Every event we create combines thousands of unique moments, all combining to create one shared experience. It is a real skill to notice, capture, and share those moments in a way that tells the story of the event long after delegates have gone, that’s why it’s important to partner with a photographer who understands what it means to capture an event engagingly and interestingly. We’ve worked with Thomas Jackson, founder of TyneSight Media, a creative content capture agency, for over eight years on a whole spectrum of different events. Over his career he’s photographed everyone from Michelle Obama to Prince Harry, so we thought it was time to pick his brains on what goes into creating great event photography (and why, no, you can’t just snap some pics on your iPhone)…

Hi Thomas! You’ve been capturing BeaconHouse events for over eight years now, how did that relationship start?

The first event I ever shot for BeaconHouse was the Dynamites Awards back in 2016, and we just worked together on the 2024 awards so it’s safe to say I think they liked what we produced! From there the relationship has flourished and I feel like part of the team. The majority of my work centers around capturing “people on stages”, whether that is at corporate events and conferences, live music events, or festivals, so it is a natural partnership with the team at BeaconHouse.

Capturing ‘people on stages” is what you do best – how is event photography different from other types of photography?

Event photography isn’t predictable. With studio or PR photography you have control over the location, lighting, and styling and you can pose your subjects to a certain extent. With event photography, you are capturing what is in front of you and you are tasked with making what is there look as good as possible. Often what is there on the day doesn’t translate into a great photo – I have a lot of friends who are lighting designers and we often joke that it is my job to make all of their hard work disappear to make the photos look better.

You don’t have control over the scene, you only have control over how you shoot it. That is one of the things that I enjoy most about it – the unpredictability keeps my work interesting and I have always enjoyed telling the story of a live event, rather than creating more clinical or standardised images.

How important is it for that unpredictability to be underpinned by a great photography brief?

A solid brief is hugely important at the start of a relationship with a new client, while you are learning what they want and how you work together. A brief gives clarity to what you are trying to achieve, and the timings and ensures that the client receives all the shots that they need. A great brief includes a must-have shot list, a realistic running time, and space for some flexibility in the agenda if things don’t run perfectly to schedule. Ideally, it is good to talk through the photography brief in advance and have a conversation about what is realistic and possible in the time that we have, it’s all about collaboration and listening to each other to get the best results.

The best event photography comes from a combination of a relationship with the client based on trust and a realistic and detailed brief to keep everyone right on the day.

How do you make sure you capture a variety of images across events?

It can be difficult to stop event photography from looking ‘samey’ if it is in a popular venue, or it is a traditional stage set up, but really comes down to experience and ‘working the room’ pre-event to make sure you have a variety of backdrops and angles. Each event has its nuances and it is our job to capture the individual moments that make that event unique, which comes down to planning and immersing yourself in what is going on around you.

When you are shooting a conference it is about watching how speakers react in real time and adapting your style to it; are they pinned to the lectern or walking around? Do they have certain mannerisms that would make a good shot or is the lighting hitting them in a certain way? It’s those details that tell the story of individual events and create interesting, unique images.

Talk to me about lighting!

Lighting is as important as music or venue dressing in creating the atmosphere that you want, both in real life and in content, so it should never be a last-minute thought. Lighting is crucial to our ability to get the best photographs and building a good relationship with the lighting director on site makes any photographer’s job much easier. A good lighting director makes a photographer’s job so much easier and being able to have honest conversations to discuss issues in real time saves a lot of time and energy later.

Organising an event is a busy time but be mindful of lighting when you are setting up at a venue. Take time to step back and take a look at the stage or the networking areas to see if it looks dark, if there are lots of shadows, or if a speaker is going to be backlit. We are all working together for the same goal, so speak to your photographer if you’re not sure or ask venue managers for their advice – if it looks weird in real life, chances are it will look a little odd in photos too.

A good photographer will arrive on-site early to walk around and check the lighting in each space, trust their process and if they ask for something to be tweaked it will usually be for a good reason.

How do you capture ‘in the moment’ shots without being intrusive?

A lot of it comes from judging the vibe of what is going on and making a judgment of how warm people are to photographs being taken. I’m quite visible as a photographer, which means it’s less about trying to covertly take photographs and more about being part of the moment so you can capture it from within. I always take time to have a chat with delegates or share a joke to make them feel comfortable, rather than trying to blend into shrubbery to get a candid shot.

There is a lot of crossover between great event photography and great street photography. The best street photographers don’t try to hide, they are there, front and center of what is happening on the ground. It comes down to having the confidence to know that you should be there, which relaxes delegates enough that those unique, candid moments come naturally.

You, of course, need to be unintrusive when people are speaking on stage, but again this comes down to taking the time to know the space and where you can get a good view without changing or damaging the audience experience.

How do you work with the event team to manage the consent of those being photographed?

It is important to have a process in place pre-event to know who can and can’t be photographed, whether that be different coloured lanyards or stickers etc. I don’t like the term ‘can’t’ be photographed, which implies a serious need to protect this person’s identity, simply that they don’t want to be is enough. There are always reluctant subjects, and I don’t need to know why someone doesn’t want to be in a photograph, maybe it is a bad hair day or they spilled coffee on their jacket on the way to the venue, I just need a way of identifying who those people are on site. If someone lets me know that they don’t want their picture taken, that’s not a problem at all, usually, I will just make a joke of it and delete the image.

Identifying people, especially children, who don’t wish to be photographed by giving them a certain colour lanyard to everyone else automatically makes them stand out and creates a point of difference which can be quite damaging. Try giving out a seemingly random selection of lanyards or stickers, where only the event planner and photographer know which colour means don’t photograph to avoid making a certain group of people stand out.

There is a gulf of practice between what you legally have to do and what is best practice and usually it is about finding somewhere in the middle that is not negatively going to impact the experience of attending the event. Blanket signage saying that there will be photography at the event is one end of the spectrum, all the way through to explicit consent from every attendee, both have their pros and cons.

Last but not least, how do you make sure that you tell a good story with your images?

Again it comes back to collaboration and understanding the purpose behind the event and how they will be using the images afterward; a lot of the time it is about creating FOMO in the people who couldn’t attend! Events are an amalgamation of lots of little moments, from the calibre and enthusiasm of the speakers to the water cooler conversations and little moments of delight that BeaconHouse Events do so well. A great photographer will be right there alongside the delegates, capturing those as they happen.

People worry about disturbing photographers, but I really welcome people telling me what is going on in other areas of the venue, or what they are enjoying about the event – it all helps to add layers to the images and creates something completely authentic and new.

To find out more about TyneSight Media visit www.tynesight.co.uk and to speak to the team at BeaconHouse Events about creating your next event email info@beaconhouse-events.co.uk or give us a call +44 (0)191 691 3456.

An event might just seem like a fun way to wrap up the year, but getting your team together to share a positive experience is a powerful way to engage and excite your people, inspire innovation, retain top talent, and improve productivity. According to Gallup’s ‘State of the Global Workplace’ report, only 23% of employees feel engaged at work, and 1 in 10 employees don’t feel “valued at all,” according to a report by Workhuman. Well-planned and executed events, that have a clear purpose, are an important part of the puzzle when it comes to addressing these issues and fostering a positive workplace culture in the coming year.

End-of-year events are a well-honoured workplace tradition, but more organisations are looking to go beyond drinks after work at the pub and create a positive, shared experience and really say thank you. We have been working with a range of businesses to invest in engaging their teams through events, including CF Fertilisers and Leighton. Earlier this autumn we partnered with CF Fertilisers to deliver a leadership conference at Wynyard Hall as part of their annual staff engagement series. Now in its second year, the conference centred around the theme of ‘Inclusive Leadership,’ with a focus on inclusion, collaboration, and empowerment, and gave the leadership team a way of recognising and rewarding success across a large team.

Just recently we had the pleasure of planning a company day for Leighton after a record year for the organisation. Leighton wanted a day that blended business updates, team bonding, and celebratory fun and we brought that to life with a mini internal awards ceremony to acknowledge outstanding team contributions, a lively quiz, complete with themed rounds and friendly competition, capping off the evening with laughter and tasty food. The result was a company day that strengthened their company culture, celebrated achievements and left a lasting impression on the team.

Events don’t have to be run of the mill and can range from team-building retreats and workshops to annual parties and corporate celebrations. When businesses invest in these gatherings, they provide employees with opportunities to step away from their routines and engage in unique experiences. These experiences often help cultivate camaraderie, thereby strengthening relationships across departments.

So, how can events make your team feel more motivated in 2025?

1. They give an opportunity to say thank you

We all like to know that our hard work has been noticed and appreciated, and sometimes simply saying thank you is all it takes to make teammates feel appreciated. Simple words of gratitude can transform organisational culture and getting everyone together allows leaders to personally show their thanks to for hard work and dedication in a really personal way. Making time to organise an event to say thank you shows that every team member is valued and plays a vital role in the future success of the business, creating a sense of shared purpose.

2. Increase productivity

A well-timed and thoughtful event can lead to increased productivity across the whole business. When teams are given the chance to recharge and bond outside of the conventional work environment, they return to their tasks with renewed energy and creativity. Well-executed events with a clear purpose serve as a platform for brainstorming and innovation. For instance, hackathons or brainstorming sessions during retreats can give you valuable insights and foster collaborative thinking. By creating opportunities to collaborate in an informal setting, businesses can inspire idea generation that may not have a chance to surface during typical office hours!

3. Attract and retain the best talent

In an era where talent is at a premium, retention is more critical than ever. Events present the perfect opportunity to engage teams and instil a sense of belonging within the business. Regularly scheduled events – such as monthly check-ins, recreational activities, or professional development workshops – can all enhance job satisfaction. It doesn’t always have to be a big celebration either, getting into the habit of recognising birthdays or work anniversaries through small celebrations or acknowledgment events can significantly boost morale. These gestures show appreciation and encourage loyalty, making teams feel more like family. When colleagues feel appreciated and connected, they are more likely to stay with the business and contribute to continued success and growth.

4. Give people a chance to connect

How we make space to connect defines the culture of a business and provides the foundation to achieve almost anything – this could be through a fun day out, an outdoor adventure, an awards ceremony, a charity event, or a cooking class. Modern working patterns and alternating shift patterns might mean that some team members never have the chance to meet or get to know each other. This could lead to cliques forming or teams being unaware of priorities across the business.

5. Reward effort, achievements, and value-led behaviours

Designing an event that everyone across the business can enjoy and be part of, is a fun way to reward not just commercial success, but also give a pat on the back to those who best demonstrate company values too! Why not create a poll where people can choose what they want to do at the event so everyone feels involved, or make space to celebrate people who have gone above and beyond?

6. Create positive shared experiences

Events can range from team-building retreats and workshops to annual parties and celebrations, but at BeaconHouse we always do things a bit differently…so teams are surprised, engaged, and entertained for the whole event.  When businesses invest in bringing people together they provide opportunities to step away from routine and engage in unique experiences – especially important for hybrid teams or those with mixed shift patterns. These experiences help to strengthen relationships across departments and allow people the space to get to know each other.

Ultimately, when a business prioritises the experiences of their team and actively recognises their contributions, they cultivate a thriving workplace and set themselves up for sustained success. Harness the power of events, say thank you, and watch the positive ripple effect across the whole business in 2025 and beyond.

To speak to the team at BeaconHouse Events about creating a meaningful experience for your team or to simply chat through your staff engagement plans. Email info@beaconhouse-events.co.uk or give us a call +44 (0)191 691 3456.

You and the BeaconHouse Events team have gotten involved with a range of charitable initiatives over the past few years – which ones have you enjoyed the most?

I love being outside, and earlier in the year a few members of the team got the chance to support The Children’s Foundation, planting trees at their inner-city allotment, which was a real highlight. It was a cold but crisp spring day and the team from the charity told us about the projects that they deliver from the site and the difference that our support was making for young people in the region. We helped to tidy up the space and then took oak seedlings and planted them in a border foundation around the allotment which felt like we were leaving a legacy for the young people that are using the allotment today and in the future too.

With Groundwork North East, we went up to Hebburn and litter-picked around the local area before heading over to the salt marsh, a re-wilding part of the bank of the Tyne. We learnt about what the team was doing with the space and counted some of the species that were being protected in the space so that the Groundwork team could assess how the patch was growing.

Sustainability is a key priority for us here at BeaconHouse Events, so while this project was ultimately about supporting young people in our community to thrive, it also aligned with our green credentials!

How important do you think it is for businesses to support charities in this way?

When you look at a busy calendar, there is sometimes the temptation to think you’re too busy to take time out to do projects like this, but you can really see the difference in the team when we are back in the office. We carve the time out of people’s available capacity to go and take part in these charitable initiatives like this, which means people can really turn off, take time away from their emails, and get immersed in the task they are doing. While there is the philanthropic element of supporting charities that are close to our hearts (we recently chose to partner with ten charities as part of our 10th birthday celebrations), it also has a strategic business impact too. The team always comes back more creative and collaborative after working together to deliver something for a charity; it is a real morale boost and makes us an even closer team because of those shared experiences.

You have a busy calendar – tell us about what you get up to outside of work?  

I love living in the North East because you have the coast, countryside, and city all nearby, so there is plenty of opportunity to get out and explore. I love cold water swimming with Katie (Whitehouse), another event manager here at BeaconHouse, and alternate going early morning or at lunchtime depending on the weather! I find it helps with managing stress; we work on complex, busy projects, and it can be difficult to take time to totally switch off. Being that cold takes up all your brain capacity, so it is impossible to think about anything other than what you are doing, which can be very addictive! I would recommend it to anyone, especially people who work in the events sector – we tend to be quite tough and resilient anyway in this business, so it’s a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone and decompress. As a business we acknowledge that the events sector is a busy one, so we make time to check in on each other and share tips on how to focus on wellbeing in and out of the office. I used to do longer walks quite a lot, but I’ve reigned it in a little recently after I contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite!

That sounds nasty! Has it made you think more about your health and well-being?

Yes, it took a a very long course of strong antibiotics to get me feeling like myself again, and it is one of those things that might flare up again in the future. It left me feeling pretty drained and lethargic which isn’t like me at all, and while I feel much better now, it made me think about my health in a way that I haven’t had to consider before. Due to global warming, there is a increase in ticks, and therefore an expected rise in Lyme disease cases over the coming years and there is so much uncertainty and confusing information out there. I would like to take my personal experience and see how I can use my skills to benefit organisations that raise awareness about the disease in the UK in the future, and support people who have also been impacted.

Are there any other causes that you looking forward to supporting in the coming twelve months?

Christmas is just around the corner and we’ll be Christmas wrapping again in Eldon Square for The Children’s Foundation which is always a highlight in our diaries. You get to meet such a range of different people, who either need a bit of a hand to make their gifts look lovely or are looking for their way to support a local charity. We’ll  be donning our festive jumpers and heading down as a team this December to get stuck in.

I love reading for pleasure and find it a great way to relax. One of my ambitions for 2025 is to use some of my free time to start volunteering for a charity that supports children and young people to get more confident with their reading ability. Alongside being a fantastic way to turn off at the end of the day, I’m a big believer that reading for pleasure makes you more creative, more curious about the world, and more able to explore and talk about complex issues; if I can help more children and young people find joy in that I think it would benefit them as individuals, and our future region as a whole.

For TechNExt 2023 we created the Good Festival Ambition, to ensure that everyone felt happy and confident to enjoy and participate in the full events programme. This ‘Good Festival Ambition’ has now been used as good practice for other events in our portfolio, focusing on inclusivity, diversity, accessibility, and sustainability, protecting our planet and creating a welcoming experience for all. We know that making sure that our spaces give an equitable experience to every guest is important so we wanted to speak to an expert on what that means in practice.

Catherine Grinyer, Managing Director at Attendable, a specialist consultant in making events more accessible shared her thoughts on how our sector can create truly equitable events in 2024. Catherine said, “I think it is our job as experts in the event industry to make sure that everyone has a good time, everyone can turn up and be themselves and participate fully. That means making sure that there are no barriers to accessing the content being discussed, to other people, or the perks being offered.

“I think most people go into this with good intentions, but if you think about something as simple as switching from a guest speaker to break-out groups, there are lots of things to consider. More sharing of information and collaboration on best practices is really important to move the industry forward. You need a push and a pull, as event planners we need to be having conversations about accessibility and inclusion with our clients, with venues, with suppliers, and with attendees. All of these components need to work in harmony to make lasting change and to ensure that every event is open to everyone.

“If you make an event inclusive you make it better for everyone, because every delegate will get more out of it, not just the people who are directly impacted.”

So, how can you start to take a meaningful action to focus on accessibility and inclusion at your events?

1. Build equity and diversity into your planning

Start thinking about DEI right at the beginning of the event planning process. At BeaconHouse we begin every new project by thinking about why you are doing this event in the first place, and once we have worked with the client to agree on the purpose, that’s when we can start to plan how people from different groups and communities participate, and what we need to know to establish how they might need to access things a little differently. DEI isn’t a quick-fix add-on, it should be a holistic part of your event strategy from day one.

Considering the individual needs of your guests in advance can impact other areas of the planning process too, like your emergency evacuation planning. If you are organising a large-scale event, or it’s outside or in a high-rise building, understanding who is there and what their accessibility needs are will help you to plan for every eventuality. You can be confident that everybody knows their role and what might be required.

2. Think about how to make your event barrier-free to attend and participate in

While you might think having captions or a BSL signer is enough, it is important to consider how the logistics of your event may impact how people can take part. Consider a scenario where your delegates move from watching a keynote speaker to small group discussions – a blind or hearing-impaired guest suddenly has to navigate switching tables, background noise, or multiple conversations at once which could be a barrier to how meaningfully they can participate. There are some quite easy workarounds to navigate through each situation, it just takes a bit of thoughtful planning. Whether it is thinking about the height of the microphones for people who are of smaller stature or in a wheelchair, or making sure gangways are clear of clutter. Often it isn’t about reinventing the wheel. Still, by focusing on the smaller details and speaking to people impacted rather than taking a broad-brush approach, we can move the needle and make events truly accessible.

3. Consider pre and post-event communications

Making an event barrier-free includes all of the marketing and communications that surround an event. A good example of this would be how your registration form is designed and whether you have considered whether the event management system is visually accessible. For many years people with additional needs were too frightened to voice what support they might need because it may mean being excluded entirely. With each event, we make a conscious effort to let people know what we have already put in place to create an inclusive environment, in the hope that it will encourage others to tell us more. By sending out accessibility information for the venue and any pertinent information in advance to all delegates you’re empowering them to feel fully prepared as well as not adding to the mental load by asking them to consider and plan things that other guests simply don’t have to think about. This could be a little video of the venue which shows transport routes, multiple entrances, bathrooms, and quiet spaces and while this might seem like a lot of work, it pays huge dividends as everyone there can now fully relax, enjoy the event, and have meaningful input.

4. It’s ok to ask questions

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, ultimately an individual is experiencing your event, and that experience will be nuanced. It is common practice to ask people what their dietary requirements are in the lead-up to an event, but far less common to only consider physical access needs rather than a wide range of accessibility requirements. Instead of simply telling people “This is what we have done to make our event barrier-free” we should also be asking “What else can we do to support you and your individual needs?”. Events are all about people, community, and bringing people together. By asking the in-depth questions to really understands each individuals needs you can adapt to the real people who are attending not just a theory of what a person with neurodivergence or a physical disability may need.

5. Train your front-of-house teams on best practice

Once you have asked questions and established what your audience needs, it’s time to put that information into practice. Has your front-of-house team been trained to understand and adapt to people who have different or additional needs? Issues can be easily avoided by briefing teams on details such as alternative entrances and extra support so they are equipped to confidently help everyone equally when they first enter the space.

Alongside training our team so they are confident and comfortable supporting all delegates, we also work with venues to support their internal staff to prepare for a wide range of delegate requirements. Recently we have put a buddy system in place for anyone nervous about attending on their own so they can access additional support while on site.

6. Focus on structure

The word ‘networking’ can strike fear in a lot of people, but if you are neurodivergent there may be an extra layer of uncertainty when it comes to the less structured moments in the schedule. While event planners might think that it is a nice break from a packed schedule, for some people this might be overwhelming if they have to navigate having to approach new people or start conversations cold. Neurodivergence is a broad spectrum so this of course doesn’t apply to everyone, but these are some of the internal barriers that a neurodivergent person might have.

One way of mitigating this is by communicating specific tasks or talking points that can be used throughout the session; both are ways of making sure that everyone can fully participate, add their ideas and expertise to conversations, and make meaningful connections.

While there have been improvements in the sector, DEI still tends to sit in silo, rather than holistically being part of the event planning process. At BeaconHouse we are committed to learning from experts in the field of accessibility and diversity and from the communities that take part in our events to continuously learn, improve, and share best practices.

To speak to the team at BeaconHouse Events about your event ambitions for 2024/25 email info@beaconhouse-events.com or call 0191 691 3456.

BeaconHouse Events was established in 2014 to establish environments and experiences that brought people and ideas together; creating space for conversations that could change the world. Support for local causes is baked into the culture at BeaconHouse Events and each charity on the list has been chosen by a member of the team because it aligns with core value of the business. These donations sit alongside the business’s ongoing hands on support for local non-profit organisations, including the The Children’s Foundation. Over the past year the team has volunteered to weed and dig at the charity’s inner city young people’s allotment, took to the lanes at a fundraising bowling night and supported a project bringing vital mental health workshops to schools in the region – all to give children and young people in the North East the best start possible.

Co-founder Sarah Thackray said, “Events are ultimately about people, and we would like to mark this milestone year by partnering with charities and community groups who are working hard to raise aspirations and create opportunities for people who live and work in our region. This forms a key part of our ESG strategy which aims to position us as a leading voice when it comes to driving positive change across the event sector, It includes a considered and consistent commitment to support projects focused on health and wellbeing, quality education, and climate action in the North East.

“We have a dedicated pot which will be divided among the charities, and rather than simply donating, we are working with the teams to understand what will be most beneficial to them at this point in their journey.”

Project co-ordinator Rebekah Hutchinson said, “I think I can speak for all the team when I say volunteering and charity support is embedded into the culture – it stems from a shared desire to do something good. Being involved with local community organisations who share our values gives us a sense of purpose; it’s a fulfilling and rewarding experience to share together which boosts our team morale, and it’s a chance to learn new skills to grow personally and professionally.”

Without further ado, our ten chosen charities for 2024 are…

1. Newcastle Food Bank

Newcastle Food Bank is an anti-poverty charity that provides emergency food and welfare support for people in the North East. In a bid to stop food waste at our events, we work with the team to redistribute food that would usually go to landfill and see first-hand the dedication and passion of the team behind the charity. With the use of food banks at an all-time high in our region we agreed it was important to support Newcastle Food Bank to deliver their vital work supporting people experiencing financial hardship right here on our doorstep.

2. North East Rewilding Network

The North East Rewilding Network champions the rewilding and restoration of ecosystems in the region so nature can take care of itself. While we might be orange on the outside, we’re green through and through and we unanimously agreed that supporting a project that promotes nature’s recovery and climate solutions while empowering communities aligned perfectly with our environmental aims for BeaconHouse Events.

3. Rise

Rise works in schools and colleges across Newcastle and Gateshead to support children and young people (aged 5-18) with their emotional wellbeing and mental health. They work with parents, teachers and education professionals to help young people feel more in control and more resilient in managing their wellbeing and mental health. Working in a fast-paced environment with high burnout rates, the mental health of our colleagues is always front of mind for us. Recently the whole BeaconHouse team was trained in mental health first aid which equipped us with the knowledge, awareness, and tools to promote health and wellbeing and have each other’s backs. Our brilliant project co-ordinator Rebekah a champion for mental health within the business put forward Rise as a charity close to her heart and we couldn’t agree more.

4. North Tyneside Arts Studio

Creativity with purpose underpins every event that we bring to life and we believe that everyone should have access to, and get the benefit of, engaging with the arts. North Tyneside Arts Studio provides a safe, supportive environment where people can discover how creativity can support their mental health and personal recovery.  Their community has a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and diagnoses, but their common experiences of living with mental health issues help to build the tools and social connections that empower people to achieve long-term change. Our resident artist and project co-ordinator Alice put forward their work for consideration and we are thrilled to support their work.

5. Stepney Bank Stables

Our neigh-bours in the Ouseburn Valley recently launched an appeal to help save the inner city stables after facing a critical funding gap which meant the vital community resource was under threat of closing due to a perfect storm of financial challenges. Stepney Bank Stables operates a valued youth programme just around the corner from our home in Hoults Yard so as part of our commitment to making our local area a vibrant place to grow up we wanted to safeguard the organisation’s future and contribute to the welfare of the horses who rely on the stables for care and shelter.

6. Groundwork North East and Cumbria

Our co-founder and sustainability champion Sarah sits on the board of trustees for Groundwork NE and recently we have partnered with the organisation to ethically offset our carbon impact by opting to donate our carbon credit equivalent for 2023’s events programme. The donation went towards supporting the charity to deliver its nature-based Solutions portfolio of environmental community initiatives. The work that the team at Groundwork is doing is inspirational and aligns completely with our values and vision for the region. This donation as part of our 10-year campaign is just one part of a much larger relationship we have with the charity, including volunteering on-site with the team in the coming months.

7. FareShare

FareShare is the UK’s national network of charitable food re-distributors, made up of 18 independent organisations. We work with clients across the UK and as part of our ongoing efforts to combat food waste in the events industry and make positive change in the sector, we want to support a national charity working to find solutions to the issue. FareShare delivers a range of projects including school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters, and community cafes. Every week they provide enough food to create almost a million meals for vulnerable people.

8. Ouseburn Farm

We are always striving to be the G.O.A.T when it comes to events, so when we heard about the opportunity to sponsor Sonny the micro-goat at Ouseburn Farm we jumped at the chance! Ouseburn Farm sits nestled in the Ouseburn Valley, just ten minutes along the road from Hoults Yard providing visitors with the opportunity to learn about the origins of food and care for nature through engagement with farm life. As a team that is actively looking to create events that are accessible to everyone, we were particularly drawn to the fact that the centre is also a care farm with a placement programme for adults with learning disabilities, difficulties, and ASD (autistic spectrum disorder), where people can learn new skills and connect with nature. Fingers crossed Sonny can visit us soon!

9. Curious Arts

Curious Arts is a North East-based charity championing and developing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual + arts, artists and communities across the North East of England and beyond. Creating inclusive spaces where everyone feels comfortable to attend and participate is high on our agenda for every event we create and when we heard that Curious Arts offered training to organisations and venues so they can feel confident to create safe, inclusive, and welcoming environments for LGBTQIA+ people, we knew we had to support them as part of this campaign.

10. Rainbow Trust

Last but by no means least is the Rainbow Trust, a national charity supporting families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness. As a family-oriented organisation, we resonated with the work the team at the Rainbow Trust is doing to support over 86,000 children with life-threatening conditions across the UK. We hope that our small contribution will make a difference to families who have a seriously ill child.

To speak to the team about our campaign to celebrate ten years in business email info@beaconhouse-events.co.uk

As well as partnering with private businesses across a whole range of sectors, our client portfolio also includes prestigious academic institutions. This year we were brought on board by Newcastle University to deliver the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium (BAMC), the largest applied mathematics conference in the UK. The event took place over three days in April 2024 and brought together students, academics, and industry professionals to discuss recent advances in the field. The organising committee for the event was chaired by Dr. Magda Carr, a Reader in Applied Mathematics at Newcastle University. We sat down with Dr. Carr to discuss what it was like bringing this prestigious event to the North East, how event management is a far cry from her day job, and talk through some of the unseen legacies that the event has created.

Tell us a little bit about BAMC 2024 and why it was an important milestone that it was held here in the North East. 

The BAMC is the largest conference in the UK for applied mathematicians, attracting delegates from across the UK and internationally. It is hosted by different universities each year and this year it was the turn of Newcastle University which gave us an amazing opportunity to welcome people to the city and put Newcastle on the map in our field. As well as getting fantastic feedback on the event itself, it was uplifting to hear the positive feedback for our city from first-time visitors too. Almost 400 people attended the event and we had lots of delegates commenting on how welcoming they found the city; how easy it is to navigate and how much there is to do here. It is easy to forget how lucky we are when all this is right on your doorstep so it was good to see it through fresh eyes.

The last time we (Newcastle) hosted the BAMC was in 1984 so we were delighted to be able to host this prestigious event again in 2024.

How did you find working with the BeaconHouse team to organise such a high-profile event for your sector? 

This was my first time chairing an event organising committee and this particular event is quite a big undertaking but I was happy to take on the challenge. I’m quite an organised person naturally so it wasn’t too daunting, and I did get teaching relief as the School of Mathematics does value how much time it takes to give the delegates a memorable experience, and it was great to know that BeaconHouse Events were there to support throughout the whole process. The team was recommended to me by another academic in the School who had recently worked with the team at BeaconHouse Events on a large-scale medical science conference where complete autonomy had been handed over to BeaconHouse and the feedback was fantastic on what was achieved.

We had a scoping meeting with Sarah to talk through our ambitions for the event, what we wanted it to entail, and how much in-house resources we had, and discussed budgets and timescales. That meeting was really helpful for me and the rest of the committee, who of course don’t come from an events background, because it was flexible in terms of what budget we had and how we could make best use of that. From that meeting, Sarah took all of our thoughts and came back with a detailed approach that she thought would be the best way to achieve what we needed to achieve. After that, we were introduced to our dedicated event manager Katie who took over all of the organisation and we were able to really get into the detail of what the event would look like. What we appreciated was BeaconHouse taking the reins and being very transparent throughout the whole process which helped us understand what support we were going to get. This communication and transparency meant that we were able to utilise the budget effectively and felt like we had a robust understanding of where all the resources would be allocated.

The event was over three days, that’s a lot of content to manage. How did you decide what that looked like and how did you keep people engaged? 

We had a good idea of what worked well from past BAMC events, but we worked closely with Katie to develop a timeline so we could get abstracts (a summary of the papers that were being presented) in advance, and when they came in we were quite heavily oversubscribed which resulted in the team making the decision to increase the length of the conference from two and a half days to three full days. BeaconHouse were great at keeping the schedule very flexible and we ended up booking the venue for the full week, just as a contingency plan if we did run over with the volume of abstracts being presented.

We were conscious that we needed break-out spaces for conversations to happen and where people could digest complex information, and the venue (the Frederick Douglass Centre) lent itself to that perfectly. We were aware that it was a packed programme so as well as the breakout spaces where people could meet in small groups to talk, we made sure that there was a designated quiet room where delegates could take some time away from the main conference if needed too. We also created an LGBTQIA+ safe space where anyone who identified as part of this community could meet other peers working or studying in the field.

This is a tried and tested conference, how did you make sure that BAMC 2024 was a unique experience? 

We worked very collaboratively with Katie and the team at BeaconHouse to bring ideas to the table, it was a very creative process to be part of. We held a minisymposium on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion which had not been seen at previous BAMC conferences and was really well received. This is something we should be discussing and addressing as a field and the delegate feedback was that they were grateful that EDI was included in the programme as a topic in its own right. The EDI symposium set the tone for the rest of the conference and people were very generous with their time and expertise. We also invited chairs for each presentation from the community which meant we had a real mix of people with established careers alongside people who were quite early-stage researchers which made the event a little more relaxed and gave people the confidence to speak up regardless of career stage or gender which was an evolution from past BAMC events and made it as inclusive as possible.

Conferences like this can be quite intimidating, especially for PHD students or postdocs who are presenting work, and one of the highlights for me was how inclusive and welcoming the whole environment had been designed to feel. Where the BeaconHouse team was fantastic was pushing and challenging us on sustainability. We aimed to make the carbon footprint of the event as low as possible which meant we had to interrogate every aspect of the conference that might have an impact on that. For the first time at a BAMC event all of the catering was vegetarian or vegan, and while we were initially worried about how that might go down with meat-eaters, actually people understood and embraced what we were trying to do and the positive feedback reflected that.

What has the legacy of this BAMC been so far?

One of the really positive spin-offs from the EDI session was a group of LGBTQIA+ community members meeting and going on to set up a network to support applied mathematicians in their community. They had a working lunch as part of the conference and that was the first-ever meeting of a brand-new network that has now been established to support applied mathematicians who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community across the whole of the UK. This was never something that was planned or on our agenda but an organic thing that is a real testament to the power of events and having the opportunity to connect with others.

Planning an event can be stressful. What was the relationship with BeaconHouse during this process? 

This is the first time that I have been heavily involved in something like this and we couldn’t have been more supported by Katie during the process. I had a weekly half-hour meeting with Katie each week to touch base and make sure that both sides were on track with what needed to be delivered. While we had a plan, we also had the flexibility to change and adjust things during the process which was appreciated, and I knew that the team at BeaconHouse was all over detail as things changed and flexed as we got closer to the event; that weekly meeting meant we could react to things in real-time and keep things moving.

As the event came closer the support from BeaconHouse ramped up and they brought in expertise that we just wouldn’t have thought of on our own. Katie was great at making sure that we had all of the speaker presentations in advance (something that doesn’t usually happen in the community and just alleviated so much stress on the day) and had such a professional and friendly way of communicating with us and with our speakers. Their approach made the event feel a lot more professional and ran so smoothly, just because of those seemingly small details that they took care of. Even when things were out of our control that didn’t go as planned, Katie and the team reacted in such a positive and solution-focused way which meant all of the delegates still had a fantastic and memorable experience.

Before an event, you have no idea how it is going to be received and the feedback on the professionalism of the event has been incredibly positive – several people have comment to myself and colleagues that BAMC 2024 was one of the best they have ever attended both in terms of scientific content, environment and organisation.

Find out more about how we brought BAMC to life and speak to the team about your event ideas email info@beaconhouse-events.com or call +44(0)191 691 3456.

Companies that invest in the importance of creativity and innovation have a much better foundation to develop new ideas, products or solutions, but people need space to develop these skills and a culture that celebrates creative thinking, considered risk taking and collaboration. Creativity, imagination and innovation are all fuelled by new experiences, interesting conversations and spending time with different people – which is why events can be such a power catalyst for new ideas and creative problem solving. Whether it is a conference, a staff engagement event, a festival or round table, events offer a unique opportunity for teams to share ideas and think outside of the box.

Expose your team to new ideas

Your keynote speaker or expert panel doesn’t necessarily have to be from within your sector. Choose relevant speakers who have interesting stories, insights and experiences to share and your team will come away inspired, motivated, refreshed and armed with the tools to think differently. Getting the opportunity to hear external perspective can encourage your team to think big and aim high.

Give them space to think and have fun

An event offers a break from the daily routine and provides a chance for people to step out of their comfort zone. Even something as simple as a change of scenery can stimulate new ideas, insightful solutions and push colleagues to explore new approaches to what they are working on, rather than moving on to the next thing on the to-do list. Success is often defined in organisations in terms of productivity or efficiency – and unfortunately creativity is rarely efficient, but it is effective. Give your team space to step away from the day-to-day, learn new things, get inspired and have some fun.

Foster psychological safety

Teams that feel psychologically safe are more likely to unlock creativity, innovation and results. An event is the perfect opportunity to help build trust and connection between immediate colleagues and wider team members, making it much more likely that they will feel comfortable enough to share new ideas, and challenge current thinking to make it better. Connection is a powerful way of boosting creativity within your organisation, and shared experiences can strengthen bonds between team members and create a sense of camaraderie that can enhance creativity and innovation across the business.

Receive feedback and validation

Everyone is busy and events offer a valuable and unique opportunity for people to share ideas that they might have been sitting on for a while. Receiving feedback and validation from peers though group discussions, organic conversations or pitch sessions can make ideas take shape much faster than when they are stuck in an email chain. Sharing creative thinking with others can help refine and evolve ideas, while giving a platform to identify pitfalls early. By giving space for people to discuss big ideas, your team can challenge their assumptions, think critically about their idea and develop more innovative, collaborative solutions.

A chance to mingle with new people

Creativity can’t happen in a silo and with remote working limiting chance meetings and algorithms feeding us curated information, it can be easy to get stuck in an echo chamber of the people you work closest with. By bringing a diverse mix of people together at an event you expose them to new perspectives and give space for organic conversations and idea sharing. Speaking to colleagues who are separate to their usual roles and responsibilities will expand a person’s world view. Remember innovation happens where conversations are, and if you are only speaking to the same people, then your ideas are going to stay the same too. Workshops or interactive sessions that encourage conversation will expose your team to new concepts, trends or industry insights that they wouldn’t usually have access to.

If you want to inject some creativity into your team, get in touch with the BeaconHouse Events team to find out more about how we bring ideas to life! info@beaconhouse-events.co.uk