York University

Company Director at Skylight Bars - Meanwhile Events Ltd.

London, England, United Kingdom

Five years ago while sitting on the sofa at home with my partner, an idea popped into my head to put croquet lawns on the rooftop of the carpark at Tobacco Dock - 5 years later, that original 16 week pop-up has turned into its own business, launched a 2nd venue in Peckahm in 2021 and is on its way to being a national brand across the UK.

Meanwhile Events created Skylight Rooftop at Tobacco Dock in 2017 by transforming three levels of a former car park into London’s most imaginative new rooftop destination. Skylight Rooftop is a vibrant entertainment destination with fun activities, culinary experiences and entertainment offerings – giving the public an exciting destination to visit in East London. Skylight Rooftop at Tobacco Dock attracts over 150,000 guests per year.

Skylight operates all retail bar activations within the Tobacco Dock complex, including: Last Nights of Havana, Skylight Canalside featuring Kerb, the Euro 2021 Skylight fanzone, Skylight Cocktail Cinema, The Dock St. Speakeasy Bar and private bespoke events across the venue.

Building on this five-year success story, Meanwhile Events is about to launch as a national brand in top UK cities.  Each venue will feature exceptional views, top events and programming and exception food and drink.

As executive lead across all functional areas, I manage a team of 6 senior managers and we have a full team roster of 120 driven, dedicated and engaging people - all passionate about driving the business forward and delivering on Skylight's experiential standard.

Meanwhile Events Ltd.

Company Director

Freelance event director and producer with projects including:

KEAM GEORGE AGENCY
Senior Producer

Led the production of an outdoor PR event for Direct Line demonstrating innovative drone technology transforming a manor estate into motion powered drone race course.

ELEVENFIFTYFIVE
Senior Producer

Produced a 2-day immersive live-experience as part of a Warner Brothers film preview. The Conjuring 2: Live included the development of a 5-minute live performance, with integrated hidden video content capture, followed by a screening of the film in a temporary cinema

INNOVISION
Producer

Led the delivery, creative ideation and authorship of an Invitation To Tender response for a major client as part of their agency review. Produced all content and pitch presentation materials for the £1.75 million global road show brand activation used for the review leading to an invitation to pitch directly to client

HAVAS
Event Director – Festival of Ford and other projects

Led overlay and planning of 9 day automotive experiential learning conference (including test drive and tarmac driving activities) for 2000 delegates at Donington Race Park

THE CONCERTO GROUP
Events Director

Directed the delivery of 90 corporate events (Google, Facebook, Audi, etc.) and creative lead on consumer activations and event pitches successfully acquiring experiential projects for Argos, M&S, Elizabeth Arden etc.

SMcV Productions

Event Director/Senior Producer

- Led production operations, programming development and sponsorship activations for events that attracted an audience of over 100,000

- Managed production budget of £1 million

- Delivered a sponsorship ROI ratio of 9:1 in 2013 for Presenting Partners and a 5:1 ratio for
Platinum Partners (as measured by the International Event Group)

- Managed stakeholder relations with the Greater London Authority (GLA), the City of Westminster, the Canadian High Commission, the UK-Canada Chamber of Commerce and corporate partners (including BlackBerry, TD Bank, British Airways, Guoman Hotels, etc.)

- Authored experiential campaign proposals and sponsorship pitches for corporate clients
generating over £300,000 in new revenue

- Produced gala VIP and corporate dinners in London and New York

- Negotiated broadcast rights (CBC) and negotiated national broadcast coverage of the London
event

- Produced live-stream of the London concert on CBC.ca as well as coordinated live broadcast
coverage on CBC News Network

- Led the implementation of a new corporate branding strategy

- Led the development of a strategic plan for an 8 city global event celebrating Canada’s
Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary of confederation) in 2017 in Hong Kong, Paris, Rio de
Janeiro, Los Angeles, Mexico City)

Canada Day International

Producer and Director of Operations

Promoted to Director - August 2010
Previously - Associate Producer, Outdoor Programs

- Identified and developed program enhancement opportunities to create unique and special
experiences to elevate corporate and marketing partners visibility within the festival (e.g.
Luminato’s MP3 Experiment by Improv Everywhere present by Telus)

- Negotiated international and domestic artist contracts and managed relationship with artists and artist management (incl. kd lang, They Might Be Giants, Kronos Quartet, Mikel Rouse, Stratford Festival’s Jesus Christ Superstar, etc.)

- Identified and created opportunities for corporate partners to leverage their assets through interactive program enhancements (e.g. on-site activations, contesting, community outreach, VIP hosting opportunities, etc.)

- Supported all Luminato departments with any 3rd party partners (community groups, sponsors and service providers) with any initiatives that had a direct impact or complemented the programming goals of the festival

- Curated the “Luminato Reel” film program

- Negotiated future commissioning agreements on new work and managed relationship with future arts partners in the development of new programs for future festivals.

Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity

Director, Programming and Partner Promotions

Research Associate, promoted to Consultant

Practice specializations:
Not-For-Profit (including: Arts & Culture, Charities, etc)
Consumer Goods and Marketing

Clients included:  Royal Ontario Museum, Legal Aid Ontario, Ontario Securities Commission, Diageo,  Rogers Communication, BlackBerry

Scott McVittie