DAVE WITHEY
sharp end and making friends. Now I ' ve gone part time and I ' m not responsible for the business any longer, I ' m effectively an employee, and I ' m enjoying it as much as I ever have.
The biggest change, without question, is health and safety. When I was out on site, building massive grandstands at Queen ' s Club, we were in flip-flops and shorts. There were no hard hats, high-vis or boots. Is it better now? Massively.
What ' s kept you in the industry, and at Arena, for 50 years?
It ' s a bit of a silly analogy but if you play for Manchester United why would you go and sign for Cardiff? I ' m a Man United fan, so that ' s why I use it. Arena ' s been at the forefront for most, if not all, of the time I ' ve been there. It ' s the people I ' ve worked with over all these years, and still am. Arena has always looked after its staff. We ' ve got lots of people in Arena Seating who ' ve been there well over 30 years, some 40.
We ' ve had extremely loyal clients. We ' ve been doing Queen ' s Club since its inception, and Wimbledon forever. I ' ve had the opportunity to move quite a few times, but I thought‘ why?’.
The other thing about the events industry is that people are great friends even if they ' re enemies in business. [ Star Live ] CEO Grahame Muir was chief exec at Arena, and he ' s now chief exec of one of our biggest competitors, but we ' re great friends. At the SailGP a few weeks
Queen ' s Club
ago we had bid for the tents and didn ' t get it. Marquee got it, and we worked fantastically well alongside them. If their forklift didn ' t turn up, we lent them one. In the end, we ' re all in it together.
You ' ve obviously worked with a lot of great people over the years. Is there anyone who proved a real mentor or inspiration?
Joe O ' Neill. I worked closely alongside him at Arena until he retired. Ron Smith was a mentor in the early days for sure, and I almost felt I was part of that family. But if I had to pick one person, it ' s definitely Joe.
There are lots of clients I ' ve loved working with, Phil Bowdery at Live Nation, Barry Marshall and everyone at Marshall Arts, but I don ' t like naming one or two because I ' m leaving out 20 or 30. I pride myself on having great friends who happen to be clients.
The events industry means working long and irregular hours. When you have time, what do you do to relax?
I play cricket, not at the level I was at but village cricket, and I ' m playing football again. The big one is that my wife Sarah and I go to a lot of music events, and I ' m not just talking about Squeeze, although that is my passion. Everybody knows about my love of that band. I ' ve seen Squeeze about 300 times. My taste is pretty varied, from Mario Biondi to Paul Weller.
You studied art at Winchester. You ' ve obviously got that interest in the arts, and you ' re a big music fan. Do you have any regrets that you didn ' t follow a path into the arts?
It ' s been part of my interests for a very long time. I ' m not only a big fan of Squeeze, I ' m a great fan of art generally. Would I have liked to have been a graphic artist or even an architect? Yes. Do I regret not having done it? No, because everybody who knows me, you included, knows I ' ve enjoyed almost every minute of the events industry over the 50 years. I genuinely have, and that ' s partly why I ' ve not walked away from it now, when I ' m going to be 70 in April.
“ I ' VE ENJOYED ALMOST EVERY MINUTE OF MY EVENTS INDUSTRY CAREER OVER THE 50 YEARS.”
It ' s been 50 years with Arena and you still seem to be full of energy and enthusiasm. Are there any plans to slow down?
It ' s a fair question and the answer depends on which day you catch me. It ' s the events industry; you have good days and bad days. I ' ve got two daughters and they often find me waxing lyrical about how brilliant an event is. One of them said recently, " Dad, just keep going, you absolutely love it."
I ' ve promised [ Arena Group CEO ] Paul Berger that I ' ll give plenty of notice. I ' ll keep doing it until I ' m not enjoying it. My colleague Martin Clark is doing three days a week too, and he ' s 80. I ' m not saying I ' ll keep going till I ' m 80, because I ' m not. But I will give plenty of notice when I decide to stop.
46 accessaa. co. uk