Nicola Myers Business Development Manager Chester Race Company

WCNW: To begin, tell us a little about yourself and your background.

Originally from North Wales and a firstlanguage Welsh speaker, after studying marketing communications at university in Nottingham I came back to Wales to work at a bilingual PR agency working on marketing and events across Wales.

A few years later I moved to Liverpool for a role at Liverpool Football Club. Despite falling into the industry, I progressed quickly in the newly formed commercial division, finishing up as Head of Partner Experience.

My role was extremely varied and busy, consisting primarily of working with global brands on their events, hospitality, marketing activations and campaigns. From organising player appearances in Australasia during a pre-season tour, to beer tasting for sponsors in Copenhagen with Carlsberg, to hosting high net worth individuals and week-long trips with press and media from fifteen different countries at a time showcasing LFC venues and the best that the City of Liverpool had to offer.

After seven years in this very demanding industry, I was tired and decided to leave sports, vowing to never work in it again.

Yet here I am back in sports, and still very much enjoying my role after three years with Chester Race Company!

WCNW: What attracted you to the company?

In between sports roles I worked with hotels and restaurants heading up sales teams, before joining Entyce, which was an excellent opportunity to revisit marketing and learn about all the developments in the industry with the explosion in digital, a far cry from what was being taught back in 2001 during my degree!

Chester Race Company approached me about a role as the business was scaling back up post-pandemic to look after VIP clients, guests, and hospitality. Given my experience in these areas,

I felt very privileged to come in and look after some amazing venues like the stunning PARADE, a luxury 70-seat private venue right on the finishing line, and manage some very special events including one with a millionaire’s club with world-renowned Chef Ken Hom CBE! However, I missed the buzz of sales and collaboration of partnerships, so when an opportunity came up it seemed an obvious transition to take on the role of Business Development Manager. My role has provided me with the opportunity to bring all my previous experience together to promote and sell all that Chester Race Company has to offer. Whilst my core focus is in the development of racing partnerships at Chester and Bangor-on-Dee racecourses, I am lucky to be able to also promote another of our racecourses, Musselburgh, which is located just outside of Edinburgh; Horseradish which is our catering and events business; Commonhall Street Social, our pub in the heart of Chester; the Holiday Inn Express our on-site hotel at Chester Racecourse; Thyme People our staffing agency providing hospitality staff all over the country, and the prestigious Chester Polo, held annually in partnership with Boodles.

The common thread throughout my career has been building long-term client relationships. Being a very social person, this is still my favourite thing – getting to know people and helping them achieve their goals through partnerships and events. There is nothing more satisfying for me than hearing from a happy client or seeing everything come together on an event day!

WCNW: What does a typical day involve?

No two days are the same in my role and there are never enough hours in the day, but I would have it no other way! In an average week, I will usually attend a couple of networking events, pitch new opportunities to prospects, discuss renewals with existing clients, research industry trends and new potential partners, and attend internal meetings. Not forgetting of course as we race all year round between our racecourses, many weeks will also include hosting guests on a race day.

WCNW: What is the main aim of the organisation?

Our aim at Chester Race Company is to positively impact people’s lives through our passion for horseracing, hospitality and events. As a dynamic, constantly evolving organisation and one of the North-West’s most admired brands, we courageously innovate to push the boundaries of quality and service, whilst demonstrating our pride and love of what we do. As an organisation, we care not only about our people, but also our communities and our planet and continuously strive to work together to impact these areas. My role is to live these values and build relationships with businesses that also share this ethos and want to work with us collaboratively. Where possible I seek to partner with organisations rather than do a one-off campaign as I believe that is truly where the magic happens; when you get to know each other’s businesses, you can achieve so much more!

WCNW: What other projects do you work on?

As well as being able to create partnership and sponsorship opportunities, I also promote our truly unique event spaces and race day hospitality. We have a huge range of varied spaces and packages on offer across our racecourses, which is wonderful as we can meet the needs of everyone.

WCNW: How have things gone so far?

I’m very proud of the partnerships I have secured for the business to date, especially with those who haven’t traditionally been involved in racing.

I’m pleased to say that a number have come from individuals I met through networking as a Chamber member. They include Protos Networks and Liverpool John Lennon Airport both of whom I met at some fabulous Chamber events and have gone on to be Title Sponsors of race days at Chester Racecourse. These are great partnerships to have as they, like us and the Chamber, have such a passion for the City of Chester.

WCNW: Any difficulties? If so, how did you overcome them?

I’m sure that my job can often look very glamorous to on-lookers, and don’t get me wrong it can be, but what most people don’t see is the pressure of sales, the constant competing deadlines in an events-based business, the complexities of the horse racing industry, and the long hours required to achieve success. Sales roles are a rollercoaster but for every low, there is a high and that’s what keeps me going!

WCNW: Are there any particular people, business leaders or others you look up to? What have you learned from them? And What message would you give to other people in business?

As a Chester resident, I’m lucky to be able to walk just five minutes down the road to work in a beautiful setting and understand the passion that the City has for the racecourse. I’m also fortunate to work with a wonderful team, and have inspiring female role models around me day to day; this is really important to me as it was something that I felt was missing from my early career.

I was selected to join a small group of women over the last year for the very first ‘West Cheshire Women in Leadership’ programme. This came about following an event I have been involved in for several years, Storyhouse ‘Womens Festival’, where we saw that for the first time in history that all the key leaders in the area were female. It’s been an honour to be part of the cohort, hearing first-hand from these leaders about their career journeys.

As a result, I’ve realised that there is no ‘magic wand’ in progressing in your career or making it to the top, it really all just comes down to hard work, being yourself, being passionate about what you do, being resilient, and prioritising your wellbeing.