Managing Director, Real Time Consultancy

Phil Jones completed a 5 year apprenticeship as a hot-metal compositor in Manchester in the 1960s before moving to London in 1973 and setting up typography specialists APT, which he grew to over 100 staff before selling the business to an Ad Agency in 1990.

He became MD of Real Time Studio in 1991 (in the pre-digital era) and grew a team of ten to around 110 
becoming one of the leading digital agencies in the UK before merging with DM agency EHS where he became Vice Chairman of ehsrealtime (now EHS Brann) with 400 staff in several locations.

Amongst the digital highlights was a ten year relationship with www.Diesel.com, and www.Canon.co.uk and the online launches for the new MINI, The Premier League, Sport England and the launch of England Fans for the Football Association.

E-Consultancy's Internet Decade event in 2004 recognised Phil as one of the top 100 digital influencers over the previous ten years. In 2006 Phil was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement award at the Net Imperative awards in London.

Having given up full time employment in January 2004. Phil formed Real Time Consultancy through which he acts as an advisor and consultant for creative businesses and organises annual lunches for the design, digital and sports community, digitalpodge, podgelunch.com and sportspodge.

Andy Duff, Stereo

Dave Bedwood has worked with his creative partner Sam Ball since 1995 where they met doing an Advertising degree at Buckinghamshire College in the UK.

After graduating in 1998 they went onto the usual creative team circuit of ATL agencies taking placements at Partners BBH, Y&R and M&C Saatchi before going to Germany to freelance on Mercedes at Springer & Jacoby.

On returning to the UK in late 1999 a Creative Director at HHCL said they should check out digital advertising as it was starting to take off. They tuned up at BMP Interaction (later to become Tribal DDB) and became one of the first traditional teams to get a job in digital advertising.

By 2001 they were Tribal DDB’s Creative Directors, after 4 more years they felt that the big agency had taught them enough to risk going it alone. They set up Lean Mean Fighting Machine with the belief that writing should always come before technology.

In 2004 they were voted into Campaign’s Top Ten Creative Directors as well as Campaign’s Faces to Watch.

2005 saw them pick up Campaign’s Young Achievers of the Year Award and they were voted by their peers to be the number one creative team in digital advertising.

Since starting Lean Mean Fighting Machine they have picked up numerous industry awards including D&AD, One Show, Cannes, Clio, Creative Circle, and the Webbies.

In 2008 Dave made The Observers Future 500 list, Campaign’s A-List, went to Cannes and with an agency of 26 people became the first UK agency to win ‘Agency of the Year’.

In 2009 Dave was the Foreman for the D&AD Awards online advertising category.

Kate Dale, Sport England

Interactive Art Director, Diesel

Richard first began collaborating with Diesel just one year after the company's first site was launched in 1996, initially as a designer for EHSBrann (then Realtime Studio) for whom Diesel was a client, and then moving to the company's north Italian headquarters to join Diesel's 'Virtual Dept' in 2000.

Designing Diesel's initial online foray into eCommerce with the UK virtual store (one of the first online fashion eCommerce sites - predating Boo), Richard helped start Diesel's online advertising.

Since 2005, he has headed up Diesel's internal web design team.  Richard is also closely involved with Diesel's other marketing and communications projects, from advertising campaigns to designing hand made rugs for the Diesel stores.

Prior to working with Diesel, Richard was a senior designer for Realtime Studios and AMX Studios.

Marketing and Operations Director, Virgin Games

Ross is Marketing and Operations Director at Virgin Games, helping to develop the gaming and gambling business for the Virgin group which includes Casino, Poker, Bingo and Skill Games.

Ross has worked extensively in advertising, marketing and digital for the past 14 years and has advised the UK Cabinet office on how to support open Government online, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the heads of the UK major music labels as to how customers will consume music in a digital age.  He has worked with clients in numerous sectors including British Airways, MVC, Channel 4, Sega, Ocado and Universal Television concentrating on how value can be created through identifying, understanding and meeting customer needs, particularly through digital channels.

Ross has previously helped found and develop companies specialising in digital and relationship building for marketing agencies DDB (Online Magic now Agency.com, BMP InterAction and Tribal DDB) and Chime Communications (Heresy).  He has run his own start up company, Fingertips, which created a personalised entertainment schedule for customers.  He has also written for New Media Age for 3 years, judged many Digital Awards for Creativity and Effectiveness and occasionally is asked to speak his mind on a platform which he's only too happy to do.

Saint John Lewis, Agency.com

Creative Director, Partner, VCCP

Steve brings over 15 years experience in both the on and off-line worlds of advertising and is one of the original partners at VCCP London. Steve works across VCCP's key accounts including; Diet Coke, Dyson, Nestea, Jordans, ING Direct, O2, Coca Cola, Hyundai, FedEx, Capri Sun, Minute Maid, Trebor, Dunhill, GNER, Wedgwood, Bel and Channel Five.

Steve has worked at some of the biggest and best creative agencies in the world including; FCB San Francisco, WCRS Arnold Worldwide Partner in London, Modern Media and DDB Digital in his native Vancouver.

Steve was named the number one New Media Creative in Campaign's "10 Hottest New Media Creatives of 2000" as well as making their OEA List in 2003. In 2005, Steve made Campaign magazine's OETop 15 digital creatives list being the only one from a OEtraditional advertising agency. His industry accolades include; his Superstitial work on BMW was the first ever OEe-ad to be chosen as Campaign Magazine's "Pick of the Week" and the best interactive ad of the year, he has been recognised by D&AD, One Show's, Clio's, Cannes Lions, the Advertising, the Andy Awards, the Reggies and the Lotus Awards.

Recently Steve was the Digital Crafts foreman for the 2004 D&AD Awards, judged the 2005 One Show Awards, the IAB;s Creative Showcase, was the 2006 Campaign Digital Awards Chairman and a judge at the Webby Awards.

Steve has spoken at Shoot Magazine's interactive TV Conference, AdTech, Yahoo! and Campaign's Digital Arts Conference alongside Jerry Yang, Bob Geldof and John Hegarty. He has judged the Icon and Web Awards, has had his work featured in the FT, Design Week, Adage, written columns for Adweek, Marketing, Campaign, New Media Age, Cre@ate Magazine and conducted television interviews with the BBC and CNBC Europe.

In 2004 VCCP was named Effectiveness Agency fo the Year and were the first agency in the IPA Effectiveness Awards history to have wone the Grand Prix on its debut.

Tom Adams, Nitro London