UBIQ X Workshop: Register for Dubai

Assistant Vice President (Head of Group Marketing) at Amity Education

Saima Khan has spent nearly a decade shaping the Amity brand across universities and schools in the Middle East and Europe. As AVP Marketing at Amity Education Middle East, she has led Amity University Dubai’s transformation while also launching and positioning Amity Schools in the UAE, Oman, and the Netherlands — building strong pipelines and steady growth.

At Amity, she drives campaigns that reimagine how institutions connect with students, parents, and industry — blending data, storytelling, and tech for meaningful impact. Beyond education, Saima’s work with Richemont Masterbaker, a SwitzGroup-led baking school, reflects her passion for creativity and helping brands stand out in competitive landscapes.

Always curious and unafraid to push boundaries, she champions marketing strategies that spark growth, create impact, and help institutions thrive.

Connect with Saima

Managing Director of Affixxius

Miles is one of the most widely-experienced creative minds in the Global Education sector, combining a passion for storytelling with entrepreneurial drive. Since founding Affixxius Films, a UK top-20 commercial video agency, he has worked with over 500 schools worldwide, often acting as Executive Producer to ensure every project is distinctive and contextually grounded. With deep insight into British and international education, Miles turns the clichés of school marketing into original, impactful ideas. Outside work, he’s a devoted father, sports enthusiast, and avid cook and whisky collector.

Connect with Miles

Education Marketing and Communications Specialist

Fiona is an Abu Dhabi based education marketing specialist with over 20 years of experience in the UAE. With a professional background in finance and leisure before moving into education, she brings both commercial insight and creative strategy to her work with schools. Fiona partners with schools and education organisations across the region to shape brand narratives, deliver impactful campaigns, and build meaningful connections between schools, parents, and communities.

As a working mother, Fiona combines professional expertise with a parent’s perspective and is passionate about creating communications that go beyond numbers to capture the values and experiences at the heart of great schools.

Connect with Fiona

Head of Marketing at UBIQ

A self-proclaimed serial intrapreneur, Maddie has quickly established herself as a bold voice in independent education marketing. With over four years’ experience spanning both B2B and client-side roles, she brings a rare blend of school-based insight and commercial expertise. Holding a Level 6 Diploma in Marketing—where her assignments centred on redefining school marketing through innovation—Maddie now leads UBIQ’s global marketing and events strategy.

At UBIQ, she drives campaigns that challenge schools to push the boundaries of what’s possible within marketing and admissions, helping them connect more meaningfully with their audiences. Before joining UBIQ, Maddie transformed the communications and digital strategy of a leading UK independent school, setting new standards for how schools can stand out in a crowded market. A tech enthusiast with an eye for innovation, she continues to champion ideas and approaches that spark growth, engagement, and competitive advantage for schools worldwide.

Connect with Maddie

Founder of The Bonjour Agency

Simon Jones is the founder of The Bonjour Agency, a Dubai-based media company helping international and independent schools tell their stories through photography, video, and podcasting.

With over 15 years working with leading schools in the UK, UAE, Europe, and beyond, Simon has become a trusted partner for marketing and admissions teams seeking to engage parents, attract new students, and build lasting reputations.

Beyond producing content, Simon is an advocate for making marketing simple, human, and scalable. A lifelong entrepreneur and early adopter of new technologies, Simon brings a practical, creative, and slightly disruptive perspective to how schools can stand out in the marketplace, not with bigger budgets, but with smarter ideas.

Connect with Simon

Director of International Partnerships at UBIQ

With over 15 years of experience working within the school marketing industry, Daryll has a wealth of experience in digital engagement and innovation within the independent education sector. He began his career at School Website before founding Teacheroo, the UK’s largest education job network, cementing his reputation for building platforms that transform how schools connect and communicate.

Now Director of International Partnerships at UBIQ and having recently moved to Dubai, Daryll helps schools harness cutting-edge technology to deliver personalised digital experiences that strengthen enrolment and community engagement.

Connect with Daryll

Welcome and Opening Remarks
Daryll Middleton, Director of International Partnerships at UBIQ

The Current State of the Market
Fiona Darby, Education Marketing and Comms Specialist

The international independent school sector is evolving at pace. Rising competition, shifting parental expectations, and the rapid adoption of new technologies are redefining what it means to stand out. In this session, we’ll explore the changing dynamics of the market and the pressures schools now face, from differentiation in crowded regions to the demand for greater personalisation and digital innovation.

UBIQ: Get Listed on AI
Maddie Lingard, Head of Marketing at UBIQ

What's next for search? Maddie will explore how AI search and LLM tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Deepseek are transforming how audiences seek information and make decisions. She’ll share a practical three-step framework to help schools appear at the top of search results across these platforms—so when prospective families search for “The Best School in Dubai,” your school is front and centre.

Coffee Break

Innovative Strategies in School Marketing: Leveraging Technology & Data to Drive Engagement and Growth
Saima Khan, Assistant Vice President (Head of Group Marketing) at Amity Education

Affixxius: The Theory and Practice of 'Standing Out'
Miles Latham, Managing Director at Affixxius

Miles will introduce a three-tiered approach to content production, showing how emotional engagement and rational persuasion work together to guide audiences along their journey. Packed with examples from both within and beyond the education sector, Miles’ session will also touch on the fundamentals of an effective distribution strategy, giving schools practical ideas to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

UBIQ: Leveraging Technology for High-Impact Personalisation
Daryll Middleton, Director of International Partnerships at UBIQ

Daryll will show how schools can harness cutting-edge technology to deliver truly personalised experiences for different audience personas. From dynamic content deployment to data-driven insights, he’ll share practical strategies that help schools engage, resonate, and convert by speaking directly to the priorities and motivations of each prospective family.

The Bonjour Agency: The End of School Marketing Photography? How AI is Redefining Storytelling and Reputation
Simon Jones, Founder at The Bonjour Agency

In five years, school photography won’t exist. Bold? Yes. But AI is already challenging how schools document, market, and protect their stories. In this talk, Simon will explore how tools from AI-generated visuals to automated video editing could replace many of the time-intensive, resource-heavy practices schools have relied on for decades.

Closing Remarks
Daryll Middleton, Director of International Partnerships at UBIQ

Rooftop Drinks and Canapes