Kershaw Partners Limited

Growing an event business is tough.

There’s no magic formula – because every business is different and business owners have specific growth objectives and timeframes to work to. But we do know that there are 5 core pillars that will determine your business’ ability and readiness to grow

• Management Discipline
• Business Strategy 
• People and Operations
• Marketing Communications and Sales
• Systemisation

The Partners at KP have over 250 years combined experience running businesses in all sectors of the Events Industry – we’ve experienced the highs of success and the lows of failure along the way, so we know what it takes to grow a business and avoid the pitfalls, in this idiosyncratic industry of ours! 

Our secret sauce is a combination of our know how and experience: 

✔ We know how to structure and manage successful events businesses 
✔ We know the industry and its sectors inside out 
✔ We know the tricks behind marketing and lead generation that actually work 
✔ We know how to facilitate partnerships, JV’s, mergers and acquisitions 
✔ We know the movers and shakers that make the industry tick 

The fun part is applying it to meet the needs of individual business owners and helping them achieve their goals, such as:

1. Providing interim CEO for a catering business and increasing turnover and profitability by 120% year on year 
2. Facilitating a merger between two complimentary events services businesses worth over £5m 
3. Facilitating an MBO and partial exit for the owners of a structures business
4. Developing and executing a master plan to transform a golf course into multi-use event space

" Kershaw Partners have brought a commercial realism, breadth of experience and structural methodology to the operation that we’ve hugely benefited from. Their down to earth approach and simple, easy to understand modules have helped to transform how we approach the operation and positioning of ISLA.” Anna Abdelnoor, ISLA

Partner

Advisor and Investor

The Collaboration Agency

Collaboration is an independent business development and marketing agency specialising in the Leisure, Sports and Entertainment sector.  We work with premium and luxury brands from across the LSE sector promoting and creating mutually beneficial commercial and strategic partnerships, including sponsorships, to build business and improve performance. 

Core to the business is Business Development from business plan & sales strategy development through to delivery. Collaboration understand that the key to success is building and maintaining strong relationships and help their clients achieve these through database management, exceptional contacts and a comprehensive knowledge of the LSE sector.  

Using a collaborative approach, we use marketing expertise appropriate to the challenge at hand finding solutions to Branding, Communications and PR, Creative, Website Design, Social and Digital Media and even Recruitment.

Director

Epsom Downs Racecourse

Epsom Downs is one of the UK’s most renowned racecourses and home to the World’s most important race, The Investec Derby.

Roles and responsibilities
Attend Board Meetings and race meetings when required
Assist the Executive in the acquisition of new Race Sponsors and Commercial partners and the promotion of the racecourse. The retention of current sponsors
Assist the Executive in the formulation of a strategic plan for the racecourse and an annual budget for submission to the Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR) Board.
Propose Capital Projects at racecourse level for submission to the JCR Board

Non-Executive Director

Pubs on Wheels

Pubs on Wheels is an award winning innovative and versatile mobile bar solution designed for the events industry. Created from former MOD Trucks, which have been immaculately transformed by one of the UK’s leading coach builders, we have re-created the quintessentially British destination, only on wheels!

From Festivals to weddings, from global sporting events to private parties, Pubs on Wheels will provide a complete and seamless operation to help you stage the perfect event.  We just turn up, set up and are ready to start serving in about 3 hours. Our philosophy is great product, served by exceptional people in beautiful surroundings.  We are all about delivering the ultimate customer experience no matter what the weather and no matter where the location.

Established in 2014, we have put together a team of people with over 75 years of experience within the event industry to create something unique in this market.  In the past three years we have delivered over 150 different events all across the UK and Europe.  Our financial model is very different from other bar operators.  We do not pay pitch fees or commissions, instead believe that we are at an event to maximize the experience for our customers and the financial return for our client.

We are working with some iconic brands, both pouring and non-pouring, not just as part of their activation.  We have an extensive knowledge about venues and events and are able to use that knowledge to create commercial opportunities for our clients which they may not have previously considered to maximise their brand exposure and return on investment.

Founder

Spotless

Spotless is one of the biggest Facilities Management companies in the World with over 40,000 employees worldwide.  Based in Melbourne, Australia, Spotless in listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with a turnover of around Aus$3bn.
Having identified a desire for a fresh approach in the UK, Spotless acquired Cleanevent, Cleandomain and EMC in 2010 to gain a strong foothold in the market.  Spotless now look after Wembley, Twickenham, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Cheltenham Racecourse, The O2 and Westfield Shopping centres

Roles and responsibilities:
Management of Marketing Strategy for Cleanevent and EMC in UK market
Development and Management of Marketing Plan
Management of Commercial Strategy including sponsorship, hospitality and public relations.
Management of Spotless UK brands
Developing strategic commercial partnerships with venues and rights holders
Maintaining and building relationships with existing Cleanevent and EMC clients
Developing new Facilities Management Business across LSE market in UK

Sales, Marketing and Communications Director

European Tour

Oversee all hospitality for BMW Championship, Nissan Irish Open, Smurfit European Open, Barclays Scottish Open, American Express World Golf Championship and Ryder Cup

Head of Hospitality Sales

QUINTUS EVENTS LIMITED

As well as looking after sales of bespoke events and corporate hospitality for Quintus owned events, was also in charge of developing new concepts around which the company could sell sponsorship and hospitality

Head of Sales and Business Development

Creative Breaks

Operations Director

I Help Event Entrepreneurs Acquire The Skills They Need To Shape, Manage And Grow Their Businesses, Significantly Increasing Their Value Without Adding To Stress Levels

Is your Event business struggling to reach the next level?

Are you facing issues that are stopping you from growing?

Are you finding it difficult to diagnose where the biggest problems are and how to solve them?

When I set my own event business up, I hoped to make enough money to support myself.  Five years later when we were approached to merge our company into bigger one, we discovered that we had spent 5 years creating no value in our business at all.

❌ We had never set a goal and vision, and had never made a plan

❌ We had no culture and had too many people doing the wrong jobs

❌ We were “making do” with sub-standard offices and equipment

❌ We had no marketing strategy and had no clue how to promote ourselves or to who

❌ We never thought of reaching out and investing in help and advice

So many Event Businesses have started this way.  No goal, no plan, no vision for what they want to achieve and after a few years of growth through repeat business and referrals they start to stall, but they have no idea why or how to solve the problem.

Over the last 7 years Kershaw Partners have worked with dozens of Event Businesses, diagnosing where the barriers to growth are, removing them and helping them to build more successful, more profitable and ultimately, if they are looking for an exit strategy, more valuable Event Businesses.

We start this process with a 2 Day Diagnostic Business Review.  We help you to take a step back from your business for a couple of days and draw a line in the sand. 

The 2 Day Review will:

✔ Help you to clarify your vision, ambition and objectives for the business and plan for them

✔ Make sure that you have the right people on the journey with you and that you are set up to achieve your objectives

✔ Enable your team to do the best job possible by having the best “tools” to work with

✔ Help you define a marketing strategy to find, retain and maximise the value from your customers

✔ Show you what structures you need to put in place so that the business can Run on Rails and not be so dependent on you

✔ Show you how to create value in the business so if you want to there is an option to exit your business.

This is what our clients say:

“I have spent a lot of money on consultants in the last two years, and other than the money I have spent with Kershaw Partners, the rest of it was a waste" (James Middlehurst, Kalm Kitchen) 

"We have used consultants in the past, but none who have walked the walk and are so grounded." (Ben Leslie, Yahire)

To find out more book a call at https://go.oncehub.com/IntroductoryCallwithDavid

David Watt

After speaking to Holly Faulkner on this week’s Event Matters, one insight really stuck with me:

👉 “Good enough is never good enough – not when your job is to help people show up at their best.”

Holly built Purple Patch Group and Presentation Experts around a simple belief: design, storytelling and event delivery should make people feel confident, clear and ready to shine – whether they’re speaking to 10 colleagues or 500 delegates.

In this episode, we explore:
- Why presentations are sometimes the real gateway to long-term event partnerships
- The difference between delivering an event and helping people look and feel great on stage
- Why clarity, trust and culture matter more than any platform or production kit
- How backup planning, preparation and process actually drive creativity

This isn’t a story about growth hacks or marketing funnels. It’s about reputation, relationships and making people look exceptional when it matters most.

🎧 Listen to the episode: 

Buzzsprout: https://hubs.ly/Q03WzyKN0
Apple: https://hubs.ly/Q03WzyXt0
Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q03WzyVB0

Partner | Event Business Marketing and Growth Specialist

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After 20+ years working in events, it takes a lot to change how I think about experiences.
...

This conversation did exactly that.

This week, I sat down with Lucy Nicholls, Founder of The PS Events Group - a business built not on marketing, outbound sales or industry awards… but on imagination, emotional intelligence and 15+ years of consistently making people feel something at live events.

Lucy doesn’t start with logistics, run sheets or budgets.

She starts with:
 👉 What do you want people to feel?
 👉 What story are you asking them to be part of?
 👉 Where does the experience actually begin? (Hint: it isn’t when they walk into the room)

We talked about:

- How theatre, psychology and stagecraft can transform live experiences

- Why “performer’s intelligence” is still the most underrated skill in events

- How she built a business entirely on reputation, trust and word of mouth

- Why agility, emotional intelligence and integrity matter more than ever

Lucy is one of the industry’s best-kept secrets - and I’m delighted to share her story. Let me know what resonates. This one will stick with me for a while.

🎧 Listen here: 

Buzzsprout: https://hubs.ly/Q03VW48m0
Apple: https://hubs.ly/Q03VW3qk0
Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q03VW4120

Some conversations stay with you long after the recording ends – and this week’s Event Matters episode with Rita Chandarana is definitely one of them.

Mike Kershaw and I both came away from this episode feeling energised. Rita’s story isn’t the typical “entrepreneurial journey” you hear in the events world. It’s messy, honest, full of hard decisions, family responsibility, graft and an almost stubborn commitment to doing things properly – even when the resources weren’t there.

What struck me most was her clarity around service and standards.

Rita didn’t build Eventologists through big strategy decks or perfect conditions. She built it by showing up, caring deeply about the details and delivering the beautiful – whether it was a handful of chair covers or a full-scale immersive experience.

It reminded me why so many event businesses succeed quietly. Not through slick marketing, but through consistency, integrity and a belief that great work earns its own momentum.

In this episode we get into:

 → How an unexpected family crisis sparked the creation of Eventologists

 → The shift from traditional Christmas parties to immersive, meaningful experiences

 → What it really takes to build a team with pride, ownership and “muscle memory”

 → The importance of no-blame cultures in helping people grow

 → The very real presence of imposter syndrome in creative founders

 → Why reputation remains the most powerful form of marketing in our industry


Rita speaks with such honesty about the realities of building something from nothing and about the resilience it takes to keep evolving as the industry changes around you.

I’m genuinely proud of this conversation. If you work in events, lead a team, or simply appreciate a story built on grit and heart, I think you’ll get a lot from it.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: 

BuzzSprout: https://hubs.ly/Q03Xr_wZ0
Apple: https://hubs.ly/Q03XrZHq0
Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q03Xr_Yb0

Thank you. Honestly, that’s the headline.
...

When we launched Event Matters just a month ago, we hoped it would spark some honest conversations about this brilliant, chaotic, people-driven industry we all love. What we didn’t quite expect was the reaction.

Nearly 300 downloads already. Messages landing in my inbox saying “this is exactly the stuff we don’t usually talk about.” People sharing episodes with their teams. Event pros telling us it feels like a chat over coffee, not a lecture.

That reaction is down to the guests who’ve been brave, generous and brilliantly honest with their experiences:

🎙️ Christopher Lind - thank you for showing us what it really takes to build an event business without burning out your people, and for speaking so openly about culture, care and leadership.

🎙️ Simran Whitham - thank you for reminding us that community isn’t a buzzword, it’s a way of thinking. Your insights into building something that people actually want to be part of were gold.

🎙️ Lucy Nicholls - thank you for bringing the emotion. For proving that events aren’t just about logistics, they’re about connection, memory and how you make people feel.

And not forgetting my colleagues, Mike Kershaw and Richard Dean, for kicking off episode 1 with me. Thank you for being willing to talk about the messy bits. The times things went wrong, fell apart or nearly did – and what we learned because of it.

To everyone who’s tuned in, shared an episode, sent a note or said “you need to listen to this” - we really appreciate it. 

It’s been brilliant to feel that this podcast is resonating with the people actually doing the work.

We’re learning, laughing and occasionally wincing with every episode. And we’re just getting started.

🎧 Listen to the full series here: 
→ Buzzsprout: https://lnkd.in/e4wKeNxv
→ Apple: https://lnkd.in/eBgNqTds
→ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eQfnFHjj

What’s becoming clear after several conversations on our Event Matters podcast is that the events industry is in the middle of a shift that most of us have felt… but not necessarily articulated.

It isn’t that logistics, delivery and precision have become less important – far from it. They’re the foundation of what we do. But the conversations I’m having suggest that the foundation is no longer the whole story.

Across agencies, venues and creative teams, there’s a growing recognition that events are now being judged on something far harder to measure: emotional impact.

Clients are asking different questions. Attendees are expecting different experiences. And event businesses are finding themselves pulled into earlier, more strategic conversations about purpose, narrative and audience behaviour.

What’s interesting is that this change hasn’t come from technology or trends. 

It’s come from people. Every guest I speak to brings their own lens, but the same truth keeps resurfacing: events have become a powerful form of human communication.

That requires us to think differently about the work.

It means understanding how to create moments that matter, not just moments that run well.

It means shaping context, connection and atmosphere, not just schedules.

And it means recognising the influence event professionals now have in helping brands tell stories, build communities and create belonging.

If you work in this industry, you’re probably doing far more than your job title suggests. Most of us aren’t just managing events – we’re shaping experiences, conversations and memories, whether we realise it or not.

And I think that’s worth talking about.

Curious to hear from others: does this reflect what you’re seeing in your corner of the industry? Has the work changed for you, too?

The Emotional Journey of Events

Design, emotion and culture: the real differentiators in events. 

Inside this edition of our newsletter, you’ll find insights on designing emotionally intelligent experiences rather than just schedules, two standout podcast episodes that uncover how culture, creativity and wellbeing power truly great event businesses, plus a quick video from Mike Kershaw on the Four C’s that explain why clients really buy.

It’s all centred on one big theme: the future of events isn’t just operational – it’s human.

Enjoy!

Something subtle but significant is happening in the events world. Event businesses that once focused on logistics, venues and smooth delivery are now

Open article: From delivery to design: the quiet transformation shaping the events industry by David Watt • 3 min read

From delivery to design: the quiet transformation shaping the events industry

Most agencies say people are their biggest asset - few truly build their business around it.
...

In Episode 3 of Event Matters, Mike and I sat down with Christopher Lind, Founder & CEO of Shore Events Limited, who has created something rare in the industry - an events agency built on clarity, consistency and genuine care.
Shore Events has grown from a kitchen table idea into a respected global player, not by chasing scale at any cost, but by designing a culture that protects its people - especially when the pressure is on.

What I loved most about this conversation were Chris’s insights into:
👉 Building resilience without burnout
👉 What a healthy agency culture actually looks like (behind the pitch decks)
👉 Why mental wellbeing isn’t a ‘nice to have’ - it’s a growth strategy
👉 Leading with honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable
👉 Creating an environment where performance and humanity can co-exist

There’s a powerful message here: sustainable success in events isn’t about working harder - it’s about working healthier.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation: Event Matters - How to Build an Event Business Without Breaking Your People

Buzzsprout: https://hubs.ly/Q03TZTSv0
Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q03TZQrK0
Apple: https://hubs.ly/Q03TZWZ40

A busy pipeline isn’t progress - clarity is. Too many “opportunities” are just polite conversations without a date, numbers or a budget. Tighten qualification and three things improve fast: win rate, forecasting and team focus.
Here’s how to qualify fast (and kindly):

- Date: when is the event? If there’s no date, it isn’t live.

- Numbers: expected scale and format.

- Budget: even a range is enough to shape options.

- Decision path: who signs, and when?

- Next step: one action, one owner, one time.

To help get you started here’s three practical moves to put into practice:

  1. Triage your top 20 deals. If any lack date, numbers or budget, move them to nurture and book a short clarity call.

  2. Rewrite your first reply. Set a timeline and the next step, and ask the three qualifiers you need to advance.

  3. Run a 20-minute pipeline huddle. Focus only on converting “maybe” to yes/no with a clear next action.

A smaller pipeline = higher hit rate. And fewer surprises at month-end.

Our Sales Success Accelerator Masterclass is next week on Thursday 27 November.

If you want a clear, practical system for faster decisions, sharper proposals and disciplined follow-up, secure your place today. 

 👉 Read full details and apply now here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Vm90T0

Do you want to make more sales????

If your marketing is working well, but you are struggling to convert great leads into clients then I would urge you to book yourself or your team into the Sales Accelerator Masterclass.

Having listened to Mike talk about how well this went yesterday, it is guaranteed to be an invaluable session for all #eventpros

Founder | Event Businesses Growth & Exit Specialist | Author

I had a brilliant afternoon yesterday going through the format for the Sales Accelerator Masterclass I am leading next Thursday, alongside my colleague, the awesome Ali Tait.

The Masterclass is going to be great.

I have been selling in this market for over 40 years, starting in sports hospitality and on to parties, incentives, conferences, venues, weddings, catering, entertainment and pretty much every other service an event company sells.

We grew our business to £50 million revenue through lots and lots of sales to lots and lots of companies, and I have tried to bring together literally everything I know about getting new business, developing existing clients and hunting for opportunities into this one, awesome day.

We still have room for a few more participants, so if you or any of your team want to understand exactly how to get more business and close more deals, then click on the link below and come along.

https://hubs.ly/Q03VmGs80

Togather (formerly Feast It) 

Create events as original as you are.

We have raised in excess of £15m to date and I have been involved in every area of the company, including fundraising, business development, operations and marketing. 

www.togather.com

Co-Founder

The Independent

I worked closely on the design and edited the Independent's Daily Edition iPad application, launched February 2016. The app was nominated in the 'Best App' category at the 2016 Drum Media Awards.

Editor at The Independent Daily Edition

Over 1,000 articles published working on the digital news desk. In addition I edited the Opinion page one day a week, involving commissioning pieces, editing the homepage and managing social media.

News Reporter

Warwick Comedy Society

I ran one of the largest societies at Warwick with over 300 members. Responsibilities included organising gigs for the likes of Russell Howard, Joe Lycett and Moe Gilligan, growing the membership and managing the executive board. In the year that I ran the society it more than doubled in size and performed its first show at the Edinburgh Fringe.

President

TLC Marketing

Worked within the sales department of TLC Marketing, arranging meetings with companies such as Ladbrokes, iSubscribe and Express Newspapers. Organised over 15 meetings with major clients during this time, significantly higher than average.

Telesales

The Telegraph

Working in the Weekend, Gardening and Property Sections over four week-long stints.

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