Dan Walker speaks to Conference News about his current role and career to date

What was your first career ‘wish’ when you left school? After football (and I was never going to be good enough) my first love was music and I wanted to be a radio DJ. I also toyed with the idea of journalism and did some work which combined the two, writing for online music magazines as well as some hospital and student radio. Tell me about your first job and your subsequent path into the meetings, events and hospitality sphere? My first job was a promoter for my own club night. However I didn’t make much money so not sure if this can be classed as a job. The need to be compensated for my work took over and I landed a proper job with Blackburn Council working in the festivals and events team. I loved my time there, working on a range of indoor and outdoor public events. However, after a few years the routine annual programme stopped being so exciting and I made my way into the corporate event world. Turning point/first big project and funniest early moment at work? My first big project was Arts In The Park, an outdoor public event which attracted over 40,000 people over the course of a weekend. I also managed to reverse a 7.5-tonne truck into the security team’s minibus crushing the back doors – which although not funny was memorable for all the wrong reasons. How has Ashfield changed since the WorldEvents days? A lot of the senior team now at Ashfield were Project Managers and Account Managers when I started back in 2008. We have developed as people and a business...
Source: Ashfield Healthcare News - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Tags: Ashfield Source Type: news