Delegate Wrangler of the Month - Helen McCourty
Our very own Helen McCourty has been recognised for her contribution to The Delegate Wranglers, an event industry networking group with over 18.5k members. Here’s what she had to say about her experience in the industry and the value of the group… Have a read and check them out on Facebook if you think it would be of use to you and your events.
THE DELEGATE WRANGLER OF THE MONTH
We're very pleased to announce the February 2020 winner of 'The Delegate Wrangler of the Month' award - this is to recognise who has officially made the most posts and comments on the group last month - according to the insight stats from Facebook.
We'll be sending the winner a fantastic voucher for a one night stay at one of the fab House of Daniel Thwaites (Excellent business hotels - locations throughout the UK) - what a fab prize that is!! And we're very delighted to say the winner is ‘Helen Mac’ of Fabulous BBQ. We caught up with Helen to tell her about the award and to find a bit more about what her role involves:
Q. Congratulations on being our top contributor over the last month! How long have you been a member of the Delegate Wranglers?
A. Thank you so much, Neil and team. I am a big fan of the Delegate Wranglers. It was a lovely surprise! I joined back in 2016 and first posted early 2017 whilst organising an events industry showcase at one of our venues and looking for additional suppliers and attendees to come along. Since then it’s been an amazing resource, and really helped shape what we are now able to offer clients.
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company
A. I’m the co-Director of Fabulous BBQ, focused on developing our higher value clients, partners and planning the bigger events. At our core, Fabulous are a premium catering company specialising in high end BBQs for large corporate events at different venues including Lambeth Palace, Tower of London and Shoreditch Gardens. Through rising to an array of unique event industry challenges, we’ve evolved to become so much more than ‘just a caterer’ to our clients.
Thanks to in-house expansion and collaborations, we now deliver many events end to end, and often recommend venues, production companies, entertainment and other relevant suppliers, as well as providing Fabulous Food & Beverage to our clients. Much of this is often facilitated using the group.
Q. How did you get involved in the events industry
A. Alongside working my way up into Sales and Business Management roles in the technology industry, I’ve also been a professional vinyl DJ since 1997.I was playing a private festival in 2015 and met my now business partner, Pete Phillips, who was running the F&B. I’d recently left my full-time role and was looking for a new challenge, so we decided to team up, pool our skills, experience and ideas, and create Fabulous BBQ.
In 2017 we were working on the F&B for a technology client who wanted to create an all-day conference for 250 delegates with a ‘festival theme’ at one of our venues. With just 6 weeks to go it became clear that the client needed much more support to get the event across the line. Without any true previous large event management experience of note, I stepped in to pull it all together at the 11th hour and officially event managed my first corporate event. It went on to win the International B2B Marketing award for Best Live Event – so I guess I did a pretty good job! For me, that was the point I started to truly consider myself officially ‘involved in the events industry’.
Q. How do you use the Delegate Wranglers? Do you use it to ask questions or to assist people - or both?
A. DWs is an amazing resource for asking questions and finding new suppliers to collaborate with. I’ve made some great contacts through the group, and already given several members work on various Fabulous events this year. I also try to assist when I see questions I can help with or tag in others I know can help. It’s tough out there and important to show others the same support I have been freely given.
It’s also nice to be nice. I believe I became DW top contributor due to a post I made that generated a lot of responses. I did my best to acknowledge and thank everyone for suggestions – whether they were right for the brief or not, and that probably helped tipped the stats. Social media, like the event industry, works best when it’s collaborative. It’s important and respectful to acknowledge when others have been helpful, and give credit where credit is due. We’re all in this together!
Q. What do you like most about the group?
A. As a relative newcomer to the industry, DWs has been invaluable to me in developing my skills, knowledge and network and has therefore allowed us to expand Fabulous quicker than we could have without it. We relocated from London out to the Essex coast so I can now sit in my office in Harwich with a raft of event industry veterans and amazing suppliers at my fingertips. I don’t know where I would be without you all, you Fabulous lot!
Contact information:
Email: helen@fabulousbbq.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fabulousbbq
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fabulousbbq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FabulousBBQ
Linked in: linkedin.com/in/helen-mccourty-66350921
Website: www.fabulousbbq.co.uk
If you want to be in the running for this award next month, we'll look forward to seeing your contributions on the group.