tel +44 (0) 207 989 2424     info@ya-ya.co.uk

meet the team

Click on the names to find out more about our fantastic team. With over 200 years in the business world between us you know you are in safe hands (or are we just old!)

 

Sally Deighan
Non Executive

Been in business for over 25 years working in tourism, leisure and broadcasting with Coventry Tourism, Coombe Abbey Hotel and the BBC where she was CEO of Children in Need before partnering with Ya-Ya Events Ltd.
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Charlotte Pollard
Registration Admin

Providing efficient, organised and friendly service, ensuring that all payments are received and delegates registered.
Best for Efficiency, diplomacy and keeping mine when all about are losing theirs!
Best memory
Best song/tune Eva Cassidy – Fields of Gold
Best meal Fruits-de-mer at Rick Steins Seafood Restaurant, Padstow with a large glass of something!
Best experience Swimming with sharks in the Bahamas!
Best asset Persistent, hardworking and sense of humour.

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Anita Howard
Events Director

Over 20 years in the events business working across a wide area of business sectors with EMAP, Blenheim and Reed Exhibitions before setting up Ya-Ya Events Ltd., in 1996.
Best for Brilliant at looking after your sponsors, exhibitors and delegates
Best memory My husband organising a ‘surprise wedding’ in Paris – long story
Best song/tune Don’t get me wrong by The Pretenders – fantastic to many reasons
Best meal The Canteen in Chelsea
Best experience Standing at the check-in desk at Gatwick thinking I was going to Lanzarote and ‘him indoors’ had booked for Trinidad and Tobago
Best asset Enthusiasm

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Dayne Poole
IT Direction

As events become more and more dependent on technology, Dayne has become a crucial linchpin in Ya-Ya Events’ production, creating offsite and onsite systems that ensure all IT systems are fault free and run smoothly on the event day.
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Ken Robertson
Marketing Strategy

From agency art director to MD of Bang a B2B creative strategy consultancy, Ken now consults for Ya-Ya Events across all aspects of marketing for its events.
Best for Brilliant ideas that get your event flying
Best memory It’s got to be meeting Father Christmas and sitting on his knee in Jenners, Edinburgh (last year!)
Best song/tune No doubt about it. Pure by Blue Six. If you’re ever feeling low listen to the words
Best meal Apart from my father-in-law's chicken curry (it hasn’t got a name) it must be the red snapper curry in the Tamarind, Kenya
Best experience Ah! Being upgraded to 1st class on Virgin to Boston. There was back to back champagne, meals when I wanted, massage, movies, fantastic bed and pyjamas and being woken by a gorgeous attendance with a steaming coffee and bacon butty
Best asset Motivation

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Matt Rowe
Creative Direction

Working through various design groups and agencies Matt now has his own Design Group Fuel4vision and is Ya-Ya Events’ creative director on aspects of sales and communication for our events.
Best for Cracking a great creative solution to any brief
Best memory All men will have to say their wedding day! Mine was in Tokai overlooking Cape Town – stunning! (the wife looked good too)
Best song/tune Come to me by Koop. This is as cool as it gets. Bit like me!
Best meal Sorry but I’ve got to say this ‘cos it’s true. Anything cooked by my wife
Best experience Well she didn’t do this. Christmas lunch on the Western Cape at a fish farm… you had to be there…
Best asset Multitasking

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Andy Smith
Event Production

Happily not the typical geek normally in this role. Andy has worked on all aspects of the audio visual scene from seminars, road shows through to major conferences of over 100 delegates and prestigious awards dinners.
Best for Making all that bleeding technology work
Best memory Wife and I stood on our own on top of a volcano in South America
Best song/tune Stevie Wonder Superstition - shiver down the spine every time I hear it
Best meal Pork chop at Fog City Diner in San Francisco
Best experience Flying over the Amazon rainforest in a small plane
Best asset Cool under heat

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Anne White
Financial Management

Working with SME businesses advising on financial direction and business opportunities, Anne has helped guide Ya-Ya Events in its various shapes and sizes over 12 years.
Best for Keeping a tight hold on the purse strings to ensure maximum profitability from your event
Best memory My wedding day and the birth of my children, oh sorry, that's three memories, but I am a creative accountant, so give me time and I can make that one!
Best song/tune When I'm 64 by the Beatles - not long after we met, my then boyfriend (now husband) and I vowed we would sing that together when we are 64 and we are still on course. Trouble is we will not both be 64 at the same time, so I guess we will have to sing it twice!
Best meal Sharing an enormous seafood platter and several bottles of chilled white wine with my husband and daughter in a shack on a beach we stumbled across when driving off the beaten track in the Western Cape
Best experience Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, standing on the summit at dawn on a beautiful clear morning and gazing across the African plains
Best asset My brain

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