My Working Life
time when nationalism is on the rise, I hope
kids like mine will be the antidote to the
intolerance we see across the globe.
I left my first job at Habitat for one at
Heathrow. I worked alongside guys who had
been engineers at British Aerospace but saw
the Kingston factory close in the late 1980s.
They went from building planes to cleaning
them and I knew I had to get out.
My cousin worked for Show Presentation
Services and put me forward for a job on the
loading bay. It was a tortuous wait of seven
weeks from interview to hire but I knew it
was the place for me. I could not have started
at a better company than SPS.
Andy Williams
The general manager of
Euro Presentations on
having an international
family, his 25-year
career in AV and the
power of industry
relationships
I was born in Kingston-Upon-Thames and
have lived there my whole life. I have seen
the world both through travel and work, but
Kingston will always be my home.
I am half British and half Portuguese. My
mum came to Britain in 1966 as an au pair
and met my dad just weeks before she was
due to go home. They recently celebrated
their Golden Wedding Anniversary and have
been my greatest influence in life.
I have been married to Belinda for 16 years. I
still have no idea why she gave up life in the
USA to live her life with me. We have two kids:
my daughter Tayanon (15) and son João (13).
I take pleasure in my kids knowing
they have roots around the world. They
have roots in Liberia through their
grandmother, they are US
citizens, they are British
with a huge love for their
Portuguese relatives. In a
I went to our new office at Earls Court and
Olympia in 2000 as equipment manager
and got my first taste of the exhibition world
there. In 2003, I moved to the Business Design
Centre and got my grounding in project
management.
I found myself and my client base joining
Euro Presentations in early 2009. It was the
perfect place for me to develop my career
and I will be forever thankful to Tony James,
John Copestake and Michael Wood for giving
me a role in their venture.
I like that there is a tremendous value placed
on relationships in this industry. When I left
my previous role, I told my clients my plans
and they said, ‘where you go, we will follow’.
I have been in the AV business for 25 years
and in and out of exhibition venues for 19
of them but I have always been merely an
enabler. I am one of the many thousands
of people who know their stuff, have good
organisational skills and quietly work in the
background but I would be surprised if more
than a handful of people who read this know
me.
As an AV company, when we leave an event, we
take everything including our waste with us.
I am staggered at the sheer amount of waste
on shows, particularly printed material. There
has to be a better way with all the technology
available today.
March — 19