William Bartholomew Profile
In
the 18 years that William Bartholomew Party Organising (WBPO) has been
in operation, it has developed a prestigious client list of household
names. JP Morgan, Forbes Publishing and Goldman Sachs adorn WBPO's
corporate client list while its celebrity figure quota includes
Madonna (wedding at Skibo), HRH Prince Charles (birthday party) and
Tina Turner (birthday party). When the sky's the limit one has to take
to the skies and, here, William Bartholomew muses on his more memorable
work and travel moments. Bethany Hutton-Stigga
Destinations
VeniceIt’s a very romantic city and ideal for weddings and parties . The location is
surreal location , however can be a logistical nightmare – everything has to
be transported on barges!
St.Moritz
A great location for winter parties during the Ski Season. Every New Years
Eve we work at the famous Suvretta House Hotel creating a memorable New Year’s Eve Party. Again, using large trucks can be tricky with the snowy
mountain roads – take tyre chains!
Event logistics, Venice-style
South of France - St. Tropez
A great location for any party either on land or on a yacht – very cool and
popular at the present time. Superb local hotels – try and visit Les Caves
du Roy and hear Jack E playing the latest St. Tropez sounds – very, very
good and a great DJ for parties!
WBPO's floation offer...
Getting there
We probably work abroad around five times a year and generally travel with British Airways. We do get very efficient service from BA and we find it to be a
good airline for our event business. Generally if my client is paying we fly
economy – sadly!
If there are budget issues with clients then we use EasyJet or Ryanair.
Generally if the event is in Europe – we send all the equipment by
truck. We source the equipment in the UK and then fly a technical crew out
to install. However, we have worked in America and I would generally source
sound / lighting locally but take a production manager with me as well as a
lighting designer and sound engineer
Horror stories!
I once staged a concert at the Presidential Palace in Beirut and we booked
Shirley Bassey. The show was a great success but after the show all our
equipment was impounded at the airport and it took three weeks to get home.
Luckily my client paid the extra hire charge. We have also had starting
motors freezing up in Switzerland up a mountain and the temperature was –28.
Shore Tips
The main detail for working abroad is forward planning and strong site
meetings.
Find a really first class man on the ground, who speaks good English,
for translating. He will be essential in the event of last minute
changes
or sourcing local equipment. I have a wonderful chap in Venice called Enrico
and he just knows everybody. “Enrico, I need 10 Water Taxis now” and the
reply is always “no problem William”. I love that - that’s always my
philosophy to clients, “nothing is a problem”.
We generally ask our trucking company to deal with customs and also
prepare our carnet (list of equipment, weights and values). Our preferred
trucking company is Stage Truck – very smart trucks and helpful and
professional drivers.
normally away for 4-5 days at any one time. I generally take a good team,
who all get on well and really have a great temperament, but you always need
that sense of humour."
RK ___________________________________