Portfolio
event management
Using the skills I learned in my time in retail, I took on the role of consumer event management for teapigs. This included everything from setting up exhibition style events, roaming events in the teapigs van, organising and hosting tea schools, and helping with a pop up shop in Central London to celebrate teapigs' 16th birthday.
consumer
events
As an Events Manager, I've experience of planning, designing and running consumer facing events. Largely this meant booking, organising and implementing exhibiton style events.
Examples of these consumer events include teapigs' annual appearances at London Coffee Festival and Spirit of Christmas to show off the core range and seasonal ranges, and Balance Festival to promote the launch of their shortlived kombucha range.
I've also worked in tandem with the Grocery team to help the implementation and managing of sampling events, like in the Kensington Whole Foods Market's foyer.
tea school
Tea school was a crown gem in the teapigs events calendar. Initially set up as a training tool for stockists, we branched out into consumer facing schools (thanks to demand on social media!). During the pandemic, we even took our tea schools online for both public and private sessions.
In these sessions, we'd take students through the history of tea, the tea production process, and sampled loads of different flavours. Education, with a side of witty banter and biscuits.
Consumer tea schools tickets were used as a fundraising activity, with profits going to the teapigs ethical scheme working with the Point Foundation - a charity who help support people in Rwanda, where teapigs source a large amount of their tea.
Over the course of 3 years, we reached 14,000 students in 280 sessions, raising £24,000 for charity.
tour de
teapigs
Some say buying a giant van to take on cross country trips directly before a pandemic is an unfortunate idea - but boy, did we have fun.
The van was decked out with a mobile kitchen and shop, allowing us to rock up everywhere from the Covent Garden Piazza, to the Duxford Airshow, and Big Feastival. Thousands of cups of tea served, and a whole lot of brand exposure later, it was one of our most successful ventures in converting even the most deeply suspcious "Tea tea" drinkers from cheap bags to the proper good stuff.
Managing tour de teapigs was an all encompassing role. This covered everything from negotiating and securing spots at events, organising stock and set up, managing teams of both teapigs & hired event staff, driving the van, and pretty much anything else you could think of.
pop up shop
To celebrate teapigs' 16th birthday, we opened up a pop up shop in Covent Garden to bring tea to the folks of London. This was particularly special as teapigs have no brick & mortar stores of their own, relying on the vast network of independent cafes and shops for their real life experience.
We organised a series of events to take place across the 10 days, from tea blending to matcha masterclasses, to a special tea & calligraphy session. The store was stocked with the entire teapigs core range as well as Winter specials, and served hot cups of tea for people to enjoy as they went about their Christmas shopping. It also served as a base for our Free Tea Day celebration - the official teapigs birthday event.
My job was to help with the install organisation and daily management of the store. I also hosted a number of the events which took place, leading workshops and managing our guest hosts.
free tea day
Free Tea Day is the most important day in the teapigs calendar - the birthday celebration!
Each year, teapigs give out thousands of cups of tea across the country. This is done through the network of independent stockists, who can sign up to receive their free tea allotment to give out to their customers, as well as focused London Based activities by the teapigs office team themselves. This takes the 10,000 free samples being distributed guerilla style across major transport points and tourist locations across the city.
I worked with the trade team to organise the sign up and organisation of the stockists taking part. I'd work with the wider marketing team & fulfilment team to source, sort, pack & distribute the kits to them ahead of the event. I'd help arrange the teapigs office team in their positions across the city, and often held down the fort in our centralised location - whether that be a giant van in the Covent Garden Piazza or a pop up shop. Finally, I'd organise a treasure hunt on the teapigs website which saw little presents hidden across the site for customers to find, and hourly pick winners and distribute their prizes (a similar game was played each Easter, which you can find out more about here.)