Cover Feature
“I did everything on my own, I rented
an office, as I knew I wouldn’t be
motivated enough to work from home”
be media partners. She used this
opportunity to get into London but
found herself in difficult situation
after Mark Allen Group acquired
the magazine and decided to
launch a show back in London.
“I was worried at first because
we had invested so much time
and energy in the London show
but what saved us was the strong
relationships we had with our
exhibitors. We quickly expanded
and launched a Manchester event
in 2016, to strengthen our brand
and reach and we now have three
national shows.”
Broadway Events celebrates
10 years of Childcare Expo this
year and now produces 10 events
including a series of roadshows
across three sectors.
What sets Broadway Events apart
from many other companies, is
their personalness and they really
know all their exhibitors and a
huge chunk of their visitors too.
Emma’s idea for a roadshow (She
now has five), came again from her
22 — October
customers. In 2010, the recession
was keeping people firmly rooted to
their desks.
“My suppliers told me they
wanted to see people but the people
they wanted to see were finding
it increasingly difficult to leave
the office, so would you do some
regional events for us?”
I launched Childcare Roadshows
in Glasgow in April 2011, Old
Trafford in June 2011 and Brighton
in 2011. They were essentially pop-
up events. Easy to put together,
often held at stadiums where the
parking was free, and they were
much easier to get to.”
Two years ago, she went through
a rigorous interview process
to get on the Goldman Sachs
10,000 small businesses course.
Essentially, a mini-MBA and now
benefits from sharing ideas via
Whatsapp with 35 other like-
minded businesses.
She also joined an AEO
Enterprise programme where
she chose Andrew Evans, then
Centaur’s CEO, as her mentor.
“I’d turn up and write about 10
pages of notes. I wanted to get
everything I could from meeting
him. He helped me massively, he’s
a brilliant operator. He’s got so
much knowledge, but now he’s at a
smaller company, he’s now asking
me how do certain things as a
smaller business.”
Barrett is passionate about
events, she adds: “I’m motivated
by excitement and I love being
onsite and love seeing this thing
you’ve worked so hard for being
created right before your very
eyes. I love hearing that buzz of
the relationships you’ve created
between exhibitors and visitors.”
On the future, Emma has big
plans. “I very much would love to
do an acquisition but the market
at the moment is just crazy with
the deals they’re doing. Or at least
a new launch; I love the research
and bringing something together.
The best piece of advice I can give
anyone is ‘Don’t be working in your
business but be working on it to
be able to grow’. I don’t just want
to stay in these two sectors, I have
bigger plans. I want to be in ExCeL
selling to bigger companies that
can afford bigger stands.”
The icing on the cake for Emma
was when she won an EN Award
last year. “When we won the
EN Indy Company of the Year
,we were really proud, everyone
always enters awards and for
smaller businesses its quite hard
to get recognition and the bigger
companies invest heavily in awards.
It was amazing how many of my
peers were so happy for us.”
Emma also doesn’t want to be
seen as a leader to women but
appreciated as a person who has
achieved a lot.
I know a lot of strong women
in the industry who are very high
up and I think as an industry we
do OK, and as a woman I’ve never
really felt disadvantaged. I think
it’s because I’ve always had a strong
work ethic and just never let it
affect me. If I was in a different
industry, I might notice it more and
I think this industry is pretty good.
I think it’s more about surviving 10
years. EN