Judges

Chairman, The Concerto Group

Mike Kershaw graduated from London University with an honours degree in History and worked in Law before moving into corporate hospitality in 1983 as an account executive with Event Management Group. He handled full event and hospitality programmes, incentive travel schemes and conference production for a cross section of key accounts before leaving to set up The Ultimate Experience in 1989.   Working with co-director Guy Rodger, Mike was instrumental in developing a unique Christmas party offering at a cross section of venues in London that formed the basis for their significant growth during the 1990’s.

In 1999 he merged The Ultimate Experience with Business Pursuits and Richard Groves Catering to form The Concerto Group and took on the role of Group Sales Director, before being promoted to Group Chairman in 2005. Since its creation in 1999, The Concerto Group has grown to encompass 12 brands, over 120 full time staff and a turnover expected to reach £30 million in the current year. He is the current President of the UK and Europe Chapter of international industry body ISES and is a member of Eventia.

Mike is a one-handicap golfer and is married with three children.

Having graduated from the University of Kent with a degree in Classics, in 1996, Charlotte Reeves moved to London and secured a place at HM Tower of London in the Events Department. Whilst employed at the Tower, an opportunity arose to move to Kensington Palace State Apartments to create the first Corporate Events Department in this small museum. Part of the same self-financing charity as the Tower, Kensington offered Charlotte an opportunity to demonstrate her ability to excel in the development, management and operation of a commercially successful events department within an historic environment.

In 2001, having securely established Kensington as one of the most highly regarded corporate venues in London, Charlotte accepted the position as Head of Corporate & Private Events at Somerset House.   Responsible for the formation of the first centralised events department at Somerset House, the position involved the creation and application of a commercially viable marketing and sales strategy to securely place Somerset House and its Collections within the London events industry. With nine venues and managing in excess of 200 events per annum, under her direction the newly formed Corporate Events Department thrived in applying an exceptional level of event management from the most intimate to the most extravagant event.

In 2007, having built both the corporate events and fundraising departments to the strongest possible positions, Charlotte left her positions as Director of Corporate Communications at Somerset House and Chairman of Unique Venues of London to embark on a new challenge as Commercial Director for Lavender Green Ltd, one of London's leading Floral Design Companies.

Charlotte is currently taking a short career break to expand her family before embarking on future new ventures within the industry.

Managing Director, The Ice Box

Philip Hughes is the Founder and Managing Director of The Ice Box and Ice Box Scotland, Europes leading Ice Sculpture and Ice Structure specialists. He is currently the Chair of the Regional Affiliate (Europe) of ISES (International Special Event Society)and a past President of ISES UK.

Philip has been involved in the event industry for over 20 years following a Hotel and Restaurant career. Philip is also a Director of a Restaurant Group with bar & restaurants located in Norwich, Lincoln, York and Chester.

Philip has worked as a consultant and advisor in the Ice industry all over the world and has also been influential in raising the profile of ISES as an industry body throughout the UK and Europe.

Managing Partner, RPM Ltd

Having been involved in the live events industry from an early age, Hugh realised the potential of the medium and his passion for the business was ignited. After being involved in the inception of Scotland's premier Game Fair, Hugh moved to London to join Sales Promotion agency ZGC. Whilst there he was responsible for running campaigns for Fosters and the Daily Telegraph, before realising his ambition to explore the opportunities presented by live and experiential marketing and setting up RPM in January 1993.

As Managing Partner of RPM, he has been instrumental in growing the agency to the UK's leading independent experiential marketing agency, which employs 85 people, holds a clutch of awards and has a turnover of £14.5m. Hugh has ambitions to make RPM the most respected marketing agency in the UK with global capabilities.

Key indicators that this ambition is coming to fruition include the fact it was rated 20th in The Sunday Times list of Best Small Companies to Work for 2007, a rise of 14 places from last year, and making it the best experiential marketing agency to work for in the UK. RPM also regained top spot in Marketing Magazine’s experiential marketing league tables, with a 32% growth in its UK only figures. It was also recently voted Brand Experience Agency of the Year at the Field Marketing and Brand Experience Magazine Awards 2007.

Events and Marketing Manager , Old Spitalfields Market

A graduate in hotel management from Caledonian University, Glasgow, Susan started her hospitality career as part of the pre-opening sales team at the then Edinburgh Sheraton.

From there she moved to London and took up consultancy roles including pre-opening of Parkstead House, The Royal Hospital Chelsea’s expansion of their indoor event business and the role of event manager at the Duke of Yorks Headquarters in Chelsea, (now the Saatchi Gallery).

More recently she has been responsible for launching and positioning the Roundhouse as one of London’s premier venues that has hosted events including the Princes Trust Invest In Future Charity Fund Raising Dinner, the Olympic Brand launch and the recent BIFA’s (British Independent Film Awards).

Having just moved to her new role at Old Spitalfields Market the remit encompasses a wide variety of events from hosting festivals to exhibitions and private events plus the promotion of the market and retail units to the public.

Managing Director, Davies Tanner

Robert Wright is managing director of Davies Tanner, the PR and marketing agency that provides its services solely to the business tourism industry in the UK and Europe, from locations in London, Edinburgh and Barcelona. Robert plays an active role within the industry, and is a regular speaker at conferences, events and seminars. He writes columns for various industry publications on PR within the event and hospitality market and is an ambassador for the events industry charity, Meeting Needs.

Shining Wit

Matt Briggs has worked in the events industry for over 12 years.  Formerly Events Director at National Magazine Company, he began in the events industry producing the Annual Cosmopolitan Show before going onto join live communications agency, Hotcakes where he successfully produced some of the UK's most prestigious events specialising in outdoor, fashion and music.

Moving to form his own live communications agency, in 2003, Shining Wit have worked hard to innovate and generate an exceptional reputation for creating successful consumer events.

In addition to creating and producing stunning consumer events, Matt has recently pioneered the concept of ‘Public Realm Animation’ to ensure Shining Wit are one of the key industry leaders in bringing public spaces to life with their unique, innovative and culturally-sensitive approach

A diverse range of clients has included; HRH Queen Elizabeth, UBS, John Lewis, The Royal Navy, Bill Clinton and most recently, a series of events for Pele and the world’s oldest football club Sheffield FC!

Former Director of the Organising Division SECC

Iain spent 16 years of his career ('86 to 2002 ) at SECC, initially in sales, later in technical services and latterly in general management of the division which staged the SECC's own portfolio of events and exhibitions

A specialist in large scale public exhibitions and events Iain was responsible for such well known presentations as The Christmas Carnival (Europes largest indoor fairground) The Modern Homes Exhibition, The Outdoors Show, Foodfest and Bright Ideas.

In 2002 he launched his own company (Events Management Scotland) which was twice appointed by The British Chamber of Shipping to organise its multi -contributor presentation within The Festival of the Sea.

After what seemed like several lifetimes in the events industry, Iain has now retired to the East Neuk of Fife where he runs a licensed delicatessen.