Innovation in Non-Alcoholic Beverages Conference
Amba Hotel Marble Arch, London, UK
3rd-4th November, 2021
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Innovation in Non-Alcoholic Beverages Conference
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The 10th Innovation in Non-Alcoholic Beverages Congress is an industry-leading forum focusing on product innovation and future trends in the soft drinks sector. This two day conference will address how to develop new and innovative drinks which meet consumer demands, as well as providing an update on rising future trends.
Our in-depth agenda focuses on trends including flavours, health and wellness, premiumisation, sustainability, natural ingredients and the circular economy. Join us for exclusive networking opportunities, informative talks from the biggest soft drinks brands and educational roundtable discussions with your peers.
What to Expect
Hear from some of the biggest and most innovative brands in your market. Learn what is round the corner in terms of future trends, NPD, product innovation and opportunities for growth.
Hear from a mixture of the biggest brands including as well as new and upcoming disruptors.
Equip yourself for the next 12 months by hearing about new trends in flavours, product types, growth areas and understanding what consumers want.
150+
Attendees to meet each year
15+
Exhibitors to meet each year
75+
Talks from
25%
Attendees at Director+ level
Why attend?

Sam Akinluyi
UK& I Managing Director,Innocent Drinks
Biography: Sam is the Managing Director for Innocent Drinks (UK & Ireland) and Founding Partner of the non-profit, PSALT. Over the past few years, the innocent business has grown significantly to become the UK & Ireland’s favourite little healthy drinks company. It is known for its product innovation and compelling vision for the healthy chilled drinks category. Prior to innocent, Sam spent 20 years in the Consumer goods industry working for Nestlé, General Mills and Mars, where he led the Commercial Strategy department and was also the Grocery Sales Director for the UK.
Session Details: Opportunities post Covid: Business as a new Force for Good in the world 03-11-2021, 9:00 am View In Agenda

Liliana Caimacan
Head of Innovation,Tata Global Beverages
Biography: Liliana Caimacan is the head of global innovation at Tata Global Beverages. An experienced, international business leader, Liliana has been leading transformational growth across brands and portfolios to drive step changes in business results for over 20 years. She is a leading expert on innovation, communication and business strategy within the FMCG and luxury industries, working with top blue-chip companies: Unilever, Tata, on world-class brands and portfolios. Her sector experience covers Consumer Goods, Personal Care, Home Care, Foods, Refreshments and Luxury, as well as driving disruptive innovations projects. She holds a Master’s in Marketing & Communications and an Executive MBA. Liliana is also a Marketing Professor at Hult International Business School.
Session Details: Future-Proofing and Operationalization of Innovation in the New Normal 03-11-2021, 12:00 pm View In Agenda

Prof. Daniel Rukare
Global Discipline Lead Entrepreneurship & Global Innovation,Hult International Business School
Biography:
Expert in Global Discipline Entrepreneurship & Global Innovation
Session Details: Future-Proofing and Operationalization of Innovation in the New Normal 03-11-2021, 12:00 pm View In Agenda

Benjamin Cox
Investment Principal,ZX Ventures
Biography:
Session Details: SPOTLIGHT: Investing in Drink: Current Trends & Future Directions 03-11-2021, 2:30 pm PANEL: Innovation & The Investment Code: The Beverages Funding Landscape 04-11-2021, 2:30 pm View In Agenda

Abigail Kelly
Head of Marketing & Insights,Crediton Dairy
Biography:
Session Details: PANEL: Innovation Methods: Real Market Testing for Successful Portfolio Development 04-11-2021, 9:00 am RTD Indulgence: Becoming the UK Category First for Creative Coffee Fixes 04-11-2021, 11:30 am View In Agenda

Flemming Morth
Head of Centre of Innovation,Swinkels Family Brewers
Biography: Flemming Morth is Head of Center of Innovation at Royal Swinkels Family Brewers, known for its iconic brands like Bavaria 0.0, PALM, 8.6, Cornet and Habesha. He is responsible for building a strong innovation pipeline, improving time to market, fostering and commercializing new growth opportunities. He graduated from Aalborg University in Denmark with a Master’s degree in International Business. Flemming has successfully developed and launched innovations, new brands and new business models in various industries. He is passionate about rethinking marketing and innovation to help customers better achieve their goals.
Session Details: Rethinking categories to fit with future consumer needs 04-11-2021, 12:00 pm View In Agenda

Katy Watts
Senior Channel Development Manager (Foodservice and Licensed),Britvic
Biography:
Session Details: No Alc Drinking Culture goes Mainstream, but is it here to stay? 03-11-2021, 10:30 am View In Agenda

Sherri Fensom
Category Manager,Britvic
Biography:
Session Details: No Alc Drinking Culture goes Mainstream, but is it here to stay? 03-11-2021, 10:30 am View In Agenda

Ben Branson
Founder,Seedlip
Biography: Ben is the Founder of Seedlipand Æcorn Drinks, the world’s firstdistilled non-alcoholic spiritsand aperitifs.Hismission is two fold: Solve the dilemma of ‘what to drink when you’re not drinking’and continue his family’s300 years of farming heritage.Seedlip is now available in 29x cities including New York, Barcelona, Shanghai & Singapore and served in many of the world’s most awarded bars, restaurants and hotels including 350x Michelin * Restaurants & 9/10 of theworld’s best cocktail bars. Ben was named as one of the Top 50 most influential people in food and drink by The Telegraph and awarded Young Achiever of The Year by The Drinks Business. He continues to pioneer the non-alcoholic category forward with the launch of ÆcornDrinks in Selfridges and The Savoy in May 2019.
Session Details: Insights into the No & Low Beverages Category: 03-11-2021, 4:45 pm View In Agenda

Rob Fink
Founder,Big Drop Brewing
Biography: In 2016 Rob Fink founded the world’s first company to focus entirely on brewing Non-Alcoholic craft beer – Big Drop Brewing Co. As a lawyer with zero brewing experience, he teamed-up with an experimental brewer (Johnny Clayton from Wild Beer) and applied left-field fermenting techniques that meant no alcohol needed to be extracted from the end product to meet the required maximum 0.5% ABV. Less than 4 years later he is selling over 1 million bottles of 0.5% ABV beer annually around the world (eg Tesco in the UK, LCBO in Canada, Systembolaget in Sweden, Alco in Finland, NTUC Finest in Singapore etc). His beers have picked up 26 major international beer awards including twice being judged the ‘World’s Best’ at the World Beer Awards, Gold at the US Open Beer Championship and, the ‘Holy Grail’ of any non-alcoholic drink, winning medals against full-strength rivals in blind tastings. In 2019 Rob was a keynote at the Brewers of Europe Forum and the International Beer Strategies conference.
Session Details: PANEL: Innovation & The Investment Code: The Beverages Funding Landscape 04-11-2021, 2:30 pm View In Agenda

Ellie Webb
Founder,Caleño
Biography: Ellie is the creator and founder of Caleño, a tropical non-alcoholic free spirit. On a night out dancing a couple of years ago, she became frustrated with the lack of adventurous non-alcoholic options. After talking with friends, she realised there was an opportunity to make those options more joyful. She flew to Colombia where she visited family and was inspired by the vibrant, colourful culture, and tropical flavours. Two months after launching, Ellie landed a listing with major UK retailer, Sainsbury’s and Caleño is now stocked in around 500 of their stores. Before launching Caleño, Ellie had a background in drinks, working for the UK’s largest drinks distributor. This taught her about the spirits making process and the hospitality industry where she was able to work closely with pubs, bars and restaurants. She also spent time at a Shopper Marketing agency, where she worked on exciting activations for brands such as Nestlé, GSK, and Estee Lauder.
Session Details: Low & No Responsibility: Innovation through Brand Behaviour and Product Line 04-11-2021, 3:45 pm View In Agenda

Mehmet Gurbuzer
Oddbird,

Tugba Simsek
Quality and R&D Manager,Uludag IIcecek

Anita Rae
Founder,Crave Drinks
Biography: Anita is the founder and CEO of a Manchester/Ibiza based beverage start-up Crave Drinks. Prior to that she was the Category Manager, Vegan and Organic for a leading sport nutrition company Myprotein. She is a passionate and engaged leader with advanced degrees from Stockholm University and Peking University, Guanghua School of Management.
Session Details: PANEL: Innovation Methods: Real Market Testing for Successful Portfolio Development 04-11-2021, 9:00 am View In Agenda

Tristan Brümmer
CMO,JoyBräu
Biography:
Session Details: PANEL: Innovation Methods: Real Market Testing for Successful Portfolio Development 04-11-2021, 9:00 am PANEL: Innovation & The Investment Code: The Beverages Funding Landscape 04-11-2021, 2:30 pm View In Agenda

Jack MacIntrye
Director of Consulting, Consumer,Global Data
Biography:
Session Details: Spotlight: What’s Hot and What’s Not? Trending Ingredients in Today’s Market 03-11-2021, 3:45 pm View In Agenda

Chris Draper
UK Sales Manager,PureCircle by Ingredion
Biography: Chris has over a decade of sales and account management experience across the food and beverage space, and loves the challenges that come from working with both established market leaders and category disruptors. At PureCircle, Chris currently leads the UK & Irish market, as well as a number of global customers in the region. In addition, Chris also leads the Sports Nutrition category within Ingredion EMEA.
Session Details: Developing into Next-Generation Stevia 03-11-2021, 2:00 pm View In Agenda

Marine Bourbon
Head of Marketing,Skinny Drinks Group
Biography:
Marine has over 9 years of experience in building and executing marketing strategies for leading retail and grocery brands, across premium, organic and plant-based categories. In her last role, Marine was Head of Brand for Tesco Finest, the U.K. largest premium own brand. Prior to that, she was in charge of the leading yogurt brand, Muller Corner.
Marine is responsible for brand direction, strategy and execution across SDG’s portfolio, from Skinny Tonic to Emoji DRNK, bringing a fresh and innovative thinking to our business and driving our brands forward on this truly exciting journey
Session Details: Developing into Next-Generation Stevia 03-11-2021, 2:00 pm View In Agenda

Sue Wood
Technical Manager,CO2 Sustain
Biography:
Sue has worked in the drinks industry for over 25 years in NPD, Manufacturing and Technical roles. Having worked for Global manufacturer, Cott Beverages, for many years she has encountered many of the challenges that CSD manufacturers face today including re-formulating using natural ingredients, sugar reduction and CO2 shortages.
As the Technical Manager for CO2 Sustain she is working to provide an industry revolutionizing ingredient to help overcome these challenges and dramatically improve the consumer experience by making a drink stay fizzy for longer.
Session Details: How Improving CO2 retention can Improve your business 03-11-2021, 3:00 pm View In Agenda

Dr. Stefan Siebrecht
Managing Director,Taiyo
Biography: Dr Stefan Siebrecht studied chemistry at Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany, obtained his doctoral degree and has since worked in the pharma and food industries. He has held positions in Marketing and Product Development, Sales and Business Development. Since 2016 he has been Managing Director of Taiyo GmbH. He has written extensively on nutrition and nutrients in various books, articles and studies.
Session Details: Natural Theanine from Green tea as alternative to synthetic Theanine for functional beverages Clutch Cognition drink as the first example. 03-11-2021, 12:30 pm View In Agenda

Rune Rønhave Laursen
Owner & Founder,Clutch Cognition
Biography:
Having a background in Molecular Biology from Aarhus University, Rune Rønhave Laursen has worked professionally with development of healthy, functional ingredients and finished formats for more than a decade. For the most part with large companies like Arla, DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences and Danisco, but more recently also as an entrepreneur and independent biohacking consultant for professional football clubs. Around 4 years ago, Rune laid the foundation for the company Clutch Cognition, together with a medical doctor and a nutritionist, in order to try to change the drinking habits of the world for the better. The result is a recently launched patent-protected, plant-powered brain drink sharing name with the company.
Session Details: Natural Theanine from Green tea as alternative to synthetic Theanine for functional beverages Clutch Cognition drink as the first example. 03-11-2021, 12:30 pm View In Agenda

Maria Rey-Marston
Accenture’s Global Leader for NonAlcoBev,Accenture
Biography: Maria Rey-Marston leads Accenture’s NonAlcoBev segment, driving sustainable, innovative and transformative strategies for the top global companies in the industry. Her 20+ year career in beverages, spans multiple categories from beer and spirits, to soft drinks and coffee, working with manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Her work has focused on supply chain, operations, new product introduction, routes-to-market, and commercial strategies. Maria is an Economist and holds a MSc in Supply Chain Operations from Georgia Tech and a PhD in Business Performance from Cranfield University.
Session Details: View In Agenda

Philip Camburn
Head of Technical Services Beverages, PureCircle by Ingredion

Olivier Kutz
Category Marketing Manager ,Tate & Lyle Europe
Biography:
Olivier Kutz, Category Marketing Manager Tate & Lyle Europe, has a FMCG & Brand Management background through some well-known household names such as PG Tips and Lipton tea, Douwe Egberts coffee and Heinz Ketchup & Foodservice sauces.
As a stevia specialist, Olivier has been working on sugar reduction solutions from an ingredients perspective for quite some time, and has actively taken part in the development of stevia based solutions in Europe. Having spent most of his marketing career in Brand Management and Customer Marketing, over time Olivier built a solid understanding of B2B and consumer markets across the region, translating insights into action and commercial opportunities for his customers.
Session Details: Sweet Notes for Beverage: Taste Beyond Sugar 03-11-2021, 9:30 am View In Agenda

Olivia Ferdi and Daniel Khoury
Founders,Trip
Biography:
Session Details: View In Agenda

Michael Halvorsen
Senior Director, Business Development EMEA ,Sweegen
Biography: With 25 years of experience at the forefront of Global sales, marketing, and business development for Beverage, Dairy, Bakery, Confectionery, Food Ingredients, Food Flavours, Food Service FMCG / Private Label, Retail, HIS (High Intensity Sweeteners) Next generation Natural Sweeteners, Natural Flavours. Using pioneering and exciting new technologies to produce sustainable F&B taste solutions Sweegen is your preferred partner to work with.
Session Details: Oh Sugar! - Satisfying the sweet tooth naturally to meet consumer demands 03-11-2021, 4:15 pm View In Agenda







CO2Sustain® was born in Stephenson Group Ltd (SGL) and spun out to become a stand-alone business in 2019 after securing external investment to drive the business forward. Developed originally by a team of technical experts from SGL who have decades of experience in the chemistry and physics of bubbles gained from working in ‘floatation chemistry’ in a variety of industries that led the group to be twice winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
After several years in development the product and intellectual property were perfected and validated by the University of Surface Science in Stockholm. Our commercial business strategy was developed in 2016 with the help of the Manchester Alliance Business School’s MBA programme.
Now fully independent, CO2Sustain operates in 52 countries, managing a network of agents and distributors from its offices and technical centre in Leeds, UK and supplies some of the World’s major brands.
Making carbonated drinks stay “fizzier for longer”





Simpson Beverages
SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES
To enquire about sponsorship opportunities for the conference, please contact:
Valentin Gerasimuk
Head of Business Development – Consumer
T: +44 (0)207 936 6794
E: Valentin.Gerasimuk@arena-international.com
SPEAKING ENQUIRIES
We identify and invite individuals we believe to be the best speakers in the market, if you think you can make a difference to the quality of our events please contact the programme director of the event:
Amy Avanzato
Senior Conference Producer
E: amy.avanzato@arena-international.com