A day in the life of:

Nick Johnson:

Head of Conferences
Ethical Corporation

Joined: 2006
Studied: History, University of Durham

A Bit About Me

Before I was at FC I worked in France for a year, teaching English to kids that laughed at my attempts to speak their language. They were only about 8. It was pretty humiliating. Other than that, this was my first job out of Uni.

It has been ace. I’ve been at FC for about two and a half years now and I don’t think I could imagine another job that could give me the varied experiences and skills that this place offers.

Day In The Life

My day starts at about 09.15. First thing I do is write myself a little To Do list for the day. Looking at the one in front of me now, by the end of today I should have ticked off the following:

1. Do ‘Life in the Day’ document – TA DAH!
2. Write preliminary Corporate Governance Marketing Brief – Marketing is a huge part of any conference organiser (CO)’s job. The Marketing Brief is a document every CO completes. It is designed to help us to keep track of the marketing we’re doing for our shows, including emails/mails to our database, marketing with our industry partners, and cool new ways of getting our message out there – ie using Google AdWords, LinkedIn, etc etc.
3. Chase Lord Brittan for Corporate Governance show – Another massive part of our job is recruiting the most relevant and interesting speakers for our conferences. Lord Brittan is a bit of a legend – he was UK Home Secretary, then Vice President of the European Commission, and is now a Board Member of Unilever – so potentially a perfect speaker for my new conference. I need to give his office a call and try to persuade them to give me a couple of hours of his time.
4. Rework Schedule for 2009 shows – One of the best things about FC is the independence you are given, and the chance to push forward your career in the way you want. I enjoy organization and working out the best ways for the team to work. Since I’ve been here I’ve been given a fair bit more responsibility in that area - and I now manage the Ethical Corporation conferences overall. One of the things I need to do is work out which new topics in my industry are worth investing time and money into (with the help of everyone else of course), and then make sure we’re in a position to take advantage of these opportunities and grow our business.
5. Prepare for meeting with other FC Marketers  - this is a meeting with people that are interested in/working on marketing across FC – we’re going to basically share best practice and pick up ideas from each other.
6. Develop Ethical Twitter feed - I’m currently investigating whether we can use Twitter properly to improve our business’ visibility to potential clients – we all try to keep abreast on how new technology/new marketing ideas can help us do our jobs.
7. Book restaurant for meeting with VP from Big Company - Free lunch. Ace (though unfortunately not a regular occurrence). I’m meeting up with the Head of Citizenship from a big company to go over whether they would be able to speak at any of our shows over 2009 or whether they would be interested in sponsoring any events.

Oh – and at 6pm every day, regular as clockwork, I launch into Annie Lennox’s classic “Walkin’ on Broken Glass”. It is a testament to the friendly and inclusive atmosphere here that I haven’t been lynched yet.

As you can see, my role is pretty varied.

Both of my housemates work at Magic Circle law firms. From chats we’ve had about work, it turns out that not only do I manage to dodge the 3am finishes they endure, but I’ve got far more responsibility, far more independence. I was always a little bit worried about shunning the whole ‘corporate’ career path, but it has paid HUGE dividends.

I’ve been at FC for a while now, and my job has changed pretty radically over the course of those 30 months. The little To Do list above includes some things you wouldn’t be asked to do on your first day – don’t worry. But the beauty of FC is that you are constantly getting opportunities to grow and develop your role. There’s no need to sit still. If you see an opportunity – either for your own personal development, or perhaps for a whole new business - then you’re encouraged to grab it and run with it.