CYMON ECKEL
With a deep background in Music, Art & Fashion, Cymon applies vision and creativity to the built environment. As an operator he has an impressive track record of sourcing space and leveraging value by applying culture - converting blank spaces to galleries, social spaces, venues and happenings, this resulted in a placing in the Evening Standards’ top 1000 influential Londoner’s list.
Awards include being placed in Design Week’s ‘Top Ten Design of the Last 10 Years’ ; Time Out ‘Bar of the Year’ runner-up two years running. Sites include the Riki-Tik in Soho, The 24 hour/3,000 capacity venue The Coronet at Elephant & Castle, LED the digital Diner, The Griffin in Shoreditch, XOYO the nightclub & venue, and Forge & Co the frontline co-working space on Shoreditch High St.
Cymon currently consults for Store X at 180 Strand on co-work strategy and The Vinyl Factory on sourcing, placemaking and execution strategy. His previous clients include: Budweiser, The Brits, GCI, Levi’s, Japanese Tobacco, Dazed & Confused, O2, Dockers, Microsoft, Turner Networks, Diesel. He is currently developing a next generation entertainment concept to repurpose large spaces and cinemas as multipurpose digital platforms and entertainment space.
GARETH COOMBS
A specialist in using creativity to improve individual and company success. Co-founder of the leadership consultancy Cambridge Strategy Centre. He is a founding partner of BUG, a team of writers and business thinkers who track new trends and social movements taking place around the world.
In 2015 he became chairman of ValueMakerLtd, a company which helps smaller organisations develop to the point where they can achieve a significant investment event and release capital value. Gareth graduated in philosophy from Warwick University and for 15 years ran award winning advertising campaigns with a variety of national and international clients at Saatchi & Saatchi and other major agencies. He is a former Associate at the London Business School where he tutored on Organisational Behaviour and Leadership for 8 years.
Clients include Anglo American, Asda, BUPA, Coca Cola, Dairy Crest, Forestry Commission, General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline, Harrods, In Bev, L’Oreal , Nestlé Cereals, NHS and WalMart.