Meet the Speakers
Miranda McKearney OBE Empathy Lab Founder
Miranda is a social entre- preneur who is inspired by the power of words to change lives. She founded national charity The Read-
ing Agency in 2002 after 25 years of pioneering work on marketing literature and libraries, and received an OBE in 2005 for services to libraries. She has started a new organisation, Empath- yLab, which aims to build children’s empathy skills and social activism through stories. She is also the chair of the Book Marketing Society.
@mirandamck
Adele Minchin Riot Communications Associate director
Adele is associate director at Riot Communications, an award-winning con- sumer PR agency special- ising in culture and enter-
tainment. A public relations expert with over 18 years of experience, Adele was previously publicity director at Penguin Children’s Books, where she helped launch the careers of children’s writers including Eoin Colfer, Meg Rosoff, Jeff Kinney, Rick Riordan and Cathy Cassidy.
@adeleminchin
Kiera O’Brien The Bookseller Charts and data editor
Kiera O’Brien is The Book- seller’s charts and data editor and the author of two children’s books, Millie Versus the World
and Millie Versus the Machines, both published by Quercus.
Sales & marketing surgery In need of help to craft a perfect marketing campaign—even on a limited budget? Kate Manning (@kathrynamanning) will be on hand, bringing 20 years of experi- ence in the book business to help answer your sales and marketing questions.
sessions Our publicity, digital and sales and marketing experts will be available for 10-minute slots dur- ing the tea breaks and over lunch to help delegates troubleshoot and learn best practices in their fields of expertise.
Surgery
James McKnight The Blair Partnership Chief creative officer
James works across all areas of the Wizarding World brands, includ- ing on Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts... initia-
tives. As J K Rowling’s agency, The Blair Partnership takes a creatively focused approach to brand management. Before joining The Blair Partnership, James held roles in publishing at HarperCol- lins, before moving into a career in entertainment, digital, consumer prod- ucts and brand strategy for brands such as Hello Kitty and Moshi Monsters.
Publicity surgery Want to know how to maximise column inches or how to plan an unmissable event? Freelance pub-
licist Nina Douglas (@ninadoug- las) is here to help with all your publicity queries.
@jamesmcknight
Charlie Morris Litle Tiger Group
Publicit and marketing executive
Charlie is publicity and marketing executive at Little Tiger Group. She has worked at Orion, Oxford University Press and as
Digital surgery Looking for advice on how to develop your digital strategy? Book in a chat with Tom Bonnick (@tombonnick) , business develop- ment manager and commissioning editor at the British Book Awards’ Children’s Publisher of the Year, Nosy Crow.
a bookseller. Immersed in the Young Adult community as a blogger, Charlie arranges monthly author takeovers on MuggleNet, guest reviews for The F Word and Inclusive Minds, and blogs about the importance of a reflective and inclusive literary landscape that has a place for everyone.
@charlieinabook
Alex O’Connell The Times Arts editor
Alex O’Connell is the arts editor of the Times, as well as being the paper’s children’s book critic. She has three children
and lives in London.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave Author
Kiran has studied at both Cambridge and Oxford university. She is an award-winning poet, with three collections
published to date, and has completed writing residencies in Banff, Tokyo and Whitstable. Her first children’s novel, The Girl of Ink & Stars, was one of the bestselling children’s débuts of 2016, and won both the Waterstones Chil- dren’s Book Prize and the British Book Awards’ Children’s Book of the Year. Her new novel, The Island at the End of Everything, is out now.
@kiran_mh
Hilary Murray Hill Hachete Children’s Group Chief executive officer
Hilary’s first job in publishing was as a UK trade sales secre- tary at Hamlyn, then
@keiraobrien
Lucy Powrie YA book blogger
Lucy is a YA book blogger (at queenofcontemporary. com) and vlogger (you-
tube.com/lucythereader). She is also the creator and
host of the nationally trending YA Twit- ter chat #ukyachat. Since creating her blog in 2012 and her YouTube channel in 2013, she has garnered more than a million page views and 10,000 subscrib- ers, and she’s very proud of the com- munity of engaged YA readers she has built up.
@lucythereader
www.thebookseller.com @aoconnell
Mel Taylor-Bessent Authorfy Director
After a professional and creative writing degree, Mel created Little Star Writing workshops to introduce kids to creative
writing. After running workshops all over the world and winning Best Educa- tional Provider of the Year in 2016, Mel launched Authorfy, a platform that uses author videos and associated learning resources to inspire children, support teachers, and promote authors. She hopes to start a “literacy revolution”
in schools throughout the world. @mellytbessent
part of Reed Books. She leſt Reed to work for Carlton Books, before taking her first role in children’s books, as marketing manager at Usborne Publishing, in 2000. Later, she moved to Scholastic Children’s Books as sales and marketing director, and was made m.d. in 2009. She joined Egmont as m.d. of books in 2014, and became Hachete Children’s c.e.o. later that year. @hilaryannemh
Julia White Twiter
Entertainment & lifestle content partnerships manager
Julia manages entertain- ment and lifestyle con- tent partners for Twitter UK. She is responsible for developing commer-
cial and creative content partnerships across fashion, beauty, parenting, lifestyle, comedy and film. She joined Twitter in 2015, having previously led award-winning teams social media and digital content teams for global brands, such as Yahoo and OK! maga- zine, for a decade.
@juliawhite 13
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