Alicia and the event team at Turning Tides Festival
Turning Heads in Global Events – Meet CoEM Grad Alicia
For 24 year old CoEM grad Alicia, working as the head Production Manager at Turning Tides Festival—a huge activation event in London—realised for her an earlier dream…
One of the main goals in my event career was to be able to work in international events. Nothing sounded more exhilarating than to being able to experience the challenge of working within an environment of various cultures
At CoEM we get pretty excited when someone has achieved a particular goal. It’s a huge achievement and one to be highlighted and celebrated! So here’s what Alicia had to say about the festival itself and her particular role in it.
“The reason for the Turning Tides Festival event was to celebrate the opening of the first phase of ‘The Tide’, London’s first ever elevated linear park. Eventually over the next 15 years it will connect around the Peninsula to create a 5 km pedestrianised route.”
“We decided that our two weekend event would have a combination of art, music, wellness, film, and food and beverage to attract as wide an audience as possible to the area. Consequently, we had quite a varied programme. A couple of programme highlights were:
- Sink the Pink drag queens who opened the event for pride weekend
- Just Vibez a UK Soca collective (Caribbean DJ’s)
- Morning Gloryville who run sober morning raves
- Long table feasts hosted by various chefs and
- Morning gong bath sessions
On top of this, we commissioned the LA based artist ‘Geronimo,’ to install 25 large inflatable droplets throughout the site as a grand opening ‘photo moment’ (as if a two weekend festival wasn’t enough!)”
Alicia’s role
“My role throughout the event was Project Manager, ensuring that everything came together logistically. It was a little crazy as the site was under construction right up until the day before the event. I was working with various stakeholders, including Transport for London, Greater London Authority, O2 arena and Thames Clippers etc to ensure all requirements of the site were set prior to opening. I was also involved with the installation of the droplets, working closely with the artist, structural engineers and development team. During the event I was overseeing all aspects of the event including security, cleaning, production, food and beverage, financing, arranging contracts, and Health and Safety.”
Career time-line
We are so proud of Alicia for doing so well in her international events career. With this one under her belt, the rest of the world is her oyster. But for anyone reading this blog and wondering ‘how did she do it?’ let’s look at her event career timeline…
- Alicia graduated with a Diploma level qualification from CoEM. She worked hard and nailed her Major Project.
- Alicia worked in an admin role at CoEM while deciding on which event road to take. Although she was always keen on the idea of going global (see earlier quote).
- Alicia volunteered for an event that caught her eye; Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition with LAB 5, a PR and event company. The event was in multiple venues across the city that hosted people from 36 different countries. She loved working on this event and decided to keep in touch with the LAB 5 team. Smart girl.
- Alicia moved to London and contacted LAB 5 who also did international events. They just happened to be running another Bacardi event in London. She was offered a spot on the London team and the San Francisco team. Great timing and more travel ops.
- With some real event experience under her belt Alicia successfully applied for a role with Knight Dragon as Events and Placemaking Assistant and in a few short years has worked her way up to Events and Placemaking Associate.
A tip from Alicia to anyone keen to go down a similar career path, “One thing that event pros will always tell you is that your industry contacts are key. Now that I’ve had this experience I couldn’t agree more.”
Just Vibez at Turning Tides Festival
Celebrating in the streets at Turning Tides Festival UK
Long table feasts at Turning Tides Festival
Hear more about Alicia’s event journey HERE >>
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