Alistair Turner is Managing Director of EIGHT PR & Marketing, a specialist creative agency servicing the events industry. Alistair has over 20 years experience in the PR industry, working across some of the biggest brands in FMCG, tourism and most recently the international events industry. Over the course of his career, Al has worked with stellar brands, cutting his teeth with Haagen Daaz, Tropicana and Muller, he was also once described as ‘Bertie Bassett’s right-hand man’ when he was leading the Trebor Bassett account. He was also involved in the re-launch of Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men when working with BBC Worldwide. Since entering the global events marketplace, Al has worked across the full range of events, from business conferences and exhibitions, through brand activations and into the sporting and festival industries. As well as influencing media and representing the events industry, he has also been involved in the influence and communication with the UK government; he was secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Events, and project managed the groups’ Enquiry into the international competitiveness of the UK events industry in 2013. He has also been a government advisor on the 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Finally, he has been involved in ministerial briefings on the events industry at Secretary of State level and below. He was heavily involved with No.10 on its development of the ‘Britain is GREAT’ initiative, and the ‘Events are GREAT’ implementation of that campaign. He is a regular speaker on events and PR at a number of universities including Hertfordshire, MMU, Westminster, University of East London, Greenwich, Hertfordshire, and St Margret’s. He is also a regular contributor to The Events Academy educational programmes.