ISSUE #7 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
I R E L A N D
THE Dublin office of Smaller Earth has become the latest ‘staging post’ in enabling Ireland’s young people to witness what the outside world has to offer in terms of both adventures and life changing experiences. Not too many years ago people in their tens of thousands escaped the misery of the island’s poverty to settle in the ‘promised land’ which became the United States of America. It is made up of resolute people who are strengthened by a proud history which welcomes all to its shores, except of course invaders and occupiers! It is against this backdrop that Smaller Earth first opened its offices in 2013, within touching distance of the famous Easter Rising at Dublin’s General Post office, which led ultimately to the departure of the English soldiers from Irish soil in the 1920s. The opening of the new office, which was established by Patrick Howes and Kier Bates has since doubled in terms of size size and staff who would readily admit that everything is in full swing.
Patrick said: “The people are incredibly friendly and Ireland or more specifically Dublin is a really fun place to live, visit and work in. Dublin has amazing history and there are a huge amount of tours and museums all over the Dublin. Our Irish office is, in fact, the only company in the country specializing in the camp industry, and has, as a result, become very well established in a short period of time. Equally, with the strong ties between Ireland and U.S. many students are keen to travel there and experience American culture.” Patrick attributes the success of the office to a combination of employing staff who have spent more than two decades at camp themselves, and are just as keen as ever to ensure others also share those life changing opportunities.
He explains: “Despite being one of our more recently established offices, the team in Dublin is highly motivated and driven by a determination to send more and more Irish participants to camp every year. Working together we make a fantastic team by making sure we explain to participants the ‘craic’ to be had at summer camp.” And later this month Ireland, which is a Roman Catholic country prepares for one of its biggest celebrations of the year(March 17), for its patron saint Patrick, who was incidentally born in Wales but as legend would have it, was an adopted Irishman. Our own Patrick adds: “The whole country will be gearing up for one of the world’s biggest parties.This is a national holiday and there are parties in every corner of island to celebrate it. Everyone in the office will be at the parade through the centre of Dublin and then enjoying drinks into the evening.”
Pat Howes Director Pat was hooked on the camping experience while still studying a business and finance degree at Nottingham Trent University, where he met fellow founder Kier. As Pat explains: “The camp experience I had in America was incredible, but the support from the people who sent me out to the United States was nonexistent. Most campers back then would definitely have appreciated more support to things like making flight changes but it was very much a case of ‘go do it yourself’. Despite that, I still went back to camp five years running!” Both Keir and Pat realized 11 years ago that with a little bit of effort and a whole lot of hard work they could establish a service to students in Ireland wanting to travel across the giant pond to America. Pat says: “So we set up USA Summer Camp in Ireland and it worked really well. But then one day we had an e-mail off Chris Arnold who wanted us to go and meet with him because we were a new player in the industry. We got along from the start because we shared the same sort of values and thought processes which led to us becoming partners with Camp Leaders and Smaller Earth.” Pat is quick to point out that while the business is there to make money it prides itself on making sure those values are never compromised
“The key part to us joining was that we wanted the participants to have effortless experience over the summer. It’s a fact of life that some people will still have the occasional bad experience but we definitely didn’t want that to be down to the fact that participants couldn’t get hold of us or we didn’t understand how to sort out their visas.” Pat now looks to the next few years with the aim to build on the success of the program: “Having the support of Smaller Earth is a crucial part of building our Irish operation, which we also intend develop by exploiting the cultural heritage not just one way to the States but both ways. The number of Irish Americans is huge and we intend to look at the possibilities of Americans coming over and working within some programs in Ireland. Pat adds: “Our main goal however, is that we want to be seen as the number 1 outlet in Ireland for young people going on summer camp experiences and it is one we believe we can achieve.”
Joe Edwards-Broome Assistant Director Joe believes that by working with the Smaller Earth team in Dublin he is giving other an opportunity to live out their dreams. After first working in the Solihull office of Smaller Earth in February 2013, he very quickly moved to the Emerald Isle to help bolster the travel culture brand within six months of starting. Joe said: “Being responsible for overseas operation in Ireland I am passionate to make a big impact by challenging the already established travel companies in Ireland. At Smaller Earth Ireland we believe we will overcome this challenge by leading the way in both customer service and by developing trust among the users of our company, that as individuals and as a collective, our staff will work harder than any other company out there to provide participants with their dream experience.” After growing in Hong Kong, Joe spent his formative years living in a number of countries. His experience of camp involved him working four years as a tennis pro at Camp Romaca in Massachusetts. In his leisure time, Joe plays hockey in the Leinster Men’s Division 1 league and still finds time to ski in the Alps during the winter season. He adds: “I am driven to see the Ireland office replicate past successes shown in the brand, by spreading into new markets while generating a strong image within Ireland and ultimately throughout the Smaller Earth family.”
Lynne Murphy Team Leader Those distant hills are alive to the sound from music graduate Lynne Murphy, who has lived in Dublin for almost six years, after graduating from Trinity College. As part of the Smaller Earth office in Ireland since it opened she has been spreading the word about her unforgettable experiences at camp. Now in her second season, she became team leader and is involved in many areas of the business from assisting applicants at each and every step of the way to promoting the brand on social media as well as coordinating the team. During four consecutive summers she has worked at Camp Chinqueka, in a number of roles, including teaching music and CIT coordinator. Despite having travelled extensively throughout America and Europe, she has set her heart on seeing more of the world. To that end, Lynne also hopes that one day soon Pat will finally cave in and take the whole team on a trip to Las Vegas, to finish a season in style!
Clodagh Carey Team Member Clodagh first caught the travel bug at the ripe old age of 19, and despite the demands put on her young shoulders has continued travelling to camp since 2010. For her it has been a life-changing experience, which with the passing of each summer, just keeps getting better and better. She could never be described as a creature of habit, on the contrary she believes that variety is the spice of life, given that each year she has travelled to a different camps including special needs, Jewish and girl scouts and while there has tackled a variety of jobs from a counselor to lifeguard to a teaching theatre and even archery! Clodagh began her Smaller Earth journey when she started on the national team for Campleaders/USA summer camp in 2010. It was only natural that subsequently when a full-time position became available in the Irish office, she grabbed it with both hands. Among her duties she is involved in travel programs which include au pair and Canago. Among her hobbies she loves to keep fit although recently took up yoga, which is fast becoming her new favourite activity.
Emma Shortall Team Member Emma is one of the newer recruits to Smaller Earth after joining the Dublin office last November. After graduating with a degree in ceramic design she has experienced travelling to different parts of the world including the U.S. where over the last few years, she has spent time in 2012 living out of a camper van and visiting places which included Chicago, Yosemite and Las Vegas. She has also visited countries, which include Australia, Italy, France and Germany and lived in Turkey for three months. Last summer she went to Camp Blue Ridge teaching ceramics, which she reckons was the one of the most amazing, yet worthwhile adventures, which also turned into one of the craziest experiences of her life. Her focus in the office is in helping those wanting to go to camp to make their application the best they can be as well as getting them ready for their journey to camp. Recently, she has enjoyed travelling around Ireland doing promotions work to spread the name of Smaller Earth.
Karen Lumsden Team Member With a degree in creative digital media, Karen, has lived in Dublin for most of her life. And like Emma she joined the Smaller Earth team last November, just a couple of months after completing her first Camp Leaders program, working as a film specialist at Iroquois Springs, in New York, an experience she really enjoyed and ultimately inspired her to want to join the join the Irish team. Her key responsibilities include being a first point of contact for new applicants, helping returner applications, recruitment promotions. She is also creates marketing materials to be used on both Facebook and at upcoming events. Her hobbies include working on her photographic portfolio as well as learning new design software. In 2015, she is also looking forward to another fantastic summer, working as a photographer for International Sports Training Camp.
Giving Back is Just As Important for Young Entrepreneur Ed It is a well known fact that everybody has to start somewhere and more famously that includes the likes of the former Vietnamese president the late Ho Chi Minh, who as a young man worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel in Boston, in fact the same business where in the 1940s civil rights campaigner Malcolm X worked as a busboy. In the case of former Smaller Earth program participant Edward Ridding it was as a teenager that he worked in a restaurant as a ‘glorified dishwasher’. Since then he has gone on to greater things and here he recounts the importance of life’s building blocks and the opportunities he gained from going abroad and how that experience has flowed into his life as a successful businessman in charge of a leading design and branding agency, and since last autumn, owning a new style Spanish restaurant.
As a youngster living and growing up in Lichfield the future path seemed fairly straight for Ed as he explains: “I had always been interested in the stock market and business. So much so, that I used to keep journals with stocks and shares and later on spreadsheets and I loved the mathematics of trying to predict what was going on.” But as Ed discovered, while the world of stockbroking appealed, that moment described so eloquently by poet Robert Frost of The Road Not Taken, was to be confronted after completing a dual honours degree in computer science and economics at the University of Liverpool. “I remember at the time thinking I was still interested in the idea of moving to London to become a stockbroker but I quickly realised it was an old boys club and I didn’t have the correct background to make it. I had also fallen in love with Liverpool and made the decision to stay up here. Meanwhile, some of the guys I studied with ended up working in the City and doing really well out of it. But one of the attributes I developed after growing up was becoming less cutthroat and less wanting to be in that industry for the rest of my life.” Initially, London’s loss was Liverpool’s gain, as Ed and his partner became embedded in Liverpool life and culture, while he was working at one of the city’s restaurants. “After I graduated, I ended up running Alma de Cuba as bar manager and that was pretty much a fork in my life. Very quickly, I got fed up with finishing at 6am just as my wife was going off to work and I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore.” However, it was no coincidence that the decision that Ed had made followed a season spent at camp in America with Smaller Earth where he admits he was forced to stand on his own two feet. “I have always played ice hockey from being a kid and when I came to university, I saw the opportunity to go to camp in America. One of my favourite stories is that a group of us were travelling together bound for the same camp and I was the first one to go through immigration control in America where my visa was checked and it was all fine and dandy. There was another ten people going to the same destination with the same visas as me who came through after me, and unbeknownst to me at the time, they all got put in a holding room and were interrogated. Meanwhile, I am there standing with my bag and baggage claim stops and the next thing is a large number of security officers descend on the baggage claim area and they start making announcements about
‘Could Mr Ridding make himself known to security’. So I go over to security and make myself known and I get physically dragged into a holding room and interrogated by officers with machine guns slung across their chests. I was just 18 at the time, and they start questioning me about why I went to baggage claim and not to visa control, I said at no point did passport control say I had to go to visa control and it was then that they accused me of lying. And this carried on for about 40 to 45 minutes, before I said why don’t you go and speak to the guy at passport control and ask him what he said. So three of them carried me to this guy and he said: ‘I told him to go and collect his bags’, and immediately their demeanour changed and they were saying we are so sorry Mr Ridding. And all this had had happened because there were so many coming on that particular visa which included who they believed to be terrorists. The upshot is that you learn to stand on your own two feet quite quickly and if I hadn’t been with Smaller Earth, I wouldn’t have grown to be a strong individual with a an equally strong personality And all those experiences add up to where you end up in life. I learnt a lot about who I was physically while I was away at camp, because I thought I was one person but
by the time I came back I was a different person. I also realised I was a lot stronger personality wise. I had a lot more confidence to deal with new situations out of my comfort zone.” Within weeks of quitting his bar manager role in 2005, he found himself working for soft drinks firm Nichols, which produce the world famous drink Vimto. It was here that Ed launched a new website for new products and packaging. Ultimately, he was involved in a rebrand of the drink to new markets in countries which included Japan and China. However, by 2011 the role offered him less and less challenge going forward. “I live by the mantra that if something becomes mundane or boring and no longer enjoyable, it is time to leave, because I could turn up at Vimto, I could do my job, probably using one tenth of my brain capacity and still do well and that was no longer a challenge and I was determined to set up my own business.” Despite launching two weeks before the economic downturn hit Britain in 2011, he launched Edward Ridding Design at the Liverpool Science Park. The firm’s success
was instantaneous and boasts clients including luxury champagne house Veuve Clicquot, sweets manufacturer Swizzel Matlow and the University of Liverpool. The agency’s success has resulted in it moving to bigger offices in Liverpool’s Cotton Exchange. Ed’s latest venture in owning his own restaurant came about because of his love of travel and is in particular, because of his time spent in the North of Spain as well as his affinity to the bar/restaurants industry since those early dishwashing days. “The restaurant is the first pinchos bar outside of London and like tapas it’s hugely popular in Northern Spanish cities such as Barcelona. It’s a very social way of dining and drinking but it’s a bit more informal than tapas. Tapas in the UK have become very misunderstood. If you go out for tapas in Spain you will have one tapa and then have a drink and then you will move onto another one and so on. In the UK, it’s more like people will order say ten tapas eat them in 20 minutes and go. So we have tried to bring back the ethos and the social aspect of it and the casualness of tapas, so that diners stay longer.”
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And when it comes to dealing with staff and customers Ed is a firm believer that elements learned through his Smaller Earth experience will prove a winning formula into the future. “I have always believed you should treat people in the way that you would want to be treated, whether socially or in business, because if you treat people well they will want to do something for you. If on the other hand you go the ‘fear route’ you will get things out of staff but you won’t ever get the best out of them. It’s is important that staff enjoy what they are doing. Allowing them to step up to the plate means it allows them to care, whereas people who have got no responsibilities have got no care and that means they have got no interest.
“Everyone in the UK is taught to achieve the goal of earning a salary and owning a property and this is ingrained in our culture. At no point in junior or in high school does anyone talk about having your own business and the way that it would work. It’s only when you get to the point of leaving university that some of the touch points come into play, by which time everyone around you has got a job working 9 to 5. To my mind setting up your own business is not something that we should fear. Instead it’s something we should see as interesting because that’s the way I see it. I have had had times where I have thought about whether I should go back and get another job, but you know quite quickly what that means and it’s no longer an option.”
Likewise, staff having responsibilities, means that they understand the values of the business.”
The path Ed has set himself seems fairly straight but he feels equipped to deal with any number of detours but always keeping his goals in sight.
Despite his success in business Ed believes there is still some way to go for educational establishments in effectively teaching young people how to become entrepreneurs.
Ed adds: “I want to be in a position to see my kids grow up by spending as much time as possible with them. However, what has become more evident is that the more successful the businesses have become the more
I get in this cycle where more of my time is taken up. And I have seen this happen to people around me where they get hooked on the adrenalin of succeeding, of taking something from nothing and building it into a business and it’s as if they can’t stop. I have a lot of conversation with myself and also with my wife about it where I say, okay, I am working really hard at the moment but I need you to put the brakes on me a little bit if you see me turning into someone that quite literally works for the rest of their life. Business is not all about making money and my aim is to make a difference long term by giving back and helping make a difference to other people’s lives.”
DESIGNED BY
2015