Victoria Evison recently joined Nectar Creative Communications as our Conference and Event Manager.
Here’s five questions with Victoria as we get to know our newest team member.
- What’s your history before landing at Nectar?
My career started in 2001 in Events as coordinator for some top catering companies. This led me to working for Accor and some of their key hotels in Brisbane as well as Royal on the Park. I’ve also worked for a couple of venues such as Victoria Park. All of these roles allowed me to sell and coordinate every event type in every location imaginable. I met a lot of PCO’s while working at hotels and venues, taking them on famils and became quite close with some. I loved everything about their roles and I knew I wanted my career to head in the direction of working for an Event Management Agency and to becoming a PCO. I worked for a large Association doing their events and sponsorship management and this was the final stepping stone that took me to Nectar.
- How did you work through COVID?
Throughout COVID I was lucky enough to be working for a venue that had a restaurant and large event space. At the start of COVID, Centrelink needed a large enough event space to run training for all the new people they needed to work the phones and to make Jobkeeper happen. The venue I was at was big enough to socially distance delegates correctly so we were able to stay open doing those events for the Government. The restaurant allowed the events team to do the takeaway orders as well.
- What do you see being the biggest industry challenges coming into 2023?
With all the new software that Event Management Companies can now use and now that virtual and hybrid events are commonplace, I feel like the biggest challenge coming into the new year will be making sure I make the events I create memorable and different enough to ensure the guests and the client are remembering it positively and talking about it in the weeks and months after it is over. Making sure I leave a great enough impression on clients and their guests to ensure I am also making great connections and bringing in recurring and repeat business.
- What are you most looking forward to the next 12 months from a work perspective?
I have two events coming up, in particular, which I will be working on over the next 12 months that include abstract management as well as an exhibition with trade displays, conferences, social events, sponsorship management and more which will push my imagination, creativity, planning and foresight to new heights to make sure these events are a huge success. I am excited to be challenged by events that include so many different aspects all in one.
- What’s top of the list for your first post COVID international travel destination and why?
I always love to travel to the events that I help put together if they are not in Brisbane because there is nothing like seeing the event come to life that you’ve been working on for so many months. On a personal level, the place I would love to go in the next couple of years is the hometown of my grandparents on my mother’s side which is Conzano, an Italian village in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, (next to Turin). I have some relatives there I would love to visit.