The tenth in a series by Stress Matters, who have been asking those across the events industry – how are you doing?
John Kelly discusses learning new skills and staying positive.
I’m currently a man without a portfolio right now, unemployed. My former role was as a marketing director for EMEA for BCD meetings and events – I had the longest business card on the planet. I was made redundant in October, but prior to that I had been in the industry for 15-16 years.
At the start, I focused on three different things:
The first, getting fitter, healthier and losing weight, and aiming to do this before Christmas, I have hit this already, partly due to having Covid as I had no appetite for a week. I didn’t have it too bad; I was bed bound for two days, and it left me with a huskiness to my voice, but I kind of like it. The one thing I can assure people is that Covid is real and it is not a nice thing to catch.
The second was learning new skills and completing online training courses – I’ve become more proficient in Excel and also finished two food hygiene courses.
The third was to get an awesome new job, I haven’t managed this, but there is something that is bubbling away, it’s away from the meetings and events world, but it means I’ll be the master of my own destiny. It is starting to get quite real, and a little bit scary, but an opportunity presented itself, and although I adore the meetings and events industry, I do think it will be a while before it really bounces back.
This year has been odd, tough, very challenging, like it has for almost everyone, and as Christmas approaches, it’s a scary time for a lot of people. I’m excited as I’m launching a new business, but also terrified, having not worked since June. I feel the fear and wonder if I’m capable, but I kick myself and tell myself I can do this.
2020 started off really well for me though. I was promoted in February, then we were due to go skiing the same day that we were locked down. I threw a tantrum that day because I wasn’t going, the irony that that would be the least of my worries for the rest of the year is slightly crazy looking back on it now.
I’ve been fortunate, a fantastic family, incredible wife and seen my sons throughout. The low point was being put on furlough in June, with an idea what it would lead to. It was tough as I had worked flat out until that point. I let the ‘why me’, and the ‘what I had done’ eat away at me and went to dark places, but the mantra ‘it’s okay to not be okay’ resonated a lot with me.
I read the book, ‘Art of Resilience’ by Ross Edgley which helped me enormously. It gave me a chance to reset and if you’re feeling a little lost right now, I would highly recommend it. A moment which made me smile was the day I found out I was being made redundant. I was in Scotland and went on a bike ride in the middle of nowhere, a sign told me the road up ahead was closed, but being an arrogant cyclist, I went down it. I kept cycling until I got to a washed away bridge, but I took off my shoes and paddled across the freezing water. It felt like a metaphor for the news that day; the road is closed, but with some ingenuity and a ballsy attitude, you can make it across.
I’ve learnt we are resilient people as a breed in the events industry. We’re onsite 24/7, sometimes weeks on end, and we find paths to problems we never saw coming. If someone would have told me six months ago, I would have passed food hygiene qualifications with 100% I would have laughed, but it’s about finding an inner strength, seeing this as an adventure.
On a Friday and Saturday night, I like to have a few drinks, listen to music, dance and party, but I’m very yin and yang, so then the following morning I’ll set an alarm for 7am and go on a long bike ride to sweat it all out – it’s all about balance.
Nine months ago, I wish I would have told myself to buy shares in Zoom! But in all honesty, I would have told myself to find a job out of the industry, but equally, I was keen to save the industry, talking at virtual events to support and help save some jobs. Hindsight is the best sight of all, but realistically I don’t know that I would have done anything differently. I think we were well prepared, we stocked up on wine, did more home baking and cooking, we’ve grown some tomato plants and had a bountiful supply over the past few months. So, my advice would be to grow tomatoes – it’s mind-blowingly satisfying and rewarding.
Looking to 2021, I’m hoping my new business will be a success. It will be a lot of hard work and early starts, but hopefully rewarding and obviously pay the bills. I’m hopeful there will be a vaccine and it will be rolled out quickly to be able to get the world spinning again. I’m hopeful the meeting and events industry will get back to live events in 2021, because there is nothing else like it in the world. I’m super hopeful we can start going to gigs again, and all those things we took for granted – perhaps I should learn to play the guitar because everyone’s going to want to go to gigs.
There’s so much to look forward to, I see 2020 as a reset; put it in the bin, focus on the positives and see what can be achieved in 2021. There’s going to be a new president in the US, and that’s got to be positive – fingers crossed it will be.
If you would like to share your story, please visit www.stressmatters.org.uk/pandemic-stories for more information.
