On a day of sunshine and snow showers at the Great Yorkshire Showground, the Pavilions of Harrogate Sales Manager, Ben Chatburn is in a lamenting mood: “It’s a bit cold up here – I just want the summer to come and I’m ready for a holiday!”
And Ben deserves a holiday more than anyone. At just 29 years-old, he secured his name on the prestigious 2019 miaList roll of honour, designed by the Meetings Industry Association to celebrate outstanding members of the meetings, hospitality and events industry who go above and beyond the call of duty: “To make the industry top 10, I was just blown away – I didn’t think I’d be in with a chance.”
The 10 names were shortlisted from an extensive roster of industry professionals from across the UK and Ireland. In X-Factor style, nominees were required to send video submissions and undergo interviews conducted by two panels of industry stalwarts.
“The interview was the most nerve-wracking thing – it was like applying for a job! The judges picked up on my enthusiasm – we’re a very small team here at Pavilions, we all love the venue and want to make it a success.”
With a staff of only three sales members, (one more since Pavilions joined forces with Yorkshire Event Centre) and only seven running operations, delivering over 600 events a year is quite a feat.
A Skipton lad born and bred, Ben started his working life studying commercial interior design at Northumbria University. The first to admit it’s an unconventional area of study for an event professional, he feels the experience has been instrumental to his success: “It’s something different, but it’s helped me out in my job, because it means I can be creative with what I’m doing.”
Ben “fell into events” working in hotels and hospitality on private islands in Australia for two years. On returning to the UK, he began his time at Pavilions getting hands-on event experience as Deputy Events Manager: “I was out doing operations, then a role came up in sales and I thought that’s where I want to be! It was a brand-new role for me. My group head of sales Fiona started at the same time – it was just us two against the world – and we’ve grown the business by 50% since then.”
Asked if he took to sales like a duck to water, he replies: “I didn’t have much in terms of skills, whereas Fiona had 20 years’ experience working at the Shangri-La, so she’s shown me the ropes. It took me five years to get to where I am now – there’s a lot to it!”
Celebrated by colleagues for using creative methods to reinvent Pavilions’ event offering – for Ben, the key to staying on trend is to try to be different: “As an independent venue we don’t have many restrictions as to what we can and can’t do, so we like to say yes to clients as much as possible. Our rooms are blank canvas spaces – so brands can come in and completely transform them. For us, versatility equals creativity.”
From initial enquiry to execution, Ben emphasises the importance of being present on the full client journey as a way of developing key relationships: “Clients often ask us for advice – so we bounce ideas and work on layouts – that’s the fun bit of the job. If you just went to contract and handed it over to operations, you wouldn’t have that trust. It’s really helped us develop a loyal client base.”
He has also taken his designer’s eye to the venue’s new website: “Before it was a single page with tired imagery. My graphic design experience from my university days helped us rebrand our collateral to make a contemporary site that reflected the brand.” For Ben, a strong online presence is crucial to driving sales: “Since the new website, we’ve seen an increase in web traffic and enquiries have grown dramatically. If you have a solid online presence, you’re going to get noticed.”
When pushed to reveal his tactics to successfully acquiring new clients, he said: “We get a lot of referrals with our corporate clients, but we’re not shy with cold calling and we’ve done mail drops that have landed on the right person’s desk, winning us an event worth thousands. Appointments are booked in for the majority of the year for roadshows and conferences, so having that proactivity to get our name out there is going to help us achieve targets.”
For those looking to sneak into the 2020 miaList, Ben offers words of wisdom aspiring event profs would do well to take note of: “It’s about being good with people and developing relationships. You need their trust and you have to deliver – you can’t let anyone down.” He believes starting right in the thick of it granted him a wider perspective that has put him in good stead: “You have to think outside the box and get involved in all kinds of areas of the business, having a passion for operations, marketing – not just focusing on contracts. It mixes up your job – if you do something different every day, you enjoy it more.”
Enjoying a strong start to the first quarter of 2020, with the venue nearly booked out for Christmas already, Ben Chatburn clearly hasn’t let the award go to his head: “Everyone who came to Pavilions last year is looking to come back – so we must be doing something right!”
