Chris is a partner of ACT Consultant Services, based in Cambridge and specialising in the design of medium-scale mixed use arts centres. He is a member of the Society of Theatre Consultants, Association of Lighting Designers, Association of British Theatre Technicians and an Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers.

A practising theatre consultant of 30 years experience, Chris was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and, after working at The Royal Court and at Farnham, joined Theatre Projects Consultants in 1969. Chris took responsibility for projects in England, Wales, Spain, Nigeria and Mexico before leaving to establish the partnership ACT Consultant Services with John Coffey.

In parallel with ongoing theatre design work in the UK and overseas during the late seventies, Chris was appointed project manager for the creation of Wyeside Arts Centre in mid-Wales. His experience of community arts was further developed through his subsequent period acting as the Arts Centre Administrative Director after its opening in 1978. Hands-on production experience during the 1980s continued when Chris and John took on the responsibility for the technical management of major European Touring Productions of A Chorus Line, Bubbling Brown Sugar and 42nd Street.

Over recent years, Chris has developed the design and the Employers Requirements documentation for several clients building arts centres, including recently the London Borough of Barnet, Qatar National Theatre and the Borough of Wellingborough. He has provided the specification and design of all specialist theatre services for new theatres in Wrexham, Nottingham, Northampton, Wolverhampton, Trinidad and Cambridge. Chris has also been involved in the refurbishment of theatre spaces in Berlin, Oporto, Frankfurt, Abergavenny, Builth Wells and Aberdare. He has carried out Building and Technical Equipment Condition Surveys for theatres in Milford Haven, Ipswich and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Alongside his design work for theatres, Chris's keen interest in lighting has brought him commissions to design the lighting provision for galleries in Newtown, Cambridge, Cardiff and Oxford. He has also sought a close working relationship with artists working with light and their funders, to effect a safe, cost-effective and engineered solution to unique lighting design and operational challenges.

John originated and developed ACT's audio-visual consultancy service, which provided modern conferencing facilities for some of London's major teaching hospitals. This service continues to the present time, designing systems for our currently contracted range of theatre and educational clients.

John was educated at Bristol Grammar School and studied at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. During this time, he worked in all of the local theatres and with the BBC as an Assistant Floor Manager on drama productions and childrens' programmes.

He then moved to Essex to work as theatre electrician at Colchester Repertory Theatre and stayed for seven years, moving up through the ranks to the post of Technical Director. In 1972, John supervised the technical move from the old theatre into the new Mercury Theatre. The following year, he was invited to join Theatre Projects Consultants, the company responsible for the technical design of the Mercury. During the next four years, he worked on a variety of new buildings, including Warwick Arts Centre, Salisbury Playhouse, The Torch Theatre, Milford Haven and the Cottesloe Theatre.

In 1977, John left Theatre Projects with Chris to form ACT Consultant Services. An early responsibility was to provide the refurbishment of the technical systems at the Royalty Theatre, London, to allow the smash hit musical "Bubbling Brown Sugar" to be presented. This show formed a major part of John's life for the next four years as he supervised the lighting and sound for two European tours after the show's run in London. During this period, he lectured in Stage Lighting at the Cockpit Theatre and at the Froebel Institute in West London. He also designed the lighting for the next musical at the Royalty, called "Coloured Girls".

John leads ACT's audio-visual specification and design operation and supervises much of the site work.

Roger joined ACT Consultant Services in 2003. He has been commissioned by the Arts Council of England to write a book on ' Developing a Web Site'. For the ten management bodies of the arts and entertainment industry he produces a web site on ticketing and marketing systems ( www.ticketing.org.uk ) for which he writes a monthly bulletin. He recently completed with Debbie Richards the Review and Update for the Arts Council Northern Ireland on their project to integrate computerised Box Office systems and capture attendance data, including an Economic Appraisal and Business Plan for a Northern Ireland-wide Audience Development Agency. He is currently completing a feasibility study following on his masterplan for the Development of the Arts in Chelmsford.

He has been working as an independent consultant since 1988 and carried out numerous feasibility studies and economic impact analyses; developed cultural strategies; prepared business plans, researched and developed training provision; researched into customer behaviour; developed market analysis and mapping techniques (for the Arts Councils); researched and developed audience development agencies; prepared the capital development strategies for the Arts Council of Wales and for the City of Glasgow. He works with governments, Arts Councils, local authorities, regional arts boards, arts organisations, trusts and foundations. He devised and managed an in-depth research programme for the Arts Council of Wales.

He has worked as a trainer on Board development, management, marketing, quality, and customer relations. He has devised numerous training courses, including the annual Druidstone and week long marketing courses for the Theatrical Management Association. He has specialised in management, customer care, sales training, and the development of the Box Office for marketing, and been a keynote speaker at major conferences in Europe and the US on the future of the Box Office, the development of ticket sales opportunities and e-marketing. He regularly trains abroad, especially on audience development and future strategies for marketing using new media.

He has written Boxing Clever and the Box Office Marketing Guides, both published by the Arts Council of England, and JobWatch, a guide to successful equal opportunities recruitment for arts marketing posts, and the Data Protection Guide published by the Arts Marketing Association.

Roger Tomlinson studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He has been an arts marketer, a venue manager, gallery organiser, theatrical producer, film theatre programmer, festival organiser, concert hall programme planner, and funding body officer as well as a consultant, trainer, seminar leader and conference organiser.

He started his career in marketing at the Victoria Theatre Stoke-on-Trent, the Leeds Playhouse and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. He set up and opened the Aberystwyth Arts Centre as Chief Executive for its first three years, before moving to set up and run Theatr Clwyd in North Wales for seven years. He carried responsibility as producer for over 54 in-house produced weeks of theatre per annum. While there, he operated the Quality of Life scheme for Clwyd County Council.

He was Drama Director of the Welsh Arts Council from 1982 to 1988, responsible for drama and dance, touring, training and marketing. He was specially trained in accountancy and insolvency practice to handle financial issues in relation to arts organisations experiencing financial difficulties.

He was Chairman of the Arts Marketing Association from 1996 to 1998, on whose Board he served until 2002. He is Chairman of the Centre for Performance Research Limited, now operating from the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. He is a Board member of the Hoffnung Trust and of INTIX, the international ticketing organisation for ticketing professionals.

In January 1999 he joined Dataculture, developer of ticketing and marketing solutions, as Director of Business Development. In August 1999 this company merged with Tickets.com and he was Head of Business Development for Europe with special responsibility for inter-active services and marketing, until February 2002.