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. View the 2019 Speaker Line up below.

The Speaker Line Up

• 

  Peter Taylor

  Director, Cuffe and Taylor

  Partner in event and gig promoters Cuffe & Taylor which is now part of the Live Nation family. Quite simply Peter is one of the emerging forces in the world of live music, theatre and major national tours. A lover of the arts and treading the boards Peter was destined to work in the entertainment industry. After working in hotel management for a number of years Peter decided to join forces with his best friend and business partner to form Cuffe and Taylor. Alongside his business partner, Peter not only leads the company, but he is the person responsible for sourcing the right artistes for the right events. And with sell-out shows the norm for Cuffe and Taylor, Peter knows just what the hot ticket is. “I’ve always had a passion for entertainment,” says Peter, “but, unable to pursue a career on stage, I’ve decided to put people on it instead!” The most interesting fact about Peter: Before his voice broke (!) he performed a solo on Christmas Day of Once in Royal David’s City on BBC Radio 2 live from the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

• 

  Kahlil Ashanti

  Founder and CEO, weshowup

  Kahlil Ashanti is the Founder and CEO of weshowup.io, the largest digital pay-after-the-experience platform for arts, culture and entertainment. He created it to scratch his own itch when he wrote a new show and had no idea what to charge the audience for admission, revealing that the perceived value of any event is highest at the end of the experience. As an actor, speaking coach and web developer he is constantly searching for ways to help people share their stories in memorable ways with those they seek to serve. His performance career contains lots of cool accolades which you can find at kahlilashanti.com.

• 

  Mike Armstrong

  Vice President, Reedpop

  Despite assuming he’d continue working in Minor League Baseball for his entire career, Mike stumbled into a role with Reedpop working with a great team on some of the most iconic events across the globe. Mike oversees the Comic Con portfolio, which includes New York Comic Con (250,000+ tickets sold), C2E2, Emerald City Comic Con and more. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, two young children and more badges and lanyards than he can count.

• 

  Dale Ballentine

  CEO, Motorsport Tickets

  Dale is an experienced and passionate entertainment and ticketing professional with a solid, in-depth knowledge of the live industry and beyond. With a 20-year career spanning a multitude of areas within the industry including venue management, sales & marketing, change management, project & operational management and technology. Dale joined Motorsport Tickets, part of the Motorsport Network as CEO in the autumn of 2019 after a 5-year stint with CTS Eventim in Brazil and London. Previously he held pivotal roles at Ticketmaster and Live Nation and has two Summer Olympics under his belt.

• 

  Victoria Barlow

  Head of Membership and Ticketing, Badminton England / National Badminton Centre

  17 years in the sports industry starting in the leisure sector before moving into sports development and then commercial sales. Formerly at Bristol Sport before transferring to Badminton England as Head of Membership and Ticketing. Over the last 12 months she has developed sound and engaging processes to ensure enhanced fan and member experience for national and international buyers. Key ticketing focuses have been implementing a dynamic pricing model to change buying behaviors, engaging with international fans and improving ticketing yield. She has led an emphasis around putting data and insights at the heart of the organisation to focus marketing activity.

• 

  Steve Jacobson

  CEO, Jacobson Consulting Applications

  Steve Jacobson is the CEO and founder of JCA, started in 1988 to provide information management services to nonprofit organizations. JCA has delivered consulting projects on CRM strategy, marketing analysis, business intelligence, and ticketing implementations for such clients as Carnegie Hall, Sage Gateshead, the Arsht Center, The American Museum of Natural History, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Prior to JCA, Mr. Jacobson worked in economic consulting for Rinfret Associates, Inc. as a research analyst and, subsequently, senior consultant for Data Resources, Inc. He holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Psychology from Stanford University.

• 

  Rob March

  Head of Partnerships & Hospitality, M&S Bank Arena

  Rob is an experienced senior level commercial professional with 20 years’ experience of B to B / B to C Commercial Sales, Sponsorship, Consumer Event Marketing and Corporate Hospitality sales. Rob is currently responsible for all Corporate Hospitality Sales at the Echo Arena Liverpool, management of all venue Sponsors for ACC Liverpool and all commercial advertising sales. Rob has worked in the major events sector for over 15 years, was part of the Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 delivery team, worked for Chester Race Company for 4 years and has been with ACC Liverpool Group for 5 years.

• 

  Edwin Suk

  Chief Information Officer, Feyenoord (Football and Stadium)

  Edwin Suk, chief information officer at Feyenoord (football and stadium). I have studied business economics and have 20 years of experience in general management and IT. I maintain a visionary, strategic and central approach for IT, since it is essential for success, distinctiveness and growth in modern organisations and it is an important driver for inevitable change. My main goal is to transform organisations with my colleagues into profitable, information driven, digitalized, agile and innovative businesses, resilient, flexible, effective and able to grow.

• 

  Thomas Torjusen

  Chief Digital Officer, Norwegian Professional Football League / Norsk Toppfotball

  Thomas has 13 years experience from the soocer industry after several years in 
banking and ecommerce. He is currently the CDO at Norsk Toppfotball.  In 2007 he joined the club Fredrikstad FK as head of Media and IT. There he also worked as the clubs ticketing manager.
In 2012 he started to work with the League and their joint media-platform, which currently
counts 45 clubs. In addition he has also implemented  a joint Connected league solution, capture of customer data from social media
for the clubs into CRM, Fantasy and e sports. Thomas is also responsible for the joint 
ticketing system that was signed for the League in late 2019.
 Norway is a small country and therefore it is important to make the clubs cooperate in creating joint solutions and leave the battle to the pitch

• 

  Greg Turner

  Principal, High Performance Venue Consulting

  Through his nearly 20 years in China, Greg has successfully led increasingly complex organisations in building, financing and presenting experiences. His work has included all aspects of the business venue operations & event planning and execution to sponsorship sales and activation & event ticketing. Most recently, Greg opened and operated Shantou University Sports Park, a multi functional basketball arena with attached hotel. Building on this experience, Greg is currently working to bring together best practice operators from around the world and the plethora of state of the art (but commercially underperforming) stadia and arena throughout second and third tier Chinese cities, giving these venues the tools they need to achieve their true potential.

• 

  Thomas Zimmermann

  Chief Marketing Officer, DHB e.V. / German Handball Federation

  A Sports Marketing Professional with 20+ years´ cross industry experience in B2B and B2C Marketing, Brand Management and Sports Marketing. 
Built successfully several brands in B2C and B2B, globally and domestic, from global player to smaller companies and privately owned firms in a variety of industries. Proven ability and track records to develop strong brand reputation drive revenue and build thought leadership through various marketing and communication initiatives. 

In 2019 in lead all marcom activities for the handball worldcup in Germany.
In the same year he also repositioned the DHB, the biggest handball federation of the world, by launching a new corporate identity and corporate design.
Before joining the DHB he worked 10 years in the sport research and consulting business for Nielsen Sports, Repucom and SPORT+MARKT. After the merger of SPORT+MARKT and Repucom and further M&A´s he rebranded all group brands to Repucom and helped to develop Repucom as the global market and thought leader in his industry. In 2016 Repucom was acquired from Nielsen

• 

  Gareth Deakin

  Founder, Sonorous Global Consulting

  Gareth is a Business Development, Strategy Consultant and start-up 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-to- 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 the world’s biggest events, festivals and venues.

Who will be there

• Our Sponsors
• Our Partners
• Our Attendees

What are people saying?

The highest number of exciting conversations we've ever had at a conference!

Natalie Senyk Business Development Manager, Softjourn

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

A very well organised conference and great fun too. Many exciting opportunities in the pipeline...

Lea Stiels Marketing Manager, Oxynade

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

2019 was our first year at the Forum, we are really happy and have had a lot of very exciting conversations.

Kelsey McGrath Operations Manager, PixelPin

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