Lorraine Heggessey has received the Special Recognition award at the Broadcast Awards ceremony.

According to Broadcast, she “was a trailblazer as the first female controller of BBC1 in the early 2000s, and her influence is best measured in the remarkable cadre of shows she helped usher to screen.  

At the corporation alone, her credits include Blue Planet, Spooks, Imagine, State of Play, Strictly Come Dancing, My Family, Doctor Who and The Secret Policeman.  

Those titles are stellar mix of broad popular hits, provocative and inspiring factual, and thrilling scripted series and sum up the eclectic range of programmes that Heggessey helped deliver.  

When she swapped the BBC for Talkback Thames, the indie label upped the entertainment ante with new titles such as Take Me Out and Britain’s Got Talent supercharged fledgling mega-formats including The Apprentice and The X Factor.  

By the time she left in 2010, the latter was being watched by the best part of 20 million people.”

In her timely piece for The Independent, Eleanor Mills uses a current political moment as a lens to reflect on how mid-life women can find their experience questioned or reconfigured, even after long records of achievement — and what that reveals about gendered assumptions that persist beneath the surface.

These dynamics aren’t confined to politics. Her own travails at The Sunday Times followed a similar pattern: credibility was judged, opportunities taken away and experience devalued despite a successful career in journalism, leading to a mid-life pivot.

Closely attuned to how the same script plays out at scale, Eleanor uses her keynotes to help audiences make sense of less readily welcomed shifts in their own lives — how confidence can wobble mid-career, how experience is reinterpreted, and why change at this stage can feel disorienting rather than linear.

Global Gurus has ranked actionable futurist Andrew Grill as one of the world’s Top 30 Futurists for 2026, at number 19.

The Global Gurus Top 30 Futurists list recognises futurists whose work has a real-world impact on how organisations navigate what is coming next. This list highlights practitioners who translate future trends into practical actions that leaders and teams can apply today.

Global Gurus applies a rigorous set of criteria that goes far beyond simple popularity, balancing public opinion with originality of ideas, real impact, practicality, presentation style and published work.

Public opinion contributes 30 per cent of the overall score, originality of ideas a further 30 per cent, impact and practicality together 20 per cent, with presentation style and publications and “guru factor” making up the remaining 20 per cent.

Being placed 19th globally is a meaningful acknowledgement that Andrew’s Actionable Futurist approach and Digitally Curious book, podcast, and course are helping people not only understand the future but also do something with it.

Congratulations to Andrew for being recognised alongside a remarkable group of fellow futurists from around the world.

Lea Karam, behavioural scientist and founder of Mindscope, has supported the BBC’s expanded YouTube strategy announced today, contributing expertise to help shape its approach to younger audiences.

Mindscope’s work focused on translating youth psychology and YouTube-native behaviours into practical guidance for content design, formats, and community experiences that resonate with under-25s. This insight helped inform early channel development, including initiatives such as Deepwatch and Perspectives.

The collaboration supported the BBC team led by Dan McGolpin, Mariel Capisciolto, and Beatrice Cooke, and reflects an evolution in how public service media can meaningfully engage younger audiences by meeting them on platforms they actively choose.

Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket commented on the rise of AI “boyfriends” and emotionally intimate relationships with chatbots in a recent article for The Sun.

Dr Elaine Kasket shared her expert perspective on why people are forming strong emotional bonds with generative AI companions, noting that chatbots can feel like safe, non-judgmental listeners. However, she warned that these relationships are commercially driven rather than therapeutic, requiring users to hand over personal data and money while prioritising engagement over wellbeing. Elaine also cautioned that reliance on agreeable AI partners may reduce people’s tolerance for the challenges of real-world relationships and increase emotional isolation.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/37682996/ai-tech-relationship-boyfriend-online/

We’re delighted to learn that Alessandra Bellini has been awarded an OBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to advertising and marketing.

Alessandra’s marketing career, first at multinational Unilever and then at Tesco, where she spearheaded the collaboration with Jamie Oliver and the relaunch of its ClubCard, is distinguished by an ability to combine commercial judgment with deep strategic insight — using data, creativity and leadership to drive growth at scale across complex organisations. Her contribution has helped shape how brands and businesses approach long-term value creation. An honour such as this reflects influence exercised consistently at the highest levels.

Our congratulations, Alessandra!

Misha Glenny is taking over as presenter of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg after 27 years. Glenny promises continuity rather than radical change, describing his approach as “evolution, not revolution,” while recognising the need for the programme to remain relevant in a changing media landscape.

He questions the show’s long-standing slogan, “Never knowingly relevant,” arguing instead that its discussions of history, science, and philosophy are often unknowingly relevant, especially during times of political and social uncertainty. Glenny believes audiences still have a strong appetite for serious, expert-led conversation despite the dominance of smartphones and short-form content.

While acknowledging competition from popular history podcasts such as The Rest Is History, he has no plans to imitate their style. Instead, he intends to preserve In Our Time’s tightly structured, rigorous format while ensuring it continues to engage new generations of listeners.

In a recent interview with The Times, Luke Donald reflects on captaining Europe to a demanding away victory in the Ryder Cup, describing it as more stressful but ultimately more rewarding than his previous success. He argues that the hostile New York crowd, while often crossing the line, ended up strengthening the European team, creating unity and mental resilience rather than distraction.

Donald is critical of how crowd behaviour was handled, particularly abuse directed at players such as Rory McIlroy and their families. Rather than ignore it, he chose to prepare for it, building what he calls “anti-fragility” — the ability to grow stronger under pressure.

His leadership approach was obsessively detailed: months of communication with players, psychological preparation, simulated heckling, data-driven pairings, and a strong focus on culture and shared purpose. He contrasts Europe’s motivation — pride and identity — with the fact that US players were paid, using that difference as fuel.

The author and mental health campaigner on not fitting in at school, being on the Covid frontline, and how grief inspired him to help others

Born in Carmarthen in 1991, Dr Alex George is a former NHS doctor, an author and a mental health campaigner. After studying medicine at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, he worked as an A&E doctor in London before joining the cast of 2018’s Love Island. In 2021, he was appointed the UK government’s youth mental health ambassador. He is the author of five books; his latest, Happy Habits, is out now, with Am I Normal? published on 15 January.

We are thrilled that our client Emilie Bellet has been named one of Metro.co.uk Metro’s top UK “finfluencers you need to follow.” As Vestpod founder/CEO and author of You’re Not Broke, You’re Pre-Rich, Emilie champions financial wellbeing as a right for women—breaking the gender wealth gap, boosting confidence amid pay disparities and life events like motherhood, and equipping them via keynotes on investing and ditching taboos to claim independence and security.

The UK Government has launched a new Women In Tech Taskforce to 'help women "enter, stay and lead" in the UK tech sector.' Leading the taskforce alongside Technology Secretary Liz Kendall is our very own Dr A-Marie Imafidon MBE, and we can't think of anyone better for the role, because Anne-Marie has been doing this work for over a decade. Through Stemettes, she's reached 65,000+ young people, hosted the Women In Tech podcast for the Evening Standard, and written a book that argues that a lack of women in tech means technology reflects limited experiences, creating biased products that don't serve everyone. She's consistently shown up to make tech more inclusive.

It's just been confirmed last week that Julian Treasure will be curating a TED Conferences series on listening for their 2026 conference, which tells you everything about the importance of listening in our time and where Julian stands in the field. In a world where everyone's talking and nobody's hearing each other, Julian's spent his career showing organisations why listening might be the most powerful skill we're all neglecting, and that's why companies bring him in when conversations break down and real understanding goes missing. Julian doesn't just talk about listening—he knows exactly what will get teams to actually communicate, collaborate, and connect.

In his nomination, the Prime Minister praised Roe’s “distinguished record of public service”, noting that he joined the London Fire Brigade in 2002 and rose through every rank before being appointed commissioner in 2020. Before joining the brigade, Roe served as an officer in the British Army and later worked with young refugees in London.

The Prime Minister highlighted Roe’s leadership of the brigade through the pandemic and its programme of reform following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, culminating in a 2024 statutory inspection that deemed the LFB the most improved service in the country.

https://emergencyservicestimes.com/2025/12/12/former-london-fire-commissioner-given-peerage-by-prime-minister/

Channel 5 Announces Alexis Conran as Co-Host of a New Daytime Show.

Huge congratulations to Alexis Conran who will be joining Channel 5's daytime line up from 2026 as co-host of the new programme, Storm and Alexis, airing daily from 11:30am – 12:45pm.

Big News for BBC Radio 4 listeners.

Misha Glenny is taking over as presenter for In Our Time. The award-winning journalist and author steps into some seriously big shoes, Melvyn Bragg presented the show for 27+ years and over 1,000 episodes before stepping down in September.

For those unfamiliar: In Our Time is one of BBC Radio 4's longest-running shows, diving deep into history, philosophy, science, and culture.

The new series starts next year.
Are you an In Our Time listener? What topics would you like to see covered?

There’s no doubt that technology is at the core of pretty much everything we do now, and many of us couldn’t imagine our lives without it. But is our relationship with technology as good as it could be?

In part one of the Stompcast podcast, Dr Elaine Kasket, cyberpsychologist and expert in how our digital choices shape our experiences, and Dr Alex George explore the concept of ‘digital remains’ and what happens to a person’s data and social media platforms once they pass away.

https://shows.acast.com/stompcast/episodes/pt-1-what-happens-to-your-data-when-you-die-dr-elaine-kasket

Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket discussed the trend to use Generative AI to “resurrect” deceased loved ones with Meghan McCarty Carino on Marketplace by APM's podcast Marketplace Tech recently. More and more people are using these tools to turn an old photograph into a short animation or create entire "AI clones" trained on old audio, video or written diaries. Elaine explores whether these technological advancements are a healthy development.

Author and future of work speaker Adam Kingl was on the Voices in Leadership podcast, hosted by Dr. Angela J. Buckley, discussing his research on multigenerational collaboration and how to engage the youngest generations in the workforce.

https://voicesinleadership.live/episode/bridging-generational-gaps-what-does-gen-z-want-from-us

Author, podcaster and speaker Candice Brathwaite has launched a video series Conversations with Candice where she and her guest have in-depth fireside chats about topics close to Candice's heart. The first show features friend and megastar Cynthia Erivo whose film Wicked For Good is out in the UK today.

This portrait of disability advocate and our speaker Adam Pearson by photographer Will Corry has been shortlisted for the Portrait of Britain awards by The British Journal of Photography. Congratulations to both Adam and Will.