FEATURE
Twenties Fest hopes to create digital-led communities which have an in-person offering once a year
and gain trust from people ahead of a launch event .”
Working in a small , closeknit team comes with its perks though says Preston- Lee . Speaking from inside a pub having just visited Mendes ’ house to use her Wi-Fi , she says : “ We like each other . In a work setting that ’ s not always the case . Being in a position where you can communicate all the time is a positive . We even had sleepovers to do work together .”
Podcast boom The live podcast industry is enjoying its time in the sun – look no further than the success of the Podcast Show at the Business Design Centre – and Mendes and her team are latching onto this .
Using Fearne Cotton ’ s Happy Place Festival as inspiration – the podcast spinoff which hosts events at London ’ s Chiswick House and Cheshire ’ s Tatton Park – Mendes says the aim is to expand to also staging a
“ The odds were hugely stacked against us ”
Twenties Fest South in the future .
“ Our blueprint is to create digital-led communities which have an in-person offering once a year . This is a model that can work for a lot of different podcasts and digital communities . The reason why I think we have an advantage is because I come from an events industry background and I ’ ve done trade shows and exhibitions – whereas a lot of companies either have the strong event side or digital side , and there ’ s not a great connection between the two . That ’ s what we want to specialise in – obviously , that ’ s a good few years down the line but once we ’ ve successfully found a way with the digital communities and in-person offering , we ’ d love to open that out to other existing digital communities or to launch new ones that can have an annual in-person event like ours .”
On support for young people in the industry , Mendes cites both the Ops Nest and Event Grads as supportive communities but says some of her peers , particularly in the Northwest , have found difficulties finding work opportunities .
“ There ’ s probably a lot more support in London where many of the big companies are based . In the North , there ’ s not enough opportunity up here and it ’ s less clear . It seems as though if you want to work in exhibitions and trade shows you have to be in London to forge a career .”
On the pay-what-youcan scheme , she adds : “ It ’ s really important to us given our demographic . Quite often they ’ re coming out of university , figuring out the steps of their job or out of work . We didn ’ t want this event to feel inaccessible to those people . We serve a community that is sometimes worried about money , career prospects and their mental health . The last thing we would want to do is to add to all those things by charging them to come to an event that they want to go to . While we ’ re not a charity , we see ourselves as a socially driven , socially impactful business .” EN
34 — Winter