Our Motivation

Markup UK began in 2018, when a group of like-minded practitioners agreed that there was an appetite for another markup conference held in Europe.

Every one of the founders has contributed to and benefited from the markup technology community in many ways over a long period.

As well as working in this space, we have all been enthusiastic attendees of similar events, and we continue to be involved in committees for both sister conferences and standardisation organisations.

We recognise the importance of these collaborations in promoting active participation. Markup UK is our opportunity to give something back.

We are committed to keeping the conference keenly priced to promote attendance and inclusion. We do not seek to make a profit: we aim to cover our costs, and in the event of a surplus it will be ploughed back in to the following year's conference.

Organisation Committee

Geert Bormans

Geert Bormans has long been an angle-bracket jack-of-all-trades. He loves the beauty of a well-architected solution or a pure and simplified process. Geert makes a living as an independent consultant providing XML or Linked Open Data solutions, mainly to the publishing industry. He does so with a broad geographical flexibility.

Geert likes an interesting challenge, easily found when having two teenage daughters. However, he prefers the challenges to involve alpine ground, six strings, or markup.

Ari Nordström

Ari is an independent markup geek based in Göteborg, Sweden. He has provided angled brackets to many organisations and companies across a number of borders over the years, some of which deliver the rule of law, help dairy farmers make a living, and assist in servicing commercial aircraft. And others are just for fun.

Ari is the proud owner and head projectionist of Western Sweden's last functioning 35/70mm cinema, situated in his garage, which should explain why he once wrote a paper on automating commercial cinemas using XML.

Andrew Sales

Andrew is old enough not to be able to forget SGML.

He began writing DTDs and Python programs for publishers in 2000 and, like a streaming processor, he hasn't looked back.

His day job involves architecting content for a London-based UK publisher. Out of hours, he helps out with conferences, maintains the Schematron international standard, and takes photographs using analog and digital devices.

Rebecca Shoob

Rebecca provides invaluable back-office support to the conference.

Originally a linguist, she is an experienced office manager by trade and enjoys gardening in her spare time. She has also recently been elected a district councillor.