Alfie Joey was the host of the BBC Newcastle breakfast radio show, but there is so much more.
He’s also a writer, comic, actor, impressionist, and acclaimed artist/cartoonist. In May 2017, the North East Art Collective in Newcastle presented a gallery wall of his #AlfArt work.
Born into a County Durham coal mining family, Alfie left the region to train to be a Catholic priest. After living a monastic life for 15 years, he decided to leave and become a comedian, squeezing in a stint as a toy demonstrator in Harrods in between!
Regular host of our annual conference, Alfie is a master storyteller, bringing warmth, wit, and a natural ability to draw out the best in every conversation. He will be keeping the day flowing, the audience engaged, and the discussions grounded in what matters most.
A successful economist turned sports writer, Justine Roberts left the City behind to help change the face of parenting forever.
Launching Mumsnet in 2000, she wasn’t trying to build a media company or a tech platform. She simply wanted a place where parents could share honest advice and experiences.
Instead of tightly controlling the platform, she and co-founder Carrie Longton leaned into that idea and let the community lead. The tone, topics, and culture came directly from users. What emerged was something far more powerful than a traditional content site. It became a trusted community, and trust is what built the brand.
Justine’s eureka moment came after a family holiday gone wrong in Florida, when a supposedly family-friendly resort failed to live up to its reputation. Talking to other mothers afterwards, she realised how valuable a forum for sharing honest advice could be, and the idea for Mumsnet was born.
Starting in her back bedroom after the dot-com bubble had burst, the business grew through resilience and a powerful insight that parents often trust other parents more than experts.
Today, Mumsnet reaches around 14 million people each month and generates more than 128 million page views, making it one of the UK’s most influential online communities.
Justine will share the story behind building one of the UK’s most powerful online communities, and what entrepreneurs can learn from creating something people genuinely trust.
Alexander Bell is a global keynote speaker and thought leader in technology, productivity, and human connection.
Inspired by his experiences as a serial entrepreneur and raising three boys in a world dominated by technology and digital content, Alexander helps people and organisations explore the role that technology plays in our daily lives and identify the 7 rules that define our relationship with technology.
Alexander started his first company at age 20, growing it into a million-pound turnover PLC, before going on to work with international technology charity 'Practical Action' and leading a collaboration between IBM, His Royal Highness King Charles III, and Business in the Community. He worked with Google to take Street View indoors and later founded his second startup, all before turning 30.
After spending a decade immersed in Virtual Reality projects as Managing Director at Reality Media Group, Alexander worked with clients including Warner Bros., where he famously captured Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley in a 360-degree VR experience, but it was a conversation with his 7-year-old son that led him to discover the truth about technology, people, and performance.
Join us to hear from Alexander as he shares his Attention Intelligence® and Tech Rules® principles, exploring how to improve mindset, boost performance, and build a healthier relationship with technology.
Growing up in Edinburgh, Dougal read History at the University of Cambridge, staying on to complete a PhD before moving into the world of features journalism.
Specialising in business and technology stories for BBC News for the past decade, his reports have run on the BBC News Website, Radio 4, The World Service, and BBC One.
He started the CEO Secrets series for the BBC in 2015 and continues to produce it, alongside sharing thoughtful and revealing stories about business and entrepreneurship.
Author of 'Fail Smarter', the idea for his latest book emerged from years spent interviewing entrepreneurs and business leaders. Time and again, conversations returned to failure. Not a side note, but as something central to their journey. Many felt a need to talk about it openly and unburden their experiences.
What stood out most was not failure itself, but how the best leaders responded to it. The mindset, behaviours, and coping strategies they developed often became the foundation of their success.
Join Dougal to uncover what he has learned from those conversations, and hear a different perspective on how founders can approach failure more constructively, make better decisions under pressure, and build resilience that strengthens rather than slows progress.
