Annie Foord, known to most as the pet & aquatics exhibition expert, started her exhibition career in 1983. For 18 years Annie organised Petindex for the Petcare Trust and latterly Emap. Throughout her 30 plus year exhibition career, Annie has staged more than 55 exhibitions and she is very familiar with every area and every nuance of the pet and aquatics trade. Her expertise and experience extends from delivering visitors and caring for exhibitors' needs before and during shows ... to rescuing escaped parrots from exhibition venue ceiling rafters! Annie’s knowledge of pet and aquatics trade shows is unrivalled.
Gordon Thomas started exhibition organising in 1982. In his 30 plus year exhibition career he has staged more than 70 exhibitions, including many of the UK’s leading trade and consumer events. Gordon was responsible for Glee between 1999 and 2003 and, along with Annie Foord, was also responsible for incorporating Petindex alongside Glee in 2001. Gordon’s major achievements include building the visitor attendance at both Glee and Petindex. His desire has always been to stage exhibitions with colleagues who share his passion for his ideals; delivering great value and fun events to exhibitors, thus creating positive, enthusiastic reasons for visitors to attend.
Neil Pope is a trained journalist by profession, having learned the trade on his home-town newspaper, the Grantham Journal. He has edited leading consumer magazines like Angling Times, Today's Golfer and Garden News. He became heavily involved in the pet industry in 2009 when he was made Editor of Pet Product Marketing, and over a three year period built up a good relationship with the trade, including the AQUA team. Neil, who took over as AQUA Press Officer in November 2012, has three dogs – Lucky, Oskar and the latest addition Billie.
Jo Scotting was a key member of the Glee and Petindex operations team and was responsible for the organisation of six Glee and Petindex Exhibitions. Jo was also responsible for the Petindex and Glee New Products Showcases and Awards. Throughout her career she has organised more than 40 exhibitions; and although these have included some of the UK's largest trade fairs, Jo has never lost sight of the importance of customer focus.
