Tim Norris is the Senior Production Manager at ACC Liverpool, and shares with us his views on what you can build with likeminded colleagues who want to move forward, and also about ‘paying it forward’ to next generations. This blog goes to show that the younger generation of colleagues is present in many different sectors of the Meeting Industry, looking to make their mark, but also looking to make it future-proof! Enjoy the read...
With many millennials working in events, it is up to us to try and help shape the future of our industry. This means fresh ideas, energy and dynamism in order to progress the services we provide and in turn enhance our visitors’ experience.
Joining The ACC Liverpool Group as a technician seven-and-a-half years ago provided such an opportunity. I had cut my teeth at ICC Birmingham, learning from an experienced technical team with many years under their belt. ACC Liverpool, which comprised of Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre, only opened in 2008 and that meant a young, fresh team hungry for to make an impact.
When I started in 2010, the production team consisted of 10 people, mainly of a similar age, which was a great advantage – we were a small team with many new and exciting ideas – and we supported each other so our suggestions could be heard. At the beginning, we supported smaller association conferences and larger events mainly brought their own production teams in.
As the business and number of events grew, we were able to prove that not only were capable of providing full technical services, we were hungry for it.
Having a millennial led team, we had a great energy and appetite to grow the department. As a young, focused and enthusiastic team we wanted to move away from the usual traditional ‘in-house AV teams’. We wanted to make a name for ourselves for our creativity and innovation. We listened to each other, learnt from each other, and in turn was able to offer our clients something more exciting and unique.
Over time we like to think we have more than proved ourselves - the enthusiasm and proactive nature of a younger team gives our clients confidence in our abilities and innovative suggestions. Trust has built over the years so that clients are comfortable leaving every aspect of their production in our capable hands and our sales team are happy to sell our services.
As millennials, we are never finished learning – we are constantly looking for new innovations, new ideas, new inspirations. I count myself lucky to be working in such a young dynamic company, who thrive on learning and development. Everyone’s ideas are heard and discussed .
We not only support each other, but we also focus on supporting and nurturing young talent. We recruit casual staff and freelancers who are studying at local universities to help boost their skill set. This has resulted in many of our younger casual technicians moving on to get full time jobs with us.
Since those initial days, I have seen the department grow. We continue to innovate and invest which enables us to enhance our services smashing the old school image of a production team as we go. After all, the industry is constantly evolving, so why shouldn’t we?