UKHospitality Summer Conference 2024

Katie acts as the Brand and Strategy Director for Good Hotel, a social impact business that reinvests its profit into people. At Good Hotel London they work with Newham Council to train unemployed locals into hospitality careers. Each year they train 50 people who go on to work at Good or across other businesses in their network.

Katie is also the founder of Hotel Hussy, a brand strategy and experience consultancy. Experts in hotels, collaborating with owners and operators to create category-defining concepts, innovative and memorable guest experiences, and empowering team cultures.

Following a pre-university gap year stint as an officer in the British Army, Matt attended the University of Manchester to study political science. Finding the college schedule a little relaxed after such an active year out, he spotted an opportunity to practice his entrepreneurial skills alongside his studies and started organising club nights for his fellow college students. As the business grew to other college cities, Matt met Jeremy Simmonds, who was at the University of Leeds. They became business partners (started a partnership that has lasted over 20 years) and launched Rough Hill, a business that by 2010 had grown to over 15 UK cities, running up to 25 events per week and selling tickets to a million college students a year.

Rough Hill was built on highly organised college student networks in each city, who sold the event tickets to their peers. Before long Rough Hill was helping brands to reach the college demographic through their grass roots marketing channel, and this brought them to the attention of Chime Plc, who in 2012 acquired the business and placed it into VCCP, the international advertising agency. There Matt and Jeremy continued to run their core business as well as taking on youth and experiential marketing contracts for the agency clients, working for blue chip brands such as Telefonica, McDonalds, Coca-Cola and McLaren.

In 2014, Matt and Jeremy completed their earn-out at VCCP and with their unique perspective of both the nightlife and experiential industries, they formed Competitive Socialising. They tested their concept ‘Swingers – the crazy golf club’ with a pop-up in east London that ran from September 2014 to February 2015. It was an instant, viral success and sold out in days, convincing them that the concept had enormous potential.

The first permanent Swingers location followed in 2016 in London’s Financial District and again it was a runaway success, offering mini golf, cocktails and street food in a totally original and unique environment. A second location followed in London’s West End in 2018. In 2019 plans for international expansion got underway but were temporarily halted in 2020 when the world shut down. Fortunately guests rushed back to Swingers venues whenever the venues reopened and in June 2021 the first Swingers venue in the US opened its doors in Washington, DC. A second US venue followed in 2022 in Manhattan, New York. In late 2024 Swingers will open its flagship venue at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas as well as a venue on Bluewaters Island in Dubai.

Swingers has been backed by Cain International since 2018, joined by a number of other family offices and institutional investors in 2023. In 2024 the business expects to turnover in excess of US$70m globally, still led by Matt and Jeremy as co-CEOs.

Yael is Vice Chair and Chief Economist at KPMG in the UK. She advises clients on the global economic outlook and its impact on their strategy.
Her experience spans private sector clients across a wide range of industries and geographies, as well as public sector bodies. Her research looks at the impact major shocks, as well as new technologies, could have on the economy and on individual businesses. She has also written about productivity disparities across regions and ways to support weaker regions.
Yael is a regular commentator on economic issues in the media. She won City A.M. Analyst of the Year award in 2016 for the research she published on the outlook for interest rates, global trade and equity markets and was named one of the City’s 100 most influential women, as well as named one of Cranfield School of Management’s Women to Watch in 2022.
She is a Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, member of the Council of Management of SUERF and a Board member of NABE.
Prior to joining KPMG in 2014, she worked at PwC for 15 years where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant and built a macroeconomics consulting business, and at two boutique consultancies. She studied Economics at UCL and LSE in London.

Content creators and filmmakers Will and Jesse are the award-winning creative production duo behind TOPJAW the UK’s go-to travel resource. Travelling the world documenting the best places to eat and drink, Will and Jesse create cinematic and engaging visual content. Their viral vox pop series ‘Best of London’ features the industry’s top chefs and restaurant owners. The quick-fire formats gives the audience the top places to eat, drink and avoid in London. The only rule – no self-nominations! Since its launch, the series has hit headlines (Sunday Times Style, The Times, The Independent) for its comedic and controversial responses, swiftly becoming one of TOPJAW’s top performing content series. In 2022, Will and Jesse put their worldwide research to use and created their own craft beer, collaborating with the multi-award-winning family run brewery on the south coast of England, Arundel Brewery. More recently, TOPJAW have partnered with the likes of Google, Open Table, Harrods and Stella on a variety of long-term campaigns and projects.

Karin Sheppard has worked for InterContinental Hotels Group for 21 years. She is currently IHG’s Managing Director for Europe, responsible for driving the performance, sustainable growth and reputation of IHG’s European business. Karin oversees more than 750 franchised and managed hotels across several IHG brands in 39 countries, including over 350 hotels in the UK.

Karin is also a member of IHG's Regional Senior Leadership Team for Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa, and sits on IHG’s global Diversity & Inclusion Board.

In her previous role as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Australasia & Japan based in Sydney, Australia, Karin led the operations and performance of close to 70 hotels in the region across IHG’s brands. In her three years as COO, Karin oversaw the market debut of the Holiday Inn Express® brand, the signings of the first Hotel Indigo hotels in the region, and the launch of IHG’s Rise programme for aspiring female General Managers, now a global initiative. She was also appointed a board member of both Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).

Over the course of her more than 21 years with IHG, Karin has held several senior roles in Europe, Australasia and the Middle East, spanning commercial, operations and brand development. Previous appointments include Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for Asia, Middle East & Africa (AMEA) based in Singapore, and Vice President, Brand Management for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region.

Karin has more than 25 years of international experience in commercial functions across a variety of industries, including technology, telecommunications and hospitality.

She is Co-Chair of the UK Government’s Tourism Industry Council, a role she holds alongside the Tourism Minister, a Board Member of the British Tourist Authority (Visit Britain) and holds a Master Degree in International Business Administration with Modern Languages, from Aarhus University, Denmark.

Karin is driven by unlocking the potential of her team, inspiring them to be at their very best so they can grow as individuals and win as a team.