Well, just like that, Christmas and New Year are over and so is my first year with JBP. What a year it was. For me, coming to work for JB Promotions was a dream that had been in the pipeline for a while. I first became aware of JBP when I was working for Redpin Publishing as part of my university placement in 2015. I had met April whilst covering The Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park and immediately liked the idea of JB Promotions and its portfolio.
In 2017, when a position became available in the company, I jumped at the chance and following the submission of my CV, I met Bridget for an interview and the rest is history, as they say.
Once I had started in January 2018, I quickly developed a feel for the job and began working on various projects, including the Petplan Equine Area Festivals. A highlight was not only attending the Championships in April at Hartpury College to support Petplan Equine but also meeting and conversing with the legendary Carl Hester. I also had the chance to work closely with Redpin Publishing once again, as we wrote a monthly feature for its regional magazines on the Area Festivals. Writing is definitely something I enjoy and I get plenty of opportunities to do so in my job.
Following the ‘Beast from the East’, the warmer weather arrived in time for the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials and the Mitsubishi Motors Cup in May, which I had great pleasure in attending. Experiencing the event for the first time, I took the chance to improve my social media skills by uploading Instagram, Twitter and Facebook posts while updating the relevant stories. Prior to the event, I supported Mitsubishi Motors by securing features for the Mitsubishi Motors Cup. Getting to speak to so many Cup riders and reading their inspiring stories was great. It was lovely to see so many of them do so well at the event.
After Badminton, it was full steam ahead to the Magic Millions Festival of British Eventing. Assisting with the preparation, social media campaign and the Press Preview day was a great experience. The main event took place the first weekend of August and it is safe to say as a fair skinned redhead, I spent my time at Gatcombe Park looking various shades of red. However, this did not take away from the event and running the Media Centre with rest of JBP was brilliant fun and certainly full on. Jobs included; writing news stories, chaperoning course walks, signing in members of the press, co-ordinating prize giving’s, updating social media and assisting with media enquiries.
Work continued as normal, once we retuned from The Festival, with all of us carrying on with various tasks. In late August we started working with bibic, a local children’s charity. This was a new challenge for me as it was unlike my other clients but one that I very much enjoyed working on. Between us we helped organise and run a fundraising Footballathon held at Yeovil Town Football Club and towards the end of the year a BBC Points West interview with bibic’s head therapist.
This brought us nicely to the end of the year. While December was not a quiet month for anyone in the team, it was good to have the Christmas music playing and the tree decorated, bringing a bit of festive spirit to the office before we all headed off on our Christmas break.
While these are just some of my highlights of 2018, with others including photoshoots with Lucinda Green and Facebook lives with industry experts for Petplan, I have definitely learnt that no two days are the same. I can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store for all of us.
Niamh