ENGINE NO.4 PARKLIFE
Images: © Jody Hartley/Sam Neill/George Harrison/Joshua Atkins
Full throttle Katie Vine is the new managing director of Engine No.4. Here, she talks candidly about her first three months in the role and what she foresees for the event production specialist like I am one of the luckiest people INVIGORATING I feel in the world,” chuckles Katie Vine, Vine joined Engine No.4 – the full-service
the new managing director of Engine No.4. “When people want somebody but they’re not quite sure what it is that they want, my name seems to come up in conversation.” Vine smiles, as she reflects on her colourful career and her first three months on the job at Engine No.4. Whilst some organisations weren’t quite sure what they were looking for when they hired Vine, Engine No.4’s senior management team [Jim Gee, Will McHugh, Jon Drape, and Tommy Sheals-Barrett] knew exactly what they were doing. Vine has extensive experience in arts, theatre, and cultural events. From company manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company and director of programme and production at the Royal Exchange Theatre to technical coordinator at Manchester International Festival, her skills are varied and her commercial awareness is apparent. We chat on a blustery Wednesday afternoon, as Storm Jocelyn batters the UK, taking refuge from the wind and settling to talk about direction and the future. “I prefer to have an overview and not a finger in all the pies,” says Vine. “I’m not very good at just sticking to one particular thing and only looking at that thing and not looking at those other things as well. So you know, when people talk about continuing to work at home, I would rather be in an office, hearing all the things that are going on, because everything feeds into what you’re doing, and you don’t do anything in isolation.”
production company behind Parklife, Kendal Calling, The Warehouse Project, Bluedot and Snowbombing – in October. Her remit: to grow the business, implement new processes and support the senior leadership team as Engine No.4 enters its next chapter. Jim Gee, director, explains: “I think the realisation came last year that we needed to re-structure the management of the company. The model we started with was based on the fact that the original directors and founders of Engine No.4 were all specialists in their specific fields. Effectively, we created a company that was naturally split into three departments (operations, site and tech production). As directors, we are often very hands on in the delivery of those services across multiple events and multiple clients.” He continues: “As the company grows and the portfolio expands, we really needed somebody who could focus on the day-today running of the business, without being too focussed on existing projects.” Gee and the directors made a conscious decision to employ someone with wider event industry experience, who wasn’t necessarily already too deeply entrenched in the world of music festivals. Vine’s experience working in live events and arts organisations adds another dimension to Engine No.4’s skills set. “A big chunk of my role is new business,” Vine continues. “I don’t need to sell Engine
No.4 to the festival world because festivals know us. I want to look at arts and culture, things like a Cultural Olympiad, events that happen outside of the traditional ‘season’, and not just summer. And that’s important because if you want to grow an organisation and employ people full-time, you need more things to do. “It’s one reason we’re so lucky, as we work with The Warehouse Project over the winter, but what else can we do?” Vine is keen to work with other events professionals on arts and cultural events, for example, and see how Engine No.4 can help other organisations. She says that the expertise within Engine No.4 such as logistics, event management and production – all “transferable skills” – are transferable across a “gazillion different areas” so it makes sense to take those skills and enrich the lives of team members too by giving them the opportunity to do different things also. So, three months in the new job and how is she finding things? “It’s been very different because when I joined, everyone was getting ready for Christmas. Whilst we produce events all year round, and the first few weeks were very busy, I have had days where I go “Oh, I have read all my emails by the end of the day’. That said, I am also very cognisant that that scenario is not going to be forever and soon, I’ll be praying for the days when it was a little bit easier,” she laughs. “But I think it’s also been incredibly invigorating, learning new ways of working. It’s really exciting.”
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