As part of its drive to support and nurture young talent in the meetings and events industry, The Meetings Show has celebrated ten of the brightest up and coming event professionals at a celebratory lunch.

The winners of the show’s inaugural Tomorrow’s Talent initiative were invited to attend the celebratory lunch along with members of the judging panel – deputy editor of M&IT magazine Paul Harvey, VisitBritain’s Fiona Macdonald and head of marketing and PR at DRPG Ryan Curtis-Johnson; and representatives from the show – executive vice president/group publisher of the Meetings Group at Northstar Travel Group David Blansfield, commercial director Ross Barker and account director Jack Marczewski. 

Held in the private dining room of the Osteria Restaurant by Searcys London at The Barbican, the lunch was a chance for the winners to not only celebrate their achievement, but to share their thoughts on the industry and offer ideas to shape the future of The Meetings Show. 

The winners were chosen for excelling across a variety of fields, including their achievements to date, ability to face challenges, drive and ambition, engagement with the wider industry and the future impact they could make. 

The 10 winners are:

  • Ashley Rowe, IET
  • Charlie Carvill, Hotel & Travel Solutions
  • Charlotte Kain, 99 City Road
  • Dominika Zaton, Abbott
  • Gracia Kabongo, Association of Colleges
  • Jade Woodall, BCD
  • Joonas Ahola, MeetingPackage.com
  • Max Klein, Diabetes UK
  • Shannon Barrow, Unicorn Events
  • Stephanie Utting, emc3

Fiona Macdonald, senior manager of business events at VisitBritain, said: “It’s a great honour to be a judge of Tomorrow’s Talent; the entries were of a really high standard and it’s clear there’s a lot of great young talent in the industry. What I was most impressed with was those who were focused on a higher purpose, whether it was advancing the cause of their clients or their own organisation, or in the community they’re holding their events in. 

“We had a great discussion at the lunch about what attracted them to the industry, and how the events industry can help young talent get their footing through education and development. I’m really looking forward to working with them over the coming months as we can, together, push what a wonderful industry events is to work in.”

The Tomorrow’s Talent winners will now have the chance to attend The Meetings Show 2019 as a VIP, including tickets to the pre-show conference and hosted buyer welcome reception, and will be invited to attend further networking events and discussions to support the show’s advisory board in steering the future direction of the show.

Taking place on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 June at Olympia London, The Meetings Show will bring together more than 4,500 industry professionals for two days of meeting, networking and learning.

Visitor registration for The Meetings Show is open now – visit www.themeetingsshow.com/register.

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.