2021 Speakers - Conference 2021

Our 2021 Conference Speakers

Our host, Peter Martin, will be joined throughout the day by a series of top-end Industry speakers and presenters to talk about their own businesses and give their expert thoughts and opinion on the future of their sector.

We're busy finalising our lists of amazing speakers and seminars. Information about each of them will be added to this page over the coming weeks.

Please keep checking back to see who we've secured.

Peter Martin - Host

CM & Co

Over the years, he has launched and run a raft of business magazines, newsletters and conferences and is probably best known as both co-founder and publisher of the M&C Report newsletter, now renamed MCA. He remains a regular columnist and contributing editor.

More about Peter Martin

More recently he co-founded Peach Factory, the specialist media, consultancy, research and events business for the hospitality sector created with partner Christine Martin, which was acquired by CGA in July 2013.

He is now a strategic advisor to a number of companies, including CGA and Harri, the on-line people management platform based in New York and London.

CGA, through its offices in Manchester and Chicago, provides market insight and analysis, working with brand owners, operators, investors and suppliers. Research products include the Coffer Peach Business Tracker and the BrandTrack consumer survey, both of which Peter helped create and develop. CGA continues to run the Peach portfolio of industry conferences and events, including the Peach2020 conference and Hero & Icon Awards, which Peter chairs and curates.

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.

Peter Martin is one of the most authoritative and influential communicators and community-builders in the eating and drinking out sector, with some 35 years experience as entrepreneur, columnist, editor, media owner, market analyst and board adviser.

He is founder of the Atlantic Club, an exclusive international network for senior executives from the out-of-home food and drink market, and vice president of CGA, the global data and insight specialist for the food and drink sector.

He is a trustee of the Tim Bacon Foundation, the cancer charity created in memory of celebrated restaurant and bar entrepreneur Tim Bacon.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Peter has continued to work closely with the likes of CGA and UK Hospitality to support the out-of-home sector, helping to deliver industry insight and data, and chairing and curating industry webinars.

Working with Harri, he helped create and launch the free-to-use Hospitality Unite jobs website, providing temporary employment for furloughed hospitality workers. With Yumpingo, CGA and UK Hospitality, he was part of the team that launched the industry-wide, also free-to-use, We Hear You initiative to gain consumer feedback on hygiene and safety standards across the hospitality sector.

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.

Philip Harrison

CEO & Founder, Harrison

Philip heads-up one of the leading hospitality concept-creation consultancies globally. He will give an update on the US hospitality sector.

More about Philip Harrison

Jocelyn Neve

Managing Director, Oakman Group

Jocelyn will take part in The Northern Hospitality Scene panel discussion with Marko Husak of Bundobust and Thom Hetherington of NRB.

More about Jocelyn Neve

Richard Fordham

Director, Ki-Tech Solutions Ltd

Richard will take part in Market Talk LIVE with fellow panellists Lawrence Hughes of Falcon Foodservice, Paul Neville of CHR and Tyron Stephens-Smith of TAG Catering Equipment. They will discuss sustainability with a focus on Hydrogen powered equipment, energy management/optimisation, the challenges of designing for sustainability, and sustainability for service and maintenance.

More about Richard Fordham

Richard will be keen to talk about the benefits of energy optimisation and connected monitoring in today’s hospitality environment, particularly at how the deployment of an energy optimisation solution can aid with overcoming the issue of insufficient electrical supply, moving away from the use of fossil fuels and future proof against potential changes in commercial tariffs. In addition, how the implementation of a monitoring solution can move beyond the standard temperature monitoring to include more environmental and utilities management to aid in environmental social governance and how both of these will become more important in the “Proptech” and digital build process.

Richard has been involved in the hospitality sector since 1979 and hails from a chef and catering management background, moving into the equipment arena in the late 1980’s. He worked for a number of premium manufacturers before setting up his own company in 2008 and worked extensively in the Middle East in a number of export sales roles, before forming Ki-tech Solutions in 2019 in response to the growing demand for energy optimisation solutions within our sector.

David Chenery

Director, Object Space Place

David presentation will ask: 'Can we use the principles of a circular economy to create restaurant designs and fitouts that give more than they take?'

'And how might we go about doing that?'

More about David Chenery

Over the last 4 years David worked to understand the sustainability challenges facing the restaurant industry and this now dominates his approach to design. The result is a “Restorative Design Framework”, built around the principles of a circular economy; designing with end of life in mind, building in rigorous flexibility, designing out waste and lowering embodied and operational carbon.

ceda-Conference-2021-dinner-host-Chris-Brazier

Chris Brazier - Dinner Host

Event Director, Diversified Communications

Chris will be our Dinner and Awards host for both evenings!
On Wednesday he'll present the Legacy Awards and on Thursday he will announce the highly anticipated ceda Grand Prix and Rising Star Awards 2021.

More about Chris Brazier

Chris Brazier is Group Event Director for three industry leading trade shows. He works with an amazing team of people across lunch! – the contemporary food to go show, Casual Dining – the UK’s dedicated trade event for the branded restaurant and pub sector, and Commercial Kitchen – the essential industry event for buyers involved in equipping and running innovative and efficient commercial kitchens.

Chris lives near the South Downs with his partner Rachel and their young family.

Charlie Mitchell

Head of Consumer, CGA

Utilising CGA’s suite of data on the hospitality industry, Charlie Mitchell will tell the story of how the sector has fought back over the past 18 months.

More about Charlie Mitchell

The presentation will delve beyond the top line statistics to tell the story of the changing landscape of eating and drinking out in the North, alongside the consumer habits driving this and the trends and opportunities that will impact this going forward.

Charlie Mitchell is Research and Insights Director at CGA, working with operators and suppliers to hospitality across the globe analysing and identifying the changing trends, and behaviours that are shaping strategy in the sector.

Mark Chapman

Founder & CEO, Zero Carbon Forum

Zero Carbon Forum is a non-profit organisation which builds on 10 years of carbon reduction collaboration in the UK’s hospitality sector.

More about Mark Chapman

Lawrence Hughes

Sales & Marketing Director, Falcon Foodservice

Lawrence will take part in Market Talk LIVE with Richard Fordham of Ki-Tech Solutions Ltd, Paul Neville of CHR, and Tyron Stephens-Smith of TAG Catering Equipment. They will discuss sustainability with a focus on Hydrogen powered equipment, energy management/optimisation, the challenges of designing for sustainability, and sustainability for service and maintenance.

More about Lawrence Hughes

Martin Vander Weyer

Business Editor, The Spectator

The Spectator is the world’s oldest weekly current affairs magazine. As well has his regular look at all things financial, policy and market related he also runs the magazine’s Economic Innovator Awards for UK Entrepreneurs.

More about Martin Vander Weyer

Martin is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph, Literary Review, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and other national publications. He is also an author of a number of books, plays and a collection of poetry.

Before turning his hand to journalism, Martin spent 15 years as an investment banker in London, Brussels, Eastern Europe and the Far East - including a spell in Malaysia privatising an airline. A highly experienced commentator rather than a technical economist, Martin examines the real-life impact of business, central banks and markets. He looks at public expenditure, the social responsibly of companies, boardroom activities and the real stories behind the business headlines.

Martin is an Academic Visitor at St Martin’s College, Oxford and is the author of Falling Eagle: The Decline of Barclays Bank, Fortune’s Spear, and a collection of columns and articles, Any Other Business: Life in and Out of the City. A proud Yorkshireman he is a founder trustee of Helmsley Arts Centre, a former governor of the Royal Northern College of Music, a trustee of Opera North, and chairman of the Ryedale music festival, and has written and performed in several plays.

Clare Nicholls - Host

Editor, Catering Insight

Catering Insight and Foodservice Equipment Journal bring their popular video chat and podcast show Market Talk to the ceda Conference in person with a special edition focusing on sustainability. They will lead the conversation with an expert panel on the catering equipment supply chain’s role in helping the foodservice industry to be green.

More about Clare Nicholls

Since January 2015 Clare Nicholls has been the editor of Catering Insight, the voice of the UK catering equipment distribution industry. She writes and collates content for the title’s daily e-newsletters and monthly print magazine, as well as presenting Market Talk, a regular chat show and podcast interviewing key players in the UK foodservice equipment sector. Prior to this, she worked in shipping industry journalism for 8 years.

Thom Hetherington

CEO of NRB

Thom will take part in The Northern Hospitality Scene panel discussion with Marko Husak of Bundobust and Jocelyn Neve of Oakman Group.

More about Thom Hetherington

Thom was one of founders of Restaurant magazine and the 50 Best Restaurants in the World awards, and is a respected commentator on the Northern hospitality scene. As CEO of the NRB exhibition he has created a portfolio of world class Northern events and platforms. He also consults for operators, councils and developers on food and drink strategy, judges hospitality awards, reviews for respected guides and received the ‘Outstanding Achievement’ award at the 2019 Manchester Food and Drink Festival.

Ruth Edge

Food Chain Advisor, NFU

Ruth is responsible for leading the NFU’s strategy and relationships with all of the UK's national retailers, large brands and policy areas on food labelling.

More about Ruth Edge

Alongside her responsibilities at the NFU Ruth holds the role of Vice Chairman of the EU COPA COGECA Food Chain Working Group, where she has key to lobbying for the EU Directive on Unfair trading practices in the food supply chain.

Ruth joined the NFU from a national retailer where she held the role of agriculture manager. Ruth takes a specific interest in ways to increase sustainability and fairness within the supply chain for farmers.

Paul Neville

Managing Director, CHR Food Service Equipment

Paul will take part in Market Talk LIVE with fellow panellists Richard Fordham of Ki-Tech Solutions Ltd, Lawrence Hughes of Falcon Foodservice and Tyron Stephens-Smith of TAG. They will discuss sustainability, Hydrogen powered equipment, energy management/optimisation, the challenges of designing for sustainability, and sustainability for service and maintenance.

More about Paul Neville

Paul started his career with CHR in 1993. He built his own test kitchen to record energy use in around 2005. He then designed and built his first “panless” kitchen in 2010 and designed and built CHR's first Great British super energy efficient Eco chef in 2012. He then helped design and deliver 17 Michelin Starred kitchens now all using Eco chef.

Paul has collected 20+ ceda awards for various projects, designed and delivered the first fully energy optimised kitchen in the UK for Michelin Starred Chef Michael Wignall in 2021. He's always learning and proud to be Northern Regional Chair for ceda .

Andrew Seymour - Host

Editor, Foodservice Equipment Journal

More about Andrew Seymore

Andrew Seymour is Editorial Director of Promedia Digital, a leading B2B publisher of online media, print publications and events for the catering and hospitality industry. Andrew was the founding editor of Catering Insight and now edits its sister title, Foodservice Equipment Journal, which covers news, trends and analysis of multi-site foodservice operators. Andrew is a recognised commentator on the UK catering equipment sector and regularly moderates 1:1 interviews and panel sessions at industry trade shows.

Marko Husak

CEO of NRB

Marko will take part in The Northern Hospitality Scene panel discussion with Thom Hetherington of NRB and Jocelyn Neve of Oakman Group.

More about Marko Husak

Marko Husak founded Bundobust with business partner Mayur Patel in 2014 after a series of successful pop-up events & festival appearances. Their aim was to pair the flavours of fresh and original Indian street food along with the world’s best beers at a time when most restaurants didn’t take beer very seriously. Bundobust’s latest restaurant on Manchester’s Oxford Rd features a 10hl brewhouse that supplies fresh beer to all 4 restaurants.

Lorraine Copes

Founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality, Procurement Consultant and Life Coach.

Having spent almost two decades working within the hospitality sector Lorraine's experience spans new market entry, national and international leadership roles.

More about Lorraine Copes

Lorraine Copes is the founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality, Procurement Consultant and Life Coach. Having spent almost two decades working within the hospitality sector successfully leading procurement teams for brands including Shake Shack, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants and Corbin & King her experience spans new market entry, national and international leadership roles.

Lorraine is passionate about helping others advance and has been able to do so during her career within Procurement by helping organisations to improve profitability, and as a Life Coach through helping individuals gain clarity, confidence and courage.

In 2019 Lorraine felt compelled to form Be Inclusive Hospitality due to the consistent lack of representation of people from Black, Asian Minority backgrounds in positions of influence, and that those that do exist being invisible. This social enterprise will now hold the prime position of accelerating racial equality and levelling the playing field for those from underrepresented backgrounds within hospitality, food and drink sectors.

Lorraine is based in London.

Tyron Stephens-Smith

Design & Project Director
TAG Catering Equipment

Tyron will take part in Market Talk LIVE with fellow panellists Richard Fordham of Ki-Tech Solutions Ltd, Paul Neville of CHR, and Lawrence Hughes of Falcon Foodservice. They will discuss sustainability with a focus on Hydrogen powered equipment, energy management/optimisation, the challenges of designing for sustainability, and sustainability for service and maintenance.

More about Tyron Stephens-Smith

Starting my career at TAG in 2009, I’ve continually strived to develop the company into innovative technologies and ecological, forward thinking designs and maintenance for a fully considered design ethos.

Achieving great accolades in the last decade from winning the first ceda Rising Star Award and multiple ceda Grand Prix Awards, to the CIBSE Building Performance Award for a state-of-the-art project in 2015 for its low energy consumption and fully connected and remotely monitored maintenance systems.