Denise has worked in communications research for more than 20 years, and loves the fact she gets to ask why for a living. After many years in full-service and media agencies, she joined Newsworks in April 2015. She has delivered several award-winning projects as part of her role overseeing the insight programme at the marketing body for national newsbrands. She has authored a number of books and reports on communications effectiveness and regularly presents on conference platforms. She served on the MRG Committee for 10 years, including two as Chair. In 2009 she was elected a Fellow of the IPA, in recognition of her services to the advertising industry.

Michael Carroll is a Senior Packaging Specialist at Nestlé NPTC confectionery York. He has over 26 years’ experience as a packaging professional working in the packaging supply chain, including graphics, print, materials, value engineering and processes improvement. He has worked at 3 Major food brands Müller, Kellogg and most recently at Nestlé

Gillian has twenty years’ experience within the print and packaging industry, strategically developing packaging to meet the needs of clients and consumers / end users. After joining in June 2000 Gillian has grown the packaging development arm significantly, using her expertise to help new and existing clients while working collaboratively with the creative, legal, graphics and digital teams in the business. Gillian and the team now develop packaging for a number of household names with services that span from value engineering to sustainability and innovation, always ensuring creativity does not compromise technical functionality. These services are enjoyed by international brands and retailers such as Jerónimo Martins, Unilever, Spectrum Brandings, Liverpool Football Club, Heineken, 2 Sisters Food Group and Duerr’s.

Nic has spent the last 15 years working with Financial Services and Retail clients developing solutions to automate marketing processes and deliver highly personalised communications, including Barclays, Sun-Life, LV, HSBC, Centrica and HomeBase. After completing a PhD in Neural Networks, Nic worked in technology development for 10 years in a variety of client facing and leadership roles.

Ewan leads the Channel 4 Nations & Regions commercial business based in Manchester, working with advertisers, agencies and producers across the breadth of the UK & Ireland. He is passionate about television and believes bringing brands together with great content and audiences is enormously powerful.

Prior to joining Channel 4 he held a series of roles with ITV. Ewan holds Channel 4’s most senior role outside of London and is a strong advocate of the talent that thrives within the creative industries outside of London.

Olga provides strategic direction for the Institute’s thematic strands by working closely with global brand owners, retailers and packaging manufacturers, ensuring that the institute’s research methodologies can inform their strategic & innovation priorities.

Olga has a MA and BA in Philology from University of Warsaw, followed by career in marketing, where she worked on award winning media campaigns for large European retail developers, and experience in academia, where she was involved with university strategic research projects.

A graduate of UMIST, Joanna has worked in the print and packaging industry for over 25 years. She was formerly a Global Product Director at Dow Chemical, Marketing Director Packaging Inks Europe at Sun Chemical and latterly, Global Marketing & Innovation Director, LINPAC Group. Having worked as a marketing partner to Parkside Flexibles since 2014, Jo supports the company with marketing and communications strategy, enabling the management team to drive its packaging sustainability new business growth strategy.

Jon Bailey has over 20 years’ experience of cutting edge digital print technology and is dedicated to keeping print relevant. He sits on the global board of DSCOOP, one of the world’s largest digital print user groups with over 7,000 members where he continues his mission to show people why it really is better, printed. Jon’s passion for print combined with his approach to leadership and culture make for an engaging and interesting look at the world of marketing operations. Once a local traditional print company in Sheffield, ProCo has been transformed into a 140-strong, dual site marketing operations business which is recognised as one of the world’s most innovative print and direct mail production facilities.

Damian is the Director of XR Stories and a leading researcher in Audio and Music Technology, with his work on virtual acoustics, spatial audio, physical modelling, and audio signal processing placing him in over a hundred leading journals. His creative work has appeared in both galleries and festivals of international reputation.

Despite working in Print for over 11 years, Andy is in fact, a millennial. A demographic that are changing the world we live in. With hundreds of messages being thrown at us every day, Andy understands the importance of marketing that stands out, and has a huge part to play in today’s world. Print brings huge strengths that when enhanced by the power of digital engagement, result in great brand loyalty.

As director of the largest printing technologies exhibition in the world, Sabine has a unique international perspective on the on the world of print.

drupa provides crucial impulses for print, media, packaging production, and industrial applications – especially in the vertical markets. The world’s leading trade fair for printing technologies creates outstanding networking opportunities and potential for excellent business dealings. This is where innovations are brought into the market, new business models are developed, and new partnerships are formed. drupa 2016 – 260,000 visitors from 183 countries.

The Dean of Leeds Business School at Leeds Beckett University, George has 16 years’ experience as a senior academic in the fields of entrepreneurship and the strategic management of technology and innovation. George’s research interests are primarily in the areas of enterprise, innovation, organisational change and consumer behaviour. In addition, he has particular interest in the factors contributing to the sustainable growth of businesses.

With over 30 years’ experience in the technology sector – particularly in the fields of digital and search marketing – Rob has managed services for some of the UK’s largest brands including Tesco, O2 and Pets at Home.

HQ’d in Sheffield, Jaywing is “a science-led agency and consultancy” with a team over 450 working for clients ranging from Asda to Sky. Founding partners of VMC – last year showcasing your work for Hull City of Culture since recognised in the Marketing Week Awards as ‘Masters of Marketing’ and the W3 Awards that ‘ Honour the best of the web’.

An expert in the graphical industries and the European policies affecting their activities, Beatrice leads the strategic, lobbying and information activities of Intergraf’s members at EU level in the areas of environment, social policy, competitiveness and standardisation.

Intergraf is the European printing industry’s dedicated trade association in Brussels, promoting print and sharing information to harness opportunities for the sector. The European federation for print & digital communication​, representing 22 national printing associations from 20 countries. Many of them attending VMC.

Roger Marsh has been Chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) since 2013 and during that time has led the LEP through a period of significant transformation, including securing the country’s largest ever Local Growth Deal with Government.

Roger chairs the recently formed NP11 which brings together the 11 Northern LEPs to work with the Northern Powerhouse Minister to support the Government’s vision for the Northern Powerhouse.  He also chairs the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund Strategic Oversight Board and the European Structural & Investment Fund Local Sub Committee. Before joining the LEP, Roger was Senior Partner at PwC and boasts over 30 years’ experience in the private sector. In 2015, he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for Services to Business and the Economy.

Nick’s experience spans a number of high profile publishing ventures: from launching Insider (Newsco) to financial transactions data companies – Corpfin,  Zephyr and j4b – to the media web site How-Do.

As Planning and Brand Strategy Manager at Dubit, Steph works between the research and digital teams to help conceptualise the best digital experiences for clients and ensures that recent research findings and observations input into all of Dubit’s digital builds. Since launching in 1999, Dubit works with many leading children’s companies, including LEGO, Mattel, PBS Kids, Dreamworks and Discovery – as well as many start-ups, too. Dubit has invested heavily in Virtual Reality – and has three VR companies under Dubit Group – WEARVR, XR Games, and XIBIT. Dubit also created the first-ever research report with Children (ages 8-12 years) and Virtual Reality. Findings can be downloaded at www.childrenvr.org

Roddy is a co-founder of Framework Creative, the brand activation and immersive digital design arm of Elmwood, the worlds most effective brand design consultancy.

For over 11 years, Framework Creative has been right at the sharp end of 3D design and immersive technology, utilising its in-house expertise to deliver great brand experience and content to create commercial impact for its clients.