The DevOps Conference
Working with Barclays & GFT to delivery a live 3 day multi-track event including a VIP dinner and drinks reception. This was hosted at the Leonardo Royal Hotel St Paul's, bringing 450 IT professionals together, along with many different speakers and sponsors.
This was my first delivery of a live event - which I took in my stride thanks to my many years experience as a Project Manager! I started by understanding the vision for 3 days and then applied my PM techniques to ensure I delivered an event which ran smoothly and flawlessly (even if that wasn’t the case behind the scenes!). So from work breakdown structures, to a plan, to sponsor & speaker management (floorplans, furniture and exhibition requirements, accommodation), establishing a cash flow budget tracker, to mapping out the delegate experience. My responsibilities were varied, touching almost every element that goes into designing and delivering an event, to working with multiple vendors, stakeholders and teams. To throwing in a couple of creative elements…..a VIP dinner to digital caricature drawings.
I look back with pride on this first event that I successfully delivered. It took drive, self-belief, motivation and determination but I knew I could do it..... even coming in under budget!