Bernard has been working in and around the events industry for over 20 years. He spent the first part of his career working in publishing and media, where he launched several events and food titles across the world and founded several regional Food Awards where he worked with many of the countries top chefs and food critics and supported trainee hospitality industry professionals. Two years ago he joined Options GB as MD, where he oversaw the aquisition of Greathire and the merger of both companies. He is now MD of Options Greathire, the UK’s leading tableware and furniture hire business. Options Greathire is part of Options a European wide company with more than 850 employees, £80,000,000 turnover and 20 locations across the continent.

Clare has worked within the events industry for over 20 years. Her career in events started at Regent’s University where she progressed from events manager to head of department during her time there as well as completing a master’s degree in event management. She then moved to the British Academy as Head of Business Development followed by Head of Sales & Events at Royal Museums Greenwich.

Clare now works as Head of Hospitality & Events at The National Gallery, housing one of the greatest collections of Western European paintings in the world, with responsibility for the strategic, financial and operational oversight of all public hospitality, events and commercial tours creatively maximising revenue and growing income within it’s magnificent spaces.

Craig is the General Manager of the newly opened Convene at 22 Bishopsgate. Set in the City of London this location boasts impressive meetings and event space, coupled with a dedicated workplace members club. Located within 22 Bishopsgate the space offers event space capable of hosting up to 800 people with award winning AV technology offering full hybrid solutions.

Craig started his journey working within hotels with a heavy focus on event operations. Having spent time at Sofitel managing the events department he then worked for a family where he project managed and opened the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre. Having completed this project Craig then moved back to London to take on the role of General Manager at Hotel Indigo London Kensington before landing his most recent role at Convene.

Jackie has had over 30 years working in the UK hospitality industry, marketing and selling hotel group and venues, including Hilton, along with 9 years at the new Wembley Stadium, where she was part of the pre-opening and mobilisation team. She has first hand of experience of selling into the MICE, Corporate and Leisure markets, and has been an active member of several industry Associations serving either as a Board member or a founding partner.
Her current role as Head of Business Events for The Barbican involves her working across its vast portfolio of venues, continuing its growth and commercial success in the domestic and international business events market, whilst blending in with the artistic offer to create bespoke and memorable events for business clients, and at the same time connecting with the arts programmes.

A winner in the supplier/venue category of the UK Event Hot 50 Awards 2016 and 2017, Jackie is regularly featured in a variety of meetings and events industry honours lists. These include C&IT’s Venue Heads, where she has been voted 3rd in the UK, along with Event Management’s Event 100 Club where she was placed 18th out of 100. She has also been included in C&IT’s Power 50 – the most 50 most influential people in the UK Meetings and Event industry.

Ross is the owner of the beautiful and quirky Shoreditch Treehouse. Located in central Shoreditch, the Treehouse is a corporate meeting and event space. The venue caters for meetings up to 24, conferences up to 40 and concerts up to 80 (with a Steinway Concert Grand Piano no less!). It also has a fully functioning swing and a dog – AKA ‘Director Of Greetings’ called Waffle.

Ross started the Treehouse in 2014, moving to London after selling a successful internet business to Expedia Inc and seeking a new challenge. Having experienced many mundane and ordinary corporate meeting venues in their time, Ross and the Treehouse venue team passionately believe that providing an imaginative and unique space is one of the best ways to inspire creativity and innovation amongst teams.

James started his hospitality adventure in the depths of the kitchens as some of London’s finest, most luxurious hotels and restaurants as a pastry chef before working his way up to head of pastry with the Admirable Crichton, operating glamorous 5* events around the world before transferring his skills and knowledge to front of house operations. Following this transition, James was involved with creating the in-house catering operation at Tobacco Dock, curating multi-faceted events and experiences for some of the world’s leading brands.

James currently heads up the Venues by CH&Co team at the historic, award winning, Royal College of Physicians. The highly versatile venue, set in a stunning location overlooking Regent’s Park in the heart of London, offers tiered auditoriums, conferences, meeting, exhibition, dining, and training facilities and has a beautiful medicinal garden ideal for outdoor events and summer entertaining.

In a career spanning nearly thirty years, there are not many London venues Rob has not cooked in, from The Royal Albert Hall to The Tower of London and Harrods, Rob has made a name for himself through the quality and aesthetic of his work.

From South West London, but it is Rob’s Irish heritage, and his Grandmother’s home-cooking, that inspired his love of fresh, quality, sustainable ingredients, and the difference that this makes in all food whether that’s home-cooked family suppers, or high-end catered events.

It is this ethos and passion for quality that earned Rob a 2 rosette Michelin listing when he ran his own restaurant in Dorking, Surrey.

In 2017, Rob took up the position of Executive Head Chef to the Archbishop of Canterbury at his official residence, Lambeth Palace. Rob joined the team, bringing with him, his vast experience of working in various prestigious venues and at other London landmarks, as well as leading the kitchen and operations arm of the Palace’s official and external catering.

An early advocate for returning to menus that are seasonal with ingredients harvested from sustainable sources, Rob has transformed Lambeth Palace’s Green Agenda, pioneering low mileage menus, all vegan banquets that have been enjoyed by City Dignitaries and Government Ministers alike, and even inspired the Palace back to being self sufficient where possible.

In recent years, Rob’s portfolio as Executive Head Chef has grown to now lead kitchen and catering teams at Lambeth Palace, the new state-of-the-art Lambeth Palace Library, the Church House Westminster Conference Centre and The Old Palace, Canterbury Cathedral.

Rob is delighted to be joining the judging panel of this year’s London Venue & Catering Awards, and very much looks forward to seeing the best of what London’s thriving catering scene has to offer.

Anna Golden is Commercial Director of London’s leading venue, Olympia London, and is responsible for sales, account management, marketing and communications.

In 2020, the venue commenced its four-year £1bn master plan investing in the long-term strategic vision to elevate Olympia London to the world stage as a destination and cultural hub for design, arts, entertainment and events. Previously Anna oversaw the relaunch of Olympia London including the award winning rebrand and was instrumental in securing contracts with some of Britain’s best loved consumer shows and most prestigious trade shows from leading organisers, including Ideal Home Show, London Book Fair, and Top Drawer.

Anna was a founder member of Olympia London’s ‘Grand Plan’. This staff-driven ESG strategy is core to the business and enabled Olympia London be one of the first UK venues to sign up to the industry Net Zero pledge.

With over 20 years of industry experience within the events, meetings and hospitality sector Anna joined Olympia London in 2002, after previously working for Forte Hotels for several years.

Mr Gowili oversees the hotel’s 136 rooms and suites, The Ritz Restaurant, The Palm Court, The Rivoli Bar and private dining rooms of the adjoining 18th century William Kent House, and is supported in his role by a team of over 300 colleagues. With a passion and broad knowledge of the luxury hotel business, Mr Gowili joined The Ritz London in 2011 as Front of House Manager, before quickly progressing to Rooms Division Manager. He was appointed Hotel Manager in 2013 and under his leadership The Ritz London has achieved outstanding revenue growth, whilst maintaining the very highest levels of guest service. Prior to joining The Ritz London, Mr Gowili held senior management positions within the Red Carnation Hotel Company.

Richard’s background has been in hospitality since he started his own catering company in 1986, Richard Groves Catering & Events (RGC&E), working in prestigious Central London venues and private houses. Following a merger with two of his clients, Business Pursuits and the Ultimate Experience, and the subsequent rebranding of RGC&E to create food and party design, he became a founding director of the Concerto Group, which ultimately became the UK’s leading event and venue management and catering group turning over in excess of £35 million per annum which was sold to CH&Co in 2015.

Joining Smart Group in 2015, Richard brought special event and London venue caterer Moving Venue into the Group, which grew their turnover from £4,000,000 to £11,000,000 in 5 years and won sole catering contracts at, amongst others, Illuminate at The Science Museum, Landing 42 and Magazine London, together with catering contracts at the Hampton Court Music Festival, Henley Festival and 6 Day Cycling at the London Velodrome.

Richard is a past President of the International Special Event Society, and a partner in hospitality and events industry expert advisors, Kershaw Partners.

He is working with his alma mater – Oxford Brookes University, on their student mentoring programme.

Tracy Halliwell heads up London’s Convention Bureau, managing the event solutions team and a global sales team focused on attracting discretionary business, cultural & sporting events to the capital. At the same time Tracy works with city stakeholders to develop and build London’s business and major events tourism offering.

Prior to joining London & Partners Tracy had over 20 years’ experience in senior sales and marketing positions in the tourism industry. She has worked with Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, Thistle Hotels, Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts and has held numerous property-based Director of Sales & Marketing roles within London and the UK.

Tracy was awarded an MBE for services to business tourism in 2014.

Jackie has extensive knowledge within the venue and events industry. Her background covers agency,  catering and venue management. Her experience   has led to a clear understanding on what today’s event buyer wants from venues and how to deliver success for the event organiser and delegates alike.

Holly has spent over 17 years working in the hospitality industry.

She spent 8 years of her career leading growth and new openings for Carluccio’s which saw her open over 25 restaurants across the world; and before joining Social Pantry Holly worked at Deliciously Ella, supporting them with their venue growth.

Now Managing Director, Holly is at the fore of Social Pantry taking it from one strength to another whilst keeping it firmly in its position as one of London’s go-to caterers.

Chloe Jackson began her career at Ampersand Events as a Sales and Events coordinator at the age of 21, became Head of Sales age 23 and went on to win the Rising Star Award at the Event Awards. She joined Moving Venue in 2014 just as Smart Group were acquiring the business in Spring 2015. Working her way up at Moving Venue, from Head of Sales to Group Sales Director and Deputy Managing Director of the Catering Division, In this time Chloe has sold and planned events across iconic London venues such as Natural History Museum, Kensington Palace and Old Billingsgate, for clients as diverse as Cosmopolitan, Attitude Magazine, Disney and Save the Children. In addition, she has pitched and won hospitality contracts such as the F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone, match day catering at Lord’s and Hampton Court Music Festival. In March 2021 Chloe began her role as Managing Director of Smart Group overseeing a variety of brands in addition to Moving Venue including amongst others Evolution London, Smart Parties and the newly launched Oceandiva London. Chloe is also an advisory board member of isla.

Stuart Jenkins is the Managing Director of Blue Strawberry Group, a business founded 30 years ago, passionate about world-class gastronomy, show-stopping events, and operational excellence. The Group comprises Blue Strawberry, a luxury event caterer; Table Talk, a luxury event planning business and Flourish, a bespoke in-house corporate caterer. Blue Strawberry Group proudly boasts a brigade of Michelin Star-trained chefs and expert Event Planners who have mastered creating show-stopping experiences for corporate events, private parties, and weddings worldwide. With a focus on excellence and strategic growth, Stuart has helped to shape Blue Strawberry Group into one of London’s most desired catering suppliers and event planning businesses.

Stephanie is the CEO of the charity The Corporation of the Church House as well as the GM of Church House, Westminster. Having spent the first part of her career in the private sector working in various roles in industry on people and strategy focused roles, she then moved to work for national Government. Just prior to being at Church House, Stephanie ran the international development charity Concordia, once more working closely with Government to support the ethical movement of volunteers, students and temporary staff around the world. Stephanie has been at Church House Westminster for three years, and has overseen a new strategy that is proving fruitful and the growth and development of the amazing team. Key for the work at Church House is to deliver excellence with a strong ethical and sustainable focus

Managing Director Nick Mead joined Eden only two years after it was founded in 1993 and has held nearly every position. Nick’s over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry has enabled him to play a vital part in preserving Eden’s award-winning food and service, as well as delivering innovative development for the company’s strong sustainability ethos.

Eden is now regarded as one of the most sustainable caterers in the UK, with over 120 foodies working to deliver high-quality food and service. Eden will be celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2023, and they have served over 1 million guests during that time.

Nick could be found in the chain gang riding his road bike through the Surrey Hills or, more likely, scuba diving when he’s not developing the business.

Carly Mitchell has been in the events industry for almost 25 years, beginning her career selling and managing almost 400 weddings.  Deciding she might like some of her weekends back, Carly decided to widen her experience into corporate events and joined Concerto Group event caterer, create, as Sales and Events Manager.  Her time at create ended after 18 months when, at age 26, Carly was approached by Eventis Group to join as Sales Director.  After three years, Carly returned to the Concerto Group, this time to Ultimate Experience as an Account Director.  During her time at Ultimate, she went onto become Sales Director, Deputy Managing Director and finally, Managing Director.  When the Concerto Group was acquired by CH&CO Catering Ltd in late 2017, Carly moved into a wider role as Managing Director of the Events division of CH&CO (previously known as The Concerto Group), overseeing all event brands including Ultimate Experience and create – a role she continues to love today.

In 2008 John launched Green & Fortune and Kings Place Events which coincided with the opening of Kings Place, in Kings Cross London.  In this time, Kings Place Events has established itself as one of London’s premium venues for conferencing, hospitality and events.  The company also has a Café brand of its own name within its portfolio as well as the restaurant, bar and private dining business, Rotunda.

In 2017 Green and Fortune launched Sea Containers Events, on London’s South Bank, in the iconic building of the same name.  In early 2020 Green & Fortune partnered with Central Hall Westminster to provide event hospitality services at London’s largest conference venue.  2019 saw the launch of Daffodil Mulligan and Gibney’s London, a restaurant, bar and music venue near Old Street London with business partner Richard Corrigan.

Prior to launching Green & Fortune, John was Chief Executive of Searcys, taking it from a two site focused business to a large and significant operator in the bespoke end of the food service and events sector.

John was a founding director of the Kings Cross Business Partnership, now Urban Partners, and works with numerous charities.  Lockdown has seen his company donate thousands of meals to a local food bank and a welfare charity in Islington and Camden, which continues today.  He is a director of Kings Cross Recruit and has worked with local authorities on many local employment initiatives.

Adam Quigley – Director of Ministry Venues  |  Director of EventHuddle  |  Board of Directors for Sisters Grimm Charitable Foundation  | Guest University Lecturer

A highly experienced professional with over 20 years of experience within the UK Events Industry. He has worked for several prestigious venues, including The Bloomsbury Ballrom, The Pigalle Club and Troxy, and now is Director for Ministry Venues, a venue collective agency based in Central London. His current role at Ministry Venues sees him identifying new business opportunities, supporting and growing the team, managing the companies extensive CSR programme and growing the company portfolio of venue spaces.

Adam’s expertise lies in business strategy supported by a strong background in venues sales, event operations and marketing. Throughout his career, he has organised events for various high-profile clients, including British Royalty, major Hollywood celebrities and Global Corporates. In recognition for his outstanding achievements, he was named as one of the hot 50 eventprofs at the Hot 50 Event Awards in 2016.

Also heading up EventHuddle, a monthly networking and educational event with podcast, he firmly believes in educations and supporting the next generation. In addition to his professional pursuits, he serves on the Board of Directors for Sisters Grimm Charitable Foundation. This foundation aims to deliver participatory educational arts activities designed to underpin Sisters Grimm ltd.’s award-winning theatrical productions. His extensive experience and commitment to education make him a highly respected and sought-after professional in the UK Events Industry.

Jonathan relaunched Tobacco Dock in 2012 as an events destination and since then it has grown to become the most dynamic, iconic events venue in the Capital.

Tobacco Dock’s clients include many of the world’s leading brands, organisations and their agencies including Apple, Accenture, Samsung, Google, Deloitte, EY, Barclays, JP Morgan, Cisco and the BBC. Skylight London, the rooftop bar and competitive socialising concept was launched in 2017 – an urban lawn club in the summer and Europe’s only rooftop ice rink in the winter. A second Skylight rooftop bar will be launched in July on top of the Mountview Academy in Peckham.

Prior to Tobacco Dock, Jonathan spent over 20 years in live events and brand communications both agency and client-side, producing product launches, leading brand experience programmes and activating sponsorship globally for brands including AMD, General Motors, SanDisk, Johnson & Johnson, LG, Guinness and Grey Goose. He is a member of EVCOM and the Marketing Society.

Ellie Short, founder & director of Chilli Bees Catering, bought the company to life in her mum’s kitchen in 2008. It has since become South West London’s boutique caterer.

Their aim is to use simple seasonal ingredients and pack them full of flavour!

They have built a loyal client database and have been recognised for their impeccable attention to taste and detail by Country Life, Sheerluxe, Sunday Times and Harper’s Bazaar.

Originally from Wales, Gareth was a professional rugby player earning six caps for his country before injury led him to pursue an entirely different path.

Within a few years, Gareth was training and working under Michelin star chef Jean-Christophe Novelli at his Auberge du Lac restaurant. He later ventured to South Africa where he gained more experience working at Le Quartier Francais, an exclusive boutique hotel and restaurant at the foot of South Africa’s stunning Franschhoek Mountains which was at the time ranked 46th in the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants.
On returning to the UK, Gareth secured the enviable role of working with and training under Gary Rhodes at Rhodes 24 in the heart of the city.

In 2008 he opened his first restaurant The Rose & Crown in Highgate transforming a former public house into one of North London’s most popular culinary destinations. 2009 saw Gareth celebrate success at the Archant Awards, winning Best British Restaurant 2009 and The Rose & Crown was featured in the Michelin Guide in 2011.

Having seen a gap in the market for quality, bespoke catering, Saffron Caterers & Events was born in 2013 and has since flourished into a successful, independently owned catering company. Gareth and his team work closely with each of their clients to create something truly personal and unique every time.

Victoria is the Founder and Managing Director of Sojo Kitchen, an award-winning boutique catering and events company, specialising in modern food design and event styling.

Sojo Kitchen is dedicated to creating outstanding food, using locally produced ingredients and offering an attentive and personal service. Its aim is to produce contemporary and stylish events that are meaningful and remarkable with food that is both delicious and responsibly sourced.

With over eighteen years’ experience working in a creative environment, Victoria has developed skills for the meticulous detail and planning required for luxury events. She began her career in fashion, lifestyle PR and events before a successful stint in website content management, photoshoot production and creative marketing.

She’s worked with brands such as; Pringle of Scotland, Whistles, Net-A-Porter, Soho Home and The White Company and has created the distinguished and contemporary aesthetic associated with Sojo Kitchen.

Since launching ten years ago, quality, sustainability and luxury style have always been at the heart of Sojo Kitchen. The company specialises in outdoor and marquee weddings as well as partnering with renowned venues including Hedsor House and Wormsley Estate.

Liz has worked within the entertainment and events industry for 20 years.   Her career started in the theatre world, moving from London drama festivals to managing West End theatres with Live Nation.  She then moved into event and venue management roles at Wembley Arena, the O2 Arena and outdoor commercial festivals such as Wireless Festival, Hyde Park Calling and Download Festival.

Liz now works within the heritage sector and, as Head of Events for Historic Royal Palaces, has strategic responsibility for the commercial events business across 6 royal palaces, working to find ways of maximising opportunities within these unique and sensitive buildings.