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Recording Details

Reference: Week 2 Creative Practice in Event Design

Date: 2nd May 2017

Speakers: 2

Length: 39:28

Week 2 Creative Practice in Event Design

Transcription of Video

[Beginning of File]

I: Hello. Today I’m going to be talking Claire Eason Bassett, Executive Producer

of Mackerel Sky Events, an award-winning event management company

working in the South West, and also, internationally. Claire is also an

academic, researching at Falmouth University and today, we’re going to be

talking about the creative processes and methods that Claire uses to develop

and work on event briefs. So, Claire, welcome.

R: Thank you.

I: Can you tell me how important you think personal creativity is to the role of

Event Manager or Event Producer?

R: Certainly, I mean, it’s, kind of, obvious that it’s an essential part of doing the

job, but I suppose more fundamentally, I believe that it’s part of being

human. So, that creativity is perhaps not necessarily expressed in the event

management world as creating an artwork, or performing in a dance piece, or

directing a play, or writing something, it’s much more about how we

approach and engage with the event content that we are designing, and

crafting, and curating, all the way through to how we deliver the event itself.

How we solve problems, how we work with our teams, the whole thing. So,

that personal creativity, that’s a real resource for us, as Event Managers, to

be able to play with, to be able to use as our contingency plan sometimes.

And that’s not to say wing it, but very much about that recognition that a

creative activity is fundamentally, part of delivering the event itself.

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I: Okay. I know that you studied maths for your undergraduate degree, but

that you also studied dance for probably a much longer period of time, and

had your first, sort of, key role with Rambert Dance Company, and I

wondered how much you felt that side of your life had influenced your

practice today?

R: Very much so. And when I started with Rambert, I’d actually come out of a

really, really rough work experience placement, and it was horrible, and my

confidence was at rock bottom. And I started working in production, and I

started to reignite the passion that I’d engaged with all through my life, from

being a tiny tot, all the way through doing dance GCSE, A-Levels, and I’d kept

that going all the way through my university career, producing and directing

theatre and musicals. And working at Rambert enabled me to rebuild my

confidence, not only personally, but very much, in terms of developing my

professional practice. And I never really thought about it like that, you know,

and this was in early 2000s, and I’d never – it wasn’t part of the language at

that point in time, it was very much a – this is administration, this is

management, it’s not creation. And so, then finding that there’s this dark art

of production, where we pull all these things together, to make that show

happen, and to present it, that really form – has formed the basis of my

professional practice now, as an Event Manager, where we’re doing exactly

the same thing, whether it’s drawing together the Choreographer, the

Designer, the Lighting Designer, the Composer, the Orchestra, the Dancers

and all of that stuff together, now it’s in a very different context, where it

might well be, as it was for me last week, with LED lanterns, and

schoolchildren, and withies and paper, and bands, and 30,000 people in the

audience, it’s the same process. It’s – and it isn’t linear, and it’s not clear,

and it’s not straightforward, and that’s where the creativity really comes into

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play, in terms of how I work. And that process of being able to see those

connections, before they are in front of you. Being able to think, well, so and

so might work really well with so and so, and how does that – that curation

process. And simply, equally, the process of bringing together food and drink

traders, with music performers, with venue and Chef demo’s, for a food

festival, it’s exactly the same process. So, Rambert was very much – and the

same thing with the National Ballet, it was very much about learning my craft,

as a – in terms of production, and taking that all the way through. Certainly,

with all of that background, I learnt that really, really important connection

between what happens on the ground, and what we’re trying to achieve as a

big picture, but that big strategy stuff, and recognition that even the smallest

of tasks is part of making that big picture happen. So, production is loads of

bits, all the details, all that fine i’s dotting, t’s crossed type stuff, but every

single one of those i’s dotted is part of making that big stuff happen. And so,

when the Dancers were on the stage taking their applause, I’ve took a bit of

that for me. I wasn’t there on the stage, but I was very much appreciating,

and being appreciated, and it felt like a real family. And that’s something,

certainly in terms of my management style, that I’ve continued to try and

implement within the business, within every project that we work on, that

we are part of that bigger whole.

I: So, would you say that you are the norm, when it comes to event

management, and business, in that sense? I mean, I feel that there is a –

more of a move towards that process, and that previously, it has been slightly

managerialist, rather than creative, in terms of its perceptions.

R: I’d agree, and certainly within the corporate environment sector, and that

maybe farmer, or within the party high net worth individuals, type stuff. It

has been perceived to be linear and quite formal in its structure. I think

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business, in general, is taking a much more collaborative approach. There are

a number of businesses and organisations that we partner with who

absolutely want that, and that’s one of the reasons they want to work with

us, is because that’s our approach. It’s also recognition, I suppose, that

within events, and certainly the scale of events that I deliver, that it’s really

high trust, and that only really works if that’s mutual. And so business, in its

broadest sense, event management, creative sector, are all moving towards

this more agile, collaborative, evolving practice, as opposed to trying to set it

out and plan it all in great detail, to the nth degree, because the world isn’t

like that anymore, and I’m not sure it ever has been. But our understanding,

as humans, has very much been that if we do this, then this happens and we

get that result.

I: Sure.

R: And I agree, to a certain extent, if we always do what we’ve always done, we

always get what we’ve always got, but my belief is that business is evolving,

and that’s really where our practice is coming into play of being – taking

people as they are, and not trying to be anything we’re not. Not trying to be

too clever, not trying to be too risky, but trying to understand who we’re

working with and craft a solution. That’s where the production thing really

comes into play, is then about going…

I: Sure.

R: …well, how do we get all the right bits, in the right place, at the right time, to

make that thing happen, to have the impact that we want it to have? I think

there are – there’s – one of the beauties about this sector is that there are

thousands, millions of different kinds of Event Managers, and we’re all

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uniquely different.

I: Sure.

R: Not everybody gets, or is brilliant at all of it, because it’s a massive breadth of

function, you know. Some people are brilliant at the ideas, some people are

brilliant at the implementation, others are great on the health and safety,

others are brilliant at the scheduling, and partnership development, and the

marketing and the sponsorship, and all of those different facets that are part

of the job of Event Manager, so everyone’s different. Of course, I think I’m

brilliant, but that’s not – that’s beside the point.

I: So, in order to fuel your brilliance…

R: Obviously.

I: …what are the main creative processes that you would say that you rely on a,

kind of, daily basis, whether they be, you know, working with a budget, or

working with an event design? Do you have some favourites?

R: Well, I am a big fan of the good old mind map, that’s always a treat. Because,

for me, it’s about getting what’s going on and buzzing around my head down

on paper. I’ve got to write about five different proposals for big projects,

over the next six to 12 months, and they’re all buzzing around up here. I’ve

got to get them down on paper and start to brainstorm, because once I start

doing that, I then start to give some space up here for new ideas to come in,

and for new connections to potentially be formed. And I use those on an

ongoing basis. So what I might write initially, evolves over time, once I have

that conversation with so and so, or with that organisation, or with that

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funder, or with that supplier. So we’re progressively then evolving that

production process, evolving the curation of the experience that we’re trying

to design. I also learn a lot from UX, which is within the software world, and

the agile approach to management. So, within UX, looking at user

experience, and it is that slightly frustrating thing of everything being

shortened down to acronyms, but UX, in this particular case, is really helpful

for thinking through what is our user experience. And not just from the

attendee perspective, but from the more holistic stakeholder view. So again,

I might mind map content, I might mind map people, I might look at

stakeholders, I might look at suppliers, all kinds of different purposes for that

really basic, standard tool. And from that, then evolve the event design, or

then start looking at relationships, or looking at areas where I need to

develop connections, in order to deliver what I’m hoping to deliver for that

particular event. The – so, from the mind map, thinking then through about

the user experience, thinking through how we can use our mind’s eye to

perhaps envision what that event experience looks like. So, from the

moment somebody engages with that particular event, from the moment

they buy a ticket, from the moment they see it on Facebook, from the

moment somebody says, “Oh, are you going to that?” that there is a

consistency and a relevance, and perhaps a resonance, more importantly, for

that person, with what’s happening. That visualisation process of walking

through, in your mind’s eye, what that event space looks like and feels like,

what that experience is for the attendee? You know, maybe it’s a drinks

reception and they walk through the door, there’s a table of drinks, or is it a

tray with somebody, you know, talking to them? Is it that they’ve got to sign

in and register? What’s the process they’re going through as they enter that

space? What do they see? What do they feel? What do they hear? Taste?

You know, those five senses become really important in creating and crafting

the experience that you want that person to have. And it might not be a

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drinks reception, it might be a conference. What do they see when they

arrive? What’s the – what does the colour way look like? How does that

influence their perception of the experience they’re going to? A friend of

mine went to a Venue Expo recently, and there were massive queues to

register, and that influences their experience then, because they’re already

going in going “Well, it’s not really well organised, is it?” So, thinking through

that experience from their perspective enables us, as Event Designers, to

think through, what do we need to adapt in our plans? What do we need to

add in that we haven’t thought about? Have we got any gaps or lulls in the

whole experience? Do we need to have some gaps and lulls, because

perhaps the attendees need a bit of a break, or a breather? Or maybe we’ve

got to allow some space for something else to happen, and recognise also,

that they may not go where we expect them to go. So, to test – it’s a bit like

a scenario plan, or a scenario test, where we’re looking at, what happens if?

What happens if all our delegates come in this way? What happens if

everybody, particularly at a public domain event, what happens if they all

come in from this side of town? What happens if they don’t engage with

that, but they do love this instead? All of those what ifs are part of then us,

enabling ourselves, to be able to adapt the event accordingly.

I: It very much sounds like you work in a way that’s very imaginative, in terms

of that visualisation. Walt Disney popularised the term ‘imagineering’, which

came out of a company called Alcoa, and it’s an obvious mix of the words

imagination and engineering. So, I guess, would you see your event design

process as imagineering, rather than management, perhaps?

R: A bit of both, I think. I mean, Disney do an amazing job, and the way they

craft those experiences is utterly brilliant, and they’ve got it sussed. They

really understand how to do that and they really understand their audience.

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So, it’s quite easy, I suppose, for them to then go, well, it’s that imagination

and it’s the practical delivery. And it is that thing actually, of being creative,

and being able to deliver, and both complimenting and engage with the

other. I’m not sure I go with the imagineering as a headline, for me,

personally, but it does reflect that need for the creative spark, and the

detailed plan. You know, it’s not – it’s about – it is about making it work as

well, not just coming up with the idea in the first place. As Belbin talks about

different team roles, you know, there’s the plants, great, but not everybody

can be a plant, and not everybody can be a team worker, and we all have

different strengths and weaknesses, and that’s, I suppose, the joy of working

within events, is that we’re never doing it on our own, so we’re always

working with other people that can bring those complimentary skills and

abilities. And in terms of those, it’s not always the same people that come up

with the ideas that deliver them on the ground. So I think it’s, you know, I

wouldn’t take the job title imagineer, because I don’t think I necessarily do all

of that to the level that I expect. But across the team, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I: And the – one of the definitions I really like for imagineering, which for me,

does feel quite comfortable, is creating and managing worlds of experience,

and so I think from that, and as you say, when you consider that you never

work in isolation, that you always work in a team, that feels like a very – both

an aspirational and an achievable goal.

R: Definitely, and that – creating is – often thinking about that event experience

as a bubble, you know, what does that world look like, and how do we

respond to it? It’s not – we could design beautiful spaces, you know, we can

do it all the time, and we see it within our cultural experience all the time,

you know. The theatre is crafted on the basis of creating those environments

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in which we tell a story, and the same thing happens within events, so yeah,

that – crafting that experience is absolutely vital. And thinking about it as

that – as creating and managing, it’s not just about coming up with a great

idea, it is the – how that is manifested on the ground. And sometimes,

maybe all the time actually, it’s never quite what you think it’s going to be.

And we need to give enough space in our processes to let those ideas

germinate, to continue the ecological metaphor, and to grow and evolve over

time, so that actually, what you maybe said originally, that’s not what you’ve

produced. You’ve produced something else, but that’s better, because it’s

evolved and it’s got more people involved and it’s got more ideas around the

table, more commitment, it’s got other stakeholder views. ‘Cause not

everybody thinks like I do, not everybody thinks as you do, and that’s a really

good thing, that’s one of the best bits about humanity. So, we need to make

sure we’re allowing space for everybody to be creative within our event

management process.

I: Event design has progressed rapidly over the last 30 years. So we’ve moved

from a, kind of, service design, popular in the 80s, where it was much more

about the organisation producing the event. It was about them and how they

delivered that service, and I think the 90s focused much more on, kind of, the

individual consumer. 21st century now, it seems to be, perhaps fuelled by the

connectivity of the internet, and particularly social media platforms, that

we’re looking, as you say, towards a much more, kind of, holistic event design

experience, where audiences, participants become part of the creation

process, so we are in a co-creative environment, so it’s not, as you say, we

have many more stakeholders. And I just wondered how your own practice

has developed in line with that, sort of, industry development? You know,

can you think of a project that you established 15 years ago, and compare it

to one that you are running now?

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R: Yes, absolutely, and I think it does vary, depending on the organisation and

the context that one’s working in. But co-creation is, I think, something not

everybody’s ready for. I think the industry definitely is moving in that

direction. I’m a natural collaborator, so it’s, kind of, been part and parcel of

how I work, but it’s quite hard for whole organisations to work like that. So,

it – there’s always a context, I suppose, is really where I’m going with that.

The industry has very definitely changed, and even the term ‘event design’ is

now recognised and acceptable, even though we do have to explain it

sometimes. Because sometimes people see that as just designing the décor,

or just designing the marketing material, and actually, we’re designing

experience, and that’s really come – starting to come through, loud and clear,

across the sector, and being recognised as an opportunity. So, a lot more of

the large scale, multinational organisations are seeing that co-creation and

that experienced design, as something that they can use to promote their

brands, or create more impactful marketing campaigns.

I: Yeah.

R: So, the co-creation process, the issue there, the problem with it, is that it just

takes time. Huge amounts of time. And it takes time to do it properly, to

listen, to really engage with what people are saying, and interpret what’s

wanted, because it’s – very rarely is it obvious. And it’s also really important

for it not to be patronising, you know. It’s not just for the sake of having their

involvement, it actually needs to be a real conversation, and for that input to

be valued and valuable, and therefore, we need to craft the environment in

which we ask for it, and how we engage with them, and that’s about

understanding our target market. So it might be that it’s – Christmas in

Torquay, for example, small amount of funding to support it. We’ve gone

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through a process of working with the cultural sector in Torquay, to recognise

that there’s a broader issue around they don’t feel that they’re involved in

cultural development. Well, we can use this project as a means to bring

them in. So we’ve actually commissioned local Artists to create installations

that are then there for Christmas. They’re not funding the Christmas lights,

they’re funding creative practice in that town. So it’s recognition of a local

issue, and how we can use an event to progress a bigger strategic objective,

and that’s really where co-creation becomes almost impactful. Also, if we’re

looking to influence behaviour. So again, working on a sustainability project

in the Midlands, where we were working with a sustainability charity and the

Council to encourage people to cycle more, on some brand-new cycleways

that were being built, how can we encourage people to cycle more? And

using events as a means to do that. So, we can’t influence behaviour if we

don’t understand who we’re talking to in the first place, and we don’t

understand why they’re not doing what we want them to do. So, it’s a bigger

strategic conversation, and co-creation requires that. That bigger

perspective, than just the, we’re going to do an event, ‘cause it’s got more

impact than that, or it needs to, in that particular context. Sometimes it

doesn’t, and sometimes you can, you know, it’s just process, we’re delivering

something, bish bash bosh, off we go. I have to say, I don’t really have those

in my portfolio anymore, because it’s not what I want to do and it’s not how I

work. But – and there’s a place for that. There’s also other people who work

in far more depth in co-creation than I do, so – and the creativity works, for

example, are very much a socially inclusive practice of creating artwork,

working with disabled and mental health service users. So again, it depends

entirely on the context of how deep you want to go with that co-creation, but

it is definitely something that the industry is seeking and employing as a

tactic, for developing and designing more valuable and more impactful

events.

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I: So, how have you found designing events for audiences or groups who are no

longer defined by, kind of, the traditional boundaries of perhaps age, or class,

or lifestyle, but who are related through perhaps new relationships? So

things that are goal based, so events that might be around promoting

awareness of climate change, for example, how do you deal with that? It’s a

shift from what we have known over the last 20 years perhaps.

R: Very definitely, and so, perhaps it reflects a shift in how we use data as well.

So actually, we’re not defining our audiences by the same criteria anymore. I

think there’s something really interesting that the National Trust have been

doing, around how they define their audiences, not by names, but by curious

families, for example. So they’re using very different terminology. The

challenge with that is, it makes it very difficult to compare and contrast, but

in terms of the event design process, it – we no longer have a standard. It’s

not a standard process. It’s entirely non-linear, so our process really reflects

what we’re actually finding in the marketplace, which is that we don’t have a

typical event attendee. We don’t have that – we maybe have a portfolio of

them, and this is something that’s coming through more and more with

marketing within businesses, is that it’s creating those character-based, that

are based on data, but it’s no longer one character. It’s not just Lucy, age 24,

that attends that festival. It’s Lucy, and Dave, and Ahmed and whoever else,

you know, whoever else comes out of the data, whoever’s expressing an

interest, who – wherever the traction is being gained on social media

perhaps. So, it’s really about now looking at our audience in a more holistic

way, and recognising that it is about interest. You know, so who are the

typical people that are interested in climate change? And there isn’t one.

This is the thing. This is why we need a portfolio of people that we’re

responding to. And that’s where focus groups and the, kind of, co-creation

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stuff comes into play more strongly, because it means that we can bring

together, perhaps a focus group of those different characters, or some kind

of typology that we want to create, that gives us that feedback from those

marketplace specialisms, I suppose. Those people that are really out there

and in there. And very honestly, just saying “What do you think?” and “How

can we make sure this meets what you need and want?” And also, to be a bit

imaginative ourselves and to start going, well, if I were Dave, and I’m 50-

years-old, and I’ve been in business for donkey’s years, and I always wear a

suit to work, and I drive a BMW, and we start to expand that a bit further,

and yes, it is stereotypical, of course it is, to a point, I’m not suggesting that

there is a Dave out there, who’s exactly like this. But to think about it from

their point of view. Okay, so why are they attending the event? What’s the

motivation for them to come? What needs might they have of that event?

And it’s things like understanding that actually, in all likelihood, he’s going to

have a smartphone and he’s going to want Wi-Fi, so how do we make sure

we’re factoring that in. And he’s not the only one. The 17-year-old who

wants to be on Instagram and Pinterest is also going to want Wi-Fi. So, those

needs aren’t necessarily isolated to those particular groups. You know, blind

people coming to, or visually impaired people coming to an event, actually,

what they want is just the same as anybody else, which is about clear access

and ability to get around. That’s not about just being a SOP to one particular

group, or only working to one group, it’s actually recognising that opening

that out, enabling access and engagement from the broadest possible range

of people, is something we should all be striving for, and that it is about

listening and having those conversations. I think, in terms of the design

process, the challenge comes when you’re doing something that maybe is

quite specific, and can then present some challenges in how you enable

somebody to engage with it, who isn’t the obvious connection to it. And by

that, I mean something like a physical event, you know, the marathons and

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old school courses, and all that, kind of, stuff. Inherently, there’s a group of

people who are excluded from that, but there are means and ways to design

stuff to enable – still enable them to participate in some way, shape or form.

I: Sure.

R: And that same applies within the social context too, within the emotional

context, within the behavioural context, all of that. So again, something that

we might see as being normal, it pays to have a different set of eyes on it, to

be able to get a different perspective to, kind of, go, actually, that, kind of,

excludes so and so. Or maybe we could adapt it so we can broaden our

audience further. So, again, as an Event Manager, we’ve got to think about

all of these different things. We’ve got to not only think about the physical

accessibility, but that more emotional accessibility, and not being too

protectionist around – having said that, trying to design something for

everybody is a hideous nightmare.

I: Yes.

R: And I wouldn’t recommend it for a second. So, it’s very much that thing of

understanding who you’re trying to go for and what you’re trying to get out

of it. And by who, we’re not defining by age or gender necessarily, but

actually, much more sophisticated techniques and terminology around

interest and goals, around their individual context. And this culture of one,

kind of, comes into play here, where we all want our own unique experience,

we all want our own bespoke valued, and valuable experience. So – and

there are some events where, you know, I swear, people living in that area

wish me to phone them up personally and go, “This is happening tomorrow

night, would you like to come along and can I buy you a drink?” and that’s

not going to happen. We can’t do that necessarily, for some of the projects

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we work on, there just isn’t the budget to have that kind of relationship. So,

the creativity, I suppose, in this, is really about figuring out how we can

enable people to create their own experience, to have that bespoke

experience, whoever they are, from whatever background or context, that

engages with those overarching strategic objectives for the event project

itself.

I: So you mentioned a couple of key emerging factors there, which are the need

for Wi-Fi at the majority of events, and the need for increased inclusivity.

And I just wondered if there was anything else that you were aware of that,

you know, the majority of projects that you work on actually need, and that

impact on that design process?

R: Definitely, and I think the biggest one is the external environment. So – and

by that, I mean outside the event itself, outside that event bubble, and the

team perhaps that are working in that. And the same would apply to a

business or an organisation, outside that organisation itself, what else is

going on? And, you know, models like STEEP have been around forever, it

feels, and they’re very good for exactly the purpose of being able to identify

what’s going on in that external environment. For events and for designing

events, the trick, I think, is about looking at what is going on in that wider

world. Having that interest in the news, on social media, but keeping that

really active interest in what’s going on politically, technologically, all of that

stuff, because that gives us feedback on what’s going on in our broader

world, and therefore, what we need to provide, in terms of event facilities,

and event experiences. And recognising that there are big changes, and

there have been over the last two years, big changes in how we respond to

propaganda, how we’re responding, in terms of exercising our power and our

votes. You know, in 2018, it’s the centenary of female suffrage, and there’s

some really interesting projects going on around that. But it’s also really

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interesting around the events that are being designed for that, that aren’t

about just looking back 100 years and going “Wasn’t it great that women got

the vote?” but much more about saying, well, what’s changed? What’s

happened since? What is going on? What do the next 100 years hold? And I

think that’s a much more interesting conversation, and that’s only coming

about because we’re looking at that broader environment and being able to

go, “Well, how do we then craft an event that enables us to ask those

questions? That enables us to have that conversation?” So when we’re

designing events, it’s not just about the practical, what do we need? What

do we see being needed on the ground? But there’s the more personal,

actually, and the potentially more impactful around the politics and the

economics of what’s happening in that world. I mean, it has a practical

implication of when looking at budgets, you know, realistically, how much

sponsorship could we generate? Or realistically, what kind of price can we

charge? What’s viable, what’s feasible and what’s acceptable, as far as our

audience and our broader stakeholders are concerned? So, that’s – in that

design process, yes, it’s technology. It is the accessibility and inclusivity. It is

the sustainability and being able to come back and do it again tomorrow, and

it’s not just about that immediate one hit wonder kind of feeling, but

actually, being part of something bigger. I think that, that external

environment is also making us build stronger communities, or wanting to be

part of stronger communities, where we feel connected, where we feel like

we are welcomed and part of, engaged in something broader. And again,

events are crucial for doing that. Whether it’s the village Christmas lights

switch on, whether it’s a party for someone’s birthday, whether it’s a simple

thing of knowing who someone is when they walk down the street, that’s all

part of building communities, and events can be really important markers

and cornerstones of building that cohesion, wherever we might live.

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I: We’ve mentioned technology a couple of times, and I wondered how you are

using perhaps social media platforms to extend the traditional boundaries of

the event, sort of, timeline, as it were?

R: Very definitely, so pre and post, and social media, but also event apps, and

the broader engagement of technology. So – and then that’s really useful in

event design as well, because in some cases, some of the projects we work

on, we are building parallel, well, hybrid events. We’ve got the live activity,

but we’ve also got this online experience, where people who maybe can’t get

to the physical event site, or are just simply unavailable, or for whatever

reason, they can still participate in the conversation in some way, shape or

form. So, Agile on the Beach is one of the best examples of this, in terms of

our practice. So, we’ve got the live conference, five strands of workshops

and seminars, we record every single one of them, and they all go online.

Our biggest impact on ticket sales is Twitter. So, we start – we have that

Twitter conversation running all the time. There’s no, kind of, six months

before we start having that, it’s happening now, for July. It’s the – it’s that

whole build up and it has to – it needs to gain momentum, and social media

can be a bit Trixie. It takes a while for it to build up, so we’ve got to make

sure we’re building enough time in our planning, to be able to build that kind

of sway. At the 2016 conference, we had two – a Twitter reach of over two

million, which, for a fairly specialist conference, is fantastic. But bear in mind

that our target market and our attendees are Software Developers, their

natural home is Twitter. And I think that’s the thing with social media, you

could very easily go all platforms, all out and that doesn’t help, generally.

Think through really carefully, and we have to do this for every single one,

which platforms are going to work? Which platforms are the spaces where

our audience talks to each other, to us? You know, where do we get most of

our feedback, and certainly, if there’s ever a complaint, it pings up on Twitter

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first? And so, we have to be on it and in delivery, it means we’ve got to be on

it all the time as well, and the same applies, you know, there are a number of

events where it hasn’t gone right, you know, there has, in some cases, been

significant issues, and they’ve just failed to jump on the social media to be

able to respond. So social media’s an amazing tool for us, as in Event

Managers, in terms of developing ticket sales, absolutely, building presence

and profile, not just for us, not just for the events we’re running, but for the

sponsors and partners that are involved in that too. It gives a great

sponsorship benefit back to the sponsors, so we stand a greater chance.

We’ve got more benefits to offer, therefore, we can develop more sponsors,

which should make it a more sustainable event in the longer-term, financially.

It’s also about gathering that feedback and building that engagement,

building those relationships, making sure that people do feel that they are

valuable to the event experience as well, that what they say is listened to. All

of that is a really important part of what we’re doing as Event Managers, and

we can’t afford to ignore that. We’re not just – we’re not one trick ponies,

dear Lord, we do everything. So, in terms of recognising what our skills and

abilities need to be, if social media isn’t a strength, then bring people in who

can do it and love it, and are entirely engaged in it, and give them

information to be able to respond properly and effectively. There’s nothing

more effective than a sorry, as far as dealing with some of those issues, and

the timing of response is really important. So, that puts a different kind of

pressure on us, as Event Managers. On the ground, on the day, we’ve got to

keep that online community as engaged as much as the onsite community.

And crafting those events can be really difficult, because in the online

environment, it’s not the same, you know. I’m really experienced in the live

environment; physical I can facilitate that. Online is a completely different

world, and different times, you can’t control the temperature of where they

are watching, or listening or engaging with it. You can’t control their state of

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mind. And we don’t within the live environment, but we do influence it as

people come in, and we have that capacity, but we don’t have that in the

online environment. So, we have to think really careful about design for that

online audience, as much as for the live audience, and recognise that people

go between the two. So the consistency of experience is also really

important. And post-event, gathering their feedback, gathering that input,

but also fuelling and feeding the next one, so that we’re not taking our eye

off the ball for a second. We just can’t afford to.

I: Yes, there is no downtime.

R: No. None whatsoever. And everyone’s got an opinion, and I think that’s the

– we have to develop even thicker skins than ever before, you know, because

sometimes people just don’t like what we do. And that’s fine, everyone’s

entitled to their opinion, but it’s recognising which bits you take on board,

which bits you maybe take to heart, how you can avoid taking it to heart, and

I say that as someone who frequently takes it far too much to heart, because

it’s important to me, and that’s, you know, for my practice, it is about the

impacts and the broader context. So, when it – I try not to be on the social

media feeds, because it’s too – I’m too close to it, but I recognise the value of

them, and they are absolutely vital in building our audience and our

presence, making it more than simply the one-off, by giving it a much longer

lifetime.

I: I think one of the questions that I wanted to ask you, is that as the event

industry develops, as critical event studies develops, as you know, just the

world of events that we are quite familiar with is just developing at such a

rapid rate, the role of Event Manager is also developing, and there is, in

certain circles, suggestion that the term ‘Event Manager’ be discarded, and

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that we should move onto more, perhaps more creative terms, which

acknowledge that creativity. So Facilitator, or Experience Designer, and I

wondered if you felt – what term do you feel most at home with, in terms of

what you do every day?

R: I don’t have one, I really don’t. Because Event Manager isn’t – Produ –

Creative Producer is as near as I can get. The title, Event Manager, is really

difficult. I really struggle with it, because it means everything and anything.

It’s a bucket into which various tasks or functions are lobbed, and it’s almost

as if we – ‘Event Manager, will do anything required,’ and we don’t always

have the skills and ability to do anything and everything, you know. There

are Event Managers all over the place who are utterly brilliant, and dip into

all kinds of skills and abilities that aren’t in a job description, and aren’t in a

function list or a project plan, but you know, I found myself doing – finding

contact lenses for performing artists an hour before they were due to go on,

and by finding them, I mean, sourcing them from an Optician, with their

prescription, and so on. And I found myself sewing hot water bottle covers

for press guests at a large festival, because that’s what needed to be done at

the time. So, it’s never really enough. And so equally, anybody can call

themselves an Event Manager. So, there isn’t a qualitative element to that,

and I think that’s, you know, it never will be the same as being Doctor, you

know, because it’s not that kind of world, but I do struggle with that term

‘Event Manager’. And I’m not sure that Facilitator helps any further, because

it’s equally vague. So I’m not sure there is a term that really encompasses

everything that we do as Event Managers, and equally, so I think it’s about

seeking out our own term for what we do, as opposed to seeking one that

works for everybody, which is why, yeah, Producer is the one that works best

for me, because that’s what I think I do, is I produce stuff. I pull stuff

together, craft it in that dark art of production and then go, ta-dah, and hope

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that they like it. But it should be, because I’ve crafted it with them all the

way through. So it’s that, for me, Producer, but you know, terminology lets

us down so much on this. And there isn’t one that just goes, “Yes, that.” And

I suppose most Event Managers are within that creative sphere, and we’re

quite reluctant to be put into a pigeon hole that says, this is my box, because

most of the time we’re thinking way outside it. All the time, anyway.

I: In the latest studies around the development of events as an academic field,

there is an understanding now that to try and define the term ‘event’ is

pointless, and actually, the fact that we can’t define it is one of the most

creative and dynamic things about it.

R: Absolutely.

I: It’s a constant dialogue, and it’s that constant evolution, which keeps it, kind

of, rich and interesting, so perhaps it’ll be in a state of constant flux, and

that’s okay.

R: One of the things I love about the fact, is that within our sector we can count

Prince Harry as one of our colleagues, our – in terms of, he’s an Event

Manager, he’s just invented the Invictus Games and he’s the lead deliverer

for it. Now, he’s not taping down the cables with Gaffa tape admittedly, but

he could quite happily own that title of being an Event Director, as can John,

down the road, at the Lions Club, who puts on a Christmas Fayre each year,

you know, and that’s one of the – it’s a great leveller, in lots of ways too, you

know. And we’ve all been, whatever part of the sector we’re working in,

we’ve all been in that moment of going, “Ooh, not sure that that was

supposed to happen,” and we’ve all felt that moment, that tension, of the,

there’s so many bits to do, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get them

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all done, and are pushing ourselves to do more. So, that’s one of the

beauties of it as well, and that breadth is far too broad for us to really define

with one term, or one title for a sector.

I: Wonderful. Thank you very much for your time, Claire.

R: You’re very welcome.

I: Thank you.

[End of File – 39:28]

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