Back for its third year helping inspire companies & develop new connections for the mutual target of accelerated growth

The speakers:

DR STEVE PETERS

BRITISH CYCLING PSYCHIATRIST

Prof Steve Peters is a Consultant Psychiatrist working with England Football and Sky ProCycling. He also has current and past involvements in many other elite sports, including British Cycling, England Rugby, World Championship Snooker and Premier League Football.

His career began teaching Mathematics before moving on to Medicine. He has worked in the clinical field of Psychiatry for the past twenty years, including Clinical Director of the Mental Health Services at Bassetlaw Trust, culminating in working at Rampton Secure Hospital. Steve has been with Sheffield University as a Senior Clinical Lecturer since 1994 and is also Undergraduate Dean. He holds degrees in Mathematics, Medicine and Medical Education (Masters Degree) and also postgraduate qualifications in Sports Medicine, Education and Psychiatry.

Professor Peters initially became involved in British Cycling in 2001, working alongside riders, coaches and staff to help build one of Britain’s most successful sporting teams.

He worked closely with the Sky Team principal, Sir Dave Brailsford, who described him as “the best appointment I’ve ever made.”

Steve is the author of the bestselling personal development guide, “The Chimp Paradox” as well as an expert witness to WADA (World Anti-doping Agency). He is a member of the Royal College and has a specialist interest in the working of the human mind and how it can reach optimum performance applied to all walks of life.

KATHRYN PARSONS

DECODED ENTREPRENETTE

Kathryn co-founded Decoded in 2011 with a mission to spread Digital Enlightenment through an understanding of the world of code, data and the technologies behind the screen.

Decoded have since empowered and transformed thousands of individuals and businesses across the globe with their accelerated learning experiences teaching Code_in a Day, Data, Future Technologies and Cyber Security and have been at the forefront of driving the agenda for coding on the curriculum. With offices in London and New York they have popped up in over 35 cities worldwide.

Named as one of the UK’s most innovative businesses, Decoded have recently launched Playto.io a code education platform allowing anyone to learn or teach code skills around the world.

Kathryn is a passionate advocate for women and technology and sits on the board of the London Tech Ambassadors Group.

Kathryn is winner of Marie Claire’s 2014 Women at the Top Tech Pioneer Award, recognised as being one of London’s Top 1000 influential people 2014 by the Evening Standard and The Telegraph’s Top Ten Britons of 2014. Other accolades include being named in Sunday Times Britain’s Top 30 Female Power List 2014, the 2013 Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award and Management Today’s 35 Under 35 2013.

KANYA KING

GLOBAL IMPRESARIO

Kanya King MBE is an internationally recognised entrepreneur and innovator in the British music industry. As CEO and Founder of MOBO, Kanya King is the dynamic force behind the brand and has played an instrumental role in elevating urban music and culture to mainstream status in the UK, helping develop and bring new talent to the industry.

Since the inception of the MOBO Awards in 1996, the MOBO Movement has seen a host of activities and events throughout the year to support, champion and inspire young people to achieve their full potential through the power of music.

Kanya has been recognised by numerous influential and prominent bodies; accolades include The Guardian Music Power 100, Real Business Britain’s 100 Most Entrepreneurial Women and a 2013 BCC Radio 4 nomination for the 100 most influential women in Britain. Last year she was presented with the Ambassador Award at the NatWest everywoman Awards ceremony and furthermore has received various honours including an Honorary Fellowship at Goldsmiths University, a Doctorate of Business at both the London and Leeds Metropolitan Universities as well as an Honorary Degree at Exeter University. Only last week did she feature as 5th in the Daily Telegraph List of Britain’s Most Powerful Women in Arts.

She is hugely in demand with the likes of the BBC, Sky, ITV and CNN as well as countless broadsheets and magazines on such topics as music, diversity and enterprise. With MOBO now in its 20th year, Kanya has become the go-to person for public speaking at community, educational and corporate events, giving inspirational addresses to everyone from the British Library and Brunel University to Morgan Stanley and the Scottish Institute for Enterprise.

But it doesn’t stop there. Kanya is determined to take her winning formula of helping people to realise their full potential in the music world by applying it to creative services as a whole, with the use of mentors, plans for a foundation and physical space for talent and MOBO training programmes with partners.

It is an audacious and bold plan, but Kanya’s drive and determination still burn brightly, if not brighter than ever before.

WAYNE HEMINGWAY

Wayne Hemingway MBE is an English fashion designer. Back in 1982 with his wife, childhood sweetheart Gerardine they built the British fashion label Red or Dead which was started in 1982 that received global acclaim resulting in winning the prestigious British Fashion Councils Streetstyle Designer of Year Awards for an unprecedented 3 consecutive years.

By 1999 the Hemingway’s sold Red or Dead in a multimillion cash sale to then set up HemingwayDesign which is a multi-disciplinary design agency focusing on affordable and social design with core philosophy aiming to ‘improve things that matter in life’.

Hemingwaydesign collaborate on numerous vintage branded products with crown paints at homebase, wallpapers with Graham & Brown, greeting cards with hallmark, Murals with Surface, bathroom and kitchenware with bliss.

They have worked on a number of high profile projects such as turning ‘The Tate’ into a silent disco, producing the ‘Vintage Festival’ a celebration of music, fashion, film, art, design and food on the Southbank, 50,000 people attend and was voted Best New Festival at the 2010 Festival awards. The team also curated the official party for ‘The Queens Diamond Jubilee’ in Battersea Park were 60,000 tickets sold. HemingwayDesign current project is to inject life back into the historic rides of Margate’s ‘Dreamland’ amusement park.

Wayne Hemingway will be the host and the Q&A plenary facilitator at ACCELERATE 2015

DAN GERMAIN

BRAND GURU

Dan is Group Head of Brand and Creative at innocent, the healthy drinks company. He’s worked there since the company started in 1999, and in 2014 was named Designer of the Year in the UK, beating Apple’s Sir Jonathan Ive and Sir Paul Smith among others.

These days his duties include overseeing the creative direction of the brand; everything from ads to products to digital to packaging, right across Europe. He also works in the areas of culture, sustainability, innovation and ethics, maintaining the brand’s most important values, and figuring out where that might take innocent in the next 10/20/50 years.

Creating the tone of voice and the brand culture from scratch are Dan’s proudest achievements, and he is still searching for ways to keep the business both useful and interesting.

KATIE PIPER

PHILANTHROPIST & AUTHOR

Katie Piper is a best-selling international author, inspirational speaker, TV presenter and charity campaigner. She is also a young woman who has rebuilt her life after surviving a brutal attack in March 2008 at the age of 24, in which she was raped and had sulphuric acid thrown in her face.

Just over a year after the attack, Katie made the decision to share her story in a remarkable film for the Cutting Edge strand on Channel 4 called ‘Katie: My Beautiful Face’ which was watched by over 3.5million viewers and nominated for Best Single Documentary at the BAFTA Television Awards in 2010.

In 2009 she set up a charity The Katie Piper Foundation to help people with burns and scars to reconnect with their lives and their communities. Simon Cowell supported Katie by becoming the patron and remains actively involved to date. The charity’s vision is a world where scars do not limit a person’s function, social inclusion or sense of well-being.

In addition to her charity commitments, Katie also presents a number of TV shows which are shown on C4 in the UK and in a number of countries around the world. In her most recent series called ‘Body Shockers ’ she meets people planning major body modifications and introduces them to someone who has already had the modification done and regretted it. She is currently filming series 3 which will air this Autumn.

This year Katie joined the iconic Ideal Home Show as their fashion and beauty ambassador for both the Spring and the Christmas shows. She hosted one of the most high profile catwalk shows using diverse models called ‘Confidence: The Secret’.

Katie has also written four books, an autobiography called ‘Beautiful’, an affirmations book called ‘Start Your Day With Katie’ and an inspirational book called ‘Things Get Better’. Her fourth book ‘Beautiful Ever After’ was published at the end of 2014.

Katie has been described as an inspirational role model, and her bravery and determination have been recognised by being nominated and receiving a number of awards. Most recently she received a special recognition award at The Pride of Britain Awards in London.

Last year Katie welcomed a beautiful baby girl and has thrown herself into motherhood enjoying every second.

JIM LAWLESS

WORLD CLASS INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER

Jim Lawless is one of the world’s leading inspirational speakers. He captivates all audiences and has a particular talent for the engaging and inspiring the large, multilingual, international event. Over half a million people on five continents have been inspired and entertained by Jim’s presentations and many more by his bestselling book “Taming Tigers” (Random House).

Jim has advised companies globally on creating organisational cultural change and elite teams and has implemented successful transformation programmes in companies including Apple, Barclaycard, Atos, Axa, BT, Aramark, Skrill Group and Badminton England.

He insists on testing principles of massive personal change on himself before advising others. In August 2010, he used “Taming Tigers” to become Britain’s Deepest Freediver, the first Briton to dive below the magic 100m barrier on a single breath of air. He still holds the GB record for deepest freedive.

In 2003, in response to an audience challenge, he proved “Taming Tigers” by becoming a televised jockey in 12 months. At the outset he was 3 stone (20kg) too heavy and could not ride a horse.

These adventures, and 15 years of consulting at the highest level, bring him and his methodology immediate and high credibility with audiences on all continents.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and qualified as a solicitor in 1994. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in 2008 in recognition of his business writing. Jim practiced M&A law in the City of London and in a major IT company before founding Taming Tigers Limited (then called “Optimise”) in 1999.