Who

Each year, we assemble a world-class speaker line up of those who are disrupting the industry to share, debate, discuss and decide the future of live entertainment ticketing.

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The Speaker Line Up

• 

  Nick Dodds

  Director, FEI (Festival & Events International)

  Nick is a leading UK expert on cultural venues, festivals and events and cultural development with 30 years’ experience as a consultant, chief executive, COO and leader in both the commercial and public sectors. His company, FEI, specialises in strategic planning, governance, cultural programming, and business planning for venues, festivals and events internationally.

  Nick is currently advising the Georgian Government on developing festivals along the Black Sea coast; recently authored the major study Thundering Hooves 2.0: a ten year strategy to sustain the success of Edinburgh’s Festivals; and has advised governments and organisations worldwide. He was seconded to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, as chief operating officer of the London 2012 Festival; was Chief Executive of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival for eight years; and Administrative Director of the Edinburgh International Festival for ten years.

  In 2015 he was given a life-time achievement award by the International Festivals and Events Association, USA, the industry’s highest honour.

• 

  Áron Farkas

  International Relations , Sziget Cultural Management

  Áron is a member of the Sziget Cultural Management’s international relations team since 2014. Working on selling as many tickets as possible for Sziget Festival, Balaton Sound and VOLT Festival all over the world. Sziget Festival is one of the, if not the most international festival there is, with visitors coming from over 100 different countries and a total attendance of 565.000 over it’s 7 day period in 2018. 

• 

  Rick Jurkiewicz

  Head of Ticketing & Data Protection Officer, Rugby Football League

  Starting in ‘97 at Way Ahead (now ‘SEE’) in Nottingham, Rick moved to lead Ticketmaster’s Client Services team in Manchester in ‘04. 2012 saw Rick move to Ticketmaster’s International Sports division providing technical support for Euro2012, London Olympics, Rugby League and Rugby Union World Cups before being presented with a rare opportunity to join Ticketmaster’s Business Development Team reconnecting once again with Music and Theatre.

  Head of Ticketing with a National Governing Body was an obvious next step in his career spent focussed on acquiring experience and my subsequent appointment as Data Protection Officer was a natural extension to Rick’s work in ticketing.

• 

  Isabelle Chevalier

  Executive VP Europe, Weezevent

  Isabelle Chevallier as Executive VP Europe is leading the internationalization of Weezevent, with a focus in Europe. Previously, she started her career at Sony Music Entertainment where she quickly progressed from Business Affairs Manager to Executive VP Business Development. Then she followed a change of career abroad with projects in Brazil and Spain to return to music and events with an experience at Intellitix for 4 years.

• 

  Dawn Farrow

  Founder and CEO, Boom Ents / Boom Sport

  Dawn Farrow, Founder and CEO of Boom ENTS and Boom SPORT, is a performance marketing specialist for some of the best known entertainment brands and live events and experiences in the U.K.

  She founded Boom in 2012 to become the first female agency CEO servicing not just theatre but also outdoor events and festivals, family theatre, immersive entertainment, consumer exhibitions, venues, visitor attractions and celebrity social media.

  Dawn’s success has been recognised by a series of high profile organisations. The business was awarded ‘Best New Business’, in the Top 100 UK Start Up Awards in 2015 and was shortlisted in the top 6 ‘Best Small Agencies’ in the 2016 U.K. Agency Awards.

  Boom’s success has driven audiences of millions to more than 170 live events as diverse as The Luna Cinema, Grand Designs Live, BBC Countryfile Live, Dinner at The Twits, Thunderbirds, Monty Python’s Spamalot and Disney’s Fantasia to name a few.

• 

  Anne Griffin

  General Manager, World Meeting 2018

  Anne specialises in setting up and running event companies to cover planning, procuring, staffing, contracting and delivery. Annes latest project was the World Meeting of Families and the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland last year. Over 499,000 attended the events, with viewers in Ireland of 1.8 million and 75 international broadcasters streaming to millions of additional viewers worldwide.

  Anne was responsible for IEC2012 with over 100,000 people attending and consulting for IEC2015 with over 1 million attending, also conferences for corporate, academic and medical associations.

  Anne understands the challenges with both paid and free events, staffing with professionals and volunteers and working with budgets that require fundraising, sponsorship and operational income.

• 

  Lasse Rich Henningsen

  CEO , Musikkens Hus and Chairman at Nordic Concert Halls

  Lasse Rich Henningsen, CEO at Musikkens Hus and Chairman at Nordic Concert Halls, has been in various management positions throughout the entertainment business for more than 20 years. He graduated from business law school in 2003, and has most recently been awarded Leader of the Year 2018 in Denmark, the most prestigious leadership award of the nation, and as the first person from the entertainment business ever. Lasse is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working successfully and internationally in all areas of the music industry as well as in parts of the tv/film/gaming industry.

• 

  Richard Brundle

  Chairman, STAR

  Has worked in all areas of ticketing for nearly 30 years. While a director of ticket agency, Edwards and Edwards, he created the ticketing system Thebs and then set up Galathea to create ENTA.

  Richard has been consulted by numerous clients including the Society of London Theatre – initiating and running their first Get Into London Theatre campaigns – ATG, Fiery Angel, The Art of the Brick exhibition and many others.

   

  A founder of STAR in 1997 and council member until 2001. Member of the INTIX board 1997-2000. He managed ETT (Europe Talks Tickets) from 2003 to 2009.

  Richard is a board member of London Welsh Amateur Rugby Club.

• 

  Steve Elworthy

  Managing Director, ICC Cricket World Cup

  Steve Elworthy, has a plethora of global tournament experience – both playing and administrating.

  A former South African international, Steve won a gold medal in the 1998 Commonwealth Games for cricket in Kuala Lumpur and played in the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England.

  Since retiring from the playing side of the game, Steve moved into cricket administration, playing an integral part in a number of global cricket events, including the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007.

  Last summer, he was the Tournament Director of the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup, helping put women’s cricket well and truly on the global stage.

  Steve’s outstanding contribution to the game resulted in him receiving an MBE this year for his services to cricket.

  In 2019, the ICC Cricket World Cup will come to England and Wales for the first time in 20 years, and Steve is leading the Organising Committee charged with showcasing the world’s greatest cricket celebration.

• 

  Magdalena Hankus

  Head of Project Management and Corporate Communications,

  Born in Poland and grown up in Vienna, Magdalena Hankus benefits of bilingualism and significant intercultural skills.

  After successfully finishing her economic studies and first career steps within this sector she took on her new position as head of the department “Project Management and Corporate Communications” and deputy of the CEO at Wiener Stadthalle, Austria’s largest event venue with over 300 events and 1 million visitors per year.

  She was in charge of several big projects such as the 60^th season which was celebrated with a wide range of festivities and events throughout the year 2018 and the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.

• 

  David Hornby

  Managing Director UK and Ireland, SecuTix

  David is currently leading the development of a leading Global Ticketing business into the UK & Ireland Market as its Managing Director. SecuTix is the ticketing partner for many leading Live Entertainment, Sporting and Cultural organisations and is growing its UK business rapidly.

  David Hornby is also the Founder & Managing Director of WHY NOT, a strategic consultancy business in the world of major events, entertainment, tourism & hospitality sectors.  Projects have included working with; Red Bull, The NFL, Live Nation, the RFU, London 2012 & Its Legacy Company, Formula 1 and the next phase of development at The O2 with AEG Europe.  He was also a Founding Director of Jamie Oliver’s events catering company Fabulous Feasts.

  David left Visit London in May 2009 after 7 exciting years with the company as its Commercial Director.  He was responsible for the organisations Private Sector incomes across its sponsorship, partnership and digital platforms, London’s Convention Bureau and Events for London.

  Events for London is the UK capital’s official major events team. Created in 2007, it is tasked with attracting, developing and staging major sporting and cultural events.  Events for London; was one of the first legacies of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and has delivered the London Restaurant Festival, Prudential Ride London and many other major sporting and cultural events.

  He was Chairman & Strategic Director of Smyle Creative Ltd, a fully integrated Live Communications Agency and Grimm Productions Ltd , an immersive entertainment business..

• 

  Karen Pepper

  General Manager - UK & Ireland, Amazon Pay

  Karen Pepper is the General Manager, UK & Ireland, for Amazon Pay. She is responsible for leading Amazon’s payment services for 3rd party merchants in the UK including Amazon Pay and the associated value added services on web, mobile, voice and POS commerce.

  Karen is a 20-year veteran of the payments and start up industries. Most recently she was Global Head of Alliance Banks at JP Morgan, and has held senior positions at American Express. Karen is also an entrepreneur and raised £3Million and founded her own chain of health clubs for young families (www.cupcakefamilyclub.com).

  Karen sits on the board of Hatch, a UK incubator for social enterprises and on the board of Tamar, an anti-human trafficking charity.

  Karen holds a MBA from the London Business School.

• 

  Akos Remetei-Filep

  Head of Sales, Sziget Cultural Management

  Ákos is a member of the Sziget Cultural Management’s international relations team since 2013, currently holding the position of Head of Sales.

  Working on selling as many tickets as possible for Sziget Festival, Balaton Sound and VOLT Festival all over the world. Sziget Festival is one of the, if not the most international festival there is, with visitors coming from over 100 different countries and a total attendance of 565.000 over it’s 7 day period in 2018

• 

  Kevin Sauvageau

  Head of Partnerships and Business Development, Stay22

  Kevin graduated with a business degree in hospitality management, and have cumulated over 10 years of experience in the tourism industry.

  His past positions in hotels consulting and sales allowed him to further hone his business development and team management skills.

• 

  Joanne Sinclair

  Commercial Director, England Netball

  Joanne joined England Netball in 2017 from Red Bull Racing, where she was Head of Partnerships, having previously been Global Relationship Manager for Manchester United, and prior to that, spent time with Northern Suburbs Basketball Association in Australia, and Northampton Saints

• 

  Stephanie Schaub

  Managing Director, Chocoversum Hachez

  Stephanie has worked in the museum industry for 10 years and her passion is still making guests happy & doing this in an economic way.

  The Chocoversum is a chocolate museum in the heart of Hamburg, which was opened up in 2011, with 200.000 visitors per year. The museum started as a classical brandland owned by Hachez but is now privately owned & managed by Stephanie & two investors.

  The guests who visit enjoy a 90 minutes tour guided by one of the 85 team members. The tour includes 13 sample stations & every guest creates his individual chocolate bar.

• 

  Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

  President, StubHub

  Sukhinder Singh Cassidy has founded and successfully built and scaled technology companies at the intersection of media and commerce throughout her career. As SVP and President of StubHub, she is advancing global expansion and championing technology innovation to deliver a superior fan experience. Sukhinder and the StubHub team advocate for fans in search of the best choice, providing open access to live events and connecting fans with their favorite teams, shows and artists around the world.

  Prior to StubHub, Sukhinder was founder of theBoardlist, a talent marketplace that matches women leaders with board opportunities. She was also founder and CEO of Joyus, CEO of Polyvore and co-founded Yodlee. Sukhinder also held senior leadership positions at Google, including serving as President of its Asia Pacific and Latin America business.

• 

  Rebecca Edwards-Symmons

  Head of Digital , Swansea City AFC

  Rebecca leads the digital team at Swansea City Football Club. She is responsible for the new digital platforms introduced at the club within the last 2 years, including a new official website and two mobile apps. Rebecca has over 15 years digital experience working with some of the world’s largest brands such as Amazon and Yell.

  She recently introduced in-app ticketing to the club and more recently in-app season tickets, which were both firsts for UK football. She also built a separate app focusing on athlete welfare for the players and backroom staff.

  The club was recently shortlisted for 5 awards which include the Global Sports Technology Awards for ‘Best Technology in Fan Engagement’ and ‘Best Technology in Athlete Welfare’.

• 

  Marcia Titley

  Managing Director, Venuepoint / Eventim Nordics

  Marcia Titley has worked as Managing Director for the Norwegian office of Eventim since January 2018. Originally trained as a classical musician in Canada, Marcia moved to Norway in 1996 to work as a professional musician.

  She has extensive experience in sales and marketing, both B2B and B2C, from both the classical and popular entertainment industry. Before moving to the world of ticketing,

  Marcia worked for eight years as Sales and Marketing Director at Telenor Arena, Norway’s largest indoor arena, and played an integral part in its development, from a local football arena to a successful, international, multipurpose venue.

• 

  Alan Vey

  Director & Co-Founder, Aventus

  Alan Vey is a co-founder of Aventus, a fair, secure, and transparent blockchain-based solution for event ticketing that can eliminate fraud and unregulated touting. Prior to founding Aventus, Alan worked at the Deloitte Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, before going on to complete a Masters Degree in Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London. His thesis focused on film rights distribution, working with Bafta and the BBC.

  Fast-forward to September 2017 and Alan together with co-founder Annika Monari had released the alpha version of Aventus to a test network, established the Aventus Protocol Foundation to develop and market the open-source Aventus protocol, and led the most successful public ticketing Token Generation Event (TGE) that attracted over 1,300 participants and generated over $15M at the time.

  The Aventus Protocol was made available on the Ethereum network in April 2018.

• 

  Mike Bohndiek

  Director/Consultant, PTI Consulting

  Mike formed PTI Consulting with the aim of enabling clubs and venues to access industry specific technology leaders. In the current climate PTI address the considerable digital transformation and strategic technology needs in the sports and entertainment industry.

  Having worked across 23 venues in football, rugby, cricket, golf and venues in general over his 14-year career in the sector to date, Mike brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the ticketing, data and insight space from a provider and customer perspective having built, deployed and operated the platforms behind several club operations and procured industry recognised systems.

• 

  Gajus Kuizinas

  CEO and Founder, Go2Cinema

  Hands-on technology leader known for a good understanding of the entertainment, advertisement and Wi-Fi industries. Over 10 years experience of delivering scalable end-to-end solutions for starts-ups and large corporations. Co-founded Applaudience, an entertainment intelligence company where we combine data mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication during the theatrical movie release processes. We own real-time showtime, occupancy, ticket price and film marketing performance data for all major exhibitors in Europe and North America. Our goal is to increase attendance of the existing audiences by enabling data-rich collaboration between exhibitors and distributors.

• 

  Paul Deason

  CEO, Motorsport Live

  Paul Deason is a graduate in Business Computing & IT. After graduating, he worked for an insurance start-up as a web technologies computer programmer.

  In his spare time, he set-up Bookf1.com; an independent ticketing reseller specialising in the motorsport ticketing market. In 2007, Paul left his employment to focus solely on Bookf1.com, which has now grown to be one of the largest motorsport ticketing resellers in the UK.

  In 2018, Bookf1.com joined the Motorsport Network and Paul took on the role as CEO of Motorsport Live; a new division tasked with developing international ticketing, experience, and travel services.

• 

  Neetu Bhatia

  Co-founder & CEO, Kyazoonga, India

  An investment banker turned entrepreneur, Neetu is credited with creating the professional entertainment and sports ticketing market in India. Under her leadership, Kyazoonga has expanded rapidly with global operations in the US, Caribbean, Europe, UAE and Australia, and has ticketed some of the largest events, including the recently concluded FIFA U-17 World Cup, An alumnus of MIT, Neetu was a senior investment banker on Wall Street leading teams at Bank of Montreal, Lehman Brothers and McKinsey prior to co-founding Kyazoonga. A former national cricket player, Neetu serves on the Boards of several not-for-profit organizations in New York City and India.

• 

  Daniel Gidney

  CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LANCASHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB, UK

  An established sports industry CEO for over ten years now, Daniel Gidney launched the first ever cricket bond as part of an innovative £12m fundraising to develop and operate a new 150 bedroom Hilton hotel, which opened in Summer 2017. Daniel’s time at LCCC has generated record profits and the securing of the largest ever naming rights in First Class Cricket, with Emirates. He also secured ECB International matches, including an Ashes Test and a World Cup semi-final in 2019. Daniel was also the 2011 Midlands Business Person of the Year, and the 2014 Trafford Business Person of the Year.

• 

  Carolyn Sims

  Director of Marketing & Audience Engagement, English National Opera, UK

  What’s (still) wrong with our business?

  Carolyn is a highly respected, hands-on, marketing strategist who has worked in a range of entertainment and retail organisations in her career including Ticketmaster, Really Useful, Live Nation Entertainment and Time Out.

  Carolyn’s innate ability to be able to put the customer first means that she has forged and shared her skills across a range of customer channels in digital marketing, CRM, audience development and marketing strategies that enable organisations to become profitably customer centric.

  Carolyn is an experienced professional in developing and implementing innovative growth strategies through the delivery of customer focused ticketing and commercial excellence. Her passion is for new technologies that provide a great experience for customers to be able to get to and buy the ticket they want.

• 

  Jonathan Brown

  CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SOCIETY OF TICKET AGENTS & RETAILERS (STAR), UK

  Jonathan is Chief Executive of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR). the self­
  regulatory body for the entertainment ticket industry. STAR’s membership embraces all
  the major primary ticket agents in the UK as well as many venues and supporting
  organisations. Members work to a strict code governing high standards of customer
  service and information and a dispute conciliation service operates to help resolve customer complaints. STAR also works on behalf of its members through information sharing and co­operation on key matters affecting the ticket industry. Jonathan has represented STAR on ticketing issues in the press and at industry events for many years.

• 

  Tim Chambers

  Managing Director, TJChambers Consultancy, UK

  Interrogating the industry’s latest start-ups and disruptors

  Senior advisor and consultant for ticketing and the business of live entertainment. Career experience includes M&A, strategic development and corporate leadership for various Start-Up’s and PLC. Currently advising a number of international organisations seeking to transform their business operations within the sector. Available for coffee, will travel.

• 

  Ian Nuttall

  Founder and CEO, TheTicketingBusiness Forum/TheTicketingBusiness News

  Ian Nuttall is the owner and founder of TheTicketingBusiness Forum, presented by his Xperiology events business. His working life began in sports hospitality events management (including Formula 1, horse racing and Wimbledon) before pursuing an award-winning career in B2B magazine publishing. He has co-launched and edited numerous business titles (ranging from energy and industrial processes through to airport design and Intelligent Transportation Systems). He has also founded many of the sports sector’s most respected publications and news sources. In addition to his ongoing commitments as a sports business writer and speaker, Ian provides highly-valued, specialist consultancy to the sports and entertainment venue sector.

• 

  Dr Marcus Garbe

  MANAGING PARTNER & FOUNDER, TRANSACTION CONSULTING, SWITZERLAND

  Marcus has over 20 years’ experience as managing director, entrepreneur and consultant. He has profound industry expertise in the live entertainment & ticketing sector, has successfully completed numerous M&A transactions in this field, and worked as advisor for several blue-chip and other companies.

  As one of his recent transactions he has been the exclusive advisor for the shareholders of Jetticket Software in the trade sale to CTS-Eventim Group. Previously, Marcus has worked for ifo-institute, Roland Berger 8, Partner, argonauten (WPP), REPLY, Ticketcorner and has founded diverse start-ups.

• 

  Gareth Deakin

  Founder, Sonorous Global Consulting

  Gareth is a Business Development, Strategy consultant and startup mentor and advisor, helping early-stage companies. He’s the founder of Sonorous Global a consultancy working at the intersection of technology and innovation in the creative and entertainment industries.

  Prior to consulting, he was Head Of Business Development for Sony Music where he spearheaded growth in non-traditional revenue streams, including artist ticketing, direct 2 fan commerce and new distribution channels.

  From here he headed up strategic partnerships and international development for Canadian start-up Intellitix, focused on creating seamless digital experiences for worlds biggest events, festivals and venues.

• 

  Martin Gammeltoft

  VP, Commercial Operations, Activity Stream, Denmark

  Activity Stream is a next-generation intelligence and productivity tool improving daily operations and customer experience by combining Business Activity Monitoring and Operational Intelligence with Enterprise Activity Streams and Data Visualisation, in a unique 4-in-1 solution, helping businesses become truly data-driven.

  Martin is heading the commercial side of things at Activity Stream and is responsible for the Live Entertainment vertical. He comes from a background in concert services and ticketing and is passionate about helping venues and organisers exploit the many benefits of data, without having to take in the full complexity.

Who will be there

• Our Sponsors
• Our Partners
• Our Attendees

What are people saying?

The best networking place I've been to. I was able to get very high level leads and meet relevant partners. You did a great great job to gather such high level and exhaustive people!

Chloé Julien Founder & CEO, BandSquare, France

CIOs, CTO,s Chief Execs... all those people turn up at this event. it’s a fantastic opportunity to engage with them

Rick Jurkiewicz Head of Ticketing, The Rugby Football League, UK

This is the focal point of the ticketing industry in Europe, where the decision-makers meet and exchange ideas

Niels Henrik Sodemann Managing Partner/CEO, Queue-it, Denmark

At the Forum we made concrete progress with regards to selecting a new ticketing provider. I would be happy to recommend the Forum to other venues in the future.

Martin O'Donoghue Business Development Manager, Cork Opera House, Ireland

If you’re curious about the future, if you want to see how things are developing, if you wanna get to know your peers... you need to be at the Forum.

James Charrington CEO, Dewynters, UK

For me the most important thing was to meet with all the different companies in ticketing and I’ve managed that, and I left with many business cards!

Grégory Six Major Projects and Development Manager, AS Monaco, Monaco