There’s no doubting that the events sector has been hit hard in 2020. But it’s also inspiring to hear the stories of those that embraced uncertainty, pivoted quickly and adapted to new technologies to fight for survival. Someone leading this change is Curran Dye, the Head of Growth at “Feast It”, the UK’s leading event planning platform, currently 7 on the top 100 StartUps list and named the future of event catering by StartUps of London.
Curran joins Alex Marriner, for episode one of the “Scale of One to Tech” podcast to discuss exactly how “Feast It” has adapted it’s core offering as well as the creative process behind being “bold and brave” in order to be innovative. They also delve into some useful tools and tech you should be using within the growth marketing industry.
This episode covers:
Links & references:
Alex Marriner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalmarketingrecruitment/
Acquire Digital Talent:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-marketing-recruitment-london/
http://www.acquiredigitaltalent.com/
Curran Dye: https://www.linkedin.com/in/currandye/
Feast It: https://www.linkedin.com/company/feast-it/
Feast It Virtual Events: https://feast-it.com/event/virtual-events
TechLondon: https://techlondon.io/
Online Geniuses: https://onlinegeniuses.com/
Episode highlights:
“We heard so often from customers that it’s really easy to book things on Feast It but it’s still hard to book the other services for events. So we took that to heart and thought that a product where you could book not only catering but also marquees, entertainers, florists, photographers and videographers would probably be a better customer experience.” – 4:53 – Curran Dye
“Something that worked to our advantage was that our teams are pretty collaborative as they are. We have lots of inter-team meetings on a weekly basis to understand what each other are doing and inform that, but we had to do that on a different scale for this.” – 7:22 – Curran Dye
“We were lucky we shifted to working from home just before quite a few other companies. And that made us realize that the world outside was changing.” – 12:28 – Curran Dye
“Investors are not looking at a one year horizon, good investors are looking at a five year horizon. With that in mind, it might be easier to understand how they can put money into businesses that might not seem like they are going to take off right now in the current conditions.” – 14:37 – Curran Dye
“Things that really set out good growth marketers from the rest are people that are really inquisitive about the industry and about their role. If you think that you’ve got an idea, and you’re not quite sure how to make it work, have a go at it yourself. Don’t just leave it there and go ‘That’s someone else’s problem’.” – 19:30 – Curran Dye
“People in growth, we love tools and playing with the latest thing out there, seeing what it can give us. We certainly did that during this period.” – 26:13 – Curran Dye
“Do tests that scare you. Don’t be afraid of failing. It’s a massive source of learning, and if we feared it we’d never try anything bold.” – 32:51 – Curran Dye