For over thirty years Gerald Salt has been an integral part of the Southwater Event Group. Since joining the business Gerald has worked in a variety of roles starting as a Maintenance Technician, before working his way up to become Group Director and Managing Director of stagecraftUK.

As Gerald now steps back from day-to-day activities, and into a part-time consulting role, we asked him to share some of his highlights and challenges from the past three decades.

How did your career at Telford International Centre start?

My career started at The Holiday Inn where I was employed as a part time Maintenance Technician (whilst also working elsewhere). I left the Holiday Inn after a few months to work full time in another role. During my brief stint I did become Employee of the Month, so I must have been doing something right!

Some time later I received a phone call from the then MD James Ford who asked if I would like to become the Chief Engineer at what was then the Racquet Centre (and is now Telford International Centre). He sent me the advert in the post and said my interview would take place with Mr Brian Gray (owner of the Racquet Centre).

I had a show round whilst the UK Tennis Nationals were taking place and instantly thought this is a nice environment to work in. Mr Gray and I met at 6:30pm and the first question he asked was “How long you going to stay?” my answer was “as long as it takes Mr Gray” not sure where that came from, but I was offered the role which started in March 1995. That started my life with the company. I have to say it did not take long to see lots of small issues with the day-to-day maintenance world.

What was the first event you worked on?

My first event was a weekend concert in Hall 3. We had two shows: Roy Chubby Brown on Saturday and Daniel O’Donnell on Sunday and an audience of 3,500 people which was very daunting.

My role on this was very minimal other than being there and making sure the power did not fail. To be honest this was very scary, as I had only been there for three weeks and still didn’t really know the building or its services.

At that time all of the services such as staging, lighting, draping electric etc. were done by outside contractors so I would describe my role as basically walking around looking lost.

What have been some of the biggest challenges which you have faced in your career?

My first main challenge was when James Ford called me into the office and said “can you read this letter?” It was a letter from a client who had held their event in a part of the Racquet Centre and basically it was telling us we were totally poor at our jobs. He then said to me “Gerald I do not want to receive any more letters like this. Can you have a look at this?”

Well bearing in mind I was employed as a man who twiddled knobs, flicked on switches, played the antiquated services etc. I thought how the heck can I deal with this whilst not knowing a blind bit about events or types of events? However, I decided to take up the challenge because by now I had seen some events and, to be fair, they were far more exciting than building services (although I still had to do them too).

Mr Gray did also set me some amazing building challenges over the years. The first large one was to build the warehouse at the back of Halls 1 and 2. We then built an extension to the Holiday Inn and my forever favourite project, Phase One of TIC.

I was so amazed by him trusting me with this project and memories of the build are still logged in the old grey matter. I believe this was a £7million plus investment.

Behind the scenes aspirations started to look at why we were paying so many outside contractors to supply all our services. This was the start of another amazing challenge which led the route for our in-house team then called TIC Stagecraft. Again, the plan was to get this into the day to day of Gerald Salt and TIC and was driven in every possible route and challenge.

What has been the most memorable event which you have been part of?

This a difficult one. Let’s say the opening of Phase One when Queen Elizabeth II came to open our project. Sadly, I did not get the chance to be in the lineup as at the last minute we were told that Her Majesty would not walk through automatic doors. So, guess what, Gerald became a door stop for the day!

Events wise, I loved the productions for our banking clients including one where we had a Formula One car on “the grid” which had to sprint down Hall 2 to the amazement of the seated audience. As well as ones for corporates and retailers and the many car launches where a certain Mr Clarkson was often in attendance. The are so many events to look back on and I loved working on them all no matter how large or small.

Is there an event which you have enjoyed seeing grow and develop during your time at TIC?

This is a difficult one, I think from a series of events over the past years, perhaps going back over twenty years and working with Jon Kelly and Ian Chandler for the now called Meet and Potato on huge corporate event spectaculars.

Let’s face it, my biggest event was the birth and growth of TIC Stagecraft which then evolved into stagecraftUK. I love how it has grown over the years and all the tests of durability which we have had to face with our competitors. Also being a leader in the event venues industry by starting a fully in-house production company. It has also been amazing to see the stagecraftUK team growing and developing along with the business.

Commenting on Gerald’s three decades long service, Tom Gray, CEO Southwater Event Group says, “Thank you Gerald for everything; a much talented engineer who always looks for the common sense solution and never stops until the job is done”.

Visit our LinkedIn page to watch as Gerald offers his top career advice for those looking to work in the events and production industry.