Rich Adkins is currently co-Head of Production at W+K London where he ensures a consistent quality of craft for the work and helps evolve the agency into a creative company with new areas of output, most recently helping lead W+K's foray into longform entertainment.  He started his career 18 years ago at BBH, producing anything from ad-funded TV programming to early virtual reality and content production for brands including Johnnie Walker, Vodafone and Burberry. After several years at BBH, his focus shifted towards film craft, freelancing in the world of TV commercials at various agencies.  He's been at W+K London for the past 10 years, producing global, award-winning productions for Three Mobile, Sainsbury's, Warner Brothers, Nike, TK Maxx, and Malibu before becoming joint Head of Production in 2022.

Jonny Parker joined VCCP in 2006 as Creative Director following stints at Farm, PD3 and indie-shop Devilfish, working on accounts including Smart Car, Heinz and Sega. 16 years later, and together with Chris Birch, he now leads the 60-strong creative department as Joint Executive Creative Director of VCCP London.

Since joining forces in 2013, the duo have created work for some of the agency's biggest clients and are renowned for work 'Mum's birthday', Cadbury Twirl Presale, and Dairy Milk's 'Donate your words' and have brought generosity back to the heart of Britain's most loved chocolate brand, Cadbury.

As a celebrated creative, Parker is also highly awarded and has won numerous D&AD Pencils, Creative Circles, Cannes Lions, Campaign Bigs, Kinsale Sharks, and even the odd Best Trolley Ad.  Parker is also passionate about the next generation of creatives and leads by example, prioritising his time for workshops for junior creatives and prospective students. 

Simon Connor is a Creative Director at VCCP London. A writer with a design degree that seemed to fall into the ideal career 20 years ago, he has created work for BBC, The National Lottery, Honda, O2 and many more. He counts the copy on the back of millions and millions of Walkers crisps packets as a career highlight (it's still there) as well as Ad of the Year for Cadbury 'Garage' and Best Commercial for Cadbury 'Speakerphone' amongst others. 

He turns up the TV in even numbers and gestures too much with his hands. He has winched a piano into a cave and flooded a living room all in the name of work. He founded an award winning beer brand that gives all profits to Prostate Cancer UK, hijacked The Bank of England vote to make Raheem Sterling the new face of the £20 note and Elton John complained about his poster and made him take them all down. 

Private Island is a London-based Mixed-Media Production Paradise.

We direct, produce and post unconventional commercials for the world's best brands, agencies and platforms.

Over the last eight years, Director Chris Boyle and EP Helen Power have established PI as an (occasionally) serious contender in comedy-driven, VFX-heavy commercials, delivering films for Adobe, Bud Light, Ikea, Call of Duty, FIFA 22, Alienware, Pokémon, and Nike.

Most importantly, we created our own brand of PI Rum (and a Christmas Album).

PI studio has been an early adopter of AI, delivering commercial campaigns using Deepfaking and LLMs for Wieden Kennedy and Machine learning animation for Uncommon Creative Studio and Saatchi and Saatchi.

Our viral AI experiments have had tens of millions of views, been featured in the New York Times, and lovingly described by the global press as 'A hallucinogenic nightmare!', 'What hell looks like!' and 'Joyful monstrosities!'

Despite, or in fact because of this, Private Island remains committed to seeing AI as a tool that, when used ethically and creatively, can supercharge the future of moving image.

As an attorney, Steve advises APA members on contracts, copyright and production issues. Under his leadership, the APA has built on its core functions to provide members with new services, including marketing advice and opportunities to connect with new markets locally and internally through the APA Show and The Future of Advertising.

He also founded the Masterclass; a course that trains 110 producers per year. In addition, he has developed business initiatives and ensured the APA is a respected and effective advocate for its members’ interests.

Steve is a member of the APA Council, of the board of the Advertising Association and Vice President of the CFPE, as well as one of the founders of the World Producers Summit.

Eliot has extensive experience in agency, in-house and client-side production. Since joining the IPA, the UK trade body for advertising and media agencies as Head of Production, he has been giving advice on production matters to member agencies and developing policy and best practice within the industry.

 
Eliot runs the IPA’s:
Production Policy Group
Business Affairs Group
Integrated Production Group
Agency Production Company Group
 
And takes a particular interest in Sustainability, DE&I, fair and ethical dealings with all talent and suppliers, raising the value and profile of agency production and improving the welfare of everyone involved in making advertising.

Asad is the Chief Executive Officer of The Unmistakables, an award winning consultancy that works with people & organisations with the ambition and desire to embed equity, diversity & inclusion in order to create long term impact. 

The Unmistakables helps marketers and agencies increase their cultural confidence. They develop more inclusive agencies, brands, campaigns and communications through a considered combination of thought partnering, context-driven learning programmes strategy building and providing practical roadmaps, tools and frameworks and work with the likes of Cannes Lions, Unilever, HSBC, BBH, Mother and Penguin Random House. 

Prior to founding the business in 2018, Asad led senior marketing and communications roles - both in-house and at Omnicom and IPG agencies. He has set world records, topped award lists and been named a changemaker by Oystercatchers, The Drum and The Dots. He previously volunteered as the director of communications for Pride in London and was a trustee of akt, a leading LGBT+ homelessness charity in the UK. He is currently a Fellow at the RSA. 

Amy Charlotte Kean is a bestselling author, poet, creative sociologist, public speaker, diversity activist, futurist, cult leader, experimenter and rampant people pleaser. Hey, it works.

She’s also founder of Six Things Impossible, a creativity and culture company. If you need fresh ideas, creative experimentation, brand prominence and a recharged company culture that lets imaginations flourish… Six Things Impossible is the only place you should go. I’m not even joking.