MEET OUR 2026 SPEAKERS
MEET OUR 2026 SPEAKERS
The voices shaping this year’s conversations, workshops and moments you won’t forget. No gatekeeping. No surface-level insights. Just real stories, practical tools, and the kind of honesty this industry needs more of.
MEET CHRISSIE
Chrissie Whittingham is the founder of Yoga Social Club, one of the UK’s fastest-growing community-led wellness brands.
After being prescribed yoga during fertility treatment and loss, Christina saw what traditional wellness spaces often miss: people were moving, breathing and healing in the same room, then leaving without ever really connecting.
So she built Yoga Social Club differently. Every class ends with a social, creating real-life spaces where adults can meet, talk, belong and build community.
Now with 37 licensed leaders across the UK, sold-out 100–200 person events and major brand partnerships, Christina is becoming a leading voice on modern wellness, loneliness, belonging and community-led business.
Her work explores one central idea: people are no longer just looking for classes, they are looking for places to feel human again.
MEET ASEIL
Aseil Amgheib is the founder and lead brand designer of Design Wolf, a London-based branding and creative studio specialising in strategy-led branding, storytelling and digital experiences. Originally trained in Interior Architecture, Aseil brings a unique perspective to brand building, combining strategic thinking, visual storytelling and purposeful design to create brands that connect with people on a deeper level.
After launching Design Wolf in 2021, she built the studio into a growing agency working with clients across hospitality, wellness, retail and lifestyle sectors in the UK and internationally. Her work focuses on helping businesses uncover their story and translate it into distinctive, memorable brand experiences.
Alongside running the agency, Aseil shares insights into creativity, entrepreneurship and the realities of building a modern creative business, documenting both the challenges and successes of growing a brand from the ground up.
MEET MEG
Chrissie Whittingham is the founder of Yoga Social Club, one of the UK’s fastest-growing community-led wellness brands.
After being prescribed yoga during fertility treatment and loss, Christina saw what traditional wellness spaces often miss: people were moving, breathing and healing in the same room, then leaving without ever really connecting.
So she built Yoga Social Club differently. Every class ends with a social, creating real-life spaces where adults can meet, talk, belong and build community.
Now with 37 licensed leaders across the UK, sold-out 100–200 person events and major brand partnerships, Christina is becoming a leading voice on modern wellness, loneliness, belonging and community-led business.
Her work explores one central idea: people are no longer just looking for classes, they are looking for places to feel human again.
MEET LYNNE
Lynne is a passionate design advocate with 20 years of experience in design, business and sustainability, across agencies and commercial organisations, helping teams understand how design creates value and how it is managed. Her Design Serving Life framework is grounded in a deep belief in the power of design and designers to create positive change.
MEET MARYAM
Maryam is a London-based cultural educator, keynote speaker, writer, and parent mentor exploring how race, migration, systems, and generational trauma shape Black and Brown family life.
Through speaking, writing, and mentoring, she examines the impact of colonial legacy, cultural silence, and survival-based parenting on identity, belonging, and emotional wellbeing across generations. Her work challenges inherited cycles within Black and South Asian communities and reframes the home as both a site of social conditioning and generational change.
Drawing on lived experience, behavioural insight, faith literacy, and thought leadership, Maryam creates culturally grounded conversations around conscious parenting, race, leadership, and decolonial change.
Her work and commentary have been featured across mainstream media, including BBC, ITV News, and the Daily Mirror, contributing to wider discussions around parenting, identity, race, and social change.
MEET CELIE
Artist & Facilitator creating impactful Film & Photography with purposeful founders, creatives, brands and organisations.
With a documentary-led approach to visual storytelling, Celie amplifies underrepresented voices and elevates the stories that matter in both commissioned and personal work.
Celie’s ethos is grounded in celebration, connection and kindness and she practices daily acts of resistance by finding joy in the little things, adopting radical authenticity and questioning the status quo.
Always finding inspiration in nature, Celie also leads Mindful Photowalks, inviting creatives to slow down, practice the art of observation and enjoy offline connection with like-minded folk.
MEET FRAN
Fran is an award-winning brand strategist, PR consultant, and founder of Bitches in Stitches, a global femme/them comedy collective featured in Vogue, Rolling Stone and Tatler.
She is passionate about building spaces where underrepresented voices can thrive, community is valued over competition, and no one’s identity is treated as a punchline.
MEET VARTA
Varta is a filmmaker and artist exploring resilience, reinvention, and the role creativity plays in navigating an uncertain world.
After leaving Ukraine in 2022 following the full-scale invasion, she rebuilt her life in the UK, completing an MA in Film with Distinction and creating her debut documentary, which has since screened internationally, won multiple awards, and was featured at the BFI London Film Festival.
Now working as a Sustainability Coordinator for A24, Varta brings a deeply personal perspective to her work, sharing what it means to start again, create through instability, and find purpose when everything feels uncertain.
Her practice spans filmmaking and visual art, with her collage work exhibited at the Discerning Eye Annual Show in London. Through her work and public speaking, she explores how creativity can ground us, guide us, and help us make sense of the world around us.
MEET ZEHRA
Obsessed with people, stories, and systems of change, Zehra Odunayo is building communities for the “otherised,” the marginalised, and those unwilling to accept the realities of today.
Through their project Bad Black Movements, Zehra uses speculative fiction, storytelling, and collective reflection to explore liberation, transformation, and possibility, creating spaces where people are invited not just to think differently, but to feel differently too.
With a background spanning philosophy, research, and human behaviour, Zehra brings sharp insight, warmth, and infectious energy into every room they enter.
MEET ISABELLE
Isabelle is a care-experienced activist, campaigner, theatre maker and writer. A First Class Honours graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Drama, Applied Theatre and Education, she is Co-Founder and Co-Lead of The Care Experienced Movement, and a co-researcher with The Verbatim Formula.
Isabelle is currently an Artist in Development at Lawrence Batley Theatre, where she is building a theatre company made by and for care-experienced adults.
Proudly LGBTQ+, her work centres lived experience, community, and creating spaces where care-experienced voices can connect, lead and be heard.
Above all, she is most proud to be a mother and a big sister.
MEET TENIKA
Tenika is a professional actress and model with over 16 years in the industry, and she knows firsthand what it takes to keep showing up in a career that doesn’t always show up for you.
She is the founder of The Ten Space, a mentoring platform for performance-based creatives built on one core belief: that the inner work is the most important work.
Created for the moments when the industry feels brutal - when you feel unseen, overlooked or ready to quit, The Ten Space puts energetic wellbeing, joy and self-trust at the centre of the creative journey, not at the bottom of the list.
Because she sees you… she is you.
MEET LAURA
Laura Graham is a Freelance Digital Marketer and Award-Winning Community Activist based in Northampton.
In 2018, she set up The Happy Hood, a community project celebrating the great things happening in her town. With an army of 400 volunteers, the project created 27 issues of their local, good news zine, and over 40 free events, including a music and art festival.
Laura was listed in the Independent newspaper’s 2019 Happy List and is a Big Lunch ambassador, speaking at Westminster and on national radio and television about the power of community. Laura is keen to fight against social injustice, and as a queer, intersectional feminist, has spoken as part of BBC Bitesize and been a guest on the international podcast, the Guilty Feminist.
MEET SALLY
Sally is a content and brand specialist focused on verbal identity, storytelling, and helping people find their voice.
With 20 years of experience in marketing and five years running her own consultancy, she works with organisations, small businesses and charities to shape everything from tone of voice and brand identity to content strategy and creative direction.
Sally is passionate about making marketing feel accessible, honest and human. Through workshops and mentoring, she helps people show up authentically online and build personal brands that actually reflect who they are.
Rooted in community, creativity and compassion, she brings a warm, real-world approach, sharing not just what works, but the mistakes and lessons that come with it.
MEET LUANA
Luana is a photographer, artist and activist.
Growing up in Italy in the 90s, she was taught early that her body was a problem to fix, and it took most of her adult life to unlearn that. She founded "Intimate Portraits by Lu" to help others do the same.
Her work is rooted in body neutrality, anti-diet culture, and the radical idea that you don't need to change a single thing about yourself to be enough and worthy of receiving respect. Luana helps individuals and business owners own who they truly are, with no filters, no conforming to societal expectations, no shrinking for the comfort of others.
With a focus on representation and inclusion, her work challenges beauty standards and the patriarchal "male gaze". Her group nude shoots create thought-provoking art pieces in support of women's and non-binary people's rights.
MEET HANNAH
Hannah Isted is the founder of HI Communications, where she supports small business owners to market themselves with clarity and confidence.
She is the author of The Best 90 Days Ever, an Amazon bestselling book and marketing membership designed to help businesses show up consistently with simple, daily prompts that take just 10 minutes a day.
Hannah has worked with hundreds of small business owners, helping them grow their online presence through her membership, courses and workshops. Through her email newsletter and The Best Marketing Podcast Ever, she shares practical, no-fluff advice to help product and service-based businesses get out of their own way and start promoting themselves with ease.
MEET CO THEATRE
We are incredibly excited to announce that award-nominated theatre company Co Theatre will be bringing their internationally celebrated production The Womb to SISTALAND Festival 2026 as part of our Friday night AFTER DARK programme.
Written by Aylin Rodoplu and directed by Elise Xiaqi Eriksen, The Womb is a bold, absurd, funny and deeply honest piece of contemporary feminist theatre exploring womanhood, patriarchal systems, trauma, survival, and the lived realities many women continue to navigate today.
Following acclaimed performances at the Arcola Theatre and recognition as a STOFF Best Emerging Artist nominee, the production has built a growing audience both in the UK and internationally.
At SISTALAND, the performance will be followed by a live Q&A discussion on Saturday: WOMEN, RAGE & THEATRE: LAUGHING AT PATRIARCHY
MEET SANDY
Sandy AbdelRahman is a cultural producer, speaker, and organisational practitioner using creativity, community, and decolonial practice to drive social change. Working across the arts, social justice, and charity sectors for over a decade, her work explores diaspora, gender justice, intersectionality, and collective liberation.
She is the founder of Skaped, a community-led artivist charity, and co-founder of Noria Collective, a diasporic platform centring North African/Arab and Latin American communities. Sandy’s work spans grassroots organising and institutional change, with experience across organisations including Amnesty International, Refugee Action, and Reprieve, supporting anti-racist, feminist, and care-led approaches to leadership and community building.
MEET ANAIS
Anaïs Ferrato is a producer at BAFTA-nominated Candid Broads Productions, championing bold storytelling and emerging voices through projects that challenge convention and spark conversation.
Her work spans fiction and documentary, including Swim Sistas directed by Catherine Joy White, The Date - a BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough nominee exploring shame, desire, and sex education - and Vag, a short film expanding conversations around vaginismus and women’s health on screen.
At SISTALAND, Anaïs will present a special curated screening and conversation exploring how storytelling can reshape cultural narratives around women’s health, visibility, and change.
MEET JULIE
Julie is a French-Swiss Writer/Director based in London. A lifelong writer, she published her first novel ‘Le Chemin’ in France at age 19, before training as a director at the London Film School. Her graduation short BROKEN HEARTS screened internationally at BAFTA-, Academy- and BIFA-qualifying festivals, including ALCINE and Indy Shorts, and premiered online with Director’s Notes and Omeleto, reaching over 40k views.
Julie has since shadowed BAFTA-winning director Sarmad Masud on BBC Three’s ‘Boarders’ (2025) and was selected as one of 12 writers for the Eureka Series 2026 residency, a highly competitive programme designed to develop emerging European screenwriters for professional writers’ rooms and long-form serial storytelling.
She is currently developing her debut feature, a TV adaptation of ‘Broken Hearts’, and recently completed THE CONTRACEPTION FAIR, produced by BAFTA-nominated Candid Broads Productions and starring ScreenDaily Star of Tomorrow Ronke Adekoluejo.
MEET SABRINA
Sabrina Sarl is a Creative Business Advisor and former Agent with over 15 years’ experience working across the editorial and advertising industries. She has represented and produced work with leading photographers, directors, stylists and creative teams, giving her a clear understanding of how portfolios are viewed, commissioned and developed in the real world.
Today, she works closely with creatives, supporting them to strengthen their positioning, refine their portfolios, and build sustainable careers and businesses around their work.
Sabrina is also the host of the podcast Mothers of Creativity, where she explores how creative careers evolve alongside motherhood.
Her approach is thoughtful, practical and rooted in experience, helping creatives see their work more clearly and move forward with confidence.
MEET EMMA
Emma is a founder, speaker, and strategic business leader helping creatives and entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses without losing themselves in the process.
After scaling her seven-figure hospitality company and increasing profits tenfold through structure rather than hustle, Emma’s work now centres around one core belief: Protect Your Passion.
Through her approach to leadership, ownership, and growth, she helps founders move from overwhelm and constant firefighting into clarity, autonomy, and long-term sustainability, proving that success doesn’t have to come at the cost of creativity, wellbeing, or freedom.
MEET JASMINE
Jasmine Joan is a Creative Director, CEO, and founder of the 1% EDGE METHOD™, helping female founders and SMEs become impossible to ignore through bold positioning, branding, and storytelling.
An award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur, Jasmine scaled her video marketing agency to multi-six figures from scratch, directed global docu-series for Coca-Cola, and worked alongside The King’s Trust and Fortune 500 brands.
A survivor of domestic abuse, Jasmine rebuilt her life and business from the ground up after walking away from both financial security and success for her safety. Today, her work focuses on helping underestimated founders stop “twinkling” and start leading with unapologetic visibility, authority, and impact.
She is also the co-founder of Bold, Brave and Weird, an annual marketing, branding, and sales event for women and non-binary people.
MEET ANISAH
Anisah supports soul-led entrepreneurs and founders to expand their wealth, impact, and confidence by stepping into their authority and leading in alignment with their body and feminine cycle.
Taking a holistic approach to business and leadership, her work helps founders gain clarity on the obstacles holding them back, reconnect with sustainable ways of working, and build success without disconnecting from themselves in the process.
MEET JO
After experiencing two breakdowns while working in the corporate world, Jo is now on a mission to help people stop wasting their lives working all the time.
Through her work, she supports business owners to make money more sustainably and with greater ease, creating businesses that give them more freedom, energy, and enjoyment, rather than constant burnout and overwhelm.
Her approach encourages founders to redefine success on their own terms and build lives they actually want to live.
MEET CAT
Cat is a an award-winning filmmaker, actor, author and activist. She is known for her multi-award winning short Fifty-Four Days and debut book This Thread of Gold. Swim Sistas, narrated by Naomie Harris, is her first documentary. She is currently starring in Driftwood at the RSC and can be seen in Bridgerton S4. She was recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30: Entertainment.
