Dr James Carney

founding director

Texture AI

Texture AI is a startup that blends state-of-the-art research in psycholinguistics and the psychology of culture with AI and machine learning. It works with industry leaders such as Google, Telegraph Media Group, Newsworks, McKinsey Consulting and YouTube.

James is also an academic researcher based at Brunel University London, where he is a Wellcome Trust Fellow. Prior to this, he has held appointments in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University and in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford (where he was also a Fellow of Linacre College).

Both commercially and academically, James is particularly interested in developing robust techniques for capturing the richness of cultural data in way that allows human judgment to be augmented by artificial cognition.

Jo Elvin

editor

YOU magazine at The Mail on Sunday

Jo is a multi-award winning editor who has launched some of Britain’s most successful magazines, including Glamour. As editor-in-chief of Glamour, Jo created two major franchises: the Glamour Women of the Year Awards and the Glamour Beauty Festival. She also launched the magazine in the innovative ‘handbag-size’ – a European first.

Jo recently took the helm as editor of The Mail on Sunday’s YOU magazine. With a readership of two million a week, it is the most-read women’s magazine in the country. 

An entertaining and inspiring keynote speaker, Jo particularly loves motivating young people to overcome their fears and to go for what they want in life. Her writing has been published widely, including in the Daily Mail, The Observer, the Evening Standard and The Independent.

Lorna Hawtin

disruption director

TBWA\Manchester

As disruption director for TBWA\Manchester, Lorna has been an outspoken promoter of effectiveness culture, both in her work with clients and across the broader creative community.

She is a member of the IPA's Value of Creativity Leadership Group and was Convener of Judges for the IPA Effectiveness Awards in 2014, having won a number of the awards as author in her formative years. She is also a Fellow of the IPA in recognition of her exceptional prolonged contribution to the industry body and her work in developing the Eff Test and the IPA's effectiveness strategy. As an invited member of the UK's Effie committee, she looks forward to extending her insight into the topic through this new channel.

In addition to her effectiveness work, Lorna is a regular writer and speaker on creative leadership and was also the recipient of the Sir John Hegarty Exec. MBA Scholarship to the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, where she took home the Michael Conrad Outstanding Thesis Award for her thought-provoking research on “Unpicking the Extrovert Ideal in ‘Adland’".  

Lorna manages to juggle all this with being a Mum of two and loves riding horses, even when they throw her against a wall and break her arm. Most importantly, she hails from Yorkshire, which is something she will never, ever let you forget.

Jon Kershaw

managing director

PHD Manchester

Jon became head of PHD UK’s Manchester office in 2017. Prior to this he was head of strategy for Havas Media in London and strategy director for Carat.

With over 18 years’ experience in media and communications, he is passionate about helping clients use communication effectively to drive commercial success and is leading industry best practice as the author of the IPA’s Advanced Certificate module on Approaches to Integration.

Jon has successfully worked with brands across many product categories and at all stages of business growth, from new start-ups to international blue chips.

Tom Rees-Evans

media & SEO manager

Halfords

Laura Russell

communications planning director

UM Birmingham

Laura joined UM Birmingham in the summer of 2014 and plays an integral role in the development of the team’s strategic media planning capabilities. She works on a variety of client accounts including Vaillant, Mappin & Webb, Sunseeker and Stanley Black & Decker.

Prior to this, Laura was an international account director at Havas in London where she led and oversaw all elements of client service, planning, buying and strategic development for on and offline global campaigns, with clients including Clarks, E! Entertainment, CNBC, BMI and BAESystems.

Having graduated from Aston University in 2001, Laura embarked on a career in marketing for the Austrian Embassy Chamber of Commerce in London before moving into advertising as a planning and buying executive at PSI Advertising. During her five years at PSI, Laura progressed to client services account director, heading up international accounts for JT International, Orange, BNP Paribas and DHL, among others.

Richard Shotton

head of behavioural science

Manning Gottlieb OMD

Richard is head of behavioural science at Manning Gottlieb OMD, the most awarded media agency in the history of the IPA Effectiveness awards.

He started his career as a media planner 17 years ago, working on accounts such as Coke, 118 118 and comparethemarket.com, before moving into research.

Richard is interested in how findings from behavioural science can be applied to advertising. He writes about the behavioural experiments he runs for titles such as Marketing Week, The Drum, Campaign, Admap and Mediatel. He tweets about the latest social psychology findings from the handle @rshotton.

His first book on applying behavioural science to advertising, The Choice Factory, was published in February 2018.

Outside of work Richard loves playing football, and can be found, most Sundays, on Brockwell Park, scoring own goals.  

Emma Slater

managing director

Wavemaker North

With 25 years of industry experience, Emma is responsible for the growth and development of Wavemaker’s clients and people.

Emma’s passion lies in uncovering the human motivations that drive customer journeys, then unpicking the insights that enable our clients to develop a real-world competitive advantage.

She was appointed managing director of Wavemaker Manchester in 2016.

Nik Wheatley

head of The Story Lab North

With over 10 years’ experience in the industry, Nik leads The Story Lab’s northern office based in Manchester. He has a keen understanding of the rigor required to connect audiences with an entertainment proposition and how powerful it can be when you get it right. He has used his experience to support brands from categories as diverse as automotive and alcoholic beverages to create entertainment content strategies delivered as original formats.

Prior to joining The Story Lab, Nik held roles at UKTV and most recently he led the transformation of ITV’s Partnerships Team, helping it achieve a consistently award-winning standard with some of the most innovative exploitation of entertainment IP delivered in the UK.