Jenny Elliot is the head of the Fitwise Events Team, beginning her career with us in 2009 as the 8th employee of the company. Prior to her appointment to Fitwise, Jenny gained over five years’ experience within the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Her passion for the event industry began whilst studying Hospitality Management at University. Where once our events numbered just two, we now have 5 talented event managers with over 70 years of experience in delivering events. We took some time to ask Jenny more about her experiences working at Fitwise.
How long have you worked at Fitwise? What is your professional background?
Since 2009. Prior to Fitwise I worked for a pharmaceutical company and before that, the NHS. I have a BA Hons degree is in hospitality management and my interest was always in the events side of the industry.
What are your key responsibilities? Do you have any areas of special expertise?
My main role is to lead the events team and ensure we’re delivering events to the highest possible standards. I’m also heavily involved in business development.
I particularly like an event budget. I was certainly not born to work in a finance role, however I’m passionate about ensuring our budgets are client friendly and transparent. Everything starts with the budget, until you have (a reliable) one in place, decisions cannot be made.
I am also very particular about the role and responsibilities of an Event Manager. Although we have specialist departments at Fitwise such as marketing, sales and finance, the buck stops with the Event Manager. Fundamentally they need to ensure things are happening as they should be. This can often mean ‘grey area’ tasks default to the Event Manager, but a good Event Manager knows that this is just the nature of the job.
What is something you find challenging about your work, and why?
Unforeseen circumstances are, by their very nature, unavoidable and challenging. However when something catastrophic like COVID comes along, it can test your resilience.
Where are we most likely to find you outside of work? Do you have any hobbies?
Probably in a restaurant somewhere! It could be Pizza Express, a Michelin starred restaurant or anything in between. There’s always a lot of chat about food at Fitwise HQ!
I’ve always been sporty, and exercise is really important to me. I run regularly however it isn’t my natural habitat and I can’t say I actually enjoy it! I’d rather be hitting a ball, but running is free, accessible and fits into my current lifestyle.
What is your favourite part about managing events?
I love the camaraderie onsite. It’s hard work, but great fun too. I also like the sector of the event industry we work in – our conferences and events are all based around education so have a wider impact and are for the greater good, which gives me a lot of job satisfaction.
What is the best gift you have ever received?
I was gifted a Gospel Choir mini-cruise to Rotterdam (long story, but think Sister Act and Keira Knightly’s wedding scene in Love Actually). Sadly, it was cancelled but I live in hope that the opportunity will come up again one day.
How do you define success?
How do I answer this without sounding too cheesy? From a personal perspective, as long as I feel happy and content, I think this counts as success!
Which upcoming event are you most looking forward to?
All of them!