Makers + Mavericks - 13th Sept. |
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We've finalised our line-up for Makers + Mavericks 2025.
This year, we are going deep on AI and how you can use it to win as a small creator.
The theme is simple:
"What will change. What will not change."
Because once you have clarity on this vital distinction, you can get strategic.
For example:
You'll double down on the things that never go out of style:
- Community.
- Trust.
- Relationships.
In short: being human.
And you'll use AI to amplify you, not make you more like everyone else.
- You stop being the bottleneck.
- Admin is automated. Yay.
- You get more time to think. Double yay.
That's how small creators will AI-proof their business.
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1. David Hieatt.
Co-founder of The Do Lectures, Hiut Denim Co.
Turn AI into AU.
Most people will use AI to make them more average. They will get faster, and more like everyone else. That's why they will fail.
The Pro will use AI to Amplify You - AU.
Therefore, the strategy must be to train it on you. You want to use it to become the most insightful you, the most creative you. You must play a different game than trying to be faster than everyone else. You win by being more valuable.
Bio.
Bankrupt at 16. Thrown out of college at 18. Joined Saatchi & Saatchi at 21. Had a ball. Left advertising to go back to Wales. Started howies in 1995. Sold it to Timberland. Left. Started The Do Lectures, which was voted one of the top 10 ideas festivals in the world by the Guardian.
And in 2012, stated a company making jeans called The Hiut Denim Co in his hometown of Cardigan. A town that used to have Britain's biggest jeans factory. Its purpose is to get the town making jeans again by making the lowest impact jeans in the World. And for the world.
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2. Gemma Screen.
Co-Founder, Lookout Studio
How to use AI to defeat busy, automate admin, and spend more time on the work that moves the needle.
Bio.
Gemma's talent is turning chaos into clarity; making digital campaigns, systems, AI and automation feel simple, human and useful.
With two decades in digital marketing, Gemma now runs her micro-agency, Lookout Studio, from West Wales. She has worked with The DO Lectures team since 2022 and earlier this year she co-created The Fifth Day with David Hieatt to help founders use AI to win back their time.
At Makers & Mavericks, Gemma will show you how to use AI to lighten the load: write faster, work smarter, and build lean systems to act like your second brain.
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3. Toni Finnimore
Founder of The Social Society
In an ever-increasing AI world, we will need to find meaning in what we do. Toni is on a quest to show the power of volunteering. To challenge the old way of thinking about it, and how the businesses of the future will find new ways to bring people together to make a meaningful difference.
Bio.
Toni Finnimore is a community builder, writer, and founder of a national volunteer and events company that makes giving back simple, social, and fun. With more than twenty years of experience in the charity and community sector, she has worked with government, businesses, and grassroots groups to design projects that create real, lasting change.
In 2019, she founded The Social Society to challenge the old idea of volunteering as something dusty, dutiful, or done with a broom. Her approach is rooted in connection: real people, showing up in real life and online, doing good together, and making an actual impact. Alongside running impact-based festivals, workshops, and volunteering programmes, Toni spends her time by the sea, where she lives.
You'll find her walking the coast in all weathers, hosting conversations that spark new ideas, or swapping strategic plans for impromptu dips in the sea (the colder the better).
She believes kindness and humour are as vital to community-building as any business plan, and her work is living proof of that.
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4. Rory Oxenham.
He believes human connection is your edge.
It's why he is on a quest to help founders turn small gatherings into growth.
Every win will come down to one thing: Gathering people.
Founders who understand this can turn gatherings into their strongest growth engine.
Simple, repeatable ways to turn connection into business advantage:
- Spark referrals that spread by word-of-mouth
- Keep customers loyal
- Build reputations competitors can't copy.
AI is making everything faster, cheaper, noisier. But people are craving the opposite:
Offline moments.
Real connection.
Brands they can trust.
Building a human-first company is how you will AI proof your business.
Bio.
At 23, he joined a clean-tech startup.
They became Australia's #1 solar storage platform by hosting small, meaningful events.
At Boston Consulting Group, he launched new ventures for global brands.
Later, he co-founded a nature-tech startup.
It built a community of 10,000 in a year. No ads. Just belonging.
His insights:
"Most companies don't know how to make connection work. They run cookie-cutter events.
They launch online communities that fade."
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Why This Gathering Is Different.
• No keynotes on the day.
• Flipped learning: Talks sent before the event.
• We prioritise conversations, not lectures.
• 50 attendees. Intimate. Real.
• Big ideas. Zero ego.
• Brave questions. Brave answers.
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The Details.
📍 Where: Cardigan, Wales - at The Do Farm
📅 When: September 2025
👥 Who: 50 Seats Only
💷 Price: £400 (includes all food - lunch + supper)
⛺ Accommodation: Camp onsite or we'll help you find a stay nearby
🌊 Vibe: Fewer people. Deeper conversations.
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What Success Looks Like.
We don't measure success in reach. We measure it in resonance.
• One idea that 10x's your business.
• One new co-founder.
• One mindset shift that sticks.
• One breakthrough you've been chasing for a year.
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Who It's For.
Founders
Company of Ones
Brave makers
Those who want lifestyle and legacy
People building momentum - not burnout
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The Philosophy.
Founders help founders.
That's the rule. That's the reason.
If you've climbed the mountain, throw the rope back down.
If you're still climbing, take hold.
"It's not enough to find the treasure; you must bring it back for others."
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The Cowshed Rules:
2. Curiosity over certainty.
3. Give more than you take.
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If that sounds like your kind of campfire, we'll see you there.
Best from the Far West,
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David Hieatt
P.S. As I write, there are 19 places left. First come, first AI proofed.
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Thank you for being part of the Hiut Denim family! We are dedicated to one thing and one thing only: making jeans. That's it. Nothing else. No distractions. Nothing to steal our focus. No kidding ourselves that we can be good at everything. No trying to conquer the whole world. We just do our best to conquer our bit of it. So each day we come in and make the best jeans we know how. Use the best quality denims. Cut them with an expert eye. And then let our 'Grand Masters' behind the sewing machines do the rest.
There is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from making something well, of such superior quality that you know it is going to stand the test of time. It makes the hard work and the obsessing over each and every detail worth all the effort. That's our reward. That's why we stick to just making jeans. Yup, we just make jeans. That's all folks.
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