Rebecca Jones – Keynote Speaker

Rebecca Jones is a freelance broadcaster. She is an accomplished and experienced host and moderator, chairing events and conferences for a variety of clients including the Royal Opera House, the Old Vic, the National Theatre, RSC, Glyndebourne, the Hay and Cheltenham Literature Festivals, Christie’s, Somerville College, Oxford, the Sharjah International Book Fair, The Considered Ask charity and the launch of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Rebecca Jones went freelance in 2023 after nearly thirty years at the BBC, as Arts Correspondent and Chief News Presenter on BBC1, BBC2, BBC World and the BBC News Channel. She has anchored coverage of some of the biggest national and international news stories of recent years including the Queen’s death, live from Buckingham Palace, general elections, the war in Ukraine and the London Bridge terror attack. She has presented Newswatch, the viewer feedback programme on BBC1, the television books programmes Meet the Author and Talking Books as well as Radio 4’s PM programme.

As the BBC’s arts correspondent for more than two decades she has extensive experience covering arts and culture from the Oscars to the Booker prize, interviewing leading figures from Sir Paul McCartney to Tom Hanks, Viola Davis to Bill Clinton. She is responsible for delivering arts coverage across radio, television and the BBC website, the largest news website in the English language. She has judged arts awards including Museum of the Year, the Costa Book Awards and the British Book Awards.

Rebecca Jones has non-executive director experience with cultural organisations including Director, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Trustee, Henry Barber Trust, part of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. She began her career as a graduate news trainee at the BBC, before becoming main TV news anchor at Anglia News. A founder member of BBC News 24 and one of its first female reporters, she later worked for the BBC as Midlands correspondent, based in Birmingham and a foreign correspondent, based in Berlin.