Rick, 50, oversees the growth strategy of Smyle Group. It owns leading creative agency Smyle, that delivers live, hybrid and virtual experiences for some of the top global brands. It has won UK Event Agency of the Year award a record 10 times in the last 15 years.
Rick adopted a clear mission and mandate from across the industry evolving through 2022 to create a platform that answered the question – Wheres the one place you can go to gain better understanding , value and respect for the UK Events industry? This developed into a not-for-profit organisation, The Power of Events, with a more formal structure, model, strategy and long term plan.
It launched a unique digital platform in February 2023, to effectively deliver for the first time a map of the industry’s seven core sectors, to benefit all current and future event professionals - profiling the trade associations, support organisations, universities and industry media. It is supported by an unprecedented level of leading organisers, agencies, venues and supplier partners from across the industry. It has also launched an Insight App in October 23 as tool for the industry to use to collate advanced data to support insights and research projects, and a new Careers Hub section of the platform is planned for Feb 23 alongside a UK wide Schools Engagement Programme - see www.thepowerofevents.org