David Preston

A Commercial Director with global experience specialising in marketing communications and event management, David Preston has lived and worked in the USA, UK, France and worked across Asia. Focused on strategically building businesses and organisations, whether that’s divisions within the corporate environment or small/medium companies needing to go to the next level of maturity, David is full of bright ideas and a senior professional who knows how to handle himself and others. Coming from a traditional corporate background yet with agency experience, flexing from both sides of the fence, he knows how to suit up or to jeans down and bring together strategic creative thinking with proven brand storytelling to lead multi-disciplined teams to deliver their finest work to the best of their ability with passion and motivation.

As CEO at Realise, with the combined experience of COO Richard John in the world of global events and academia, they have bought together the best of both worlds to provide the UK’s first dedicated events and live communications training agency. Initially established to deliver the training and management of the Event Management, Event Assistant Apprenticeship, their aim is to provide employers and employees with structured training plans to continue to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to enable everyone to maximise their Growth, their Ambitions and their Potential.

David will be moderating “Developing relationships and working across teams; best practise in engaging and gaining assistance with fulfilling an event brief” at 12.30pm in Knowledge Suite 2