Judges

Mike Barker | Strategic Leader | Local Government and NHS

Mike Barker started his career in PR working for local authorities and leading agencies within the NW. He moved in house to the NHS in 2002 and has since held a variety of director of communications, corporate affairs and corporate strategy roles. He has held Board level positions within the NHS for the last 20 years holding amongst his responsibilities the communications portfolio. He is currently the CEO of an NHS organisation responsible for a £450m commissioning budget with extensive stakeholder relations programmes.

Rubbi Bhogal-Wood | Social Media Strategist

Rubbi Bhogal-Wood is a social media strategist and founder of two companies: Wild & Form Digital and Skills 4 All, a social enterprise in Oldham. With 20 years of sales & marketing experience under her belt, working for the likes of Microsoft and Facebook partners, Rubbi knows social media and is the go-to expert in this field. Rubbi’s mantra is ‘you control social, not the other way around”, and her purpose is to help her clients and audiences feel empowered, confident, and knowledgeable to become social media savvy. Through her business Wild & Form Digital, Rubbi offers consultancy and strategy sessions for solo, micro, and small businesses and educational organisations. She also regularly speaks at networking events, on radio, on LIVE social media channels, podcasts, and panels. Rubbi hosted her first TEDx Talk in July 2019, discussing social media and mental health. With a no jargon approach, Rubbi is known for her down-to-earth, solid social media advice that empowers audiences to grow their company, strengthen their school brand, or support young people in their social media habits. Most recently Rubbi was appointed Vice-Chair on the Oldham Economic Review Board.

Joanna Bodley | Senior Lecturer In Digital Marketing & Marketing | Manchester Metropolitan University

With over ten years’ experience, Joanna Bodley has seen every side of the industry from creative to comms and large to small agencies, as well as in-house teams. She has developed, implemented and overseen social and digital strategies and provided guidance for a wide range of clients like The Co-operative Bank, Gumtree and Chewits. She has a keen understanding of the complexities involved in making digital, social media, content and advertising efforts a success. She harnesses this as a speaker and professional educator, having delivered training for numerous organisations, including Econsultancy. Jo is now a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and course director for their MSc Digital Marketing programme. She also runs her own consultancy, Jo & Co.

MARTIN SFP BRYANT | Media and Tech Consultant

Martin Bryant is a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator in the fields of technology and media. He works to help technology companies craft a narrative around their products and business. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of international technology publication The Next Web, and Community Editor at Tech North, where he shone a light on the stories of startups and entrepreneurs in the North of England.

Justin Clark | Founder | JustSocial

Justin is a social media and digital crisis communications specialist with more than 10 years’ experience leading social media, PR and digital communications in Government and the public sector, both in the UK and overseas. Justin runs social media consulting firm, JustSocial, providing strategic guidance and support to some of the world’s biggest brands. A regular keynote speaker at major social media conferences across the UK and Europe, Justin is the Chairperson for the UK’s largest public sector social media and crisis communications conference series, and judges some of the world’s biggest industry awards. Justin also runs ‘SocialNorth’, a social media industry event connecting the digital talent across the North of England and works as a Non-Executive Director and Social Media Director for multiple UK agencies.

Richard Dawson | DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIST MENTOR AUDITOR AND TRAINER -CHESHIRE DIGITAL MARKETING | The Cheshire Digital Marketing Agency

Richard is an experienced Digital Marketing Strategist Mentor Auditor and Trainer. He has nearly 20 years of experience helping clients in a wide range of sectors with a full range of online marketing activities. He is also a lover of Disruptive Technologies. He also write about Politics and Digital Campaigning. https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-dawson-digital http://www.cheshiredigitalmarketing.co.uk/

Mike Deyes | Deputy Director of Marketing | University of Liverpool

Mike is the Associate Director of Marketing at the University of Liverpool and leads on digital channels. He has a background in PR, communications and fundraising in both charity and education sectors. Mike is a great supporter of industry awards having sat on Northern Digital, Public Sector and other judging panels.

Arianne Donoghue | Founder | Tempest Marketing

A veteran of 14 years’ experience in the industry, Arianne has worked for some of the UK best-known agencies and most-loved brands. She's passionate about helping teams and businesses do the best work they can, through driving strategy, integration and inclusion. Arianne now runs her own small consultancy where she helps agencies and brands maximise their potential.

David Edmundson-Bird | PRINCIPAL LECTURER IN DIGITAL MARKETING & ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: DIGITAL INNOVATION | Manchester Metropolitan University

David is Principal Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he leads a team of specialist digital marketing academics and runs a number of digital communications programmes. He is co-author of 7th edition of Digital Business & E-commerce Management with Dave Chaffey and Tanya Hemphill. David is Chair of Global Judging Standards for Don’t Panic. His role is to ensure objectivity, transparency and consistency across the judging panels for all Don’t Panic assets, and to provide a quality assurance process in the judging process. He set up Manchester Met’s first part-time MSc in Digital Marketing in 2007, their first full-time MSc Digital Marketing Communications in 2016 and Manchester Met’s Global E-Learning MSc in Digital Marketing. David founded Manchester Met’s Agency Life programme in 2012 to enable students to experience live work skills in the workplace very early in their course. He has enjoyed several spells in academia as well as senior management roles in the digital sector, helped to set up Manchester’s second web design agency back in 1995, He sits on the Board FutureEverything and is a trustee of The Education Trust.

Coral Grainger | Apprenticeships Development Manager | Manchester Metropolitan University

Coral is the Apprenticeships lead for Manchester Met’s new School of Digital Arts (SODA). She manages employer relations and recruitment for the highly regarded Digital User Experience (UX) Degree Apprenticeship, and the Business School’s Digital Marketer Degree Apprenticeship programme. Coral works with businesses to bring the talent and skills need of employers into Apprenticeship curriculum and delivery, so that programmes incorporate the most up-to-date knowledge, skills and behaviour for best practice in digital business. She is currently part of the SODA team creating a ground breaking Creative Digital Design Professional apprenticeship, which will transform the way agencies recruit and develop design talent and studio leaders. Coral's worked in and with Digital Agencies for more than 10 years, and through her own consultancy company has advised government and industry on building talent pipelines for a modern, digital and global

Tom Hill | Head of Digital Marketing | Pretty Little Thing

Tom has over 10 years of experience in Digital Marketing, having worked at independent agencies, network agencies, and in-house. After starting his career agency-side, working on accounts such as Asda, Halfords, Sofology and Ronseal, he made the move in-house, firstly leading the Digital Marketing and Media teams at Sky Bet, before his recent move to Pretty Little Thing, where he is the Head of Digital Marketing. He has previously guest lectured at Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Trinity University, and has also acted as an advisor to multiple ad tech companies. Tom brings a wealth of experience across the entire spectrum of Digital Marketing channels.

Navah Hopkins | Vice President of strategic Marketing | Adzooma

Navah Hopkins is the VP of Strategic Marketing at Adzooma, a platform that makes managing your ad channels easy and fast. A veteran of the digital marketing industry, she began as an SEO in 2008, transitioning to PPC in 2012. Throughout her career, Navah has made a point to give back and loves sharing lessons learned on the international speaking circuit as well as local universities. She is a frequent contributor to SEJ, SEMrush, and WordStream blogs/webinars. In 2019, she became a founding member of the Paid Search Association, a group dedicated to empowering the next generation of PPC practitioners, as well as serving as a resource for all practitioners to learn from and share with the community.

Katrina Kerr | Chair of Chester Bid and Trustee at Storyhouse

Katrina works as a marketing consultant, primarily in tourism and is a trustee of Storyhouse and Chair of the Chester Business Improvement District, an organisation dedicated to positioning Chester as a city that offers the highest all round quality of life. She is also a board member of the Tourism Society. Prior to that she was CEO of Marketing Cheshire, she reformulated the business model to ensure the longevity and commercial viability of the organisation, overhauled its digital channels and footprint, developed its relationship with Visit Britain. Katrina has also worked for a number of multinational communications agencies - Ogilvy, J Walter Thompson, Publicis on campaigns for clients such as HSBC, Unilever, American Express, Reckitt Benckiser and the UK Government. She started her career in HM Diplomatic Service where she worked in Paris and Brussels. Katrina studied languages at the University of Bristol and has an MBA from INSEAD.

Mark Kuhillow | FOUNDER | R.O.EYE

Starting his career on 1994, Marks media roots are firmly planted within the offline direct response world, moving online in 1999. Seeing the opportunity to apply a digital direct response agency model to affiliate and performance marketing campaigns, Mark founded R.O.EYE in 2004. After pivoting the agency into a marketing attribution SaaS platform, the business was acquired by Awin, a division of Axel Springer in 2021.

Trond Lyngbø | SENIOR SEO CONSULTANT | Search Planet

Trond Lyngbø is the founder of Search Planet and a senior SEO Consultant. He has over two decades of experience in SEO, e-commerce, content strategy and digital analysis. His clients include multinational Fortune 500 corporations and major Norwegian companies. Trond has helped grow businesses through more effective search marketing and SEO strategies. He is most passionate about working with e-commerce companies and web shops to develop and expand their omni-channel marketing initiatives.

Erin Portsmouth | Director of Corporate Affairs | Oldham Cares

Erin is a Chartered public relations practitioner who started her career in private sector marketing and communications consultancies, but for the past eleven years has worked in the National Health Service. She is currently Director of Corporate Affairs at NHS Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group where she oversees a portfolio including communications, engagement, public affairs, equality and diversity, organisational development and governance. She has a Masters degree in public relations, and served on the Chartered Institute of Public Relations North West Group Committee as a volunteer for ten years, also holding a three year term as Chair. She was appointed to the Board of Trustees of homelessness charity Emmaus Salford in 2017.

Jack Smithson | Managing Director | Vine Insights

Jack Smithson, Managing Director of Vine Insights, has spent the last 6 years developing a leading audience research framework utilising search insights. Working with an award-winning London agency and seeing massive SEO success with huge brands such as Specsavers, Essilor, and Travis Perkins, 2020 became the year to strike out and grow a new business using ethical SEO processes.

Duke Tanson | Marketing Director | Missguided

Digital started his digital marketing career 16 years ago when he co-founded a digital marketing agency in Leeds. He’s held senior positions for some of the leading brands in the North West including THG and boohoo Group. He is currently the Marketing Director at Missguided.

Naomi Timperley | Co Founder | Tech North Advocates and GSI

Co Founder of Tech North Advocates. Proud to be in the top 50 Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK IT 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Naomi is an experienced growth and innovation consultant with established relationships across the UK. She has extensive experience working with start-ups and growth businesses particularly in the tech, digital and creative sectors. Naomi has been a mentor for 8 years and mentored several hundred businesses. She an Honorary Industry Fellow at the University of Salford Business School and chair of the Industry Advisory Board. Naomi also sits on the board of charity Digital Inc and social Enterprise PIE. She was previously Chair of Future Everything and Capital Pilot.

Rebecca Todd | SEO Consultant & Speaker | Honey Pot Marketing

Rebecca is an independent SEO Consultant based in the UK. She has been working with brands all over the world since 2014, including Ryman, MyProtein, Wix, Glade, Sacla', and more. As well as being an advocate of women in tech, Rebecca is passionate about making SEO more accessible. So, her published articles and conference talks are all about encouraging web owners, marketers, and junior SEOs to grow their websites and their confidence quickly and easily. She is also fascinated by the psychology and semantics of search, which are the foundations of her work as an SEO consultant.

Anna Wilson | Head of Digital Development | Tangerine

Anna works day-to-day to build brands online, creating audience-first social media activity integrated with the wider digital footprint to deliver meaningful results for the brand. Over the last 12 years Anna has worked with the team to create multi-award winning campaigns with brands like Yorkshire Bank, Thomas Cook Sport, Virgin Media, Pizza Hut Restaurants and Specsavers.