August 14, 2025 • 38 mins
When Vicki Galloway-Place swapped her UK classroom for the high-stakes world of events, she stepped into a career that would push her creativity, leadership and resilience to the limit. In this episode of EventNewsDXB, Vicki shares her journey from drama teacher to theatre director to events producer and the hard-earned lessons learned along the way.
Vicki talks candidly about the industry’s “say-yes-and-make-it-happen” culture, the balancing act between creative vision, production realities, and client demands, and the burnout it can cause. She also opens up about navigating gender bias in events, mentoring the next generation of women leaders and why setting boundaries matters for both career and family, especially as a single mum.
It’s an honest, inspiring conversation about finding your voice, standing your ground and changing the conversation in an industry that doesn’t always make space for you.
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Production Credits:
Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ian Carless (00:19):
Thank you, the UAE and the wider MENA region.
I'm Ian Carlos, and each week Isit down with the people
shaping one of the world's mostdynamic event markets.
Whether you're an event planner, supplier, agency lead or part
of an in-house team, I hope thatthis podcast gives you some
practical takeaways, freshperspectives and a deeper
(00:40):
understanding of how thingsreally get done in one of the
world's most fast-moving eventmarkets.
And for season two, I'm superpleased to let you know that
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From full-size conferencetheatres to compact meeting pods
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In this week's episode, I sitdown with project director Vicky
Galloway-Place who, afterbeginning her professional
(01:24):
career as a teacher in the UK,swapped the classroom first for
the theatre and then for theevent industry.
She talks openly about theconstant juggle between wild,
creative ideas, productionrealities and client demands,
and why our industry'ssay-yes-and-make-it-happen
mentality is both our superpowerand our downfall.
(01:45):
But what really stood out forme is her take on being a woman
in the event industry the timeshe's had to fight to be heard
and the importance of mentoringthe next generation.
Vicky pulls no punches on wherethe industry still needs to
change and the role we can allplay in making that happen.
It's a conversation aboutresilience, adaptability and
(02:05):
holding your ground even whenthe room isn't built for you.
So let's get into it.
You're listening to the EventNews DXB podcast.
Vicky.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Vicki Galloway-place (02:24):
Thank you for having me.
Thank you for letting me breakmy podcast virginity with you.
Ian Carless (02:30):
Oh, we've not had one of those before.
Can we even say that I?
Vicki Galloway-place (02:34):
don't know .
That's the signal of how thisis going to go.
Ian Carless (02:38):
Oh, it's nice to know I'm your first.
What a great way to start.
I don't even know where to gofrom that.
No, it's fine, it's all good.
I'll start where I start, witheverybody to be honest, and that
is how did you end up in Dubai?
And also, how did you end up inevents?
Vicki Galloway-place (02:57):
Okay, I really like this story actually,
and it's a story that kind ofencompasses everything that I
believe in, which is thateverything happens for a reason.
So just to backtrack a littlebit, my original career was as a
drama teacher in Leeds inYorkshire in the UK, and I loved
being in education and I lovedthe teaching and I got a lot of
my leadership skill sets fromthat career that I still use now
(03:20):
in events.
But you'll know, in the UK artsand education was not being
supported by the government.
There was loads of issuesaround that and I just became
really unhappy in my career,disillusioned, and I wasn't
being fulfilled and to have asuccessful career is really
important for me, so I quit.
I just quit and kind of onceI'd got rid of that barrier of a
(03:43):
monthly salary and thatsecurity, this whole other world
opened up and became afreelancer like theatre director
and practitioner, which is whatI'd always wanted to do, but
I'd always been too nervous todo.
It Ended up doing a Shakespearefestival in Rotherham, which
you will know very well, I'msure.
Ian Carless (04:01):
Well, I know Shakespeare, I don't know
Rotherham.
Vicki Galloway-place (04:05):
And we went on a course there with
Complicity, a really greattheatre company in the UK, and
got talking to anotherfacilitator and she had been
with a charity in South AfricaDramatic Need.
They were called and theyworked in the town trips in
South Africa for students tocome and do artwork and theatre
and performance.
So I make a lot of my likecrazy decisions.
(04:26):
I don't have to have had adrink, it just seems to be late
at night.
So one night I just fired offan email and just said oh, have
you got anything I could work on?
Anyway, fast forward six monthsand I'm flying out to South
Africa to direct the children'smonologues, which was a
fascinating piece.
All real life stories of youngpeople from a township in South
Africa.
(04:46):
It was a 10 year anniversarypiece.
It was just a life changingexperience.
Landed back at ManchesterAirport and there was just a
moment of I don't think I wantto be in the UK anymore.
So I applied for two jobs.
One was in America, one was inthe UAE.
I knew nothing about the UAE, Ididn't go there to go to Dubai
(05:07):
and you know kind of how it'sseen now.
I just knew I needed to changesomething in my life and coming
to this part of the world and itwas an arts education position
and it was just really excitingthat the government of the UAE
was funding the arts and fundingthese academies, where in the
UK that money was being pulledaway and that's the job that I
got.
So I flew out um, worked inthis role for a couple of years,
(05:31):
then once again was looking formy next challenge and because
I'd done a lot of theaterdirecting and a little bit of
producing, I was like, oh okay,then I could maybe do events
producing, because theater iscertainly seven years ago wasn't
very, very big on the radar ofthe UAE, but I knew that I had
that similar skill set.
So I sidestepped to events andthen quickly realised it was a
(05:54):
completely different skill set.
Ian Carless (05:58):
So safe to say that was a baptism of fire, wasn't
it it?
Vicki Galloway-place (06:00):
was Very much learning on the job and
very much imposter syndrome andvery much oh syndrome and very
much oh yeah.
Yeah, I can do that.
How do I do that?
I freelance.
I freelanced in events,producing in the UAE, a little
bit in Saudi, and learned fromsome excellent people, learned
from mistakes, learned fromclients, learned from good
(06:23):
experiences, bad experiences and, yeah, that's how I came to
Dubai and into events.
It was a sidestep.
Ian Carless (06:32):
And fast forward seven years.
So now your current job titlefor having to put a description
or a label on something isproject director.
What does a day in the lifelook is a project director.
Vicki Galloway-place (06:44):
Yeah.
Ian Carless (06:45):
What does a day in the life look like for a project
director?
Vicki Galloway-place (06:48):
Oh my God, that's a great.
I get asked that a lot and Inever know how to answer it
because no two days are ever thesame.
That's very true.
Ian Carless (06:55):
And that's why I love it yeah.
Vicki Galloway-place (06:56):
So I don't like to be stagnant and I don't
like to be doing the same.
I like routine to an extent.
Same, I like routine to anextent, but once I do it for too
long, I need to shift it andbreak up the routine.
An event certainly does thatfor you.
Yeah, you'll know that you.
Yeah, it really depends on whatyou're working on.
If I'm working on a pitch witha tight deadline, then it's all
hands to the deck and it'sreally long days and it's late
(07:19):
hours and it's a lot of fastresponses.
If I'm working on a project,you've kind of got that leading
period which I mean now on mycurrent project of pulling
together the team, building theteam, looking at the processes
and really understanding whatthe needs of the project is and
then working on that timeline tobring it to life oh and it's
fits and starts, it's highs andlows and some days are crazy
(07:41):
manic and you just think what,where did that day go?
Ian Carless (07:44):
and other days are, you know, a little bit more
easy and you get to come andrecord a podcast and that's
really nice which kind of leadson to next to my next question
was how do you balance, forexample, client expectations,
the whole creative process, with, obviously, what are the
logistical realities, and alsobudget realities as well,
because they don't always align,do they?
Vicki Galloway-place (08:05):
they never align understatement it's.
Do you know what balance is theright word?
It's a balancing act for everystakeholder.
Because if you're agency based,you have this creative team
that have these wild ideas and Ilove that aspect of it and I
love the creativity and and justdevising what that project will
(08:27):
look like.
Then you'll have the productionteam that will come in and go.
That's actually physically notpossible, like you can't
actually hang that or build thator curve that or do that, so I
then have to do internal kind ofnegotiation and balancing and
then you have the client thatwill come in.
Often there's multiplestakeholders from the client
side and they all have their ownlanes that they're they're
(08:48):
looking at.
So and being a northern girl,I'm very direct.
I'm very to the point.
I've had to really tame thatover the years and I will add
that I could give the sameresponse as a male and I would
be seen as difficult, and thathas happened on more than one
occasion.
But I still stand by it becauseI don't have the energy or the,
(09:09):
the headspace, as we've justsaid.
Being in events is so crazybusy that I just have to be
transparent and honest and clearand I'm still caring.
But that really getsmisconstrued.
But I think there's a differencebetween that and accountability
.
So, ultimately, I think it'sholding everyone to account,
seeing where the support isneeded, trying to understand
(09:31):
everyone's perspective and thenalways, always going back to the
original purpose, like what'sthe what's the original vision
and aim and how do we achievethat?
Budget is slightly moredifficult, or sometimes it's
easier, because if you don'thave the budget for it, we don't
have the budget for it.
So that's the end of thatconversation.
Sometimes extra money is found,sometimes it isn't.
(09:52):
Sometimes we have to be reallycreative internally to make
something happen, and we do dothat.
I think events people are someof the most creative people for
getting the achievements withinevents.
Ian Carless (10:03):
When you think something's not going to happen
and never, say never you touchedon an important topic there,
which is obviously the role ofgender in the events industry,
and we are hugely skewed towardsmales being in the event
industry, and we'll we'll talkabout a little bit about that
later, about what it's likebeing a female in the event
industry and why, perhaps youknow know, females are so
(10:25):
underrepresented in our industry, but we'll get onto that in a
little while.
As the project director, wheredo you find that you normally
enter the process?
Is it at the pitch level, theconcept, or is it post sign-off,
or is it a combination of allthree, depending on the client?
Vicki Galloway-place (10:40):
Yeah, a combination, depending on the
client.
Ian Carless (10:42):
And where would you prefer to come in?
Vicki Galloway-place (10:43):
So I prefer to come in from the
beginning because you get to seethe idea realized.
Yeah, it's very rare that thathappens, because you need to
have a lot of time and astrategy and and and work
towards it, and that quite oftendoesn't happen in events, not
just here.
I know from working in the ukas well there's a lot of last
minute requests that come in,and because you, you know,
(11:05):
companies want the work and and,and we say yes, and we say yes
all the time and we make theimpossible possible.
Yeah, so then it's anotherlittle bugbear of mine, but I
don't know how we ever are goingto break the mold because we
meet those tight deadlines andthose impossible asks.
Nothing's going to change right, and so we, we changed that
education around it.
So, yeah, there's a lot of lastminute and that's really tough
(11:27):
because, you know, I did a10-day turnaround of a live tv
show 10 days from getting thebrief to to bringing it live in
the studio, and you just have toretain so much information from
every angle and still make itwork.
Ian Carless (11:44):
But 10 days, I mean that would be unheard of,
wouldn't it, in the UK or the US.
I mean, we've worked with anumber of event managers through
Warehouse 4, which is our eventvenue, and I do remember one
young lady who came over.
She'd only been in the countryfor, I think, about six or seven
months and she was still, evenat that stage, trying to wrap
her head around having worked inthe UK, still trying to wrap
(12:09):
her head around these short kindof deadlines that she got.
You know, she was saying youknow, I just can't believe it.
I don't know how people workover here we get six to eight
weeks, whereas in the UK I'd begetting six to eight months.
Where do you think that comesfrom?
Where does this?
I've had this conversation withother guests on the podcast.
It is an issue.
Where do you think this issuecomes from?
Vicki Galloway-place (12:24):
I don't mean it disrespectfully, but I
think it's a lack of educationaround what goes into making
something real and live and of ahigh standard.
And if you are not in thatevents industry and you don't
know that and you have a reallygood project director or events
company that are doing theseamazing things and hide because
you don't want to hide thearguments and the issues and the
(12:47):
blocks that you get internally,you hide all that from your
client, right?
So then they just think thatanything is possible.
So that's a lack of educationmaybe from our part of actually,
these are the steps that ittook and it was this many
meetings for us to get to thatpoint and you hide all that so
people don't know it, so theyjust expect it to happen.
So for me, in any of those kindof situations, I think it's
(13:12):
education and communication.
Ian Carless (13:13):
I think they're the areas I would focus on to be
able to improve we were talkingto a guest in the in the last
season of the podcast and Ithink one of the interesting
topics that came up was well, wedo live in a region where it's
very easy to fast track yourcareer.
On the positive side, that'sfantastic.
People get opportunities,they're able to move up the
corporate ladder very quickly.
(13:34):
On the other side of that isthat sometimes people are able
to advance perhaps quicker thanthey should be advancing, and so
you get people in roles wherethey don't necessarily.
It comes back to what you weresaying, I guess, about education
.
I mean experience.
It's the same, similar thing.
They don't necessarily have theexperience to back up the
position that they're in andtherefore they leave you know,
(13:56):
and also to back up on that.
We live in a region also whichisn't brilliant at delegating
responsibility.
There tends to be a bottleneck,usually at the top of the
funnel in this region certainlyin my 22 years of being here and
it hasn't changed very much andI think there's also a culture
of not accepting failure.
(14:17):
So, whereas in some markets,you know, failure can be
rewarded, here I don't think itis, and the bottom line is that
what often that results in ispeople waiting to the very last
minute to make a decision.
Vicki Galloway-place (14:29):
And then when they do make a decision.
Ian Carless (14:31):
It's usually the smallest decision that, if it
all goes wrong, will have theleast amount of impact on them
and, unfortunately, for peoplelike yourself who are at the end
of that, it often means thatyou then get to work with the
shortest timeline available,with the smallest amount of
money, and still the samedemands being placed on you.
It's a tough one.
That was a nice littlemonologue there, but I don't
(14:55):
have an answer to it.
I don't think, as I said, I'vebeen here 22 years.
I don't think it's changed verymuch.
In some organizations, yes,they have tackled that a little
bit, other than others, but Ithink we're still in a place
where we get way, way too shortof deadlines.
And you're right For as long aswe keep fulfilling those
deadlines, clients will keepgiving us short and shorter
(15:16):
timelines.
Vicki Galloway-place (15:21):
It's a double edged sword, right,
because you want the work andyou want to be successful.
But you want that and youtouched on.
Yeah, I think you're rightabout identifying the experience
alongside the education,because that's equal.
I don't mean a traditionaleducation, going getting a
degree in exams.
I mean that education ofknowledge around what's needed
to action something in an event.
Ian Carless (15:37):
Yeah, it's a tough one.
So when you're putting theprojects together, how do you go
about choosing your clients,team and suppliers?
Vicki Galloway-place (15:45):
I always like to try and have a fair
process, because that's all Iknew from the uk.
You know it's like in terms ofyou've got to ask the same
question and you've got to, justto make it fair for everyone.
So I try and do that, but again, that's.
That's quite a lengthy process,but I have to sometimes have no
choice than to rely onrecommendation or people that
(16:07):
I've worked with before.
You know, I've had some amazingfreelancers, amazing project
managers and producers andbecause you have these tight
deadlines and you're under a lotof pressure, you're going to go
back to what you know, becauseyou mentioned earlier about risk
and you have to limit the riskof it's.
It's a balancing act, becauseI'm also very much about
(16:29):
identifying and supporting andnurturing new talent, new and
mentoring females in theindustry, and you also have to
give that person a chance and Ivery much go on my gut feeling.
With things like this, you'realways under pressure, so you
have to rely on the people thatyou know.
I always do an interview process.
If it's a new person, try andkeep it fairly informal, but
just to gauge their actualexperience, because you touched
(16:52):
on earlier, people progressreally quickly, so might not
necessarily have the skills.
I think it's a bit of a catfishsituation sometimes in events
out here where people say theycan do everything but they can't
and that's a day and it's allright if you can't I've learned
from my experiences over theyears.
But but when you have 10 days toput an event on, if I have
somebody that can't do thatproject, that then put that role
(17:15):
.
That's putting pressure oneveryone else.
So I always have an interviewor check in with someone new
just to see what the vibes likeand see if we are going to get
on under like pressurizedsituation, which it always is if
they've got some experience.
But if they haven't and I stillthink there's something about
them if I've got the supportnetwork and the strength in the
wider team, I'd still want togive that new person a chance to
(17:37):
be able to develop theirexperience, because that's
happened to me.
Suppliers is very much beenword of mouth and trial and
tested and we've had mostlyamazing ones, a couple that
haven't been so amazing.
But there are some phenomenalsuppliers in this region who
work their magic and I'm foreverthankful to them.
Ian Carless (17:58):
I'm just curious about your, your theatre
experience, because I think I'veworked in theatre just dabbled
a little bit in my earliercareer, and I imagine I'm just
thinking about your transitionfrom theatre to events.
And and here's my littleanalysis of it right, in theatre
we have a lot of moving parts,but similar to television
(18:18):
production, I think.
In theatre, the same astelevision production, people
tend to know what they're doingand where they're supposed to be
at any given time and whattheir role is, which seems to be
the complete antithesis toevents where it feels like
you're herding cats.
I guess my question is did youhave the same kind of experience
(18:38):
?
And then, how do you managethat kind of experience where
you kind of go right?
Then where do we start?
Vicki Galloway-place (18:44):
such a good question.
Where do I start?
Yeah, I think your analogy is.
I think I put a lot of pressureon myself because I thought it
would be an easy stepage andbranding walkthroughs and flows
of audience.
I'm like, well, thestorytelling happens on the
(19:11):
stage.
No, it happens from the minutethey come in the door, and so
all that was a huge learningcurve for me and, especially, as
you touched upon out here, theexperiences of people vary
vastly.
So it is kind of everyone'sjumping in and everyone's
getting involved.
Everyone's jumping in andeveryone's getting involved, and
I do, as I said, try to rely onmy gut to employ people who
(19:32):
either have the skill set or arewilling to to develop and learn
.
And for me, again, it's aboutcommunication and clarity.
So I am a bit old school andI'll I'll go back to the basics
and okay, what's my staffingplan like?
And then, when I've filled that, what are the channels of
communication, just so that, andwhat are individuals, roles and
(19:53):
responsibilities?
Now, when you get a ridiculousdeadline and it's really tight
and you have to fulfill that,they go out of the window.
And as long as you have thatteamwork and that collaborative
approach, then the work will getdone, but I like to have that
scaffolding in place when Istart a project so that I can
fall back on it if it's neededis that answering your question.
(20:14):
Yeah it's not as creative astheatre.
In some respects I love it whena client is prepared to like
dip their toes in outside theircomfort zone and and put some
contemporary dance to open aconference or look at some
spoken word.
And that's just my creativeroots, wanting to go through and
into events.
And I'll never lose that, and Idon't think we should, because
(20:36):
you know, the Middle East is nowa hub for all these conferences
.
There's hundreds and hundredsthat happen every week.
What's the one thing that'sgoing to make your conference
stand out?
And for me, my background isusing that theatre expertise in
in the events that I'm workingon well and telling a story.
Ian Carless (20:54):
I mean, I think people, yeah, absolutely,
there's a narrative that you foryour event.
Yeah, and you know, and ignorethat at your peril.
What do you think is one of thebiggest misconceptions or what
do you think peopleunderestimate the most about the
role of a project director oran event producer?
Vicki Galloway-place (21:10):
that is glamorous because it's the
complete opposite that you, thatyou get to make all the
decisions, because there's aquite a few that you don't, and
beyond you, certainly if you'renot client side, then the client
has 100 approvals a day.
(21:30):
They have to go through that.
You get to work short daysbecause you don't.
There's a lot of preparationand this might be me, but I put
a lot of preparation if I'mpresenting or if I'm leading
Even an internal meeting,because I want to make sure that
I'm clear and that my team feelsupported and understand the
point of view that I'm comingfrom.
(21:50):
So I probably give myself morework by putting that preparation
time in 100% if I'm presentingto an outside stakeholder, but
also internally as well.
And that's probably myinsecurities of wanting to make
sure that I'm clear on what I'msaying.
But yeah, there is no glamourto it.
You're often stuck in a hot,sweaty backstage box with no air
(22:13):
con, dealing with a millionthings sat on a um a box, trying
to answer a million emails andthen you walk out and you're
this face of calm and quiteoften internally you're not calm
.
I've had people say to me oh,you've.
And if you spoke to my teachingcolleagues from way back when,
they'd laugh at this, because Iwas never calm in teaching.
(22:34):
I was very young and I was veryangry and it was very like I
don't understand why this ishappening.
But now I have to be calm andthe voice of calm.
So people then think thatyou're quite chilled out, but
it's like the, the iceberg right.
There's a million things goingon, but I want to be calm to my
team and the client because Iwant them to get that calmness
from me.
Ian Carless (22:54):
It's like the swan on the pond isn't it Exactly?
yeah, yeah, yeah, On the surfaceyou look calm and elegant and
underneath you're paddling awayfuriously yeah yeah, which leads
(23:17):
me on to is a very good way ofsegue into the next question,
which is you've recently becomea new mum.
Yeah, it's my biggest projecttoday, absolutely, and I'm a
parent, um, you know to.
I'm sure all the other parentsout there will know what that
means and the time it entails,and also the stress that it
brings.
How do you then manage thatwith what is all already a
stressful role?
How do you find that adjustment?
Vicki Galloway-place (23:30):
because I think you're only what a couple
of years in one one year on july, the third right and my
situation is quite unique inthat my little boy's adopted, so
he was two and a half when hecame to me, so I didn't have
kind of that the same lead upand the preparation that you
might have traditionally right.
All of a sudden I had thislittle boy who needed things
(23:53):
from me 24 hours a day and he'sphenomenal, by the way.
He's funny, he's stubborn, he'sum creative, he's amazing.
But I'm also an older mum, soI'm 46 next week, so I was used
to my own ways, right.
And I'm very an older mum, soI'm 46 next week, so I was used
to my own ways, right, and I'dbecome very selfish and I could
do what I wanted, when I wanted,I could work long hours and it
(24:15):
didn't affect anyone.
And then this amazing littlehuman is here going actually no,
you need to now bend to myrules and you need to do what I
want you to do and I needfeeding, and I need feeding and
I need you and I love all ofthose things not the cooking but
, but I love being a mum.
But it's a massive cultureshock.
So the first, I was fortunateenough to get like a version of
(24:39):
maternity leave, um, and that initself I needed as a it still
don't think it's enough for mums, by the way, in this area world
, but it was.
I needed that time for thatadjustment to being a mum.
Then there was another periodof adjustment to being a mum
with a career which has been amassive learning curve and I've
had to approach it like aproject.
(25:00):
So I have to project managementis a massive part of what I do.
So I have to manage myresponsibilities as a mother and
make sure that, luckily, aslike a project director.
So I have to manage myresponsibilities as a mother and
make sure that, luckily, aslike a project director, you
have to be two or three stepsahead.
I have to do that and allparents will know this.
This is not new, but it was newto me.
Um, planning everything it's.
(25:20):
You know you leave the housewith 10 bags and lunches and
dinners and swimming kits andwho's going to a party and
change of clothes, and it'snever ending.
So I have to really really planthat.
And then I have to kind of takemy mum hat off and put my
project director hat on and thenplan what my work looks like
and then see what they look liketogether.
I have to approach itdifferently, so I normally will
(25:45):
set myself like my prioritiesfor the day and won't stop until
I get them done.
If that means I'm at the officetill eight, nine o'clock at
night, then that's what Iformally was like Can't do that.
Now I'm like it's important forme to do the school run and
pick Raph up at the end of theday as much as I can.
So I have to have that breakand maybe I come back to the
work a little bit later on.
I've had to change the way Iapproach work, but I'm all right
(26:12):
with that.
I just I'm passionate aboutfinding companies that also
support that and it's becomecrucial to me, that that my son
sees that you can be a I'm asingle mom as well, so I'm doing
it on my own I was going to saythat it was just for context.
Ian Carless (26:26):
You are a single mom, so you don't have the
benefit of having a partner toshare the all the responsibility
with and the tasks and thepickups and the drop-offs.
Vicki Galloway-place (26:34):
Yeah, and people say how do you do it?
It's amazing that you do it onyour own, but I don't know any
different, so I don't know whatit would be like to have that,
the outside support.
But it is that management andthat planning that time.
And of course it doesn't go toplan because there'll be
something where Rafferty cut hislip at school so he needed to
go and get seen by the doctorand they'll.
(26:56):
But that happens in events,right, you have your moments
where you've got to dropeverything and solve that
problem.
So I approach it like that.
I make sure that when I'm withmy son, I'm very present and
that he understands that he'sgot a mum, that that has a
career and goes out to work, andthat's important to me.
It doesn't mean that I'm lessof a mum.
It doesn't mean that I love himany less.
(27:16):
I love him so much.
It's unbelievable how thisperson can kind of ingrain into
your life.
But my career is reallyimportant as well and I want him
to have a really spend most ofyour life in your career, right,
traditionally.
So you have to enjoy it and Iwant him to enjoy whatever
career he chooses to go intoDoctor, please, something that's
(27:38):
going to look after mummy whenshe's older, or something
creative, I'm sure.
But whatever he chooses to goin, I want him to love it.
Whether it's whatever it is, Iwant him to enjoy it and I want
him to see that I enjoy mine.
It's that perennial conundrum.
Ian Carless (27:54):
Isn't it between work-life balance that we all
try and strive for?
Vicki Galloway-place (27:58):
and it doesn't take away the guilt,
because if I'm at work, I feelguilty.
If Raph's at home that I'm notwith him.
I'm at home, I feel like Ishould be doing some work.
And I have to really come toterms with that in my mind and
set myself really clearboundaries and be a bit strict
actually when it comes to workand say actually I'm not
available from this time and I'mreally sorry.
(28:20):
The work will get done, thedeadlines will be met, but these
are my boundaries.
I turn everything off on myphone.
I've got all my work stuff in afile at the back of my phone.
When I'm not online, I turn mynotifications off so that I can
be with Ra.
Ian Carless (28:34):
Which is really important, isn't it?
Because we had a guest on justrecently, Ian Morrison, who
talked a lot about burnout inour industry and how to
safeguard against that.
And I think we're all guilty,aren't we, of just spending
because we are so passionateabout the job that we do?
(28:55):
And we and you know we would,let's face it, we, if you
weren't passionate about workingin events, you wouldn't do
events, would you so?
And I think it's it's.
It's super important to be ableto set yourself boundaries.
As you said, you turn yourphones off at a certain time
because a lot of the time, youknow, we used to wear those long
hours like a badge of honor,right, and then it's so it's no
surprise that you know you getto the end of a certain period
and you just go, I'm done I'mfinished, yeah, and actually
it's not a badge of honor.
You're doing yourself adisservice.
I mean, we're thankful, I guess, that we live in a time where
(29:17):
mental health and well-being ismuch more appreciated now and
spoken about, whereas, you know,perhaps 10 years ago we
wouldn't have been having thisconversation.
We'd just be saying what areyou talking about?
Vicki Galloway-place (29:28):
Get on with it.
Yeah, get on with it.
Old school Exactly.
Yeah, the badge of honour thingI've had so many people?
Yeah, I worked till midnightlast night and I was up again at
seven this morning.
We've all had days like that,but I don't feel like it's
anything to be celebrated.
I feel a bit sad that that'speople's responses.
You and even before I became amum, actually I'd started
putting these boundaries inplace because it was becoming
(29:51):
dangerously unhealthy to workthe hours that we do, so I
decided having that switch offtime before then, and you know
what?
That gives you time toregenerate and revitalize
yourself, and then you're betterat your work and you're better
as a mum.
So it's it's really advisable,and I think any leader should be
advising that their team doesthis.
Ian Carless (30:08):
Now we mentioned earlier, you know, being a woman
in the event industry.
You are most definitely aminority.
You've worked in both the UKand here.
What have you noticed?
That's perhaps different, hasthere been anything different?
I mean, obviously you knowvalues and cultures aside, you
know, I think the role, people'sappreciation of gender has
(30:31):
changed a lot over the last fiveor 10 years.
What's your experience been,certainly in relation to the
event industry?
Vicki Galloway-place (30:38):
It's something that I'm really,
really passionate about.
I think the UAE as a whole andits focus and the pillars that
it's focusing on towards its2050 vision are phenomenal.
And you know, I've had thefortunate experiences of working
with a lot of Emiratis and alot of government entities and
(31:00):
they are wholly supportive ofdeveloping and strengthening
women in all industries, and Ithink that's amazing, and when I
compare that to the UK, it's asimilar journey.
Right, the UAE is what 52 yearsold now, 52, 53?
Ian Carless (31:14):
Yeah, something like that.
Vicki Galloway-place (31:14):
So it's the natural journey that
countries go on.
Ian Carless (31:17):
I should know I've been here for half of it.
Vicki Galloway-place (31:18):
Yeah, almost, I should know as well,
and the UK did the same.
The UAE is just a little bitbehind in its journey and I
don't think that's a bad thing.
My issues that I've come acrosshave not been with locals, have
not been with emirates.
I've always felt really, reallyrespected by, by this country
(31:38):
that I now call home.
Unfortunately, where I havefelt discriminated against and
it has happened on more than oneoccasion, it's been with with
westerners, with english, uh,male leaders, and that makes me
really, really sad and I feellike, because the structure
isn't there yet in terms oflegalities and what you can do
to challenge it, people knowthat they can get away with with
(32:01):
how they treat you and being aminority.
And just to track back when Iwas at school, I'd say into
university I was really had noconfidence, no voice, wouldn't
speak up, wouldn't put my handup in a meeting.
I was really even in the earlyyears of teaching and I've
worked really hard on that formyself to really develop my
voice and I don't ever want tolose it and people probably get
(32:22):
sick of hearing it now, but it'sso important because I think
once I start, I stop speaking,then it'll be hard to re-find my
voice.
So I am quite vocal now inmeetings and and I am often a
minority as a female and that'swhy I think it's even more
important to be vocal.
I've asked questions directlyto males before and had a male
(32:44):
colleague sat next to me andthey've answered my question,
but looked at the male likethat's quite common and I'm like
hello.
Ian Carless (32:51):
Does that still happen?
2025 and that still happens ithappened this year.
Vicki Galloway-place (32:54):
It happened this year.
I'm like guys, girls, anyone.
I'm asking you that questionjust because it's an event
question about.
It might be about production,you can look me in the eye and
answer that question.
And that's just a really likeminor example of some of the
experiences that I've had, whichis why it's so important, one
to support younger females thatare coming into the industry and
(33:16):
to mentor them and to give thema voice and make sure they're
heard.
But two, to keep my voice loudas well, so that I may be
described as difficult or as aproblem where a male wouldn't if
he was.
I've had that as well, where amale has behaved in exactly the
same way as me, which iscompletely acceptable, but I'm
described as difficult or I'mdescribed as emotional, whereas
(33:39):
I'm just actually sharing aproblem that we need to resolve.
So there's still some work tobe done, I think, in agencies
internally, and I would love toget to a point where there's
some guidelines that everyone isheld accountable for.
Ian Carless (33:57):
It's interesting, isn't it?
We had another guest on lastseason who also female, and
talked about what a goodexperience that she had had out
here in the Middle East and howit was perhaps contrary to some
of the perception back in the UKand the West, and in fact, most
of the problems that she hadhad out here in the Middle East
and how it was perhaps contraryto some of the perception back
in the UK and the West and infact most of the problems that
she'd had with regards to beinga female in the industry were in
the UK and it tended to comefrom, you know, obviously from
(34:20):
males of a certain age, of acertain demographic.
So it's interesting that whatyou say dovetails with that also
.
Vicki Galloway-place (34:28):
Yeah, I'm really glad that she has had
those, and I've had some amazingexperiences as well, by the way
, and there's been a lot of thetime I'm now listened to because
I make sure that I am, and itmight be that I'm not agreed
with, which is absolutely fine,but at least have the like, the
decency and the respect to hearme out.
I think some of the experiencesthat I've had here, if I'd have
had in the UK, they would haveabsolutely been run through the
(34:54):
milling cart.
But because they know thatthat's not an option out here
and that's really sad, becausewhy aren't we raising people up
and supporting them?
It's okay to disagree.
It's okay to be a woman and amum in events.
Ian Carless (35:02):
And I think you're right.
You know what you said earlierabout the UAE is at a certain
point in its journey and I thinkyou know the framework for this
society is developing at such arate.
Yeah, I mean again, I've beenhere 22 years and the pace of
change has just been phenomenal.
So I think you know we will getthere.
We're just we're still on thatjourney.
Listen, we could go on, forhours and hours.
(35:32):
I know we could, but we do tryand keep the podcast to a
limited time, so I'm going tomove on to some quick fire
questions for you I love quickfire.
Vicki Galloway-place (35:35):
yeah, biggest on-site challenge you've
faced and how did you overcomeit?
Designing and building a fullysustainable 450 square meter
pavilion that had one, two, five, six live digital installations
, 12 days of live programming, acoffee shop, all at Coff, which
was very high on its security,and it was absolutely amazing.
(35:59):
I had a dream team.
We pulled it off.
We were exhausted.
Fantastic, so I was reallyproud of that, but it was a
challenge, one thing you'd banat events.
If you could mobile phones, butI would.
It's a double edge because Iwould like it for exposure.
I hate it when someone's likejust texting on their phone and
(36:21):
they're not engaged in what'sgoing on in the event,
especially if if it'sperformance.
Ian Carless (36:27):
Yeah, fair enough.
Most underrated event roleperson who gets the least
appreciation, but perhaps is oneof the most important cogs.
Vicki Galloway-place (36:35):
Oh gosh project coordinators.
Ian Carless (36:37):
There are lots, aren't there?
Vicki Galloway-place (36:38):
Yeah, I was just thinking that Project
coordinators, productionmanagers, project coordinators
and project managers, who reallyare the ones that are keeping
it, going Right and one thingclients should do before they
think about doing an event.
Increase their budget.
Ian Carless (36:56):
That's an easy one.
Vicki Galloway-place (36:58):
One thing that clients should do before.
Ian Carless (37:00):
Before they think about putting on a Before they
think about commissioning anevent.
Vicki Galloway-place (37:04):
Be very clear on what they want to
achieve and the parameterswithin which they want to
achieve, and the parameterswithin which they want to
achieve it good one, good advice, I like that.
Ian Carless (37:13):
And penultimately, we've asked all.
I guess this, and I'm guessingyou're, you're going to be no
exception.
You're, you're a music fan ohyeah, absolutely love it so
what's on your playlist at themoment?
Vicki Galloway-place (37:23):
cocomelon.
Okay, wheels on the bus, that'scool.
Head, shoulders, knees or toesno, do you know what?
Ian Carless (37:33):
Okay, when your playlist hasn't been hijacked by
your son.
Vicki Galloway-place (37:36):
Well, I'm trying to educate my son.
My son can tell me if Coldplaycome on, he's three.
If Coldplay come on, milesSmith, benson, boone, post
Malone.
So these are the ones thatwe're loving at the minute.
Trying to show you his makes,he loves.
I'm quite eclectic.
I'm still a 90s girl at heart,so anything that is linked to
the 90s genre I love.
(37:58):
But I'm a bit of a rocker aswell.
Ian Carless (38:00):
And Bon Jovi I love them, and then finally, Vicky
what are you looking forward tofor the rest of this year?
Vicki Galloway-place (38:07):
Security, stability and spending time with
my son.
Ian Carless (38:11):
Marvellous.
I think that's a perfect way toend it.
Vicky, thank you very much forjoining me on the podcast.
Vicki Galloway-place (38:17):
Thank you for having me.
Ian Carless (38:23):
Event News DXB is brought to you by Minus 45 dB,
the team transforming noisyevent spaces into slick,
sound-reduced environments.
Check them out at minus45dbcom.
This episode was presented bymyself, ian Carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was RoyDeMonte, the executive producer
(38:45):
was myself and Joe Morrison, andthis podcast was produced by W4
Podcast Studio Dubai, and ifyou haven't done so already,
please do click that follow orsubscribe button.
See you next time.
Thank you, the UAE and the wider MENA region.
I'm Ian Carlos, and each week Isit down with the people
shaping one of the world's mostdynamic event markets.
Whether you're an event planner, supplier, agency lead or part
of an in-house team, I hope thatthis podcast gives you some
practical takeaways, freshperspectives and a deeper
(00:40):
understanding of how thingsreally get done in one of the
world's most fast-moving eventmarkets.
And for season two, I'm superpleased to let you know that
Event News DXB is brought to youby Minus 45DB, the team
transforming noisy event spacesinto slick, sound-reduced
environments.
From full-size conferencetheatres to compact meeting pods
(01:02):
, minus 45db builds modularspaces that are quiet,
customisable and completelyturnkey.
And they're sustainable toosmart design with zero waste.
Check them out at minus45dbcom.
In this week's episode, I sitdown with project director Vicky
Galloway-Place who, afterbeginning her professional
(01:24):
career as a teacher in the UK,swapped the classroom first for
the theatre and then for theevent industry.
She talks openly about theconstant juggle between wild,
creative ideas, productionrealities and client demands,
and why our industry'ssay-yes-and-make-it-happen
mentality is both our superpowerand our downfall.
(01:45):
But what really stood out forme is her take on being a woman
in the event industry the timeshe's had to fight to be heard
and the importance of mentoringthe next generation.
Vicky pulls no punches on wherethe industry still needs to
change and the role we can allplay in making that happen.
It's a conversation aboutresilience, adaptability and
(02:05):
holding your ground even whenthe room isn't built for you.
So let's get into it.
You're listening to the EventNews DXB podcast.
Vicky.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Vicki Galloway-place (02:24):
Thank you for having me.
Thank you for letting me breakmy podcast virginity with you.
Ian Carless (02:30):
Oh, we've not had one of those before.
Can we even say that I?
Vicki Galloway-place (02:34):
don't know .
That's the signal of how thisis going to go.
Ian Carless (02:38):
Oh, it's nice to know I'm your first.
What a great way to start.
I don't even know where to gofrom that.
No, it's fine, it's all good.
I'll start where I start, witheverybody to be honest, and that
is how did you end up in Dubai?
And also, how did you end up inevents?
Vicki Galloway-place (02:57):
Okay, I really like this story actually,
and it's a story that kind ofencompasses everything that I
believe in, which is thateverything happens for a reason.
So just to backtrack a littlebit, my original career was as a
drama teacher in Leeds inYorkshire in the UK, and I loved
being in education and I lovedthe teaching and I got a lot of
my leadership skill sets fromthat career that I still use now
(03:20):
in events.
But you'll know, in the UK artsand education was not being
supported by the government.
There was loads of issuesaround that and I just became
really unhappy in my career,disillusioned, and I wasn't
being fulfilled and to have asuccessful career is really
important for me, so I quit.
I just quit and kind of onceI'd got rid of that barrier of a
(03:43):
monthly salary and thatsecurity, this whole other world
opened up and became afreelancer like theatre director
and practitioner, which is whatI'd always wanted to do, but
I'd always been too nervous todo.
It Ended up doing a Shakespearefestival in Rotherham, which
you will know very well, I'msure.
Ian Carless (04:01):
Well, I know Shakespeare, I don't know
Rotherham.
Vicki Galloway-place (04:05):
And we went on a course there with
Complicity, a really greattheatre company in the UK, and
got talking to anotherfacilitator and she had been
with a charity in South AfricaDramatic Need.
They were called and theyworked in the town trips in
South Africa for students tocome and do artwork and theatre
and performance.
So I make a lot of my likecrazy decisions.
(04:26):
I don't have to have had adrink, it just seems to be late
at night.
So one night I just fired offan email and just said oh, have
you got anything I could work on?
Anyway, fast forward six monthsand I'm flying out to South
Africa to direct the children'smonologues, which was a
fascinating piece.
All real life stories of youngpeople from a township in South
Africa.
(04:46):
It was a 10 year anniversarypiece.
It was just a life changingexperience.
Landed back at ManchesterAirport and there was just a
moment of I don't think I wantto be in the UK anymore.
So I applied for two jobs.
One was in America, one was inthe UAE.
I knew nothing about the UAE, Ididn't go there to go to Dubai
(05:07):
and you know kind of how it'sseen now.
I just knew I needed to changesomething in my life and coming
to this part of the world and itwas an arts education position
and it was just really excitingthat the government of the UAE
was funding the arts and fundingthese academies, where in the
UK that money was being pulledaway and that's the job that I
got.
So I flew out um, worked inthis role for a couple of years,
(05:31):
then once again was looking formy next challenge and because
I'd done a lot of theaterdirecting and a little bit of
producing, I was like, oh okay,then I could maybe do events
producing, because theater iscertainly seven years ago wasn't
very, very big on the radar ofthe UAE, but I knew that I had
that similar skill set.
So I sidestepped to events andthen quickly realised it was a
(05:54):
completely different skill set.
Ian Carless (05:58):
So safe to say that was a baptism of fire, wasn't
it it?
Vicki Galloway-place (06:00):
was Very much learning on the job and
very much imposter syndrome andvery much oh syndrome and very
much oh yeah.
Yeah, I can do that.
How do I do that?
I freelance.
I freelanced in events,producing in the UAE, a little
bit in Saudi, and learned fromsome excellent people, learned
from mistakes, learned fromclients, learned from good
(06:23):
experiences, bad experiences and, yeah, that's how I came to
Dubai and into events.
It was a sidestep.
Ian Carless (06:32):
And fast forward seven years.
So now your current job titlefor having to put a description
or a label on something isproject director.
What does a day in the lifelook is a project director.
Vicki Galloway-place (06:44):
Yeah.
Ian Carless (06:45):
What does a day in the life look like for a project
director?
Vicki Galloway-place (06:48):
Oh my God, that's a great.
I get asked that a lot and Inever know how to answer it
because no two days are ever thesame.
That's very true.
Ian Carless (06:55):
And that's why I love it yeah.
Vicki Galloway-place (06:56):
So I don't like to be stagnant and I don't
like to be doing the same.
I like routine to an extent.
Same, I like routine to anextent, but once I do it for too
long, I need to shift it andbreak up the routine.
An event certainly does thatfor you.
Yeah, you'll know that you.
Yeah, it really depends on whatyou're working on.
If I'm working on a pitch witha tight deadline, then it's all
hands to the deck and it'sreally long days and it's late
(07:19):
hours and it's a lot of fastresponses.
If I'm working on a project,you've kind of got that leading
period which I mean now on mycurrent project of pulling
together the team, building theteam, looking at the processes
and really understanding whatthe needs of the project is and
then working on that timeline tobring it to life oh and it's
fits and starts, it's highs andlows and some days are crazy
(07:41):
manic and you just think what,where did that day go?
Ian Carless (07:44):
and other days are, you know, a little bit more
easy and you get to come andrecord a podcast and that's
really nice which kind of leadson to next to my next question
was how do you balance, forexample, client expectations,
the whole creative process, with, obviously, what are the
logistical realities, and alsobudget realities as well,
because they don't always align,do they?
Vicki Galloway-place (08:05):
they never align understatement it's.
Do you know what balance is theright word?
It's a balancing act for everystakeholder.
Because if you're agency based,you have this creative team
that have these wild ideas and Ilove that aspect of it and I
love the creativity and and justdevising what that project will
(08:27):
look like.
Then you'll have the productionteam that will come in and go.
That's actually physically notpossible, like you can't
actually hang that or build thator curve that or do that, so I
then have to do internal kind ofnegotiation and balancing and
then you have the client thatwill come in.
Often there's multiplestakeholders from the client
side and they all have their ownlanes that they're they're
(08:48):
looking at.
So and being a northern girl,I'm very direct.
I'm very to the point.
I've had to really tame thatover the years and I will add
that I could give the sameresponse as a male and I would
be seen as difficult, and thathas happened on more than one
occasion.
But I still stand by it becauseI don't have the energy or the,
(09:09):
the headspace, as we've justsaid.
Being in events is so crazybusy that I just have to be
transparent and honest and clearand I'm still caring.
But that really getsmisconstrued.
But I think there's a differencebetween that and accountability
.
So, ultimately, I think it'sholding everyone to account,
seeing where the support isneeded, trying to understand
(09:31):
everyone's perspective and thenalways, always going back to the
original purpose, like what'sthe what's the original vision
and aim and how do we achievethat?
Budget is slightly moredifficult, or sometimes it's
easier, because if you don'thave the budget for it, we don't
have the budget for it.
So that's the end of thatconversation.
Sometimes extra money is found,sometimes it isn't.
(09:52):
Sometimes we have to be reallycreative internally to make
something happen, and we do dothat.
I think events people are someof the most creative people for
getting the achievements withinevents.
Ian Carless (10:03):
When you think something's not going to happen
and never, say never you touchedon an important topic there,
which is obviously the role ofgender in the events industry,
and we are hugely skewed towardsmales being in the event
industry, and we'll we'll talkabout a little bit about that
later, about what it's likebeing a female in the event
industry and why, perhaps youknow know, females are so
(10:25):
underrepresented in our industry, but we'll get onto that in a
little while.
As the project director, wheredo you find that you normally
enter the process?
Is it at the pitch level, theconcept, or is it post sign-off,
or is it a combination of allthree, depending on the client?
Vicki Galloway-place (10:40):
Yeah, a combination, depending on the
client.
Ian Carless (10:42):
And where would you prefer to come in?
Vicki Galloway-place (10:43):
So I prefer to come in from the
beginning because you get to seethe idea realized.
Yeah, it's very rare that thathappens, because you need to
have a lot of time and astrategy and and and work
towards it, and that quite oftendoesn't happen in events, not
just here.
I know from working in the ukas well there's a lot of last
minute requests that come in,and because you, you know,
(11:05):
companies want the work and and,and we say yes, and we say yes
all the time and we make theimpossible possible.
Yeah, so then it's anotherlittle bugbear of mine, but I
don't know how we ever are goingto break the mold because we
meet those tight deadlines andthose impossible asks.
Nothing's going to change right, and so we, we changed that
education around it.
So, yeah, there's a lot of lastminute and that's really tough
(11:27):
because, you know, I did a10-day turnaround of a live tv
show 10 days from getting thebrief to to bringing it live in
the studio, and you just have toretain so much information from
every angle and still make itwork.
Ian Carless (11:44):
But 10 days, I mean that would be unheard of,
wouldn't it, in the UK or the US.
I mean, we've worked with anumber of event managers through
Warehouse 4, which is our eventvenue, and I do remember one
young lady who came over.
She'd only been in the countryfor, I think, about six or seven
months and she was still, evenat that stage, trying to wrap
her head around having worked inthe UK, still trying to wrap
(12:09):
her head around these short kindof deadlines that she got.
You know, she was saying youknow, I just can't believe it.
I don't know how people workover here we get six to eight
weeks, whereas in the UK I'd begetting six to eight months.
Where do you think that comesfrom?
Where does this?
I've had this conversation withother guests on the podcast.
It is an issue.
Where do you think this issuecomes from?
Vicki Galloway-place (12:24):
I don't mean it disrespectfully, but I
think it's a lack of educationaround what goes into making
something real and live and of ahigh standard.
And if you are not in thatevents industry and you don't
know that and you have a reallygood project director or events
company that are doing theseamazing things and hide because
you don't want to hide thearguments and the issues and the
(12:47):
blocks that you get internally,you hide all that from your
client, right?
So then they just think thatanything is possible.
So that's a lack of educationmaybe from our part of actually,
these are the steps that ittook and it was this many
meetings for us to get to thatpoint and you hide all that so
people don't know it, so theyjust expect it to happen.
So for me, in any of those kindof situations, I think it's
(13:12):
education and communication.
Ian Carless (13:13):
I think they're the areas I would focus on to be
able to improve we were talkingto a guest in the in the last
season of the podcast and Ithink one of the interesting
topics that came up was well, wedo live in a region where it's
very easy to fast track yourcareer.
On the positive side, that'sfantastic.
People get opportunities,they're able to move up the
corporate ladder very quickly.
(13:34):
On the other side of that isthat sometimes people are able
to advance perhaps quicker thanthey should be advancing, and so
you get people in roles wherethey don't necessarily.
It comes back to what you weresaying, I guess, about education
.
I mean experience.
It's the same, similar thing.
They don't necessarily have theexperience to back up the
position that they're in andtherefore they leave you know,
(13:56):
and also to back up on that.
We live in a region also whichisn't brilliant at delegating
responsibility.
There tends to be a bottleneck,usually at the top of the
funnel in this region certainlyin my 22 years of being here and
it hasn't changed very much andI think there's also a culture
of not accepting failure.
(14:17):
So, whereas in some markets,you know, failure can be
rewarded, here I don't think itis, and the bottom line is that
what often that results in ispeople waiting to the very last
minute to make a decision.
Vicki Galloway-place (14:29):
And then when they do make a decision.
Ian Carless (14:31):
It's usually the smallest decision that, if it
all goes wrong, will have theleast amount of impact on them
and, unfortunately, for peoplelike yourself who are at the end
of that, it often means thatyou then get to work with the
shortest timeline available,with the smallest amount of
money, and still the samedemands being placed on you.
It's a tough one.
That was a nice littlemonologue there, but I don't
(14:55):
have an answer to it.
I don't think, as I said, I'vebeen here 22 years.
I don't think it's changed verymuch.
In some organizations, yes,they have tackled that a little
bit, other than others, but Ithink we're still in a place
where we get way, way too shortof deadlines.
And you're right For as long aswe keep fulfilling those
deadlines, clients will keepgiving us short and shorter
(15:16):
timelines.
Vicki Galloway-place (15:21):
It's a double edged sword, right,
because you want the work andyou want to be successful.
But you want that and youtouched on.
Yeah, I think you're rightabout identifying the experience
alongside the education,because that's equal.
I don't mean a traditionaleducation, going getting a
degree in exams.
I mean that education ofknowledge around what's needed
to action something in an event.
Ian Carless (15:37):
Yeah, it's a tough one.
So when you're putting theprojects together, how do you go
about choosing your clients,team and suppliers?
Vicki Galloway-place (15:45):
I always like to try and have a fair
process, because that's all Iknew from the uk.
You know it's like in terms ofyou've got to ask the same
question and you've got to, justto make it fair for everyone.
So I try and do that, but again, that's.
That's quite a lengthy process,but I have to sometimes have no
choice than to rely onrecommendation or people that
(16:07):
I've worked with before.
You know, I've had some amazingfreelancers, amazing project
managers and producers andbecause you have these tight
deadlines and you're under a lotof pressure, you're going to go
back to what you know, becauseyou mentioned earlier about risk
and you have to limit the riskof it's.
It's a balancing act, becauseI'm also very much about
(16:29):
identifying and supporting andnurturing new talent, new and
mentoring females in theindustry, and you also have to
give that person a chance and Ivery much go on my gut feeling.
With things like this, you'realways under pressure, so you
have to rely on the people thatyou know.
I always do an interview process.
If it's a new person, try andkeep it fairly informal, but
just to gauge their actualexperience, because you touched
(16:52):
on earlier, people progressreally quickly, so might not
necessarily have the skills.
I think it's a bit of a catfishsituation sometimes in events
out here where people say theycan do everything but they can't
and that's a day and it's allright if you can't I've learned
from my experiences over theyears.
But but when you have 10 days toput an event on, if I have
somebody that can't do thatproject, that then put that role
(17:15):
.
That's putting pressure oneveryone else.
So I always have an interviewor check in with someone new
just to see what the vibes likeand see if we are going to get
on under like pressurizedsituation, which it always is if
they've got some experience.
But if they haven't and I stillthink there's something about
them if I've got the supportnetwork and the strength in the
wider team, I'd still want togive that new person a chance to
(17:37):
be able to develop theirexperience, because that's
happened to me.
Suppliers is very much beenword of mouth and trial and
tested and we've had mostlyamazing ones, a couple that
haven't been so amazing.
But there are some phenomenalsuppliers in this region who
work their magic and I'm foreverthankful to them.
Ian Carless (17:58):
I'm just curious about your, your theatre
experience, because I think I'veworked in theatre just dabbled
a little bit in my earliercareer, and I imagine I'm just
thinking about your transitionfrom theatre to events.
And and here's my littleanalysis of it right, in theatre
we have a lot of moving parts,but similar to television
(18:18):
production, I think.
In theatre, the same astelevision production, people
tend to know what they're doingand where they're supposed to be
at any given time and whattheir role is, which seems to be
the complete antithesis toevents where it feels like
you're herding cats.
I guess my question is did youhave the same kind of experience
(18:38):
?
And then, how do you managethat kind of experience where
you kind of go right?
Then where do we start?
Vicki Galloway-place (18:44):
such a good question.
Where do I start?
Yeah, I think your analogy is.
I think I put a lot of pressureon myself because I thought it
would be an easy stepage andbranding walkthroughs and flows
of audience.
I'm like, well, thestorytelling happens on the
(19:11):
stage.
No, it happens from the minutethey come in the door, and so
all that was a huge learningcurve for me and, especially, as
you touched upon out here, theexperiences of people vary
vastly.
So it is kind of everyone'sjumping in and everyone's
getting involved.
Everyone's jumping in andeveryone's getting involved, and
I do, as I said, try to rely onmy gut to employ people who
(19:32):
either have the skill set or arewilling to to develop and learn
.
And for me, again, it's aboutcommunication and clarity.
So I am a bit old school andI'll I'll go back to the basics
and okay, what's my staffingplan like?
And then, when I've filled that, what are the channels of
communication, just so that, andwhat are individuals, roles and
(19:53):
responsibilities?
Now, when you get a ridiculousdeadline and it's really tight
and you have to fulfill that,they go out of the window.
And as long as you have thatteamwork and that collaborative
approach, then the work will getdone, but I like to have that
scaffolding in place when Istart a project so that I can
fall back on it if it's neededis that answering your question.
(20:14):
Yeah it's not as creative astheatre.
In some respects I love it whena client is prepared to like
dip their toes in outside theircomfort zone and and put some
contemporary dance to open aconference or look at some
spoken word.
And that's just my creativeroots, wanting to go through and
into events.
And I'll never lose that, and Idon't think we should, because
(20:36):
you know, the Middle East is nowa hub for all these conferences
.
There's hundreds and hundredsthat happen every week.
What's the one thing that'sgoing to make your conference
stand out?
And for me, my background isusing that theatre expertise in
in the events that I'm workingon well and telling a story.
Ian Carless (20:54):
I mean, I think people, yeah, absolutely,
there's a narrative that you foryour event.
Yeah, and you know, and ignorethat at your peril.
What do you think is one of thebiggest misconceptions or what
do you think peopleunderestimate the most about the
role of a project director oran event producer?
Vicki Galloway-place (21:10):
that is glamorous because it's the
complete opposite that you, thatyou get to make all the
decisions, because there's aquite a few that you don't, and
beyond you, certainly if you'renot client side, then the client
has 100 approvals a day.
(21:30):
They have to go through that.
You get to work short daysbecause you don't.
There's a lot of preparationand this might be me, but I put
a lot of preparation if I'mpresenting or if I'm leading
Even an internal meeting,because I want to make sure that
I'm clear and that my team feelsupported and understand the
point of view that I'm comingfrom.
(21:50):
So I probably give myself morework by putting that preparation
time in 100% if I'm presentingto an outside stakeholder, but
also internally as well.
And that's probably myinsecurities of wanting to make
sure that I'm clear on what I'msaying.
But yeah, there is no glamourto it.
You're often stuck in a hot,sweaty backstage box with no air
(22:13):
con, dealing with a millionthings sat on a um a box, trying
to answer a million emails andthen you walk out and you're
this face of calm and quiteoften internally you're not calm
.
I've had people say to me oh,you've.
And if you spoke to my teachingcolleagues from way back when,
they'd laugh at this, because Iwas never calm in teaching.
(22:34):
I was very young and I was veryangry and it was very like I
don't understand why this ishappening.
But now I have to be calm andthe voice of calm.
So people then think thatyou're quite chilled out, but
it's like the, the iceberg right.
There's a million things goingon, but I want to be calm to my
team and the client because Iwant them to get that calmness
from me.
Ian Carless (22:54):
It's like the swan on the pond isn't it Exactly?
yeah, yeah, yeah, On the surfaceyou look calm and elegant and
underneath you're paddling awayfuriously yeah yeah, which leads
(23:17):
me on to is a very good way ofsegue into the next question,
which is you've recently becomea new mum.
Yeah, it's my biggest projecttoday, absolutely, and I'm a
parent, um, you know to.
I'm sure all the other parentsout there will know what that
means and the time it entails,and also the stress that it
brings.
How do you then manage thatwith what is all already a
stressful role?
How do you find that adjustment?
Vicki Galloway-place (23:30):
because I think you're only what a couple
of years in one one year on july, the third right and my
situation is quite unique inthat my little boy's adopted, so
he was two and a half when hecame to me, so I didn't have
kind of that the same lead upand the preparation that you
might have traditionally right.
All of a sudden I had thislittle boy who needed things
(23:53):
from me 24 hours a day and he'sphenomenal, by the way.
He's funny, he's stubborn, he'sum creative, he's amazing.
But I'm also an older mum, soI'm 46 next week, so I was used
to my own ways, right.
And I'm very an older mum, soI'm 46 next week, so I was used
to my own ways, right, and I'dbecome very selfish and I could
do what I wanted, when I wanted,I could work long hours and it
(24:15):
didn't affect anyone.
And then this amazing littlehuman is here going actually no,
you need to now bend to myrules and you need to do what I
want you to do and I needfeeding, and I need feeding and
I need you and I love all ofthose things not the cooking but
, but I love being a mum.
But it's a massive cultureshock.
So the first, I was fortunateenough to get like a version of
(24:39):
maternity leave, um, and that initself I needed as a it still
don't think it's enough for mums, by the way, in this area world
, but it was.
I needed that time for thatadjustment to being a mum.
Then there was another periodof adjustment to being a mum
with a career which has been amassive learning curve and I've
had to approach it like aproject.
(25:00):
So I have to project managementis a massive part of what I do.
So I have to manage myresponsibilities as a mother and
make sure that, luckily, aslike a project director.
So I have to manage myresponsibilities as a mother and
make sure that, luckily, aslike a project director, you
have to be two or three stepsahead.
I have to do that and allparents will know this.
This is not new, but it was newto me.
Um, planning everything it's.
(25:20):
You know you leave the housewith 10 bags and lunches and
dinners and swimming kits andwho's going to a party and
change of clothes, and it'snever ending.
So I have to really really planthat.
And then I have to kind of takemy mum hat off and put my
project director hat on and thenplan what my work looks like
and then see what they look liketogether.
I have to approach itdifferently, so I normally will
(25:45):
set myself like my prioritiesfor the day and won't stop until
I get them done.
If that means I'm at the officetill eight, nine o'clock at
night, then that's what Iformally was like Can't do that.
Now I'm like it's important forme to do the school run and
pick Raph up at the end of theday as much as I can.
So I have to have that breakand maybe I come back to the
work a little bit later on.
I've had to change the way Iapproach work, but I'm all right
(26:12):
with that.
I just I'm passionate aboutfinding companies that also
support that and it's becomecrucial to me, that that my son
sees that you can be a I'm asingle mom as well, so I'm doing
it on my own I was going to saythat it was just for context.
Ian Carless (26:26):
You are a single mom, so you don't have the
benefit of having a partner toshare the all the responsibility
with and the tasks and thepickups and the drop-offs.
Vicki Galloway-place (26:34):
Yeah, and people say how do you do it?
It's amazing that you do it onyour own, but I don't know any
different, so I don't know whatit would be like to have that,
the outside support.
But it is that management andthat planning that time.
And of course it doesn't go toplan because there'll be
something where Rafferty cut hislip at school so he needed to
go and get seen by the doctorand they'll.
(26:56):
But that happens in events,right, you have your moments
where you've got to dropeverything and solve that
problem.
So I approach it like that.
I make sure that when I'm withmy son, I'm very present and
that he understands that he'sgot a mum, that that has a
career and goes out to work, andthat's important to me.
It doesn't mean that I'm lessof a mum.
It doesn't mean that I love himany less.
(27:16):
I love him so much.
It's unbelievable how thisperson can kind of ingrain into
your life.
But my career is reallyimportant as well and I want him
to have a really spend most ofyour life in your career, right,
traditionally.
So you have to enjoy it and Iwant him to enjoy whatever
career he chooses to go intoDoctor, please, something that's
(27:38):
going to look after mummy whenshe's older, or something
creative, I'm sure.
But whatever he chooses to goin, I want him to love it.
Whether it's whatever it is, Iwant him to enjoy it and I want
him to see that I enjoy mine.
It's that perennial conundrum.
Ian Carless (27:54):
Isn't it between work-life balance that we all
try and strive for?
Vicki Galloway-place (27:58):
and it doesn't take away the guilt,
because if I'm at work, I feelguilty.
If Raph's at home that I'm notwith him.
I'm at home, I feel like Ishould be doing some work.
And I have to really come toterms with that in my mind and
set myself really clearboundaries and be a bit strict
actually when it comes to workand say actually I'm not
available from this time and I'mreally sorry.
(28:20):
The work will get done, thedeadlines will be met, but these
are my boundaries.
I turn everything off on myphone.
I've got all my work stuff in afile at the back of my phone.
When I'm not online, I turn mynotifications off so that I can
be with Ra.
Ian Carless (28:34):
Which is really important, isn't it?
Because we had a guest on justrecently, Ian Morrison, who
talked a lot about burnout inour industry and how to
safeguard against that.
And I think we're all guilty,aren't we, of just spending
because we are so passionateabout the job that we do?
(28:55):
And we and you know we would,let's face it, we, if you
weren't passionate about workingin events, you wouldn't do
events, would you so?
And I think it's it's.
It's super important to be ableto set yourself boundaries.
As you said, you turn yourphones off at a certain time
because a lot of the time, youknow, we used to wear those long
hours like a badge of honor,right, and then it's so it's no
surprise that you know you getto the end of a certain period
and you just go, I'm done I'mfinished, yeah, and actually
it's not a badge of honor.
You're doing yourself adisservice.
I mean, we're thankful, I guess, that we live in a time where
(29:17):
mental health and well-being ismuch more appreciated now and
spoken about, whereas, you know,perhaps 10 years ago we
wouldn't have been having thisconversation.
We'd just be saying what areyou talking about?
Vicki Galloway-place (29:28):
Get on with it.
Yeah, get on with it.
Old school Exactly.
Yeah, the badge of honour thingI've had so many people?
Yeah, I worked till midnightlast night and I was up again at
seven this morning.
We've all had days like that,but I don't feel like it's
anything to be celebrated.
I feel a bit sad that that'speople's responses.
You and even before I became amum, actually I'd started
putting these boundaries inplace because it was becoming
(29:51):
dangerously unhealthy to workthe hours that we do, so I
decided having that switch offtime before then, and you know
what?
That gives you time toregenerate and revitalize
yourself, and then you're betterat your work and you're better
as a mum.
So it's it's really advisable,and I think any leader should be
advising that their team doesthis.
Ian Carless (30:08):
Now we mentioned earlier, you know, being a woman
in the event industry.
You are most definitely aminority.
You've worked in both the UKand here.
What have you noticed?
That's perhaps different, hasthere been anything different?
I mean, obviously you knowvalues and cultures aside, you
know, I think the role, people'sappreciation of gender has
(30:31):
changed a lot over the last fiveor 10 years.
What's your experience been,certainly in relation to the
event industry?
Vicki Galloway-place (30:38):
It's something that I'm really,
really passionate about.
I think the UAE as a whole andits focus and the pillars that
it's focusing on towards its2050 vision are phenomenal.
And you know, I've had thefortunate experiences of working
with a lot of Emiratis and alot of government entities and
(31:00):
they are wholly supportive ofdeveloping and strengthening
women in all industries, and Ithink that's amazing, and when I
compare that to the UK, it's asimilar journey.
Right, the UAE is what 52 yearsold now, 52, 53?
Ian Carless (31:14):
Yeah, something like that.
Vicki Galloway-place (31:14):
So it's the natural journey that
countries go on.
Ian Carless (31:17):
I should know I've been here for half of it.
Vicki Galloway-place (31:18):
Yeah, almost, I should know as well,
and the UK did the same.
The UAE is just a little bitbehind in its journey and I
don't think that's a bad thing.
My issues that I've come acrosshave not been with locals, have
not been with emirates.
I've always felt really, reallyrespected by, by this country
(31:38):
that I now call home.
Unfortunately, where I havefelt discriminated against and
it has happened on more than oneoccasion, it's been with with
westerners, with english, uh,male leaders, and that makes me
really, really sad and I feellike, because the structure
isn't there yet in terms oflegalities and what you can do
to challenge it, people knowthat they can get away with with
(32:01):
how they treat you and being aminority.
And just to track back when Iwas at school, I'd say into
university I was really had noconfidence, no voice, wouldn't
speak up, wouldn't put my handup in a meeting.
I was really even in the earlyyears of teaching and I've
worked really hard on that formyself to really develop my
voice and I don't ever want tolose it and people probably get
(32:22):
sick of hearing it now, but it'sso important because I think
once I start, I stop speaking,then it'll be hard to re-find my
voice.
So I am quite vocal now inmeetings and and I am often a
minority as a female and that'swhy I think it's even more
important to be vocal.
I've asked questions directlyto males before and had a male
(32:44):
colleague sat next to me andthey've answered my question,
but looked at the male likethat's quite common and I'm like
hello.
Ian Carless (32:51):
Does that still happen?
2025 and that still happens ithappened this year.
Vicki Galloway-place (32:54):
It happened this year.
I'm like guys, girls, anyone.
I'm asking you that questionjust because it's an event
question about.
It might be about production,you can look me in the eye and
answer that question.
And that's just a really likeminor example of some of the
experiences that I've had, whichis why it's so important, one
to support younger females thatare coming into the industry and
(33:16):
to mentor them and to give thema voice and make sure they're
heard.
But two, to keep my voice loudas well, so that I may be
described as difficult or as aproblem where a male wouldn't if
he was.
I've had that as well, where amale has behaved in exactly the
same way as me, which iscompletely acceptable, but I'm
described as difficult or I'mdescribed as emotional, whereas
(33:39):
I'm just actually sharing aproblem that we need to resolve.
So there's still some work tobe done, I think, in agencies
internally, and I would love toget to a point where there's
some guidelines that everyone isheld accountable for.
Ian Carless (33:57):
It's interesting, isn't it?
We had another guest on lastseason who also female, and
talked about what a goodexperience that she had had out
here in the Middle East and howit was perhaps contrary to some
of the perception back in the UKand the West, and in fact, most
of the problems that she hadhad out here in the Middle East
and how it was perhaps contraryto some of the perception back
in the UK and the West and infact most of the problems that
she'd had with regards to beinga female in the industry were in
the UK and it tended to comefrom, you know, obviously from
(34:20):
males of a certain age, of acertain demographic.
So it's interesting that whatyou say dovetails with that also
.
Vicki Galloway-place (34:28):
Yeah, I'm really glad that she has had
those, and I've had some amazingexperiences as well, by the way
, and there's been a lot of thetime I'm now listened to because
I make sure that I am, and itmight be that I'm not agreed
with, which is absolutely fine,but at least have the like, the
decency and the respect to hearme out.
I think some of the experiencesthat I've had here, if I'd have
had in the UK, they would haveabsolutely been run through the
(34:54):
milling cart.
But because they know thatthat's not an option out here
and that's really sad, becausewhy aren't we raising people up
and supporting them?
It's okay to disagree.
It's okay to be a woman and amum in events.
Ian Carless (35:02):
And I think you're right.
You know what you said earlierabout the UAE is at a certain
point in its journey and I thinkyou know the framework for this
society is developing at such arate.
Yeah, I mean again, I've beenhere 22 years and the pace of
change has just been phenomenal.
So I think you know we will getthere.
We're just we're still on thatjourney.
Listen, we could go on, forhours and hours.
(35:32):
I know we could, but we do tryand keep the podcast to a
limited time, so I'm going tomove on to some quick fire
questions for you I love quickfire.
Vicki Galloway-place (35:35):
yeah, biggest on-site challenge you've
faced and how did you overcomeit?
Designing and building a fullysustainable 450 square meter
pavilion that had one, two, five, six live digital installations
, 12 days of live programming, acoffee shop, all at Coff, which
was very high on its security,and it was absolutely amazing.
(35:59):
I had a dream team.
We pulled it off.
We were exhausted.
Fantastic, so I was reallyproud of that, but it was a
challenge, one thing you'd banat events.
If you could mobile phones, butI would.
It's a double edge because Iwould like it for exposure.
I hate it when someone's likejust texting on their phone and
(36:21):
they're not engaged in what'sgoing on in the event,
especially if if it'sperformance.
Ian Carless (36:27):
Yeah, fair enough.
Most underrated event roleperson who gets the least
appreciation, but perhaps is oneof the most important cogs.
Vicki Galloway-place (36:35):
Oh gosh project coordinators.
Ian Carless (36:37):
There are lots, aren't there?
Vicki Galloway-place (36:38):
Yeah, I was just thinking that Project
coordinators, productionmanagers, project coordinators
and project managers, who reallyare the ones that are keeping
it, going Right and one thingclients should do before they
think about doing an event.
Increase their budget.
Ian Carless (36:56):
That's an easy one.
Vicki Galloway-place (36:58):
One thing that clients should do before.
Ian Carless (37:00):
Before they think about putting on a Before they
think about commissioning anevent.
Vicki Galloway-place (37:04):
Be very clear on what they want to
achieve and the parameterswithin which they want to
achieve, and the parameterswithin which they want to
achieve it good one, good advice, I like that.
Ian Carless (37:13):
And penultimately, we've asked all.
I guess this, and I'm guessingyou're, you're going to be no
exception.
You're, you're a music fan ohyeah, absolutely love it so
what's on your playlist at themoment?
Vicki Galloway-place (37:23):
cocomelon.
Okay, wheels on the bus, that'scool.
Head, shoulders, knees or toesno, do you know what?
Ian Carless (37:33):
Okay, when your playlist hasn't been hijacked by
your son.
Vicki Galloway-place (37:36):
Well, I'm trying to educate my son.
My son can tell me if Coldplaycome on, he's three.
If Coldplay come on, milesSmith, benson, boone, post
Malone.
So these are the ones thatwe're loving at the minute.
Trying to show you his makes,he loves.
I'm quite eclectic.
I'm still a 90s girl at heart,so anything that is linked to
the 90s genre I love.
(37:58):
But I'm a bit of a rocker aswell.
Ian Carless (38:00):
And Bon Jovi I love them, and then finally, Vicky
what are you looking forward tofor the rest of this year?
Vicki Galloway-place (38:07):
Security, stability and spending time with
my son.
Ian Carless (38:11):
Marvellous.
I think that's a perfect way toend it.
Vicky, thank you very much forjoining me on the podcast.
Vicki Galloway-place (38:17):
Thank you for having me.
Ian Carless (38:23):
Event News DXB is brought to you by Minus 45 dB,
the team transforming noisyevent spaces into slick,
sound-reduced environments.
Check them out at minus45dbcom.
This episode was presented bymyself, ian Carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was RoyDeMonte, the executive producer
(38:45):
was myself and Joe Morrison, andthis podcast was produced by W4
Podcast Studio Dubai, and ifyou haven't done so already,
please do click that follow orsubscribe button.
See you next time.
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