Topic and speakers confirmed for this year’s Mike Warne event

Three marketing influencers have been announced as guest speakers at the 13th Mike Warne Event taking place on Wednesday 27 February 2019 at Bournemouth University (BU).

The topic of this year’s event is The Power of Co-Creation and the speakers will be discussing how brands are using co-creation as innovation in modern marketing. Specifically they will be discussing how partnering with consumers has influenced their organisation. They will explain the journey they have taken when they have collaborated with empowered consumers, who have expressed their opinions to them; and together have innovated their products and marketing communications.

The speakers announced this week are:

Charlie Leaver is Brand Manager (High Energy Brands) with Global Brands Ltd.
Charlie has worked within the drinks industry for over a decade, starting out behind the bar before moving into marketing. Currently working for Global Brands Ltd, Charlie has managed various brands from Global’s extensive portfolio, leading on complete brand overhauls and largescale brand activations.

She has a strong intrinsic knowledge for what makes a brand really sing, and a keen eye for beautiful design as well as functionality. Charlie currently manages the High Energy team and portfolio of brands at Global which includes VK, Hooch, Hooper’s, Corky’s, Crooked Beverage Co and Amigos. These brands have passionate advocates across many different demographics and therefore co-creation with consumers is an important focus at different levels across the portfolio.

Mike Hawkyard is Chief Strategy Officer at Gamebrain

Mike specialises in the creation of digital games and apps to achieve financial, educational and communication goals.

His career to date has been built upon an ability to utilise the latest digital technologies to reach and engage ever expanding audiences on behalf of global brands.

Over the last 20 years he has devised and sold innovative digital solutions into a wide range of business sectors, gaining clients as diverse as LEGO, KPMG, Sigma-Aldrich, Salesforce and the RNLI.

The team he built at Amuzo have achieved incredible things and are currently attempting to reach No.1 on the iOS App Store for the 20th time.

He is currently leading Amuzo’s new Serious Games Division - Gamebrain.

Will Roberts is the Future Lifesaving Innovation Lead at RNLI

Will leads a small team in the RNLI with the mission to challenge how the organisation delivers it’s lifesaving and prevention services. He builds multidisciplinary teams to deliver a diverse portfolio of projects and is now leading an exciting programme in the South West, seeking to leverage the growing South West creative sector to address the region’s water safety challenges.

He believes in openness, big ideas and testing tiny, and the power of human centred design, seeking to make it central to the way the RNLI does things. Before the RNLI he worked in Government and Academia. When not at work, you can find him in/on/near the sea, on the golf course or in his beloved shed. He has too many side projects and needs to learn to prioritise!

Since the first event in 2007, the annual lecture honours the late CIM Regional Director, Mike Warne, who was a strong advocate of building relationships between aspiring marketing students and the CIM. The event attracts over 200 attendees including fellow BU students, faculty staff, local marketing professionals and business leaders. It is organised by final year BA (HONS) Marketing Communications students, with the support of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

The Mike Warne Event - The Power of Co-creation takes place on Wednesday 27 February 2019 from 18:00 to 20:30 at Bournemouth University’s Talbot Campus, in The Fusion Building. Ticket prices start at just £15.00 further information and booking.