love to create relationships, stories, and magic. Also, I am the award-winning Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of ThisAbility Limited, which is a disability-led equity business. We exist to ignite, invest in, and amplify disabled creativity across the world for a Just tomorrow. With over 30-years lived-experience of disability and over 10-years experience in the creative industries (and deeply invested in working towards disability justice and disability solidarity), I work tirelessly to destabilise the accepted narratives of creativity and disability, changing the culture to make equity the default via disabled creativity. And I am an active (non-optical) intersectional accomplice-in-progress and a continual work-in-progress too, relentlessly and unapologetically.

Abi heads up mobile network giffgaff's collaborative and unique approach to creative production. As Head of Advertising, Abi brings together teams of people to work on a variety of campaigns and media. Having worked with the brand both Agency side (Fallon) and in-house, for the past 5-years she's been able to be part of award winning campaigns for this trailblazing mobile network.

Award-winning Creative Design Lead and Art Director, with over a decade experience, specialising in editorial-led brand development and storytelling. I’m hands-on and strategic in conceptual creative development, art direction and execution, always putting curiosity and a human-centred approach to design and creative at the forefront of each project. My passion lies in distilling complex ideas into simple, beautiful and emotionally engaging creative solutions, working across a variety of industries and expertise, fuelling the potential in people, and collaborating and learning from others. I’m enjoying working on projects that purposefully help shape design and culture, and am a firm believer that an emotional response is the best indicator of truly great craft.

Marek heads up Havas Media Group's Media Futures Unit. He is responsible for making emerging technologies meaningful for HMG's clients and agency teams by keeping them up to date (educate), identifying ways to make emerging tech relevant (inspire) and then testing and scaling (activate). But above all, he is a massive geek who loves exploring how new technologies change our lives and media and marketing.

I am an Aussie creative who began my career at digital agencies in Sydney. Restless and wanting to see more of the world, I moved to London in 2014 and since then have worked on campaigns around the world for brands such as This Girl Can, We Are Undefeatable, Nike, Bvlgari, Nivea, and IBM. I have also been a mentor and speaker for Behance and The Dots during my career. When I’m not busy working, I’m known to be cooking, having a pint or petting doggos (not at the same time).

Rakesh is a Design Director with over 10 years’ digital experience, working across brands including Adidas, KFC, Nissan and Samsung. Performing as both a Designer and Art Director during his career he describes himself as a well rounded, collaborative, digital native, aiming to combine insight, innovation and art, with a focus on digital products, mobile interaction, social and integrated campaigns. As an advocate for diversity and inclusion, he believes that groundbreaking and original thinking can only come through the combination of different experiences to unlock new creative possibilities.

Xavier Rees is CEO of creative agency Havas London and customer engagement agency Havas helia. He joined Havas from adam&eveDDB in 2016, where, as Group Managing Director, he helped lead the agency through its most successful period, including winning Cannes’ coveted global agency of the year accolade. Rees has also worked for BBH, Wunderman, Archibald Ingall Stretton and RMG/JWT, running some of London’s largest accounts including Sony, Volkswagen, Audi, and O2. In 2018, he oversaw Havas London’s certification as a B Corporation – a business that balances purpose and profit, and one legally required to consider the impact of its decisions on employees, customers, suppliers, its community and the environment. He also serves as an ambassador for B Corp UK. He is a devout Crystal Palace fan – one of many afflictions – and obsessively collects music, books and deeply average marathon times.

Adam has a passion for making work that moves people. He works closely with clients to understand their business and their audiences before combining creativity, strategy and instinct to bring to life crafted, effective ideas that live anywhere. Clients include Absolut, BBC, Dr. Martens, MCFC, Mercury Records, Nike, Silver Cross, Tate and U+I.

Alice Tosey is an award winning graphic designer based in London. Since graduating from Kingston University, she has worked at prestigious design studios in London and Tokyo, receiving recognition and awards from D&AD, Design Week and Creative Review. She has worked with clients such as the Royal Mail, the All England Lawn & Tennis Club and Williams Formula One racing and on projects for culture, NGO and educational rebrands. In addition to her practice, Alice is a member of the Typocircle committee, guest tutors at universities in the UK and volunteers as a mentor for Kerning the Gap - a programme who’s aim is to see more diversity in leadership roles in the design industry.

I am an award winning creative director enthused by bringing ideas to people. I've worked across a large variety of industries from technology to automotive, fashion, luxury goods, music and restaurants. Essentially anything interests me if there is the potential to side step the formulaic, challenge accepted norms and develop refreshingly engaging head spaces for humans to inhabit. I work as a sole trader and also with with my wife and my sister-in-law under the name of Studio Bergfors. Studio Bergfors produces top level fashion and lifestyle and branding projects. I also hold a role with Intro as a creative partner who I have been working with for approaching 30 years. My heritage lies within the music industry, producing memorable campaigns across all touch points for bands such as The Prodigy, Depeche Mode, INXS, Robbie Williams and Roni Size, among others. I owned a record label, managed musicians, even played in a few bands. Today, my work is focused on premium brands and fashion, clients including Bowers & Wilkins, Maserati, Huawei, Converse. I thrive on 360 conceptual campaigns, as I believe that the only engaging way to tell a story is to create an in-depth conceptual world for the subject of focus and to inhabit and to allow the intended recipient to explore and discover with being prescriptively preached too. That said I've just produced a complete box set single series for Depeche Mode so music work hasn’t entirely vanished. I'm constantly inspired by developing technologies, but have never forgotten the value of craft. To that end I'm agnostic about process, anything from any era when assembled thoughtfully can create the best result for a concept. Pencils still live in my drawer, VHS, cathode rays all end up somewhere in my laptops storage.

Caterina Bianchini is an award-winning designer and the founder of Studio Nari, London. Caterina’s main focus is creating bespoke fonts for clients with typographic play commanding the work created within the studio. Caterina’s main passion for design is to practice "design as art" drawing the focus away from the do’s and dont’s’ of textbook graphic design, and embodying a more humanist, artistic approach. The studio's work has caught the attention of some of the world's leading brands including, Apple Music, Somerset House, Selfridge & CO, Barbican, Nike and Levi's. Caterina's work has been archived as part of the Scottish Heritage Collections and published in over 100 titles across the world.

Jack Renwick is a multi-award winning designer with a strong passion for ideas. She works closely with clients, getting to the heart of their problem and showing how creative thinking can be the way forward. Jack runs a creative branding agency, wittily titled Jack Renwick Studio, based in Whitechapel, London with 9 designers who are more talented than her. She has worked on a huge variety of projects over the past 20 years for clients including Amnesty International, eBay, BBC, Nokia, Royal Mail, Sir Elton John and Stella McCartney and received recognition from most of the world’s most prestigious awards. Jack originates from Glasgow and is frequently sought out as an awards jury member for her ‘refreshingly frank’ views. She is a Fellow, a board member, an examiner, an advisor, a judge, a writer and a speaker. She is a newly elected Design Trustee on the D&AD Board of Trustees alongside some pretty impressive folk.

Jason Smith is the founder and creative director of Fontsmith, a leading boutique type foundry known for creating fonts with a distinctively human character. Jason studied calligraphy, lettering and signwriting at art college before he went on to work producing lettering styles for consumer brands. Jason quickly established a reputation in typeface design and collaborated with a host of other designers. In 1997, Jason founded Fontsmith – bringing together a truly international team of designers to work from a studio in central London. Fontsmith has a complete font design and production service, a retail library of over 40 typefaces, as well as a long list of bespoke Brandfonts for international brands including UEFA Champions League, Jaguar, Lloyd’s Bank Colgate and ITV.

A high-integrity design professional, passionate about promoting client visibility with efficiency and creative flair. Skilled in ideation and advocating for the user, my expertise has been gained over a diverse career working with organisations large and small, notable names including Google Fonts, Oxford University Press and Public Health England.

LionHeart is a TEDx Speaker, BBC Radio London Presenter, Award Winning Poet and International SpokenWord Performer. Author of debut poetry collection ‘The Mute’s Rebellion’, which excavates memories of social anxiety, selective mutism, upbringing, emotional vulnerability and more. The first Poet in Residence at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery exploring and creating works in response to the art work, pertaining to mental health. The first Poet in Residence at Grimshaw Architects, Squires & Partners, The Building Centre and other firms, exploring Architecture & Poetry's relationship around emotional inhabitance, and its connection to memory and mental health. Guest Speaker at the Royal College of Arts, Squint/Opera and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for their Copenhagen & London offices. Previous Guest Editor for the Wellcome Collection in relation to their ‘Living With Buildings’ exhibition.

Tom Hingston is an established creative director and designer, based in London. Hingston Studio, his creative agency, has won numerous awards, particularly for its work in music. Over the last 22 years Hingston has collaborated extensively with some of the world’s most well-known artists, including Grace Jones, Nick Cave, The Chemical Brothers, The Rolling Stones, U2, Sade, Lady Gaga and Massive Attack. Hingston has also directed three critically acclaimed promos for the late David Bowie. His work outside music spans a wide spectrum of brands from beauty and fashion, to technology and lifestyle, including advertising campaigns for clients such as Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, Lancôme and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Hingston Studio's archive has been exhibited at a number of major galleries and institutions including The Design Museum, The Barbican, the Saatchi Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Tyrone Drake is an established graphic design professional and design educator based in Los Angeles, California. After receiving his B.F.A. from The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Tyrone Drake’s career in graphic design has encompassed a wide range of graphic design, branding, and visual communications related projects with clients in fashion, architecture, music, film, and health and beauty. His collaboration within the entertainment field includes the design of Beatle Ringo Starr’s records Ringo Rama and Choose Love.

Trained in Graphic Design at the UCA in Epsom. Has been working as a Brand Manager in the Global Marketing team at HSBC for the last 10 years.

Co-founder & Creative Director of artist agency Grand Matter. With a background in design, I previously worked as an illustrator creating playful and dynamic pieces for the likes of the V&A, New York Times, Kiehls and Benefit Cosmetics.

Dan Howarth is the head of Art of McCann London. Expanding McCann’s design offering has been key to his role. Since his appointment in 2016 he has helped McCann win multiple awards, including a Cannes Lion Grand Prix in an inaugural category in 2018 for Microsoft’s “Design Lab Originals: Fanchise model”. Prior to McCann, Dan was CD at two of the world’s biggest and most successful branding agencies. With those learnt philosophies in mind he is helping to ensure that branding is becoming an integral part of advertising.

Evi Peeters has over a decade of experience in brand design, which she gained at agencies like Base Design (New York) & Duval Branding. After joining Mirror Mirror in 2016 to help shift their focus to branding, she took on the role of Managing and Design Director as of early 2019. Driven by a critical eye and a clear yet considered aesthetic, she strongly believes the key to great design finds itself in a meticulous focus on crafting a strong narrative and conceptual grounding. Since design is often the ultimate tool for a brand to connect to their audience, she’s passionate about helping clients find their voice and offering them a language to communicate with. Evi has won numerous international and national awards in the field of design and branding.

Heather is a BAFTA winning Executive Producer and Animation Consultant. 'Creativity whether artistic, technical or emotional is the way to finding a brighter future for us all. The greatest power lies at the cross section of all three.' After 20 years, she recently left Aardman Animations to set up her own consultancy to allow her to focus on the part of her work, which she always found the most fulfilling and successful. Collaboration, connection and partnership are the way we all move forward in these uncertain times. Heather spends her time supporting individuals and companies to do exactly this.

Helen Parker is Head of Illustration at Blink Art Helen joined Blink Art just over a year ago to head up the illustration division. She previously worked for 6 years as an art buyer at DDB London and had 2 years living in Paris in between where she learnt embarrassingly little French, but had a baby and ate a lot of cheese. One of the most rewarding parts of her job at Blink Art (apart from getting all the illustrators lots of lovely work) is finding new artists to represent. Helen has launched 5 new artists to Blink Art this year and has two more exciting signings in the pipeline, so watch this space...

Senior Global Brand Manager at HSBC. Visual Designer/Art Director

Lisa is a multi-award winning Creative with over 12 years experience. She has worked as Creative Director at Glamour (Condé Nast) and Art Director of ELLE Collections (Hearst Magazines UK). She currently works as a freelancer specialising in Art Direction, Brand Consulting, Publishing and Event design working with a broad range of clients from Ogilvy to Hardie Grant Books. Her design awards include: 3 DANDAD PENCIL AWARDS - SPD SILVER MEDAL - 2 SPD MERIT AWARDS - BSME RISING STAR, BEST PRINT DESIGNER WINNER - PPA COVER OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST Lisa is highly passionate about helping the next generation of design talent, she has been a guest lecturer at Chelsea College of Art, guest speaker for MA Publishing course at the London College of Communication where she also ran a zine-making workshop, reviewed student work as part of "portfolio surgeries" event for Ladies Wine and Design (London) and DANDAD New Blood, was on a panel discussion calling for greater transparency when discussing topics around money and is a mentor with CMN (Creative Mentor Network) - an organisation helping to navigate greater diversity and inclusion in the creative industries through mentorship.

Owen Davey is an award-winning Illustrator from the UK. He has worked with clients including Google, Facebook, Sony, Lego and National Geographic. He is also the lead illustrator on the multi-award winning app Two Dots and produced many picture books over the years, most notably the non-fiction ‘About’ series with Flying Eye Books, which began with ‘Mad About Monkeys’ in 2015. His numerous books have been published in every continent except Antartica. He won Best of Show and two Silver Awards in the 3x3 Professional Show 2019. CLIENTS Google / Facebook / Pottermore / Sony / AirBnB / Nobrow / TFL / Lego / The Guardian / New York Times / National Geographic / BBC / GQ / Walker Books / British Airways / Virgin / Orange / Guinness / Microsoft & many more ...

EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN, ART & TECHNOLOGY. Creating expressive and dynamic artworks for audio-visual installations, Campaigns, Consumer experiences, digital platforms, and shareable artifacts. Exploring Color, Life, and the Universe through new technology. Creating experiences with a human touch. Connecting to hearts and minds. I'm committed to the pursuit of the new, and driven by the contemporary pulse of art, design, fashion and music.

Aaron is an award-winning writer, director and producer hailing from East London. After graduating in film from Kingston University he went on to found Individualism a leading menswear digital publication. His experience in fashion and digital soon saw him take up a position at MR PORTER running the film department and helping them establish themselves as one of the leading global companies for fashion films and content. He has shot in over 35 countries and across multiple industries. His clients include Levis, Uber, GQ, Topshop, Hyundai, Aston Martin and Adidas to name a few. His comedy shorts have received millions of views online. He has also directed and produced his own award-winning shorts. In 2017 picking up Best Documentary Short for his film London Locks. In 2019 he successfully crowdfunded his own short film, titled The Internship, and film which he wrote, directed and produced.

Candace is a creative brand strategist, digital content and social media consultant, and integrated marketing expert. She is an active member of the Advisory Board of Creative Equals, the organisation working to achieve gender equality and diversity in the creative industries. Candace was the founding member of WPP Stella women’s leadership group, is co-chair of the PRCA Digital Group and is on the VidCon London Advisory Board. She is a blogger, podcaster, a frequent speaker at industry conferences and Ignite shows and a licensed Mudlark. She has been on the jury for D&AD New Blood Awards (2020, 2019) and many other shows, including president of the Glass and the PR jury for Dubai Lynx 2019, the Cannes Lions Lions PR jury in 2018 and has been on the jury for the Cannes Lions Young Lions program for the last six years. Candace was the Director of Social Media for Hill+Knowlton Strategies for 12 years, acting as senior counsel on digital and brand content best practices. She ran the Technology Speculators program for H+K and was honoured to be named as an Innovator 25 by the Holmes Report. Prior to H+K, Candace was a Creative Director at Ogilvy in London and SVP/Creative Director at Digitas in America, managing talented teams of art directors, designers and writers.

Design is everything because everything is designed. At 18, I was told that I should work in graphic design. Over 18 years later I have been fortunate enough to work globally across a variety of categories on both FMCG and corporate brands, from high-end whiskies to everyman beers, from recruitment specialists to snacking leaders. As Growth Strategy Director at Bulletproof, I look for impenetrable ideas; those that create impact in a distinct way for brands to engage with the right people and achieve a competitive advantage to facilitate growth. At the heart of that is the need for a clearer understanding of the context - consumer, category and company - and what the unsatisfied needs are that people have.

After getting her foot in the door at some of the London's top agencies, Hannah has always found it her passion to help others do the same. Since breaking into the industry, Hannah has worked with a plethora of exciting global clients across most sectors to create beautiful 360 campaigns, rebrands, business solutions and exciting experiential. When she's not cracking briefs, she's mentoring fresh talent, cuddling her guinea pigs and getting named as one of the YCC's Badass Gals. Hannah aims to "get jolly well stuck in, look for the unusual in the usual and just create some badass work".

As Creative Lead on the Marketing Team at OnePlus, Jessie is responsible for delivering premium design assets to our growing markets across Europe with a team of designers. She also manages content strategy and art direction on several Europe-wide fully integrated marketing campaigns.

A techie at heart who is always looking at ways to improve and develop. Throughout my career I have had the benefit of having a broad range of roles that have always had technology at the heart of them. Whether it was fixing laptops in the early years and helping support those who needed it, to most recently looking at ways to bring technology to life via the many marketing activities that we take to market.

20+ years in technology marketing with broad experience across advertising, creative development & brand innovation. Passionate about collaboration across teams and industries.

Monty Verdi is Executive Creative Director of VCCP Kin, the agency’s content division. Day to day Verdi oversees the creative output of Kin, working with clients such as O2, Shell, easyJet, Kia, Nationwide, Domino’s, Cadbury and Unilever Monty’s career as an art director and Creative Director spans over 20 years with awards for creativity across every channel, from design, film and print to mobile digital and content. After leaving Central St Martin’s with a Degree in Graphic Design, Monty began his career at Mitchell Patterson Grime Mitchell, creating the first ever TV commercial to feature two men making love on British TV, for the charity RubberStuffers Condoms. In 2004 he joined Leo Burnett London where he created campaigns for Kellogg’s, Shelter, Department for Transport, Miller Genuine Draft, BlackBerry and McDonald’s, winning numerous awards for the McDonald’s Piccadilly Circus Digital Poster including Creative Circle Best Poster. He was promoted to Head of Art in 2008. In 2010 he followed Leo Burnett’s Executive Creative Director Jonathan Burley to CHI & Partners where as Creative Partner he ran a host of the agency’s brands, creating award winning work for the likes of TalkTalk, The Times, Argos, Samsung, and most notably Lexus Europe & Lexus International. The Lexus ‘Hoverboard’ campaign won over ninety awards including Gold, Silver and Bronze Cannes Lions as well as at Campaign Big, Creative Circle, The One Show, Eurobest and Epica. The haul included a Gold Cyber Lion, a Grand Prix for Branded Content and wins in categories as diverse as Product Design, PR, Content and Innovation. In 2017 he became Executive Creative Director of Omnicom Media Group’s content agency Drum, responsible for delivering campaigns for all the agency’s client partners. This included a campaign for Age UK which achieved their highest ever increase in donations and volunteers, producing the most successful social posts ever for McDonald’s and ground-breaking product integration for Porsche in James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke.

Natalie Narh is currently a Social Content Creative at Ogilvy UK. She is especially passionate about creating content that calls to the lack of diversity in advertising as we know it today. She is also Vice-Chair of Ogilvy Roots, a network dedicated to championing greater ethnic and cultural diversity within the advertising industry, our agency and our work. Her creative skill set fall across Graphic Design, 2D Animation, Photography, Videography and Website Development.

Creative Director at Iris Worldwide and co-founder at the award-winning quirky homewares brand ‘The Curious Department’. Working at some of London’s leading agencies, Ross has delivered unexpected creative solutions for global brands including experiential projects, traditional 360 campaigns and fully functioning business ideas. An enthused advocate for ‘unlocking free time’ to generate side hustles and elevate professional skill sets and networks, Ross comes full circle, returning as a Judge to New Blood 2019, on the 11-year anniversary of taking home D&AD’s ‘Best New Blood Award’ as a fresh graduate.

With more than 20 years' experience in the industry and with a passion for embracing and leveraging innovative technologies, Damian has helped realise the vision and commercial objectives of many global businesses though transformative brand experience platforms. While working at agencies including R/GA, Interbrand and Imagination, his client list includes Diageo, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Shell, Mars, Heineken, Nike, Unilever, Samsung, Siemens and Vodafone. Fueled by the pace of change and a constantly shifting brand landscape, Damian focuses on delivering against the unmet needs of the consumer and building effective relationships between brands and their audiences through innovative products and experiences.

Ilka is a Senior Art Director at Facebook London. Prior to this, she worked at several well-known advertising agencies, including Ogilvy UK, ALMAP BBDO, JWThompson, Lew'Lara TBWA and Africa Agency (Brazil). Ilka has worked for clients such as Dove, Vodafone, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, Instagram and Sipsmith. Her work has won ad industry awards: Cannes, Clio, D&AD, LIA, Thinkboxes, ElOjo, amongst others. She's also a Pinterest enthusiast with more than 300k followers.

Lucy Steele graduated from Bournemouth University with a BA Hons in Advertising & Marketing Communications back in 2006. Starting her career in Account Management at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, she was lucky enough to work on some amazing brands such as Google, Axe, Heineken, British Airways and on a number of award winning projects, growing her passion for creativity and business. In 2015 an opportunity arose to join the global brand communications team at Bacardi and she now works as the global advertising director on MARTINI. In her spare time, when she’s not filling her class with a MARTINI Fiero & tonic, she can be found running around SW London training for various running events, riding her bike or jumping on a plane somewhere.

I'm a Creative Director at MediaMonks London

Over 25 years of experience in Advertising, Creative Communications, Publishing & Broadcast, working at Saatchi & Saatchi, Channel 4, BBH London, News UK/News International & now Bacardi. D&AD Pencil for 'Most Awarded Client' runner-up in 2014 and winner of Yellow & Graphite Pencils for various campaigns.

I’m an award winning Creative Director, with 15 years experience, working with London’s leading digital, print and experiential agencies. I graduated in 2003 from Ravensbourne College with a degree in Interaction Design (a combination of Graphic Design, UX, and Motion Design). I began my career with a brief but typographically rewarding stint as a print designer (creating books for clients such as Nike and Motorola), before entering the agency world. I’ve since worked at Imagination London, Glue, LBi London, setting up LBI's Mumbai office, AnalogFolk. Recent years have seen me transition to Creative leadership positions, consulting for Hi Mum Said Dad Amplify and TATA worldwide. I currently reside at Grey Social. I’ve worked across the full breadth of digital creative projects - campaigns, social content, film, websites, apps, experiential, product design. Client brands include Chivas Regal, Plymouth Gin, HSBC, Dulux, Absolut and Google. My work has been recognised by D&AD, New Designers, New York Art Directors Club and, most recently, the Drum Content Awards. During the UK election in May I made creative headlines with AnalogFolk's '10 Downing Tweet – an interactive installation that colourfully showed which parties were getting talked about the most on Twitter. I’ve recently participated on panel talks for Glug London, IAB and D&AD New Blood. I have judged at D&AD and mentor at Ravensbounre and The London College of Arts.

Charlene completed the Watford Advertising Course in 2009, where she partnered with her long suffering copywriter, Dan Morris. Having started their career at BBH, they then made the jump to Droga5 London in 2016. They've now been working together for over 10 years and are creative directors on Barclaycard, Coca Cola and Goose Island. Their experience across a breadth of brands, most notably for St John Ambulance, Axe, Rustlers and Paramount, has had their work recognised at every major award show.

How do you get people to listen, to watch, to click and to share? What will make them laugh, cry, care or connect? These are the questions Dana has been focusing on throughout her career; from her early days creating radio and content at the BBC to her current role leading a team of strategists at VCCP Kin. Dana specialises in Social and Content Strategy and has been helping brands navigate this rapidly evolving landscape at VCCP for almost 6 years. She has worked with some of the UK's best-known brands from O2 and easyJet to Nationwide and Shell.

I’ve always had an innate interest in youth culture with a slant on sport and so I’m fortunate that I get to live out my passion points everyday working for the biggest global sportswear brand in the world. I started in PR and communications, focusing on lifestyle and youth / sneaker culture. Currently in my 6th year at Nike leading all marketing efforts across our women’s business as Brand Director for the UK&I, I’m lucky that affords me the opportunity to touch so many areas of the business. From communications, retail marketing to influence across both performance and lifestyle categories within Nike. Before that I worked in various communication and marketing roles across fashion, photography and publishing sectors.

Gareth is the Executive Creative Director of the world's largest socially-led creative agency We Are Social. As the first ever creative employed by the agency, Gareth has spent 8 years delivering multi-award winning campaigns for brands like adidas, Audi, Guinness and YouTube. In 2018, he co-founded the agency’s first specialist division: We Are Social Sport, with the goal of rewriting the rules of sports marketing. His culturally-led creative work is widely recognised in the industry thanks to iconic campaigns such as Pogba x Stormzy and Tango Squad FC. Gareth is a recognised thought leader in the advertising industry, having spoken at leading events including Festival of Marketing, Social Media Week and D&AD Festival. As a D&AD Masterclass lecturer, Gareth uses his creative expertise to inspire his industry peers. He is also a frequently requested awards judge and mentor.

Gerard is a senior branding building executive with global experience in public relations, digital, social media, brand and cultural strategy. He currently leads the cultural strategy offering at AMV BBDO, the UK's most creative agency. Crichlow, believes brands have a responsibility to use their power to make a positive impact on the world. In this role, he crafts purpose driven brand platforms that are culturally led on behalf of some of the worlds leading brands including: British Telecom, Bacardi, Essity, Snickers, etc. Prior to AMV BBDO, Crichlow led and founded the social media team at Droga5 New York, one of the world's most innovative companies according to Fast Company, where he was involved in crafting the content strategies for: Honey Maid, a 100 year old company that redefined what wholesome is by putting gay, interracial, and blended families in the national spotlight, with the ‘This Is Wholesome’ campaign; and Under Armour who redefined beauty from external reinforcement to internal will, with the ‘I Will What I Want’ campaign. Prior to joining Droga5, Crichlow worked at R/GA New York, an award winning digital design agency, where he developed mobile and social strategies to incite behaviour change on behalf Nike,MasterCard, Google, McCormick, and Capital One amongst others. Prior to R/GA New York, Crichlow worked in public relations for Ruder Finn New York, as an insights specialist, pitching reporters, writing surveys/polls to influence the public to vote, buy or go to places on behalf of governments, CPG organisations and technology startups. In his spare time Crichlow, teaches an online course on cultural strategy on lynda.com, speaks to groups of kids who want to break into advertising and mentors next generation creative talent. Crichlow's personal mission is to use creativity to move humanity and he's dedicated his life to changing perceptions in the media, helping expand young people's view on what creativity can do and having fun along the way.

Previously, Hamish replaced 68 adverts on the London Tube with unbranded pictures of cats, created a digital herd of elephants that raised £50,000 for elephant preservation charities, and in 2015 was elected onto the D&AD board of trustees. Now Creative Director and Founder of design studio Soft Power, collaborating with clients in the Luxury, Fashion and Sports world.

Harris Elliott is a creative director, curator and consultant based in London. Harris is renowned for his international Jamaican-British subculture exhibition and book ‘Return of the Rudeboy' 2014 (Somerset House, with Dean Chalkley) which received over 65,000 visitors then toured to Tokyo. ‘Punk in Translation’ (Japanese punk exhibition) & PROPA TEE which he created with Gorillaz front man Remi Kabaka for M.I.A’s meltdown which also toured to Tokyo. The Harris Elliott Studio DNA, is based on a mantra of Culture Without Compromise - developing and presenting visceral interpretations of untold cultural narratives. Over the past decade the studio has nurtured a consistent visual dialogue with many Japanese brands, galleries and design houses, he also draws heavily on his Jamaican roots so you get the JA attitude mixed with Japanese sensibilities, fusing and sampling culture is an integral aspect of the studio output.

Ian Wharton has served as part of the global creative leadership of design and innovation firms in WPP and Publicis, and is the author of Spark for the Fire: How Youthful Thinking Unlocks Creativity. Over six years at AKQA, Ian built high-performing multidisciplinary teams in two countries representing clients including Volvo Cars, Formula 1, Elton John and Virgin Atlantic, alongside acting on AKQA’s Creative Council and leading its annual student competition Future Lions at Cannes. Previously, Ian was one of four founding partners of technology startup Zolmo, leading the creative for the Apple Design Award-winning apps developed in joint venture with Jamie Oliver, some of the top-grossing, top-rated apps for iPhone and iPad with over 20 million downloads. During that time, Zolmo was honoured by D&AD, The Webby’s and ranked in Design Week’s Top 50 Design Consultancies. Ian graduated best-of-show from university with short animated film Solar (2007), earning a Royal Television Society Award. He later joined visual effects company The Mill as an art director, designing commercials for Audi, EA and game trailers for Sony. He has since been named an Art Directors Club ‘Young Gun’, one of BIMA’s Digital Hot 100, Creativepool’s Top 100 Influencers and Campaign Magazine’s A-List.

Karen Hughes is Co-founder and Creative Director at the recently formed Edit_ Brand Studio, an independent brand consultancy and design studio based in the UK. Previously Creative Director at True North, Karen is an award-winning designer, with over 14 years experience working at two of the top creative agencies in the UK. After graduating from the University of Central Lancashire in 2004 as a D&AD New Blood winner, Karen began her career at The Chase before joining True North six years later. Over the past few years Karen has worked on a wide variety of branding projects for clients including Marks and Spencer, British Council, Sport England, National Portrait Gallery, Science Museum, Wellcome Collection and National Trust. Karen's work has featured in the D&AD annual over a number of years and has also been recognised by many of the major national and international design awards including Design Week, Creative Review, New York Festivals and DBA. Beyond design, Karen enjoys writing; contributing articles and opinions to blogs and magazines including Computer Arts, Design Week and The Guardian's cultural blog. She also continues to support design in education, regularly setting student briefs and participating in talks for universities, colleges and schools through the Inspiring The Future initiative.

Fortunate to have experienced working with some of the worlds most iconic Brands. A creative problem solver who loves applying analytical approaches, whilst leveraging a firm grasp of industry leading digital techniques and new methodologies to collaboratively embed complex solutions within corporations. Currently in my third year at Nike, leading Nike Direct Digital in EMEA West, focused on editorial content & membership / CRM strategy transformation across Nike digital platforms (.com, apps, social, email) and in Nike Direct Stores. I am a Rugby obsessed Brit, who having lived in the USA has an unhealthy penchant for American sports but my life now revolves around my beautiful wife, my daughter and two crazy boys.

Anna Gerber is co-Founder and Creative Director of Peabody Award winning creative agency Visual Editions. Visual Editions is all about telling stories: we bring technology and creativity together, to help brands tell new stories that connect with people emotionally in unexpected ways. We work with partners like Google Creative Lab to make innovative mobile-first books; COS/H&M to create storytelling moments for customers at the busiest shopping time of the year; and Ace Hotel to bring bedtime stories for grownups into hotel rooms. With a background in the very best of publishing and design, Anna understands and adores nothing more than to push boundaries around innovation and storytelling.

As Creative Director, Ben is currently responsible for designing systems and stories for industry leading global brands at R/GA London. Ben’s current remit includes leading the strategic vision and creative output of the Global McDonald’s account and multi award winning Global Happy Meal App, Happy Studio. With 10 years of industry experience leading and designing large scale projects, Ben’s skills are centered on exceptional understanding of systematic thinking, design direction and brand with a background in art direction and storytelling. Ben believes that the only way to create meaningful products and services is through a honest, human centric and well-crafted design approach. Before joining R/GA, Ben served as Design Director at Dare from 2014-2017 working with Aviva, EE, Investec and BMW. Prior to that, Ben worked at Eight Inc. and Digitas LBi where his main client responsibilities included Citi Bank, Avis, ASDA, Lloyds Banking Group and ESPN.

Ben Saul-Garner is an expert at building brands and movements that resonate with todays consumer. His businesses have been featured in the likes of GQ, The Guardian, Tatler, Conde Nast, TimeOut Magazine and The London Metro. In 2019, Attachment was one of the top 40 fast growth startups in the UK and was selected to join The London Mayor’s International Business Programme. Rebel Book Club closed a successful funding round and has started building a team to continue scaling across Europe. Prior to these ventures Ben worked at VCCP (shortlisted as Campaign Magazines Ad Agency of the decade) and sat on the Chime PLC Youth Board, driving change across the group’s portfolio of 54 companies. Away from the office, Ben has channelled his love for adventure hosting a series of five boutique festivals which have taken place across the Sahara Desert and Swedish Archipelago.

Creative partner of the brand design agency, PB Creative.

Katrina Howell, Creative Director at marketing communication agency, Clarity with over two decades experience within the creative and UX sector. I have a pioneering spirit and tenacity in championing projects which connect consumers to brands in powerful and unique ways across multiple screens and devices. Currently oversee creative outputs across all Clarity clients. To help bolster and drive forward the Clarity team’s digital offering and capabilities. Previously working as Creative Director at Red Bee Creative for over a decade leading to award-winning work and culturally defining branded user experiences. Inspired by energy of leading multi-discipline creative teams, made up of UI/UX Designers, Creatives, Motion Designers and Developers. I also enjoy being both a mentor and motivator, whilst still a hands-on conceptual and design practitioner. Previously worked on clients including BBC product portfolio, UKTV, FOX Networks, Nissan, HSBC, Shell and Vodafone, having held roles at Concept!AG, part of Ogilvy Interactive Network and Rmg:connect, part of JWT London. Created and being part of award-winning teams over the years, including recipients of Cannes Lions, Clio’s, Webby awards, NMA, IAB and Promax BDA.

Experienced Content Producer specialising in editorial, video and design in digital spaces. My current role at Penguin encompasses editorial, design, photography, video and audio. I have co-managed 7 websites and outside of work I co-run a successful feminist Doctor Who blog; writing, editing and commissioning guest slots for aspiring writers as well as talking in media appearances. I'm currently undertaking extra work learning about Audiobook Production.

Rich is an Emmy Award-winning Creative Director. A proven creative leader with 20+ years experience building and managing cross-discipline teams, crafting innovative digital products and services for global brands. Rich heads up the London design team at Beyond, managing all aspects of work from concept through to execution for clients including The Royal College of Art, Montblanc and Google. He is actively involved in helping Beyond grow its service offerings, supporting new commercial efforts and growing existing accounts. Rich started his career in the UK, working in London before moving to New York 17 years. He founded his own creative agency in Brooklyn designing and building multi-device, streaming video experiences for media and broadcast clients including Samsung, LG, NBC, Viacom, Comcast, ABC News and Cox. During his tenure, he led design projects of the 2 largest streaming services in India for Viacom 18 and Star, participation TV experiences for Bravo and Showtime and created premium applications for the Comcast X1 set top box, including The Winter Olympics. Other clients include Pfizer, Warner Bros, ABC, Sony and Bloomberg.

Working closely with clients to create design with character and relevance, fulfilling briefs to the letter.

William Smith is a brand, creative and marketing expert who has worked in the publishing industry for over a decade. His specialties include copy, design, content, events and facilitating creative thinking.

Illustrator and art director, Raid71, also known by his alter ego Chris Thornley, always wanted to draw comics. He spent 6 years studying Art and Design, inspired by Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, before realising his dream career as a full time graphic designer and illustrator. His retro illustration style, classic take and detailed line work has charmed brands including Marvel, HSBC, British Transport Police, Xbox, NME, Mercedes-Benz, Disney, Ubisoft & Warner Bros

After levelling up my childhood on the home video games of the 1980's, I discovered a secret warp that transported me to the wondrous kingdom where they are created. Turning down a safe and respectable vocation in banking, I joined Rare in 1989 as a game tester and soon became the company’s first dedicated game designer. Since then, I've worked on and creatively guided a diverse range of games; including the coin-operated arcade version of Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64, Viva Piñata on the Xbox 360, Kinect Sports for the Xbox 360 Kinect sensor and Sea of Thieves for Xbox One and PC. When not daydreaming for a living, I spend my time gardening, exploring the great outdoors and taking on overly ambitious DIY projects.

Helen joined Aardman in 1998 and has worked within all the main production departments. She initially started in the Features Department before moving into series work on Creature Comforts, and over the past 15 years within commercials creating short form animated or interactive content for advertising agencies and third party brands as well as internally with Aardman characters such as Morph and Wallace & Gromit. Notable projects include producing a half hour film ‘The Itch of the Golden Nit’ as part of The Tate Movie Project, a mass participatory outreach project created by and for thousands of children across the UK and the recent series of Morph for Sky. As Head of Commercials and Short Form Production Helen is responsible for the day to day running of the production team to ensure productions are managed efficiently and to the high creative standards expected by the company. Helen is currently producing a half hour special 'Robin Robin' which is due to air Christmas 2020.

3D Experienced Artist in Codemasters, I started playing videogames when I was 4 years old and I have not stopped ever since. Strongly passion driven, after a degree in Economics I switched career by attending the Digital Bros Game Academy that allowed me to start my work experience as an environment artist in Ovosonico, an indie studio in Italy, to then move in Milestone srl where I was in charge of prototyping and world building/design. Women in Games Ambassador and dance teacher in my freetime, feel free to contact me for any questions or advice.

Making beautiful games with lovely people

Inspired by cherished childhood dreams to either design theme parks, chocolate factories or games, I took my first steps into the creative world of game design tinkering on 3D platformers for Nickelodeon, followed by dabbling in third person shooters for Namco, before eventually moving on to creatively steering the popular DiRT series at Codemasters, As a lifelong fan of Rare, I was especially proud to join the studio, first working on the Kinect Sports series, before setting sail in the fantastical world of pirates as part of Sea of Thieves. In my current role, I get to design mechanics, write stories and pretend that dressing up and drinking rum are critical research.

Odin Saillé comes from a long line of culinary chefs and marines, from whom he inherited a need for creative expression (not to mention an unconditional love for food) and a burning desire to see the world. This curious mix propelled him to various locales during his career, most notably New York and Amsterdam. Once he returned to his native country Belgium, he became the Creative Director of digital agency Boondoggle and later switched to DDB where he helped steer the agency to four Agency of the Year awards. With the entrepreneurial bug nibbling at his brain for a number of years, Odin took the leap and founded his own creative agency, Mutant. They're currently working for brands such as Eastpak, UNICEF global and Studio Brussel.

Rosh is Managing Director at UNIT9 a global Innovation Studio. A seasoned leader, passionate about the creative application of technologies for brands, and has been involved in the agency, production and start-up worlds running successful businesses and executing innovative and award winning work for some of the worlds biggest brands. Previous to UNIT9 he ran a record label, sold a business to WPP, started an embedded creative agency at WPP and founded a start-up incubator launching a new visual holographic medium, eco-friendly street furniture and a VR motion platform to the UK. He lives in East London with his wife, whippet Zelda and new-born baby Cassius.

Shay Thompson is a presenter working in the games industry, currently presenting McLaren's Shadowcast, hosting panels and podcasts for Bafta and previously streaming for Xbox UK. Interests include romancing alien squadmates, spending too much time in the character creator and trying to pet all the cats. Shay is also the founder of Level Up Link Up, an event aiming to make the games industry a more diverse place.

Brittney McNamara is an award-winning journalist and editor who has been reporting on issues including health, identity, and sexual assault since 2014. As a newspaper reporter in Massachusetts, Brittney examined in a nationally syndicated series how the opioid crisis impacts women and mothers differently than it does men. In her current role as the Identity Editor at Teen Vogue, Brittney has investigated the #MeToo movement on college campuses, profiled activists and celebrities, and edited the site's prolific content on what it means to be a young person today. She's passionate about both reporting stories that explore the textured lives of women, girls, and non-binary people, and amplifying the voices of those people as they tell their own stories.

Cristina Ljungberg is a Co-founder of The Case For Her, a philanthropic investment portfolio addressing the key women’s health issues of menstruation and female sexual health. Cristina has a Master’s in Biotechnology from Northwestern and an MBA from Dartmouth College and this combined expertise in business and healthcare has propelled her nearly two-decade journey in philanthropy. Before The Case for Her, Cristina spent five years on the Board of Directors for Global Grassroots and established the nonprofit foundation Giving Wings in 2010. In 2016, Cristina became a founding member of the Maverick Collective, an initiative to eliminate extreme poverty created by Population Services International (PSI) in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition to her work with women’s health, Cristina is also a Partner at Influence Film—a foundation, investment firm, and online platform that supports documentary film production. She is also an active board member for the non-profit venture capital firm Acumen and AFRIpads, a manufacturer of reusable, washable sanitary pads.

Hey, I'm Danny a senior creative at Dark Horses, a creative agency that works in the world of sport with brands such as Nissan, Puma and Just Eat. There's often too much talk in the industry, so I'm passionate about getting ideas done, 'less talk, more walk'. I also try to help bridge the gap between the industry and education through the Young Creative Council and more resonantly co-founder of Badass.Gal, a platform that exists to elevate, celebrate and up-skill young female creative talent.

Farah Kabir is the co-founder of HANX – the sexual wellness brand with a feminine side. Devoted to creating a platform that empowers women to take control of their sexual wellness and pleasure without shame or embarrassment, HANX launched in 2017 with its hero product, condoms. Since then, HANX has successfully disrupted the $7.7bn industry with significant growth online and in major retailers such as Boots. Prior to HANX, Farah spent six years working at Goldman Sachs and is a chartered accountant. Farah has spoken about breaking taboos and diversity at Facebook, WPP Stream and General Assembly to name but a few and is passionate about equality.

Creative director / VFX supervisor at Time Based Arts. Man of few words. Or not. Depends. Definitely indecisive.

Fun fact - Over the course of my career I have had the honour of working with incredible artists and amazing talent, including both Jake Gyllenhaal and Dean Gaffney.

Service Designer at SH:24

I'm a Creative Director at McCann London. I began my career at Dare as a copywriter, working on award-winning campaigns for Barclays, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson, while moonlighting as a travel reporter for the BBC (as you do). I moved to McCann in 2007 and have worked across many clients, including Cereal Partners, Mastercard, Premier Foods, L'Oreal, Godiva and Ralph Lauren.

Pieter is a creative at Happiness Brussels, named one of the ten best and bravest agencies on the planet by Contagious. His work was awarded at D&AD, Cannes Lions, Clio, One Show, Webby, in categories like radio, design and everything in between.

Sereena Abbassi the Worldwide Head of Culture & Inclusion at M&C Saatchi Group. Committed to creating organisational transformation that is grounded in creative and strategic thinking. Sereena is an Activist, Public Speaker, Writer and former Visual, Sonic & Performance Artist and she was the Founder of All Here: a social enterprise that connected individuals, brands and agencies; supporting them to think more critically about the world and the work that they create. Sereena has worked with organisations such as Creative Equals and she was one of the few Diversity & Inclusion experts advising the UK Advertising & Media Industry Diversity Taskforce. Last year Sereena was nominated as one of Campaign's 50 Trailblazers of the Future and Stars of 2018, Pitch Magazines 100 Creative Superwomen, and The Dots 100 top Black Creatives. Sereena sits on the advisory board for both The Other Box and Sour Lemons and had previously sat on the board for the Diversity in Marketing and Advertising (DIMA) Summit. Sereena has spoken at D&AD, Campaign 360, The Mill, ICA, Viacom, YCN, and the Oxford Media Convention, to name but a few. She has written for Campaign Live, Communication Arts and The Drum. Sereena is currently working towards a part-time masters in Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy at Goldsmiths, University of London. Sereena is British, Persian-Iranian, Jamaican and has lived and worked in the U.S, the Netherlands, Iran, Spain & UK.

Adrian is an inventor, engineer and experience designer on a mission to make the human-technology interaction meaningful and delightful. As co-founder of Special Projects he harnesses technology, inclusive research and magic thinking to devise design propositions that feel familiar yet wondrous. A self-taught magician since the age of 11 and full member of the Magic Circle, he relentlessly pursues his conviction that “designers should use magic thinking and try to introduce surprise, delight and fuzzy feeling in the things they create.” Through the studio, Adrian has created new product inventions with companies such as Google AI, Samsung, Nokia, BlackBerry, Burton, BBC, and P&G. After becoming the first ever James Dyson Fellow in 2007, and a Fellow of the Royal Commission of 1851, in 2010, for his work on interactive lighting systems, Adrian built a playground in Peru, had whisky with Derren Brown as a student in Bristol, and tried to make his teachers disappear. His contagious passion for magic and engineering made him a beloved tutor and lecturer in Design & Innovation at Queen Mary University and the Royal College of Art in London, and a visiting faculty member at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. There he teaches ‘Magic and Design’, a nomadic workshop where students are introduced to methods of using design and technology to create enchanted products and experiences.

Associate Creative Director in the LEGO® Agency. Anne-Mette has a background as an Art Director with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry. She heads up a creative team in the Global Campaign & Concept Development group in the LEGO Agency. In her 9 years there, Anne-Mette has inspired teams to make courageous creative leaps and ensured that diversity and inclusivity is at the core of creative work.

Regional Creative Director Europe, Dyson Bo is an award-winning creative leader and storyteller with over 20 years experience in advertising, innovation, branding and PR. He helps brands find their narrative and voice and and orchestrate this through content, advertising, experience and performance marketing. He was previously the Executive Creative Director at Edelman, where he led the development of a new creative hybrid model. Earlier in his career he was the Creative Director and board member at DDB in Paris and held the same role at Ogilvy UK. He started his career as a copywriter at Lowe Brindfors in Sweden and also managed a stint at Peter Clemenger/BBDO in Melbourne. He has won and served as a judge for almost every industry award, including the LIA, D&AD, DMA’s, One Show, Clios, Cannes Lions, Lovie Awards. Bo is also a regular industry speaker and has been invited as keynote and panelist at WGSN in London, Cannes Lions in Cannes, Kyoorius in Mumbai, AdStars in Busan, White Square in Minsk, Kinsale in Ireland, Club des DA in Paris, D&AD and many more. He likes to give back and mentors regularly at D&AD, School of Communication Arts, the IPA and is proud to be the President for D&AD New Blood 2020.

Passionate about ALL things creative. As Associate Creative Director @ The LEGO Group I've worked on everything from full campaigns, branding, retail & entertainment, IP partnerships and animation. A member of the EMEA leadership team, responsible for team development, creative education & training and helping support new creative talent. Designer, concept artist, storywriter and illustrator.

Jez is a hands on creative director who leads by example. He has the human touch when it comes to inspiring teams, leading pitches and developing agency culture. And after successful spells in a variety of agencies, he's classed as an experienced, omni-channel thinker who consistently delivers effective creative ideas for brands. Over the years, Jez has picked up a clutch of awards, such as Cannes Lions, MAAs, IPMs, WPPed Creams and a few Chip Shop 'Chips'. His work has inspired and provoked along the way too, including creating an employee benefits brochure that sparked a global Twitter debate. He has always supported New Blood as a mentor and judge in the past and counts helping new talent break into the business as one of the most rewarding parts of his career so far.

Leila Fataar is the founder of Platform13 - founded in August 2017 to answer challenges faced by brands in the ever changing world of creative innovation and the swiftly moving cultural landscape. Her 20 year experience, from her 10 year first youth oriented boutique agency, Spin, a stint at corporate powerhouse Edelman and in-house at both sportswear giant, adidas Originals and drinks heavyweight, Diageo, gives Leila a unique ability to speak entrepreneurial, cultural and corporate fluently, enabling a sometimes new, but always credible conversation between brands and their audiences.

Neil was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied law then began working in advertising in London in the late 1980s. Two years at BBH were followed by eight years at TBWA, running accounts such as Nissan and Cadbury. At TBWA he was promoted to MD, during a period in which the agency topped the new business league and was runner-up ‘Agency of the Year’ three years running.   He joined Wieden+Kennedy London as MD in 2004. He spent two years from 2017- 2018 managing the W+K global network and is currently Director of Growth Markets. In 2019 Wieden+Kennedy was named Agency of The Decade by The Drum. W+K was also Fast Company's 'most innovative company in advertising and marketing' in 2018 and again in 2019.

Shahnaz Ahmed is a Creative Strategist at Facebook & Instagram. She juggles this with being a mum and Founder of Knit Aid, a global social movement that empowers refugees through craft. Shahnaz is a regular speaker at industry events and has won several awards including Creative Equal's and Campaign’s ‘Women to Watch’, was chosen as one of 15 women globally for the Cannes Lions See It Be It programme 2017 and was shortlisted for The Drum’s Creative Woman of the Year 2017.

Creative & copywriter making things happen at MRM McCann

At Fluoro, clean, minimal and bold thinking is what sets us up in world of contemporary culture. Our work speaks as much through what is left out as what is included. This holds true across our broad range of commissions, from high fashion brands and leading sports apparel, to the worlds finest arts institutions. Clients seek us out for our ability to tap into the most relevant creative currents in the fashion, design and premium sectors, and translate them into commercial reality. This is achieved through strategy driven, highly conceptual and experimental design – replacing formulaic signifiers of luxury and glamour with intrigue and attitude.

Will graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2003 and was awarded the inaugural Diageo Scholarship; a year-long paid placement at three of London’s top agencies. This led to a permanent position at BBH London and a desk across the corridor from the legendary Sir John Hegarty. The following year he and his partner, Victoria Daltrey, were named Campaign Magazine’s No1 UK Young Creative Team and went on to create work for Levi’s, Audi, St John Ambulance and British Airways, picking up awards including a D&AD yellow pencil. A stint at Colenso BBDO in New Zealand followed, where he honed his craft under ECD Nick Worthington and made award-winning work in more diverse channels, such as building a giant pinball skate park for Mountain Dew. Today he can be found at Mother London where he's a CD on KFC and Stella Artois, still sitting next to Victoria Daltrey.

Arif Haq is a course leader on the D&AD's 'Art and Science of Ideas' e-learning programme. His previous experience includes Partner at Freud Communications, Founder of the Creative Capabilities practise at Contagious and almost a decade in the Brand Management team at PepsiCo UK/Europe. While at Contagious he developed Heineken’s ‘Creative Leadership’ program, most famous for the Heineken Creative Ladder, a project described by Campaign as, ‘A refreshingly serious approach to the business of creativity’ and by AdAge as having, “helped the brewer scale creative heights, culminating with the 2015 Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year award”. That work has also been featured as a case study by Fast Company and in a number of books including James Hurman's seminal 'The Case for Creativity'.

The personal biog . I'm gain. Have to write something that makes me sound the absolute dog’s bollocks to my peers. Maybe starting with how I’ve completely dominated the world of creativity. Not just advertising or design or digital. But the WHOLE of fucking creativity. Then something about all of the elite accounts I’ve single-handedly bossed. Oh yeah and then the awards. A list of all the silverware I can get away with taking credit for. Then a quick change of pace to something humble, like being a family man or some charity work. Maybe end on an anecdote of the time I did something suuuuuper leftfield while on a project. They won't even see me coming.

A conceptual designer currently working in ad land, London. Currently at VaynerMedia London. Organises industry talks, panels and workshops for the London wing of TheDesignKids, a global network of graduates and creatives hoping to enter the creative industries.

Jo is co-founder and chief client officer at Hope&Glory, one of the UK’s top Independent consumer PR shops. She started the agency with James Gordon-MacIntosh at the end of 2011 having previously worked with him at Omnicom-owned Seventy Seven PR, where she was managing partner. Jo has over twenty five years PR experience, including a long stint at UK consumer agency QBO before it was acquired by Chime Communications in 2001. She started her PR career in Hong Kong before moving to London in the late nineties and has spent her entire career working agency side. Jo still gets a kick out of making sure her clients are happy and ensuring the team are delivering their very best work. Currently she works with clients including IKEA, Uber, Airbnb, O2 and Barclays. She is known as the voice of reason in the Hope&Glory office, and is good at keeping everyone calm under pressure, a skill she attributes to having two very boisterous sons at home.

I'm a dynamic creative leader with over 20 years experience. In recent times I've won a plethora of awards, including a gold Cannes Lion for 'The Not So Beautiful Game' work for NCDV. I regularly speak on panels, podcasts and the like and have been featured in various lists including The Dots 100 Trailblazers, a Young Creative Council’s Badass Gal, a HERoes Top 100 Role Model Women Executives, a Pitch Magazine Superwoman and 40 Over Forty. I have an ambition to affect positive change through disruptive solutions, both within and beyond advertising. I've written and directed short films and co-curated two exhibitions (‘There’s a Good Girl’ and ‘There’s a Good Immigrant’) with a view to encouraging conversations to create change. Almost five years ago I founded the popular, non-profit, event ‘Good Girls Eat Dinner’. The mission is simple: to provide kick ass female role models across the creative industries. Every two months she invites four inspirational women to speak between the courses of a meal, sharing their experience and advice. The event has featured in various press, including Elle magazine. It's the most interesting dinner party you'll ever go to.

Louise is not sure if she should write this in first person or third person. She's been 'working' at Twitter for 4 years (via Sony Music/RCA Records) which really means having fun with extremely talented people creating campaigns to show best of Twitter (& winning some awards along the way). If you put something about cycling in the brief I'll probably vouch for it.

Viv Bowdler is a Creative Strategist at Twitter. After almost five years focusing on brand strategy for Twitter's advertisers she has joined up with the Twitter Marketing team to focus on Twitter's UK consumer campaigns. Viv has created award-winning work for Twitter as well as brands such as TOPSHOP, The British Heart Foundation, The North Face and Burberry.

Designer. Co-founder and creative partner at NB (1997–). 20 years of projects including Mothercare (brand), Museum of London (campaign), Pernod Ricard (packaging), others (too many). Chairman of the Typographic Circle. External examiner on MA branding course at London College of Communication. Previously Pentagram, Roundel, BBC and Maidstone College of Art (1990). Awards: Design Business Assocation, American Art Directors Club, D&AD, Design Week, Drum & many others. Awards judge and foreman at D&AD, Design Week, Canadian Art Directors, Laus, Scottish Design Awards, Creative Review. Speaker at conferences. Reinventor of elderly people signs. Advocate of Creative Courage.

Having spent the early part of his career in New Zealand and Australia, Anthony brings a refreshing approach to brand design. By also having experience in advertising, copywriting, environmental design and digital he is able to consider how brands live and breathe across a broad spectrum. At VBAT Anthony has worked on some of The Netherlands biggest brands, developing brand identities with a strong visual expression, a unique voice and a clear communication concept.

After graduating in 2012 from Central Saint Martins (UAL) as Product Designer, I then later branched into the world of Graphic & Communication design. With over 7 years of experience working with well established global & household brands I have picked up a thing or two on the world of branding.

Following his love of Dutch design Graham moved to Amsterdam in 2007, exchanging his beloved Vespa in London for a classic Dutch ‘oma fiets’ (‘grandmother’ bike). After joining VBAT 13 years ago, Graham assumed creative direction duties for the Amsterdam based branding and design agency in June 2014. During his career Graham has worked with a number of leading international agencies including Fitch, Lippincott Mercer, Landor and 20|20 with clients such as The Heineken Company, PostNL, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, Nokia, Motorola, Channel 4, Bang & Olufsen, Greenpeace, Lucky Strike and YO! Sushi. A specialist in identity development, Graham also has extensive experience in retail, digital, packaging, typographic and broadcast design. As Creative Director of VBAT he has developed a number of initiatives to enhance and inspire the agencies creative culture, resulting in a tangible increased quality of creative product and more effective work. Creatively he is always looking for new and exciting ways of engaging people with brands.

I am a London-based, Irish-born Graphic Communication designer. I work at Saboteur as the Curious one. Curious is a word with many meanings all of them which I try to live up to. I can’t resist climbing vertical surfaces – cliffs, walls, boulders, mountains. I also founded Fail Better – a monthly series of talks where creative luminaries share their failures. I get around London - fast - by bike!

Poonam is the driving force behind Kiss Branding’s creative vision. Her core creative proficiency is backed by market analysis, innovation and brand identity expertise. Before founding Kiss, Poonam worked on high profile clients including Heineken, Pizza Express and Coca Cola in creative strategic roles at Bulletproof. Today, she is a valuable ally to Kiss's clients, providing support and guidance along the branding journey. A snapshot of why Poonam started Kiss: "Kiss was initially set up because we wanted a better work life balance and have a more fulfilling relationship with clients. So using our skills and knowledge of brand we chose to help people who wanted to positively disrupt and challenge markets, business or society. But this challenger aspect has a much deeper rooted reason for me and it starts with my Mum. My mum is an exceptionally talented chef and tailor. She came from India with these fantastic talents and skills but no one helped her leverage them into opportunities. There were many barriers she faced like being a woman in a punjabi family, being on a low income etc. But the most saddening barrier for me was she had no one in her life that could show her the way to a better future through her talents. This pained me growing up and I found it totally unfair. But now, I’ve got the contacts and skills to make things happen for people through brand. Working in brand fulfils that urge to help people get recognised for their talents. This is a deep rooted value for me, if people are doing good and have talent then they should be valued and celebrated. And at least through branding I can give them the best looking appearance and voice to get them recognition and to be finally heard". Instagram: @kiss_branding Personal Instagram: @in_saini

Alec Dudson is Founder and Editor-in-chief of Intern, a platform empowering the next generation of emerging creatives to build the career of their dreams. Entering the creative industries as an indie publisher, Alec has worked with brands and institutions to craft campaigns, content series, video, podcasts and events that bring a young creative audience to clients. With this demographic front and backstage of each production, Intern consistently deliver impactful and authentic work. Intern has also moved to become a specialist provider of career-focused creative education. In this context, Alec collaborates with universities around the world to make their students career-ready and runs ongoing employability and entrepreneurship modules on the graphic design pathways at Leeds Arts University and Falmouth University.

Ben Jeffries is the 23 year old CEO and co founder of Influencer, the UK’s leading influencer marketing platform. Ben founded Influencer, his second company, at just 18, dropping out of university and partnering with YouTube star Caspar Lee as co-founder and CVO. Ben has since led his team to close multiple investment rounds for Influencer, while taking on clients such as Apple, Alibaba and McDonald’s. Ben is an award winning entrepreneur, most recently being named as Media Week’s Rising Star 2018 and BMW’s UK Tech Founder 2018, and The Drum’s Rising Star 2019.

Emily’s spent the last ten years creating brands and campaigns with impact. An experienced strategist, copywriter and creative director, she works in the space between strategy and design – translating insights into compelling, effective ideas that generate results. She’s worked with a wide range of organisations, from The Mayor’s Office to Fairtrade to IKEA to Recycle Now, helping shift mindsets and change behaviour. Her work's been recognised by D&AD, New York Festivals, Creative Review, Hong Kong GDA and The Drum, and she’s run sessions and talks at events including D&AD Festival, New Blood and Sustainable Brands. Now Creative Strategy Director and Partner at Onwards, Emily works with some of the UK’s most exciting startups, helping ambitious founders take their ideas out into the world – and change it for the better.

Jo Moore is a Creative Director at ENGINE UK. Starting out as a junior creative at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, she cut her teeth on Levis and Boddingtons TV commercials. After 10 years and a good few awards there, she moved to WCRS, on the other side of Soho, producing campaigns for the likes of Orange, Sky Movies, King, Santander, Bupa, Mini, BMW, Churchill and NOW TV. Most recently working with comedy outfit Kurupt FM on some short films for Santander, explaining online scams to the younger generation, although her career highlight remains as going round to Harrison Ford's gaff where he made her a lovely cuppa in his front room.

Katrina Encanto leads creative work globally for Persil. She has worked on various Unilever accounts throughout her career, with some of her campaigns being recognised with top awards at Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clio’s and many others. Previously she led the global sloggi account, establishing its irreverent attitude that yielded campaigns like “Granny got pants”. In 2016, she spearheaded Redraw The Balance, a gender equality campaign that has been recreated by the UN, the NHS, the BBC and various organisations all around the world. She has judged some of the world’s best work at D&AD, Cannes Lions and Creative Circle. In 2020, she served as D&AD New Blood Jury President for White Pencil.

Kevin is an creative director, film director, and influencer’s influencer. He’s worked as a creative for global brands such as Vodafone, and Adidas and delivered Audi’s most successful social media campaign. Other brands he’s created campaigns for including Huawei, Prince's Trust, Lush, Samsung, Women's Equality Party, Converse, Pancreatic Cancer Action, Maytree Suicide Sanctuary. He’s also the co-founder of POCC ( People of culture collective ) and Qmmunity Podcast, as well as a diversity consultant to various people, initiatives and organisations across the creative industries.

Scarlett Montanaro is a Creative Director at Revolt, a purpose consultancy and activist agency. Previously from 18 Feet and Rising, the first agency in the UK to be awarded B Corp status, Scarlett has dedicated her career to proving creativity can change the world. On the side, she co-founded the social enterprise CRACK + CIDER, a shop that allows the public to buy essential items for the homeless which has since launched in London, New York and San Francisco. She's also a guest lecturer at University of the Arts London on the subject of Creativity for Good and blogs for The Huffington Post on topics including entrepreneurialism, homelessness and diversity in the advertising industry.

Shannie is a born entrepreneur. Her given ability to build, connect and develop relationships with young people from the wider creative industries drives The Elephant Room’s talent network beyond any traditional agency’s reach. She is also the brand manager for underground video publication GUAP magazine, runs her own events for young millennial women and an ambassador for Girls Talk London. In 2017, Shannie was chosen by SheSays as one of the nine 'I AM REINDEER’ women disrupting the creative industry.

Stephen is partner at Something More, a UK based design studio specialising in brand identity. His work has covered everything from postage stamps to public realm art installations, industrial recycling programmes to grassroots community projects. He actively lectures and runs creative workshops for various universities.

Ting began his career at Conde Nast, JWT and David Quary Design, prior to attending The University of the Arts. Shortly after graduating he joined Springer & Jacoby to work on a series of advertising campaigns for Mercedes Benz and Deutsche Telekom. He has led a number of successful projects as Brand Project Director for a £600 million BBC Broadcasting House redevelopment, £3 billion Head Quarter design scheme for Qatar Airways, a brand relocation property strategy for Barclays Capital and a high profile public consultation for Luton Airport. For five years Ting was a Project Director and assessor for the International Society of Typographic and Graphic Designers Awards - the Society works closely within design education and industry to deliver major projects and events that promote and sustain typographic and graphic design excellences. He has sustained international reputation and has won D&AD, ISTD, Deutscher Preis für Kommunikation and Japan Type Director’s Club awards. His expertise has been published all around the world. He maintains a hands-on strategic view for all major projects.

Adam is an Executive Creative Director who’s worked across the globe with some of the biggest and best names and agencies over the past 15 years. His work has been recognised and awarded at various international shows such as Cannes, Effies, LIA, One Show, AWARD Awards, Kinsale, Campaign and Spikes to name but a few. And he’s worked on a wide variety of global clients from Samsung, Nespresso, McDonalds, and BAT to HSBC, Hotpoint, Jim Beam and Kleenex. When he’s not fighting for good ideas in the creative department, you’ll find him honing his fighting skills in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He’s also a fan of surfing, movie scores, writing poetry, writing scripts, and good rum. Just not necessarily in that order.

Cat Turner, co-founded Cult LDN with Bridey in 2012. The CLIO Award winning creative agency has clients across the globe. Cat oversees the day-to-day running of the business as well as advising on creative strategy. She works across key client relationships including Barbour, Davidoff and Rituals. She splits her time outside of agency-life, speaking at industry events, mentoring women in digital, and being a hands-on mum, to Leo.

Founder of the Voice department at Jones Knowles Ritchie. Champion of copywriting as a weapon of growth. Evangelical about alternative paths into the industry. Incapable of keeping even the hardiest of cacti alive.

Elliott likes to make things and solve problems. He particularly likes to makes things that solve problems. In his first year in the industry, he was awarded 'Best Young Creative in the UK' by Cannes Lions . (A title he and his partner Laura were nominated for the following year). In his spare time, Elliott prioritises mentoring, callisthenics and obstacle course racing.

Faria is the Copy Lead at Publicis Sapient London. An award-winning creative, who works on developing narrative design that harnesses the transformative power of language for the digital age. Faria is an advocate of diversity and inclusion in the industry, being a female, minority ethnic creative herself. She actively works to attract and retain talent through participating in panels and volunteering as a mentor. Her career has spanned journalism, advertising, branding, start ups and venture capital, with clients and agencies all around the world. She is currently helping to shape the future of the industry at Publicis Sapient, a Digital Business Transformation agency.

Hayley is the Head of Copy at Deliveroo where she spends most of her day writing food puns. She started her copywriting career in advertising agencies before moving in-house, working on a broad range of global brands, including innocent drinks and Nando's, before making the move to Deliveroo to head up the copy team across all international markets. She has been a D&AD Writing for Design and New Blood judge, and is also a member of SheSays where she gets to mentor young female writers starting out in the industry.

For the past 8 years, I’ve been a copywriter by day, and well...a copywriter by night most of the time too. More importantly, I've discovered that the only thing I enjoy more than producing killer work, is helping others do the same. Which is why I founded Make Ads With Me, a community to help aspiring creatives find partners to build their portfolios, gain access to educational resources, and receive mentorship from industry pros. I'm honored to be a judge for the D&AD New Blood festival and can't wait to be inspired by all the awesome work!

After graduating with a degree in music and no idea what to do with my life, I found myself working in PR. I quickly realised I was very, very bad at most of it. But I also realised that I was pretty good at the writing part. So, I decided to do it full time. I started out in internal comms, working with designers on campaigns for clients like M&S and Crossrail. Later, I worked for another agency as a writer and trainer for brands including HSBC, Channel 4, American Express and Virgin Atlantic. After spending some time client-side at an international charity, I decided I was ready to go solo. Since then, I’ve been working on all kinds of projects – from branding and positioning to more technical writing, from writing copy to running workshops – with clients such as UCL, Landsec and Unilever. When I’m not writing copy for businesses, I write fiction for fun. My stories have been published online by groups including 26.org and in print by The Fiction Desk. It goes without saying that I love reading (right now I have huge crushes on Ottessa Moshfegh and Sally Rooney). I also love opera, trash telly and ghost stories.

Kerry is a freelance Creative Director and Copywriter who helps clients realise the power of brand voice. For 18 years, Kerry led the copy discipline at AKQA, writing, storytelling and concepting for global brands including Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Bulgari, Nivea, TAG Heuer and Ferrari. In 2019, she was selected as one of Campaign & Creative Equals’ 30 Future Leaders, and was listed in Pitch's 100 Superwomen. Kerry has judged a number of industry awards and is a proud Who’s Your Momma mentor.

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Olly Cooper. A Senior Creative Copywriter with a love for proper advertising. Proper creative ideas. The stuff that digs its claws in and grips your attention. Force feeds you everything it's selling. Before sending you on your way to buy, do or feel something, without you ever truly realising it happened. I’ve turned Toilet Duck bleach into the season’s must-have Eau De Toilette. Made England rugby fans fall in love with their beloved team using their own words. Helped loved ones share how they feel with a Cineworld Giftcard. Worked with WWF to reverse climate change using a light switch. And helped women rewrite shitty gender stereotypes with a fashion collection. There were also a number of pitch wins dotted throughout for brands such as Heinz Beanz, Nutella and Boursin. Not to mention an award or two. If you told ten-year-old me he’d achieve all this before he was 30, he’d actually be pretty pissed off. We were supposed to be in Manchester United’s starting 11 by now.

I am a Marketing Manager with 7 years experience in the consumer goods industry. I initially worked for a start-up financial management business, before joining the FMCG industry and have since worked in a variety of roles across Unilever, as well as a role at Pentland on the sports fashion brand ellesse. I currently work in the Global Disrupt team for Pepsi Lipton (a joint venture between Unilever & Pepsico), where I am responsible for leading new brands and innovations into white spaces/new categories. I believe in finding simple solutions to complex problems for organisations who believe in doing business the right way and with purpose.