Up North
Up North Speakers 2025
Up North features 30 sessions across two stages. We’ll be joined by speakers from F*ck Being Humble, Expedia Group, The Sidemen, TikTok, Google and more. You can find out more about our speakers and their sessions below.
Stef Sword-Williams is a TEDx speaker, founder, and author of F*ck Being Humble—an empowering movement and consultancy dedicated to inspiring individuals to embrace their achievements unapologetically and conquer the fear of self-promotion. Recognised as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Europe, Stef’s impactful talks have reached audiences in over 50 countries and have been sought after by global brands including Apple, Unilever, Google, Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, and The BBC.
Her debut book, ‘F*ck Being Humble: Why self-promotion isn’t a dirty word,’ has resonated with thousands, selling over 10,000 copies. Stef’s TEDx Talk on why the world needs to shed its humility has further solidified her position as a thought leader in self-empowerment and personal branding.
Named among the Top 50 Workplace Leaders in the UK, Stef has cultivated a loyal online following of over 170k individuals. Her work has been featured in esteemed publications such as Vogue, BBC World News, The Financial Times, and Forbes.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Perla Bloom is a dynamic global marketing strategy leader, passionate about the intersection of tech, creativity, and culture. She builds brands, creates connected experiences for audiences that solve a problem to reach specific objectives and is a sought-after international speaker at industry events and on podcasts. She currently leading comms planning for Innovation and entertainment at Expedia Group, and before that was at EA Games writing global marketing strategies for iconic games like Battlefield, The Sims, Need for Speed and many more. She also has expertise spanning various sectors, from FMCG to fintech, to Luxury. Whatever the project she has worked on, she is always committed to providing fully integrated, truly creative campaigns, with a focus on innovative multi touchpoint experiences in a human-centric and culturally resonant way.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Broghan Smith is an award-winning digital sales expert delivering success across Key Account Fashion Retailers for TikTok. Broghan is instrumental in shaping and developing TikTok as a platform as TikTok look to ignite social commerce and lead into a space of true innovation and excitement within the global ecommerce market.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Mercy is a digital marketer and designer with over five years of industry experience, and specialising in content and social media marketing.
She was recognised as a Top 24 Marketer of 2024 by the Girls in Marketing community. Over the years she has worked with a range of business owners and organisations to help them elevate their brand.
She is a Real Role Model and a mentor for DigitalHer, an initiative by Manchester Digital that aims to empower and inspire women and girls from all over the country that are working in tech.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Naomi brings 9 years of industry experience in the social media and influencer space. Working for both brand and agency, her move to CLOUD NINE over 3 years ago sees her leading the global team for all things social and influencer, from strategy through to execution (and everything in between) for the global haircare brand. Launching CLOUD NINE as the first hair electrical brand on TikTok Shop back in 2023.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Andreas Stefanou is an EMEA YouTube Product Lead at Google, responsible for driving the commercialization strategy for Google’s ads business and helping shape product roadmaps for Google’s diverse group of advertisers. With 13+ years experience in digital advertising, he has worked across various roles in Greece and Ireland, driving digital transformation and accelerating agencies’ & brands’ business growth.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Gus Pelogia is a journalist turned SEO professional, currently a Senior SEO Product Manager at Indeed, the #1 job site in the world. He’s spoken at events such as BrightonSEO, LondonSEOXL and MB Summit. Gus is also a contributor to Moz, Wix and other well-known industry blogs. Working in cross-functional teams including content creators, UX designers, engineers, data scientists, product managers and other teams, he aims to make SEO accessible and easy to understand. His work is focused on impact, buy-in and processes from ideation to release and measurement, avoiding staying in the SEO bubble. He’s Brazilian-born but built his SEO career abroad, working in-house and for agencies in Argentina, The Netherlands, and Ireland since 2012. His work has awarded him and his clients industry awards such as The Drum Search Awards and Irish Content Marketing Awards.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Adam leads the team at News UK that delivers commercial, branded content on behalf of talkSPORT, Virgin Radio, Times Radio and Piers Morgan Uncensored. He is responsible for producing and publishing video-first shows and campaigns onto digital platforms, working with high-profile talent, commercial partners, and a team of skilful digital creatives and has previously worked in producer roles for NBC and beinSPORTS.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Elle has over nine years of marketing experience, creating and implementing SEO and content strategies for clients in a range of industries including fashion, travel, property, and finance. As our Head of Content Strategy, Elle manages a team of strategists and writers, ensuring that on-page content strategies are devised and implemented, to increase our clients’ rankings, traffic, and conversions.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Tom Lanaway is an innovation-focused Product Manager at Connective3, where he leads digital solutions that bridge human creativity and artificial intelligence. Passionate about futurism, neuroscience, and the mindful integration of technology, Tom specialises in designing products that enhance human potential, deliver rich insights, and drive meaningful change. When not imagining new possibilities, you’ll find him behind a camera lens, exploring the outdoors, and living the #vanlife.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Claire has over 20 years of digital marketing experience and knows how to navigate the complex digital landscape to deliver incremental bottom line growth for clients. Campaigns and activity are planned with strategic creativity to generate cut through, action and results.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Helen brings over two decades of experience in building and operating large-scale businesses across the UK and internationally. Having worked with diverse teams and brands, she understands that culturally relevant content doesn’t happen by accident – it requires curiosity, creativity, collaboration, consistency, and above all, passion! As a speaker, Helen often shares how these core values have shaped her career and the businesses she’s led, helping them achieve profitable, and meaningful impact.
Full talk details to be announced soon.
Kate has over 20 years of experience leading global teams in the Market Research industry. Her career, which includes building teams across the globe and living in countries such as Argentina, Japan, and South Africa, has shaped a deep appreciation for cultural intelligence and the transformative power of diversity. She believes that when teams and leaders are empowered to challenge how they work and disrupt the norm, extraordinary results follow. A TEDx speaker and publisher, Kate now coaches and mentors organisations and leaders on embracing self-leadership, unlocking the power of teams, and harnessing change to drive performance.
Full talk details to be announced soon.