Last Word
Greg Cherry
The MD of Glasgow-based QD Events on
the challenges of recruitment outside of the
southeast of England
I
spent a lot of my career
working in London and
there’s a large talent pool in
London. People either fall
into the industry or see it as a
good avenue for their career
development.
Because of the concentration
of event companies in the
southeast of England a lot of
people move around, and it’s
easy to move around if you’re
a talented individual. The trick
for organisers outside of the
southeast is to try and look at
the talent pool that they have
and show people that there is a
life outside of that region.
We’re Scotland’s largest
exhibition organiser and we
have huge growth aspirations,
but sometimes those aspirations
are tempered by the ability to
recruit knowledgeable talent.
For certain roles you can look
outside the industry but it’s
sometimes a case that you want
people at certain levels to hit the
ground running.
We’ve been quite lucky at QD
in our marketing and operations
roles and the fact that there
are people who have lived and
worked in London who are
coming back to Scotland.
We’re able to offer them
opportunities and a good vehicle
for their career growth and
development.
We’re changing the way we
work in terms of the millennial
audience we’re now attracting
into the business. Their
50 — July
requirements as part of working
are different. If an employer in
London has ten candidates all of
equal ability and eight are saying,
‘I want to start at midday’, then
maybe they are going to go with
the two that will do the job. If
the talent pool is much smaller
then you’re trying to work
with people who have different
requirements to fulfil the needs
of the business.
Work/life balance is one of
the things that I’ve noticed
[working in Glasgow]. Your
commute will be a maximum of
half an hour, and it’ll cost you a
hundredth of what it costs you
in the southeast. The cost of
living is cheaper, and salaries are
reflective of this, but not to the
extent that you’re going to feel
that you’re losing out. It’s about
getting people to take the risk to
move out of London.
Network is everything, so
we’re going to encourage people
to go and mix with the rest of
the industry. QD Events are at
every industry event that we can
go to. They’re really important
to our success, as is the feeling
of being part of the exhibition
community. That’s what we
want to be the experience of
coming to work for QD. There
are many other organisers
outside of London who are quite
insular, and that’s what we as an
organisation don’t want.