I got into the event industry because I joined Imagination in 1992 and wanted to try my hand at designing projects on a grand scale. I had not heard of the company before. A friend told me about the place and the kind of work it did and it appealed to me. I was a graphic designer then, and I was lucky to be offered the role of running the graphic design department, which meant working alongside architects, scriptwriters and event producers.
Something about the experience clicked in me and within a year I was appointed to the board of the company as its creative director. Looking back it was an amazing thing to happen. I was only 25 years old and the work we won was on a scale I could only have dreamt about previously. Over the next ten years I travelled the world over as the company expanded internationally.
I have worked here since... Greenspace is the company I founded in 2003 after I left Imagination. I had always wanted to run my own company and to take the knowledge and experience I had gathered, and use it to attract clients on my own terms.
I was attracted to this particular role because creating your own company challenges you to think about what you really believe and what it takes to make it happen.
Not many people know that Greenspace holds the Guinness World Record for the largest seasonal calendar ever built. We created it for the launch of London St Pancras International station as the backdrop for a month of daily events in order to activate the station and all its retail and hospitality partners.
The best event I've been involved with was the launch of Heineken Greenspace in Valencia in 2005. I’ve been involved in many amazing events, but this was the project that launched our company, that took two years to realise, that drew audiences of many thousands every night, every year for six years, that won lots of awards and left behind a permanent legacy for young adult creative entrepreneurs.
If I could do it all over again I would say no, when saying yes was a waste of time.
The one thing I can't stand is wasting time.
Outside of work I spend my time with my daughter, watching movies and playing football.
If money were no object I would design and build a Danish summerhouse.
If I could switch places with anyone else in the creative industry it would be Marc Newson or my great architect friend Kevin Brennan, who designs and builds wonderful houses.
If I ruled the event industry I would create an event industry award that judged design, creativity, craft and creating legacy on the same level of quality and prestige as D&AD.
Want to be featured in a future My Event World? Email news editor Samantha Edwards for further details.
For more in-depth and print-only features, showcases and interviews with world-leading brands, don't miss the next issue of Event magazine by