Meet our Showground and Facilities Manager 06 Nov

Here at the Lincolnshire Showground we host a huge variety of events, and we couldn't do it without our dedicated facilities and maintenance team who offer hands-on support to event organisers and maintain the Showground for a year-round calender of varied events.

Describe your job in 3 words

The role of Showground and Facilities Manager covers a broad spectrum of activities as diverse as the daily management and maintenance of the 270 acre Showground  through to bespoke event set up, delivery and remediation works. What is clear from my first 6 months in post is that we could not be successful without the commitment and enthusiasm of the entire Showground team. If I had to sum it up in 3 words, the role is challenging, collaborative and rewarding.

What did you do before coming to the Showground?

My core competencies were fostered during 23 years service in the British Army, Royal Engineers, from which I retired as a Warrant Officer in 2014. As well as serving on military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Oman and Northern Ireland I’ve also lived overseas in such locations as Central America and the South Atlantic Islands, all of which has helped to provide a diverse experience base and unique perspective.

Since retiring from the army and prior to joining the Showground team I have had Facilities and Estate Management roles with Savills and the Lincolnshire Police and most recently I held a Senior Project Manager position with a Principal Contractor to the MOD, running a team of Project Managers and the delivery of construction works (projects over £25k and under £3.93million) to RAF bases around Lincolnshire.

What has been your favourite event at the Showground so far?

I started at the Showground during the build up to the Lionel Richie concert, that event has to be one of my favourites as it was my first practical experience of event delivery and demonstrated the site teams aptitude, flexibility and can do attitude. I can honestly say that some of the site team have demonstrated levels of dedication and commitment to delivery I have not seen since my time on operations with the army.

What is the best part of your job?

I think that the satisfaction gained knowing that the team have done all we possibly can to support the delivery of an event and then seeing that event run smoothly. That said we still have hills to climb as we strive for continual improvement but the teams commitment and dedication is plain to see.

What are you looking forward to at the Showground in 2019?

We currently have ambitious plans in place to upgrade some of our existing infrastructure and event facilities at the Showground. The most visual of these being a comprehensive refurbishment plan of the existing Exhibition Hall. The space is in essence being stripped back to it’s steel frame and rebuilt from there, the attached single story annex building is also being reroofed with internal room layout revisions and all new services added. The designs are being progressed and we are hoping to commence works late 2019. This presents an exciting opportunity for event delivery and the Showground site.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

Whilst living in Belize we used to have American film crews utilising some of our jungle training areas for film shoots. I was the BATSUB Facilities Manager and consequently managing the 50 man maintenance team, camp facility, services and infrastructure. As this included the training areas, helicopter landing sites and remote temporary bases I was tasked with ensuring they were supported, had access to helicopters, jungle guides and shoot locations. Due to issues with visas and transport they ended up short of actors. Subsequently myself and four other team members appeared in a science fiction film, Dragon Wasps (2012) and again the following year in Rise of the Dinosaurs (2013). Consequently I have a IMDb actors biography page. As anyone who has seen the film can attest I have received no formal training as an actor and my apologies to for possibly bringing the title ‘Actor’ into disrepute, it was a great experience and I met some interesting characters!