Consistently voted one of the most influential people in the UK event industry, Kevin has been making his influence felt for over 20 years.

A significant player within some of the world’s most respected marketing & event organisations like Jack Morton and George P. Johnston, Kevin is a thought leader, speaker, strategic consultant and relationship manager. Besides his role at Live, he also serves as non-executive director at Clive Agency and is immediate past-president of the UK Chapter of the International Live Events Association (ILEA).

David is a researcher and lecturer in international business with one of Ireland's leading Universities, whose personal interests have always focused on aspects of popular psychology, consumer behaviour, and choice. By combining these professional and personal passions with his love of the performance of mentalism, David has become a sought after speaker with a reputation for an innovative style that forces audiences to think critically about the challenges around them.

Over the last 7 years, David Meade's record breaking TV projects on the BBC have made him one of the most recognisable faces in the country. A household name in his native Ireland, he's developed an international reputation for delivering world class events that are dynamic, interactive, and memorable.

David's track record for delivering engaging events has grown a client list that features some of the world's most successful organisations that include Apple, Harvard University, Bank of America, Pramerica, Boston Scientific, The Cabinet Office in Westminster and PwC.

Lynnette Moran is an independent Arts Producer & Festival Director specialising in Live Art, Theatre, Visual Art and Digital platforms; with distinct experience of producing collaborative & socially engaged arts practice & public art commissions. In 2009 Lynnette established Live Collision, Ireland’s leading annual curated festival of Live Art and Ireland’s first independent Creative Producing House working with exceptional artists nationally & internationally. Live Collision is a recipient of EFFE label, acknowledgement of ‘exceptional rigour towards artistic commitment & global outlook’.

Lynnette is Creative Producer with ANU productions & Louise Lowe since 2013, one of two core producers on all productions including ANU’s triptych in 2016 including SUNDER (commissioned by the National Museum of Ireland and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht), On Corporation Street (commissioned by HOME Manchester) and THESE ROOMS ( a co-commission with Cois Ceim dance and part of ART:2016 portfolio of Arts Council Ireland). Previous work with ANU includes: Last Words and PALS – The Irish at Gallipoli (National Museum of Ireland), Road to the Rising (RTE), Into The Sun (Accenture IWD), Glorious Madness and Angel Meadow.

Lynnette is co-founder & Lead Producer for CAPP (Collaborative Art Partnership Programme), a transnational partnership across six countries and nine partner organisations including Create (IRE) as Lead Partner. CAPP is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In 2016 she co-produced two projects in Arts Council’s ART:2016 portfolio; These Rooms by ANU and Cois Ceim and In The Shadow of the State by Sarah Browne and Jesse Jones part commissioned by Create and Artangel (UK).

Lynnette began her career in London, cutting her teeth with some of the UK’s leading arts organisations including LIFT and BAC (Battersea Arts Centre). She holds a BA Hons Degree in Fine Art, and an MA in Performance Art from Goldsmiths College, London.

Hugo Arnold has been writing about food for over 25 years. He wrote a column the London Evening Standard for four years in the mid Nineties and has written extensively on all aspects of food, from ingredients, to producers for various magazines and newspapers including the Daily Telegraph, Food Illustrated and House and Garden. He wrote a column in the Financial Times from 1999 to 2002 a column for the Irish Times from 2003 to 2007. He won a Glenfiddich award for his Financial Times writing in 2001. He edited the leading Irish gourmet food magazine, Food and Wine, from 2006 to 2010 and has written a column for the magazine since then. The circulation of the magazine increased year on year during his term at the helm. In 2000 Hugo Arnold set up HAC, a consultancy advising restaurants, hotels and foodservice companies. Focused on menus and food offers, the scope of projects encompasses all aspects of the customer journey from interior design through to uniforms and service standards.

Anna Dvorakova has handled growth and awareness of Slido in the Asia and Australia region since January 2015 building the regional business from the ground up. In September 2017, Anna will be moving to New York to continue business development for Slido there.

Previously, Anna spent two years in Manila, Philippines as a Business Development Consultant for the Harvard Business Publishing division of HR solution company, John Clements Consultants Inc. The position gave her the opportunity to experience work in an international environment and to organize a leadership conference for over 200 managers.

Anna graduated from Mendel University in Brno with a Bachelor degree in Economics and Management. During her studies she participated in the ERASMUS program and studied one semester at Uludag Universitesi in Bursa, Turkey. While studying at Mendel University, to earn professional experience, Anna joined the student organization AIESEC, which arranges internships for students abroad.

PJ studied Hotel Management at University College Birmingham before joining the management team at Jurys Doyle Group in his native country, Ireland. PJ has spent the past 11 years in General Manager roles at hotels in Ireland and England with Jurys Doyle, Jurys Inns, Hilton Worldwide, and most recently as Director of Operations at The Hilton London Metropole. PJ has experience across all aspects of the hospitality industry, from opening new built projects, managing small and large upscale properties and leading large teams.

Paul has over 20 years’ experience with Avcom and the event’s industry. In 1996, Paul joined the audio-visual industry looking after the technical events for Avcom’s clients when 35mm Slide Projectors and Cassette Tapes helped deliver their message. Paul spent four years of his audio-visual career in two in-house properties; The Burlington Hotel Dublin and The Four Season’s Hotel Dublin, which helped develop and nurture his hospitality and customer focused skills. He now leads a team of over 40 audio visual specialists that deliver a multitude of high level technical events to national and international customers to a customer base of over 1,000 companies and individuals.

Mary has worked in the hospitality and services industry for almost 20 years, 8 of which have been within Fáilte Ireland. At the beginning of her career, Mary worked within the L&D/ Recruitment departments of some of Dublin's high profile private corporations like Accenture, Google and a number of city centre hotel properties. In 2009, she joined Fáilte Ireland and has developed her tourism expertise through working across both the leisure and business tourism programmes of the organisation. Mary is passionate about promoting Ireland as a leading MICE destination and enjoys the excitement and buzz that comes with winning events for Ireland.

A country girl at heart….Mary is originally from the golden vale of County Tipperary! However, Mary has since lived and worked in places like Galway to Switzerland, Sligo to San Diego and many more in between. Mary now lives full time in her adopted home town of Dublin but is very still proud of her “culchie” heritage… especially on all Ireland Hurling Final match days when she happily dons her native county colours of blue and gold!

Mary has a love for all things food and wine related and is sure to give you the best advice on the newest hotspot to eat or drink in Dublin!

Dave is a highly experienced business leader, with a passion for growing businesses and helping people unleash their potential.

Previously, Dave was the Managing Director of Ogilvy & Mather advertising and communications agency, having spent twelve years with the company. He built Ogilvy’s integrated capability across the organisation, and lead the growth of the agency, managing a multi-function team of fifty people across client service, creative and production and worked on some of Ireland’s and the world’s biggest brands.

Prior to joining Ogilvy, Dave was a Director of Dimension, helping to grow the renowned ad agency into a thriving and exciting activation agency. Before moving to the agency side, Dave worked as a client with Irish Life and Warner Brothers. Through these positions he gained a valuable knowledge of what makes a client company tick and what works for their brands, aswell as understanding the dynamics and demands of a client-side business.

Dave has served as Director of both the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland (IAPI) aswell as Chairman of the Association of Promotional Marketing Consultants (APMC).

Outside of work, Dave has been involved in bike racing since the age of fourteen and still competes, although he tells us he is past his prime, and he is a Mercedes classic car enthusiast.

Mark Cooper of the United Kingdom is the chief executive officer of IACC.

Cooper brings to IACC over 25 years of experience in the global meetings industry working for both US and European based companies, in a number of leadership roles.

With an extensive industry background, he has held senior posts with respected conference venue operators and global third party agencies, including Dolce Hotels & Resorts, Sundial Group, ConferenceDirect and Warwick Conferences and in the last 5-years with IACC.

Before joining as CEO in 2012, Mark has previously held positions on both the European and Global Boards of IACC and has been an active member in the association for 18 years. Members that make up the community of IACC are an incredibly exciting group of impassioned experts and ambassadors.

Founded in 1981 IACC is a not-for-profit association dedicated to promoting understanding and awareness of the conference venue industry and to giving member venues the tools necessary to provide an exceptional IACC meeting experience.

Active members meet a set of stringent Quality Standards and agree to a Code of Ethics. Currently, the association includes approximately 375 members from the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mongolia, New Zealand, Kenya, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, England, Scotland, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and the Philippines.

Adam is passionate about innovation in the meetings and event industry. As Vice Chair of the HBAA Technology Committee and a contributor to the IACC Meeting Room of the Future report he takes a keen interest in both technology and design.

Adam was recently voted onto the Event 100 list, one of only 5 suppliers. He has also provided valuable insight into the meetings industry to the Institute of Travel Management and won their Chairman’s Award in 2016. At atc.venues he is Head of Group Sales and has been instrumental in developing the Conference and Exhibition product for the group. Adam has seen etc.venues double in size through new openings and has always paid attention ensuring etc.venues is at the forefront of venue innovation.

Paula’s marketing career with Pernod Ricard spans 10 years. She joined the Jameson Graduate Programme in 2007 and spent 3 subsequent years working in The Netherlands, the USA and Australia delivering local brand campaigns, experiences and events. Paula returned to Irish Distillers in Dublin in 2010 and joined the Jameson International Marketing team working on global film initiatives including Jameson Empire Awards, Jameson Cult Film Club and Jameson First Shot. Most recently, Paula was a key member of the project team, who successfully delivered the new-look Jameson Distillery Bow St. Brand Home in Smithfield, Dublin - which officially re-opened in March 2017 following a major €11M investment.

With his business partner Patrick Delaney, Pádraic is currently Managing Partner at SoolNua, a boutique marketing consultancy helping destinations, hotels and venues with marketing, strategy and training for the MICE marketplace. Prior to founding SoolNua, Gilligan was Vice President of Ovation, MCI’s global DMC network and Vice President of Industry Relations at MCI.

Following a 13 year career in education, teaching at second and third levels, he started Delaney Marketing Consultants in 1994 with Patrick Delaney. In 2002 Delaney Marketing acquired Ovation and re-branded as Ovation Group. In June 2007 Ovation was acquired by MCI Group and commenced a robust global expansion programme which saw the establishment of offices at 100 global destinations under the Ovation Global DMC brand.

In 2004 he was elected to the International Board of the SITE and served as international President of this global organisation in 2008. He has won many awards including Industry Personality of the Year from Meetings.net in 2009 and Destination Management Professional of the Year from ADMEI in 2012. He currently serves as a Trustee of the SITE Foundation. He blogs regularly for EventMB and on his own popular blog, www.padraicino.com

Sinéad has worked in the hospitality industry for over 15 years and holds a BSc. Honours degree in Hospitality Management from DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology).

Sinéad began her career in the US which gave her the opportunity to work for a global hotel chain where she was based at the Fairmont hotel in Boston. Having got the taste of working in a five star hotel property she moved to the Shelbourne hotel Dublin in 2007 and spent five years working in sales and events roles. Through these positons she gained valuable experience of all aspects of the hospitality industry.

At Croke Park since 2011, Sinéad has direct responsibility for the performance of the team and was integral in the meticulous planning behind the refurbishment and relaunch. Sinead is dedicated to ensuring that Croke Park Meetings & Event performs at a world-class standard. No stranger to winning awards, her team just won ‘Best In-house Events team’ for the second year running at the Event Industry Awards!

Sinead hails from Mayo, which naturally means she’s a diehard Mayo GAA supporter. As she simply put it, she’s ‘living for the day Sam Maguire will come back West’.

A native of Sligo, Mark has been Head of Stadium Business since 2014, previously headed up our Visitor Attractions business and prior to that worked in FMCG in both sales and marketing roles.