Point of View: Deborah Finch
1968 was an eventful year: Daniel Craig and Kylie Minogue are just two of the celebrities born and both are more than experienced in attending events: film premiers and arena concerts alike. The Beatles dominated the UK charts with their album Sgt Pepper, “Dad’s Army” was one of the most popular TV shows and cinema-goers queued to see Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, a box office success. Mary Quant took hems up and Harold Macmillan too inflation down. Oh, and I was born…!
Leaving school with a handful of CSE’s and O Levels, I started work for a local newspaper overseeing reception and small ads, progressing to sales advisor and finally editor, before it folded. Taking secretarial roles, including an EA role for a magazine director, where I gained valuable experience of organizing travel, meetings and conferences. I ventured to the City of London in 1988 to work for an underwriter within the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. Its history is fascinating – maritime insurance began in a city-based coffee shop, in the late 1600’s. Since then, practically anything and anyone can be insured including F1 cars, satellites, aircraft, oil rigs and rock stars! Since 2004, I have been the Event Manager at an insurance trade Association where our members comprise of large insurance organisations such as Swiss Re, Aviva and Chubb. Due to the nature of my work, I have returned to the City 5-days per week, post pandemic, to cater for all meeting and event configuration.
Having over 30 years of experience in the City, the marriage of my insurance and events experience keeps me busy with overseeing topical issues for events that the market can learn of in more depth, with guest speakers both in-person or via webinars (attracting international members of the insurance market).
I thrive on speaking to both market professionals and those who manage venues, to make events constantly attractive to all.
How did you hear about the IEM?
Investigating an association to suit my role, I came across IEM via Google and have discussed my findings with colleagues in a similar role.
What does the IEM mean to you?
Having a guiding light for the career/role in which I invest so much time and effort is a great comfort and I feel that IEM will allow others to share and discuss experiences.
Why did you decide it was important for you to get involved?
It is of great importance to me – and those in similar roles – to be part of a community for all who oversee and are involved in eventing.
Where do you hope to see the IEM in 20 years’ time?
With the evolution of the event industry, in particular since Covid-19, I feel that IEM will be invaluable in keeping members updated of progress within this sector for many years to come.
“When things go wrong, don’t go with them” Elvis Presley
At a local hotel of the outskirts of Dublin, I assisted and attended a 2-day event overseeing sponsorship, registration and speaker details for many years. Organizing began months previously with decision of theme, speakers, dates and sponsorship options as well as the staging and post-event entertainment. A great organizing committee made working on this event a joy but one particular year was incredibly challenging.
I’ve never been to Dublin without the rain welcoming me and one particular year, upon reaching the conference hotel, it was biblical. However, all our goods had arrived and the in-house AV team were on site. The event welcomed 200 delegates (some international) each year and hotel staff had certainly adhered to our instructions: stage had been erected and lectern in place with colourful armchairs positioned for the panel sessions as noted on the agenda. The well-lit room – set up spaciously in classroom style with pens/paper, mints and water per setting – provided a welcoming environment for all attendees, with a large screen to view presentations. But, still the rain poured.
Our AV technician and his team checked the presentation slides, sound, mic and supplied hand held mics for audience Q&A – all was in order.
The next morning, I entered the conference room at 7am to be greeted by 3 strategically placed champagne buckets and our conference flowers. As the roof of the conference room was flat, the rain had nowhere to go except down! Rain was seeping through the roof onto the tables and champagne buckets. Staff were on hand to “mop up” and we decided to move some of the tables away from the water. The fire brigade was called to check the safety of the ceiling and they gave us the all clear to proceed with the conference. Miraculously, the rain ceased and after an hour, so did the leaky ceiling – although buckets were left in place, just in case!
The ordering of the flowers was not my responsibility and in previous years, they had been tastefully arranged in 4ft metal stands, placed next to the lectern. Flowers for this event could only be described as a “coffin topper” and it looked like we were about to conduct a memorial service – not a conference. It was too late to change the flora but this surprising turned into a talking point for delegates, many asked “who died!?!”
As the conference theme was maritime claims, ie, ships that sink or collide, the water issue was a fitting inclusion and our event director mentioned this during her opening address – disaster averted!
During the afternoon, one of our invited speakers supplied a new slide deck presentation last minute, which delayed the very star of the session. This was handled well by the event director who used this time to address the attendees about the following day’s presentations and to again, thank the sponsors. Each speaker was allocated 20 mins and after 25 mins, it was clear that this speaker had no intention of leaving the stage. Our event director kindly reminded him quietly, that he had 5 mins remaining (very generous) but to the shock of the audience, he said (into his mic) “I will finish when I am ready”… He finally finished 10 mins after this statement. Each session is normally followed by applause…however, none of the delegates clapped. There was silence. Now, for the success of the event, our manager tried to remind the speaker (who was previously briefed) about his timing. He chose to ignore this and in this instance, the speaker was a failure, not the event or the way it was handled. The speaker in question did not return to the conference.
After the conference, all delegates gathered in the restaurant of the hotel for drinks and dinner, a success despite the challenges which we can only learn from for future events!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-finch-avcm-td-hons-a7a03aa/recent-activity/
