About Us

The leading conference providers for HE professionals

Discovering Futures was set up in 2006 by marketing and communications consultant Robert Hawker in collaboration with Barkers, one of the UK's top ten marketing and recruitment advertising agencies.

Robert Hawker has worked in marketing and communications roles in higher education for 16 years, most recently at director level at Roehampton University. Here he led a team of 27, managing the annual cycle of recruitment activities to meet the university's targets, whilst ensuring that the full mix of marketing channels - from media to website - supported this goal.

Before this, Robert spent over a decade at London Metropolitan University. During that time he managed the organisation's change of identity from City of London Polytechnic to London Guildhall University and then its merger with the University of North London.

He is a highly experienced events organiser. His portfolio includes royal, ministerial and VIP visits, high-level receptions, book launches, student open days, the opening of new buildings and annual series of graduation ceremonies.

Before joining the world of education, Robert worked in advertising at a number of agencies where he ran accounts ranging from healthcare products to utilities.

The Discovering Futures team:

Each Discovering Futures conference is designed and managed by a team of experts, led by Robert Hawker and his associates. All the contributors are known as innovators and leaders in their fields - with specialist knowledge of areas such as student recruitment, social networking or cyberbullying - chosen for their relevance to the conference theme. Many have climbed to the top of their professions and are keen to share their knowledge and skills with education professionals. This collaboration ensures that our delegates benefit from the most up-to-date intelligence and the most effective tools in the workplace today.

Consultancy

Discovering Futures also offers wide-ranging consultancy services to the education sector. Areas of expertise in the Discovering Futures team includes: market research, public relations, event management, and strategic marketing and communications planning.