Ellen Gunning MA, MIAPR, FPRII, NUJ has 30+ years’ experience in the communications industry as a PR consultant, author, media commentator, spokesperson, trainer and broadcaster.

Ellen is a director of the PR Training Academy, an online membership organization, which offers bite-sized, communications courses to professionals working in the industry worldwide and SME owners globally.

In 2022 she launched her new business Mettacomms, a data analytics platform providing thought leadership insights for brands. The company has built an interactive prototype and is currently testing with selected international brands in the food industry.

She is also a director of the Irish Academy of Public Relations, a specialist communications college with 25+ years’ experience of teaching PR, journalism, event management, radio and television, online, in 6 languages, across 50 countries. The Academy has a joint venture in the Middle East, Orient Planet Academy, with Orient Planet PR.

Ellen has handled PR for national and international clients in politics, business, the arts and charity sectors for over 20 years. She now exclusively handles crisis communications across a range of sectors. 

Lucy & Me was created in 2018 when Sarah could not find what she was looking for, for her daughter’s nursery. Interior design had always been her passion, so she decided to make different pieces for Lucy’s nursery starting with an armchair and bookcase. Friends subsequently started making requests for these so she reached out to a contact in Taiwan who could make the furniture.

Ironically, her husband Arron studied Architecture in college and was fantastic at CAD design. For 3 days and 3 nights, they sat at their kitchen table coming up with different ideas and designs. As manufacturers worked on minimum order quantities, they decided to take out a loan and go for it.

Everything arrived and they launched in September 2019 with 29 pieces. The pandemic then hit, and they thought they were in big trouble. But as no one could leave their houses, they started doing them up, kids were at home full time and everyone relied on social media for contact. Lucy & Me were included in the government-backed #shoplocal campaign and were invited to take part in Arnotts Irish market for Christmas - it all snowballed from there.

Megan Best is Managing Director of Native Events, Operations Manager of Body&Soul Festival and Curator and Host of the Green Room on Dublin City FM. She completed an MSc in Environmental Sustainability with UCD in 2020 and Postgrad in Climate Entrepreneurship with Trinity in 2021.

Established in 2017, Native Events is Ireland’s leader in sustainable event production and offers consultancy, strategy and vision to the Irish cultural sector. As a trained systems-thinker, with extensive experience and skills in operations, project management, production coordination and also a creative flair, Megan brings excellent interpersonal communications and commercial acumen to the role. The Body&Soul Festival is Ireland’s forerunner in event sustainability. In October 2019, on behalf of the festival and in partnership with Native Events, Megan signed onstage at ADE Green in Amsterdam the Green Deal for Circular Festivals with 17 international pioneering festivals from across the EU.

The Little Wax Company founded in 2019 by Amy and Marc Herbert, is a Balbriggan-based, small family business that specialises in producing luxury home fragrances which include wax melts, reed diffusers, room sprays and candles all of which are hand poured on-site before being packaged and sent out to customers.