WHO?

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The Speaker Line Up

• 

  Ian Nuttall

  Founder, TheTicketingBusiness/Xperiology

  Ian is the Owner and Founder of TheTicketingBusiness Forum and its news channel TheTicketingBusiness.com – both presented by his Xperiology events and marketing agency. His working life began in sports 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 B2B publications and meetings, 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 – including Stadia magazine, TheStadiumBusiness.com and TheStadiumBusiness Summit. In his downtime from family and worklife, he takes his dogs on the Downs, rides his (motor)bikes and treks up the occasional mountain.

• 

  Tim Chambers

  Mentor, Advisor & Consultant, TJChambers Consultancy

  Tim Chambers is a Mentor, Advisor and Consultant. He currently works with a number of organisations seeking to enter, redefine or expand their operations within the live entertainment and ticketing sectors, advising on corporate development strategies and directing transactions. Tim also has a number of advisory posts including NED roles with various start-ups and emerging companies.

• 

  Adam Goodyer

  Founder & CEO, Realife Tech

  Adam Goodyer is the founder and CEO of Realife Tech, a platform that powers personalisation and commerce within the mobile apps of some of the world’s biggest teams, stadiums and arenas. Clients include The O2, Tottenham Hotspur, LA Galaxy and Southampton FC. Realife’s technology provides personalised digital experiences to each individual fan and maximises visitor spend and business growth.

• 

  Francis Hellyer

  Co-Founder & Chief Executive, London Theatre Direct

  As co-founder and chief executive of London Theatre Direct, Francis is a keen investor, innovator, futurist and mentor.

  London Theatre Direct was born in 1999, with his friend, Emmanuel Ciolfi and a laptop. The ticketing site was the first of its kind in the UK, and it has since grown to become one of the UK’s leading ticket agents and distributors.

  The company prides itself on a future-minded outlook and use of new technology to make buying theatre tickets online easier, such as displaying interactive seating plans, connecting to multiple API systems, and becoming the first ticket seller in the world to accept bitcoin.

  As an avid investor, Francis has aided a variety of companies including: StartupYard, Blue Horizon Ventures, FTW Ventures, SIMULATE, and Hope.Tech. He has also set up his own investment company, Hellyer Capita

• 

  Alexandre Martin

  CEO & Co-Founder, Smeetz

  Alexandre is the CEO & Co-Founder of Smeetz, the #1 data-driven ticketing and dynamic pricing SaaS for attractions and cultural venues. The Swiss-based scale-up helps customers through Europe to automate pricing strategies, optimise occupancy and sell on multiple distribution channels.

  Alexandre is a frequent speaker in various tech and startup conferences. His broad knowledge of different industries, as well as  his entrepreneurial / tech-driven mindset, have helped him and his team shape unique solutions to re-thinking ticketing and visitor journey post-pandemic.

• 

  Michael Rice

  Media & Communications Manager, CAFE - Centre for Access to Football in Europe

  Michael is the Media and Communications Manager at CAFE, and takes a lead on promoting activities and initiatives in line with CAFE’s objective of #TotalAccess. CAFE is a core UEFA CSR partner, working to improve access and inclusion for disabled people using the unique power of football.

  Michael manages CAFE’s works around audio-descriptive commentary, providing an inclusive matchday experience for partially sighted and blind fans, and is responsible for managing the annual CAFE Week of Action celebrating the progress that sport is making in becoming more accessible for all disabled people.

  As Media and Communications Manager, Michael is involved in many of CAFE’s projects and has spent the past 10 years developing CAFE’s communications strategies and outputs.

• 

  Ignacio Sanchez

  Director - Hospitality & Leisure, Braintrust

  Ignacio is a commercial strategy expert with twenty years of international top management experience in the travel and leisure industries, having worked for companies such as Deloitte, NH Hotel Group, Parques Reunidos Group or Meliá Hotels International. Now, as Director of Hospitality & Leisure for Braintrust, an international consulting firm, his focus is to increase the value and profitability of companies through the definition and execution of strategic growth plans and revenue optimization strategies, with a special focus on Pricing. In addition, he is adjunct professor of Pricing at IE Business School, frequent speaker at different international conferences and has been a member of the advisory board of The Leading Hotels of the World and the pricing technology company Duetto.

• 

  Carolyn Sims

  Director, CMSA Consultancy

  Carolyn’s experience in marketing events, brands and products ranges from theatre, live music and opera and across her roles as Marketing Director at Ticketmaster, Group Marketing Director at Time Out and Marketing Director at ENO and the London Coliseum. Delivering successful strategies for growth for over 2 decades (and possibly more) she is known not only for her expertise and passion for great marketing but for her effective leadership and some would say wit and humour. She now runs her own marketing & communications consulting business.

• 

  Caspian Turner

  Director, Accessible by Design

  Caspian Turner is a Digital Accessibility Consultant and Director of Accessible by Design. He has over 12 years of experience working in the arts, culture and technology sectors. Before starting Accessible by Design, Caspian held roles at Substrakt, Tessitura Network, Southbank Centre and Glyndebourne.

• 

  Francis Casado

  Co-Founder & Head of Business Development, 3D Digital Venue

  Francis Casado is one of the founders of Mobile Media Content – 3D Digital Venue and is currently serving as Head of Business Development. Prior to founding MMC- 3D Digital Venue, that revolutionized Interactive Digital Venue Management for Sports and Entertainment Venue Industry, Francis made his career around the beneficial application of 3D Technology and Virtual Reality for various sectors. A true entrepreneur, Francis’s previous time at Barcelona Media was primarily focused as a product manager responsible for developing innovative 3D solutions for use in construction of new urban developments by Barcelona Smart City Council.

• 

  Lyubomyr Nykyforuk

  Solutions Architect, Softjourn

  Lyubomyr Nykyforuk is the Head of the Solution Creation Department at Softjourn, Inc. He is a passionate ticketing professional and PMP-certified project manager with over 12 years of ticketing experience. Lyubomyr has been involved with Softjourn’s ticketing projects since 2007, when the company signed their first ticketing client, Vendini. His ticketing expertise includes the architecture, design, and development of a wide range of ticketing functionality. He has worked on a variety of projects that span a number of ticketing topics, including access control, venue mapping/seat selection, ticket printing, returns/exchanges, donations, packages, CRM functionality, and patron management. During Ticketing Business Forum’s 2019 conference, he discussed how social media can help in mitigating chargebacks. Lyubomyr presented on blockchain in ticketing at the Ticketing Professionals conference in 2018.

• 

  James Kirby

  Co-Founder & Product Leader, Tixserve

  James is Product Leader and Co-Founder at Tixserve, a Business-to-Business, Software-as-a-Service, white-label, digital ticket delivery platform for rights owners/ticket sellers in the global entertainment and sports sectors. With a background in delivering ground-breaking solutions in the payments and mobile airtime distribution sectors, James and co-founder Patrick saw an opportunity to add value to the ticketing industry with a market-led, next-generation, ‘last mile’ digital solution. The Tixserve mobile-based, patented technology enables effective personalised security, public health protocol compliance and access control to events, preventing unauthorised ticket exchange/resale and fraud while greatly enhancing the customer experience and supporting the development of new data-driven digital marketing and commerce partnerships.

• 

  Bryan Derbyshire

  Founder & CEO, Protecht

  Bryan Derbyshire knows about what consumers want with live event services because he’s always the fan looking to try out new experiences. As the founder and CEO of Protecht, he manages a suite of cutting edge InsurTech products, primarily in the live event, endurance, and ecommerce spaces, but rapidly expanding across industries.

  Protecht’s Suite of Insurtech products are designed to create seamless transactions, reduce fraud, manage inventory, and offer peace of mind to buyers and sellers. In creating the company’s first two products, Fanshield and TicketGuardian, Bryan challenged the status quo and made major moves toward protecting the end consumer, simplifying the process for fans to file a claim and get their money back.

  Bryan’s career has been driven by his strong track record of revenue generation, with sales and growth leadership roles at large companies across the financial services industry. This background gave him the foundation to build his own business where he focuses on his passion for InsurTech.

  Bryan holds his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Arizona State University.

• 

  Shah-Zeib Ahmed

  Head of Ticketing, RLWC2021

  Shah-Zeib comes from a tourism and hospitality background after successfully running a number of successful businesses in Austria.
  An exchange term abroad during his business undergraduate course in Vienna quickly resulted in Shah-Zeib finding his new home – in Manchester.
  From there the journey only got better, where in the iconic Maracanã during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, Shah-Zeib fell in love with the world of ticketing.

  What followed on from there:
  ·        MBA Football Industries, University of Liverpool, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 and many more

  Having gathered global ticketing experiences as a service provider and rightsholder, Shah-Zeib’s journey has taken him to a different shaped ball game to the Rugby League World Cup 2021.
  At RLWC2021, he is the Head of Ticketing, tasked with the delivery of the most inclusive edition of the tournament staging the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments across several iconic venues in England.
  With the postponement of the tournament now confirmed Shah will also take on the role of dealing with the refunds process as a whole while still building towards the biggest and best RLWC ever in 2022.

• 

  Neil Jones

  Head of Ticketing, Royal Opera House

  Neil Jones has worked in live entertainment for over 25 years in a variety of roles across theatres, live venues and festivals including senior roles. Having started off in hist first job as a Box Office Assistant at the North Wales Theatre his career took him to various UK theatres, via Cheltenham Festivals and on to Operations Director for the Cambridge Corn Exchange and Cambridge Folk Festival.

  In his current role of Head of Ticketing at the Royal Opera House he oversees the management and development of world-famous theatre’s Ticketing and Customer Support sections with the challenge of transforming the departments to better meet the demands of the modern digital age. Outside of the day job he has presented rock radio shows for 25 years. Whatever you do….don’t get him talking about Iron Maiden unless you have some time to kill!

• 

  Leon Gray

  Head of Ticketing/CRM, Edinburgh International Festival / The Hub

  Following a successful freelance career in children’s publishing, Leon started working for Aberdeen Performing Arts in September 2005. Leon moved up through the box office to become Head of Business Transformation in 2016, leading on the company’s IT strategy and policy development, managing the operations team and embedding environmental sustainability initiatives throughout the organisation. In August 2020, Leon took up a new role as Head of Ticketing and CRM at Edinburgh International Festival, where acts as the strategic lead for ticketing services.

  Over the years, Leon has successfully delivered three ticketing/CRM system migrations, most recently in his current role, where he managed the transition from AudienceView to Spektrix – all done completely remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic! Edinburgh International Festival went live with Spektrix in April 2021.

• 

  Martin Gammeltoft

  VP, Commercial Operations, Activity Stream

  With a background in concert services and ticketing, Martin Gammeltoft now heads up the commercial side of Activity Stream. Working with industry leaders and key partners, Activity Stream develop AI-based tools for the live entertainment industry, enabling organisations to use data to improve their business and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

   

   

• 

  Bruno Munzer

  Chief Technical Officer & Managing Director, Pacifa Decision

  Bruno Munzer has been working in IT industry for 15 years. He made his career in software and middleware development. He is now leading a strong and effective team of developers and infographists to rise every kind of ticketing project. Always turn to the future he is being part of PACIFA since the beginning in 2012. He is now in charge of promotion and sales but still aware on new technologies.

• 

  Einar Gústafsson

  VP of Product & Engineering, TIX Ticketing

  Einar is VP of Product & Engineering at Tix. Einar has been with Tix since earlier this year. Even though he does not have a long experience in ticketing he has a long experience in product management and is an experienced speaker. He has also experience in expansion as he has previously worked as VP of product management for both Bókun (now Tripadvisor) and Meniga.

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