Sarah Keates is an accomplished event organiser and part-time creative technologist, working in a number of fields including music festivals and science and technology events.
Her years of experience in science communication, creative technology, and festivals and events has led her to become an excellent event director, an advocate of Bristol and the creative tech hub here, and recognise the importance of events to enable business growth, learning and development.
Over 15 years of managing projects and supporting crew and volunteers in these fields means she consistently delivers a very high standard of event coupled with helping people develop useful skills and assisting meaningful networking to further their careers.
Currently working on some exciting projects including VR World Congress, the Uk's largest conference for VR and one of the most creative and useful for networking, a 4000 capacity music and arts festival, Balter Festival, The Asbo Disco venue for Boomtown, decor and wedding management for a couple of clients and is helping to set up a virtual reality lab for Bristol alongside Pervasive Media Studio, Watershed, Bristol University and UWE.
Certificates: FAW (3 day) March 2018 / IOSH (CRISP) Health and Safety January 2018 / IPAF (3a, 3b) September 2019 / PASMA October 2019
Projects
- The Asbo Disco: Boomtown 2016In 2016 Boomtown Fair invited us to be a part of their seedy underground scene and invited us to make a run down dirty strip club run by the Asbo Gang. From the moment we opened the venue was one in, one out until closing on Saturday night with the biggest party the Downtown Area has ever seen. The event was unfortunately let down by a previous decor crew and I was called upon to step in last minute and create something in this new format for the group. I was given an 18 day run in time to create this venue and came in on target and budget, whilst more than matching the creative director's imaginings.
Work history
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Event ManagerTechSPARK UK
Bristol, United KingdomFreelance
Taking the lead on the overall event schedule for TechSpark, directing operations on regular TechSPARK and BathSPARK events., ensuring consistent and excellent delivery throughout.
TechSPARK is the information hub for all things tech in Bristol, Bath and the West of England region.
Our mission is to shine a light on tech innovation and celebrate the brilliant people that power the companies and products based in our part of the world. We aim to connect and inform all of those who work in tech in the region by providing news, profiles and resources like events calendars, jobs boards and a lot more.
These events aim to create opportunity, encourage diversity and spark new ventures. Coder meet Creative. Creative meet entrepeneur. Entrepreneur meet talented graduate. This is social networking (for real) with local digital people enjoying a drink, and talking about what they love. BathSPARK events are held in Bath and TechSPARK events in Bristol, but we also hope to encourage collaboration between tech companies in both towns.
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Festival ManagerBalter Festival Ltd
Chepstow, United KingdomFreelance
Work alongside the Event Producers to implement and manage their 4000 capacity green-field music and arts festival including; festival management procedures and advising on their event management plan, hiring department managers, run the event production office and other operational offices on site and act as one part of the Event Liaison Team in an emergency.
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Skills
- Managing Volunteers
- Event Magagement
- Creative Arts
- Microsoft
- Administraton
- Scheduling
- Live Events
- Corporate Events
- Festival Director
- Festival Design
Education
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BA(Hons) Interdisciplinary DesignUniversity of the West of England
- Bristol, United Kingdom
Awards
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'Totally Killing It' Award - WinnerSPARKies
This award recognises the company that the judges believe really made the most of the last 12 months, increasing turnover, expanding, making an impact and capitalising on their successes, both in the region and where relevant, further afield.
Shortlisted alongside Ultrahaptics, Roketmakers and Keymailer.