Sarah Thackray

Sarah has 20 years experience working on association, academic, public sector and business events across the UK and internationally, and she co-founded event agency BeaconHouse Events in 2014.

BeaconHouse Events is on a mission to drive sustainable change within the events sector and take positive steps towards a net zero future.

Passionate about balancing purpose with profit and doing the right thing, Sarah thrives on stakeholder engagement and building relationships with suppliers, clients and her team to drive positive change. 

Sarah set up and leads the North East’s event industry sustainability supply chain engagement group and is one of the co-founders of the annual north east tech festival TechNExt, launched in 2023, for which she developed the now C&IT Impact award winning ‘Good Festival Ambition’.

Sarah is an Isla member and she was named one of the Power 50 Green Champions for the events industry by Isla and micebook in 2023. BeaconHouse Events was listed in the UK’s top 30 most sustainable agencies in 2024, led by micebook and Event Decision. Sarah was also part of the 2024 North East’s regenerative tourism and events advisory taskforce and she now offers event sustainability mentorship within the North East.