Chairing and speaking

I am an experienced speaker, presenter and moderator with a track record of hosting high-profile industry events and conferences, moderating panel discussions and chairing webinars.

As a former journalist and host of two grocery industry podcasts, I understand what business audiences want and how to get the best out of interviews, debates and speakers. I’m known for my meticulous preparation, strong food and grocery industry knowledge and for putting audiences and panellists at ease.

As well as hosting debates, I also give my own presentations and briefings on food & drink industry trends and offer training and support for public speaking engagements, including through speechwriting, media training and panellist prep.

Email me to discuss how I can help make your event or webinar a success. I am available to appear at events in person or virtually.

  • “I’ve now worked with Julia on a couple of webinars – on each occasion her contribution made the event run as well as it possibly could.

    Julia’s experience and thoroughly professional approach brought structure to the planning of the webinar, and her hosting skills guided a disparate group of presenters through the session with deftness.

    Having Julia effectively running the webinar meant that we could all relax into our presenter roles, confident that she would keep us on track and on time. That’s a really valuable skill, and I won’t hesitate to contact her again next time we are planning to run an event.”

    Chris Blythe, The Brand Nursery

  • “We worked with Julia on a webinar we ran about health messaging in the food and drink industry. She made the whole process really easy for me and all the other speakers.

    First, we had a briefing call where Julia made sure she understood what we were trying to achieve and then she worked on a format that ensured we got all our key points across.

    With Julia hosting, the webinar itself went really smoothly – she made something quite daunting really fun and pretty easy. We’ve already had some great feedback from participants and I'm hopeful we'll get some new business from it. Thank you Julia!”

    Greg Felgate, GOLD79

  • “Julia was extremely professional throughout the whole engagement. This started even before the event when she ensured an understanding of the focus of the event, who the speakers were and the content of their presentations.

    On the day she was extremely well prepared and handled the question and answer sessions with great skill and professionalism. I cannot recommend Julia highly enough.” 

    — Richard Harrow, British Frozen Food Federation

Select appearances

How grocery can use data to win shoppers’ loyalty (Jun 2024)

Grocer Vision webinar featuring speakers from dunnhumby, Global Brands and Salesforce

HFSS one year on – what have we learned? (Sep 2023)

Grocer Vision webinar featuring speakers from Southern Co-op, Kantar, General Mills and Perfetti van Melle

NFU North East conference (Dec 2022)

Presentation on key industry trends affecting farmers as well as Q&A and discussion with the audience

Navigating the ultra-processed foods debate (Feb 2024)

Grocer Vision webinar featuring speakers from Danone, FDF, Waitrose and Vypr

Co-op farming & fisheries conference (Nov 2021)

Presentation on consumer attitudes to sustainability and panel discussion with senior Co-op execs and food and farming writer James Rebanks

BFFF Business Conference (Feb 2020)

Chairing of full-day conference, including introductory and closing remarks and panel discussions

Webinar and panel prep

There’s a knack to being a great panellist.

I have chaired dozens of webinars, roundtables and panel discussions and offer prep sessions to help you stay on message, give succinct and engaging answers, build rapport with other panellists and navigate awkward questions from the audience.