Point of View: Clare Mackay
Clare Mackay
Senior Lecturer in Events Management and Programme Leader for Msc Events Management
https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-mackay-58292933
As part of our commitment to championing the industry, we are talking to people about their careers and what IEM means to them.
Clare Mackay graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University with a First-Class Honours degree in Entertainment and Events Management. As a student, she worked for Culture and Sport Glasgow delivering the city’s major cultural and sporting events such as the World Pipe Band Championships, the Glasgow Mela, and the Great Scottish Run. Clare also worked as a steward at conferences and exhibitions, football stadiums, and outdoor events then spent two years working on the 80s music festival Retrofest. In 2010, Clare returned to GCU to complete an MSc in Social Research with a focus on Business and Management then worked as a Research Assistant to Prof. Gayle McPherson and Prof. David McGillivray on research on the volunteers who travelled from Scotland to Delhi to take part in a mass cast at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. In 2013, Clare joined the University of Northampton as a Teaching Research Assistant and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2017. In 2018, Clare joined UWE Bristol as a Lecturer in Events Management and became an Assessor for A Greener Festival. In 2019, she graduated from the University of Northampton with a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and was promoted to her current role as a Senior Lecturer at UWE Bristol. Having led UWE’s MSc Marketing Communications programme from 2018 – 2020, Clare has recently taken over the leadership of UWE’s MSc Events Management programme. Clare’s research interests include the mediatisation of events and sports event volunteering, and her current research focuses on event design and pro-environmental behaviour in the context of Boomtown Fair.
Q What does the IEM mean to you?
A Despite the expert knowledge and skills required to design, organise and manage events, the specialism is not recognised as a profession. Likewise, despite employing over 700,000 people and generating an economic impact of £70billion (BVEP, 2020), the sectors responsible for producing events are not recognised as an ‘industry’. One over-arching professional body to represent events specialists would help to lobby for professional recognition for events management.
Q Why did you decide it was important for you to get involved?
A Now, more than ever, there is a need for a unified voice for events specialists. As a Founding Partner, we are looking forward to helping the IEM further the professionalisation of events management for the benefit of our graduates, the economy, communities and the environment.
Q Where do you hope to see the IEM in 20 years time?
A I hope that in 20 years, the IEM: is the leading professional body for events management having successfully lobbied for events management to be recognised as a profession; that it is continuing to liaise with Higher Education institutions to marry events management theory and practice; and that it is recognised for its contribution to the industry and for being a force for good having embedded the importance of equality and diversity, ethics, sustainability, and wellbeing within its accreditation.
Q What is your favourite event related memory?
A This is a hard question! My favourite events that I’ve ever worked on were the World Pipe Band Championships and the 80s music festival Retrofest. Meeting Boy George at Retrofest was pretty cool as he has a real celebrity aura. It’s not a ‘favourite’ memory, but a memory that we laugh about now was rolling beer barrels in to a van in the rain at crazy o’clock post-festival then getting back to our hotel in the early hours of the morning and having to ask the night porter to get the Daddy Long Legs out of our room as housekeeping had left our window open. The atmosphere at the Worlds and Retrofest was also great, and I loved the atmosphere at the UEFA Cup Final Fan Zones in Glasgow in 2007, and when it was announced that Glasgow won at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Bid Announcement – that’s a nice memory to have.
Also see https://iem.institute/founding-partner-uwe-bristol/
