Speakers

Chris Hughes has spent his life launching and promoting innovative consumer events.

He started selling tickets for events whilst at school, and ran the Birmingham Student events programme at University.

Hughes moved from Theatre, Via Touring Ballet into exhibitions where he was launch MD of BDC Events, the business that became Upper Street events launching the London Art Fair, The Country Living Fair and London Music Week.

At BBC Haymarket in the 90’s he was deputy MD of the UK’s largest consumer event business with events such as the Clothes Show, The BBC Good Food Shows, BBC Good Homes, Tomorrow’s World Live, Gardener’s World Live and the world’s biggest Motor Racing exhibition Autosport International.

In 1999 Hughes launched Brand Events which became a pioneering force for new event and festival formats and consumer experiences initially in the UK and then around the world.

Early hits included the Vitality Show and the Outdoors show which were sold to the Daily Mail Group for £6m but it was Top Gear Live and then Taste of London which took the company globally operating over the next 10 years in 15 countries.

The company developed a food division and a car division. The company became the world’s largest organiser of Food Festivals, with Taste of London becoming Taste in 15 cities, Jamie Oliver’s Big Feastival. Gordon Ramsay’s Taste of Christmas, La Dolce Vita, MasterChef Live in Australia and the groundbreaking world Chef Festival Gourmet Escape in Western Australia.

The company sold its entire food division to IMG between 2013 and 2015. Although it later launched the hugely popular Pub in The Park Festivals which operate 4 festivals per year at present.

The Car division joined forces with Jeremy Clarkson and expanded on the back of Top Gear’s global popularity with MPH, Top Gear Live, World Tours and Motoring festivals. The company also Launched The London Classic Car show and in 2012 joined forced with Radio 2’s Chris Evans to develop CarFest the UK’s largest family fundraising festival.

Aside from Food and cars the company has had hits in lots of varied consumer subjects including Craft, Golf, Running, Climbing, Comedy, Film, Wellbeing, Genealogy and Dating.

In 2015/16 the company became Hollywood producers with the Launch of Fast and Furious Live a global touring theatre show in partnership with Universal Studios which toured Europe in 2017 before closing.

The company was hit very badly by the uninsured cancellations of Covid causing losses of over £5m.
Despite being at the forefront of the UK’s attempts to keep events alive with drive-in events and covid format experiences the losses caught up in 2022 leading to the closure of the Brand Events group.
Despite this collapse, the company ensured the survival of CarFest which is now managed separately and Hughes joined forces with Tom Kerridge and other private investors to rescue the Pub in the Park Festival business from administration.

Hughes and the company have supported and lead numerous charitable ventures over the years.

Hughes and his wife Lynda created a project in Uganda funding education for slum children, this also lead to the creation of event industry charity – Events for Namuwongo which raised over £500k, transformed a Ugandan slum providing drainage, water and toilets and continues to support widespread educational projects.

During Covid Hughes joined forces with Tom Kerridge and Pub in The Park to launch the local food poverty charity Meals from Marlow which has provided food for poor neighbourhoods since 2020.

Under Hughes’s management CarFest raised over £30 million for BBC Children in need and other children’s charities.

Hughes believes Brand Events transformed consumer events and festivals around the world.
He and it have won numerous awards.
It sold over 5million tickets globally.
It launched the careers of numerous leading event professionals who now run event businesses across the world.

Despite all this and the numerous silly and astonishing adventures around the world Hughes counts his family as his greatest hit.

He is married to Lynda who he met putting up posters for a gig 40 years ago, he has four children (and a son in law) all of whom have done their time backstage over the years and has a grandchild on the way.