A Day in the Life of… Jo Seagrave, Events & Marketing Manager
Jo joined CEIS in 2014, having worked in the private sector since leaving University in 2003. With a BA in European Business Management with French & Spanish Jo had a temp job in Motorola UK in East Kilbride before moving on to a permanent role in Customer Contact Association (CCA) Global.
Here, she worked in various roles including Regional Membership Manager and Awards & Accreditation Manager, which involved the management of their annual global awards programme. Jo then moved to CEIS with a desire to work in the Third Sector.
What do you enjoy most about working at CEIS?
What I enjoy most about working at CEIS is knowing that my work and the work of my colleagues across the Group is supporting third sector organisations to achieve their social mission. Another fascinating part of my role is the variety and that no two days are the same.
In my job I have two main areas of responsibility, Events and Marketing for the whole CEIS Group. For me this offers the best of both worlds. I get to see the work taking place across the sector externally and the impact of colleagues internally.
Firstly, I have the privilege of organising our annual Social Enterprise Policy & Practice Conference engaging with senior colleagues in Scottish Government Third Sector, Social Enterprise Scotland, Senscot, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, Social Enterprise Academy, Social Investment Scotland, Circular Communities and more. This exposes me to the great work taking place in our sector.
As well as hearing about the great work enterprises are delivering at our own conference, my role also allows me to learn about the impact other organisations are having through organising conferences for third parties who may not have a dedicated inhouse events teams. It’s humbling to be welcomed into their team for a period of time, learning about their impact and clients as we plan and deliver their events in collaboration.
Secondly, I have quite a unique role in CEIS whereby I get to see and hear what’s happening across the wider Group to support our marketing activities. Whether it’s organising DSL Business Finance’s 25th anniversary event, attending the Enterprise and Communities’ team meetings or attending CEIS Ayrshire’s annual ‘Open Day’, each provides me with an opportunity to meet and hear first-hand from their partners and clients the impact they’re having.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Well, at the moment there’s a lot going on. I’m in the midst of planning our conference taking place on 7th September, we’re also delivering our next Inclusive Innovation webinar in partnership with Development Trusts Association Scotland on 22nd June, working with colleagues to produce our annual work plan for the International Social Enterprise Observatory and involved in our Communications Business Improvement Project.
So, today involved an early start catching up on emails before the first of many calls with speakers at this year’s conference. With ‘Inclusion and Diversity’ as the theme of this year’s conference this was followed by calls with fellow event planners in Community Land Scotland and SUSE (Scottish Union of Supported Employment) to discuss their digital and accessibility approaches at their recent hybrid events.
I then hosted a call with our Enterprise and Communities Team to get an overview of the projects and clients they’d be working with during the week to be reported in our weekly round-up social media posts.
This afternoon, it was on to an online tech test call with colleague James Finnie and participants on our upcoming Inclusive Innovation webinar from Interface, Newcastleton & District Community Trust and National Manufacturing Institute Scotland.
This was followed by quick catch ups with colleague Mark to review comms content for the week; colleagues James and Hannah to agree actions ahead of an International Social Enterprise Observatory planning meeting and with Martin Avila from sunny Barcelona to discuss a recruitment campaign for new CEIS Group Board Members. I ended the day pulling together a draft itinerary and budget for a potential inward study visit by a group of 30 policymakers from Sweden in October.
So, overall a very busy and diverse day!
How has the role changed since the pandemic?
Oh wow, what a couple of years it’s been. There have been many highs and lows during the pandemic. An initial low was going into furlough at the start of the pandemic. While this afforded me precious time with my daughter who’ll be 6 in August, it also brought anxiety around my future role and the reaction of my fellow colleagues to my period of furlough, who worked tirelessly throughout. Thankfully, CEIS and my colleagues are very supportive and understood how difficult a period this was for me too.
Fortunately, through our close working relationship with Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) and my work with them at the time, we were able to use their event platform to host our conference digitally in September 2020 and 2021. This along with my role supporting SEWF 2020 Digital vastly increased my knowledge and experience of organising digital events, including the pitfalls and successes.
This stood me in good stead to support other organisations with their online delivery such as Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and Outside the Box.
This experience is also helping me navigate my way through hosting our conference as a hybrid event for the first time ever.
What excites you the most about the work?
It’s definitely the variety and hearing about the impact we as a group are making in communities across Scotland.
What advice would you give people looking to pursue a similar career?
I would say go for it. While event management is listed as one of the ten most stressful jobs, it is definitely one of the most rewarding, particularly in the third sector.
Organising events can be challenging and involve long working days immediately on the run up to events. However, the feeling of providing a platform for some of the most incredible business leaders and owners in the social enterprise sector or feedback from a delegate on how the knowledge they gained will help them in the day to day running of their social business far outweighs that!
Thanks to Jo for taking some time out of her busy schedule to chat to us. It was great to hear all about her role and her contribution to the CEIS team.
If you are planning an event this year – be it in-person, digital or hybrid – then you can find out more, and get in touch, here.
