Theme: Ripples of Change; Navigating Transformation

In the spirit of fostering ideas worth spreading, we have carefully chosen a theme that encapsulates the power of small actions and ideas to create significant waves of change. "Ripples of Change" signifies the impact of individual contributions in navigating the currents of transformation.

This theme is a call to action, an invitation to explore the subtle yet profound ways in which our ideas, actions, and stories can initiate transformative journeys. It's an acknowledgment that every ripple, no matter how small, has the potential to create a wave of positive change.

Enterprise1 Building - UWE Bristol
Coldharbour Ln, Stoke Gifford
Bristol, Bristol, City of, BS16 1QY
United Kingdom

Abayomi Akinyemi

business strategist, and banking operations management professional

Abayomi Michael Akinyemi is a seasoned banking operations management professional with over a decade of experience in business strategy, risk management, and customer service. Holding degrees from the University of Lagos and the University of the West of England, he has held key roles in various banks, currently serving as an Operations Analyst at Laithwaites. With expertise in interpersonal communication, risk management, and critical thinking, Abayomi is a versatile professional who enjoys football, movies, music, and social outings in his leisure time.

Ahmed Ejaz

Entrepreneur

Ahmed is an Optometrist, former Parliamentary Candidate and Founder and CEO of one of the UKs fastest growing eyewear brands. In 2023 his company launched a range of spectacles across 157 ASDA Optician stores in the UK and sold out within weeks. Celebrities such as Ex-England Footballer, Ian Wright MBE and comedians Josh Widdicombe, Rob Beckett and Dom Joly now wear the brand. Ahmed was born in the West Midlands to a struggling family and has gone on to become a hard working Entrepreneur. His company now also gives back to the community by committing profits to fund eye research to help end preventable blindness.

Alexander Atlas

Student

Atlas is a 22 year old, 3rd year Game Tech student; whom, after a very difficult and very humble upbringing, against all odds, made it to university to study what I love (VIDEO GAMES!!). However, studying at University has presented it's own hardships which I believe can be fixed with a simple reassement of the approach to the way we deliver materials to a generation mentally vandalized by industrial worker oriented education, governments lobbying further education & overexposed to social media.

Cara De Lange

Founder & CEO Softer Success®

Cara de Lange is a specialist in the science of burnout. A visionary author, business strategy consultant and corporate futurist, she founded Softer Success® to provide evidence-backed solutions for businesses to transform the way we work . Working with the world’s top universities, researchers and psychologists, she created the ground-breaking, anonymous wellbeing assessment ‘A Walk Through the Forest‘, which can diagnose & resolve the risk of burnout & workplace toxicity in 90 seconds. She founded the ‘Work Reset Revolution’ movement and podcast, in which she speaks to respected doctors, scholars and business leaders, proving with data the need to radically change our working habits. Recently, she also started the ‘Letters from the future’, in which she discusses solutions for the future of work, international collaboration and our planet.

Ceylan Boyce

CEO, founder

Ceylan Boyce, the driving force behind the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, is an award-winning SME growth expert and entrepreneurship coach whose mission is to help women founders build and grow their businesses to enable their lives.

Clare Kenny

Wellbeing Consultant, Head of Wellbeing Strategy at PVL, Co-Founder of The Wellbeing Academy

Clare, an experienced workplace wellbeing strategist and keynote speaker, has a personal journey marked by burnout, anxiety disorder, and alcohol addiction stemming from toxic work environments. Her mother's sudden passing in 2015 compelled her to prioritize mental health over her career. Transitioning from high-pressure roles, she founded her own consultancy, focusing on cultivating thriving workplace cultures. Clare's expertise spans advising global leaders, crafting bespoke wellbeing strategies for diverse organizations, and measuring impact. She has served clients like Channel 4, Warner Media, and KPMG, drawing from her background in learning and development and leadership consultancy across Europe and Asia, including roles at TKE and YSC. Notably, she spearheaded Burberry's global wellbeing strategy. Passionate about effecting meaningful change, Clare aims to foster environments where individuals can thrive.

Emma Wingate

Senior Wellbeing Practitioner (Counselling)

Emma is a Counsellor and Supervisor who has worked in NHS services, a long term addictions service and has been working with Students in universities for over 10 years. Her passion is helping people to tell their stories in a way that sheds new light on familiar territory and empowering them to make changes.

Henriette Danel

Business & Client Attraction Coach

Henriette Danel is a Multi-Award Winning Business & Client Attraction Coach, working with Business Owners in the service-based industry, to help them Attract More Clients Continuously. She's also the host of The Entrepreneurial Success Podcast, a Public Speaker and Author. Her speciality lies in her unique ability to take anything complicated, dissect it and put it back together in such a way that's easy to understand and implement. And because of this, her clients gain clarity and receive amazing results in the shortest amount of time. Henriette believes that running a business should be fun, encouraging and led with integrity. This requires your commitment and clarity. And once you're focused, signing up clients more continuously comes naturally and organically.

Lauren Russ Constant

CEO/Founder of SELFHOOD

Growing up as the only brown kid in Black and white families, Lauren has been navigating the complexity of Identity from as early as she can remember. Her career started in Brand Strategy, supporting clients around the world. After a decade in the industry, she left her role as Director of Brand and Culture at an award-winning Toronto agency to found SELFHOOD, a learning organization opening up how we think, talk about and experience who we are. Rooted in neuroscience, psychology, and lived experience, Lauren's work takes a unique approach. She holds several recognized qualifications that include Coaching, Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Group Facilitation. She also leans heavily on the academic and theoretical understandings of Identity, graduating from Harvard University’s Self and Identity course in 2021. She is also the host of the educational podcast Identity Soup.

Lucy Smith

Director & Founder, Inclusive Change

An award winning social entrepreneur who passionately believes in building the future of work with neurodiversity in mind. Lucy is the founder of Inclusive Change and Inclusive Change At Work CIC. With a wealth of practical leadership and change management experience and academic knowledge she aims to make a difference in organisations and communities by raising awareness of neurodiversity. Winner of the BBC Bristol Make a difference award in 2022 and recognised by the Prime Minister in 2023. Lucy is renowned as an energetic and passionate speaker.

Monica Wat

Multi-arts creative, community activist

Monica Wat is a community activist and multi-arts creative who uprooted her life from Hong Kong to the UK in 2021. She is also the founder and director of the East & South East Asian (ESEA) creative collective Made on the Moon and the first-ever annual multi-arts ESEA festival MOON FEST. As a singer-songwriter, her debut single and music video 'Memories, Linger' about drifting between places, has garnered close to 10000 views on YouTube.

Philip Holmes

Founder/CEO

In January 1999, the tragic death of Lt Col Philip Holmes’ first wife led to his resigning from a successful Army career to set up a children’s charity in her memory. He decided that his charity would work in Nepal, a country that he had never even been to before. He started this journey hopelessly underqualified and with tiny resources; the odds were firmly against him. But huge ripples of success flowed from this small and apparently hopeless start. Philip went on to live in Nepal where he rescued up to a thousand innocent children from imprisonment, from off the streets and from modern day slavery. He closed down two cross-border child trafficking routes permanently. And now he is confronting the existential threat from climate change and the crisis in nature from a similarly small start. Find out how this very ordinary man is achieving extraordinary results, making a transformative impact that was recognised with an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List.

Sourajit Aiyer

Consultant, auctusESG and MSc student

Sourajit Aiyer is a finance and sustainability professional with 17+ years of experience across traditional financial services, sustainable finance and climate risk management. Currently, he has enrolled in an MSc programme at Sussex University in the UK. He has worked on projects across developing countries, with different types of stakeholder organisations and in different work-cultures. He has authored 3 books on regional economies and over 170 articles in sustainability, business, and finance. He holds exam-based certifications in sustainability and climate from various international organisations.

Steve Phillip

Founder and Director

Steve Phillip was a successful leadership & sales coach and corporate speaker, when, in December 2019, he received a call that would change his life forever; his 34 year old son, Jordan, had taken his own life. Within 12 months of this life-changing experience, Steve established The Jordan Legacy CIC to provide hope to people who are feeling suicidal, by engaging all those who share his ambition to move toward a ‘Zero Suicide Society’. With a following of more than 56,000 people on LinkedIn, Steve uses his own lived experience and insight to increase awareness about the practical actions we can all take to prevent suicides. Preventing suicides is one of the biggest transformational change initiatives society faces today and although suicide can affect anyone, everyone can play a part in preventing suicides. Significant change will happen when many micro-actions come together as one collaborative approach to saving lives.

Syed Ayaan Reza

Student

Syed Ayaan Reza is a passionate advocate for inclusivity and social change, currently serving as a Student Ambassador and Student Advocate for Widening Participation at the University of the West of England (UWE),As the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic Officer for The College of Health, Science and Society (CHSS), Ayaan is dedicated to fostering a diverse and equitable campus environment where all voices are heard and valued.