RIA SIOUX BYERS This month we check in with one of the 2016 winners of the TPi Breakthrough Talent Awards to discover what she’s been up to since...
With the 2018 TPi Breakthrough Talent Awards now open, this month we decided to speak to previous winner, Ria Sioux Byers. At the time, Byers had just graduated with a BA in Live Events Production from Backstage Academy with an already impressive resume of experience, having worked on festival sites up and down the country. “I remember when I first started at Backstage Academy, my original goal was to work as a set designer,” began Byers. “When I entered my final year I discovered my true calling - event management. I’ve always been super organised and thrive in stressful environments. I had already worked several festivals sites including Parklife and Festival N°6 and knew its was something I wanted to explore.” Knowing the direction she wanted to start moving into, post-graduation Byers began to throw herself into the industry. “Last year in particular was very long, taking off a total of 20 days - including weekends! The first few jobs I got on to were festivals thanks to the contacts I had made during my studies volunteering at events,” she stated. “This included a lot of artist liaison work. During this time I also started to do some zone management as well as pulling on my background in fashion at Leeds College of Art to do some wardrobe on a few projects - so pretty varied!” Byers went on to explain that the last 2 years had certainly been a learning process picking up contacts and skills in equal measure. “With a busy 2017 complete, this year I’ve tried to focus on what I want to get out of my career,” explained Byers. “One side of the industry I really want to break into is touring. The other end of the spectrum is to do some work in the Middle East, specifically Dubai. I visited the region last year to meet some of the companies and see what was going on. I also have a working relationship with Fruition Events’ Paul Barton, who was one of my tutors at Backstage Academy.” And it’s not just her own career that Byers is keen to grow: “Last year I started lecturing to students working towards degrees in events,” she explained. “In fact I’m the youngest lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire. I’ve covered subjects from events design, along with lectures on event planning and organisation.” At the end of last year Byers even held an audience with postgraduates, an experience she admits was quite intimidating as some of those in the room were older then her. “I think my age worked in my favour in the end,” said Byers. “It meant I could give them examples of what I’ve done after only graduating a few years ago, giving them more attainable goals.” Having a background in higher education, not to mention now a lecturer of live events, TPi asked for Bryers’ thoughts on the importance of higher education. “I think it’s always up to the individual, but in my experience it’s a mixture of both education and practical experience that’s the best solution. You need the real world experience but my university course did prepare me for the admin side of events management - from health and safety to legal requirements. One of the other advantages of a degree is that it gives you a great deal of freedom to volunteer at a selection of events. I’m not saying you spend your whole student loan on traveling up and down the country, but personally, I opted out of a few big nights to use the money to further my career and get out in the real world and meet people.” Following her chat with TPi, Byers will head to London to help out with the production of a 5-day Adidas event before taking on the role of DNG’s Office Manager to oversee the set builds of both Little Mix and The Killers. So much for a quiet 2018… TPi www.productionfutures.co.uk
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