Impatience is a Virtue: behind the scenes
- Sep 27, 2012
Today's guest entrepreneur blog comes from Liam McFarlane, one of 10 Virgin Media Pioneers responsible for the celebrated 'Impatience Is a Virtue' event...
Well it only seems like yesterday that I got a phone call from Virgin Media Pioneers letting me know I’d been successful in securing a place within the ‘final 10’. In actual fact that was eight weeks ago and we have now planned and pulled off the event we were tasked with.
In the last eight weeks I have been travelling up and down from Manchester to London for work on ‘The Project’. Virgin Media Pioneers chose 10 inexperienced people, gave us £30k and booked The Royal Opera House in London and with complete free reign told us to organise a one day event for them. At first I was both excited and slightly nervous about what the process would involve.
The time passed quicker than I expected and before I knew it was the September 7th and I was at the Royal Opera House for ‘Impatience Is a Virtue’. On the day we arrived at 7am and got straight down to dressing the venue with the vinyl’s, furniture, and free goodies we had ordered for the show. We all managed to work brilliantly as a team and got the job done within time for the VIP’s to arrive at 6pm.
Come 5pm Richard Branson arrived for a chat & photos with us, to our surprise double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah also joined him. After a quick we opened the doors for the VIP reception. Our host and fellow pioneer, Reuben Christian, opened the show with the man behind SB.TV Jamal Edwards, soon after Richard Branson was joined on stage with two of the final 10 for a quick Q&A.
The ticket holders then quickly started flooding in and our first act of the night, FluteBox, started with a great set shortly after a flash mob broke out in the crowd. We were all then called to come to the side of stage as it was time for us to get up there for an introduction to the crowd with Richard Branson.
It was then time for, Tanya Lacey, a British born singer who has previously featured on songs with Will.i.am & Tinchy Stryder. She put on a real special show for us and you could really tell she was appreciative to be in such a prestigious venue. The time had then arrived that our headliner for the night, The Noisettes, took to the stage for an hour long set which saw them play hits such as ‘Never Forget You’ and ‘Don’t Stop The Rhythm’ as the night drew to a close.
Now that The Project is over I can look back at the previous eight weeks and think just what has been achieved. I’ve met some amazing people who I’ll be keeping in touch with and hopefully working with in the near future. I’ve learnt in depth knowledge about the live events industry and most of all I’ve enjoyed all of it, ever more proving that a career within the industry would be perfect for me. Until then I’ll be back in Virgin Media’s Wythenshawe office as a Technical Advisor.
I’d like to say thanks to the people who made this opportunity a reality and for those who made it run as smoothly as it did:
Ernestina, Lisa & Jos from Virgin Media Pioneers.
Pam & everyone from Virgin Unite.
Jennie, Ling & Si from Culture Group.
Josh, Oliver, John, Sara, Kelly, Darnell, Cyril, Kate & Carlean as the other nine Pioneers.
Everyone that came to Impatience Is a Virtue.
And thank you to my manager Matt Shiner for letting me have the time off for this project.
By Liam McFarlane
