Rafe Offer – Keynote Speaker

Serial entrepreneur and celebrated authority in brand management and innovation, founder-Chair of Sofar Sounds, a cutting-edge music company and worldwide promoter of new bands. Prior to founding Sofar, Rafe held senior roles with some of the world’s largest companies including Global Marketing Director for Disney and Coca-Cola, and Director of Innovation at Diageo.

Celebrated as a brand and innovation expert, Rafe’s time at Disney saw him pioneer and lead the team connecting Disney characters to teens and adults, including the creation of the having fun never goes out of style campaign. His 4-year tenure as Global Marketing Director, saw sales of adult merchandise grow from $50m to $800m worldwide.

Following a further highly successful spell as Global Marketing Director at Coca-Cola, where he was responsible for a staggering $1.2 billion of global sales, he was appointed Director of Innovation at Diageo. Tasked with creating their entrepreneurial business unit, his core responsibility lay in finding new revenue sources while strengthening the core drinks business and brands.

Combining his passion for live music, an entrepreneurial spirit and expertise in brand management and innovation, in 2009 Rafe founded Sofar Sounds. As founder, he created a global music phenomenon touted by the Guardian as a quiet revolution and New York Magazine as one of the top new brands in America. Three successful rounds of fund raising (of $40 million) with top tier venture capitalists has seen Sofar grow from an event in a London living room into the world’s largest international network of live music events.

Since handing over the day to day running of Sofar and becoming Founder-Chair, Rafe has continued his quest to create meaningful start-ups. With a mission to empower voices through better conversation, Rafe established this & that, a community and tech start-up dedicated to the research, understanding and facilitation of dialogue. He also sits on the board of Twenty Recruitment, one of the world’s fastest growing recruitment companies.

Rafe is a Chair of the board of Facing History UK, a charity dedicated to teaching the lessons of history to help end racism and on the board of the Live Music Society, a charity supporting venues from closing due to COVID-19.