Welcome to the geek squad

Being the man at the top can be a tough job – sometimes you’re a smooth talker, sometimes you’re a super geek – but I can assure you that today, as I sit here in my Orpington garden shed HQ and watch the kids sweep leaves off the trampoline, I feel nothing but pride as I reflect on the TPD team who always give 110% in everything they do.

Since our squad began, we have built new partnerships and reinforced existing ones. Personally, it’s been a privilege to be the guardian of this company and watch it grow. I’ve learnt more than I could have imagined and, at times, have been overwhelmed by the pace of it – and we’ve assisted more amazing goals than Beth Mead.

But, above all that, I am happy to be part of a team who truly care for each other. So it’s my pleasure to share with you some words on our team. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we enjoy having them on the field for this adventure.

Enjoy the read – best enjoyed with a cup of tea.

Joe

1,2,3 and to the 4, it’s THE Briony Leivers at your door.

Always taking time to give guidance and work with you on a solution, Briony steers us through projects and makes sure shiz gets done at an olympic level of greatness. We are lucky AF to have this amazing person on our team. And don’t even get us started on the processes! She makes MacOS look like a Speak & Spell.

Briony’s testimonials from partners and clients alike make the Dalai Lama sound like Jim Royle. ‘Prodigious, precise, diligent, energetic, dedicated,’ are just some of the words used to describe her. Not to mention all the praise lavished on her for her freakish ability to reel off details without looking at a piece of paper once. Add to that her amazing rapport with colleagues, clients, and suppliers and you have a true one-off.

With roots in Australia, Briony gave the northern hemisphere the gift of her talents when she came over here in 2015.

She is an awesome producer, show caller, production manager, and has extensive experience on large scale events in Europe and the United States. She’s built large exhibition stands for tech conferences, plus smaller pop up experiences in and around London and the UK.

(She’s so good, we feel that simply writing all these things down here won’t come close to doing her justice. But we’ll carry on.)

Experience

Briony learned her craft studying technical theatre at the amazingly named Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.

Since then, she has worked as Boat Operations Coordinator (innit!) at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, Senior Stage Manager at the 15th Asian Games in Doha Qatar, and Stage Manager for Spamalot and Sister Act, The Musical (hands up who’d like to see a mashup of those two shows?). and become a self proclaimed master of Google Sheets. High five!

She’s also graced her presence at Jack Morton Worldwide, Sydney Festival, Creative Technology Shanghai, and George P. Johnson. Not to mention Chinese New Year 2013 & 14 in Sydney, the Rugby World Cup 2015, ENERGY, and Smyle.

Need a sit down? So do we. In fact, let’s just fall to our knees and shout “we’re not worthy!” to one of the best people in the business today

Jon Paul – known to all as JP or ‘The Pope’ – the honest Yorkshireman with a real but non-dangerous fetish for all things Health and Safety. Nerdy, but in a cool way, this guy never backs away from a challenge; swiftly but happily ignoring defeat like others might ignore a door-to-door salesman.

One of his biggest achievements was hanging the world’s biggest banner – although we’re still waiting for news on whether this is a world record or not. But seriously, this man has bags of B2C experience, having rubbed shoulders with some of the greats, from Playstation to adidas, Asics and Beats.

JP is a well-seasoned Technical Director with over 15 years’ experience to his name. One of the reasons we love him here at The Production Department is his very rare mix of constant creativity – being creative lead in loads of his previous work – plus his amazing technical knowledge of this crazy world we call ‘Production’. Give this man a problem and he will set to it like an 80s kid with a Rubik’s Cube – where the sides are made up of planning and management, client liaison, health and safety, innovative ideas, budget control, sponsorship (wait, how many sides does a Rubik’s Cube have?)

Experience

JP has experience in sports, music, the arts, and digital sectors (we told you he was cool). Some of his sports clients included adidas, Nike, Rebook, Puma, New Balance, UEFA Champions League, and STATSports. JP has project managed large-scale mixed-use arts venues like Old Granda Studios and Camp and Furnace, where he worked with brands such as Google, Vodafone, and Playstation, amongst countless others.

Senior Production Manager at Ear to The Ground for three years, JP has produced and managed events, festivals, tournaments and conferences for cool and groovy organisations like: The Lawn Tennis Association, Mundial Studios, Co-Op, Design Manchester, The Warehouse Project, Liverpool International Music Festival, Sparklestreet, Chibuku, Liverpool Psych Fest, Old Granada Studios, Liverpool Music Week, Primavera Pro, UnConvention, Manchester Food And Drink Festival, Sandbach Transport Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, eToro, and the legendary Abbey Road Studios with NPower.

Albert Rubio: the man with a smile
that could launch a thousand events – and it has.

Albert is our awesome project manager on the ground in Barcelona, with more than 10 years of experience in building and producing stupendous corporate events and trade fairs all over the gosh-darn world.

Having developed his career between London and Barcelona, Albert thrives in a dynamic, creative environment (hence why he joined us at TPD!) and loves putting his Bob el Constructor hat on to build bridges between clients and multidisciplinary teams, always looking for the best and most innovative answers that each project invariably asks of us all.

Albert’s CV has a pretty impressive Education section, with Advanced 2D and 3D CAD, 3D Modelling, (count them) TWO degrees (done in two different languages) and a Masters degree from the pretty impressive Universidad Internacional de La Rioja – I mean..!

Experience

The A-Man started out his career as an architectural technician at Broadway Malyan, working on a number of international projects, but primarily as a member of a team delivering a whopper of a project worth €60 million – a residential building – from detail design through to construction documentation.

From there, Albert joined event company Decomakers, managing the production and construction of systems and bespoke builds on multi-million corporate events and trade fairs. He kept many plates in the air, dropping not a single bit of gravy in the process – plates containing the client’s requirements, project scope, cost management, schedule and resource management, procurement, quality, risks and stakeholders. Yum.

And, just to show that Albert is going to take over the world some day, despite being mainly focused on the production management of large events, he has also rolled up his sleeves and got the paints out, leading and developing the creative concept and design of several stands and installations too.

Albert! Barcelona’s finest export since paella – actually, since all Spanish food.

“We need an ark,” they said.
“Consider it done,” Ewan said.
“Can you whack on a ladder to the moon while you’re at it?”
“Oh for f… yes I can, but that’s IT,”
Ewan said.

And so it was, with nothing more than a hammer, gaffa tape, and some drawing pins Ewan got stuff built and delivered. And he continues to build and deliver stuff. Stuff of the highest quality with seemingly no effort.

Despite having a chin so chiselled he could cut his own gaffa tape with it, Ewan shunned the world of catalogue modelling to use his skills being production manager at some of the best events around the world. He’s handled budgets that would make Roman Abramovic feel a little worried about the numbers, and pulled off amazing exhibitions that make Glastonbury look like a Phil Collins cover band at your local pub car park.

With clients like New Balance, M&S, Goodwood, Google, and Cisco Live, Ewan’s CV looks like… well, like a big list of amazing brands. (We’ll just say it as it is.)

Ewan is one of those rare beasts in the world of production: he speaks fluent Geek and fluent Normal Person, so he’s ideal for liaising with both the production team and clients. From building mock pit stops to creating beautiful fake cider apple trees and anything in between (including that pesky ark) Ewan is your man for getting the important shiz delivered with ease and a whole load of style.

Experience

With a face that could launch a thousand ships, one of Ewan’s highlights is the TUI ‘Marella Explorer 2’ launch. Serving as project lead on TUI’s latest international cruise ship launch, Ewan was responsible for the budget creation of £800k including talent booking. His job was to look after all technical production elements onboard plus liaising with ship staff to ensure the event didn’t affect other ships running international haulage, and being a main contact with international ports (no pressure there then, E-Dog).

Another fave was Google Next 2019 at London ExCeL, where Ewan managed all production elements for food and beverage, a casual meeting area, and FA Partnership areas. He worked between the studio and client handling team to ensure technical elements came in on the eye-watering £8 mill budget.

He currently lives in London and is working on his ‘ark’ project.

Bouncing from one important task to the next. Never dropping the… you know. Not just all about the brains, with bags of personality too (which we reckon must be the reason for his A* in GCSE Expressive Arts) Russ is our Technical Production Management slice of the Production Department pie.

Russ is our can-do man, with a brain that works in ones and zeros but somehow managing not to sound like the robot guy from that Radiohead album. Cool, calm, and collected, Russ integrates the digital and physical – a bit like something out of Minority Report, but not as chilling. From indoor waterfalls to an activation that orders you a Domino’s, bonding the two worlds is an artform – an artform that Russ does with more skill than Tony Hart.

Russ is happy doing anything from building a ‘rain wall’ to helping direct crazy traffic in the car park at the last minute – always at ease and loving every moment of it. But while he’s happy to take on any job that needs doing, he’s not afraid to dish out the delegation too. Oh yeah, he can be a real taskmaster when he gets going (and we don’t care what Russ says, he’s definitely got his eye on Greg Davies’ big chair). He’s managed and been the technical/ digital lead for events like 1000-person charity events for Cancer Research UK; digital events for George P. Johnson; and events for Videobooth Systems.

Experience

Russ has worked on live events, virtual and hybrid events, for clients including Cisco Live – where he helped to create their ‘rain wall’, of which he’s insanely proud and if you haven’t looked at the details about that yet, what have you been doing? He’s also worked with other giants such as Abbey Road Studios, Google, adidas, JTI, IBM, and many other huge, cool clients where their name is made up of just initials.

Most recently, Russ was the de facto technical director for the Envestnet Advisor Summit 2022 in Charlotte North Carolina. As well as overseeing the giant budget, technical delivery and supplier management, he had creative input into bringing new branding of ‘the nodes’ to life, from bringing the 2D design into the 3D and constructing these physically (it’s safe to say this was his baby!) plus he was pretty chuffed to have creative input on the party outdoor entrance structure build too, although as per the Law of the Sod, build day for this was the only day it rained…

He was also very keen to tell you that he helped install a living moss wall at Kyndryl, New York, and that living moss walls tend to smell after a few days.

Russ Ball: technical director, party entrance builder and Alan Titchmarsh wannabe.

That’s right, that’s right, that’s right, that’s right – we really love our Robert White. ‘Rob’ to you and me. ‘Superman’ to anyone who has ever worked with him. Based over in Germany, Rob is our Black Forest Hero, ready to serve up your delicious event in style with a side of whipped cream.

Before we even tuck into the delicious cake that is Rob’s production career, we are so delighted to tell you that he started his career with a degree in nursing, so that explains why Rob is such a lovely guy in whose hands we’d happily place our lives.

Somehow, he then ‘fell into TV’ in the late 90’s, where Rob worked in production for a few years, before having his heart stolen by cameras from behind which he has worked across many formats – see below for some of his very impressive clients.

In TV, he often worked as a senior cameraman or shooting producer/ director, and was streaming events in the days of dial-up modems. Ah, those were the days… jumpers for goalposts…

Some slices of recent work…

In the last six years Rob’s been bringing his experience from TV productions to the event field – because of his time working with content production and technical shizzle, Rob has a holistic view of production and, having worked in many high stress and hostile environments (and that’s just being within ten feet of Nicholas Witchell), Rob is still here, working with TPD and doing the things he enjoys the most. Huzzah!

Some of the bonkers amazing stuff Rob has worked on includes (deep breath): BBC sports, awards ceremonies like BAFTA and The Brits, big ol’ events like President Obama’s visit and the Queen’s Jubilee, gigs like Madonna and Dan Le Sac Vs Scroubious Pip, shows like Emmerdale and Big Brother, plus clients like Google, Vans, X-Box, London Fashion Week and Penguin Books (plus too many others to mention here).

Rob recently relocated from the UK to Southern Germany with his family, and now has a very wholesome life, walking the dog in the Black Forest, doing some top photography and enjoying outdoor activities.

Cherries on top – just to prove that this man can do anything: Rob was a keen motorbiker for many years, but he decided to hang up his helmet once his family started to grow. He is also Home Office Riot Trained for Public Order!

So there we have it: Rob White will bring you a steady hand, expertise in production that you didn’t even know existed, and serve up your amazing event with tender loving care. Just don’t make him bring out the riot training, OK?

Mungo Ryan: the man who needs no nickname because everyone thinks his nickname *is* Mungo (it’s actually a name of Scottish origin, likely meaning ‘most dear’ – nawww). He is one of our amazing Production Management team, having cut his teeth as Local Crew in Glasgow, moving through to being a Production Assistant and now working in the technical side of Production Management.

Born and bred on a farm in Central NSW Australia, Mungo says he’s ‘fairly good at rugby’ – we assume that’s Mungo’s modest way of saying ‘excellent at rugby’ – and although he often ends up a bit injured from his sporting endeavours, we see him as someone who is always willing to give everything a try (sorry).

In other news, he is currently attempting to learn “Without Me” by Eminem for karaoke: he envisages that would be his mic drop moment. (Update: he can currently do the chorus).

Apart from all that, what else has Mungo done?

Well, he’s worked with wicked clients such as BBC, Dior and the NHS to name but a few, and one of his career highlights was working as Film Location Manager for International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) 2019 in Abu Dhabi, with Chinooks and Corvettes.

In 2022, with 10 years’ event experience, Mungo was called in at the last minute to help a friend out on a shift – mysterious and intriguing, he thought. When he arrived on site, he was pleasantly surprised to see actress and all round bonkers-amazing Dame Emma Thompson as she was leaving the event. Dame Emma saw Mungo in the crowd of 20 crew ready to start work (what can we say, he’s a stand out kinda guy) and she made a beeline for him, shook his hand and said, “congratulations on building such a wonderful event”. According to a dumbstruck Mungo, he could only nod and smile. I mean, what else do you say to the best crier on the silver screen?

He’s also supported one of the most enviable jobs in the industry; Mungo was Technical Production Manager for BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) 2015 – 2019 and the SPOTY Red Carpet from 2016 – 2019.

But one of our favourite things about this guy was his dedication to the events industry at a time when there were no events. During the Covid 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, he helped to raise awareness by supporting production for WeMakeEvents 2020, #MAKEITBLUE CIC 2020 and, on the back of #ClapForCarers he helped to activate #LightItBlue, Lighting blue buildings across six continents.

So there we have it: Mungo Ryan. There is literally no-one else like him – not only because he is an all round unbeatable top guy but because he has never met another Mungo.

When we hire a new Production Manager, we look for talent, skill and enthusiasm – and Chris gives us a lot: a Baglot. A truly international man of mystery, Chris has worked on live events in the UK as well as Australia and Canada with clients like IBM and Oracle under his belt, to name a few. Not only that, but for a while he was an actual pub landlord – at The Snowdrop Inn from 2020 to 2022 (not an easy time to be a landlord, either) and he chalks up being an excellent ice skater as one of his hidden talents. Could all these skills be combined, we wonder? That’s something we’d be very interested in seeing.

Back to events, though. Chris cites meeting Bryan Adams as one of his most starstruck moments, “he was the most relaxed and knowledgeable artist I have ever worked with plus just a great catalogue of songs”. And Chris has certainly taken Bryan’s sentiments to heart because everything he does, he does it for you.

The work stuff in focus

Since 2001, Chris has worked in theatre and live events in Australia, for clients such as the Sydney Opera House, where he was Stage & Production Manager from 2008-2013, the City of Sydney Council, Australia where he was the Major Events & Festivals Production Manager and at the Sydney Christmas/NYE/Lunar Festival from 2014-2019.

One time, right, he pushed Daleks on stage at the Sydney Opera House for the BBC orchestra. Another time, he created an electric Santa sleigh for Christmas concerts in Sydney, driving it through the streets for the Big Man himself. I mean, this guy has worked for them all.

One of the most exciting name drops we’ve ever heard was when Chris told us he worked with two of his childhood heroes – the one and only Martin Short and and the other one and only John Cleese at Just for Laughs in Sydney. In a random turn of events, Chris had to put his shoes on standby for Mr Cleese as his own shoes didn’t arrive on time for rehearsals. (The upshot was that Cleese’s shoes arrived 10 minutes before curtain up, meaning Chris’ treads didn’t get their fifteen minutes of fame – this time.)

Chris Baglot: landlord, ice skater, Dalek pusher, he has the same size feet as John Cleese and he’s one of the best darned Production Manager’s this side of Sydney Opera House.

Rob, Robbie, Mitch, Dragon… he’ll usually respond to anything as long as it’s polite, Robin Mitchell is our Production Manager or Production Gangsta, if you’re feeling saucy, and he’s here to manage the heck out of your production and bring an annoyingly in depth amount of film trivia with him.

His career began after he finished uni in 2010, and he started to work in an event crew for a company called RPM; they rightly gave him his first foray in the world of Production Exec’ing, and he’s been aiming for the stars ever since.

OK, here’s something you need to know about Rob: he once threw a pair of shoes straight over a house. Just like Finchy in The Office.

The Robmeister’s work

But this guy is more than someone with claims to fame like he’s in the top 10 in his age group at roly polies. Oh yeah, there’s so much more to Roobie than that. For example, his client list includes mega big names like Diageo, Sky, Adidas, Reebok, Google, GSK, Mondelez – Diageo being one of his faves. Mitch says, “I really enjoy their brands and some of the smaller, more intimate events we used to have for them. And Steve from Diageo could pull off double denim like no one I’ve ever met before, or since.” Rob Mitchell: always highlighting the important issues of our day.

A highlight of Dragon’s career was when he supported the Skyride 2010 event, because watching 100,00 people cycle down the Mall in front of Buckingham palace was a pretty spectacular site. And that was just the usual amount of London cyclists on their way to the event.

Another life highlight was meeting David Beckham at the Trafford Centre circa 2003 and being wished a Merry Christmas by him. Loitering for a couple of hours before building up the courage to go over to a celebrity always pays off, and Mitch is the prime example of that.

So there we have it: Robin “Dragon” Mitchell. Production Gangsta and roly poly expert. He also has a degree in contemporary dance (it’s funny when you meet him in person).

Rochelle Janneh. Grafter, planner, organiser. So organised, she makes her friends line up for a headcount before a night out.

Her CV is longer than a day out at the Tate Modern with Piers Morgan – regularly working two jobs, also while studying and supporting her friends’ events at the weekends, Rochelle finds hours in a week that we didn’t even know existed.

With a background of seven years’ experience in the finance industry, working her way up to senior contract and finance officer, Rochelle is bringing her skills and knowhow to events. We should count ourselves very lucky to have her, as we blow a smug raspberry to the finance industry.

Don’t be fooled into thinking Rochelle is all about the toil, though – she loves travelling, going to live events and festivals, and planning new and exciting experiences, always looking for the chance to learn something new.

The details

Rochelle’s amazing organisational experience includes being fire risk assessment coordinator/ data analysis for the London Borough of Lambeth, as well as contract support officer for the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

But it was while she was working as senior contract and finance officer at Waltham Forest that, for three years, Rochelle simultaneously planned, promoted and hosted events – all off her own back, along with a friend/business partner. She enjoyed it so much that, at the end of 2021, she decided to take off her finance hat and follow her passion to deliver events full time.

This prompted her to study for a Level 4 Diploma in Event Management, where she achieved a merit, as well as study Prince 2 Project Management to upskill herself and make her passion a reality. (Talk about self-motivation!)

Now fully experienced in building working relationships, budget management, planning and promoting events, Rochelle will help make your event shipshape in no time.

Rochelle Janneh: committed, enthusiastic and crazily self-motivated.

Annie, are you OK? Are you OK, Annie? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’: Annabelle Smith is our Junior Production Manager with such a varied range of experience and skills on her CV, she makes Romesh Ranganathan look lazy. With a background in hospitality, retail and social media management, Annie knows what the people want – and she has the professionalism and pizazz to give it to them.

Self-professed Thumb Wars champion of champions (seriously, you will never win), Annie has worked with clients such as Musica Music and Wellbeing CIC, the Comedy Women in Print Prize and Ruth Barrett, composer for TV and films such as Victoria, The Bodyguard and The Terminal List.

That said, proud as Annie is of all of this amazing stuff, one of her biggest highlights to date is meeting Saint Gary Barlow when she was 10 years old – he told her she was funny and she’s not stopped bragging about it since. Quite right too.

The worky stuff in more detail

Firstly, Annie’s star appeal doesn’t begin and end with Gary Barlow – she’s worked with the absolutely fabulous Helen Lederer, best known for her role in the Absolutely Fabulous series. She has also worked with BBC News for a day, when she supported a field reporter to help deliver a story from conception to the live show. Now, back to the studio.

In her downtime from rubbing shoulders with the BBC’s great and good, Annie has also put her journalism degree to amazing use by promoting emmy-nominated TV and film composer Ruth Barrett on social media, by creating a range of content on all platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, tracking and growing her following in the process.

She also lent her social media skills to Musica Music and Wellbeing CIC, a social enterprise which supports people living with dementia and their caregivers, helping them to embed music into their daily lives. Annie created promo videos, articles, social media content and other digital assets for this frankly awesome cause.

But wait, it doesn’t stop there. Oh no – Annie has also volunteered for a whole bunch of things too (we don’t know where she finds the time). She’s worked with the Comedy Women in Print organisation to help with their 2022 prize, carried out a Marketing Internship with TedX, creating digital marketing for their Proud Women Event in Stroud and volunteered at Bath Hospital Radio, presenting a two hour show every Friday evening – rock on.

Fun Annie fact: Annie plays violin up to Grade 5!

Starkie by name, star by nature: Fran Starkie is our resident Simon Cowell (except Fran is a very nice person), being Head of Talent Development at TPD. Fran helps us to discover the next generation of talent, looks after our band of merry production associates, and helps the existing team set sail on a massive ship of learning and development – all of which makes us the best production team in the world (shameless brag).  

After dedicating her working years fighting the good fight in the charity sector Fran joined our ever growing team of experts in 2022. With her experience spanning 20 years (although this hardly seems possible) in the public and charity sectors, Fran has created and developed strategies for high-value fundraising teams, managed £1m+ budgets and led teams to deliver high quality events and guest experiences so exciting, they’d make Alton Towers look like a day at a ring pull museum.   

From conferences and product roadshows to gala dinners, building openings, art exhibitions, sporting events and royal luncheons Fran has directed and managed a shed ton of events from conception through to delivery. 

Experience

Fran spent nine amazing years with Macmillan Cancer Support, working in many worthy roles from corporate partnerships account manager to account development manager, and closing off as head of donor stewardship & special events (high value). At Macmillian, she consistently blasted targets out of the water, developed amazing relationships with donors such as RBS, and created special events to inspire others to make donations and establish sponsorships. We take our hard-hats off to Fran for her hard work to support people living with cancer. 

Fran then spent several years at Demelza Hospice Care for Children, where her role moved more into events as well as continuing to use her unique charm to drum up support for this important cause. One notable event she worked her magic on was the management of the charity’s annual Christmas Appeal, working with the marketing team to produce a direct mail campaign and appeal video. The appeal raised over £60,000, was nominated for an award and the video received coverage on BBC and ITV news. Bonza work. 

At TPD, as well as being the woman holding the umbrella aloft as she leads our team’s learning and development, Fran also works directly with clients. Some notable names under her belt include Google and Amazon Web Services, doing smashing things like supporting the management and production of content for major virtual conferences – Google I/O,  Amazon’s Online Summit, AWS Innovate and a series of other global conferences.   

And she’s organised the bejesus out of us, managing content documentation across various platforms Airtable, Google Docs, Frame I.O, liaising with speakers and producers, and organising recordings both remotely and in-studio. Trust us, those ships need a steady hand on the ruddy rudder. 

So that’s Fran: drummer up of inspiration, organiser of people who need a lot of organising and generally being a top person to work with. What a star. 

Sarah ‘The Rock’ Peters: flexing her muscles in all corners of the business. But unlike her pro wrestler namesake, she resists temptation from appearing in crap films and focuses on doing what she does best: being Project Manager and driving force behind The Production Department.

As well as being The Rock for us all as individuals, Sarah is also The Glue that holds us all together. So, in a sense, she is like the model of Tracy Island that Anthea Turner made that time on Blue Peter.

Ensuring that all of the team have what they need when they need it, Sarah is here to provide her support with a steadfast – and sometimes fixed – smile.

Like Vanilla Ice, if there’s a problem, Sarah will solve it. Unlike Vanilla Ice, she’s never been known to take perfectly great Queen or David Bowie songs and turn them into novelty rap without giving credit to the original artists. That’s just not her bag.

Pulling from years of experience of dealing with The Old Guard, she has a vast knowledge of how (and if) the brain of the Technical Director works, and how to get the best out of the team (bribery).

Honesty is one of Sarah’s best traits. Tactful and polite, she’ll tell us if we’re making dicks of ourselves with sincerity and integrity.

We think one of the coolest things about Sarah is that for five years, she ran her own luxury chalet business in Morzine, France. She even won awards for it and gave a 5-star service to skiers and various other posh people. How great is that? She can ski pretty well herself, and often appears on Zoom meetings in full ski gear just to make us well jel.

Experience

Seriously international, Sarah has brought her talents to jobs in Europe and the Middle East, bringing her Project Management, ‘The Rock’ style, at some very large-scale events with very cool global brands.

For example, our Sarah was the core team project manager for the Sibos London event in 2019, held at the London ExCeL. With 1,500 delegates and more than 300 exhibitors, it was her largest project delivery to date, and she helped pull it off with level-headedness, style, and poise (again, much like Tracy Island).

Sarah has also worked with Tony Ball Associates, being jammy enough to be the project manager of (Diageo) ‘World Class Bartender of the Year’ 2018 competition, held in Berlin. (Turns out it’s a competition that’s harder to enter than we thought.) She held up – sorry, created and managed five branded bars, as well as looking after their designed spaces, including all furniture and dressing. Fancy! She was also daily liaison with the multiple Diageo Brand Managers and the many complex build companies.

Rock, glue, just an all-round great gal, whatever you want to call her, Sarah Peters is guaranteed to keep shiz together and get shiz done.

Kelsey Mundaaay, so good to uuus. Kelsey is our resident Account Manager and she is here both to whip us into amazing shape and make the client feel like they are even more important than crisps or beer. (And as we all know, they’re really important.)

By her own admission, Kelsey is annoyingly good at being organised, but that skill is precisely why she is onboard with us. She’s professional with a capital P and makes mincemeat of the most tricky tasks, such as getting timesheets out of the crew and… well, we can’t think of anything trickier than that.

Always spreading good vibes even when she’s not carrying out her profession, in her spare time Kelsey likes to bake (um, if you need a taste tester, we like cakes, Kels) and has been a mentor in part of two student programmes. Excellent work.

The professional stuff

Kelsey graced her presence at GPJ for a total of five years, as event manager and then moved to Identity as an account manager. She’s managed marvellous relationships, balanced budgets brilliantly, successfully sourced suppliers, and expertly executed onsite projects by taking charge of teams and logistics. What Kelsey can’t organise probably isn’t organisable – like a herd of cats or the government.

Some of Kelsey’s big name clients include Cisco, Workday, Envestnet, Google, GREAT, Booking.com and McLaren. The coolest project she’s ever worked on was the GREAT & BFC sustainable fashion show for COP26, an information event to showcase British designers and the innovative sustainable methods they’re using to tackle the climate crisis – that or managing furniture for Cisco Live 2020, because apparently, she loves a chair. Each to their own, Kelsey, each to their own.

For all you celeb spotters out there, you may feel Kelsey looks familiar – well, you’d be right. She once had the hallowed job of walking celebrities down the red carpet at the National Television Awards in 2016 – she’s pretty sure you will be able to see the back of her coat in a YouTube video somewhere. If you spot her and let us know, you may just win a prize.

When we asked her what her secret talent is, Kelsey said she legit couldn’t think of one. But we think that’s because none of her talents are secret: she puts every single one of them to good use and because she does that for us and us only, that makes us the luckiest TPD in the world.

Quick Kelsey Fun Fact: she was awarded with a prize in AAA 30 under 30 The Next Generation 2020. Wowzers!

Do a job you love and you will never work a day in your life….

Back in the 80s, while most kids were getting their daily dose of vitamin D by playing outside, there was a child who passed her time a little differently. In a decision her pale skin would later come to regret, Kate Nilski chose to forego vitamin D in favour of a different kind of nourishment. Words.

While the other kids in her class struggled with their Biff and Chip books, Kate was busting out Telegraph crossword puzzles. While her schoolmates sat for hours on the swings at the local park, Kate was at home, Scrabbling at an expert level.

And now, as we all spend our evenings glued to the latest bingeworthy drama, Kate spends her time playing Boggle in preparation for the next TPD copywriting challenge. Kate takes her love of words to an Olympic level.

After getting a degree in English language and linguistics, Kate kick-started her career by being a rubbish receptionist. Soon realising that this wasn’t ‘kick-starting’ her career as much as driving down the motorway in the wrong direction, Kate changed jobs and cut her copywriting teeth by working for three years in PR. Some of her clients at this time included John Lewis, Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, Southern Co-op, and The Sussex Food and Drink Awards.

With her PR hat on, Kate’s words have appeared in industry publications such as The Grocer and Convenience Store; Brighton newspapers like The Argus and Brighton & Hove Independent; Sussex-wide publications Sussex Life and ETC Magazine; plus national women’s magazines Woman’s Weekly and Take a Break.

What’s Kate written, then?

As a copywriter in her own ‘write’ (sorry), Kate has worked with clients around the world. Clients like Brighton based companies The Bike Tailor, Ape Creative, and The Point. Others like LA based Christmas Brothers and India based 123 Tuition. There have been Sussex businesses like Edge Company, The Royal Pavilion Ice Rink, and Natural PR. And UK names like Samworth Brothers, Honest Crust Food, Urban Eat, and Toplightco.

She’s written copy for social media channels, blogs, newsletters, product descriptions, and pitches. She’s also re-written whole websites in SEO speak – which sounds a bit robotic but essentially just means ‘telling a good story that people will want to read’. One of the websites she rewrote, The Bike Tailor, had 500% more visitors in the first month. Who’d have thought words could be so cool, eh?

With a dog-eared picture of Susie Dent in her wallet and Travel Boggle in her handbag, Kate loves what she does for TPD – and isn’t ashamed of her pale skin and lifelong fear of swings. Like the saying goes, ‘do a job you love and you will never work a day in your life…’

And in case you were wondering, Kate’s surname is Polish but she’s never been.