Hotel, Restaurant & Catering 2027 Exhibitor List

Driven by a passion for performance psychology, Candice Brown is a doctoral student and University Provost Fellow in the Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology PhD program at West Virginia University. She earned her MA in Clinical and Mental Health Counseling from the same institution, and obtained her National Certified Counselor Certification in 2022. She successfully completed a distinguished 12-week internship as an United States Air Force Research Labratory Scholar. Her consulting approach is personable and collaborative, integrating a wide range of theories, skills, and interventions tailored to meet each client’s unique needs. She emphasizes enhancing psychological flexibility to boost both performance and well-being. She particularly enjoys focusing on how psychological factors influence the performance and well-being of first responders and tactical populations.

Rob Machin is Co-founder at Reimagine, with a career firmly rooted in food, street trading, and hospitality-led placemaking. His journey began hands-on in London’s street food scene, running a paella stall in Covent Garden before becoming the first employee at Bleecker, where he helped grow the brand from a single site into a successful multi-site food business. He also was a founding team member at KERB, playing a key role in shaping London’s modern street food movement through the delivery of markets and food halls, and supporting emerging traders via the inKERBator programme. Moving into senior leadership, Rob oversaw operations and finance at KERB, building deep expertise in scaling independent food businesses sustainably. At Reimagine, Rob brings this hospitality-first perspective to both delivery and consultancy, working with unconventional assets and developers to shape markets, event venues, food halls, and mixed-use sites. This approach is applied to projects such as Shepherd’s Bush Market, where food is often used as a catalyst for regeneration, community, and long-term commercial success.

William has held senior technology leadership and operational roles across major brands including Burger King, Popeyes, Wingstop, Noble Group, Wahaca, and Starbucks International. He led large-scale POS implementations, built successful tech stacks, and streamlined multi-site technology rollouts across the UK, Europe, and North America. His work has delivered measurable results — from cost savings and efficiency gains to stronger data-driven decision-making and operational excellence

Jane is a seasoned hospitality leader and board chair with over 25 years in the sector. She chairs Caravan Restaurants, serves as a Non-Executive Director of Red Engine (Flight Club and Electric Shuffle) and has a number of board advisory roles. She sits on the UK Hospitality Sector Council, where she chairs the Innovation Working Group. Jane’s career includes senior roles at Nando’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Pizza Express, giving her deep expertise in scaling high-growth, consumer-led brands.

Alison Wong is a Chartered Accountant and CFO at House of Gods Hotel, the private equity-backed boutique hotel chain. With over 15 years in hospitality finance, her story spans every side of the table - from professional services at Deloitte, in-house senior finance roles at start ups and scale ups, private equity and founding her own strategic consultancy. Her specialism is creating clarity from complexity, distilling what really matters, stripping away jargon, and finding practical paths forward whether a business is navigating rapid growth or crisis.

Olivia Harrison is a Senior Marketing Executive at The Mandrake Hotel, with over five years of experience across hospitality, luxury, and retail. Her work sits at the intersection of AI, guest data, and digital performance, with a particular focus on using emerging technologies to better understand guest behaviour, personalise journeys, and drive revenue. Olivia specialises in data-led marketing, SEO, paid media, and CRM strategy, and is passionate about how AI can enhance decision-making, creativity, and long-term guest loyalty within the hotel sector.

Ben co-founded and has been CTO of Sona, the AI-native workforce management solution, since July 2021. His background is in tech consultancy and he has founded or co-founded multiple start-ups, including Catapult Ventures, Make it with Code, Style Gauge and InGuide. During the early part of his career, he was a software engineer at Thorlabs and then a consultant at PWC.

Matt Barnwell has over 20 years of experience in hospitality and leisure, and currently works as a Director for IH Solutions and The Purists of Play. His work in family entertainment centres, pubs, nightclubs and hotels has included managing refurbishments and rebrands, and creating and rolling out food & drink concepts for multi-million pound turnover groups. Now he is a specialist consultant providing support and training services in operations, food & beverage and licensing; plus he is a skilled systems architect.

British Chef and Author