Christina Thurstan Email & Phone Number

London, United Kingdom

As a freelance event director and owner of EventTHIS, I offer flexible event solutions worldwide. Supporting your needs as a flexible and experienced resource, I can work as a consultant or as part of your team. I offer event strategy, planning and management services, including delegate management, venue finding and liaison. My full-service project management offering is utilised by both corporate customers and agencies, allowing them to choose the services they need at the time they need them, adding expertise and resources to compliment their teams and ongoing projects.I have delivered events all over the world in several sectors, from marketing/promotional to IT, sporting, automotive and pharmaceutical.I'd love to chat to you about supporting your next event, so please do take a look at my website and let me know how I can help.

Reading, United Kingdom

As Project Director I was part of the senior management team in Quintiles’ global events department. Initially I was brought in to head up the relatively new and quickly expanding event delivery team. My primary focus was to create new and develop existing processes, SOPs and policies, as well as ensuing the team was streamlined and efficient. Alongside this I was responsible for managing the expansion of the team in both the UK and US to meet continually growing business needs. Day to day I managed resource allocation for all events, working closely with pre-delivery to ensure I had a clear view of the pipeline, and assigning appropriate delivery teams to organise all event logistics. I retained senior oversight throughout the planning process to ensure efficient and successful delivery. My responsibilities covered:• Recruitment and talent development • Event resourcing and freelancer management• Team utilisation and resource planning, including backfill• Line management of 12 international reports including monthly one-to-one meetings, mid/end-of-year reviews• Acting as a reference point for global team members, drawing on my experience delivering pharmaceutical events worldwide• Performance management personal development plan creation• Personal projects e.g. venue negotiation and contracting initiative, global security and risk assessment, implementation of registration software, external vendor service level agreements, creation of on-boarding process

Reading, United Kingdom

This role included many aspects of my role as Project Director above, however a larger proportion of my time was spent delivering international event programmes, recruiting core members of Quintiles’ event delivery team and establishing key internal processes.

Working as a conduit between Business Development and Operations departments, the Account Director role was created to enable the company to nurture ‘seed’ accounts which offer potential future volume. The role comprised overall responsibility for events taking place under each account, ensuring account-specific pricing and other details such as client policies, procedures and preferences were adhered to. Operationally, the position covered ‘customer service’ considerations: event evaluation, process improvement, change management, reporting, and regular periodical reviews with appointed client contacts according to provisions under service level agreements and key performance indicators. The BD side of the role covered supporting the sales team in identifying pipeline opportunities and ensuring that MD Events was positioned to bid for these, as well as liaising with client contacts to ensure their event requests were met with tailored solutions.

As an Event Director my role took on an expanded overview of event operations, with further responsibility upon that outlines below (Event Manager). I was tasked with managing, larger, complex events including global series and/or more challenging clients. The position meant working increasingly across offices to support the event management teams planning for and executing meetings in tandem, pulling together coordinators from various regions to ensure consistency of approach and quality of service. With responsibility for up to eight events at one time, this role required effective time management, the ability to prioritise global assignments, and the proactive management of the event team. I was responsible for auditing key deliverables to ensure MD Events’ high service levels were met, as well as the reporting of management information (live budgetary data, attendance figures, cost efficiencies etc.) to client contacts (such as project managers, clinical directors, or sponsor representatives such as procurement officials).

The Event Manager role comprised overall accountability for the smooth delivery and execution of a meeting or series of events. Primarily, this consisted of liaising effectively with the appointed client contact to ensure all requirements were met. Depending on the size of the event I was supported by a team of Event Coordinators, who reported to me on matters of delegate management, registration, attendance and travel, as well as any issues they were encountering in terms of delegate queries, or non-responsive sites etc. As the ‘go-to’ person for all client queries, my role included:• attending Business Development handover on award of project• setting up and leading kick-off meeting, (face to face if possible, or via teleconference)• arranging and running weekly TCs to discuss progress, managing deadlines and responding to queries • venue selection (working with venue search team) and site visit, production of site visit report with detailed review of venue and logistical recommendations• budget management and reporting, including weekly financial update of forecasted versus actual costs• supplier negotiations and contracting, as well as attrition and cancellation policies• management and liaison with venue, DMC, AV supplier, signage and print production, material design and production• sourcing of off-site activities and restaurant options, negotiating of minimum spend/room rental fee, menu selection, transfers• overseeing of internal meeting documentation production (welcome packs, badges, certificates of attendance, tailored questionnaires etc.)• management of ‘showreel’ slide deck• on-site attendance and management of all aspects of MD Events’ delivery of the meeting• post-event budget reconciliation, compilation of financial reporting pack submitted alongside final invoice highlighting all negotiated cost savings and other concessions gained

Based in the EMEA Headquarters, this role was placed within the Event Operations team and comprised managing the operations and logistics of 18 EMEA conferences annually from 50 to 5000 attendees. Working on a range of events including large-scale conferences and exhibitions, seminars, corporate events, and the flagship ‘Symposium & ITxpo’ event, my responsibilities included: overall expense management of budgets up to £3.5m, monthly forecasting, budget reconciliation, reducing expense without affecting the attendee experience, as well as negotiating with suppliers. Working both individually and as part of a larger event management team, I gained experience of every facet of Gartner’s service offering operationally, covering all roles within the events division.

Operating as part of a team responsible for a number of accounts, my role included working closely with the client and creating the portfolio for their marketing activities. My duties covered:• proposal management, budgeting, contacting and liaising with venues, site visits, pre-event management of logistics, event team/staffing, negotiating with suppliers, managing transportation of materials • on-site promotion of product to consumers to increase brand awareness and sales• post marketing event evaluation