SideStage 2015 was our first staging of this conference event for event management students and people looking to get into events here in Ireland. We footed the bill so those interested could attend at no cost.
In here, we remember what it was like trying to get into the industry. Some of us had a straightforward road. Some of us took the circuitous route. Some of us knocked on the door for quite some time.
We wanted to help people now in similar situations. We wanted to try create a forum where event students and people looking to get into events could network and meet industry people and their peers too.
We were never going to satisfy everyone 100% at the event but we reckon we did a lot for most people. Others would have preferred more specific content and that feedback will inform some more stuff we're looking at doing.
We released this eBook too to go along with the event. It features a host of advice from our contributors for people looking to get into the industry.
We're very glad we ran the event and we're glad people got something from it.
This was us doing something to give back to the industry we love so much and we very much enjoyed doing it.
Talking to students and people looking to get into the industry gave us hope for the future.
Seeing so many industry heavyweights, statutory body representatives, local authority staff, suppliers, event organisers and more, in one room, bouncing off one another and all getting stuck in for the benefit of those in attendance was extremely rewarding.
It was tough finding the time to make SideStage happen but it was well worth it. We're lucky enough to be constantly busy so we'd to build SideStage into our workload as if it were a client event.
The cost of the event was not quite an unexpected challenge, as we made the decision not to charge people to attend. That said, it wasn't cheap to run but we felt (a) it needed to be done and (b) it deserved to be done well.
