Concave Community
Artists + Speakers
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Kiat, Music Artist, Co-founder of @SyndicateSG
The adventurous themes in Kiat’s works are closely linked to the artist’s fascination with emotions and freedom. His compositions veer towards the innovative boundaries of electronica. An award-winning art director by trade, his works tend to cross various mediums - from music for clubs to catwalks, and theatrical stages to site-specific art installations, often embracing both sonic and aesthetics. His work has been featured by cultural institutions such as Peranakan Museum, Art Science Museum, Asian Civilisations Museum and brands such as Nike, Adidas, Dior and SHOWstudio. Kiat has also released music under influential UK music labels such as Metalheadz and Hospital Records. Stream his music here
Deborah Emmanuel, Poet-Performer
Deborah Emmanuel is a Singaporean poet, performer and four-time TEDx speaker. As a slam poet, she has won competitions in Singapore, Germany and Australia. Her solo work has gone to places like Barcelona, Berlin, London, New York City and Kathmandu, and she has toured alongside people like Anthony Anaxagorou and Sarah Kay. Deborah has written When I Giggle In My Sleep (2015), Rebel Rites (2016)and Genesis Visual Poetry Collection (2018). When not writing or performing poetry, she also makes music with Wobology, Mantravine, The Ditha Project and Kiat, creates movement pieces, teaches workshops, paints/illustrates and devises independent theatre.
Katy Medlock, Head of UK at Getaround
Katy is the Head of UK at Getaround - a world leading car club and car sharing app. Katy is spearheading the company's growth to provide publicly available cars for the right journeys and reduce the number of those that are privately owned. Before Drivy, Katy was Global Marketing Director at JUCY, New Zealand's leading car and camper van rental company.
Merissa Jaffri, Country Manager at Valuer.ai
Merissa is the Country Manager at Valuer.ai, an intelligent platform for corporations to discover, analyze and track the startup that will boost their innovation.
Chris Turner, Executive Director at B Lab UK
Chris is Executive Director of B Lab UK, which is the charity building the B Corporation movement in the UK. B Lab supports a growing community of companies that are using business as a force for good. He has a varied background, having begun his career in marketing, led two successful startups, and built a portfolio of innovative international development projects for a major foundation. Prior to B Lab UK, Chris led an Open Innovation consultancy practice, advising a wide range of clients on innovation and strategy.
Nicholas Foo, Head of Business Development at Duffel
Nicholas is the Head of Business Development at Duffel, a travel company rethinking travel from the ground up with platforms that help bring new experiences to life so that travelling feels like a seamless part of your journey. Previously, he was the Head of Grab Singapore’s Business Development department. Grab is Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing transport start-up. He brokers strategic partnerships and explores new businesses for the Singapore business. He also launched a new Grab transport service in Jakarta, Indonesia. Nicholas previously spent 7 years in the Singapore government with Singapore Tourism Board and over 2 years in New Delhi in a diplomatic role involved in market development and investment promotion. He has also worked in London and New York.
Slugwife Music Collective & Label
At SLUG WIFE, it’s all about the music that makes your head bob and your giant, body-length foot convulse with pleasure. We are both a record label and a crew, designed to push our sound our own way without having to break the integrity of our artists’ work; we respect the fundamental role artists play in the world of music, and strongly believe each one should be treated as a unique entity. By allowing producers/musicians to retain full creative freedom, we aim to continuously break boundaries in music production and encourage more to follow suit. What are genres? Can we eat them? With SLUG WIFE, it’s all fun, no compromise. #slugwifeyforlifey
Jessica Barlow, Head of Communications at Karma App
Jessica Barlow is Head of Communication at Swedish-born food waste app Karma. She joined earlier this year to lead communications globally. Karma now helps over 5,400 restaurants reduce their food waste by connecting with 760,000 users. With a creative background in traditional Advertising (working agency side with clients such as Nike, Red Bull and Channel 4), she twins her creative flair and extensive knowledge of how a big brand should behave with a deep appreciation and understanding of start up Marketing and Communications.
Twinks Burnett, Fashion stylist, Accessories Designer and Educator
London based Fashion Stylist and Creative Director, Twinks Burnett champions and celebrates innovative fashion with a unique narrrative. Diverse and direct, Twinks is fast creating a track record that speaks for itself, having directed campaigns for fresh and emerging designers such as: Katie Jones, Sadie Clayton and Jane Bowler. With effortless fluidity, Twinks’ adaptable approach has seen her express her talents through a variety of mediums, from film and fashion shows to personal and artist styling. She is also a former Fashion editor for UPRAW Magazine, contributing fashion editor at Noctis with work that has featured in multiple publications such as: Vogue.com, Wonderland, i-D online, Volt, Atlas, Jute, The Powder room, Spindle to name a few.
Malin Persson, Sr Product Marketing & Enterprise Special Projects EMEA, Adobe
Originally from Sweden, Malin have had the pleasure to call London 'home' since 2012, with a detour of Sydney and family based in Luxembourg. Malin holds a Graphic Design Degree (Ravensbourne, London), and a Communication Foundation (Billy Blue College of Design, Sydney) but despite a creative background she’s spent her career working in brand, commercial, community and marketing functions. She’s got a wide understanding of how to build brands and audiences and got deep knowledge in areas such as in strategic brand development, go-to-market strategies, commercial development, program development, and community management. Previously heading up the world-wide franchise network Glug, she’s now running Adobe’s Enterprise relationship & community programs all over EMEA – with a focus on creative community, value realization for existing customer and of course – kickass software training.
Will Mercer, Venture Director at ZAG
Will is Venture Director at Zag, a hands-on, early-stage investment fund nested within a growth consulting firm. Zag helps some of the worlds largest companies unlock top-line growth by identifying new product opportunities, entering new markets and redefining existing brands. Alongside its consulting activity, Zag invests its expertise, cash and corporate connections into seed-stage startups in order to slingshot them to success. As Venture Director, Will oversees Zag's investments through its pioneering Seed Fund. Since 2014, Zag has invested in 25 companies, with its investments doubling in value every 12 months.
Kidkanevil, Music Artist
Growing up on a unique mix of street music and geek culture, kidkanevil aka Gerard Roberts has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years. A keen creative from an early age, his progression into music production was a natural one spurred on by an obsessive interest in hip-hop, anime OSTs and computer game music. Equally at home making Kaiju sized beats as he is delicate electro acoustic soundscapes, the kid has earned the praise and respect of numerous peers and journalists. He also co-produced the epic Stateless album ‘Matilda’ for Ninja Tune, released an official beat tape tribute to American electronics pioneer Raymond Scott and produced a number of tracks for UK rap giants Foreign Beggars, not to mention an almost non stop trail of remixes and productions.
Olivia Clasper, Head of Communications at What3Words
Olivia serves as Head of Marketing Communications & Operations at what3words, where she's grown the in-house team to a 30-strong group of marketing managers, creatives and specialists. This group plays a critical role in driving the what3words mission of 'Helping everyone talk about everywhere.' Prior to what3words, Olivia spent 11 years at Ogilvy & Mather, where she grew from a graduate trainee, to EMEA digital lead, to integrated business lead on global brands such as Philips and American Express.
Xavier Collins, Managing Director, Turo UK
Xavier is the UK managing director for Turo, the world’s largest peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace with over ten million members. Xavier's responsibilities lie in launching and running the UK market as well as leading their international expansion. Xavier shot up the ranks in the gig economy, playing a pivotal role in the national growth of Deliveroo before joining Turo to lead its UK expansion. As General manager for the south of the UK and head of UK market launches for Deliveroo, Xavier launched and ran 40 markets. He built the business from a team of just two, doing less than 100 orders a day, to a team of 20 doing over 10k orders a day - in only two years. He also went on to run Deliveroo’s latest vertical - Deliveroo for Business, signing up major clients such as Facebook, Google and banks like Credit Suisse. Joining at series C, he helped play a significant role in Deliveroo turning into the £2 billion success story it is today.
Erika Brodnock, Founder & CEO, Karisma Kidz
Erika Brodnock is a multi-award winning entrepreneur (including female entrepreneur of the year 2015), philanthropist, life coach, Executive MBA, inspirational speaker and creator of digital resources covering emotional and social learning, digital safety, and digital parenting. She is Sky News’ resident parenting and child wellbeing expert; the founder of software companies Karisma Kidz and Kami; and her corporate seminars cover most areas of family life. Erika is passionate about making sure that every child has the opportunity to reach their potential! Her forte is bridging the digital and real world by teaching life skills through play. Her first Tedx talk has been viewed more than 100,000 times and can be found here
Safia Minney, MBE, Founder of People Tree
Safia Minney, MBE, is an award-winning social entrepreneur and internationally recognised for the company she founded, People Tree, the pioneer of sustainable fashion. She led the business as Global CEO for 20+ years in Japan & UK. Safia is recognised by the World Economic Forum as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and is a leading influencer in Sustainability, Anti-Modern Slavery and Fair Trade. Safia set up her consulting business to promote leadership for sustainable business and responsible supply chains. Safia is author of 9 books, including; ‘Slave to Fashion’ campaigning to eradicate modern day slavery and ‘Slow Fashion – Aesthetics meets Ethics.’ Safia is currently working on leadership for sustainability and climate action.
Tom Tapper, Co-founder of Nice & Serious
Tom is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Nice and Serious - an ethical creative agency based in London that makes campaigns, films, animations and websites to help bring serious issues to life. Before founding Nice and Serious, he studied Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and a Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College, London. He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2011. Something that most didn't know about Tom? He founded the biggest charitable wheelbarrow racing event in the UK.
Liz Stone, Founder of OK Cool and OK Mentor
While working on Ok Mentor, Liz is the Director and Founder of OK COOL, a creative studio for social media. They are official creative agency partners to Instagram and Facebook and the global social agency for Taco Bell UK, Don Papa Rum, Benugo and The Conduit.
Having run a successful agency with year-on-year growth and previously operated as freelance producer, photographer and art director, Liz acquired immense knowledge on what it takes to break into the industry and sustain a successful career. She has been fortunate enough to surround herself with inspiring entrepreneurs, movers and shakers who have given her the confidence to achieve life changing goals. She believes in the power of networks and and that inspiring mentors can be transformation for both mentors and mentees
Rudy Lai, Co founder of QuantCopy, UK
Rudy is the co-founder of QuantCopy, an AI guided selling startup that helps B2B companies turn inbound and outbound sales into their #1 growth channel. Customers spanning three continents use QuantCopy to automate prospect research, campaign personalization, and top-of-funnel optimization. Rudy focuses on product, design, and growth. Prior to starting QuantCopy, Rudy ran global P&L at Bank of America's Commodities quantitative trading division, managing sales, compliance, and automation risk. Before that, he was with Morgan Stanley's FX quantitative trading business, working with clients across EMEA, North Americas, and LATAM. As a rare computer scientist on the sales floor, he was inspired to bring the power of algorithms to more salespeople via QuantCopy.