Founder of Curiosity Unltd, a disruptive grass-roots think and do tank for inclusive adventures in progressive social and environmental change. As a freelancer I aim to co-create with organisations that value diversity as a creative catalyst for inclusion. Having worked across the health, housing, youth, media, tourism, cultural and education sectors, my adventures in creative courage includes:Carnival Commission:Following the Arts Council & Bristol Culture withdrawing their funding for St Paul's Carnival, I led on all aspects of a high-profile and complex turnaround strategy. This included successfully managing sensitive stake-holder relationships to secure mass buy-in to implement an organisational change strategy that led to the setting up of a new organisation, with a 40% uplift in funding and a sustainable St Pauls Carnival returning for its 50th anniversary in 2018.Diverse Natures: For the Wetlands Wildlife Trust, I devised and delivered an audience development strategy to increase BAME attendance to the Slimbridge Reserve. It included the production of a series of research workshops, a short film, sponsored radio shows and an action-based report, which has been used to support successful large-scale Big Lottery bids.Towards A Greener Carnival: For the Carnival Network South, I oversaw the delivery of a 2-day national conference. The event celebrated carnival as a powerful platform for environmental engagement, education and empowerment. From sourcing the venue and booking tech requirements to organising speakers and hospitality I oversaw all aspects of the event management. Hosted at the Malcolm X Center this immersive event attracted policy makers, funder's and sector leaders.

Marketing Manager for one of Europe's leading world food wholesalers & distributors. My mission to position Wanis agency brands as a sector leaders within both mainstream and world food category. Some of my many key achievements across B2B and B2C platforms included:Crafted segmented annual integrated brand plans for Wanis, Tropical Sun, Carib, Aani, Bevelini, Tropical Vibes, Davina, Africa's Finest and other agency brands within the portfolio Refreshed digital strategy to launch new trade and consumer websites and social media platformsRaised brand profile and widened engagement via activation of sponsorship's for BBC Good Food Show, Street Food Live, and WOMAD to Notting Hill Carnival, Jamaica Rugby team, West Indies Cricket Team, World Food Week and moreCollaborated with sales, distribution and NPD to support supermarket accounts leading to a like-for-like sales uplift of 12%. Activities included price promos during key cultural events supported by a mix of radio, digital boards, POS, sampling, cash machine and online ads. Oversaw PR, media buying, social media, experiential, SMS and packaging Led on all consumer and corporate press office comms. Secured talking head profile features in Grocer, Wholesale Trader and Today's Retailer. Placed new product stories, advertorials and promotions in the Sun, Guardian, Evening Standard and Metro, Time Out, Voice, Pride and more Led high-performing team of 6 direct reports including brand management, design and PR functionsEnhanced team efficiency and capacity via Wrike, Hoot-suite and Slack as well as recruiting 2 additional team members

Reporting to a board I managed all day to day operational matters along with all finances and resources to deliver the safe and highly successful return of St Paul’s Carnival for its 50th anniversary. With a budget of £240k, 140,000 attendees, 1200+ people in the procession, 4 stages, 14 Sound-system's and record low level of arrests the 2018 Carnival was hailed as a success by all. Key achievements included: • Setting up new business and governance systems for a new organisation • Balanced multiple competing stakeholders needs whilst maintaining the confidence of the funders • The recruitment and management of staff, freelancers and contractors • Generating record level of income totaling £75k in cash and £25k in-kind

On maternity cover I worked closely with the events, licensing and education teams to support the distribution of £850k from the Cultural Investment Programme. With diversity at the heart of the strategy, I promoted, assessed, contracted and relationship-managed various cultural intuitions. Also, I oversaw delivery of the diversity agenda, Doing Things Differently in partnership with Diverse City. This multi-arts, multi-venue initiative was in support of the creative case for diversity. This led to a manifesto for inclusion with measurable KPIs that the cities institutions signed up to.

Nurtured city-wide partnerships to deliver projects across radio, training, events, web and advocacy. Key achievements included dramatically increasing revenue and investment, driving listener-ship, incubating new talent and winning 8 prestigious awards. Big Green & Black Debate: Built case to ensure BAME communities embedded into Bristol’s European Green Capital by proactively conducting ethnographic research. Insights used to lobby Mayor and secure funding for a bespoke BAME program of work. Activities ranged from on-air takeovers with green decision and policy makers to conducting outreach events and outdoor-broadcasts. Also, I became a Green Capital Ambassador to co-host the high-profile hand-over closing ceremony.Green & Black Ambassadors: Secured funding from Bristol Green Capital Partnership and the Cabot Institute for pilot BAME leadership project that empowered emerging leaders to challenge green decision makers to embed diversity. Highly successful, this pilot project was scaled-up via via 3-years funding from the Big Lottery and won several prestigious awards. Project X: For Bristol Culture delivered a youth audience development strategy. This radio training and broadcast project empowered 15 BAME’s to explore and report on Bristol’s cultural offer. Highlights include the production of 12 shows, an outside broadcast and accreditation of 15 Arts Awards. This work was credited as an exemplar project by the client.

Employed to cover maternity leave. As a brand champion I used events, social media and advocacy to amplify the ethical credentials to drive brand loyalty, increase awareness and to generate new customers: Project-managed Do A Small Act, a customer-get-customer initiative that incentivised them to recruit friends in return for a donation to a charity of their choice. This led to a 15% rise in sign-ups.Launched a series of value-based promotions that used a mix of social media & affiliate tie-ups with the aim of generating ‘new-to-bank’ leads for cross-selling a range of financial products.Led on the delivery of internal and external events from activating the sponsorship of conferences to organising shareholder and annual staff meetings. Responsibilities involved agreeing branding rights, and organising the venues, key-note speakers and equipment, as well as evaluating the events’ effectiveness.

The Creative Youth Network challenged the Curiosity Consultancy to increase youth involvement with and awareness of the ‘Station’, a world class youth hub in Bristol. The solution was the ‘Ssh Takeover Hour’ a youth-led half-term ‘Takeover’ project on Ujima Radio and BCFM. Through peer training and mentoring, 10 young people learnt how to produce ads, as well as program and present their own radio shows. The content of the shows was driven by the young people and included guests from flagship youth initiatives and celebrity guests like Tinchy Stryder. As a positive outcome, youth participation with the Station has increased by 41% and 3 of the young presenters now host the Next Generation show on Ujima Radio.

Curiosity challenged by the Bristol Partnership to engage hard to reach groups surrounding the Temple Meads Enterprise Zone. The solution was a voice and influence project - Speak No Evil - the official audio companion to Europe’s largest street art festival, See No Evil. Collaborating with Ujima Radio, I trained 25 Citizen Journalists to act as roving reporters to capture vox pops and to edit . They interviewed 19 graffiti artists and guests from 22 flagship community projects which featured on a daily Speak No Evil Hour. As a result, the stations listener-ship and web traffic increased by 30% and 406 podcasts were downloaded. As a positive outcome 5 of the participants now present their own shows on Ujima Radio.

Curated all artistic programming for one of Europe’s largest and latest finishing street-based Caribbean carnivals. Reporting to a board I programmed 7 stages, organised its largest ever street procession whilst overseeing a learning education program and a fringe season of events. On a reduced artistic budget, I increased participation from new communities by 25%, generated new revenue whilst helping to increase new audiences from 70,000 to 100,000. As part of a small team I added value across all business areas to co-produce one of the most successful Carnivals to date.

My role involved helping the programming team to tap into Bristol’s sub-cultures to create rich authentic content for the program, the book and the website. The series was well received and benefitted from national and regional PR that focussed on Bristol's Caribbean communities. This program helped to place-make Bristol as a dynamic, creative and culturally rich city.

Co-founder of Uproar an award winning youth marketing agency. Responsible for business development I ensured that all campaigns were delivered on time, on budget and on brief. Key campaigns include:It Dosen't Have To Happen for the Home Office:For the Home Office devised and delivered ‘It Doesn't have to Happen’ an award winning behavioral change campaign. Co-created by a youth advisory panel, this peer to peer anti-knife strategy empowered young people to think twice about picking-up knifes and to actively help reduce youth knife crime. It featured a micro site, viral promos, MTV sponsorship, billboards, high profile celebrity endorsers, specialist PR, guerrilla, social media, and event sponsorship. The Campaign impacts led to 12 million viral views, 10,000 Bebo friends with 75% of young people surveyed stating that the campaign made them less likely to carry a knife. It went on to win The Pride of London and Campaign Magazines Best Public Sector AwardsThe Circle Of Life campaign for National Blood Service:Won a competitive NHS pitch to deliver a 3 year communication strategy to raise BAME blood donors. Devised Circle of Life, an innovative mix of influential celebrity and religious advocates, used social media, user generated competitions, specialist PR and media buying. BME donors increased by 30%, media coverage valued at £1.5m and post campaign research showed an increased willingness to donate blood due to the campaign.