“Julia Braime is a communications expert and the editor of www.bridesupnorth.co.uk.

With a BA Hons. Communications Degree and experience of working at the UK’s leading fashion glossies on her CV, the former lawyer launched Brides Up North in November 2010.  Since then, Brides Up North has skyrocketed in popularity and profile to become one of the most visited wedding blogs in the UK, and is the only top bridal blog especially for Northern Brides.

Brides Up North was recently named the "Best Blog For Northern Brides" by Channel 4, was listed in Bride Tide’s Top 100 Wedding Blogs in the World in both 2011 and 2012 and the Top 100 UK Wedding Blogs by Easy Wedding Search. Julia was recently invited to act as host at the North of England Wedding Awards and is a judge for The Wedding Industry Awards and The Wedding Ideas Magazine Awards 2013.

Julia is a freelance columnist for Wedding Magazine and Hitched Magazine and contributes regularly to Wedding Ideas Magazine. Julia also has recently had features published in Bridal Buyer, Pure Weddings Magazine, Belle Bridal Magazine, Fabulous Magazine, The Journal, The Daily Mirror, The Evening Chronicle, The Sunday Sun, The Times and Times Online.

Brides Up North wedding industry networking events and bridal exhibitions are regular sell outs on exhibitor space with record attendances across all venues.”

www.facebook.com/bridesupnorth
www.twitter.com/bridesupnorth
www.linkedIn.com/juliabraime

Brad Buckles CEO of the Bridesclub USA

The UK Wedding Conference welcomes guest speaker Brad Buckles from the USA His knowledge and experience of the US bridal market is second to none and he has spoken with thousands of wedding professionals about the specific characteristics that it takes to run a successful wedding business in today’s busy time challenged world. Brad will take you through the reality of what you will need to do day by day to accomplish this goal. Brad is the founder and president of BridesClub.com which encompasses over 1400 listed companies and has a wealth of experience in the wedding industry.

He has been producing wedding exhibitions for the last twenty years, publishes two magazines in Seattle and Hawaii and has produced the Hawaii Bridal Expo for the last three years which is a three day exhibition with over 250 stands. As a guest speaker at the wedding industry conferences and seminars in the US and Canada, Brad is full of ideas for companies to extend and sustain their businesses, gain market share and build their businesses strategically. Brad is very much a people person and passionate about the world of weddings, but away from his business he devotes his time to his wife of 22 years, Heather, and their four boys, and also finds time to compete in local triathlons.

www.facebook.com/weddingexpos
www.twitter.com/bradbuckles

“Wedding marketing expert, Andy Ebon is a self-described, serial entrepreneur. Equal parts creativity and business, Andy had his first exposure to business and marketing of weddings as co owner of Music Man Mobile DJ Service, a San Francisco-based company - launched in 1977.

Over the next 20 years he went from success to success, selling various businesses at a profit and in 1996 set up EBS Virtual Communications - which has now been running for over 20 years and specialises in wedding marketing and small business consultation. With industry experience of 2000 weddings and three decades of hospitality and wedding marketing, this speaker will be another one not to miss.”

Marc McIntosh, Showcase Events

Marc McIntosh is CEO of Showcase Events, producer of some of the largest bridal shows in the United States. For years prior to producing bridal shows, Marc owned a wedding-focused business where he exhibited at bridal shows and did extensive marketing to brides.

This hands on experience, combined with his years of helping businesses reach the bridal market, has provided Marc with a unique perspective and understanding of the process of marketing to brides. Marc graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is a charter member and Past Director of Bridal Show Producers International and was awarded the prestigious BSPi Director’s Cup.

He is also a member of the National Association of Catering Executives, the Association of Wedding Professionals, and the National Association of Consumer Shows. Marc is also a professional speaker, sharing the keys of bridal marketing with thousands of wedding professionals.

www.facebook.com/BridalShowcase
www.twitter.com/DCBridalShow

Tina is the Editor at Ultimate Wedding Magazine

Dynamic, top-performing B2B and consumer marketeer with more than twenty years experience in developing and managing integrated marketing and communication programs.

Provide strategic marketing services and content creation for a diversified client base.

Work directly with Business Owners, Board Members and Senior Management to develop the strategy and direction of all areas of integrated marketing including the Internet, PR, advertising, communications, trade shows, events, and media.

Direct all creative programs and responsible for creating and enforcing brand messaging.

Career started in finance, major British airline, worldwide pharmaceutical company. Encompassing banking, accounting, customer service, airline services, VIP, marketing, worldwide promotions, European project management and marcomms.

Tina is a seasoned integrated marketing professional offering over twenty years experience as a strategic thinker and brand creator.

Tina can help you identify business development opportunities, market strengths and strategically position your company.

www.facebook.com/UltimateWedMag
www.twitter.com/UltimateWedMag

Bernadette Chapman and Sandy Moretta of UK Alliance of Wedding Planners

The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners was founded for one purpose: to promote professionalism in wedding planning. The company believes that by investing in training and development and helping to grow the wedding planning industry in a professional manner that we can together provide an outstanding and unparalleled service for today's brides and grooms.

The UKAWP's activities are focused on membership, training courses, mentoring and specialised events. The UKAWP is owned and run by two like-minded wedding planners who are passionate about the industry. Each of them ran a small but successful wedding planning business of their own and have 10 years+ experience running UK-based wedding planning businesses. The UKAWP train approximately 80 new potential wedding planners a year through classroom taught courses. After training the directors continue to support students with additional networking events, an informative blog and various business tools relevant for their wedding planning businesses including one to one mentoring.

The UKAWP Directors were part of the judging panel for the Wedding Industry Awards 2012 & 2013.

www.facebook.com/ukawp
www.twitter.com/ukawp
www.linkedIn.com/ukawp

Nicky Ward, Business Manager, Guides for Brides Ltd.

Guides for Brides Ltd started in 1995 when the founder, and now director, Alison Hargreaves, was planning her wedding. Despite having been involved in the wedding industry for several years she found it hard to find the more unusual businesses, so a local Wedding Directory was put together.

Guides for Brides now has nine directories in eight counties.

Guides for Brides went online in 1999 and has gone from strength to strength, with over 100 000 businesses listed and over 700 000 visitors in the last year.

Nicky Ward is Guides for Brides Business Manager and has been involved with all aspects of the business for seven years. She has previous experience in both retail and banking, so has a wide range of knowledge and experience in both sales and marketing.

www.facebook.com/guidesforbrides
www.twitter.com/GuidesForBrides

Heidi Thompson, Founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business

While I was running The Alternative Wedding Fair, I met some incredibly talented wedding professionals who were struggling with getting the word out about their businesses. The truth is, you can be the best in the world at what you do but if no one knows about it, you aren't going to be able to build a sustainable business.

I've been told that my marketing advice is clear and practical so you can expect to walk away from my session with specific actions that you can take when you get home. In fact, I already have a present for you. Here is an ebook I wrote called "5 Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making With Your Website". Download it for free and take some action today!

"Paragraph-form bios written in the third person don't hold my attention, so in order to be more engaging, I've created an interactive digital bio for you here: www.vizify.com/heidi-thompson".

www.facebook.com/evolveyourbusinessuk
www.twitter.com/evolveyourbizuk
www.linkedin.com/in/heidithompsonuk

Tamryn Lawrence, Candid Apple

With ten years in the UK wedding industry, first as a multi-award winning wedding planner and author and now as an advisor to venues and businesses, Tamryn Lawrence has a unique combination of experiences to share.

From partnerships with major high street names and charities to books, magazine articles, tv work and hundreds of weddings, Tamryn has seen every inch of the wedding business and now brings that mix of insight to help her clients grow and shape their own ventures.

Having spent the last few years working quietly with select clients and improving her own skill set with various courses and qualifications, Tamryn launches Candid Apple in March 2013 to give 'a fresh perspective on the business of weddings'.

www.facebook.com/thecandidapple
www.twitter.com/thecandidapple

Paul Goonoo, Head of SEM at Rippleffect

Paul started working in the SEM industry over nine years ago and heads up the Search and Online Marketing team to deliver unique and far-reaching client campaigns.

His dedication to giving clients excellent ROI has led to long-term retainers with the likes of Transglobal Express, Fenton's Solicitors and Revolution Bars. He leads from the front and is often asked to share his opinions on future online trends within the marketing press and at speaking events throughout UK and Europe.

www.twitter.com/rippleffected

Nicola Peate, Social Media Manager at Rippleffect

Her extensive knowledge of what audiences want enables our social media solutions to be creative and engaging.

Nicola's passion and enthusiasm for social media shines through. She is brimming with creative ideas and tactical initiatives to make you stand out in the crowded digital space. She is ROI focused and determined to fight the myth that social media is all about "conversations" - it is about results and supporting your wider marketing strategy.

Nicola has worked on a huge variety of brands both in house and agency level and has won the following awards: Best Use of Social Media to research and evaluate and Best Social Media Campaign – SomeComms Awards, Everton Football Club, Golden Twit –Charity for Keep Britain Tidy, Best Use of Twitter – SomeComms Awards for Keep Britain Tidy.

www.twitter.com/rippleffected

Paula Cohen, Business Growth Coach at ActionCOACH

As a Business Growth Coach Paula helps business owners to turn their ideas into action and their passion into profit. A former international athlete, Paula has been privileged to work with some world class coaches so she has first-hand knowledge of how a coach can inspire, motivate and empower you to continually improve and to achieve greater and greater success.

Paula works closely with her clients to help them take control of all of the basics in their business and then build the platform for strong and sustainable growth. She helps business owners spend less time working IN their business and more time working ON it so that both they and their businesses can achieve their full potential.

In her 4 years as an ActionCOACH Paula has worked with a huge range of industries from healthcare to global chemical distribution. She has also worked for the last 3 years with one of the country's most successful wedding magazine publishers, whose business has gone from strength to strength under Paula's guidance. Paula has coached her clients to manage their time better, to understand the key financial numbers that really drive their business forward; to turn their sales and marketing into an investment instead of an expense; and to attract, train and retain the best people for their business.

ActionCOACH is the most successful Business Coaching company in the world with over 1000 coaches in more than 40 countries. Over 10,000 businesses are coached every week through their proven success model.

www.facebook.com/PaulaBizCoach
www.twitter.com/PaulaBizCoach
www.linkedin.com/in/paulacohen1

Onkar Purewal is a self made Serial Entrepreneur in the Wedding Industry.

At only 31 years of age, Onkar has built up a number of companies ranging from wedding venues, to decorations companies, catering companies and, most recently, a media company. Onkar believes his success derives from experience, learning and searching for other successful businesses and seeing what makes them super successful.

What Onkar has found is the sales, marketing and systems that have been the driving force which his companies have used to become successful and he now wants to show other Wedding Suppliers that secret.

Through the creation of the Wedding Guru, Onkar has helped numerous wedding suppliers become super successful through his coaching program, information products and more. Onkar is no ordinary expert; he still runs his businesses and shows you what is working in the industry so you get the greatest results. This is a speaker not to be missed.

www.facebook.com/weddinggurumaster
https://twitter.com/OPWeddingGuru
http://www.linkedin.com