I Help Event Entrepreneurs Acquire The Skills They Need To Shape, Manage And Grow Their Businesses, Significantly Increasing Their Value Without Adding To Stress Levels

Is your Event business struggling to reach the next level?

Are you facing issues that are stopping you from growing?

Are you finding it difficult to diagnose where the biggest problems are and how to solve them?

When I set my own event business up, I hoped to make enough money to support myself.  Five years later when we were approached to merge our company into bigger one, we discovered that we had spent 5 years creating no value in our business at all.

❌ We had never set a goal and vision, and had never made a plan

❌ We had no culture and had too many people doing the wrong jobs

❌ We were “making do” with sub-standard offices and equipment

❌ We had no marketing strategy and had no clue how to promote ourselves or to who

❌ We never thought of reaching out and investing in help and advice

So many Event Businesses have started this way.  No goal, no plan, no vision for what they want to achieve and after a few years of growth through repeat business and referrals they start to stall, but they have no idea why or how to solve the problem.

Over the last 7 years Kershaw Partners have worked with dozens of Event Businesses, diagnosing where the barriers to growth are, removing them and helping them to build more successful, more profitable and ultimately, if they are looking for an exit strategy, more valuable Event Businesses.

We start this process with a 2 Day Diagnostic Business Review.  We help you to take a step back from your business for a couple of days and draw a line in the sand. 

The 2 Day Review will:

✔ Help you to clarify your vision, ambition and objectives for the business and plan for them

✔ Make sure that you have the right people on the journey with you and that you are set up to achieve your objectives

✔ Enable your team to do the best job possible by having the best “tools” to work with

✔ Help you define a marketing strategy to find, retain and maximise the value from your customers

✔ Show you what structures you need to put in place so that the business can Run on Rails and not be so dependent on you

✔ Show you how to create value in the business so if you want to there is an option to exit your business.

This is what our clients say:

“I have spent a lot of money on consultants in the last two years, and other than the money I have spent with Kershaw Partners, the rest of it was a waste" (James Middlehurst, Kalm Kitchen) 

"We have used consultants in the past, but none who have walked the walk and are so grounded." (Ben Leslie, Yahire)

To find out more book a call at https://go.oncehub.com/IntroductoryCallwithDavid

David Watt

At school, Jason Brown was told he was destined to flip burgers. 


Struggling with unrecognised ADHD and dyslexia, uninspired by the school system that labelled him a “naughty kid”, his life could have taken many different turns.

Today, Jason is the CEO of Technical Solutions Audio Visual Limited – an AV company he founded in 2009, which has since serviced some of the UK’s most notable venues. It’s no surprise that his attitude to life, work and entrepreneurship is truly inspiring. 

Jason and I spoke about many interesting topics in our discussion, but his overwhelming passion for encouraging young people into entrepreneurship has stayed with me ever since. 

With growing generational divides in the workplace and technological advancements around every corner, the value of entrepreneurship for Gen Z is huge. Jason’s own story – leaving education, struggling with personal challenges, finding his passion and forging a career – should be a source of enormous inspiration to any young people hoping to make a start as an entrepreneur. I have no doubt that we will see him in schools speaking directly to the next generation very soon! 

For anyone who is interested in how we are shaping the future of business, this is the conversation for you. 

https://lnkd.in/eir2sEEN

Partner | Event Business Marketing and Growth Specialist

One of the misconceptions I see most often is that experience simplifies leadership.


This conversation with Ben Hardy challenged that head-on.

Ben leads some of the UK’s most complex public events, where safety, scrutiny, stakeholders and delivery all collide. What came through clearly is that experience doesn’t remove uncertainty. It changes how leaders respond to it.

We talked about decision-making without perfect information, why partnership is an operational requirement rather than a value statement, and how sustainability shows up in the everyday choices leaders make, especially around people and pace.

What I valued most was the realism. No heroic narratives. No silver bullets. Just a thoughtful reflection on how leaders think, prioritise and hold responsibility over long delivery cycles.

If you’re running an event business and sometimes wonder why things still feel heavy, even when you know what you’re doing, this episode will resonate.

Listen here:
BuzzSprout: https://lnkd.in/erzkh8p7 
Apple: https://lnkd.in/e-rZVRCw 
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e5K4UEyB

Like it or loathe it, AI is having a truly profound impact on our industry.


I have had many conversations with founders and senior leaders in events about the ways in which they are using AI, and the ones that have stayed with me are far from the flashiest. 

This particular story – a business owner with severe dyslexia being able to get proposals out in half the time thanks to AI – is a prime example of how this technology can amplify talent in our industry. 

With so many new tools emerging in the events industry, it's easy to get swept up in the shiniest tech and flashiest offerings. This was a striking reminder that it's often the simpler solutions – the ones that truly address your area of need – which have the biggest impact. 

It was great to sit down with Mike Kershaw and Richard Dean for this week's episode of Event Matters. To hear our predictions for the coming year, advice to business leaders, and thoughts on new tech, listen now.

https://lnkd.in/efVpBD_Q

How does a one-off event become a hub of connection in the region, land national media coverage, and springboard the organisers into running an events business? In Andrew Charlton's words, 'by happy accident'. 


This week’s episode of Event Matters is all about Andrew’s unique journey from the legal sector to becoming an events industry entrepreneur. Our conversation was full of reflections and insights, but one thing in particular really stuck out to me.

We meet a lot of founders who are ‘stuck in the weeds’. They find themselves so bogged down in the next project, the next challenge, the next deadline, that they can’t make the space to zoom out and find long-term, sustainable solutions.

Andrew’s story was a reminder of how important it is to break free of this. His success has been marked by strategic decisions and a willingness to adapt:

- Taking the initiative to host the event his sector needed, then scaling the demand into a business of its own.
- Learning to juggle family life while running 100+ events annually, then adapting the weekly work schedule to preserve balance.
- Identifying new tools and tech to streamline business operations, then implementing them to maximise impact. 

The story behind Hashtag Events and Andrew’s grounded perspective are truly inspiring. I would recommend this episode to any founders or business leaders who find themselves battling with the day-to-day and neglecting the bigger picture. It’s a fantastic reminder of what’s possible when you zoom out. 

Listen now: 
https://lnkd.in/ezBmeJhs

Sales is a topic that comes up in almost every conversation we have with event business owners.

Not the “push harder” version. The real questions underneath it.

→ How to win the right work.
→ How to grow existing clients without discounting.
→ How to price with confidence.
→ How to build a pipeline that lets you sleep at night.

When sales feel misaligned, everything feels harder than it needs to be.

That is why we are running the Sales Success Accelerator Masterclass this January. A practical, hands-on session for event agency founders, leaders and client-facing teams who want to strengthen how their business sells, without becoming someone they are not.

It is focused on mindset, structure and tools that actually work in real event businesses.

If you would like to join us in London on 19 January, you can find the details below.
https://hubs.ly/Q03ZBFvL0

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m.d.e.m

m.d.e.m is a venue research and event management company set up in April 1993.  We work with clients in a variety of industries on projects such as pure venue research for meetings, conferences, training programmes, gala and award dinner events through to taking on the full top to toe management of any event.

Director

mdem Ltd

www.venueresearcher.com

Blogger

www.shortleadmeetings.com

www.shortleadmeetings.com is meeting tool where meeting and event bookers can search for venues with availability to meet their needs and book online; venues can list their availability and have their meeting space immediately available and visible to thousands of bookers each day.

Would it help to get just one task off your desk? Now? Straight away?

Would it help to …

* keep control of the venue search but have it done for you
* have a full proposal land in your inbox with ALL the information you need as if you'd done the task yourself
* have imagery, capacity information
* rates negotiated and provisional holds secured
* site visits arranged for you, logically organised to suit your diary
* guideline costs so you can compare like with like

AND a run down of venues that would be suitable for your event but don't have availability on the dates you need.  Better than that, the reason why they're not available in case your event brief or dates change (or can be changed to suit that perfect venue).

AND, if your brief does change, one phone call or one email is all you need to have the venue proposal re-worked.

Delegate the work but not the fun ... it's your event and always will be but the leg work that takes up your valuable time can be done while you concentrate on other tasks.

How about a wild card venue option or two?  How about including that perfect venue that is just a tad off brief .. just for the fun or it, you never know, so let's get creative too.

Wouldn't it be good to have someone else negotiate rates and enhance the package inclusions for you?

How about having another set of eyes look over the venue contract, negotiate and amend it to suit YOUR needs?

Venue research is ALL I do, day in and day out, it's a real passion.  

The contract stays with you, the corporate.  The contract is between you and the venue.

AND how about if I said you could get all this for FREE.

As an industry recognised agent our payment comes from the venue in the form of a commission fee which is inbuilt into the rates the venue quotes irrespective of whether you approach the venue direct or via me, it's a WIN / WIN in the proper sense of the phrase.

AND, give me your hotel chain membership / incentive / loyalty numbers and I'll add those to the venue confirmation too so you get recognised in that respect too.

I also run incentives from time to time!

If you'd like to know more then give me a call or drop me an email (contact details below).

OR drop me your next event brief and let's get cracking.  No job too large or small, I've worked on them all.  Tight timeframe, no problem.

THERE IS A SOLUTION!

Contact me by DM or helen@mdem.co.uk or let's talk, 01256 381636 (office) or 07831 455206 (mobile), open to WhatsApp or text message too!

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