Revamping the event THIS Office

If the way to a man’s heart is his through his stomach, then for me, the way to the heart of an event manager must be through an inspiring office/workspace!

I don’t know about you, but I need a creative space to bring out the best ideas in me. Somewhere that reflects my personal style, business brand and fosters practical use in a comfortable way!

Oprah has her “favourite things shows” well I have my favourite things too! Anyone that has met me in the flesh knows I am bold. I dress boldly and have even been called flamboyant! I take this as a compliment as I am in the Events, PR and Marketing world if I wasn’t a bit “out there” then what would be the point in hiring me!

I feel that you can be flamboyant as long as you have style!

People pay me to come up with different and unique ideas, so I guess if I did look like everyone else nothing would differentiate me.

I like striking colours, bold patters and without doubt BLING!

I started this revamp midyear in 2009, replaced all of the furniture, sourced the items that I thought would best worked in the space and made the office a “home” (well inspiring home office at least)!

As I work from home I need the space to be stylish but also practical, hence the bed/lounge.

This is a great piece of furniture. It has high sides and draws for storage (storage space is everything for event managers) and of course there is a trundle so what can be perceived as 1 single bed then double out to 2 x single beds!

I even did a Interior Design Course with the Commercial Arts Training College in September 2009 for many reasons:

1) To get some theory behind – why the things I put together work without any colour knowledge
2) To get the fundamentals of design
3) To test out my Red, White and Black theme

At the course our brief was to create a bedroom retreat space, I wanted to test out the Red, Black and White theme in a classic way instead of my usual modern type style. It was great fun and pushing my boundaries with real drawing which was very interesting as I “don’t do drawing” – give me a PC any day!

Check out my inspirations and vision board I created at the course.

I posted my inspiration photos on Facebook for the office!

As with events it is so important to keep the look and feel on track - hence all of the vision boards and pics.

This is what has I have been working on for awhile now and I really like it – I still need to get the chandelier installed (now that we are back from Christmas I should be able to get a contractor out).

I have been lucky over the past 13 years to work in a variety of event sectors such as event management firms, national associations, unique venues & the corporate sector.

Having worked for a number of not for profits has made me think out of the square when it comes to creating and designing as usually there isn’t a lot in a budget for those “frilly” types of things. You will see in the pics below the framed pictures believe it or not some of these pictures are greeting cards and the others are from gift bags! You don’t always have to pay for art to have something nice to look at!

You might notice in some of my books “Revenge of the Wedding Planner” I had to read it just for the title alone!

I really wanted to paint the back wall in black and white stripes but I thought that may be a little too over the top for the house so I settled with covering a canvas with fabulous Italian material! I had matching pillows made as well.

All in all I am happy with the way things have turned out – I love my framed pin boards and white boards, they change all the time with new colour schemes and other ideas that make me think and provide inspiration.