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England’s First Regulated Event Management Diplomas - Inside The Event School London · Event Industry News Podcast

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Event Industry News podcast with me, James Dixon,
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wishing you all a very good morning, afternoon or evening,
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whenever or wherever you tune into today's podcast from.
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That intro, in case anybody wonders, came about by complete accident.
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It was never scripted or thought about the good morning, afternoon or evening thing.
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I think it just sort of fell out of my mouth one day in the early editions of the podcast.
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And it's kind of just stuck with me ever since.
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And whenever I say it and I sort of look at where the guest is or when the guest is,
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I was like, oh, very apt today because I'm talking to you at eight a.m. in the UK.
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And my guest is five p.m. over in Australia.
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And it just shows what a great world we live in, that we can we can do these things now
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and speak to people in the far flung corners of our great earth and record this podcast.
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So on with today's episode, and we're going to be kicking things off by referencing an article that was published on Event Industry News a few weeks ago.
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And in 2025, an ESSA survey found that 73 percent of UK event businesses struggled to recruit in the previous year,
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with 88 percent citing a shortage of suitable candidates.
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And the article that ran on Event Industry News referenced that the event school, London,
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had been approved as England's first provider of ATHE level four to seven off qual regulated event management diplomas,
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a structured industry led pathway designed to open doors into the events industry and support long term career progression.
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I'm delighted that joining the podcast today from the event school, London, is Maria O'Day,
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who's going to talk a little bit more about that announcement.
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Maria, a very good afternoon to you in Australia.
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Yes, almost good evening from Australia. Good morning to you every day.
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It's great. Thanks so much. I know that you're obviously based over in the UK, but you're over in Australia at the moment.
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So really generous of you to take a bit of time out while you're over there to have a chat with us about this.
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I mentioned in the intro there that this ESSA survey found that 73 percent of UK event businesses struggled to recruit in the previous year,
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based on a survey that was done in 2025. Was that the kind of, you know, lighting of the touch paper, so to speak, that drove you to do this?
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Or was this already in motion? It was already in motion.
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I think I have been hoping and looking for off-qual regulated quals to deliver above Level 2, which was what had existed for quite some time.
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And I know there is movement in the industry working on Level 3, mainly around apprenticeship delivery.
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And I was always searching and I had found the ATHE had been working with an overseas provider
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and they had created these qualifications that got off-qual regulated approval.
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And I jumped on it straight away. But it was quite a long process.
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Obviously, with off-qual, a lot of people might not be familiar with it.
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But if you think off-stead for schools, you know, off-qual for the vocational industry, there's a lot of hoops to jump through.
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So actually, it was already in our minds that something was needed.
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And I think the industry, as you would well know, and I've been watching some of your podcasts,
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you know, it has been a difficult road back after the pandemic in terms of recruitment.
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I think that's something that, you know, reports have found, whether it's the business of events, power of events, ESSA.
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So when that came out, you know, it was just something else that said we're on the right track here.
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Absolutely. And historically, I know this is a bit of a sweeping statement.
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But for many years, people, a lot of people accidentally found themselves in the event industry,
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despite all of the economics that goes behind it, all the reports that say what a contributing factor it is to the UK economy
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and indeed to other international economies.
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A lot of people would either leave university or maybe come from another career, maybe marketing backgrounds.
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It was amazing how many people kind of fell into the event industry by accident.
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Absolutely. And really for the amount of money economically that it contributes,
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we really should have a more structured pathway, shouldn't we?
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Absolutely. And I think it's, you know, there are pathways available, apprenticeships, private providers, universities.
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And I think there's also a generational, I wouldn't call it a divide, but, you know, we have a lot of guest speakers who come in.
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And obviously we ask them the question like you ask your guest, how did you get started?
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And if they're of a certain generation, mine, perhaps yours, you know, it generally starts with, oh, I fell into it.
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And this is how I, you know, it might have been project management, hospitality.
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As the, I think the new sort of generation is less accidental because I, from my accent, you can tell I'm not just in Australia.
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I am Australia. I came over to the UK in 1998, started work with Excel in 1999.
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And I remember back then, I think there were two unis offering qualifications in events.
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Sure, yeah.
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If you skip forward to now, you know, you do have a lot more universities offering it.
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The apprenticeships are still not quite there.
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And I think a lot more people, a lot of universities, I don't want to say jumped on the bandwagon,
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but realised the opportunities that existed for students.
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So, you do find more people now in the younger generation have deliberately chosen it,
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but still not, still not enough.
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And still, I believe, look, I come from a vocational background.
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I went to uni, I've experienced different universities, but I've been in vocational education all my life.
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Not everyone wants university, not everyone wants apprenticeships.
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People are very hands-on, practical, which is like our industry.
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And I think that's where we've been missing the trick, that people have needed something.
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Sorry, I'm going to bang on about this.
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Well, I love that you pronounced regulated strongly when you were talking about it,
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because I think that's the part that's been missing.
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There's some great CPD professional development courses.
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There's some great private programs.
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There is a plethora and abundance of online event programs.
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And it's not saying that they're not done well, but the regulated aspect, assurance for parents,
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assurance for teachers, assurance for guidance counsellors who are guiding young people,
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and that hasn't been there before.
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They haven't been able to say to people, this is a good choice.
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This is regulated. This is serious. This is real.
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Sorry, I'm not known for being succinct. You might have to cut me off.
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No, no, no, absolutely.
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As an observation, I remember visiting a university about 13 years ago,
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and myself and a colleague from the events industry were invited to actually work alongside
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on a couple of workshops with some of the event management students.
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And it was really interesting because the overriding sort of sense I took away from it was that a lot of them
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had chosen this course because they didn't really know what else they wanted to do.
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They probably saw event management listed, you know, as a course and thought,
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oh, that might be quite all right to do.
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I want to go to university. I'm not quite sure.
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There was just this sense that it wasn't like they'd always had this ambition to do it,
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that they were kind of just there because it was a course that they could do.
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I feel like we've really moved on now.
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Absolutely.
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I think in that decade or so since then, and just beyond a decade, really, we've really moved on.
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And this is the joined up thinking between institutions is there now that wasn't there just over a decade ago.
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Absolutely.
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And I think that's the thing, you know, it's not happening in isolation.
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And this is a pathway that we've been able to source that we think will be great for students and the industry.
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But at the same time, you've got organisations like the Power Events and their school engagement programme.
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You know, fantastic.
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They're out there banging the drum with their speakers, talking to people in schools.
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And you have, I think, even, you know, venues opening up for school tours and those sorts of things.
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Because it's, you know, our industry is so diverse.
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And that's where we find our students if they're new to the industry.
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Because I think you had Nick Oxford on a little while ago.
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He does associate lecturing for me.
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And, you know, we do have a lot of people who are already in the profession.
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But they may not be in what they call the industry.
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So they might be an event planner for a bank or et cetera.
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But for those newcomers to the industry, especially the younger ones or career changers,
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they don't know exactly what all the opportunities are.
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And that's where something like what the Power Events have done, showing all those different sectors,
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is crucial for us to then be able to point our students or potential students in the direction.
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It's also why, with our new programmes, we offer a range of electives for them to explore.
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They don't know they can be a wedding planner and that's a real thing.
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Or that they can be a luxury event manager or work in a hotel as a venue coordinator.
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You know, they don't know.
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They've just been to a festival.
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They've been to a concert.
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They've been to a wedding.
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So all of those things working together is why I think you're right.
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It's made a huge difference.
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And also when we look at how the industry and industries are reshaping themselves at the moment.
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And we're only 10 minutes in and I'm already going to say the phrase AI.
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Back in the pandemic, I had a paddle that I'd hold up that said pivot.
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And every time somebody on the podcast mentioned it, I'd hold up the paddle.
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Pivot!
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And now it's AI.
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I've got a new paddle for that.
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But my point in raising that as a phrase and as a term is that more and more companies will see the value in events for their own businesses.
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Internal events, I think, are going to really, really continue to develop in the next few years.
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Because AI will become a thing.
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Because jobs will be lost to it.
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Because companies can improve their efficiencies in any trade industry using AI.
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They will see the value in doing things on a face-to-face level.
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Whether that be internal meetings or events that help their brand.
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And with that, we'll continue to see a growth in the events industry.
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So we need people with that structured background.
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Because I think when you look at it, take that step back and look at it from an overall business point of view, things continue to grow.
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Absolutely.
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And I think that's an interesting point.
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Because our most popular masterclass is a masterclass in corporate event management.
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And they are people planning or who are being asked to plan or want to plan events for their own companies.
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And they are the ones who are often those accidental planners who may have been in an office role, et cetera, and they're being asked to do these things.
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And we're seeing it.
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You know, it's on the rise that that is something that business engagement events for your own staff, et cetera.
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The AI, it's an interesting one, isn't it?
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You're right.
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It is.
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Where's that paddle for AI?
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Because you can only imagine for the industry is trying to catch up and how will we use it and what will it be used for.
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Imagine in like education for the event industry, especially around things like assessment, developing cognitive thinking, critical thinking, you've got that responsibility to prepare students for an industry that will be using AI in any workplace role.
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But at the same time, having to develop the student's ability to know and think for themselves and problem solve.
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And it's something that I think all academic or vocational organisations are having to deal with.
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And also, dare I say too, that you want to be different.
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You know, AI is great to help you be productive.
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But like an event, you don't want an event that looks like every other event because AI is you.
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There's an interesting point because I'm sure you're probably a social media user, but, you know, working in the events industry, you kind of have to be.
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And I'm outside of what I call my day job.
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I'm a really sort of keen musician.
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And so I do a lot.
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And so a lot of my social media feeds are filled up with stuff that's music related.
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And on Facebook particularly, the amount of banned sort of posters, you know, for their gigs that I'm seeing, they've all been generated on chat GPT because they all look the same.
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And it's already within the space of 12 months, my feed is just full of the same design style of poster.
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And I'm thinking, come on, people.
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It's a good tool, granted.
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But let's get creative.
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People are getting really lazy with stuff like this.
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And everything is looking the same.
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And I think there'll be a bit of a, I mean, look, we're not going to go backwards.
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It's going to keep moving forwards.
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But I think there's a reaction already, exactly like what you're saying, that it was clever at first.
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So you stood out if you did something clever with AI.
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Now it's like what stands out is authenticity.
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I mean, that's what we do, you know, with our students.
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We have digital marketing classes for them, etc.
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If you're authentic, that is now what stays out.
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Because everybody knows that anybody now can make that sophisticated video, that kind of look.
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But if it's not unique and original, then it's not going to catch people's eyes and their attention.
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And I think just with the AI, because it's a huge topic for us.
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Like you, it's on every agenda.
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We've had a specialist from America because they kind of really jumped into the AI for education in terms of the governance side of it very quickly.
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We had someone like virtually come in to talk to our industry advisory board, our lecturers, etc.
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But that idea, too, that how you use it also depends on what's the thing they say.
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It's not just do you ask the question, you question the answer.
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And I think that's where for people who already have experience in events or X, Y, Z, you can use AI.
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And you know, if it's come up with something, you think that timeline doesn't look right for that event.
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You know, I don't need that.
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I'm going to need more than a month to find a venue for 25,000 people because we know that.
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And that's why with our students, we really get them to learn without AI first because they don't know that.
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They don't know those steps.
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They don't know about finding suppliers and venues and what's required.
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So if they use AI straight up, they're not going to know if what's in front of them is real or useful or not.
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So we teach them the manual way first and then we teach them the clever tricks to use and to how to be more productive with AI.
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Such a good way to do it really isn't it?
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It's such a good way to do it because, you know, we are extremely hands on.
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And there will be kind of a sort of a, dare I say, would it be called a paradox where, you know,
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we are already living in a world that is driven by technology and data and algorithms and using it.
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But, you know, when I'm on an event site and I'm doing something, there is no replication for experience,
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for having done it before, for being able to say to somebody, we need to do it like this and we need to do it like that quickly because I've seen this problem.
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When you've got that experience, you can predict problems and you can see where there could be issues before they happen.
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Much more so that I think than AI could at the moment, certainly.
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Yeah, at the moment.
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And I think it's also the reason why alongside, sorry, I'm just going to reach forward and put the light, because it is, oh, now that's very bright, because of course the sun is setting here.
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And now I'm, let me sort of move here.
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The, oh, I've lost my train of thought.
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I've totally lost my train of thought.
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And I know we're doing a one cut shot.
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It doesn't matter.
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Oh, I know.
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The important thing is that alongside like the off call regulated qualifications that we have, the thing that doesn't change with us is the experiential learning and the hands on experience.
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And we probably go further than a lot of other companies because you can do simulations and case studies.
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Of course you can.
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But it's learning by actually doing and making the mistakes that you learn from and they get to do that with us in a safe environment.
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So, again, that's something, you know, I look, I, we have one online, fully online event course.
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The rest, even if it's online, it's virtual, taught by a real person, because for us, that's the value in what you learn from that lecturer who has that experience in the industry.
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And AI course, because, you know, they're popping up all the time, aren't they?
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You probably see them on that Facebook channel that you're on.
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Like, oh, you've got a skill, use AI, create a course.
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And even some of the very good courses that have, they say great lecturers, but they literally, it's like a TV show.
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They are talking and you are listening.
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The value of the experienced person who, whether it's learning on the job, learning in a classroom, learning in a live event environment, is where you get that real learning that sticks from.
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So, I think for us, the digital is important, but it's a tool, it's, and it's there for humans to use and for, and to be useful to us.
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You can't replace that human touch.
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I completely agree with you.
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I think it's important, while we've got you on today, Maria, I think it's important that we frame the actual school as well, because we shouldn't take for granted that everybody listening or watching this is aware.
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No, of course not.
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Of course not.
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So, I think, you know, why don't we just take a few minutes to just frame, you know, what the school is, where it's located, how the courses are structured in terms of how people actually engage with the course content.
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Mm hmm.
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We do often say that we are one of the industry's best kept secrets, and that's probably a failing on my part.
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So, the school in terms of like who we are, what we do, where we are.
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I was a startup member of Excel London, and like many people that we were talking about earlier, I fell into events.
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I'd been in hospitality and education, hotel background, came over here, first job, millennium job, loved it.
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The huge nature of it, what we were doing, and then I was recruited over as head of HR and training at Excel, and I was there three and a half years, and as people probably are also familiar with, in that there was no event industry in East London at that time.
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There was barely a full hospitality industry.
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And, of course, we were hiring people from West London, North London, overseas.
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And, you know, being a big startup like that, you had a responsibility to the local community.
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So, we did what we could as an organisation with that.
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But I saw an opportunity, I guess, to say like, you know what, I think outside of university, we really do need something that will help bring people into this industry in East London.
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And at the beginning, the event school was part of a hotel school.
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And interestingly for me, and talk about, you know, doing your research as a startup, like at that time, Newham was the second most deprived borough in Europe, not just in the UK.
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And we are a private training school.
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So, you know, it is a fee for service school.
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So, we did what we could with scholarships, et cetera.
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But from very early on, we found the draw of London, probably at least half of our students come from overseas, often on short courses, master classes, sometimes longer courses, and then from around London and the UK.
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So, the reason that we started out was originally to help local people get into the industry.
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But it actually ended up being more about the industry and filling those gaps from the early days.
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The relationship with, I've been working on that Royal Dock site for, I don't even want to say, 28, 30 years or something.
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We're better placed to be based.
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So, we use the Novotel London Excel predominantly for our training courses.
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We have small classes.
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That's another big thing about the benefits.
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You know, there might be eight to 10 on a course.
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There might be two or three on an elective.
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But Excel London is a great teaching tool for us.
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And it's the reason we're in that area.
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We run some of our bigger courses occasionally there.
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We did some training for BBC live events.
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We've done some big study tours.
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But it's a huge place.
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You know, eight of us are going to get lost in there.
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But we are always over there.
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Because to me, if you're teaching risk management, why would you sit in the classroom and teach that,
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when you can walk across the square and actually show and see and feel what risk is about,
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what's happening with crowd management.
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So, location-wise, that's where we've been for 21 years, 21st birthday this year.
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Purpose-wise.
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Oh, it's exciting, isn't it?
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Purpose-wise, we're very driven by our students, supporting our students to get in the industry.
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But obviously, we can't do that if we're not industry-involved and industry-immersed ourselves.
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19 lecturers, all of them are associates who still work in the industry.
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Probably about half of them are more education-first industry on the side.
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And the other are industry-first in education on the side.
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But, you know, so every day we have people in that are out there.
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We have Alex, who does Glastonbury each year.
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Nick, who you've met, who's done, you know, he was an event business success coach.
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Rachel was a general manager for et cetera venues.
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Siobhan is a leading wedding planner.
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She'd launched the National Association of Weddings.
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So, they are immersed in industry and bringing that to the student.
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The difference with us, and I think the Event School London, what we offer,
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is there are many providers who have that.
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People from the industry who've got the experience.
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With my educational background and people like Nick,
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we bring that actual training experience.
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I don't know, like some people think, oh, I'm good at giving a presentation.
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I'm going to be a great lecturer.
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Actually, there's a lot that goes on in helping people to learn
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and to get your message across and for that to actually be understood
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in such a diverse industry with such diverse students.
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So, I think the difference for us is we're packaging that industry immersion,
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that industry experience with really strong vocational,
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educational experience.
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We also have a great quality and innovation associate called
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Karen Bachman who interestingly, what's her new thing called?
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It's AI, it's about the importance of the human touch.
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So, she's doing work with us on that.
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So, that innovation piece also.
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Where we're also, you know, we're different.
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We sit in a different space than nearly everybody else.
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We're not a university, which I find I am forever explaining
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to people's parents, you know, like we're not a university,
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that's the point.
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We're not an apprenticeship provider.
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We're not a school.
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We're not doing a BTEC or an A level.
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We're sitting in that space after school that people can go to
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to upskill, career change or start their careers
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in that practical fashion.
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And going back to what we were saying sort of early on here
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with the sort of the corporate event side of things,
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so many people have kind of progressed within their company.
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They might have started in a PR role that's moved
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into digital communications, that's moved into, right,
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you're now the marketing manager.
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And then suddenly somebody walks into the office one day
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and says, oh, by the way, you're organising the company
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conference this year.
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Yes, yes.
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And there are so many people in these roles who have graduated
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into it who maybe don't have the opportunity to go back
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and retrospectively say, well, it would be great to actually
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learn about this in a bit more detail rather than constantly
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learning on the job.
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Absolutely.
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And, you know, that phrase about what is it, you know,
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the imposter syndrome.
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I know it's a cliche, but we have so many people who come
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to us and, as I said, they'll often do, like,
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a five-day short course, two-day masterclass,
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and then looking for that validation that they're doing
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it right or they want to learn how to do it right.
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And often in some of those corporate roles,
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they haven't had to do all the pieces.
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So they might never have had to do a risk assessment
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because they're health and safety manager.
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Their budgets might be set by someone else.
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They don't have to look for a venue because they use the same one,
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you know, if they're from a university, they use their own venue.
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And especially if they're looking to progress their career
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or move on eventually, they want the full methodology.
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So and they, you know, they go back saying,
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like, I started using what you taught me straight away.
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So it's that upskilling is almost as important, I think,
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as the career starters because so many people are out there
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doing it and wondering, is this right?
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It's a great thing because as somebody who,
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I tend to sort of define myself as sort of working
25:52
in operations roles that are kind of technically focused.
25:56
That's where I find myself as a freelancer,
25:58
either dealing with AV or dealing with overall production
26:03
with the kind of the technical focus tends to be where I sit.
26:08
And I can think of, you know, easily a handful of events
26:12
off the top of my head that I've arrived at.
26:14
And I've just thought on the, I know why you selected this venue
26:19
because on the face of it, it's great.
26:21
But clearly you haven't had anybody with the sort of the technical
26:24
side of things coming in to say to you, have you considered this?
26:29
I did an event just post pandemic and it was education related.
26:33
It was like a school's music programme.
26:35
They had done like, they travelled around the country,
26:38
working with groups and classes of kids.
26:41
It was culminating in a big live event at a venue in South Yorkshire,
26:45
but with other schools around the country dialing into it
26:48
on a live stream.
26:50
They hadn't asked what the internet was like in the venue.
26:53
Can you believe that?
26:55
So they booked the venue, they committed to it, they paid for it.
26:58
And the whole event was framed around it being hybrid,
27:01
having some of the children there and some of them dialing in remotely
27:05
from their classrooms.
27:07
They had no internet.
27:09
They had no Wi-Fi and no wired internet available in this building.
27:13
And their answer to me was, we just assumed they'd have it.
27:17
That they'd have it.
27:19
And that's where like some of those basic things where you say like,
27:23
you need to tell people about creating checklists and, you know,
27:27
that's the reason we have those standard operating procedures,
27:30
those checklists.
27:31
But if you haven't been taught that, you do just make assumptions.
27:35
That's my big thing, assumptions.
27:37
An educator is, the biggest thing I have to teach people
27:40
when they come to us and we're training them to be educators
27:43
is you think a certain way, like you and I do.
27:46
We go to a venue, an event, and we think a certain way.
27:49
But people starting out who have fallen into it,
27:51
they don't necessarily.
27:53
So you have to join the dots for them.
27:55
There's a very famous example of trying to teach someone
27:58
to strike a match.
27:59
And it's often used in train-the-trainer type things.
28:02
And you say, how do you teach someone to strike a match?
28:04
And they go, oh, open the box.
28:05
Where did you get the box from?
28:07
It was on the table.
28:08
Did you have to open it?
28:09
Like all those steps.
28:11
Risk teaching, risk assessment.
28:13
People go, identify the risk.
28:14
And you go, you have to teach them.
28:16
How do they identify the risks?
28:18
You know how to do it.
28:20
But someone who's never had to do it before, how?
28:23
They don't know to go back and look at past risk assessments.
28:26
They don't know what to look for when they do a walk
28:29
around the venue.
28:30
It's all those steps that we take for granted that people
28:34
who are new to it need to learn.
28:37
Absolutely.
28:38
Having somebody guide them is such a quicker
28:41
and better process via a regulated qualification
28:44
than having a person, as I said, just get thrown
28:47
into the role within their organisation.
28:51
Of course, it's not lost on me at all that where you're
28:54
based geographically now, over the last 21 years,
28:57
just one stop on the Elizabeth line now and you're
29:00
in the heart of corporate event territory.
29:04
The entire UK financial industry is based the next stop
29:08
down on the Elizabeth line at Canary Wharf.
29:11
That's as big an example as you could possibly want
29:16
of people who are probably promoted internally
29:19
and then going with their pants on fire.
29:21
How the hell do I do this?
29:24
Absolutely.
29:25
Yes.
29:26
I think that's the next thing for us.
29:28
Just to come back, I guess, to that full circle
29:31
with the regulated qual.
29:32
We've been piloting a Level 5, so five students
29:36
who were already with us volunteered to pilot that.
29:39
We've got another round of pilots in September
29:42
which are like a degree alternative, postgrad alternative
29:46
at that level.
29:47
But what we are working on now with Karen,
29:49
the innovation team, is how can we roll this out
29:53
for people who might already be in the industry
29:55
and want to get recognition or want to get that expertise
29:58
because, and this is the tricky part with the regulated qual,
30:02
like you can't skimp on your, you know,
30:05
if there are set guided hours and set assessments
30:08
and it's regulated, it's audited, it's moderated,
30:11
for good reason, but it's finding that flexible way
30:15
to deliver to people in the industry
30:19
and how to offer it that, you know, because time,
30:22
it's not always just about money, is it,
30:24
with private education or any education, time.
30:27
Exactly.
30:28
And you want to know if you've spent time on a course,
30:30
you've got value from it.
30:32
You know, we all know, we've all signed up for a free course
30:36
and gone like, well, that was, you know, idiot,
30:39
because of your time, you know, because of your time commitment.
30:43
So, that's the next step for us is looking at some different
30:45
part-time flexible options that they will still,
30:48
as I live and breathe and run the company,
30:51
they will still have a human being who is running it.
30:54
As I said before, there are lots of online options
30:56
that suit people who need that.
30:59
What we specialise in is this human interaction,
31:02
teacher to learner.
31:04
Yeah, absolutely.
31:05
And before we finish today, just if people want to go
31:09
and find out about this themselves, do a bit of research,
31:12
it's really important that we give them the right places to go to.
31:14
Website, I guess, is going to be the obvious one to start with.
31:17
And very easy, eventschool.london.
31:21
I love it.
31:22
Yeah.
31:23
I love a suffix that works, you know, with your title.
31:26
Yeah, eventschool.london and then tabs at the top
31:29
that make it quite easy, you know, like academic courses,
31:32
summer programs, masterclasses, et cetera.
31:35
And another big thing for us is also with our course advice,
31:39
we really encourage people to reach out,
31:41
because this is something I get raped over the coals for.
31:45
We offer a lot of courses.
31:46
I think the last time I counted there was something like 78.
31:49
And it's like, you know, people go like, oh, you've got a...
31:52
And it's a diverse industry with diverse needs.
31:54
There are festival courses, short courses.
31:56
So we really encourage people to actually have a conversation with us
32:00
to help point you in the right direction.
32:02
And can I say too that, like, when I talk about University Alternative,
32:06
sometimes I help with the admissions and information.
32:10
Sometimes I do advise people to say, actually,
32:13
I think a uni course would be good for you and here's one to try.
32:16
Or maybe this isn't quite right for you and this online program will suit.
32:20
It's got to be...
32:21
For me, it's about what's best for that learner.
32:23
They're my customers.
32:25
You know, it's got to be what's right for them.
32:27
And can I also say some universities can get a bad rap,
32:32
but there are many of them who do a great job
32:35
and they are trying to bring in that practical application
32:38
with their students.
32:39
It is harder for them because, unlike us, they have larger numbers.
32:43
We can take students...
32:44
We went to the Sustainability Event Lounge event at BMA House.
32:49
You know, one teacher was able to take a couple of students
32:52
because we're small and we can do that.
32:54
It's hard if you're at a uni to do that.
32:56
How do you take 100 students to that?
32:59
But I think it's about what's right for the individual.
33:02
The right course, the right provider, and then we're happy if they're happy.
33:06
It's great because so often it is forgotten just how diverse this industry is
33:12
and how broad a range and spectrum of events
33:15
that the term event industry can actually cover.
33:19
And I'm so pleased that you've mentioned things like weddings today
33:22
because Event Industry News at the start of this year announced
33:26
that it was going to create a brand new area of the website
33:29
specifically for the wedding industry.
33:31
Not for brides.
33:32
No, no, no. The industry.
33:34
For people who work in the industry
33:36
because it's being recognised finally after many, many years
33:40
that people who are planning and executing weddings
33:42
with a £2 million budget, you know, they're planning an event.
33:47
They're doing exactly the same.
33:49
And people think, oh, wedding industry.
33:50
Oh, it's a bit fluffy.
33:51
They just walk around with a clipboard and an iPhone.
33:54
But they're planning events on the same scale,
33:57
if not bigger, as any corporate event with bigger budgets.
34:00
Yeah.
34:01
I always say I couldn't do it because the sense of responsibility,
34:04
like it's one thing.
34:05
You want to get it right for your corporate client.
34:07
But who wants to get it wrong for someone on their wedding day?
34:10
So, you know, like getting it right for them
34:13
and the care that our wedding planners who teach
34:16
and then our graduates put into that getting it right
34:19
for that couple is incredible.
34:21
But it is stressful.
34:23
You have to be organised.
34:24
You have to be creative.
34:27
You do everything that someone does for a corporate event and more.
34:33
And you get one shot.
34:34
I'm not suggesting that in corporate you don't get one shot.
34:37
But a lot of them are annual events or maybe, you know,
34:41
you might do three or four a year and you think, OK, you know,
34:44
that didn't quite go to plan.
34:46
We'll rectify that next time.
34:48
Theoretically, the wedding is a one and done.
34:52
Theoretically.
34:53
Theoretically, it's a one and done job.
34:55
I had four weddings, but all to the same person.
34:58
And can you believe working in events?
34:59
I didn't organise any of them myself.
35:01
I think the Excel colleagues organised the first one
35:04
and my mother another one and my in-laws another one.
35:07
But, no, absolutely.
35:10
Those kind of things, weddings, festivals, sports events,
35:14
they're all because I worked at Excel,
35:18
because I worked at the Millennium Dome,
35:20
of course I stayed when I first started.
35:22
I was all about the big events.
35:24
Most students who come to us aren't about that type of event.
35:28
They are about corporate events, brand experiences,
35:31
product launches from marketing teams, weddings, et cetera,
35:34
social events.
35:35
And a lot will actually go on to get those roles in hotels
35:40
that do those kind of venues.
35:42
It's a really good starting point for them.
35:44
So, yeah, we want to make sure that they know they're going
35:47
to be taken seriously.
35:49
So, your...
35:50
What's it called, the wedding?
35:52
What's it called, the wedding industry news?
35:54
Yeah, the area, I mean, it's a dedicated part
35:57
of the event industry news website.
35:59
So, if you go to eventindustrynews.com,
36:01
there is now a dedicated sort of tab there
36:04
and a dedicated section of the website for venues,
36:07
for weddings.
36:08
Weddings.
36:09
So, if you go on to the event industry news website,
36:13
you'll be able to find, excuse me,
36:15
the wedding section quite easily and, you know,
36:20
and it's fascinating to see just how many people contacted
36:25
event industry news privately to say, thank you at last.
36:29
We've needed something, you know, to sort of, you know,
36:33
connect us as an industry together.
36:36
And the response has been overwhelmingly positive
36:39
since we said, look, we're going to dedicate a section
36:41
of that because, of course, when you look at things
36:43
like venues, for example, a venue's not necessarily bothered
36:48
whether or not it's a corporate event or a wedding.
36:51
So, if you're booking a venue, you're booking a venue.
36:54
Whatever it's labelled as is, from a venue point of view,
36:58
is in some respects wholly irrelevant.
37:00
You know, your job as a venue is to fill your venue.
37:03
Yeah, yes, absolutely.
37:05
You know, from a straightforward business point of view.
37:08
Yeah, yeah.
37:09
And we just felt that weddings as an industry
37:12
had been overlooked for a while.
37:14
Absolutely.
37:15
I mean, there's the UK Wedding Association now,
37:19
which is merged with the National Association
37:21
of Wedding Professionals.
37:23
But, you know, they're working on that similar theme
37:26
to make sure it's credible and taken seriously.
37:29
So, yeah, all for it.
37:31
Absolutely.
37:32
There's a shout-out.
37:33
Having launched that sort of section of the website
37:36
at the start of the year, we haven't had anybody
37:39
specifically wedding-focused on the podcast yet.
37:42
So if you're listening to this today and you want to come on
37:45
and sort of shout and talk about the wedding industry
37:48
as part of the events industry, then get in touch with us.
37:51
Get in touch with us.
37:52
We'd love to hear from you.
37:53
We'd love to start having those conversations
37:55
and those professionals on the podcast
37:57
to talk about the wedding events industry.
37:59
Absolutely.
38:00
I'll send you a few names as well.
38:02
Fabulous.
38:03
Yes, they're great.
38:05
I love going to the wedding industry events.
38:07
They're super fabulous.
38:09
Do you know, lesson learnt to me about doing, you know,
38:12
remote working other side of the world,
38:14
I have to sort this lighting out.
38:16
So I hope you'll forgive me for that.
38:18
I've seen worse.
38:20
The fact that you're joining us clear as a bell
38:22
from the opposite side of the world, I think,
38:24
it still blows my mind.
38:26
We don't have the delay.
38:27
Like, you used to listen to somebody on the radio 25 years ago
38:30
and they'd be talking to somebody in the USA
38:32
and you'd have to pause for five seconds
38:35
and then get the response back.
38:37
The fact that we can have an almost instantaneous conversation
38:41
is absolutely remarkable.
38:43
We have different technological issues now
38:46
because what happens is every time you try and log into something,
38:49
your phone goes, you're not where I think you are.
38:51
You need to verify yourself.
38:53
Send me a code.
38:55
I detect suspicious activity.
38:57
Yes, exactly.
38:58
How many cars can you see in these pictures?
39:00
How many traffic lights?
39:01
I've been here for three weeks.
39:03
No, it is.
39:04
It's incredible.
39:05
As I said to you earlier, that's the thing, isn't it?
39:08
The event industry is moving forward always.
39:11
Event education has to move with it.
39:13
Technology, even though we are cautious
39:17
slash optimistic about AI and how we use it,
39:20
technology can be amazing.
39:21
I was saying to you earlier, Bosno,
39:23
that I'm watching my son, tracking him on an app
39:26
on London Marathon from across the other side of the world
39:29
and feeling involved and watching messages from people
39:32
all across the world popping up on the screens.
39:35
It can really help with, I think, you know,
39:38
inclusion, access, all of those things.
39:41
Shout out to anybody in the industry who was working on that
39:44
because that's a gigantic event.
39:46
And I'm fortunate to know a couple of people
39:49
who do work on the marathon every year.
39:52
And, you know, it's a huge undertaking,
39:55
hundreds if not thousands of people
39:57
from the UK events industry involved
39:59
in helping to deliver that.
40:00
So it's worth a little shout out there.
40:02
We've come just about to hit the time today.
40:05
But my guest, just as a reminder,
40:07
has been Maria O'Day from the Event School London.
40:10
Eventschool.london is a reminder for their website
40:13
that we gave out a little while ago.
40:15
And just a couple of shout outs very quickly
40:17
for events industry news before we wrap up today.
40:19
As we've mentioned, the new wedding section
40:22
is available on the website now.
40:24
If you go to eventindustrynews.com, tap news,
40:27
and then we've got all the different sectors
40:29
within the events industry.
40:30
And wedding news is now under the news tab
40:33
on eventindustrynews.com.
40:35
So if you've got anything to contribute,
40:37
please do get in touch.
40:38
If you're involved in the industry,
40:40
please do get in touch.
40:41
And if you want to come on the podcast
40:42
and talk about the wedding events industry,
40:44
please do get in touch as well.
40:46
Whilst you are on the website,
40:47
please do remember to take a look
40:49
around the A to Z supplier directory.
40:51
If you work in the events industry
40:53
and you're looking for a product,
40:54
a service, or a supplier,
40:55
the chances are you will find it
40:56
on the directory page of event industry news,
40:59
the A to Z directory is probably
41:02
the biggest online resource in the industry
41:04
for event suppliers.
41:06
So if you're looking for something in the industry,
41:08
chances are you'll find it on there.
41:09
Thanks as always for tuning into the podcast,
41:12
available on the website as video versions,
41:14
but also available as audio podcasts
41:16
wherever you get your podcasts from.
41:18
So do make sure that you follow
41:20
and like and subscribe
41:21
and do all those usual sort of clicking things
41:24
to make sure that you get the podcast
41:26
whenever it drops each week.
41:28
Thanks again, everybody.
41:29
It's always great.
41:30
And I'll see you on the next edition
41:31
of the events industry news podcast.
41:33
Goodbye.
41:34
Thank you for having me.