THIS IS WHAT AN
ACTIVE UPRISING
LOOKS LIKE
Active Uprising 2025 is returning to the QEII Centre in Westminster on Thursday 6th March 2025.
Active Uprising is our flagship event that exists to inspire and champion our sector and our members with a range of motivational speakers to provoke positive and progressive ideas.
Our annual conference brings together senior business executives, high-level decision makers, operational leads, business and partnership professionals, Government Ministers, and thought leaders to discuss and debate the projected growth of the sector across the rest of the decade.
The theme for 2025 is ‘No Growth without Health: Physical Activity’s Role in National Renewal’, focusing on the growth and development of the sector across the UK. This event will have an emphasis on the crucial role the sector will play in helping drive economic growth supporting a happier and healthier society.
SPEAKERS
Please see below for our incredible speaker roster for Active Uprising 2025.
Emily’s journey to the Olympics has helped to shape her vision. Being from a deprived area and receiving no funding for the Olympics, she champions and represents her community for their local support as well as knowing first had the full suite of benefits of strength training and physical activity.
She is on a mission to Make the Nation Stronger and joins us to speak about her key three pillars of increasing participation in lifting weights and highlighting the importance of strength, female body empowerment and developing children and young people.
These three pillars will form the foundations of her ultimate goal of opening her own weightlifting gym, wanting to influence and create a high standard for new gyms that incorporate elite athlete level facilities, an area for youth development and community led projects and a financially accessible for the community.
Join loyalty expert Iain Pringle as he shares insights from 30 years of experience in loyalty marketing and behavioural incentives. Drawing on real-world examples, Iain will explore how incentives can drive meaningful behaviour change, outline key principles of loyalty theory, and reveal lessons rarely found in textbooks—or AI-generated advice! Packed with practical tips for program managers, this session will offer valuable advice on building a compelling business case for loyalty programs. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, engage, and get your questions answered by a global leader in the loyalty industry.
His clients include Patagonia, Nike, Samsung, EE, Audi, Bombay Sapphire, Seedlip, Universal Works, Unilever, Mars and many more.
Mark is the author of three books: “Do Disrupt, change the status quo or become it” then “Do Present, how to give a talk and be heard”. Latterly, his third book “You Can’t Make Money from a Dead Plant: The sustainable method for driving profits” was published by Kogan Page in 2023. Over the last 20 years he has been a keynote speaker for events all over the world.
Between 1966 and 1972 Paul studied:
- for his first degree in social policy at the London School of Economics where he was taught how to make social policy work by some of the people who had made post war policy
- for his PhD on juvenile delinquency and schooling at Durham University
Between 1972 and 1984 he taught social policy at the University of Warwick and the Polytechnic of North London to undergraduates, social workers, and community nurses. His research was on community development and social policy in inner city areas.
He then worked as a senior manager in London local government at the GLC, ILEA and the London Borough of Islington, In the midst of that 1990-93 he was the education policy officer for the Labour Party.
In the late 90s he was a management consultant before, in 2001 becoming special adviser on health policy to Alan Milburn. John Reid and Tony Blair
Between 2007 and 2009 he was the Director of Strategy and Commissioning for NHS London.
Since then he has been working for himself and in particular was a non exec at the CQC 2013-9 and helped to develop the NHS New model of care 2014-7
With extensive experience and leadership acumen, Belinda has made her mark in hospitality and customer-focused service delivery organisations. Belinda’s integrity, ethical decision making, and strong values means she enjoys uniting people and believes in inspiring a service culture which puts our customers at the heart of everything we do.
Outside of work, Belinda and her husband prioritise an active and healthy lifestyle, with a passion for walking and running. Belinda also has a passion for singing and is a member of her local choir.
For Belinda, a healthy community means fostering environments where individuals can thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.
He runs a pioneering NHS based lifestyle clinic and fitness club helping to educate and support patients to eat better, move more and connect with their community. He has a strong focus on health span and social prescribing. He is a well-respected educator delivering numerous talks and lectures to audiences both professional and public including regular TV and radio appearances including over 80 appearances on Channel 4, BBC & ITV.
Jamie is also the founder of Move for Freedom, a charity that uses physical activity to raise awareness for mental health and show gratitude to those who make a positive impact. Jamie’s work reflects his unwavering commitment to using fitness as a force for good, empowering people to live healthier, happier lives.
Under Karl's leadership, Impulse Leisure has seen over 500,000 annual visits across its facilities. He has spearheaded various programs, including tailored exercise classes for seniors and individuals with disabilities, youth engagement activities, and social inclusion projects. These efforts have significantly contributed to promoting active and healthy lifestyles within the community.
Karl's passion for community health is evident in his commitment to making fitness accessible to all. He has overseen the launch of affordable sports and activity programs for children and young people, encouraging them to develop lifelong healthy habits. His dedication to inclusivity ensures that everyone, regardless of financial or social barriers, has the opportunity to stay active and connected.
His work continues to inspire and benefit countless individuals, making him a respected and influential figure in the health and wellness community.
Laura-Jane is a CEO & Board Member with more than 17+ years’ experience of leading both for profit and non-profit organisations. With personal experience of social inequality and poverty, Laura-Jane founded Youth Employment UK in 2012, believing that there was a need to put young people at the heart of youth employment policy and services on a local and national level. Youth Employment UK is an internationally regarded not-for-profit, social enterprise supporting young people, employers, educators, third sector organisations and policy colleagues.
Recognised as a leading youth employment expert Laura-Jane provides support, insight and expertise to many groups Co-Founder & Chair of the Youth Employment Group, Secretariat and Advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Youth Employment, a founding Board Member of the Youth Futures Foundation and most recently appointed as a Governor of The Bedford College Group and a Deputy Lieutenant for Northamptonshire.
Laura-Jane has also co-authored a number of reports, and provided content for published works. Reports include: Role of the Family in Social Mobility, Commission on Post 16 Education, Impact of place on youth employment – APPG Report, Making youth employment policy work - APPG Report.
Since graduating from Leeds University, Oliver has worked for a range of organisations including Barnsley Council where he worked on low carbon regeneration projects, in Parliament and the US Congress, South Yorkshire’s Local Enterprise Partnership and the charity BookTrust. He was Chair of the Board at Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union and has worked on a number of high-profile political campaigns, both within the region and abroad.
As Mayor, Oliver is working on delivering his manifesto pledge to fight for a better deal for South Yorkshire. In line with another of his pledges, to improve transport in the region, Oliver has already brought the tram network back under public control.
She is Founder and CEO of Business for Health, a business-led social venture developing a Business Framework for Health, bringing in ‘Health’ into ‘ESG’ mandates to support long-term sustainable innovation and investment in preventative health and care.
She is the Healthy Longevity Champion for the National Innovation Centre for Ageing, co-leading the Quantum Healthy Longevity Innovation Mission and City of Longevity programme.
She is Executive Director of the International Institute of Longevity, combining her interest in taking the latest science and technology of longevity into the 'next frontier' to understand what really drives human healthspan, resilience and flourishing while protecting the planet.
Tina is the co-founder of Longevity Rave, a collective of entrepreneurs, scientists, DJs and artists that organise raves around the world using the power of music, joy and connection to bring the generations together to dance and celebrate life and humanity.
Tina sits on various advisory groups, including the XPRIZE Global Visioneering Brain Trust, Strategic Advisory Board for the BBSRC Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health, and BSI standards group for AI in health and care. She is also a trustee for the British Society for Research on Ageing.
Tina was director of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity secretariat (2016-2023)
Tina’s book, ‘Live Longer with AI: How artificial intelligence is helping us extend our healthspan and live better too' was published in October 2020.
She studied genetics at Cornell University in the USA and also has an MBA from Bayes Business School in London.
William is a Non-Executive Director of Housing 21 and was previously Deputy Chair at Terrence Higgins Trust and a Non- Executive Director of POBL a Welsh housing and care provider. He is the Chair of the Swimming and Health Commission and is a member of Movember’s Global Men's Health Advisory Committee.
He brings a wealth of experience across public health and inequalities from the healthcare, charity sector, social care, housing, local government and further education.
Victoria has a sustained track record of working collaboratively with national partners, including working in partnership with ukactive for several years. Victoria also regularly advises the government, most recently working on the Online Harms Bill and as a member of the UK Chief Medical Officer’s UK Physical Activity Committee. She has also worked with national broadcast media (e.g., BBC, Sky News), to engage with broad and diverse audiences.
Victoria is currently the Training Director of the Centre for National Training and Research Excellence in Understanding Behaviour (CENTRE-UB), that is part of a major investment by the Economic and Social Research Council in advancing behavioural research capability in the UK. CENTRE-UB and ukactive have recently established a new partnership focused on connecting the physical activity sector with expertise from academia.
More to be announced soon…
SPONSORS
Thank you to our headline sponsors and exhibitors for supporting Active Uprising 2025
More coming soon…