Presenters & Awards Hosts

Sikisa

The Barbadian stand-up won the public vote at the BBC New Comedy Awards. She’s now delighting audiences from the Comedy Store to The Guilty Feminist Live, and hosting the onstage chat show Girl Code. Her TV and podcast credits include Jonathan Ross’ Comedy Club, Off Menu and Perfect Sounds. According to The Guardian, ‘Sikisa’s ebullient personality makes the room sing.’

Abandoman

Rob Broderick invites audience suggestions on almost any subject and instantly turn them into a funky hip-hop track. Dick & Dom’s house band has been hailed as ‘Flight of the Conchords meets 8 Mile.‘ For bigger audiences, he can work as a duo.

Kate Adie

People used to joke that if you find yourself in the same place as Adie you should get out immediately. As Chief News Reporter she broadcast from the front line in the Gulf War and riots in Tiananmen Square. Kate talks about Britain’s home front, and when women started going to football matches.

Henry Ajder

Henry works at the frontier of the generative AI and synthetic media revolution. He presented the BBC documentary series The Future will be Synthesised, and advises organisations on the challenges and opportunities new technologies present.

Ayo Akinwolere

Ayo became one of four people of colour with a swimming world record, when he swam in one of the deepest stretches of water on earth. The former Blue Peter presenter has written for the Daily Telegraph, BBC Sport and the Independent, and appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, the Great British Bake Off and Celebrity Pointless. After moving into sports and current affairs, Ayo co-created the production company Milk First Productions, which aims to tell diverse stories and amplify diverse voices.

Tom Allen

Tom is a household name. An award-winning comic with a well-spoken but often scathing line in put-downs, stories and observations.  His TV credits include The Apprentice: You’re Fired, The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice, Complaints Welcome, The Island and The Royal Variety Performance. As a presenter, Tom teases home bakers and budding entrepreneurs and rummages around our towns. To The Guardian, he is simply ‘The master of the nonstop rant.’

Dr Nighat Arif

Dr Nighat is a GP specialising in women’s health and family planning. She is a medical educator and provides teaching to local trainee GPs as well as at national and international conferences. Nighat was nominated for the National Bevan Prize for Health and Wellbeing to acknowledge her commitment to advancing wellbeing in her community. She has worked to raise awareness on menopause and women’s healthcare in Black and Asian women, and presented her clinical work at the Menopause in the Workplace Parliamentary committee hearing. Nighat...

Vanessa Baffoe

Vanessa is a Journalist and Presenter at Sky News. She has previously worked at BBC News and ITV News. She also hosts and moderates International Women’s Day for all of Sky’s platforms.

Dr Victoria Baines

Having worked in law enforcement and cybersecurity, Victoria joined the social media giant in a leading role to connect the business to government and security agencies. A leading thinker on trust and safety in the digital world, she looks at everything from the how, why and who of fake news to what AI could do for privacy, the myths and realities of cybercrime to what invading someone’s space in virtual reality might mean.