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. 

Briony is our Operations Director, always pushing for operational excellence and making 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.)

The experience bit 

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, 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. Not to mention Chinese New Year 2013 & 14 in Sydney and the Rugby World Cup 2015, high five!

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.

Fun Briony Facts

Best food eaten on the job: Love all food in all countries

Best thing you did that no one asked you to do: Ate the food (any food, in any country)

Best feedback from a client: “Briony is a dream to work with”

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

Albert is our awesome Senior 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 has expanded our supplier network in Spain by giving new suppliers the honour of working with TPD. Albert 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, and a Masters degree from the pretty impressive Universidad Internacional de La Rioja – I mean..! 

Work and stuff 

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. 

Recent TPD highlights!

• A complex build at Sugarfactory in Amsterdam – a very rustic building, with a keynote space, expo space and breakout room. Mmmm sugar. 
• Showcase management of a major international conference in Amsterdam
• A commercial and medical stand in Vienna with a complex technical build
• Working with a drinks brand building an exhibition – with an extremely tight schedule

In 2023, Albert was particularly pleased to deliver an entire expo with just a 2 day load in. Ridiculous. In the words of Albert he was, “Dead proud and almost dead by the time it finished!”

Fun Albert Facts

Best food eaten on the job: Iberian ham cannelloni (too good to describe), obviously here in Spain. 

Best thing you did no one asked you to do: Expanding our supplier network in Spain by giving new suppliers the opportunity to work with us.

Best client feedback: “Being calm and focused even when faced with a seemingly impossible situation.”

There you have him: Albert! Barcelona’s finest export since Iberian ham cannelloni.

Rob, Robbie, Mitch (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 as event crew and they rightly gave him his first foray in the world of Production Exec’ing, and he’s been aiming for the stars ever since.  

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. 

A highlight of Robin’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. 

Robin’s experience has come on in leaps and bounds with incredible and complex build experience in odd venues in London, complex gaming builds in Europe, plus he’s calm and collected, grows confidence with the team he works with at the time, and is a huge team player. 

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

Fun Robin Facts

Best food eaten on the job: charred meat and veg in Greece. Aww yes. 

Best thing you did that no one asked you to do: I reevaluated the build schedule that had been devised by a previous PM and was able to drastically reduce the long shift patterns for the onsite crew.

Best client feedback: “Robin is great to work with, he’s approachable and nothing is too much trouble be it pre-site or onsite. A top allrounder!!”

Russ Ball: 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 Senior Production Management and Technical Management slice of the Production Department pie. 

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 experiential agencies; and events for Videobooth Systems. 

Not only aaall that, but Russ is a mentor to our newbies, and is one of two TPD Mental Health First Aiders, having received full training from MHFA England to help coach his colleagues through tough times. This is especially useful at TPD, because we are based all over the world and sometimes, you just need that virtual hug. What a ledge.

The experience bit 

Russ has worked on live, virtual and hybrid events, for clients including Cisco Live, F1, and Sibos, travelling all over the world with stops in Miami, Italy, Spain and Bahrain. 

Sibos 2022 was a particular highlight for Russ. Using the mother of all spreadsheets created for the Sibos ‘21 virtual event (that apparently included more technical infrastructure than the Olympics), Sibos 2022 was a 19-hours-a-day, multi broadcast event that used up 6-9 months of Russ’ heart and soul. He really is a grafter, this guy. 

We think you should also know that Russ is the Keynote King. Working across Europe, the US and the UK he’s a technical whizz while being familiar with global budgets, he has automotive experience having worked shamazingly well at car launch activations, is very experienced in the digital online conferencing and is a keen mentor of our TPD Associate Programme.

Russ Ball: Senior Production Manager, Mental Health First Aider and all round can-doer. 

Fun Russ Facts

Best food eaten on the job: drunken poutine in Montreal 

Best thing he’s done that no one asked him to: Mentoring and helping his team mates with their mental health 

Best feedback from client or colleague: “Without Russ, we couldn’t have completed the F1 work to the high standards we did, and this in turn helped us celebrate another successful year, despite 2023 being a tough one for so many people.”

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 during the time of COVID (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.

Work and stuff 

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. 

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.)

More recently, Chris has vast experience on large outdoor automotive builds in multiple locations and experience with temporary structures for large IT Conferences. 

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.

Fun Chris Facts

Best food eaten on the job: You can’t beat pancakes loaded with maple syrup, both onsite and just generally!

Best feedback from a client: “Chris is an exceptionally loyal and experienced Production Manager. He grasped the project with great enthusiasm and I found him a constant source of support on site.”

Best thing you did that no one asked you to do: Getting the team coffee’s (decent quality of course) on an early morning shift

Danyal is travelling tonight on a plane… oh, sorry that’s for karaoke later. In fact, Danyal, or Dan to his inner circle of chums, is one of our superb gaggle of Production Managers. 

Trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Stage Management and Technical Theatre, he’s worked in The West End and at Glyndebourne (ooh fancy) and most recently, he’s been waving his magic production wand for a creative agency on live events, exhibitions and conferences.

We’ll get onto the past experience bit shortly but we wanted to pass onto you some of the cool shiz that Dan’s done so far: he once turned a country house into an immersive escape room and had the opportunity to feel like a Red Arrow pilot by sitting in the cockpit of one of their big shiny planes. But that’s nothing compared to working with GEOFFREY from THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR. [The whole team in unison: “That. Is. Epic.”]

His secret talent is being East Sussex Cycling Champion in 2013 and he’s a Black Belt and Tae Kwon Do every year. 

Work experience bit

After working on events in the very tricky and hard-to-get-a-breadcrumb-of-praise world of the hospitality industry (seriously, hats off to you, Dan), our guy Danyal started working as a junior production manager during those bonkers COVID years, when he clonked elbows with clients including government departments, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. 

He cut his teeth assisting production managers from the initial brief stages to the post-event stage, raising purchase orders, booking that all-important accommodation and liaising with crew for builds. Nice. 

From there, he became a fully fledged production manager, working on events all over the UK to deliver outdoor installs and exhibition stands, plus managing crew and contractors with builds, derigs and anything else that ruddy well needed doing. 

Previous clients worked with the Department of Transport, UK Space Agency, World Rowing, UK Hydrographic, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, National Highways and Google. 

Danyal’s most recent ‘smashing it’ moments include creating fan zones and chalets in North Scotland, doing expo stands for IT companies, plus breakout and theatre builds. 

Dan Facts:

Best food eaten on the job: a Shakshuka out a take away box in Istanbul – the eggs were perfectly runny too.

Best thing he did that no-one asked him to do: when working onsite in late 30 degrees heat in Budapest, he made sure all the install crew and producers stayed hydrated with loads of water and had sun cream on.

Best client quote: “He has been fantastic with us, offering full support throughout the event process, whilst having our best interests at heart. His production coordination ensures top quality stands at all the events he manages.”

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 was once ‘fairly good at rugby’ – we assume that’s Mungo’s modest way of saying ‘excellent at rugby’. However he announced his retirement in 2023, which can only be TPD’s gain. 

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? 

In the last twelve months, Mungo’s highlight has been working on F1 events around the world plus Cisco Live. He has tons of experience working with brands on activations in every UK train station, oodles of sporting experience doing fan zones and chalets for golf courses, and not only that, he builds strong relationships with our agencies, taking the lead on some accounts.

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.

Fun Mungo Facts

Best food eaten on the job: grasshoppers, worms and ant eggs in Mexico City

Best thing he did that no one asked him to do: retired from rugby 

Best client feedback: “The Reliable Yes Man”

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. 

But it’s his time at TPD that, we’re pleased to report he is most proud of. He’s done the difficult job of maintaining a work-life balance, and seeing growth as part of the team, adapting to the myriad challenges that come from this crazy world we call Production. 

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 Scroobius 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). 

More recently, Rob’s bumper crop of happy clients include Cisco, HP Omen and three years’ worth of Google IO. He’s your man for chatting about technical and filming matters and your go-to guy for film edits and all content development. His attention to detail makes him perfect for pharmaceutical builds – and he’s now been asked by happy clients in the industry to do this work again and again (cue the Holby City theme tune). 

So there we have it: Rob White is always a steady pair of hands, loves a voice note, will bring you expertise in production that you didn’t even know existed, and serve up your amazing event with tender loving care. 

Fun Rob Facts! 

Best food eaten on the job: Lamb tagine in Tangier – but the kebob eaten under the arches of Berlin HauptBahnhof was also pretty special too! 

Best thing he did that no one asked him to do: Bought some brekkie for an end client he’d met, as he had heard they were stuck in meetings and didn’t get anything to eat all morning. Nawww. 

Best client feedback: “Rob was a brilliant Production Manager to work with. He always brought consistent energy and a huge smile to all our meetings, as well as on-site. The clients loved Rob; he charmed them with his friendly demeanour and banana bread! I would recommend Rob to anyone; he’d be an asset to every team.”

About Rochelle

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

Rochelle left her career in finance to join TPD as a Production Associate – in other words she took part in our graduate scheme to work ruddy hard and train at the same time. Now that she’s whizzed her way up to being Production Manager in the space of under two years, we count ourselves very lucky to have her, as we blow a smug raspberry to the finance industry. 

Skills McGills 

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!)

With TPD, Rochelle has made amazing contributions to the events she’s worked on and has made more than the most of her opportunities to lead on multiple events. She’s blazed a trail of brilliance at Cisco Live ‘23, Booking Click ‘23 and Cisco Live ‘24. 

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

She has experience in building large scale media, complete with disco bars on the beach in Cannes, was production lead and managed a national tour of a drinks brand and built a large showcase piece for an IT conference. Snazzy McSanazzface. 

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

Fun Rochelle Facts

Best food eaten on the job: pizza in Naples 

Best thing she did that no one asked her to do: At a recent event, the in-house tech team was struggling to operate the lights and PPT slides. So, to make sure the show ran smoothly, Rochelle rolled up her sleeves and did the work with them. No one asked her to; she just did it (and did it bloody well). 

Best feedback from a client or colleague: “We can’t overstate how much we respect, admire and indeed rely on Rochelle’s own brand of innovation and capability.”

Skyler – or Sky to you and me – is the Production Manager that makes us fly high. Based in the Netherlands, Sky is a legend of AV tech and production management both in the US and on home soil, with two years and five years of experience in those fields respectively. 

A keen Dungeons and Dragons player, not only has he worked with some of the best tech names in the business, he can also do a great ‘podcast voice’ – we’ll have to get a recording for the audio version of his portfolio… 

Work Experience

Sky’s experience includes working with big names like Google, Amazon, AWS, and the amazing Grace Hopper – the latter of which is the coolest client he’s ever worked with. 

One of Sky’s career highlights includes assisting on an executive event in Sicily with a concert at the Ancient Theatre of Taormina and getting starstruck while working with Serena Williams on a virtual record project. Game, set, match. 

Having built up a global client list in recent years as a freelancer, and skillfully maintaining budgets of up to $2mill, what Sky doesn’t know about the world of production management and technical direction isn’t worth knowing. 

A master macaron maker, Sky will inject professionalism, fun and a whole lot of experience into every activation. 

Skyler Fun Facts: 

Best food eaten on the job: Tacos de lengua in Mexico City

Best feedback from a client: “Cool, calm, collected. There’s always a solution”

Best thing he did that no one asked him to do: Bring more beers to the party! (After hours of course, Sky?) 

Aneesa Hussain – who has the most awesome nickname we’ve heard: Anie Hu – is a production extraordinaire. She’s joined the TPD team to work and learn, but also to teach us a thing or two about production thanks to her vast experience in the world of theatre. 

Fancy being impressed for a sec? Check out this list of previous clients: Jack Thorne, Es Devlin, Sam Mendes, Bunny Christie, Lindsay Turner, Back to the Future on Broadway, Hannah Waddingham, Tim Minchin’s Groundhog Day, plus Operation Mincemeat, The Great British Menu, and Titanic the Musical. Right?

What Anie can’t rustle up in a matter of moments isn’t worth rustling. She cites herself as definitely good (read that as ‘excellent’) at finding great deals for the weirdest things. She once managed to get a palm tree on stage for the National Theatre’s staging of Paradise for under £50. Another time, she engineered getting a gold hoverboard donated for free and found a few baby doll heads for a show which were the basis of an entire stage design (ummm, yeah that’s not at all scary *we say quietly while walking backwards out of the room*). But this talent also extends to personal buys too. Oh, yes – high five, Anie. 

Work and stuff 

Anie’s done some great shiz in her time so far. She’s been Production Assistant at the National Theatre, and Props Assistant and Buyer at Marcus Hall sorting out things like Broadway props for Back to the Future (including the very cool job of bidding on 1950s vintage Pepsi cans). She’s also worked for Secret Cinema, sourcing props, making signs, planning out immersive experiences for the audiences. She’s done lots of stage management, running around backstage trying to find missing wigs and opening trap doors in the dark (eek). Most recently, she went to work with the Society of London Theatre to help stage the 2024 Olivier Awards. Fancy! 

Anie once had the opportunity to go weak at the knees at being in the same rehearsal room as Hugo Weaving and once met Ronnie Wood outside The Ivy in Covent Garden while he was flirting with the dancers from the Royal Ballet (the cheeky old rocker).

Some of Anie’s TPD highlights so far include looking after the logistics and installation of printers the size of up to 50 square metres(!) at a large print exhibition in Germany; brand pop ups at festivals; working internationally on fan zones for the golfing world; and bossing production management on a worldwide touring analytics conference. 

Fun Anie Facts:

Best food eaten on the job: Defs not vegetable terrine (ooh, we’re intrigued). Actually, Anie says she’s not discovered her best food yet. 

Best thing she did no one asked her to do: While working on a musical, Anie got to know the lead actress, who’d been away working in Australia and had spent very little time with her daughter. She didn’t ask, but one day, Anie arranged a car for the actress, so she could surprise her daughter and collect her from ballet class. The actress felt like Super Mum and Anie didn’t add any time on to rehearsals. 

Best client feedback: ‘You made sure that my voice was always heard’ – Actor, National Theatre.

Charlotte Burton – Charlie to you and me – is one of our amazing, fresh-on-the-scene Associate Production Managers, which means she’s come to bring TPD her unique worldview while we show her the nuts, bolts and generally un-pin-downable world of events. 

Charlie has only been with TPD since late 2023, but in that time she’s rolled her sleeves up and got involved in anything we’ve thrown at her with enthusiasm and natural event abilities. 

She brings with her some cool performing arts experience, an unbeaten record at winning the popular board game, UNO, and the ability to pour a good pint of Guinness. What a woman. 

Let’s jump into the great glass elevator that is Charlie’s career so far… 

Experience 

Before joining TPD Charlie worked in hospitality, where she wasn’t content to just turn up and get paid, but worked her way up to being a more-than-capable supervisor. 

And not only that, but she has also performed at the National Theatre in London as well as being both a scare actor and a Christmas actor, using her BA in Drama and Education Studies from Bath Spa. 

Because we know that Charlie isn’t content to sit still for more than one and a half minutes, she went and got a Masters in Immersive Arts (Virtual and Augmented Reality) from the University of Bristol too. Totally bonkers-great. 

Charlie also counts among her career highlights working with CAMERA at The Bottle Yard Studio, looking at motion capture. You channel that inner Wallace and Gromit, Charlie. 

Charlie’s most recent skillz include being content manager for an analytics conference for over 300 speakers, working with the showcaller and show team to run the show smoothly. All this as well as being stage manager of finance conferences, building stands at multiple expos, and running the production schedules for a large scale gaming conference. 

Already a polymath and ready to take on the world with TPD, this is Charlie Burton. Now hop off the great glass elevator, please, we have another group waiting. 

Best food eaten on the job: Definitely our crew meal at Oliver’s in Amsterdam where we had steak and chocolate cake, which tasted amazing after a week or so onsite!

Best client feedback: “Charlie is extremely proactive and always lends a helping hand – she is an asset to any team!”

Best thing you did that no one asked you to do: When assisting photographers on a conference project I gave them extra support – for example, during the breaks I actively sought out delegates to advertise the photographers’ services, encouraging everyone to head over and speak to them.

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 and one of our Senior Event Producers.

Since joining The Production Department in 2022, Fran has become a key member of the  team, balancing the delivery of major international events with responsibility for recruitment, talent development and training across the business. She also led the set up of The Training Department, developing the next generation of Production Managers while helping shape the future capability of both TPD and the wider events industry.

Specific experience: 

With her experience spanning 20 years (although this hardly seems possible), Fran built her career across the Higher Education and Charity sectors, where she created fundraising and engagement strategies, managed budgets exceeding £1 million and led teams delivering high-profile events that combined flawless execution with meaningful audience experiences.

Today, Fran specialises in producing content-led conferences, executive forums, immersive brand experiences and international events where attention to detail, stakeholder management and calm leadership are essential.

Her portfolio spans conferences, product launches, roadshows, gala dinners, exhibitions, sporting events, VIP experiences, building openings and royal engagements – taking projects from initial concept through creative development, planning, production and live delivery.

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. 

Fun Fran Facts

Best food eaten on the job: Definitely the curry at the reception we held at the Cinnamon Club in London for a client. 

Best thing you did that no one asked you to do: I love coming up with new event ideas and in previous roles would often pitch new concepts. The ones I’m most proud of are the fundraising events for charities that went on to raise vital funds for great causes. 

Best client feedback: “Starkie was exceptional managing stage and show, bringing a level of polish and energy that elevated the entire experience. From setup through execution, everything felt intentional and smooth, and the speakers felt well taken care of. She navigated it all with confidence and precision.”

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 Operations and People Manager, and the all-round 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. She’s one of two resident Mental Health First Aiders at TPD and the person who makes this the cohesive workplace it is – despite everyone being based around the globe. 

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 gets the best out of everyone from the CEO and Operations Director to new recruits. It’s Sarah’s job to create the supportive, engaged culture that TPD is very proud of, and to keep up to speed with HR shiz as and when it happens. 

We think one of the coolest things about Sarah is that before joining TPD, 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:

When she first joined TPD, Sarah brought her talents to jobs in Europe and the Middle East, applying her Project Management prowess, ‘The Rock’ style, to some very large-scale events with very cool global brands. Some of her recent work includes running an expo for an analytics conference, and overseeing a small stand build at major sporting events. 

Sarah’s our resident qualified HR expert and Mental Health First Aider; coaching the team through tricky times and stopping burnout before it stops all of us, and she’s also the logistics and travel queen. 

And although she has made TPD a place that people want to stay and be involved in, 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.

One of Sarah’s favourite parts of the job is the ability to send gifts and unexpected parcels to the teams – either to congratulate them when something big has happened or just because. Nawww. 

Rock, glue, just an all-round great gal, whatever you want to call her, Sarah Peters is guaranteed to keep shiz together, get shiz done, and make everyone totally happy in the process. 

Fun Sarah Facts

Best food eaten on the job: Nothing can beat a cold pint and bag of crisps

Best thing you did that no one asked you to do: Sending gifts and unexpected parcels to the teams  – when big things happen or just because

Best client feedback: “Sarah is one of the most dedicated team members you will ever meet, she is hard working and will get the job 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 the onsite snack box (and that’s really important). 

By her own admission, Kelsey is rather good at being organised, but that skill is one of the reasons why she is onboard with us. A typical day for Kelsey is catching up with her amazing clients from her own set of accounts, checking in with our talented team, being a brand ambassador to new biz opportunities, and WhatsApp-ing Joe on business development ideas (because we all know Joe loves a WhatsApp). 

Always spreading good vibes even when she’s not carrying out her profession, in her spare time Kelsey likes to bake yummy sugary treats (we’re all waiting to be taste testers). 

The professional stuff

Kelsey’s experience includes managing marvellous relationships, balancing budgets brilliantly, successfully sourcing suppliers, and expertly executing 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. More recently, she’s been honing her production skills on pop-up stands, showing she’s both a top doer and thinker.

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.  

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. 

Kelsey Fun Facts: 

Best food eaten on the job: Coal fired cronut stick in Copenhagen 

Best feedback from a client: “You need to be careful how good you are otherwise they will try to steal you.”

Best thing she did that no one asked her to do: Surprise coffee and snack runs onsite, always goes down well with both internal and external teams!