Emma Abson is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, where she teaches on the Events Management degree programmes. She teaches on a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and her research interests include leadership, event management skills and competencies, employability and business events. She has 9 years of teaching experience, and prior to that she spent 10 years running corporate business events.

Launched in April 2016, the team at Sequoia Partnership specialise in helping unique and unusual venues grow their revenue strategically within the MICE industry. Working across the UK and internationally, they have successfully supported Arsenal Football Club, Bath Racecourse and Conference Centre, Barbican Centre, ICE Krakow Congress Centre and Artis (Royal Amsterdam Zoo) to name but a few.

With over 25 years of sales experience, specialising from 2009 working with unique, multi-priority venues including the Barbican, Twickenham Stadium and most recently the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Samme has a wealth of experience within the international meetings and events industry focused in the areas of sales, marketing, PR, and event management.

As director of partnerships for Capita Travel and Events, Leigh has responsibility for the strategic management and development of the agency’s relationships with core travel and meetings partners. This includes accommodation and venue providers, train operating companies, ground transportation, distribution and airlines.

As a self-proclaimed champion of technology, innovation and sustainability, Leigh led the HBAA’s TIS committee lead before being appointed 2016 Chair of the industry association and now continues to sit on the HBAA Board.

Leigh joined Capita Travel and Events in 2013 as sourcing manager for key accounts before progressing to her current role in 2014. Her depth of industry experience spans meetings and events agency operations, European customer account management and hotel sales management.

Nick de Bois is Chairman of the United Kingdom’s Events Industry Board which was established in January 2016. In March 2015, the UK Government published the first ever Business Visits and Events Strategy to work with the Government on fulfilling the commitments within the strategy, reporting directly to the Minister for Tourism.

Before being elected as Member of the UK Parliament for Enfield North, Nick set up and developed his own events company, Rapiergroup. The company specialises in the events and exhibits industry, delivering event-led marketing projects for clients across a wide range of industries. Since forming the company in 1990 he has overseen the business during both good and bad economic times. When he left the business to enter politics in 2010, Rapiergroup employed 100 people and delivered events and exhibitions across the globe.

A qualified teacher, Chris Elmitt has spent the last fifteen years deploying his classroom management skills in the commercial world, facilitating group discussions on topics ranging from stem cell research to consultation on government policy.

Chris specialises in facilitating large groups, where the ambition is create open lines of communication between stage and audience. His clients include Pfizer, Visa and Old Mutual. Chris is also MD of Crystal Interactive – one of the pioneers in event technology. In this capacity he is a regular speaker on the impact of technology on meetings.

Chris started his career at Yell, the home of Yellow Pages and multimedia digital solutions. Here he progressed through the ranks to head up the UK national sales force of over 800 sales people at its peak and delivering £300m of advertising annual spend from SME's and corporate accounts providing print and digital marketing solutions.

Chris then moved across to Regus, the Serviced Office, Meeting Space and Virtual Office provider as UK Commercial Director, responsible for U.K. sales, marketing and profitability.

In May 2013 joined the Board at QHotels, appointed Sales Director across the award winning group of 26 hotels, responsible for all Sales channels to market, Event Sales and Marketing.

Chris has been a key supporter of the HBAA, since joining QHotels and this year took on an Executive consultant role.

Chris lives in Weybridge, Surrey with his wife Suzanne and 2 daughters, Ciara and Niamh.

Having worked in the hotel industry for over 25 years, including key sales positions at Best Western Hotels, Marriott Hotels and The Hotel Collection, Lauren joined Jupiter Hotels as Group Sales Director just under a year ago. Her key areas of expertise have included driving MICE business through long term corporate and agency relationships. Her priorities for Jupiter Hotels include working with the sales teams by providing direction and leadership and working with the hotels in all areas of sales. 

After a career spent in a variety of sales and account management roles, Michael progressed through a succession of Human Resources positions within UK and European organisations before spending several years within Qualtrak, one of the UK’s leading performance management consultancies.

In 1999 he established his own consultancy, Michael Heath Consulting, providing learning and development and executive mentoring services to an enviable portfolio of clients, including: IMG, Huddle, MedImmune Inc., Amdocs Inc., Reuters, The Houses of Parliament, BUPA, Revlon.

Increasingly involved in initiatives overseas, he continues to grow his list of international clients.

In early 2010, he published two books: ‘Leadership’ and ‘Management’, part of the Harper Collins Business Secrets series. In late 2010, he co-wrote ‘Grow Your Business’, to accompany the Dragons’ Den TV series. This year two new publications have followed: ‘The Fit Mentor’ and ‘40 Interview Icebergs and How to Sail Around Them’.

Michael is a keen pianist and guitarist and regularly composes for these instruments in his spare time. He is married with one daughter and three step children and lives in Chippenham.

Mandy Hickson's long-time ambition to be a Royal Air Force pilot once seemed impossibly out of reach; but many a multi-million-pound fast jet later, her impressive flying career proves that obstacles can be overcome to achieve dreams. Now a civilian, Mandy inspires others to achieve their goals and fascinates with anecdotes from her exhilarating times spent on the front line. 

After joining the Air Training Corps at school, Mandy's interest in the military gathered supersonic speed; at the age of just 17, she was awarded an RAF flying scholarship, followed by a private pilot's license.

Studying Geography and Sports Science at Birmingham University, Mandy continued to foster her flying aspirations with the University Air Squadron, and eventually became its president. In her final year, she won several inter-squadron national aerobatics competitions.

It was early on that Mandy learned not to shy away from failure. After two unsuccessful attempts at the RAF flying aptitude tests, reaching the limit of times that they can be taken, her goals appeared to be unattainable. Undeterred, Mandy went on to join the RAF as an Air Traffic Controller and continued to make her case for becoming a pilot throughout her officer training. Finally, the RAF decided to offer her pilot training as a test case, having observed her skills in the real world.

The only female aircrew, Mandy trained on the Firefly, Tucano and Hawk aircraft, and was awarded many prizes for leadership. She was the second woman to fly the Tornado GR4 operationally, and completed three tours of duty and flew 45 missions over Iraq. She continues to support the success of women as Founder and Co-Director of Inspiring Women for Work (IWFW) - a vibrant event designed to lead women towards gaining a more confident, motivated and focused mind set.

Mandy is currently acting as a consultant for Global Air Training, running the "Train the Trainers" course, for TAG Aviation and for Cobham Aviation.

Stressing the need to remain calm under pressure, leading from the front, and how to make strategic decisions when faced with risk, Mandy shares how to communicate, empower and how to draw the best from herself and others. She never fails to engage audiences with her candour, humour and limitless energy.

Richard is a business trainer, consultant, writer and presenter. His approach to learning is to take this wealth of experience and to transfer it into effective training delivery which makes a difference.

His clients range from major blue-chip organisations to SMEs and even micro businesses.

Richard worked for Derby university as a Workforce Development Fellow and is currently Course Director for their Events and Sponsorship programme at the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Suzi has been in the business travel, meetings and events industry for over five years and have developed a strong understanding across this broad industry sector. As Senior Marketing Executive for Capita Travel and Events, she is responsible for heading up some of their major marketing projects for the business. 

Alongside her role at Capita, she also sits on the HBAA Executive Committee and leads the Marketing Committee to help drive the voice of the association and increase their exposure in the marketplace. 

Chris has more than 35 years of editorial and PR experience both within agencies and as a client.

After managing PR at Confex in 1988, he has been working at Clareville as a PR consultant to industry exhibitions, venues, events agencies and convention bureaus throughout the last 20 years.

Lisa has 15 years’ experience within generalist HR and Resourcing roles in the hospitality industry. She is currently Group Resourcing Manager for the QHotels Group, where ‘tackling the skills gap’ and addressing recruitment challenges is a key part of her remit. Lisa is responsible for driving internal & external talent pipelines through a proactive and strategic approach to resourcing, as well as building the QHotels employer brand through social media presence, promotional campaigns and industry ‘employer’ recognition. A passionate industry advocate, Lisa is committed to promoting hospitality & events as an exciting, rewarding and progressive career opportunity.

Prior to QHotels, Lisa spent time in HR roles across QHotels, Village Hotels, De Vere and MacDonald Hotels.

Jennifer is Founder of Royall; an event & live communications consultancy specialising in search & selection, employer brand & people development.  Jenny has worked on both sides of the fence, rising through operational roles in marketing, communications, and management. Utilising her broad experience in client servicing, relationship management within events and communications she established a new kind of communication recruitment company in 2009. One which believes human engagement is at the heart of successful talent engagement and acquisition.  Firmly in the momentum phase; Royall would like to revolutionise the way in which leaders perceive and commit to recruitment and the negative associated attitudes and behaviours surrounding it. Jenny is recognised as a trusted partner and advisor within the industry and her client base.

Nick started his career in hospitality as a sales co-ordinator for an large international hotel group. Having learnt his trade he joined the arrangeMY family in 2004, originally in a sales role taking over as Managing Director in 2008. Nick remains committed to the core values that have underpinned arrangeMY’s success, overseeing turnover growth from £8million to now over £25 million. He is passionate about remaining as personally close to our clients as possible, building a business that remains at the forefront of the travel and events industry.

Futurist and award-winning speaker, Rohit Talwar inspires and educates with his unique 'how to' messages. He was profiled as one of the top 10 global futurists by the Independent Newspaper. Relevant and engaging, his messages to businesses are full of valuable and practical take-aways.

Lauded as a world leading authority on the future of the meetings industry, Rohit has been charged with leading the ground-breaking Convention 2020 study, as part of his role as CEO of the Fast Future Research think tank. His research led him to explore Scenarios for 2015; The Shape of Jobs to Come; Healthcare Innovation and the Future of New Cities, amongst many other topical and insightful projects.

Rohit's primary focus is how businesses can improve their vision through opportunities and risks, and how they can sustain peak performance through difficult times. He shared the stage with Arnold Schwarzenegger in California to discuss the changing global economy, and in 2005 he was awarded the 'stickiest guru' award after being voted best speaker at Asia's largest travel conference.

Rohit's in-depth research and vast real business experience helps organisations work on complex trends that are changing the way we work, and use them to their benefit. A specialist on consultancy in future trends, Rohit is able to deliver a keynote speech on agility, growth, strategy, innovation and change leadership.

Matthew's is one of the most recognisable faces in the UK events industry. He has held senior roles in national and global agencies and been a frequent commentator on MICE issues in the industry press.

At BCD Meetings & Events, Matthew served as EMEA VP in a number of capacities, with strategic responsibility for operations, marketing, communications and supplier relations. He sat as part of the agency's EMEA and global leadership teams.

Now spending his time as a consultant to some of the world's leading event and meetings management companies, Matthew is in demand as a strategic and tactical advisor on the many issues confronting agencies large and small. An entertaining and engaging public speaker at industry events around the world, Matthew facilitates meetings of all shapes and sizes.

Matthew is also Creator & Editor-in-Chief of Wall’s World - www.wallsworld.co.uk - a popular events industry blog that takes a humorous look at some of the world's great meeting and event destinations.

Louisa Watson is a senior marketer with over 20 years’ experience in Marketing and PR.   She has extensive experience in many aspects of branding, marketing and consumer activation and has had the opportunity to be with some large luxury brands and some growing companies in evolving market places. 

During her time in Hotels, Conference venues and spa's she has delivered rounded business models in both the small boutique sector and the large destination market.  Her role at Wyboston Lakes has allowed her to push the boundaries in an exciting privately owned brand, using some of the latest digital marketing and PR technology.

Andrew has over 25 years meetings and events (MICE) experience helping to build a startup company of 5 staff based in the UK to become a global event management business with a presence in Europe, Asia and North America with over 300 FTE's.

Consulted on behalf of a number of global blue-chip companies Andrew has had the opportunity to work across all the major industry sectors including delivering a number of global strategic meetings management programs (SMMP).

Over the past 10 years he has opened businesses across Europe, Asia & North America setting up operational & commercial teams. Andrew has sat on a number of industry advisory boards and he is presently Vice Chair of EVCOM the UK's largest association representing the MICE and Visual Content industry.

Travelled extensively on business and pleasure with India being the only major continent he has not had the pleasure of experiencing.

Andrew has helped to build a number of people’s careers over the past 25 years. He is passionate about helping people reach their full potential at whatever stage they are at in their career.