The Conference Sessions for the EAFN Show at the Burgess Hall Events and Conference Centre on Monday 14 Oct 2024 took place in the Main Hall and consisted of four panel sessions with 14 Speakers :
- Session 1 (10.00-10.30) – How we can improve Accessibility and Cultural Diversity in our events.
Click here to listen to Session 1 - Session 2 (11.30-12.00) – Achieving Sustainability for Events.
Click here to listen to Session 2 - Session 3 (13.35-14.05) – A look at how Technology can help with our Events.
Click here to listen to Session 3 - Session 4 (14.35-15.05pm) – Working together to improve our events in the future.
Click here to listen to Session 4 - We also had two workshops and networking sessions across the day in between the Conference Sessions (see below).
YOUR COMPERE FOR THE DAY
Cat Kevern Chair of NOWIE (The Network of Women in Events) has been heavily involved in the live events scene over the last eight years, working around the world at some of the most iconic events and venues. From sporting events to festivals in Costa Rica, New Zealand or even Morocco, she has travelled the world freelancing using her fluent French and Spanish. Recently, Cat has been focusing her attention on her newly founded company, Electric Cat Productions, delivering marketing solutions to event suppliers. When she isn’t working hard onsite, Cat passionately strives for better opportunities for women in the industry and plays a key role as chair of NOWIE delivering events, projects and programmes supporting the community and wider industry.
https://www.electriccat.co/
https://www.nowie.org/
THE SESSIONS
Session 1 – ACCESSIBLE AND DIVERSE EVENTS
Jeordie Shenton is the Programmes Lead at Tonic Music , a registered charity with the aim of establishing good mental health within music communities. Tonic Music provides accessible programmes of mental health support tailored for the music industry (Tonic Rider), music fans (Never Mind The Stigma) and music youth (Tonic Futures). Within the programmes, Tonic Music provides therapeutic sessions, peer groups, preventative workshops and training courses. Each programme includes bespoke mental health resources, which Tonic Music provides to music venues, studios and retailers. Alongside this, Tonic Music provides mental health support front-of-house and backstage at festivals, gigs and other music events.
Note: Jeordie will also be delivering the afternoon workshop in the upstairs conference suite on Mental Health at Music Festivals.
Indi Sandhu has been Creative Director & CEO for the Essex Cultural Diversity Project (ECDP) since its inception in 2008.
He began his career at Kent County Council Arts & Libraries as Arts Officer, and over the last ten years has initiated county-wide projects such as Intermix and Creative Diversity Hubs, developing and advocating for cultural diversity programming and diverse artists Development in Essex and the surrounding region.
Seán Mcloughlin is a Freelance Producer based in Rochford, developing and delivering multi-disciplinary projects, events and festivals. He is a musician and an experienced music promoter, currently co producing ‘Soultasia’ and ‘Global Village’ events across the UK. Seán has a huge amount of experience writing funding bids, generating sponsorship and creating networking opportunities for emerging and established individuals and organisations.
Seán produced his first festival in 2000 in a housing estate in Southend ‘Lark in the Park’ (cap 1,000) and went on to help produce the ‘Sutton with Shopland Festival’ (cap 5,000). Seán successfully ran multi-artform and music festival ‘Village Green’ (cap 30,000) and was founder of the popular young people’s festival ‘Village Green: Next Generation’ for 10 years.
https://culturalengine.org.uk/
https://essexcdp.com/
https://soultasia.com/
Following this panel, Indi and Sean (and Giles Tofield see below) will be running a generic funding workshop. The workshop will also cover the ECDP research carried out so far including an update on the ECDP/EAFN Festivals Diversity Survey that many events completed across our region this year.
Giles Tofield (ECDP Strategic Lead). Giles is Director of Cultural Engine CIC, a not-for-profit organisation based in Essex specialising in cultural and heritage development and local economic development.
He is also Strategic Lead at Essex Cultural Diversity Project (ECDP) supporting the development of the core creative programme, partnerships and strategy. Giles is a funding and cultural strategy specialist and is currently working to develop the Global Village festival programme with ECDP and the East of England Festival consultation.
https://culturalengine.org.uk/
https://essexcdp.com/
Session 2 – ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE EVENTS
John Rostron – Chief Executive of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) – the UK’s festival representative body. AIF membership has grown rapidly in recent years and has surpassed 200 of the leading independent UK music festivals. AIF helps festivals network, share and support each other as well as providing specialist training and resources for the festival sector. AIF also works in partnership with many key organisations to improve sustainability, inclusion and accessibility for the festival sector. John is a member of the Vision2025 UK Outdoor Events Environmental Steering Group, chairs the LIVE Expert Group for festivals and is on the Board of Creative Wales (Welsh Govt department for the Creative Industries) advising on the Welsh Music Sector. https://www.aiforg.com/
Peter Frost (Carbon Charter) is the Environment Strategy Officer for Suffolk County Council and is part of the Carbon Charter project. This enables Small and Medium Enterprises all over Norfolk and Suffolk to access advice and accreditation, as well as grant funding towards cutting their carbon footprint and boosting their business through improved efficiency. He is keen to spread the word about how companies can be at the forefront of the new paradigm of transport and how society will change in the near future. As part of that he has been a key instigator of the ‘Plug in Suffolk’ programme to accelerate the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the county. https://carboncharter.org/
Session 3 – HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP WITH OUR EVENTS
Dominic Hampton is the Managing Director of attend2IT, a company renowned for its 12-year legacy in providing cutting-edge IT solutions to the events and film industry. Based in Hertfordshire, attend2IT supply high-speed, low-latency internet connections, CCTV, ticketing and streaming services across the UK and Europe for some of the UK’s leading events and film productions. His interest in the latest technology have placed attend2IT as a leading service provider, consistently meeting the dynamic and complex needs of the events industry.
attend2IT – Event IT Solutions
Mandeep Birdy is director of the award winning appstudios and will be talking about how apps can boost your event’s visibility, engagement and customer loyalty. Mandeep’s background is rooted in aiding humanitarian and charitable organisations with their messaging, amplifying their voices, and helping them build stronger communities. From project management to marketing, Mandeep’s journey naturally led to mobile apps. Always seeking ways to harness online tools and resources, and to bridge the digital technology gap so tech such as apps are accessible to all. App Studios was founded on the principle of facilitating exceptional communication to audiences, fans, clients, and communities through affordable app solutions. Despite being less than a year old, App Studios is already an award-winning company, assisting mentors, event organisers, spiritual groups, towns, artists, charities, and many others. “My goal is to make apps as accessible to companies, organisations, or charities as websites are today. By pairing no-code app solutions with my marketing background, my heart is set on helping others create engaging, exciting apps that don’t cost an arm and a leg, and are completely self-manageable.” https://appstudios.io/
Justin Crane MD of The Crane Event. Starting life as a failed rockstar, Justin found his calling when he formed The Crane Event, an event specialist agency providing management, production and marketing services. From working at large-scale events such as Wimbledon, The Open and the NFL, to smaller international corporate conferences, his knowledge is extensive yet not exhaustive. Wearing one of his many hats, Justin oversees the project management of WiFi services across many large-scale outdoor events such as The Cambridge Folk Festival for Novahub, and while not a tech-head himself, has gathered experience in the pitfalls and adventures of trying to set up something everybody wants working and wants working now! https://www.thecraneevent.co.uk/
Phil Pethybridge (MD of Neon Street Ltd) will have his Offbeat Tickets hat on to talk about how alternative ticket offerings can reduce costs and provide data ownership and marketing… and much more.
Session 4 – WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE FUTURE EVENTS
The final session rounded off the day with a look to the future. The Power of Events provided an update on their progress and were joined by Event Industry Forum Chair – Steve Heap and Mike Wilson (EAFN Founder).
Simon Hughes is currently the immediate past chair of UKEVENTS having served as Chair during the pandemic. He has been involved with the partnership for over 12 years. He also served as an independent member of the Event Industry Board and a founding director of the Events Apprenticeship Programme Board. He helped found One Industry One Voice in response to the urgent need to bring the whole of the UK event industry together to tackle the challenges of Covid 19. With the launch of The Power of Events he hopes to build on the co-operation and collaboration that supported the UK events industry during the pandemic with a digital platform that showcases the power of events across the 4 Nations of the UK. His most high profile role in the UK event industry was the 10 years he spent as Director of Live Events for the COI, the UK governments marketing communications agency. His team designed and delivered a huge range of events, managed the approved supplier framework and worked with a broad range of creative agencies and suppliers on complex and challenging integrated communication campaigns. THE POWER OF EVENTS (UK) – Showcase, Respect & Value the UK Events Industry
Steve Heap has been Director of Mrs Casey Music (MCM) for over fifty years.(1971 to date )
MCM is a specialist promotion company that has organised festivals and events such as Towersey Festival in Oxfordshire, attracting eight thousand attendees each year. Steve took over the management of the Sidmouth International Festival in 1985 and rebuilt the event to 65,000 visitors over 8 days leaving at it’s 50th year in 2004. The company has also promoted other events at venues in the UK including London’s South Bank Centre, the Royal Albert Hall and events for Local Authorities. Mrs Casey Music also has its own record label, Mrs Casey Records, which specialises in young up and coming acts and ‘great new ideas’.
In the wider Arts and Events Industry, Steve is a consultant to Community Arts Events in the size of a thousand to ten thousand people in either green field sites or indoor venues. He is a founder member and current Chair of the Events Industry Forum (EIF) and a regular contributor to Arts & Events industry publications, including the editing of the Purple Guide.
Steve was General Secretary of the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), a body of over 160 members that promoted, supported and lobbied on behalf of its members. AFO held an annual conference that attracted over two hundred delegates from the Events Industry. Steve retired after thirty-eight years in 2024 and AFO was dissolved with its members moving over to join The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). https://www.eventsindustryforum.co.uk/, https://www.mrscasey.co.uk/, https://www.thepurpleguide.co.uk/
Mike Wilson (Founder of the EAFN) has beenhttps://www.thepurpleguide.co.uk/ a member of many Festival and Venue Committees including (Cambridge’s Strawberry Fair for over 20 years) and worked at many other Festivals and events including running stages at Secret Garden Party, the Acoustic Festival of Britain and the Oxjam Cambridge multi-venue Festival. As well as running the EAFN, Mike is also a member of the Vision 2025 UK Events Steering Group and an ambassador for the Power of Events and still enjoys various roles at other events including Festival Control at Cropredy, Health and Safety at Ely Folk Festival, the Kidz Field Crew at Glastonbury and acting roles at Kentwell Hall events. https://sixtytwothings.co.uk/
There were also two workshops at the Show this year.
The morning workshop (after Session 1 between 10.30 and 11.30) was a generic funding workshop run by the Essex Cultural Diversity Project (ECDP) that covered the ECDP research carried out so far including an update on the ECDP/EAFN Festivals Diversity Survey.
The afternoon workshop (after Session 3 between 14.05 and 14.35 was a workshop from Tonic Music on Mental Health at Festivals.
If you are interested in speaking at or sponsoring the EAFN Show 2025 please contact us by email at office@eafn.co.uk
