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The 2023 ceda Conference Speakers
Peter Martin
'The State of the Industry'
Peter Martin is one of the most authoritative and influential communicators and community builders in the eating and drinking out sector.
Peter Martin is one of the most authoritative and influential communicators and community builders in the eating and drinking out sector, with 40 years’ experience as entrepreneur, media owner, columnist, editor, market analyst and board adviser.
He is co-founder of Peach 20/20, the international network for senior executives, entrepreneurs and influencers from the out-of-home food and drink market. The Peach programme of annual events includes the flagship Peach 20/20 conference and Hero & Icon awards in London, and Atlantic Club tours to North America and Europe.
Over the years, he has launched and run a raft of business magazines, newsletters and conferences and is probably best known - apart from Peach - as both co-founder and editor of the M&C Report newsletter, now renamed MCA. He remains a regular columnist and contributing editor.
He is co-creator of the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, the definitive hospitality industry sales barometer now owned and run by CGA, and the Retailers’ Retailer Awards, now part of William Reed.
He is a strategic advisor to a number of companies, including global data and insight provider CGA and Harri, the on-line people management platform based in New York and London.
More recently, with partner Christine Martin, he co-founded CM&Co, a specialist strategic consultancy for the events and hospitality sectors.
Peter is an inveterate networker and “allegedly” has the best contacts book in the UK market. He speaks and presents regularly at events in the UK, Europe and the US. He is a founder of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), the trade organization for the UK pub, bar and casual dining sector, and now sits on the advisory council of UK Hospitality, the lead hospitality association formed by the amalgamation of ALMR and BHA.
He is a trustee of the Tim Bacon Foundation, the cancer charity created in memory of celebrated restaurant and bar entrepreneur Tim Bacon.
In 2016 he won the Special Achievement Award from Eat Out magazine, and in 2018 the Special Award at the Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards.
Chris Brazier
Chris Brazier is one of the well-known personalities in the industry today.
He and his team run Commercial Kitchen – the definitive event for kitchen innovations, lunch!, Casual Dining.
He also runs the Casual Dining Awards and London Design Fair. Chris is passionate about the hospitality industry and connecting suppliers with operators and designers of all kinds.
Chris lives in East Sussex with his partner and their two kids. He enjoys growing food and watching Brighton & Hove Albion.
Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam MBE
'Leadership during Covid'
Jonathan Van-Tam is a public health specialist with a clinical background in emergency medicine, anaesthesia, and infectious diseases. He is an expert on respiratory viruses and pandemics and is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, at the University of Nottingham.
His career has also taken him to Public Health England, the World Health Organization, and the pharmaceutical and vaccine industries.
Jonathan was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care as Deputy Chief Medical Officer. He is well-known for his leadership role during the COVID19 pandemic, particularly his straight, no-nonsense, communication style from the podium at number ten Downing Street, and for the acquisition and rollout of vaccines and antiviral drugs in the UK. After stepping down as Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England he returned to the University of Nottingham as its Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Medicine & Health Sciences.
Jonathan received a knighthood from Her Majesty the Queen in her New Year’s Honours List, for services to public health. He has also been awarded the Royal Society’s Attenborough Award and Lecture for outstanding public engagement in science. Over the years, he has launched and run a raft of business magazines, newsletters and conferences and is probably best known - apart from Peach - as both co-founder and editor of the M&C Report newsletter, now renamed MCA. He remains a regular columnist and contributing editor.
He is co-creator of the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, the definitive hospitality industry sales barometer now owned and run by CGA, and the Retailers’ Retailer Awards, now part of William Reed. He is a strategic advisor to a number of companies, including global data and insight provider CGA and Harri, the on-line people management platform based in New York and London.
More recently, with partner Christine Martin, he co-founded CM&Co, a specialist strategic consultancy for the events and hospitality sectors. Peter is an inveterate networker and “allegedly” has the best contacts book in the UK market. He speaks and presents regularly at events in the UK, Europe and the US. He is a founder of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), the trade organization for the UK pub, bar and casual dining sector, and now sits on the advisory council of UK Hospitality, the lead hospitality association formed by the amalgamation of ALMR and BHA.
He is a trustee of the Tim Bacon Foundation, the cancer charity created in memory of celebrated restaurant and bar entrepreneur Tim Bacon. In 2016 he won the Special Achievement Award from Eat Out magazine, and in 2018 the Special Award at the Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards.
Simon Stenning
'The Future of Foodservice and the changing landscape'
With 30+ years’ experience of working in, developing, analysing and commentating on the UK foodservice/hospitality industry, Simon is acknowledged as the leading analyst of the market and recognised as an expert in making sense out of all the data and insight available; Simon is now making sense of the future having set up Future Foodservice in 2019.
Simon will share forecasts and foresights from his latest report on the foodservice market, entitled The Changing Landscape, recognising that the market is in a new era post-Covid, with emerging concepts, segments and developments as part of this new landscape. Simon will also share analysis of all the major drivers of change, macro factors and societal & demographic trends, painting a picture of what the future will look like from 2023 to 2026.
Tim FitzHigham
Tim FitzHigham is a Perrier nominated multi-award winning comedian, explorer, quadruple world record holder, historian, archaeologist and author. A regular on the corporate circuit, Tim can deliver after-dinner speeches, hold workshops, host award ceremonies and conferences, and he is also an experienced auctioneer (often the most difficult job of any successful evening but also the vital one!).
Tim has spoken at countless business and charity lunches (including the World Economic Forum in Geneva, the London Livery Companies, London’s Alderman, and the Princes Trust Charity Lunch at the House of Lords), and he has hosted conferences, diverse exhibitions, and festivals both in the UK and abroad (including hosting the Earls Court Boat Show and the main stage at Camp Bestival with the Wurzles and Suzanne Vega). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Freeman of the City of London.
Knighted by a foreign monarchy, he has entertained audiences world-wide with his fascinating, hilarious, moving tales of dreamy impracticalness – navigating the Channel in a Thomas Crapper bathtub, rowing a paper boat up the River Thames from source to Tower Bridge, running across deserts in armour, playing hopscotch up active volcanoes, or long distance Morris Dancing – Tim is a one off.
Following up his success as an in demand, humorous after-dinner speaker, Tim created an all-new motivational speech for businesses. Tim’s speech stresses the importance of achieving goals and the usefulness of storytelling as a business asset. Combining up to date research with his own experiences on stage, in film, as a spokesperson for UN world environment day, as a farmer and as a highly successful businessman in his own right, Tim makes sure that no one in the room will ever make a boring or tired presentation again.
Furthermore Tim can run storytelling workshops to cement and expand the key messages of his motivational speech, and these work well as a companion, or can be delivered on their own. From the heads of City Firms in London to the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Tim has made business people and corporate bodies laugh, think and, above all, developed their presentation skills to make them more successful and useful employees.
Tim has played in the mud on Time Team, burnt duck on Ready Steady Cook, ended up in a Hollywood film, Wolfman with Sir Anthony Hopkins, and made appearances in two further films Booked Out, and Hereafter, directed by Clint Eastwood.
For a full list of TV, radio, film and theatre credits, please visit his PBJ Management webpage: http://www.pbjmgt.co.uk/artists/tim-fitzhigham#
James Shaw
'Electrifying Commercial Kitchens with Data'
James has been in the foodservice project industry all of his career working as a design consultant with major hotel chains, fine dining restaurants and institutions.
James has been in the foodservice project industry all of his career working as a design consultant with major hotel chains, fine dining restaurants and institutions, before transitioning to the implementation side of the project as a project manager for a kitchen equipment contractor. Following that, James worked a global contract caterer as a design SME which led him to his current position as global design lead for kitchens and technology at Google.
Ajith Jayawickrema
Ajith Jayawickrema is a founder, shareholder and non-executive
director of a number of restaurants located nationwide.
His expertise lies in brand creation and development, as well as strategic business and people development. He has created two national restaurant brands, Las Iguanas and Turtle Bay.
Lulie Halstead
'The Global Outlook for Hotel F&B: Is it push or pull?'
How is the global landscape for hotel F&B developing and why?
In this presentation, Lulie will focus on the ‘push’ factors of what hotel groups and owners are seeking and the ‘pull’ factors of global consumer demands for hotel F&B. Sharing case-studies from around the world, she will address questions such as can you serve breakfast anywhere, is all day dining dead, do you need a bigger kitchen and do customers really want to see the whole kitchen.
Lulie is a Director of Planet Food & Beverage, the award winning, leading global consultancy that creates awesome F&B for hotels, including as nominated F&B consultants for Accor, Hyatt, IHG and Marriott.
As founder of the leading global insight agency for F&B consumer behaviour, Lulie is an unrivalled leader in how tomorrow’s guests will eat, drink and socialise. Specialising in both quantitative and qualitative research practices and trend research, she is constantly developing new ways to uncover how consumer behaviour is evolving and how this impacts the hotel sector.
Andrew Seymour
Market Talk Live Host: The Future Workforce
Andrew Seymour is Editorial Director of Promedia Digital, a leading B2B publisher of digital media, print publications and events for the catering equipment and hospitality industry.
Andrew was the founding editor of Catering Insight and its sister title Foodservice Equipment Journal, which provide daily news, market trends and business intelligence for the catering equipment industry. The annual Catering Insight Awards and FEJ Awards, meanwhile, have become key fixtures in the industry calendar, honouring excellence among individuals and businesses. Andrew is a recognised commentator on the UK foodservice equipment sector and regularly chairs interviews and discussions at industry events.
Hazel Barnes
Market Talk Live Panellist: The Future Workforce
Hazel is Project Designer at Space Group UK with a BA and a Master's Degree in Interior Architecture and Design from Nottingham Trent University and 7 years total in industry as a Designer.
Hazel is currently a Project Designer working on large scale full turnkey projects covering catering spaces, hospitality, interior design and furniture. Hazel’s passion developed from everything design related, she believes catering and hospitality offers the right mix of artistic flare and technical design required for this industry.
Megan Senior
Market Talk Live Panellist: The Future Workforce
Megan is Tenders Coordinator at Vision Commercial Kitchens, a role she has held for the last 18 months.
Her role involves compiling all the information received from contractors for tenders, issuing the required documentation to the supply chain, ensuring correct pricing and placing pricing into a BOQ to issue back to the contractor. Before working at Vision Commercial Kitchens, Megan had experience within the domestic kitchen industry where she worked for a large domestic kitchen company, designing, and selling domestic kitchens, and later running several of their branches. Megan also has a BA Hons degree in Sport Science.
Justin Ring
Market Talk Live Panellist: The Future Workforce
Justin is Team Leader at Gratte Brothers. He has been in the industry for over a decade, starting out as a trainee engineer and continuously developing his skills and knowledge along the way.
Currently, Justin holds the position of Team Leader at Gratte Brothers, where the incredible team he works with has ignited his ambition and propelled his personal growth.
Despite his years of experience, Justin still approaches each day with a student's mindset, he is constantly impressed by the expertise and resilience required to thrive in the demanding food service industry.
Justin considers himself extremely fortunate to have been selected for the Ceda Academy, an opportunity that has introduced him to a remarkable group of individuals. Each person with fascinating backgrounds and journeys in the industry.
Chris Stagg
After 20 years behind the bar, he decided to study for an MBA, after 10 years with, Hall & Woodhouse and a stint at Brunning & Price, he joined Peach Pubs as Operations Director, developing operational systems and the team.
Steering the ship 2020, Peach was ranked in the Top 20 best companies. In 2022, Peach was sold to Revolution Bars Group, where Chris moved to run the business as Brand Director. Now part of the senior exec team of RGB.
John Nugent
John is founder and CEO of Green & Fortune, a London based business operating four premium venues in the events, restaurant, bar and café sector.
He is also behind the successful bar and restaurant business, Daffodil Mulligan and Gibney’s London. In addition he is an investor in Patina - a new bakery, bar, restaurant and music venue in Edinburgh. Prior to launching Green & Fortune in 2008, John was CEO of Searcys.
Laura Harper Hinton
Originally from New Zealand, Laura worked in the vibrant food & coffee scenes in Wellington before travelling to Europe in her early 20s, working as a photographer.
Following a move to London, Laura became the Managing Director of a high-profile events company, producing events for luxury fashion, art, music and private clients. Laura then opened the first Caravan in 2010, with partners Chris Ammermann and Miles Kirby. Caravan is a pioneer in all day dining in London, offering fresh healthy bold flavours from around the globe, as well as great in house roasted craft coffee.