Written on 23^rd October 2017 by Dsuk

TAG Global Events - 10 Minutes with… Jon Pyne

Jon Pyne is part of TAG’s Asia Pacific Global Events team and is based in Sydney. He has worked in the events industry for six years managing events in Japan, America, Europe and Australasia. Jon is both a great team player as well as project leader bringing enthusiasm and attention to detail to every event.

1. How did you get your first job at The Appointment Group (TAG)?

During my event management degree at Leeds Metropolitan University, I spent a year in the industry working for The Ultimate Event Company in London and then started my events career with a full-time role at the same company after graduation. The agency was acquired by TAG in 2012 and I moved to join the TAG Global Events team in Australia almost 4 years ago.

2. What is your current role at TAG?

I’m now one of the TAG Asia Pacific Global Events team’s Senior Event Managers, having worked my way up from an Events Assistant five years ago.

3. What aspect of your role do you enjoy most?

Being onsite with our amazing TAG event team, fantastic clients and delegates provides me with the opportunity to see an event come to fruition, from start to finish. We work so hard during the pre-planning phase to meet our client’s objectives so being able to watch the event unfold is extremely rewarding.

4. What does your typical day consist of?

As every event manager will tell you, no day is the same as our field of work is so incredibly varied. I start with a good strong coffee – of course! Then I check the infamous email inbox for those urgent and interesting messages, which leads onto creating tasks and timelines for projects I’m currently working on. We are jack of all trades a lot of the time! You can have your entire day planned and then something urgent comes along to send you down a completely unexpected path and you have to reassess your plans.

5. Have you had any event disasters?

Of course, things go wrong and it’s usually no fault of your own (most of the time – nobody is perfect!). We are trained to think on our feet and act quickly to deal with any problems, whilst ensuring the event continues to operate smoothly and according to plan. A power cut in London which was just a pan - European conference was about to start, so that was an interesting challenge.

6. What do you think makes TAG different compared with other Travel & Event Management companies?

Having our team spread across nine global offices allows us to draw on each other’s resources and support and being able to utilise this huge array of expertise from different event management backgrounds, cultures and countries is a great asset to us all at TAG.

7. What is the one thing you cannot live without?

Roast pork with crackling, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. I know Yorkshire pudding is supposed to be only enjoyed with roast beef, but who said you can’t bend the rules occasionally?

8. Where in the world have you worked on events?

I’ve been very lucky to have the opportunity to work on a range of events – incentives, conferences, product launches and study tours within Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America.

9. What is your favourite destination?

One of my most memorable destinations and a city I thoroughly enjoy, time and time again is Cape Town, South Africa, where I worked with a client attending the Football World Cup in 2010. It was my first ever event when I started out in this crazy industry and it’s something I will always remember.

10. Tell us one thing about you that we might be surprised about?

I’m an advanced deep sea diver and living in Australia gives me a great opportunity to use these skills.

For more details on TAG’s Asia Pacific Global Events team, please contact events.au@appointmentgroup.com. TAG event team staff are based in our Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney offices and the team work on a range of worldwide events.