Jackie Barrie is a marketing copywriter, trainer and speaker, who founded Comms Plus in 2001 after 20 years as a copywriter and marketer in the corporate world. She’s an associate member of the Professional Speaking Association and achieved Advanced Communicator (Bronze) with Toastmasters. She’s studied creative writing with Sue Townsend on a Greek island, holds an Open University BA Honours degree, qualified as an NLP Practitioner, and originally trained as a journalist

Gary is a London based trainer and consultant with over 20 years experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors; with significant achievements in consultancy, training, funding development and community regeneration. Currently employed as a Director/Managing Consultant of CNT Associates, a London based company and previously a visiting lecturer/ research associate at the University of Central Lancashire. He has run and managed a string of successful businesses and also previously worked for a large PLC based in central London.Gary is a graduate and qualified trainer, who has developed & delivered training programmes for many businesses, SME’s and social enterprises. He has extensive knowledge of government funding streams and opportunities and can advise delegates how to get the best out of public, private and trust funds for their organisations.Currently working with a range of companies, social enterprises and social enterprises and civil sector organisations on various Public Funding programmes to research funding sources and other development opportunities. He has significant experience of working on and managing EU funding programme, especially ESF and also JCP, LSC & other regeneration projects. Gary is also an associate member of both the Institute of Fundraising & the Institute of Economic Development.

Chantal is an award winning journalist and broadcaster with over 20 years experience working for the BBC and independent radio stations in the UK and abroad. She is also co-founder of Passion for the Planet radio andboutique communications agency, PRdemystified.Chantal has written for national newspapers and magazines, appeared on countless radio shows, been featured in business books (and a novel) and is regularly asked to present business The RSPB, BT, Canterbury Cathedral, The Carbon Coach etc. Chantal regularly presents a series of training courses called “PR Demystified” to show you how to use the media.

Christopher Head and Annabel Kaye co-founded Irenicon in 1980. They bring their specialist expertise in law, HR and commerce to help clients plot a safe path through the employment law minefield. Christopher’s training as a Barrister and experience as a Company Secretary of a plc complements Annabel’s no-nonsense, skilful and supportive approach to people problems in the workplace. Annabel is a serious user of social media, using it routinely to promote Irenicon and its new informal advice brand, KoffeeKlatch.Irenicon draws on their personal experience of using social media, their expertise in working for professional organisations such as the Public Relations Consultants Association, and their day to day work with clients from all sectors, to provide you with a unique insight into how use social media without getting into legal trouble.www.irenicon.co.uk

After a long career in teaching, training and International Sales and Marketing, Nicci used her MBA to set up her Management Training business which was put on hold when her daughter was born. But in the last 3 years she has revitalised her company, Manage2improve and now runs sales coaching courses for women business owners and coaching programmes.

I help other businesses to learn how to use social media/social networking. This helps them to build great business reputations, to connect with relevant customers and to drive them to their websites and places of business.I train and mentor individuals, teams and groups on a range of social media topics, from basics and 'how to' sessions on different networks, to social media strategy, etiquette and blogging. For those too busy themselves to do it, I manage a number of social media accounts.I also help businesses with their wider marketing challenges, including their marketing plans and priorities. My experience in market research enables me to design and run research projects and to deliver insights and strategy recommendations. I specialise in employee engagement, employer branding, change management and internal/ external communications.I have over 25 years of experience in marketing and research and am Chartered Institute of Marketing qualified and a Full Member of the Market Research Society. Recently, I have been appointed as one of 12 regional tutors in the UK to teach the first BTEC qualification in social media

Nina is a Tax & Business Consultant, Professional Speaker & Singer, Author, Mentor, Landlord, Award Winning Entrepreneur & Founder of Nina UK Property. Her business divisions are Property Acquisitions & Management, Nina Consultancy: Tax Savings & Profit Secrets; Products & Events Management & Music/Movie Productions INTLNina Consultancy, Products and Events Management is a service created to identify business training needs and develop programs customized to the needs of individuals and companies, such as Property Investors, Landlords and Solopreneurs to the on & off-site Bookkeepers of Business Owners up to 6-figure companies.Tax Specialist Services Training & Bespoke One-to-One Consultancy with Nina, gives her premium user-friendly personalised consultation of accountability.www.ninakabra.com www.tax-profit.com

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Shelley Fishel has more than a dozen years experience in helping people to get more from their computers. After working for an IT training organisation Shelley decided to ‘do her own thing’ when she realised the limitations of delivering standard courses.

“Why waste time and money on training people in areas that aren’t relevant to them? It’s common sense to invest that time and effort on what they really need.”

That was the ‘lightbulb moment’ and the IT Training Surgery’s unique approach has resulted in a growing business with a team of highly qualified IT trainers.

“If trainees get bored they forget most of what they learn. We like to offer a range of training approaches to suit different people and, most of all, we aim to make training fun!”

Shelley and her team have worked hard to achieve accreditation by the Learning and Performance Institute for the IT Training Surgery, as a recognised high quality provider of IT training,

Shelley is highly visible on social media and has a reputation as the source of an endless stream of tips and techniques. She has a legion of raving fans who are confident that she can find a quick way to do virtually anything!

“Most things are pretty simple – but you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s very rewarding when you teach people how to do something in two or three clicks that they have previously taken hours to do. After all, who wants to spend their life slaving over a hot keyboard?”