Up North Speakers

Up North will be back on 13th June 2024 where we will hear from 30 speakers across two stages and we’ve been busy curating a speaker line-up like no other. We’ll be joined by speakers from Refy, Lounge, Luxe Collective, TikTok Shop, Swoop Finance, Google and more.

Meet the speakers

Ben Gallagher

Co-Founder – Luxe Collective

Ben Gallagher, a 23 year-old entrepreneur, is the co-founder of Luxe Collective, a fashion business that sells luxury goods for less than comparable brands. Ben is on a mission to build the biggest brand in the pre-loved market in the UK and his current main focus for the company is scaling their teams/operations and increasing the awareness of what they offer through marketing avenues such as organic and paid social content, emails, events and personal branding.

Sonia Hussain

Brand Manager – Lounge

Sonia is an experienced brand marketer with a background in Organic & Paid Social, Campaign Management, PR, and Influencer Marketing – currently Brand Manager at Lounge, previously Bravissimo. Passionate about building purpose-driven brands, growing and nurturing communities that feel like they belong, and creating beautiful brand moments. Sonia’s career kicked off working in organic social where she loved the buzz of creating content, seeing how it landed, and being able to connect with customers instantly. Moving on to Bravissimo she honed her craft in social, increasing their Instagram following by 128%, working with influencers and brand partners including the Oti X Bravissimo collection. Now, supporting women worldwide to feel comfortable and sexy at Lounge by driving forward campaigns, bringing them to life through production, and leading the PR strategy.

Elle-Louise Wilmot

Founder – Truly Twenties

Elle is the proud founder of Truly Twenties, a community crafted to support individuals navigating the rollercoaster ride of their twenties. In 2021 she successfully secured a coveted spot on TikTok’s first ever graduate program. Fast forward to 2023, and she left the company deciding to redirect my focus toward nurturing my own venture and deepening my expertise in social media.

Elle’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of social media. She’s harnessed social media platforms as powerful tools for both professional growth and career acceleration. Reflecting on her trajectory, she wholeheartedly believe that without leveraging social media in the ways she did, she would be five years behind my current position, both in terms of opportunities and knowledge

Jimmy Rippon

Global Head of Search – Swoop Finance

Jimmy is a search specialist working in digital for a decade across all marketing disciplines, with a particular focus on SEO and SEM. After earning his stripes in a number of startups in the UK, Germany, and Australia, as well as consulting to corporations like Volkswagen and Diageo, Jimmy now heads up Swoop’s global search function, empowering SMEs to make informed and confident financial decisions.

Broghan Smith

Fashion Retail Key Account Lead – TikTok Shop

Broghan is an award-winning digital sales expert delivering success across Key Account Fashion Retailers for TikTok Shop. He’s instrumental in shaping and developing TikTok Shop as a platform as they look to ignite social commerce and lead into a space of true innovation and excitement within the global ecommerce market.

David White

Content Marketing Director – connective3

David has led PR and outreach strategies for some of the globe’s biggest brands. With a background in business management and marketing, David has a deep understanding of the wider marketing mix and how this contributes to our clients’ bottom line.

Isa Lavahun

Freelance Search Strategist – Lavly Ltd

Isa is a seasoned search strategist with over 15 years of experience in all things off-page SEO. With a diverse background spanning beauty, fashion, food, travel, and lifestyle sectors, Isa has consistently crafted data-driven PR strategies that elevate brand awareness and engagement. Isa’s expertise lies in integrating PR narratives with SEO objectives, ensuring that stories resonate with audiences to dominate search results. Passionate about empowering PR professionals to harness the power of SEO, Isa is dedicated to bridging the gap between these two disciplines.

Rosa Mitchell

Business Director – connective3

With over ten years’ experience in digital PR and content creation, as Business Director, Rosa oversees connective3’s Manchester office, managing a large team of creative professionals. In her career, Rosa has worked across a variety of different projects, from stand-alone campaigns to long-term strategic roadmaps, for brands including Nike, Manchester Metropolitan University, Stena Line, and Ann Summers. She combines her analytical skills with her love of creativity to create concepts that work for many industries, including e-commerce, finance, law, and travel.

Janis Thomas

Managing Director – Look Fabulous Forever

Janis is an expert in marketing, ecommerce and customer experience. She’s grown diverse ecommerce and subscription businesses from Birchbox to Playboy. She has held senior roles across ecommerce, digital media and entertainment. She is now Managing Director at Look Fabulous Forever, the innovative DTC cosmetics and skincare brand designed to meet the needs of older women.

Charlotte Geoghegan

Head of Brand Marketing – Refy

Charlotte is

Kenny Metham

Senior Influencer Marketing Manager

Kenny has a passion for content and storytelling and heads up connective’3 influencer marketing offering, working on brand campaigns for Avon, Abta, Tapi carpets and more.

Andy Beckwith

Head of Design – Tall

Andy enjoys the juggle between being a designer and a dad. With 15 years of experience, he feels fortunate to earn a living by trying to create wonderful digital experiences for people to enjoy while constantly pursuing opportunities to become a better craftsman.

Itamar Blauer

Senior SEO Director – StudioHawk

Adam Hetherington

Senior Agency Manager & Measurement Specialist – Google

Katie Taylor-Thompson

Managing Director – Katie Lingo

Karim Adib

Digital PR & Outreach Specialist

Mahmoud Nagiub

Agency Partner

Mahmoud works as a strategic Business Partner and a trusted advisor for a portfolio of independent agencies based in the UK. He has a proven track record in driving business growth and fostering strategic partnerships. In his role, he works closely with agencies to identify growth opportunities and develop tailored strategies that align with the agencies’ objectives.

Tom Capper

Senior Search Scientist

Tom Capper is Senior Search Scientist at Moz and STAT. He leads a small team working on the data behind Moz and STAT’s products, including SERP parsing, metrics like Domain Authority and Brand Authority, keyword volume estimation, and more besides. In his past life Tom headed up the London consulting team at SEO agency Distilled, and before that he was the night shift cook at Little Chef Popham.

Adam Blomberg

VP of Product and Partner Marketing

From product design to branding to product marketing – Adam has explored most aspects of marketing and the challenges that marketers face. At Funnel, Adam has built the product marketing and partner teams, creating a new go-to-market strategy for the business. Adam balances data expertise with culture and creativity, spending his spare time with an amateur theatre company.

Will Brittain

Head of Paid Social

William has 7 years of experience in paid social and is a seasoned expert in helping clients navigate the daunting social content landscape. A true believer in creative-first social, William is here to provide strategic leadership on your paid content and ensure best-in-class account execution across paid social channels.

Ella Wright

Social Media and Content Manager

Ella is an experienced Social Media & Content Manager at NEOM who prides herself in building global, engaged communities online. Her experience has involved working alongside esteemed brands such as Morrisons, Hisense, Mamas & Papas and more recently entering the world of wellbeing with NEOM, to deliver social-first strategies that connect audiences in the millions. She combines her love of creativity and content creation with her analytical skills to deliver consistent audience and engagement growth for the brands she works with. Ella has also recently judged at the Northern Ireland Social Media Awards on best use of social media in a start-up, analysing audience engagement, multi-platform strategy and content quality.

Up North is happening on 13th June at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, you can find out more here.