Speakers.

Bernd Adam has been Managing Director of the Verein Deutsche Fachpresse (German B2B Media Association) since November 2008. Deutsche Fachpresse represents around 450 members in an industry with a total of over 5,600 print magazine titles and sales of 7.99 billion euros in 2021. Bernd was previously CEO of Print & Media Forum AG, an economically independent subsidiary of the German Printing and Media Industries Federation (bvdm) and the regional printing and media associations. After studying journalism, political science and business administration, Bernd worked for IBM Germany, ZDF Enterprises, MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and the strategy consultancy Diebold Deutschland. In 2001, he joined Pro Print Forum GmbH, which shortly afterwards changed to Print & Media Forum AG. From October 2001, he was CEO of the business media publisher, which published specialist information and created communication platforms for the print and media industry.

Bernd is active as a guest lecturer at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg as well as the Johannes Gutenberg University in the field of publishing.

Richard Askam spent 30 years working in the Wine Business before he took a career turn in 2010 to launch the first personalised champagne gifts in the UK as an antidote to the commoditisation of the wine market in the UK. Ultimately, this lead him to the doors of Coca-Cola where he created and executed the online ShareaCoke campaign across Europe in 2014. Over the following 2 years, Richard created similarly successful personalised campaigns for the likes of Unilever, Barclays, Vodafone and McVities before becoming a renowned full time speaker, debuting as a TED Talker in 2017 and he has worked extensively across the world for the likes of HP, Xerox, Canon and many more. Richard is a master of conversation, an invaluable skill in a world where businesses have to adapt to the conversation of their customers, and over the last few years has become an accomplished host and MC for business events both online and in person!

More details to follow.

More details to follow.

More details to follow.

Since 1998, Helen Coetzee has led the marketing strategies, operations, and campaigns for over 100 B2B specialised information brands globally - across a variety of sectors, and within a range of business models.

With her team of MPG’s 20 marketing specialists based in London, Helen is an evangelist for marketing as key driver of customer value, revenue and profit growth, and business value growth. Helen has always championed a community-focused and data-led approach to marketing. This has led to MPG’s pioneering work in B2B community marketing frameworks, as well as marketing performance analysis and benchmarking specific to community-focused organisations. As such, Helen is the lead author for MPG Insights, a widely read blog and resource centre for hundreds of business leaders and senior marketers focused on monetising audiences via subscriptions, memberships, event attendance, advertising, sponsorship and exhibitions.

To further support MPG’s own community of B2B media and events business and marketing leaders, Helen plays a key role on the Renewd board as chair of a working group focused on international growth strategies.

Chloe Combi's debut nonfiction title Generation Z: Their Voices, Their Lives (Random House 2015) is a shocking, illuminating, heart breaking and sometimes hilarious journey through the lives of the teenagers born between 1994 and 2005 as told in their own voices. Chloe has continued her work with Generation Z and Generation A, emerging as one of the foremost experts on young people, having interviewed thousands. Her critically acclaimed podcast aired in 2021, You Don’t Know Me (Podimo/Mermade), and was given 5* in The Times with podcasts of the week in the Guardian, iPaper, Financial Times, Telegraph, The Week, Sunday Post – with particular praise given to her incisive and skilled interview technique. Chloe writes for a number of publications including the Times, Guardian, Vice and the TES, and has a regular column with The Telegraph on the lives of Generation Z. Chloe has spoken around the world about her work and advises some brands, companies and governments. Her areas of expertise are Generation Z, Generation A, young people’s relationships to institutions, education, technology, social media, self-esteem, relationships, identity and the future. Her approach is both to identify trends and also prepare for them, with a focus on big ideas and solutions rather than the problems. A skilled and charismatic communicator, Chloe can bring enormous value to events, corporate affairs and audiences interested in a rapidly changing world.

Andrea is an experienced business leader and strategic adviser who has spent over 20 years driving transformation at the forefront of B2C media. Andrea has held executive board positions at IPC Media, Time Inc. UK, TI Media and Future plc, leading strategy, M&A and running significant business units. She played a key role in the sale of Time Inc. UK to private equity in 2018. Developed Marie Claire, Decanter, Wallpaper and Country Life digitally, internationally and into recurring subscription and membership models.

Alexander Drößler is the Head of Digital Products at Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster, a publisher that supports the professionals who produce, process and market food. Since March 2022, the thirty-two year old leads a new cross-functional team of 20, focusing on digital transformation of top agrar, the publishers main title. In his previous roles at Nordkurier and Neue Westfälische, he worked on digital transformation and product management at two German regional newspaper groups.

In 2020-21 he was part of the inaugural cohort of the Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is holding a master’s degree from the University of Hamburg in Journalism & Communication and spent an academic year at the Missouri School of Journalism as a Fulbright grantee.

Having held various positions in his 12-year stint at the BBC, James Hewes was part of the team that sold the business to private equity in November 2011. He was then Publishing Director for Top Gear, Good Food, Easy Cook and Lonely Planet Magazine and a Director of BBC Haymarket Exhibitions. He spent five years in Dubai, running Gulf News Publishing and responsible for more than 30 product areas. He launched the group’s first consumer brand in Arabic – wheels Arabic. Appointed President & CEO of FIPP in September 2017, he joined from The Art Newspaper, having been Interim CEO since December 2016. He is also a member of the Advisory Board at Dojoko, an education-focused start-up and a member of Oxford Brookes University’s Journalism Advisory Board. Day speakers

A journalist by training, Alan served as Head of Digital at The Times and The Sunday Times of London for eight years from 2013. Responsible for the titles’ output in digital, both on and off platform, he led their transformation to being a subscription-first business. He also successfully unified, redesigned and replatformed the titles’ smartphone apps and websites and built a bespoke analytics tool. He launched a number of newsletters, including Red Box, a political daily email which later inspired a podcast and a radio programme. Alan also served as Managing Editor, News Review Editor, Focus Editor and Deputy Sports Editor of The Sunday Times. During his time as Head of Digital, digital-only subscriptions doubled in number to 360,000.

More details to follow.

Professor Lucy Kueng is an expert on strategy and leadership and focuses on successful responses to digitalization. She is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute, Oxford University and Board Member of the NZZ Media Group. Lucy advises leading companies worldwide including the BBC, CNN, NRK, Schibsted, and Der Standard. She keynotes frequently at international conferences and is the author of many books including Hearts and Minds – Harnessing Leadership, Culture and Talent to really Go Digital, Innovators in Digital News and Strategic Management in the Media. She holds a PhD and Habilitation from the University of St Gallen and an MBA from City Business School/Ashridge.

Vicky has twenty years’ experience spanning B2B, consumer and specialist media. She has worked in multiple leadership roles in businesses including Informa, Key Media and Kelsey Media, specialising in business-led, outcome-based digital innovation and technology-led product development to enable growth opportunities.

John McGovern is CEO & Owner of Grimes, McGovern & Associates (GMA), a Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory firm specializing in media, events, information services and related markets. GMA is a market leader in M&A Advisory, handling 1500+ transactions since its inception in 1959 and currently managing 20+ transactions per year, including such high- profile event deals as representing MJ Biz’s in their sale to Emerald X in early 2022.  Recent transactions include the sale of:

• MJ Biz to Emerald EX
• UK-based SMI Group to SAE
• UK-based Vinelake LTD’s IOT Event Platform to Cambridge Innovation Institute
• UK-based Ultima Media Auto Events business in 10 countries including China, Russia, India and Brazil to Suddeutcher VMI
• Kestrel Health’s online event platform Woundcon to HMP Communications
• Quartz to G/O Media
• Creative Age Communications beauty magazines to Allured Media.
• Culture magazine to private investors
• The Running Event and running magazines to Diversified Communications.
• Today’s Bride and Mode Accessories to Newcom Media

John brings nearly 40 years of corporate development & strategy in the global media, events and online services industries, holding positions such as Senior VP of Thomson Financial, Senior VP at the Fair Disclosure Financial Network (sold to Warburg Pincus) and various positions early in his career at Dow Jones/Factiva. Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Atlanta, California, Florida, Philadelphia and South America, Grimes, McGovern & Associates continues the tradition of nearly 60 years of W.B. Grimes’ industry expertise advising B2B and B2C media, information services and event companies.

Declan Moore is Head of International for Wondery, an Amazon Company. Prior to joining Wondery he was the Chief Executive Officer of National Geographic Partners (NGP), the joint venture between National Geographic Society and Twenty First Century Fox (now Disney). Declan was the Chief Media Officer and Executive Vice President at National Geographic Society where he was responsible for all digital media, the global editions of National Geographic magazines, television production, travel business, licensing and book publishing. An Irish native, Declan graduated with a commerce degree from University College Dublin and holds an MBA from the Kogod School of Business at American University. He has been a featured speaker at media industry trade events including Cannes Lions, MipTV, Adobe Max, Mobile World Congress, SXSW, Frankfurt Book and Audio Fair, Podcast Movement, Licensing Expo.

Brian Morrissey is the founder of The Rebooting, a publication focused on the methods of building sustainable media businesses. Until October 2020, he was the president and editor-in-chief of Digiday Media, a vertical media company that has titles covering media and marketing (Digiday), fashion and beauty (Glossy) and retail (Modern Retail). At Digiday, he was responsible for all editorial across the brands, memberships, product, events programming and design. Prior to joining Digiday in 2011, he was digital editor at Adweek for six years. He’s spent two decades in digital media.

After a successful media career leading commercial teams, Daniel Pitchford co-founded Futurum Media, and launched the AI Business brand, which became the world’s largest AI news platform. AI Business’ global events series; 'The AI Summit' delivers over 40,000 attendees annually, across Europe, US, Asia, and Africa. The business was acquired by Informa Plc in May 2017, with both the co-founders exiting the business in December 2019. Daniel is a Venture Partner with SuperSeed, which focuses on early stage tech companies, investing capital but also operational expertise to fuel growth. As well as his role as Collingwood Advisory's CEO, Daniel specializes in commercial scale up and exit planning, and works with Collingwood Advisory’s clients on creating and crystallizing value.

More details to follow.

Nick Vinocur is Editor, POLITICO Pro, in charge of POLITICO Europe's B2B subscription services. He's responsible for coordinating coverage across ten policy verticals employing dozens of journalists in several EU hubs. In addition to working with editors and reporters to foster high-impact stories, he is a member of the newsroom's leadership team, working on staff questions and editorial strategy with other senior editors, as well as coordinating with U.S. counterparts. While Nick's role is editorial, he acts as a liaison with POLITICO's commercial teams. Born in Stockholm and educated in France and the United States, Nick is passionate about press freedoms, European and transatlantic politics.

More details to follow.

Martha L Williams is a digital media industry author, speaker and consultant. She runs World Newsmedia Network, a data and AI disruption consultancy and research business. She was a research associate at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute from 2012 to 2014, focusing her research on digital media disruption and data and artificial intelligence for media. She founded and has organised the Data and AI for Media conference ten times since 2013 –the first and only data and AI conference for media companies, drawing business and journalism executives from every continent. The conference has been held in London, New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong in collaboration with partners Open Society Foundations, Microsoft, Google and Thomson Reuters. Since the age of Covid, she has developed a series of data, digital subscriptions, product development and digital advertising webinars for high-profile tech companies. Williams is a prolific author of digital media industry strategic reports on a variety of topics: disruptive innovation, digital advertising, subscriptions, social media, e-commerce, content, privacy, usership trends and strategy. Three of her most recent publications is "Growing First-Party Data," "Video Strategy for Magazine Media" and “Paywalls: How to start your subscription strategy” for FIPP, the worldwide magazine media association.  Williams has travelled the globe to speak at media conferences about the research she publishes. She also organizes study tours for media executives to learn how the most innovative media companies are handling the challenges of digital media’s disruptive innovations. She was a founding board member of Global Editors Network in Paris, and a former director of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. 

More details to follow.