Latest / Event Industry News Podcast / From Hovercrafts to Live Surgery: Behind the Scenes of Event Production

Transcript

From Hovercrafts to Live Surgery: Behind the Scenes of Event Production · Event Industry News Podcast

0:00
Music.
0:07
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Event Industry News Podcast with me,
0:10
James Dixon, wishing you all a very good morning, afternoon,
0:13
or evening, whenever or wherever you tune into today's podcast from.
0:17
We are bringing the podcast to you today from an actual location.
0:21
Rather me sat, as I have done for the last few years, an upright piano in my
0:26
living room in the great town of Barnsley with my laptop balanced atop the piano
0:30
and a wireless mouse underneath and a microphone taped to the top of a brandy bottle.
0:37
Genuinely, my week-to-week mic stand is a brandy bottle with the mic taped to the top of it.
0:42
We're in a proper location today, and we're in that location thanks to the team at Stream 7.
0:48
A bit of sort of historical context, 2025 marks the 15th anniversary of Event Industry News.
0:54
And Event Industry News was born, conceived, and spent its formative years in
0:58
the heart of the great city of Sheffield in those little offices right next
1:02
to Sheffield Hallam University, just off Arundel Gate.
1:04
And that's where the podcast was kind of first born as well.
1:07
I guess you could say that.
1:09
So we've, to celebrate 15 years, come
1:11
full circle back to the centre of Sheffield and to the HQ of Stream 7.
1:16
It's been recorded from their base and they are premium event live streaming,
1:20
stunning visuals and immersive experiences.
1:22
Stream 7 has been at the forefront of event broadcasting for over a decade.
1:26
Its experience team combines cutting edge technology with industry expertise.
1:31
To generate worldwide reach and connect audiences with your event.
1:35
If you want some more information on the team there, it's stream7.co.uk.
1:40
And hopefully that gives everybody a nice bit of context as to why I'm sat around
1:45
this nice table with a lovely branded TV behind me, some proper mic stands and
1:49
actual guests that I can see.
1:52
We're going to meet those guests now. And we've recorded a handful of podcasts
1:56
from the Stream 7 base today.
1:58
And I guess one thing, having done a couple already, is that they share a similar
2:01
theme, which is there hasn't been a theme really. We're just having a conversation.
2:05
We're going to meet our guests, find out what they do, and then see where that
2:09
conversation leads. So let's begin to my left.
2:11
We've got Nathan Angus. Nathan, welcome to the podcast.
2:14
Thank you very much. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
2:17
So I'm the managing director and co-founder of Wildfire Experience Agency.
2:21
We are a full service agency and supplier to the industry.
2:26
We do everything from team building days to conferences to...
2:31
Prop hire to incentive travel to award
2:34
shows christmas parties all sorts of different things we're quite
2:37
unique in that we own majority of our own equipment
2:40
so i've got hovercrafts i've got three life-size lions i've got power turn buggies
2:46
i've got four crystal domes i've got lots of different things like that but
2:50
we got to know stream seven from they have supported us on lots of fantastic
2:54
events and working together and things like that fabulous and thank you very
2:58
much for being here today.
2:59
And thank you very much for saying that you own Hovercraft. I've noted that,
3:03
in capital letters on my iPad. There's today's opening talk. Just the four of them.
3:08
Just the four Hovercraft. So yeah, thanks for that, Nathan. Let's work our way around the table.
3:13
Natalie Evans, welcome to the Event Engine News podcast from The Occasional Group.
3:17
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what The Occasional Group does. Yeah,
3:20
so I'm Natalie from The Occasional group and
3:23
the occasional group is two agencies so my
3:27
role in the occasional group is people and
3:30
culture manager but we are all
3:33
about people in the company and that is what we provide so we provide people
3:36
to the events industry so we provide lots of different like experienced people
3:43
down to your entry level staff but all of those staff are working temporarily
3:48
in temporary locations for temporary events.
3:51
We also provide additional staff to venues and things like that.
3:56
So when venues have got a big event on and they can't cope with their own staff
4:03
in, basically, we can provide additional people in for that.
4:07
It's fundamental to the events industry, isn't it?
4:09
Let's face it, without temporary staff, the events industry couldn't and wouldn't exist. Exactly.
4:15
And it's a lot of very experienced people on our books, basically.
4:19
Yeah. Amazing. Well, welcome along today.
4:21
Let's continue moving around the table. Darren Wayne, the Managing Director here at Stream7.
4:25
First of all, thank you very much for having us today and providing this great facility to record.
4:30
Tell us a little bit about yourself. And I gave a little bit of a plug there
4:34
at the start to Stream7, but what you guys do here? Yeah, so Darren Wayne,
4:38
Managing Director here at Stream7.
4:39
So we are an event, primarily event broadcasting company. So we provide cameras,
4:44
kit and crew to any event anywhere in the world, basically.
4:47
We do everything from conferences to film exhibitions to live medical surgery. We do...
4:55
Everything and anything to be with connectivity and bringing,
4:59
connecting your audience to your event, basically, wherever they are.
5:03
I'm noting that, Dan, as well, live medical surgery. Oh, absolutely.
5:07
I said there was no topic, so I'm pleased there isn't.
5:11
We've got hovercraft and live medical surgery so far, temporary stuff.
5:15
We're ticking all the boxes. And finally, a very warm welcome to the Vintage
5:19
News podcast to Alex Gardner.
5:21
Alex, tell us a little bit about yourself, who you work for, what you do.
5:24
Okay. So my name's Alex Gardner. I am MD of Smile Business Support.
5:28
For the purposes of today, because I do work with lots of different clients
5:33
doing lots of different things, but the purposes of today is event management.
5:37
I do a lot of event management and I also compare events and panel host events.
5:42
Excellent. And again, critical. Critical always need good hosts.
5:46
That's what they tell me anyway. They can never find one, which is why I always get this gig.
5:55
I said I was going to start with hovercrafts, but I've got to,
6:01
I can't, I can't, I can't pass this opportunity up to talk about hover.
6:04
When and how did the need for a hovercraft come around at an event?
6:08
So we used to, years ago, we used to do stag parties and corporate events and
6:14
people would want to have a hovercraft experience or used to stags where we'd
6:18
have like, we'd sell multi-activities packages so to do hovercrafts,
6:21
rage wuggies, quad bikes, stuff like that.
6:23
And we had a site in Sheffield that we were doing at one point we had like 150 stags every weekend.
6:28
And then the council decided didn't want any motorized happening in the city. So that stopped.
6:34
I'm not bitter about it at all.
6:37
And then we just use them for the corporate. So we used to have more because
6:41
we used to have motorized equipment that was just for the stags because they
6:45
would be a little bit more aggressive in the way that they drove it.
6:48
And then you would have motorized equipment that was for corporates,
6:50
things like that as well.
6:51
But we'll do like a multi-activity day where you'll get to learn how to drive
6:55
a hovercraft and then...
6:57
Do some axe throwing or crossbows rage buggies
7:00
or anything like that how do you provide temporary staff to that well
7:03
have you got any qualified axe throwers on the books to be
7:07
honest we used to have a really weird thing in our system just because it was
7:10
the original setup and we hadn't fully gone through and removed some bits and
7:15
we had i think it was something silly like 70 fire eaters on our books and we're
7:20
like we don't need to know that but it was really interesting fact.
7:26
So because there's so many people on our books that people
7:29
do come from all walks of life like we imply doctors
7:32
to go and just work on a wristband in
7:35
at an event because they want to get away from their job so we we've got lots
7:39
of different people in the industry that's something that's never occurred to
7:44
me that people who might work for these sort of temporary event agencies might
7:47
not necessarily just do it all the time it's not my full they're full-time gigs
7:50
yeah Yeah, gigs as well, don't you? Exactly.
7:53
We meet a lot of like really interesting people and people with really interesting jobs.
7:58
And one of the things that we're really passionate about is welfare.
8:02
So we do have a lot of people that come in because of that.
8:06
So their normal job might be something to do with teaching or something to do
8:10
with welfare in general.
8:12
And then they're on the ground working for us, providing that customer service
8:16
to people in the industry, which is great. This is one theme that's run through.
8:21
I'm not sure exactly when this particular episode is going to be published and
8:24
whether or not this is going to go out chronologically as we've recorded them today at Stream 7.
8:28
But if you listen to each of the episodes that we've recorded here today,
8:33
you'll find that the common theme is this, I suppose, flexibility.
8:38
People being multi-skilled who work in the event industry.
8:42
And it's just again it's kind of just dropped in
8:45
our laps here on this particular episode that you know from an event agency
8:48
and staffing point of view that you've if you've got people
8:51
with these skills you know first aiders doctors people the
8:54
medical background all that's going to be useful isn't it when you when you're planning
8:56
it you know from a business point of view as well yeah i think i think part
9:00
of that you know bringing all those different personalities together and those
9:02
different skill sets especially soft skills yes because you you know you're
9:07
providing a customer experience it's not just hands to the pumps literally yeah
9:12
you're providing that customer experience and if your staff are providing,
9:15
sorry the staff that you provide are providing that experience that's got to
9:19
be another level of interest in your company hasn't it and well I'm going to
9:24
put you on the spot here because you're sat in front of cameras with all the
9:27
staff sat behind it but you know it's.
9:30
The role that Stream7 do and production companies and sort of the,
9:34
you know, the production side of events, it might not be customer facing as
9:39
such, but there is an interaction there, isn't there?
9:41
And there's an interaction with other people, other contractors,
9:44
other suppliers, the organizers themselves.
9:46
So as good as it has to be to have skills to work in this industry of being
9:50
able to operate the equipment or set it up, you've got to have people skills
9:53
as well, haven't you, fundamentally?
9:54
Absolutely. The team, we always say the team is the most critical part because
9:58
everyone can learn the equipment.
10:00
Everyone can, you know, go and study cameras and study equipment and learn that.
10:05
But it's, it's the team that really makes it.
10:07
We, you know, we've, without blowing our own trumpet too much,
10:10
but we get so much good comments about our team because that is when you're
10:13
on site, that's who you're, you're working with.
10:16
The end client is working with your team and it's your team that's going to
10:20
help you if you've got any problems,
10:21
any issues and you know everyone clubs together i think in events
10:24
just everyone's got the end goal of just making a really good event
10:27
and i think that's where the teamwork really really shows through and why i
10:32
certainly have been there and i can think of one absolute i'm not going to reference
10:36
it because it kind of give the game away a little bit but you know being completely
10:40
bamboozled once an hour before doors big awards ceremony.
10:46
By a technician who flatly refused to
10:49
operate playback for the award stings because
10:53
he wasn't no i'm a sound engineer i'm
10:56
not a dj that's what we said one hour
10:59
before doors and bang and and i thought where's this
11:02
where's the people skills there you know
11:05
you've got to have people who i guess again you know
11:10
it's just occurred to me just thinking
11:13
i know we've not met properly anything but i've met paul and
11:17
i've worked with you guys in this thing but the first event that
11:20
i ever compared you guys were supporting me and we'd
11:23
not even met at that point yeah because i was just thinking about that
11:26
interaction with the people you know knowing the
11:30
the interaction i had with you guys as a company was you were really supportive
11:33
obviously i was quite nervous on my first event which
11:36
was about seven years ago and just knowing that
11:39
we'd checked the sound you'd gone through all the details with me stuff that
11:41
i hadn't necessarily dealt with before was so important and
11:45
I've now working with you guys and obviously we have a really
11:48
good time doing our events but knowing
11:51
that they're there is it's just critical when you're
11:54
you know you you know yourself when you're on the stage and
11:57
you know that they've got your back at all times absolutely it's
12:00
crucial can I ask has it changed your approach
12:04
now so you reference that first ever event you're thinking oh you want to do
12:07
all these checks and double checks and is this okay and is that okay do you
12:10
still go through that same process but in a slightly different way because sometimes.
12:15
There's a risk isn't there the more you do things you think oh I don't need.
12:18
To check that that's always fine we do still do the same checks all the time and particularly.
12:24
Not just with myself now but with the people that I'm managing
12:26
on the stage because you know we've got panels and
12:30
or people coming and going and knowing that they've got head
12:32
mics ready to go and on and off you know as people are changing from one
12:36
thing to another it's really important that we've understood what
12:39
that process is who's going on and when all the
12:42
time i think it's a change in the industry as well isn't it because there
12:46
used to be the the old school sort of
12:49
it's a bit outdated but the view of like the av tech is not going to talk to
12:53
anybody just him sit on the desk yeah and if you want to talk to them then you'd
12:57
need a separate event manager who would be like the go-between whereas like
13:02
now i think with the evolution of the industry in a way a lot more people,
13:08
even though they will have all the technical skills and then you guys are testament to that.
13:12
And they'll then have the customer facing skills as well. Like we did an event together.
13:18
We did Kimberly Clark's two years in a row, didn't we?
13:21
It was the AGM for big senior directors and everything like that.
13:26
And we had three days worth of rehearsals and they would come on and ask these questions.
13:32
And it was my client and I'd hired in Street 7 to do it and they were running
13:37
it all. but they would ask me questions go Nathan what's happening with this
13:40
Nathan what's happening with this and I'll be honest I'll be honest,
13:43
I don't really know.
13:46
But some of the guys, they just jumped on it straight away. Like,
13:51
oh, you want this to be slightly smaller?
13:52
You want this to be slightly bigger? We'll get the logo smaller and do this.
13:55
And just giving that running commentary. But also in the old days,
13:59
I've been doing this 29, 30 years, you'd sometimes be concerned that AV tech
14:05
talking to your end player might be a little bit more abrupt.
14:10
Whereas now I think the evolution of businesses to some businesses like Stream7
14:13
who have that custom focus, it actually means that you can trust anybody in
14:18
the team to speak to the client direct.
14:20
And it's actually better because you're getting the technical information as well. Definitely.
14:26
From a business point of view, that's critical as well, isn't it?
14:28
Because you're supplying staff, you know, and you wouldn't want to dare risk
14:33
somebody going into an environment and thinking, are they right for it?
14:38
But I also think potentially budgets played a big, big role in that,
14:43
you know, where you might have been able to afford a dedicated stage manager,
14:47
you know, and then you've got your sort of technicians there,
14:49
you know, and they would act as a go between and that would be their skill set.
14:53
Now, you know, with budgets or with events wanted to expand,
14:56
you know, that you can't afford to have people in there. People are the biggest cost, aren't they?
15:01
So, you know, you've got to have people who are multi-skilled in doing that.
15:05
And the processes thing is a funny one. And, you know, when you were saying,
15:09
you know, and going through that.
15:11
And we see it a lot at the, you know, Event Tech Live is a show that Event is
15:14
Your News has operated now for over a decade.
15:17
And I've sort of seen firsthand people who have coming into,
15:21
you know, comparing or chairing a panel for the first time.
15:25
And it's great to see sometimes how people come in who are genuinely nervous,
15:30
but they're asking all the right questions.
15:31
One thing we said in another episode that we recorded says, the stupidest question
15:36
is the one that you don't ask.
15:38
And I'm just wondering, you know, you said sort of seven years ago was your first job like that.
15:42
Do you find that the questions still come to you very easily when you're working
15:46
at it? Yeah, they do, because what I very quickly learned as a compare was not to make it about you.
15:51
And my job is to be there to facilitate their experience.
15:55
And I do quite often do awards ceremonies and I absolutely love that because
15:59
people doing great things.
16:01
We just recently had what I call Sheffield's equivalent of Pride of Britain,
16:05
which was the Sheffield Children's Hospital Awards.
16:08
The things that people do, I actually am getting a bit emotional just thinking about it.
16:14
Honestly, it's incredible what people do to raise money, but facilitating that
16:19
and making sure that they've been appreciated properly, that's what I'm there for.
16:23
And bring the energy. Bringing the energy.
16:26
That's the thing. Again, I've seen that.
16:30
We've all been at our fair share. And you, Nathan, allude into something that
16:34
Darren and his team does, which is, you know, asking questions and spotting stuff.
16:37
And a lot of the time, regardless of how good the preparation has been and how
16:41
detailed the prep is, until somebody says go, boom, the event is live.
16:47
You don't spot stuff, do you, until the clock's ticking? No, absolutely.
16:51
You can do as much prep as you can. But, you know, with what we do,
16:55
the biggest thing that we need in our industry and what we do,
16:59
especially is the Internet and the connectivity, because we do so much live
17:02
streaming to people or we have remote callers where we have someone presenting
17:06
remotely and we're bringing them into a live show and stuff.
17:09
Yeah. And the internet is the most critical thing for us.
17:12
We have lots of backup systems. We have redundancy systems and all sorts of things.
17:17
But that is, that's the thing that is always, I think, the thing that you can't rehearse.
17:21
And until you hit go and, you know, it's the scariest part of what we do, shall we say.
17:27
Something I need to, I haven't asked this question to anybody that's been on
17:31
a podcast today while we've been recording here.
17:33
But can you actually go to an event as a punter anymore?
17:38
Oh, no, it drives me up the wall. I'm just walking around looking at what people
17:42
are doing and, like, what's their job.
17:46
If somebody is kind of incognito, I feel like I usually spot them.
17:49
So it's some real struggles. Yeah.
17:52
It's a weird one. I find myself going to gigs and going, that mic stand's not right.
17:58
The guitarist is going to have to adjust that when he comes on stage because
18:01
he's much shorter than the road he's set.
18:03
And you see him go for his first backing book and you say see i told you
18:06
and it is it's a pain point but
18:09
it will i don't know how you it annoys you know people
18:12
i'm going to those things would you just have
18:14
a night off yeah but people say the same don't they'll
18:17
always go oh well if you weren't in the industry you wouldn't think like that
18:20
oh well we are yes and we
18:24
were i went to disney in april disney paris
18:27
in april and my dad came with me who's paul who
18:30
i'm talking about earlier so he's been in the industry as long as
18:32
i have and we were we had to go and get
18:35
some well we didn't have to go and get some drinks we decided to go and get some
18:38
drinks before the parade started we were forced for the ride i'll hand
18:41
our back i needed a beer um and we were walking back and they got this it was
18:46
wasn't the actual parade it was some school groups that were going through and
18:49
my dad was like oh is that the parade i'm like no that's not the disney parade
18:53
but um he goes it's very badly organized isn't it if we did this and we did
18:57
that i'm like this is one of the biggest in the world.
19:00
And there's me and my dad from Sheffield going, you know, if they organized
19:03
it, it'll look like that.
19:05
But again, I say sort of to that, why not? Why not go and find a door and go
19:10
literally? Disney door. Yeah.
19:13
I bet you've all been there. You've knocked on some doors, haven't you,
19:16
before? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
19:18
It's, you know, I think, I think by seeing what other people do,
19:21
but also analyzing what we do as well, it's how you learn, it's how you progress.
19:25
You know, we always have production meetings after an event to say what went
19:28
well, what didn't work well.
19:29
And I think that's how you progress as a company and how you progress with the
19:32
technology, because the technology is always changing with what we do.
19:36
You know, a camera that's the best one today, you know, next month,
19:40
next year, it'll be a different way of doing a new piece of care, a new camera itself.
19:45
And by using that and seeing what works well and what doesn't,
19:48
that's how it progressed.
19:50
Natalie, what's it like getting feedback on people? Because it's slightly different
19:53
for your business, isn't it?
19:54
You know, like Darren was just saying there, you get feedback on,
19:56
you know, new equipment coming out and, oh, maybe we could adapt this or do
20:00
this side different with the hardware.
20:02
But you're getting feedback on people. Yeah, so sometimes that is difficult
20:06
to get because not all clients want to give feedback, which can be difficult
20:11
because feedback is like clearly really important.
20:15
Thankfully touch wood most of the feedback that we do get is
20:18
good one of the biggest things that we have to like
20:21
drum into people is that we need the good feedback as much
20:24
as we need if something went wrong but one of the
20:26
things that we pride ourselves on is if things go wrong it's investigating what
20:30
went wrong and how we can do better next time rather than just writing off the
20:33
situation yeah so are you suggesting there that actually you you tend to you
20:38
have to encourage people to give good feedback because yeah they'll kind of
20:41
just after the event go oh yeah well everything We don't need to tell them that it was my age.
20:44
But they will come forward and say, this person was not so good.
20:49
This person leaned against a hole while I walked past kind of thing and were
20:52
like, what was happening at that particular point?
20:55
And I think that is one of the difficult things with people is that sometimes
21:00
they can be caught at the wrong time.
21:03
Like you could have somebody that has just had a phone call that has gone off
21:08
in their pocket, so they've gone to go and see what that is and a director walks
21:11
past and it's just the worst possible timing.
21:14
But as long as we can then give context on that, because we've had that conversation
21:18
with them rather than going, yep, they shouldn't have done that.
21:21
Because usually there's a reason, it's not just somebody presenting bad behaviour.
21:25
Or the kid at home is ill or there's a family emergency.
21:29
There's a hundred genuine reasons, isn't there, for a phone call.
21:32
And like you said, it's so fast-paced, the world of events, that unless you
21:36
see something with context, you don't know actually what's going on sometimes.
21:42
Any number of examples like that.
21:46
Yeah. Well, nobody knows what's happening behind closed doors or anything like
21:49
that, but I've had it the opposite way around where my wife's wanted me like four times in a row.
21:55
And so I've gone like, right, I need to go and check what this is.
21:58
Yeah, this is important.
22:00
This couldn't be important. There was anything wrong with my door or anything like that. And she just.
22:08
Can I just add those that you know just about the experience
22:11
and talking about the processes and covering the bases that's one
22:14
thing and that you can always rely on Stream 7 and
22:17
and and yourselves at this you've always been there and
22:20
what I haven't told you as well so I used to do events with you at Aberdale
22:23
Sports Club back in the day back in the day back in
22:26
the day I remember that but what I love about and that
22:29
I haven't worked with you but I'm sure this is the case as well is that
22:32
it's not just the reacting and the basics it's the
22:35
fact you also the added value of working with stream
22:38
seven is that you know they look at ways
22:41
to improve it so i might go with this this and this thinking
22:44
i've nailed it and they'll go well actually have you thought about
22:47
this as well and that is really important just giving
22:50
that added value just that extra thought process to
22:53
make it special we had i
22:56
did an event with you guys last in london last november that
22:59
december sorry and you did a site visit with me
23:02
and the things you were coming up with i'm like brilliant it
23:05
was brilliant
23:08
we had such a laugh just having the site visit and
23:11
thinking of ideas and that in itself and unfortunately we couldn't do them all
23:14
but it was great to have that input and i know from yourselves as well nathan
23:19
we i used to have the same experience with you abadale you know what can we
23:24
do i've got this business that wants to do this this and this and you would
23:27
always give that added value.
23:29
And I think that's really important in events. Yeah.
23:32
Added value is something that I've spoken about before to people about the events
23:36
industry and how it doesn't compare to any other industry.
23:39
Like you wouldn't get a plumber turn up and put your bathroom in and then out
23:42
of the goodness of their hearts say, oh, well, I'll fix that kitchen tap as well.
23:45
That's exactly right. I want to change this. There'll be a catch to it.
23:49
They're not coming forward and proactively offering to do that.
23:52
If you ask them, they'll say, yes,
23:55
But it's going to cost you another 150 quid and the parts, you know,
23:58
and I can come back next month and do it for you.
24:01
You kind of accept there's going to be a cost if there's going to be something
24:03
and you can always like, you know, seem like, look, cut it out if you can't or whatever.
24:07
But the thing is, and all right, yes, it's upselling, of course it's upselling,
24:10
but it's just that added value of all of you are going to be providing that
24:14
event together and that experience together.
24:18
So why not smash it? Can it be difficult to convey that?
24:21
I'm looking at you again. But on the temporary staff basis, you know.
24:25
Well, one of the things that we do is we ask for feedback from our staff as
24:29
well, but we ask for it on a two-part basis because we ask for it on us,
24:33
the client that they've worked with, so that if they've got any suggestions
24:36
to our processes, which do come through sometimes and we make tweaks,
24:41
we're very much a growing company.
24:43
So we change things and adapt things to fit the people on the ground.
24:48
But then also we get feedback from the staff that
24:51
have worked the events to then give back to the event organizers which
24:54
can sometimes be very like very very
24:57
telling about certain bits that they wouldn't have known about
25:00
because you've got so much planning to do
25:03
for an event like one specific area
25:06
might have been a bit of a like back overlooked
25:09
yeah taking a mat see and the staff member
25:12
that's been working in that area spots like lots
25:15
of different things that could be improved next year and when they come back
25:19
and they've seen that those things have actually happened that's invaluable
25:22
to them yeah it shows that they've been listened to and it's important to value
25:27
that everybody at every level of an event within that sort of the hierarchy
25:31
has has a valid input and or could have a valid you know.
25:36
Opinion or idea. I've had it numerous occasions with temporary staff that often
25:44
come in and maybe a theater or a trade show that they'll often have temporary
25:48
staff at the entranceway scanning badges or system and stuff like that.
25:52
And they just come up with great little ideas. It might be something really simple.
25:56
So if we put that over there and put that over there, it'll improve the flow
25:59
of people coming in and out.
26:00
Which going back to what I was saying, sometimes you don't realize things until the event goes live.
26:04
You plan it to be one thing, and you've got to be adaptable enough to change
26:08
it and take on those opinions and every opinion is valid.
26:10
I think what's interesting, I think with events, everyone seems to be on a great
26:14
goal to just make it really work and the best.
26:16
I don't think you get that in many other industries.
26:19
I think everyone, you know, whether like you say, it's from like the,
26:23
you know, the temporary staff all the way to the, you know, the event directors and everything.
26:28
I feel that everyone just wants to make it the best they can.
26:31
I think that's why everyone helps each other as well.
26:34
You know there's always traditionally in technologies
26:36
there's always been like camaraderie between the departments you
26:40
know the the sound department of like oh we're waiting for
26:42
the lighting guys they're taking forever and stuff but it's one of those that
26:46
everyone does join together you know and it went to deliver that perfect show
26:50
and i think that's that's what i love about events i said it's the passion isn't
26:53
it like it's supposed to be one of the most stressful industries in the in the
26:57
world but but then it's the passion i'm only 20.
27:05
You still get lots of people wanting to go into the
27:08
industry because it's that it's that experience and it's
27:11
and you know looking at things moving forward
27:14
for for the industry as well with you look
27:17
at what happened in covid and how many people fought back
27:20
and came back and and diversified and
27:24
did different things because they were like no i'm not going to leave this industry i
27:27
love it i'm going to do it and you know
27:29
we we own business for my father and
27:32
i and my brother but we often joke
27:35
oh i could sell it and we could go and do something else and not work as much
27:38
and i'm like what would i do yeah i don't know what to do if i wasn't doing
27:42
events when my daughter's in a drama club so a shout out to verve academy that
27:47
she goes to and every time they have a show on i provide all the props for it
27:52
i'll turn up at six in one instead of props so I'm not getting paid.
27:54
They did about £2,000 worth of props and it covers the fees for her to go to
27:59
this drama, which sounds six years old, so I don't think it's that expensive.
28:02
But you're still like, it's got to be the best.
28:04
Oh, you're doing Beauty and the Beast. You've got to have this prop.
28:06
You've got to have that prop. And I think it's the passion that people have in the industry.
28:10
They need to make sure that, even if it means using somebody else and not using
28:15
your own stuff, you know they're going to do a better job.
28:18
It does feed into...
28:21
We mentioned earlier about going to an event. Can you go to an event just as
28:24
a punter and look at it completely for what it is?
28:28
I find as well, if we have a house party, if we have a barbecue in the summer, do you know what I mean?
28:34
One little Sonos speaker outside is not going to cut it.
28:38
I'm down my unit at eight o'clock in the morning loading PA up.
28:44
There's full PA systems rigged up and lights. I think one New Year's Eve,
28:48
our projection mapped onto the ceiling of our extension.
28:52
I can't just invite people around and stick YouTube on or Spotify on a playlist.
28:58
Do you find that as well? Yeah, when we had our house going.
29:02
And a six-year-old birthday party, isn't this hovercraft?
29:06
My daughter's birthday parties are pretty epic.
29:10
I am wrapped around her little finger. So she had a wicked one and we had a six-foot chair.
29:16
We had all these backdrops yeah princess come
29:19
we've had frozen we've had beauty and beast so we'll
29:22
just hire a church hall or something like that and then i'll
29:25
just bring all the props in and stuff and even i was like there's gonna be quite
29:29
a few props we didn't have as much time so i even got some of my staff to come
29:32
and help set it up as well i got my head of ops to come and help me i was like
29:36
i'll pay for your drinks on a night out if you come and i was like and i don't you know,
29:42
a nine metre backdrop, playables.
29:45
And yeah, she has all sorts. Did you find yourself that, Alex,
29:49
go full of M mode, you're going out for dinner with people and suddenly you're
29:51
at the head of the table chairing the conversation?
29:54
Some would say yes, I would say no, it's not.
29:59
But when I go out into restaurants, particularly because I've worked in hospitality
30:03
for a long time on and off and mainly now actually advising,
30:07
but it's the same with restaurants as it is with events, isn't it?
30:11
You've got that same thing where you're watching and going, oh,
30:13
what are we doing with that? What are they doing?
30:15
That's late. Chef's annoyed. It's out on the pass. It's drying out.
30:19
Yeah, yeah. It's in steam coming out of their ears.
30:22
Steam's coming out of their ears. Yeah, that whole sort of event life flowing into...
30:30
Your day-to-day life is a thing, isn't it? I find that with a lot of people
30:34
who work in the events industry, that they don't really have an off switch.
30:38
You know, some people finish their job at five o'clock, turn the computer off,
30:42
walk out the door, get in the car and go.
30:43
But it doesn't happen, does it? No, there's no off switch in this job.
30:47
But we do value wellbeing for our staff and for us.
30:51
But it's quite difficult to walk away from your laptop sometimes when you know
30:56
that there's things there that need to be done and especially when it's information
31:00
that staff want from you we want to give them as much information because it
31:04
goes back to what we were talking about earlier,
31:07
more the more information people have got the better they can be at their job
31:10
and like you said we can plan all eventualities and then stuff will change on
31:16
site but if we've not given them information in the beginning then they're going
31:19
in blind the more information they've got the more adaptable they can be when they get there.
31:23
It used to be a very caring business it must be quite a usp
31:27
yeah yeah so we me and
31:30
josh um so josh is the director of the company have
31:33
both worked in the industry for like years so i.
31:37
Met josh first i believe in glastonbury in
31:39
2012 so we found a picture the other day and
31:42
it was a bit of a blast from the past and we've
31:45
we've worked in different industries we've worked on
31:48
the ground like all over the uk and we've
31:52
saw what not to do and how not to
31:55
treat your staff and how we don't want to be treated so then
31:58
we've put that into this company to be like we
32:01
want to give people the best start into the industry because i know
32:04
a lot of people that were like one or two.
32:07
Shifts for specific companies or just specific roles
32:10
and they've genuinely hated it and they've never come back but
32:13
one of our things is there's so many different roles in
32:16
the industry you might absolutely love bar and
32:19
hate to do it in or the other way around so we encourage
32:23
people to like do more and go and try
32:25
things and always looking after yourself
32:28
is the key thing so we've got like working minimums
32:31
you can't work seven days in a row in our company so
32:35
if you're working lots of different events for us you have to have a
32:37
day off and we go as far as
32:40
trying to discourage people from
32:43
working with other companies in that day off because burnout is
32:46
real and especially with temporary event
32:49
staff if they are just working
32:53
for us going to another company going through all of the like different events
32:58
that exist really really excited about it and then they crash that crash lasts
33:03
like a long time and that affects them yeah because of that attitude that you
33:09
have then to the staff that are on your books.
33:13
In some respects, I guess you want to be working and working with staff who
33:19
are open to that attitude and to open to the idea of their own well-being.
33:24
If you've got people who are that desperate that they want to go off and work
33:27
with another agency for those two days before they come back to you to fill
33:31
their diary, they might be going to go for 28 days straight.
33:34
If they've got no understanding of what well-being is, then arguably you might
33:38
not want them actually working for you. I'm not suggesting you could go and
33:42
get rid of those people, but actually it must, in some respects,
33:45
that acts as sort of a natural filter.
33:46
And we do a lot of education on it as well. And we've had staff that have like
33:50
told us they're not working outside of the thing and they are.
33:54
And then they come to us with the realisation of you were right.
33:57
I shouldn't have done that. And it's always a case of right, fresh start.
34:00
Let's move on and don't do that again kind of thing. so as
34:03
long as they've not done anything to genuinely detriment and
34:06
harm other people because they were so tired or so overworked
34:10
like we've known people to have kind of
34:13
a different personality when they're like so stressed and
34:16
we you can have someone say oh so and so
34:19
was a bit rude to me and we're like really that person that then
34:22
you dig into it a bit and it's a case of maybe they
34:25
were overworking because bills have just gone off and that sort of stuff and
34:29
you've have a lot of empathy to work in this job as well and not just a well-being
34:33
understanding but an understanding that you know if you're absolutely shattered
34:39
and you're you know helping to control the flow of people in and out of a campsite at a festival.
34:47
One mistake there could be critical yeah you know and that's the same in any
34:51
sort of point you know if you're absolutely shattered it's easy to start making
34:55
mistakes isn't it and starting tripping up on things or certain tasks that should
34:58
take five minutes of taking an hour.
35:00
That's, you've really got to know when to actually say stop.
35:03
We have to watch that with you guys as well, don't you? Because you have all
35:05
the set up the night before, the set up in the morning, checking everything.
35:08
Then you've got it all to break down in the evening and we have it to watch.
35:12
Yeah, I think it's just making sure you do manage people's times.
35:15
I think it's getting more and more tricky nowadays because, you know,
35:19
gone is a luxury of having a hotel room and a venue space the day before to do a full day set up.
35:24
You know, I think everyone's trying to get more and more events in as they can,
35:27
which, you know, is understandable, but it does mean, you know,
35:30
you've got crews working through the nights to set up and then,
35:33
you know, it's then having a separate crew the following day to maybe operate
35:37
a show so people aren't tired.
35:38
And it's, it does become more, more balancing that, but also managing the client's
35:43
budgets as well. Yeah, that's a big problem.
35:46
You've got so many people who are,
35:49
lower on budget this year because you have national insurance increase and
35:52
different things yeah of course yeah so then the client
35:55
might say oh well actually i've only got this much budget and then you're stuck
35:58
in a situation of staff welfare staff tiredness actual trying to make profit
36:05
and making sure that you're keeping staff employed anyway so it's always a it's
36:08
a balancing act again i think that's where like kindness comes in a lot as well because.
36:14
Obviously we we need the money to pay the staff but being
36:17
as kind as possible to everyone that you interact
36:20
with on an event just has so much
36:23
of a ripple effect because anyone that is like rude
36:26
in an event environment that if somebody shouts at
36:29
somebody then that's just ruined their day they
36:32
might then go and have that kind of attitude with a customer because they've
36:36
just been shouted at by someone that's walked past and they weren't doing something
36:39
or they hadn't done something quick enough yeah so kindness is key and it's
36:44
one of the things that we try to drum into all of our staff is you can see how
36:48
passionate you are about that though and how.
36:50
How it obviously rings true in your company and
36:53
looking after people and caring for them and that's really good
36:56
because sometimes you will get you'll get some staff
36:59
from other agents and stuff like that and they'll they'll be on
37:02
back of like 28 days straight or something and you can tell
37:05
that they're just absolutely shattered and with freelancers
37:09
and temporary staff our industry would just
37:12
be dead without them we wouldn't be able to we have some days
37:14
where we need 70 members of staff yeah and then the next day we'll need
37:17
four so it's like it's so you need to
37:20
get these people in but i think that's where responsibility comes on
37:23
people as well who are hiring them in to have the
37:26
same ethos as you and say right these are the breaks
37:28
you're going to get are you happy with that this is our company
37:31
for us this is what we do like for us one of
37:34
our thing our tagline is we make it fun we do it better so
37:37
we want everybody to be smiling all the time and they might
37:40
go to different events and they might be told don't talk to clients
37:43
don't do this don't do that so i think there's got to be a responsibility on
37:46
as fantastic as what you're doing for your staff but we need to follow that
37:50
through as well with your temporary staff and everything else and it makes sense
37:54
now why you're people and culture manager because you know how often do you
37:58
sort of read in the news about a business and,
38:00
oh, it had a toxic culture within the business.
38:03
You know, too many times. Yeah. You hear about toxic cultures in sport,
38:08
in business, you read it on the news and to actually have somebody with the
38:12
word culture in their job title,
38:15
I presume that, you know, it's there because you're trying to promote a healthy
38:19
and positive culture in your own business, which then feeds through.
38:23
And it's basically it's HR, but HR has got a bad ref, like across all industries.
38:29
It is improving part of the CIPD.
38:32
So it is improving. But,
38:34
culture is it's the the core of the company like
38:37
if your people aren't happy then the
38:41
product that they're putting out isn't going to be happiness and our staff are
38:44
putting out customer service think about the term hr no human resources yeah
38:48
you want to think about what resources what resources is water yeah gas electric
38:53
you know you you straightway you're putting people into the category of being something,
38:58
you know, it's like a utility.
39:02
A vital one, though. Without a doubt.
39:05
But, you know, if you take a minute to think about it, I think it's refreshing
39:10
in some respects to hear that rather than calling it HR, it's called something
39:14
else, culture, people, skills.
39:17
Because the ramifications of getting the culture wrong goes all the way through.
39:21
Yeah, absolutely. The end result is generally an unhappy customer.
39:25
Somebody's going to get annoyed along the line, aren't they?
39:27
Yeah, I can think straight. I've got one company in my head on it. It's Chaos at the top.
39:32
It's a father and son that manage.
39:36
It's not Nathan.
39:40
It's not Nathan and Paul. But I can think of one company.
39:44
And they get on really well with each other, but they clash.
39:48
They're constantly arguing with each other.
39:49
And it's kind of a toxic battle at the top of the organization.
39:53
And so many times i've taken a step back and gone look at
39:57
everybody in your team now people crashing around
40:00
arguing with each other yeah fighting to get a job
40:02
done and then when i see a company that does exactly
40:05
another company that does exactly what they do a competitor
40:09
and it's harmonious people working
40:12
well we had a situation where we needed to get a
40:15
new head of operations and a new head of sales and i
40:19
hired and we both qualified for a job i hired my two best mates and it became
40:26
a situation at work where they thought that if they would do it everybody else
40:30
thought that i wouldn't i would take the side of my two best mates as opposed to,
40:36
do as head of finance head of projects and they they were having these slt meetings
40:42
and i wasn't part of them as md and then i said i'll i'll get involved in them
40:46
and then i could see that my two We were doing what was right for business and
40:51
both of them ended up leaving and not working for us and don't work for us anymore.
40:55
But you could even see with the people below them, because the guy who was head of sales was best man.
41:02
I've been on my second marriage as best man both times, but the culture change
41:07
in the business that that had was because people thought, oh,
41:11
well, he's best made for Nathan.
41:12
Nathan's going to take his side, not going to take our side.
41:17
Changed obviously when I sacked him, but it's, you've got to,
41:22
whenever you're making those decisions at the top of the business,
41:25
you've got to think about everybody all the way down and having those people
41:28
were qualified to do the job.
41:30
But the implication that you wouldn't necessarily see on hiring them because
41:36
they, you knew they were qualified to do the job and they had the skillset,
41:40
but it was just because the closeness,
41:42
which bearing in mind, our company is family owned, so it's me,
41:46
my dad and my brother who own it,
41:48
excuse me, but my mum also works there and runs finance and stuff like that.
41:52
But I don't think there's ever any question on the Angus side because we've
41:57
been there for years and we've always worked all the hours in there anyway and
42:02
stuff like that to prove that dedication.
42:04
Whereas as we were growing a company, I think sometimes some people think, oh, is it.
42:09
That stuff? It is one of the hardest things
42:13
to manage when it comes to the culture element of that
42:15
because we we definitely have it in our company because we're so
42:18
friendly with our staff we do have some newer
42:21
staff that will come in and just assume that because we're friendly
42:24
with like on-site leads that they're our friends
42:27
and it's like they are but also they're
42:30
not like at the end of the day it's the job that is being
42:33
done is the important thing so if somebody has done something wrong and
42:36
they're reported it gets investigated and it goes through all
42:39
of the same processes that anything would regardless of
42:43
that relationship that we've got with them and I think
42:45
that can be something that is hard to prove because
42:49
obviously we're not going to start publicizing our
42:51
disciplinaries or anything like that but it
42:55
is one of the hardest bits of the outside culture when
42:58
people do look in and they look and they're like oh well you've obviously
43:01
given jobs to people that are your friends but we employ
43:05
people from all over the UK we go to universities and
43:08
try to pull people from event management courses to join
43:11
our books and that's yeah so we're always
43:14
recruiting new people and we've got a team
43:17
leader working an event today and it's actually her
43:20
only set only her second event with us but she
43:23
shone really well at an event before the team leader said how great she was
43:27
she did an extra interview and done all of our training so that she could then
43:31
team lead at this event that she's just come in so like the opportunities are
43:34
there but people would look on the outside and be like well you're obviously.
43:38
Going to give that role to the two people that you know the most and it's not the case but.
43:43
It is a difficult one to try and get out to everyone with because you can say
43:47
it as much as you want but isn't that kind of the element isn't there going
43:52
back to sort of the wider industry and why we're kind of sat around the table
43:55
today having a conversation about the events industry is again it's.
43:59
From a meritocracy point of view people can can
44:02
work their way up aren't they they can come in as a as as a
44:06
junior in any company or you know be stewarding an event as
44:08
a you know through the occasion as an occasional group member of
44:11
temporary staff and then go actually this might be for me and
44:14
work their way up there's a there's a there's a great pathway there
44:17
isn't there and opportunities for people who want to embrace and learn there
44:20
is and i just think it's going back to what we were saying about soft skills
44:23
as well earlier they sort of stand out and we
44:26
don't talk about it enough you know processes like
44:30
you were saying equipment can be taught processes can be
44:33
taught soft skills and what people you
44:36
know and the emphasis that they put on those soft
44:39
skills and the customer experience and the looking after
44:42
and the managing of the people around them it's so important
44:45
yeah i've got two kids i've got george and jess
44:49
and they're both in hospitality they've had it drummed since
44:53
they were little and you know i'm always proud when
44:56
i see them getting a trip advisor or a you know a personal
44:59
one because it's those soft skills that that
45:02
make you stand out and and we're
45:05
always looking for and i bet that that young lady who's
45:08
gone straight on to that team leader post after two shifts yeah she's got a
45:13
fantastic personality she'll be really engaging really smiling really happy
45:17
yeah and everybody around you can almost list sort of the attributes you don't
45:21
feel it can't you give it off energy and people will be drawn to her because
45:25
you'll be really energetic,
45:26
enthusiastic, but listening.
45:29
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The soft skills are so much more important now as well when
45:33
you're doing live events and you're dealing with the public or clients or whatever
45:38
it might be, because there's such a wide variety.
45:41
I was talking about this the other day and I was saying.
45:44
Like 20 years ago, if you were told you've got to go on a team building event,
45:48
you would have to go on that team building event.
45:51
You wouldn't turn around and go, actually, I don't feel like it's inclusive
45:54
to me. I'm not going to do it.
45:56
Whereas with different generations now, some generations got more confidence
46:00
and will say, if I don't feel included, I'm not going to go to it.
46:05
There's different inclusivity that we've got to look at. There's different mental
46:08
health that we're more aware of. So actually, it's not just dealing with your
46:12
own staff that you've got to look at these soft skills and how you approach these things.
46:16
It's also looking at when you're dealing with your clients and making sure that
46:19
they feel comfortable all the time.
46:20
So when they're actually coming to an event, you've got to look after if there's
46:24
any mental health, if there's any disability, if there's any inclusivity that you need to look at.
46:29
So the actual job of putting on an event is much bigger and requires more soft
46:34
skills than it would have 20 years ago when somebody would just on an event.
46:39
On inclusivity, we're doing more and more now where we're having separate rooms
46:43
at an event and we're live streaming to these different rooms so people can
46:47
have a separate space away from the main event but still be included and watching. Interesting, yeah.
46:52
Go get a coffee, check some emails and stuff that's still diving.
46:55
Yeah, yeah, but there's quite an area.
46:56
We started streaming to nursing rooms and things like that so people can still
47:01
be part of the event and watch it, but, you know, there's these are separate spaces.
47:05
Mums can be with daughters or babies. Exactly.
47:09
Any neurodiverse issues I've got a quiet space quiet space yeah you know and
47:13
you're still involved in the event because we can stream into all these different
47:16
locations but it does it does allow for that inclusivity yeah and if I could just drop.
47:23
Mindful of time and we'll start wrapping things up but just to talking about
47:28
people and soft skills I had a really great experience about six weeks ago at
47:34
an awards event and it was an awards event for young people and I was producing it
47:38
And I was kind of sat there, you know, the sort of front house tech set up and you got.
47:43
They'd booked some live entertainment for during dinner. And in keeping with
47:47
the theme that it was an awards for young people, they booked some young performers.
47:51
And this young chap turned up called Jake E.B. I'm going to give him a name
47:56
check. Jacob Edwards-Brown, 17 years old.
47:59
And they said, oh, yeah, he does singing with backing tracks.
48:01
And he emailed me his backing tracks in advance.
48:04
Really polite email. Hello, introduced himself. Please contact my backing tracks.
48:09
I've numbered them in order.
48:10
I'll come and introduce myself on the day. And I said, oh, thanks very much.
48:13
Do you need a sound check?
48:14
He says, no, I'll be fine. It's just a microphone and backing track.
48:17
So as long as I can hear myself.
48:19
So I thought, well, straight away, I'm thinking, well, this kid's clued up,
48:22
you know, not demanding a sound check at three o'clock in the afternoon when
48:25
I'm trying to run tech rehearsal and stuff like that.
48:28
Walked in, introduced himself, was polite, was really personable.
48:33
Didn't get in the way though. Didn't want babysitting the whole time.
48:36
Said, oh, sit over here, tell me when you're ready.
48:38
Got on stage, opened his voice, sang brilliantly.
48:42
He didn't need to do a thing with the tech. You didn't have to push a fader
48:46
up or adjust anything on his mic.
48:47
He was happy. He came off stage and went, that sounded great.
48:50
Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure working with you.
48:52
Handed his microphone back and walked off and I thought, I'm recommending him.
48:56
I'm recommending him. He was 17 years old and had as much professionalism as
49:02
I'm seeing with any sort of live entertainer.
49:04
What was his name again? Let's give him another shout. Jake Edwards Brown in Barsley.
49:08
He goes under the name Jake E.B.
49:10
Young vocalist and for that type of event it's exactly what you want because
49:14
we've all been there high pressure
49:15
a lot of moving parts a lot of stuff happening what you don't want is a,
49:20
tentuous entertainer turning up who wants a one-hour sound check
49:23
endless tweaks to what they're doing oh i want to change the list of songs that
49:27
i'm doing can i swap stuff in and out he was everything that sort of a you know
49:31
in that context yeah that you would want it to be and it's a great example he's
49:35
he's got the skills of singing he had great backing tracks and but it's those
49:39
soft skills that make him stand out.
49:41
He's probably as good as any other singer out there.
49:44
But when you have an experience like that, I bet you've all been there.
49:46
We've gone, well, they were easy to work with. Let's book them again.
49:50
And that's what you want, isn't it? You want people that are easy to work with.
49:53
It just makes everything go a lot more smooth. Yeah, absolutely.
49:58
Everybody on board. I think that's a nice way of wrapping up today's episode.
50:03
Nice, positive way to work. It's all been positive. And for that,
50:07
I need to thank my guest today on the podcast, Nathan Angus from Wildfire Experience Agency.
50:12
Thanks very much for joining us today. Natalie Evans from the Occasional Group,
50:15
Darren Wayne from our friends here at Stream7 who've hosted us today,
50:19
and Alex Gardner, Smile Business Sport.
50:21
Thank you to all four of you for joining the podcast today and having a chat
50:24
around the table in this great location.
50:26
As I said, stream7.co.uk is the website to go to to find out more about what
50:31
those guys can offer and bring to your own event.
50:33
And before we really sort of put a full stop at the end of today's episode,
50:37
a couple of mentions for what we're doing over at Event Industry News.
50:40
You may be listening to today's podcast via your podcast platform.
50:44
Thank you very much if you've done that and you listen to us regularly.
50:47
But please do make sure that you go over to eventindustrynews.com where you
50:51
can check out video versions of all of our podcasts.
50:54
And you can also check out the A to Z supplier directory.
50:57
If you work in the events industry and you're looking for a supplier, a service, a product,
51:00
anything like that, the chances are you will find it listed within the A to
51:04
Z supplier directory on eventindustrynews.com where you can also find lots of
51:08
news, special features, all the annual supplements that the team there put out.
51:14
You may have started your journey there today.
51:15
If you have done, thank you very much for tuning in and get over to your podcast
51:19
platform and make sure that you're subscribed as well.
51:21
That's everything from me. Thanks again to my guests. Thanks to the team at
51:25
Stream7 and we'll see you on the next episode of the podcast. Thanks everybody.
51:30
Thank you.
51:31
Music.