I come from a background building / managing sales forces promoting sponsorship in the pharmaceuticals / telcos / financial services / HR sectors. My last role as an employee was as Divisional Director at IIR. My experiences during this time made me feel that there was a lack of joined-up thinking in the corporate events being run in this field; too often there was little if any overlap between sponsors and the content of the event, also the events were failing to bridge the gap between theory and practise.

I founded the Focus Group in 2001, and since then have been running corporate events dedicated to increasing commercial awareness of HR / Customer Engagement and Experience. We now run events each year which attract delegates, sponsors and speakers from organisations such as BT, Unilever, Disney, Virgin, Coca-Cola, Fiat, O2, Symantec, LoveFILM, Yahoo !, RBS Group and Deutsche Bank. Most importantly, we have significant numbers of repeat attendees who value the practical advice offered at our events which they can take back to the workplace.