How did youå start your career in events?
How did I start in the events business, wow, okay, well I am a little bit older than maybe most people in this industry. I’m above the age of 50.
It’s usually, in this industry apart from maybe the people who are under the age of 30 who have had a first career before coming into it and you’re smiling Hattie, so you know what I’m talking about. I was working in the branding industry actually, I was doing logos and brand positioning and being marketing director of agencies and things like that and then I got married. My then wife, after we got married in Italy said I want start up a wedding business. So I said yeah, fine, fine, fine, just do it in the back bedroom; I could build a website for her and then after three or four years of doing half a dozen crappy weddings a year from the back bedroom, I noticed that she was getting lots of inquiries. So I said, hold on, let’s just apply some branding to this and reposition it and become a luxury wedding planning agency. (Hattie – the word luxury is always good!)
Within two years, I left my job as well and was working for the business. It is nice, we were
doing Gary Lineker’s wedding, we had staff, and that is how it actually happened!
That is how I got into the industry. Like most people of my age group, half by accident.
I end up at Quintessentially as their global director of weddings and then we started to do a wedding show just for our members initially, which developed into a separate business and then in 2015, I left Quintessentially and took the show with me, basically with their blessing and they gave me the right to use the name.
Then after a couple of years I realised the name wasn’t mine, so again with the blessing they took the name back and I rebranded under something else. By this point I was undoing B to B stuff: conferences and awards and then over COVID I rethought the business and we became a membership organisation purely on B to B. So we didn’t do shows anymore we didn’t do anything B to C and that really changed our focus, and changed it beyond anything else.
So we are now a membership community for the luxury global wedding and party industry, doing conferences, awards, podcasts, debates on AI, as we’ve been doing today. But we we’re positioning ourselves really as a walled garden. Where people join, come on in this safe environment, they can say anything they want, share anything they want, they do business together and it seems to be working.
Quick fire questions, canapes or three course meal?
Depends on how hungry I am. It is difficult to answer in this context, it depends on who is paying.
DJ or Live band?
Oh definitely Live band.
Anybody in particular?
If I could have any band in the world, I want U2, Okay, but if it’s about our industry and the ones you book; Aston Band, they’re very good. Living Essentials are also very good; they’re all members and clients so giving them a good plug! Ambassador Band is also a member. We are not short of world class entertainment in terms of our membership!
Your favourite smell?
(James is silence for ages…) Roast chicken
Disco ball or candlelight?
As I am over the age of 50 – Candlelight. 20 years ago, maybe disco ball.
Silk, velvet or linen, or anything else?
I do like a leather jacket – Soft leather not the hard leather, soft thin quality Leather. Not a biker jacket, leather jacket. I’m not the Fonz!
And what advice would you give to your younger self?
Buy Apple shares.
Don’t be an arrogant **** because looking back now, I really was, a long time ago. So it depends how far back you wanna go. But in my 20s I was and getting nowhere, you know but still being an arrogant shit and I do regret that now, because I really do rail against it when I see it as a trait in others.
At the end of the day, it isn’t a one way trajectory upwards you know, life isn’t like that businesses like that so and you will meet people on the way down and they don’t forget if you’re treated for it badly and that there is a few papers industry who are horrific to be perfectly honest but in terms of their behaviour and we all know who the you know and. And nobody wants to work with that? Well, exactly. Or they can only get. Not the best supplies to work with, yeah.
James, thank you so much!
Photo credit @linaandtom
