Q&A with Jo Austin
Jo Austin is the Sales Director for our meeting and events venue spaces at The Venues Collection and is highly involved in steering the team with innovations within the MICE industry.
What is the best part of working within the MICE industry?
The MICE industry is full of energy and has amazing people and diversity of experiences and events. It is also able to show what is going on in the economic world, which makes it even more interesting.
What would be your song of choice for karaoke?
Has to be Mr Brightside by The Killers!
What made you choose the events industry and what advice would you give to those looking to enter this exciting world?
When my two daughters were little, I was organising events for a charity and I happened to meet someone through this who offered me a job. Since then, I’ve never looked back and have been enjoying the work a lot. My advice would be to keep working hard and opportunities will start to appear.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
I love watching people as they develop and helping them to shine from their successes. The whole team then gets great results and it’s a great feeling!
What does your ideal weekend look like?
Easy question! Spending time with my amazing family, especially my lovely grandchildren. It’s a bonus if there is some delicious food and a bit of red wine in there too!
Do you have any advice for unique and unusual venues that want to appeal to the MICE industry?
There is a lot of competition out there when it comes to event venues, so you have to be bold and take every opportunity to impress your future clients.
If you could change anything about the events industry, what would it be?
You can have a great and rewarding career in the events industry but occasionally we lose amazing workers with lots of customer service and hospitality experience to higher paid positions in different industries, which shouldn’t happen.
What don’t we know about you?
I didn’t always want to be in events, I wanted to be a midwife when I was at school.
At The Venues Collection, we know how important food can be for enhancing experiences at events. What was a great experience you had that was all down to the food?
Food signifies people having a good time and being sociable, like having a meal on a Sunday with my wonderful family or meeting colleagues for an event. Food is also an automatic conversation starter, you’re able to talk about what you’re eating, whether you and your neighbour are eating the same dish or something completely different.
What excites you the most about the future of events and the MICE industry?
It’s impossible to know what the future will bring and that makes it exciting (if a little scary). People will always have the need to meet up, as it’s the best way to engage with others and that means that it should be around for a long time to come.
If you want to know more about The Venues Collection or you have a question for Jo, get in touch with us today.
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