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Charlie Cracknell
Managing Director at InspiredMinds! a global tech and science strategy group focused on AI4Good operating in healthcare, education, STEM and government / strategic level Artificial Intelligence.
Professional Background
Charlie Cracknell is an accomplished leader with notable expertise in the events and exhibitions sector, having amassed extensive experience throughout his dynamic career. Currently serving as the Managing Director at InspiredMinds!, Charlie has dedicated his professional life to fostering innovation and collaboration within the industry. His robust leadership skills and strategic vision have empowered organizations to achieve their growth objectives and maximize their potential.
Before his current role, Charlie was the Managing Director at World Summit AI, where he orchestrated pivotal conferences aimed at promoting advancements in artificial intelligence. His efforts at Intelligent Health AI further exemplify his commitment to leveraging technology for better health outcomes, as he contributed to initiatives that connect healthcare professionals and facilitate meaningful dialogues.
Charlie's career trajectory showcases a blend of strategic roles, including his tenure as Portfolio Director for significant trade events such as the Spring & Autumn Fair at Hyve Group plc and the Gastech Exhibition and Conference at dmg :: events. During this period, he honed his skills in managing large-scale events that cater to various industries, further emphasizing his versatility and adaptability in different market segments.
His role as Senior Exhibition Director for prestigious events like World Travel Market in Asia & Latin America and Travel Forward showcased not only his managerial prowess but also his deep understanding of global travel and tourism dynamics. The events he directed attracted international audiences, creating invaluable networking and learning opportunities for industry stakeholders.
Over the years, Charlie has also held various interim management positions. His experience as the Interim Head of Sales at UBM plc and Change Director for Salesforce Integration highlights his capability to drive organizational change while maintaining a strong focus on sales and client relationships. His previous roles at UBM plc, including Event Director for key exhibitions such as IFSEC Global and Gastech, underscore his foundational skills in event management and sales—a combination that he has leveraged throughout his career.
Charlie began his professional journey at UBM plc, where he worked his way up from Sales Executive to Sales Manager and later, to Event Manager across various notable events. Additionally, he has invaluable experience from his time at ATE Ltd (now Clarion Events), where he served as Event Manager for iGaming-related events.
Education and Achievements
Charlie Cracknell's academic prowess lays the groundwork for his successful career in the events sector. He completed his higher education with a BA in Sports Science & Leisure Management at the University of Gloucestershire. This educational background equipped him with essential skills and knowledge that has translated effectively into his professional roles, especially in managing diverse teams and projects within the leisure and tourism industries.
Before attending the University of Gloucestershire, Charlie developed foundational skills at Vyners Secondary School and further honed them at East Berkshire. His educational journey reflects a solid commitment to personal and professional growth, which has been an integral part of his career narrative.
Charlie's extensive portfolio of professional experiences, combined with his academic background, has led to numerous achievements in the events industry. He is well-known for his innovative approach to event management, earning him a reputation as a thought leader and trendsetter. His ability to foster collaboration has resulted in successful partnerships, delivering exceptional value to participants and sponsors alike through the events he has managed.
Achievements
Throughout his esteemed career, Charlie has left an indelible mark on the events industry by orchestrating some of the most influential exhibitions and conferences globally. Whether it's enhancing networking opportunities at the World Summit AI or advancing discussions on intelligent healthcare at Intelligent Health AI, Charlie's contributions have sparked important conversations that drive industries forward.
His leadership at events like the Spring & Autumn Fair has not only contributed to the success of those events but has also cultivated a sense of community among exhibitors and attendees alike. By emphasizing innovation and emerging trends, he has fostered environments conducive to learning and collaboration.
Charlie's impact is also evidenced by his ability to navigate complex challenges. His time leading initiatives at UBM plc, including IFSEC Global Events, reflects a commitment to enhancing security standards and fostering discussions around critical industry developments. His strategic foresight and dedication to excellence have positioned him as a trusted figure in the events industry, respected by peers and partners.
In conclusion, Charlie Cracknell's career is characterized by a continuous evolution in leadership roles within the events and exhibitions sector. His educational foundation, paired with his impressive professional background, underscores his capacity to lead and innovate in a rapidly changing environment. As the landscape of events continues to evolve, one can be assured that Charlie will remain at the forefront, driving meaningful change and promoting excellence across the industry.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.