A week in the life of… Gavin Lambert, Sales & Business Development Manager, University of Sheffield

Welcome to our next edition of 'A week in the life of' this issue features...

Gavin Lambert, Sales & Business Development Manager, University of Sheffield.

We spoke to Gavin about what a week in his role involves... so over to Gavin.

The simplest way of describing my job: chasing new business, account managing existing clients, answering enquiries that are coming in via email and phone calls, duty managing events, hosting show rounds for potential clients & making many, many cups of Yorkshire Tea for myself and the team.

I prepare for the week ahead by: ensuring my google calendar is up to date so I know where I need to be and when I need to be there.
We’ve just started working with a new conference and events system (IVvy), which is also great at sending reminders about chasing up potential opportunities and also clients of events that are upcoming.

I’ve also got a very organised team who are fabulous at helping me to stay focused as I'm a bit of a talker and my meetings overrun from time to time.

In an average week, I: think anyone who works in conferences & events will tell you there is rarely such a thing as an average week. There is obviously the day to day stuff, but there is also the stuff that pops up in the diary. This can be attending building user groups to champion the value of conferences and events, in a bid to convince the estates team that conferences won’t burn the latest shiny new buildings. Or liaising with key partners of ours such as AVS, EMD and Marketing Sheffield, ensuring we’re exploring all avenues to bring the latest events to Sheffield and to the University of Sheffield.

One of the things I love about my job is it's not the same room we’re selling time after time, we have a number of fantastic venues available to us, some which we hold the diary for and have access to year round, others which are available to us outside of term time and it's my teams job to ensure we’re maximising the potential of all the venues we have.

Name a challenge in your role: working in conferences and events in an academic environment will always bring challenges as what you do isn’t core business for Universities, however part of my job is working with teams across various departments to get them onboard with what we’re trying to achieve and bring them along for the ride.

I’ve been at the University of Sheffield for 11 years in July, things were very different when I first started as Universities weren’t as commercially focused as they are now. However, things have changed over the years and other departments supporting what we do is now definitely something they’re much more accepting of.

We have to be respectful of University Departments and enhance their offering rather than hinder what they’re trying to achieve.

Why I love my job: the variety keeps it fresh and the challenge of receiving an enquiry and working with other stakeholders to figure out where it will fit, and how we can deliver it to the best of our ability, is why I love my job. We look after bookings right from the initial enquiry, all the way through to delivering the event, which can be hugely rewarding.

I relax out of work by: going to the gym helps me unwind. I try to get to the gym 5 times a week which is a great way to get some time to yourself. I also have two children, a daughter who is a keen horse rider and a son who has just got a new puppy, so both of these keep me busy. I'm also a Season Ticket holder at Sheffield United and enjoy the odd beer with friends whenever the opportunity arises.