Continuing our employee spotlight series with our Event Administrator, Nick Gray.
How long have you worked at Event Management Direct?
I started on Bonfire Night 2018, so I’ve been here for just over two happy years so far.
What do you do at Event Management Direct and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?
My job role at EMD is an Event Administrator, so officially I help out Event Coordinators in running their events. This has included the basic administration tasks such as delegate emails, preparing name badges, printing flyers and much more. I quickly also took the responsibility of preparing design projects for our events, including designing flyers, programmes, websites, and most marketing material.
In more recent times I have been working with our Project Manager Kate on business development. I have been doing this by investigating new systems that we can use to make us more efficient, posting blogs to the EMD website and LinkedIn, trying to get Event Management Direct higher in the google search rankings and anything else which I can think of to market us better.
What’s a work-related accomplishment that you’re really proud of?
I’m proud of taking a hold of the visual presentation of EMD services since I have started working here. This includes the new EMD website, EMD proposal document, flyers and digital artwork for ourselves and clients, this is all without any professional design experience. So I’m pleased I’ve been able to teach myself these skills and that they are now of a benefit to EMD.
What’s one thing that surprised you about working for Event Management Direct?
Probably how genuinely nice everyone on the team is. Everyone really gets on and supports each other, and this has carried on through this year while we’ve all been working at home. It’s a nice environment to work in!
What’s your favourite way to unwind after a busy day?
Spend time with my fiancée Claire and our 2 kids, Pippa and Marley, until about 7PM when you realise the kids should be in bed because you actually need to unwind at that point. After that, it’s usually some morbid crime drama, and then maybe a bit of time playing video games.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a Jet fighter pilot, then I realised I was colour blind and apparently you can’t fly planes if you’ve got rubbish none colour seeing eyes!
Are you a dog person or a cat person (or neither)?
I like both, but I’m a dog person at heart. We’ve got a 13 year old collie spaniel cross called Lily, she’s an old diva of a dog, but lovely.
What’s the top destination on your must-visit list?
I’ve always wanted to visit Japan, been on the list for a while. Someone said to me recently though had I ever been to anywhere in the southern hemisphere, and I realised just how far down you had to go get there, so somewhere below the equator is also on the bucket list.
What’s one song or artist that you’re embarrassed to admit you like?
My daughter loves the My Little Pony series, it is full of songs and it’s been played so much in our house that I now definitely have my favourite tracks from it. I 100% could recite the My Little Pony soundtrack better than most of my favourite albums.
What’s your favourite book?
I recently finished the Wheel of Time book series by the late Robert Jordan. It took me a while to read as it spans 14 books and has over 4.5 million words (for comparison, the Lord of the Rings has about 500 thousand words). Loved it though, felt like an adventure to read and an achievement to complete. Amazon Prime are making a tv series of it at the moment so I’m crossing my fingers and toes that they do it justice.