Sheridan ‘Shed’ Simove is a modern-day entrepreneurial genius.

In a varied career he has enjoyed success as a TV Producer (Big Brother, Big Breakfast, Space Cadets); a Bestselling Author; Product Designer and an Award Winning Stand-Up Comedian.

Harnessing a constant stream of ideas from his astonishingly active mind, Shed has learnt to transform his unconventional concepts into lucrative new business ventures. Shed uses his own entrepreneurial journeys to give a powerful insight into how others can be more creative, plus he shares his secrets for success and outlines the steps towards achieving whatever you desire – both personally and in business.

Shed’s ability to create new ideas, coupled with his skill to make them happen, mean that his range and rate of success is vast – and thus his performances are wonderfully motivational as well as entertaining.

He has the ability to both inspire significant, profitable changes, and then equip you with the tools to make those changes happen. As a result Shed has worked with the some of the biggest blue chip companies around the world, including Unilever, BBC, Sony and EE.

A cross between Anthony Robbins and Woody Allen, Shed is a truly compelling, uniquely memorable, one-off performer.

David Taylor

David is one of the world’s top 50 leading marketing thinkers according to the CIM, and a Fellow of the Marketing Society.

David is Founder & Managing Partner of the brandgym, a network of brand growth coaches. He has written five brandgym books: “The brandgym”, “Brand Stretch”, “Brand Vision”, “Grow the Core” and “Where’s the Sausage?” David also leads the writing of the brandgym blog, one of the top 60 branding blogs in the world.

He’s worked with a wide range of sectors, covering everything from beer to banking, in both B2C and B2B. His expertise is in brand vision to action, brand architecture and turbo charging marketing plans. Prior to founding the brandgym in 2002, David worked in brand management for P&G, received an MBA from INSEAD and then started and ran Added Value’s Paris office.

David speaks on a range of branding issues including growing the core, brand stretch and brand leadership. His speeches are consistently praised for their practical, provocative and entertaining style.

David speaks both at company-specific events for global clients (Kraft, Mondelez, HSBC, Mars, Unilever) and at leading conferences (Brand Manage Camp (Las Vegas), the Marketing Society Conference, London Business Forum). He has also written publications for The Guardian, Marketing, Market Leader, Brand Strategy and Marketing Business.

David also teaches on brand strategy at London Business School, in addition to designing and delivering “Action Learning” training programs for clients including SAB Miller, Mars and United Biscuits.

Diana Hunter

From an early age Diana had a clear passion for retail, she would often be found meandering the aisle of her grandfather’s department store in Darlington. It was therefore a natural fit when she joined the Sainsbury’s Graduate Programme in 1990 and since then Diana has gone on to climb the retail ladder, boasting some incredible successes.

Diana stayed at Sainsbury’s for thirteen years where she held a multitude of roles including heading up a senior manager transformation programme before eventually departing from the role of format development. She later made the switch to Waitrose in 2007, where she carved a reputation as an innovator in store development. Some of her major projects whilst there included; the launch of Little Waitrose, securing partnership with Shell for service station stores and the launch of its home offer in its Canary Wharf Store. Diana was also a key player in the development of John Lewis’ food hall.

Dr. Guy Meadows

Ranked as the ‘UK’s leading sleep expert’, Dr Guy Meadows helps individuals improve the quality of their sleep and day time performance.

Dr Guy Meadows is a sleep physiologist, with a doctorate from Imperial College, London. He has been working in sleep for the past twelve years, eight of which have been dedicated purely to helping clients overcome insomnia.

Guy spent four and half years working within the sleep research laboratories of the Royal Brompton and Charing Cross hospitals. He is trained in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), pioneering the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Insomnia (ACT-i). Guy regularly talks and runs training workshops for therapists and General Practitioners.

Guy is a published author and co-founder of Sleep To Perform & The Sleep School. He has been named the ‘UK’s leading sleep expert’ by The Times and has worked with thousands of employees helping to improve the quality of their sleep and daytime performance.

SESSION OUTLINES:

Managing stress and anxiety for better sleep
Detaching from work at the end of the day for better sleep
Mindfulness
How to get better sleep – experiential tools and techniques session
Managing jet-lag
How to overcome insomnia and other sleep disorders
Parent and baby/toddler sleep
Parent and school-age child sleep
Managing shift work
Parent and teenager sleep

Dr. Graeme Codrington

Graeme is the co-founder and a senior partner of TommorowToday, a global firm of futurists and business strategies. Graeme’s breadth of knowledge and expertise make him highly relevant in today’s rapidly evolving business world.

Graeme has a particular interest in trends affecting how people live, work, interact and connect with each other. He speaks on the TIDES of change – the five disruptive forces shaping the new world of work in the next decade: Technology institutional change, Demographics, the Environment and shifting Social values.

He has shared platforms with the likes of Edward de Bono, Jonas Ridderstrale, Allan Pease, Sir Ken Robinson and Neil Armstrong.

Geoff Cousins

Armed with an entrepreneurial mindset, Geoff Cousins has the ability and skill needed to drive innovative strategies and deliver real results for businesses of all sizes.

During his career Geoff has held a number of C-Suite positions within the iconic Jaguar Land Rover Brands which include; Chief Financial Officer of North America for JLR and Volvo, Director of Sales, Manufacturing and Planning for JLR, UK Managing Director and Global Sponsorships and Brand Partners Director for JLR, and currently he is the Chairman of G&P. As a result he is well known and respected throughout the industry.

Geoff’s global experience and track record of personal business achievements provides a unique mix of big business process capability and innovative thinking that delivers transformational but pragmatic business solutions to entrepreneurs, innovation start ups and SME’s. His experience allows businesses and leaders to optimise performance, deliver results and lead transformation initiatives, while cutting through complex issues.

Geoff is currently the Non-Executive Director of Performance Communications, advising on strategy, operational performance and business growth initiatives. He is also the Managing Director of Geoff Cousins Associates, a Business Consultancy advising their clients on areas such as; Leadership and People Performance, PR and Marketing, Product Planning and Distribution, Strategic and Business Development and Executive Recruitment.

His most recent project is the creation of a cutting edge brain development product known as Zing Performance. Inspired by the latest neurological research, Zing Business improves human performance by enhancing the brain body connection. It does so by developing neural pathways to improve cognitive, emotional and social abilities.

Geoff is a visiting Professor of Global Governance at the University of South Wales where he delivers master classes on international business, chairs the course student conference and assesses group simulation exercises. He holds a number of external positions in the fields of charity and sports administration.

Hamish Taylor

Hamish Taylor has enjoyed a long career in building and overhauling brands, first at Procter & Gamble, then at Eurostar where he become CEO, and subsequently at Sainsbury’s Bank.

He is now a brand expert and public speaker.

With a CV that The Times commented “takes some beating”, Hamish Taylor has managed to follow academic and sporting success with a very fast track career through a number of high profile business roles. As a result Hamish has established a winning record for driving innovation and change in a number of very different environments.

Hamish was appointed Head of Brand Management at British Airways taking responsibility for the airline’s passenger brands (First, Club, Concorde, Shuttle, etc.)

In 1997 he moved to Eurostar as Managing Director of Eurostar (UK) Ltd at the age of 36. The business was three years old and his remit was to reduce the major losses the operation was suffering. After two successful years in this role, he was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Eurostar Group.

At the end of 1999 Hamish was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Sainsbury’s Bank. Once again, the objective was rapid growth in profit from the breakeven position he inherited. The ability to innovate and move away from traditional banking approaches in order to behave more like a retailer, proved the key to the significant growth that resulted.

In 2004 Hamish established his own company, the Hamish Taylor Skills Exchange Network.

Hamish is also regularly featured in the broadcast media, his most recent project being the “Teen Canteen” television programme for the BBC.

Inma Martinez

Inma is a pioneer in the mobile industry, a technology product maverick and data scientist, having been behind the major innovation advances in web and mobile, such as data-mining and A.I, Behavioural Learning and Sentiment Analysis.

These and other computational analyses have powered e-commerce, fintech, development of mobile data services, mobile personalisation in real-time, mobile music and image streaming as well as film & TV content delivery across various platforms.

Inma is an inspirational speaker often engaged to predict the future digitalisation of various sectors, and she has delivered keynotes, participated in industry panels or acted as chairperson at major conferences in Europe, the Middle East and the United States since 2000. From industry events such as the GSMA Mobile World Congress to top multinational private events (IBM Smart Planet, BDO, Deloitte, BusinessWeek, Euromoney) and technology summits (TechCrunch, GigaOm), Inma is recognised by Fortune and Time as one of the top talents in social engagement through technology.

In one of her current roles she is currently consulting as a Data Scientist and Product Innovator for Securus, a cyber security company. She has also consulted for Preadly, a company that publishes and syndicates internationally the top local blogs in every country via web and app. It turns the posts into interactive, searcheable data that users can save and share via private and social media channels.

In 2010 Inma was asked by the British government to serve the UK Trade & Industry Catalyst Programme as a technology business leader sharing with foreign governments and business enterprises the British innovation advances and export opportunities.

In 2005 Red Herring ranked her 25th out of the top 40 women in technology, labelling her a “free radical”, whereas FastCompany has defined her as a “firestarter”.

Jamil Qureshi

Jamil has worked with talent across the board as diverse as fighter pilots, medical teams, Formula 1 racing drivers, and the current England Ashes winning cricketers.

In 2006, he was appointed as the first-ever official golf psychologist to the European Ryder Cup team by captain Ian Woosnam. They made history in winning by a record-equalling margin. Jamil has worked with 22 golfers inside the top 50 in the world, including Colin Montgomerie, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke, Paul Casey, Thomas Bjorn, Sergio Garcia and former World Number 1, Lee Westwood.

Ranked among the most influential figures in British sport in 2009. Jamil has worked successfully with three English Premiership football clubs, one of which reaching a record position from its halfway point in the season.

In business and industry Jamil has worked from CEO and board level to middle management in a variety of sectors. He has worked with business leaders and companies in over 24 different countries last year alone helping teams to fulfil their potential by orchestrating change and performance programmes. He has developed and delivered management and leadership programmes at board level for Coca Cola, Hewlett Packard, Emirates Airlines, Serco, Orange, and Royal Bank of Scotland. He has worked across LBG Group Operations on the ‘journey to world class’ and other areas within Lloyds Banking Group such as Wholesale, Retail, and Commercial.

Jamil also lectures on the prestigious WorldProgram, in the US, UK and China through Ashridge and Fordham Business Schools and Qing Dao University. He is also a world recognised speaker on all aspects of the psychology of performance, psychology of leadership, leadership attitudes, improving people, cultural change techniques, and employee engagement. He is one of only a few external psychologists ever to be allowed to study astronauts on the NASA Space Programme.

Jamil used to be a regular at London’s prestigious Comedy Store and spent two years working with TV’s award winning mind reader, Derren Brown!

Speaker Theme: Innovation/Creativity

Sheridan (Shed) Simove