by midnight on Friday 25 November
Mariam Ahmed, events director, Shortlist Media
Ahmed joined Shortlist Media in 2011 and was promoted to her current role 12 months ago. Under her leadership, Shortlist Media launched Stylist Live, which returned in 2016 with brand activations from the likes of Notonthehighstreet.com and Breast Cancer Now.
Mark Blair, divisional director, InEvexco
Blair has been fundamental in expanding InEvexco business accounts, which includes Haymarket, Telegraph, Closer Still and In The Night Garden Live. In addition, Blair has been offering invaluable advice for his clients regarding The National Mourning and Terrorism, which has helped to set him apart from the rest of the insurance market.
Mark Stringer, founder, Pretty Green
Stringer has led successful campaigns such as the Under Armour activation with Andy Murray at Wimbledon, a retailer experience for Lego, a Pandora store launch, the virtual reality in-store experience for the John Lewis Christmas advert and Virgin Media’s Go To Marker event. Stringer constantly pushes the Pretty Green team to its creative boundaries and ensures every campaign delivers brand fame for clients.
Martin Hawthorn, managing director, Hawthorn
Over the last year, Hawthorn has led the company through a period of unprecedented growth. He has overseen an investment of £3m in the latest technical equipment, which has allowed the events technology company to push experiential boundaries. The company delivered technical solutions for events such as the Adobe Summit 2016 and BBC Worldwide Showcase, formed partnerships with the Smart Group and become technical production partner at the new London venue, Events Here at Here East.
Matthew Margetson, creative director, Smyle Group
This year Margetson directed the launch of the 930-passenger Viking Sea cruise ship, which featured a number of experiences that focused on the brand’s Norwegian heritage. The agency brought helicopters, fire tugs and decorated pontoons together to welcome the Viking Sea past the Thames Barrier and into Greenwich, where it received a saluted welcome from the Cutty Sark’s yardarms. With Margetson’s direction, Smyle helped to produce London Technology Week 2016, as well as its rebrand and vision for the year ahead.
Max Fellows, head of client services at Clive and co-founder of Elevate
Over the last 12 months, Fellows has helped the company to deliver a rebrand, win new business and establish a new mentoring and support network. He also helped the company to deliver a first-of-its-kind event for a tech company, which included immersive techniques and employed several spaces, such as galleries, exhibition spaces and viewing platforms - all contained within the new Tate building.
Melissa Noakes, experiential marketing consultant and co-founder of Elevate
Noakes has co-founded new mentoring scheme, Elevate, which seeks to give people across the events industry access to vital support, as well as giving mentees the opportunity to contribute in a structured way. In addition to creating Elevate, Noakes is a regular speaker on the role of women in the industry, as well as the role of experiential in marketing. After leaving Sony, she has worked in a consulting capacity for a number of brands and agencies, and also guest lectures at several universities.
Meredith O'Shaughnessy, CEO, Meredith Collective
As part of a 12-month innovative campaign, O'Shaughnessy has staged a pop-up launderette bar with cocktail washing machine makers, the world’s first avocado-only restaurant and invited guests to spend an evening with the Joneses in their pop-up family home. She is bold, creative and has overseen the largest increase in sales in a decade. Her company has been listed in John Lewis for the first time.
Michael Brown, managing director, MKTG
Since appearing 4th on the Event 100 list last year, Brown has continued to oversee the growth and expansion of MKTG. With the launch of new division Urban Partnerships, the agency has ventured into social purpose and small cities spaces, aiming to bring together local communities, local authorities and corporate entities to do something mutually beneficial for all stake holders in publicly owned space. Under Brown's direction, MKTG set up clean air bubbles to test lung health in London's most polluted boroughs, as well as launching Smart Benches and Buzz Bike - both of which seek to improve citizen experience. Also this year, MKTG won a second successive Agency of the Year accolade, and the agency is IPA Platinum Rated for Continuos Professional Development.
Michael Collins, managing director, Bubble Food
Under Michael's direction, Bubble Food has seen growth and has added to its diverse range of clients. Collins has been instrumental in increasing turnover, restructuring the company to provide dedicated sales and marketing departments and showcasing the company on Channel 4's 'World's Most Expensive Food'. Collins led the company during the Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie premiere after-party held at Liberty’s of London. The event welcomed 700 guests in total.
Michael Wyrley-Birch, chief operating officer, EMEA, TRO
Wyrley-Birch has worked at TRO for 21 years. Under his leadership, TRO has won and developed business with clients including BMW Group, General Motors, British Airways, Lucozade Ribena Suntory and Google. Wyrley-Birch has also endorsed the external training course ‘Growing Great Managers’, which saw 60-plus managers trained over a six-month period. In February, he oversaw the opening of TRO’s Milan office.
Mike Kunheim, managing director, London and Seoul, Jack Morton Worldwide
Towards the end of 2015, Kunheim was appointed as managing director of Jack Morton Worldwide. As managing director, he has driven forward commercial growth, pushed for a ‘do something extraordinary’ culture and championed the evolution of brand experiences within the company, particularly regarding immersive and inventive technology. Kunheim oversaw the launch event for the Samsung Galaxy S7, which included a technically creative VR experience. In addition, Kunheim and his team worked with Kodak to reignite consumer interest and exceeded commercial targets, as well as delivering a product launch and brand shift for Scania.
Mini Vohra, managing director, Cornucopia Events
Vohra has organised a $2.4m event for Mactus, which will see 11,000 staff enjoy artists such as Taylor Swift, Linkin Park and Maroon 5 in 2018. The concert will welcome 42,000 people in total.Nic Cooper, CEO, Sledge
Under Cooper’s direction, Sledge has opened a new office in Dubai against a highly competitive market backdrop and retained the Dubai Government’s 'Dubai Week in China' event business. Co-op food and HPE have joined Sledge’s client roster, as well as a new partnership with Beyond 90 to produce the Rugby World Cup fanzone in Manchester. The company continues to work with O2, a partnership which is now 13 years old. Cooper took on the role of executive producer for the O2 launch of the iPhone 6S.
Nick Adams, group managing director, Sense
The past 12 months have been fantastic for Adams as MD of Sense. The business is heading into an exciting period of expansion having achieved its ambition of opening overseas. Sense New York will be opening in January 2017. This comes on the back of being appointed to work on Economist US – a client that Sense London has partnered with over the past three years. In addition, Adams has led the team to its highest pitch win performance on record, resulting in a record year for gross profits. Agency direction has been a critical focus for Sense this year with Adams spearheading the development of the agency Strategic Thought Leadership programme, which sees individual departments hosting external seminars, publishing white papers and forging alliances with industry bodies, such as ISBA.Nick Morgan, CEO, The Fair
Under Morgan’s leadership, The Fair has seen a 68% growth this year, as well as having produced double the number of shows. The company’s portfolio has grown, and now includes the likes of Hammerson, Grosvenor Estates, Time Warner, London Cocktail Week and The Big Issue Foundation. Morgan and the team also produced Boxpark Croydon’s launch festival alongside Boxpark, Eskimo Dance and NME, and received a positive response from the industry and audience.
Olivia Danzig, operations manager, FreemanXP
Danzig has helped to deliver key projects for FreemanXP, all while still studying for a CIM accredited Diploma in Event Management for Marketing and Communication at Ashdown Academy. She has dedicated most of her spare time to the three-month course, but this did not prevent her from excelling at FreemanXP. She played an integral role in the delivery of the Drupa cube content programme, was responsible for talent management and organised several of FreemanXP’s own events.Patrick Hammond, co-founder, Hot Pickle
Hot Pickle was crowned Brand Experience Agency of the Year at the this year’s Event Awards, and also won ‘Best B2C Brand Experience for its work with Magnum. The agency also delivered major activations for the likes of Coca-Cola, Hellmann's and Barbie in the last 12 months and Hammond secured Dove as a new major client this year, overseeing all of its experiential work, including its sponsorship of Glorious Goodwood.
Payal Gaglani Bhatt, senior events manager, SOAS University of London
Payal managed to stage a three-day-long graduation event, which welcomed more than 4000 attendees with a budget of £200,000. Graduation ceremonies aim to emotionally engage an audience, and Payal was in charge of planning, managing, leading and delivering the experience.Peter Davies, business development director, George P Johnson
Davies has achieved new account wins in new business sectors for George P Johnson over the last 12 months, which has helped the company’s growth outside of its traditional markets. He played an integral role in delivering a creative brand-driven live experience that changed the way the company looks at itself.
Peter Harding, director, Hawthorn
Harding helped to create a stunning production design to aid BBC Worldwide in showcasing its premium programmes to international television buyers, including the all-new Top Gear. His designs were used for two impressive gala dinners which invited guests to witness the best in British TV creativity. Harding’s team has seen a number successes this year including the creation of a visually exciting experience for the launch of the new Top Gear, as well as collaborating with agency Taylor Bennett to provide full technical production at Adobe Summit 2016 EMEA.
Philippa Bowers, client services director, Fisher Productions
Bowers has worked in the events industry for more than 16 years, producing events for large corporate clients and joined Fisher Productions in 2000. Her experience and knowledge of the events industry landed her a role on the board in 2005. In 2016 her team have pitched, won and produced events for brands and companies such as L’Oréal, Lodha International, PWC, Lee Cooper, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer’s, Real Estate Management to name a few. In 2015 Bowers was production director for an immersive fashion exhibition that took place in London and achieved a footfall of over 90,000 people.
Phoebe Cherry, director, Smart Live
In the last year, Cherry has secured, designed and delivered a brand launch and employee engagement event for Kantar, as well as overseeing a rebrand of the agency and bringing in a number of major new accounts. In addition, she designed and managed a brand experience to launch Here East - the immersive experience aimed to showcase the venue. Guests were treated to a bespoke performance from the Studio Wayne MacGregor, observed a hybrid supercar showcase and had the opportunity to interact with cutting-edge technology, including 3D printing and robotics, in the Innovation Centre.See also:
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