A Multitude of connections speaks volumes

Will Wood, 23, set up Multitude Media in November 2008 and has already worked with football website Goal.com and some of Britain's best young comedians.

Mr Wood, from Leeds, has been putting on events since he was a student at Manchester University. The first show he helped put on featured the daughter of Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson in an all-female comedy troupe, Lady Garden, and he has gone on to work with several more up-and-coming performers.

Last year, he worked with four acts at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, part of the giant Fringe scene, and has increased that to 20 for this year's event, which began yesterday.

Multitude, which has three staff and has sites in Leeds, Manchester and London, is a publicity and PR firm which expects to turn over 120,000 next year, based largely on its work in comedy and sport.

Mr Wood, who lives in Roundhay, in north Leeds, said he began working with footballer Mr Richards – who spent his early years at Farsley Celtic in Leeds and now plays for Manchester City – through a charity, If U Care, Share, which aims to help young people to talk more about their problems.

The sometime England full-back got involved after the suicide of a friend with whom he played football as a young man.

Mr Wood also works with Goal.com, a global football news website, and comedians including Diane Morgan, who has appeared on Mock The Week, and Theatre Ninjas, a free tickets initiative at the Edinburgh Fringe.

He is also promoting Fair Trade, an Edinburgh Fringe show about human trafficking which was inspired by sex trade survivors. Oscar-winner Emma Thompson executive produced the drama.

Some people had been sceptical about a business run by someone aged 23, Mr Wood said, but he was able to overcome their preconceptions.

"If you are young, people think you don't have the experience but I do because I have been working in this field since the age of 18.

"People can be dismissive but the results speak for themselves."