Judges

Raj Basi | Digital Content and Engagement Manager | Harrods

Raj is a strategic storyteller working in the Employee Experience team at Harrods. With over five years experience in digital content, and an insatiable appetite for bringing the employee voice to life, Raj knows how to use the mechanics of content to drive a sense of connection, engagement and belonging. Whether it’s tactically driving people-led experiences or putting her heart into small touches, everything she does is to support Harrods’ ambition to create a human and memorable employee and candidate experience.

Paris de Reuck | Content and Community Strategist

Paris has worked in social media and SEO for thirteen years, with eight years spent heading social media, influencers and editorial teams at MediaCom and OMD. Paris now works directly with companies and startups helping them find creative ways to grow through social media advertising, content and influencer marketing.

Lyndsey Evans | FOUNDER | COLLABORATIVE FOLKS

Lyndsey runs the PR & communications freelance network, Collaborative Folks, which she launched after 20 years working in both inhouse and agency marketing communications roles, spanning PR, content marketing and brand strategy. Prior to this she headed up comms at retailers AO.com and Iceland Foods, as well as worked at some of the north west’s biggest agencies. Lyndsey’s experience spans 70+ brands across 20 sectors and includes Bentley Motors, Gumtree, Very, Specsavers and Marks & Spencer. At AO.com, Lyndsey transformed the brand's reputation from a little-known online white goods specialist to one of the most talked about emerging online retailers over a four year period. She also introduced the company’s first PR, content and influencer team and after inheriting a decimated search profile brought the business' search rankings back to page 1 from page 100 following a Google penalty. Lyndsey has won many industry awards and has been named a top 50 in-house communicator in the north.

Dee Goldstraw | Senior lecturer | Manchester Metropolitan University

A senior lecturer in marketing and digital communications at Manchester Metropolitan University, Dee specialist area is content marketing, where she teaches across a number of content strategy units. Reading for her PhD has taken her research into the area of exploring online influencers, in particular on Instagram, and their impact on women. A PR professional for more than 15 years, Dee has worked in a mixture of PR, digital marketing and events agencies across the north of the UK as well as working freelance.

Kenon Man | Deputy Director of Marketing | University of Nottingham

Kenon has over 10 years experience of creating and producing award winning content in the higher education sector. He is Deputy Director of Marketing at University of Nottingham, but started out in Arts marketing when creating social media content was considered a risky thing to do. Kenon is keen to get more diversity into the mar-comms industry and he’s been awarded a place on the BME Pros Xec leadership course, the first leadership scheme for UK-based Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority (BME) PR and comms pros.

Will Piper | Head of Content | Aston Martin F1 Team

An award-winning video specialist with a proven track record of growing, engaging and retaining global audiences for major sports brands, Will Piper is the Head of Content for Formula One's newest team - Aston Martin. Having spent a number of years working in football for Chelsea and West Ham United, and having covered major sporting events throughout his career including the Rugby World Cup, Six Nations, World Athletics Championships and London Marathon, Will made the switch into Formula One in early 2021, joining AMF1 to translate the story of the team's historic return to F1 for the first time in 61 years onto social and digital channels. In his time at Chelsea, Will worked as part of a team that grew digital audiences at scale across various channels - most notably on the club's official mobile app (The 5th Stand) and YouTube channel - while also helping to significantly increase the number of unique users visiting the official club website. His work as part of a team helped the club to win Best Digital Marketing at the Marketing Society Brave Awards in 2020, for the growth and product development of The 5th Stand, and Best Digital Content at the SportsPro Media Awards for a mini-documentary series produced in-house that storied the return of Frank Lampard. Now in the Marketing team at AMF1, Will is tasked with owning the content strategy, managing creative projects, ideating content for major marketing campaigns and is responsible for all output across digital channels.

Hannah Smith | Founder | Wonderist

Hannah Smith spent 7 years working in offline marketing (they just called it ‘marketing’ back then) until her fairy godmother told her that the internet was the future. Not one to ignore such sage advice, she made the switch to online marketing in 2007. Over a five and half year period at Distilled, she was part of the creative team which delivered over 14,000 pieces of linked coverage. Then, for close to three years, she led the creative and PR team at Verve Search. In that time she was responsible for launching more than 150 creative content pieces which generated over 8,250 pieces of linked coverage. Her work for clients has won multiple awards, and she’s spoken at numerous conferences including MozCon, SMX, SearchLove, and BrightonSEO. In 2019 she founded Worderist.com offering consultancy, coaching, training, and ongoing support to help agency-side and in house creative teams make content which delivers results.

Bianca Spada | International Social Media Marketing | Facebook

Bianca is a global digital strategy expert with 10 years experience of delivering successful digital strategies and global campaigns in some of the world’s leading and cutting edge companies. She is an expert in consolidating and creating brand new social strategies to significantly increase the visibility of brands online. Bianca has a proven record of radically turning around performance and generating 3-figure growth within 12 months of working in a company.