Melissa Watson Email & Phone Number

Harrogate, England, United Kingdom

Yorkshire

Each summer I work as Accreditation Manager at Deer Shed Festival, North Yorkshire. This role involves working in Production to ensure hundreds of artists, staff, contractors, performers and volunteers receive the appropriate levels of accreditation upon arrival on site. I manage staff and help to oversee the running of a busy festival gate. At the moment, this is the only event I do, although I am open to managing ticketing and taking on short contracts for other events if they fall within school holidays. In the past I have managed several events and music festival Box Office's including:Beacons Festival, SkiptonLong Division, WakefieldLeeds Festival (as Wristband Exchange Supervisor). This role involves the supervision of a team of 30+ volunteers, and managing the distribution of wristbands. I have also worked freelance at Brudenell Social Club, Headrow House, Belgrave Music Hall and Slamdunk Festival. I have experience as an independent promoter doing door work, promoting club nights, and selling merchandise.

Leeds, England, United Kingdom

To facilitate the start of my teaching career, I left my job with AMG and worked at Jumbo Records before teacher training began. Because of my previous 10 year stint at Crash Records, I already had the knowledge of this niche independent sector and enjoyed and took pride in working my 11th and final Record Store Day (a big deal in music retail!). During this period I helped Jumbo as they moved from one premises into a bigger one and I also created a book section in the shop.

O2 Academy Leeds

My position with Academy Music Group involved managing the full-time operation of a busy city centre venue box office, which is open 6 days a week, and during gigs and club nights. I managed a group of casual staff and as a team we ensured the smooth operation of all ticketing procedures. My role included managing ticket sales for all the venue's events, including the weekly reporting and distribution of ticket figures to promoters nationwide, and also the movement of ticket allocations. I liaised with promoters and other ticketing agents such as See and Ticketmaster to ensure events sold in the most efficient way possible; to maximise sales.

Ilkley & Bradford

I oversaw all ticket sales and box office related duties for Ilkley Literature Festival for a period of 3 years. The Festival hosts 300+ events across the month of October, as well as events for their Words in the City Festival in Bradford. This role involved phone sales, managing web sales, reporting, using wordpress and editing the website, data inputting, plus working at events and with the public. I also trained other members of box office staff. During this period, I had website development training with an established ticketing provider, and oversaw the technical switch over from one provider to another.In 2015, I event managed several poetry workshops in Bradford City Hall, which involved the responsibility of looking after poets and workshop participants, as well as ensuring the events ran smoothly. I managed events with Don Paterson, John Hegley, and Peter Sansom of The Poetry Business.

Leeds, United Kingdom

Whilst studying for my GCSE's I did work experience through school at Crash, and I increasingly became integral to the team...formative years aged 15-25!This role gave me an extensive musical knowledge within the music retail industry. It increased my confidence in business practice, and the results seen through hard-work and the use of initiative whilst working for an independent record shop, during an era of change within the industry. I had articles published in magazines and newspapers and was interviewed on local radio. • Over the years I contributed towards important changes with how the shop operated (in particular the shops expanding presence online). I dealt with all the email and admin side of the shop, as well as ticketing, and I oversaw some marketing output - which is extensive on social media. I started the instagram and facebook accounts, and saw the twitter account rise to up to 22k followers. I also inputted all weekly ticket figures and ticket finances to promoters and agents across the field.

Pgce Secondary Education, Secondary Education And Teaching, Distinction

Master'S Degree, Contemporary Literature, Merit

Activities and Societies: Volunteered at the Ted Hughes Festival in Mytholmroyd. MA Degree in Contemporary Literatures – Merit – graduated.

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), English Literature (British And Commonwealth), 2:1

Activities and Societies: Member of The Bronte Society and the Ted Hughes Society. Dissertation titled ‘Exploring the Literary Moorland.