Name: Mark Saunders.

Age:57.

What is your business called?

Springboard Events Ltd.

Where is it based?

Port of Menteith near Stirling.

What does it produce, what services does it offer?

We run exhibitions, primarily Trade Shows, in the gift, food and education sectors.

To whom does it sell?

Our customers range from companies selling tartan on the roll to kilt shops or overseas buyers to firms that supply hardware and software for schools and colleges. The variety and diversity of our customers continues to keep our job interesting.

What is its turnover?

£650,000 (pre-covid!)

How many employees?

Six full time, six to eight freelancers, plus contractors and temporary staff for the events.

When was it formed?

October 2007.

Why did you take the plunge?

Redundancy was the catalyst. As a husband and wife team we felt there was an opportunity for a good quality exhibition organiser in Scotland, running shows on what seemed increasingly, at the time, to be ‘old-fashioned’ customer focussed principles.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I was working for a large exhibition company based in London and had come up to Scotland in 2003 to run a Scottish Joint Venture with the SEC exhibition organising team. This had come to an end and we had a choice of moving back to London or taking redundancy and staying up here. I am from Scotland and we had a young family so it was an easy choice!

How did you raise the start-up funding?

We used some redundancy money to set up the office (in a back room) and the company, Springboard Events. We identified a show that we were extremely confident we could run well and negotiated a management contract to run it. This event was Scotland’s Trade Fair Spring. The management contract allowed us to employ ourselves and a freelance operations manager for the first show – we then took on a part time sales manager and launched a second show in this sector. Scotland’s Speciality Food Show has changed in format and grown steadily so it is now the largest food show for the trade in Scotland. This runs alongside the Spring gift show. The Scottish Learning Festival followed in 2012 which was an acquisition from another London based organiser.

What was your biggest break?

Getting that initial contract allowed us to start up, but taking on the Scottish Learning Festival, which we run in association with Education Scotland, was a big turning point for the business and we always thoroughly enjoy getting to know new sectors.

Decent rural internet has been a game changer for the business. Due to having a young family and a good sized garden, it made sense to build an office where we live. It has allowed us to employ local and really high calibre staff, many with young families like us who were looking to return to work.

What was your worst moment?

Running a business that aims to bring thousands of people together has not been much fun for the last couple of years! From March 2020 to July 2021 all venues were out of action even if trade events had been allowed to go on. We used up all of the capital we had been keeping back for expansion just surviving. We did this by pivoting the business to run some shows online - with some success - but the gift industry, in particular, is not one that lends itself well to such a medium. A silver lining perhaps is that we hope our audiences will appreciate the benefits of face to face (or mask to mask!) interaction more in future. Certainly, the feedback from the small Autumn gift show we ran in September 2021 bears this out.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

Firstly, to build the business back up to where it was in 2019 – which may take longer than we thought if we have any more Covid restrictions preventing us running shows. From there we would like to acquire another four or five shows.

What single thing would most help?

We need stable Government both in Scotland and the UK and need Brexit sorted.

The idea of another referendum on top of all we have endured the last few years is a grim prospect. The issues with our divided governments have been brought into sharp focus in the exhibition industry and having different rules in England and Scotland has made the situation worse. If we were in England we could have held our Spring Show as usual in January but instead have had to move ours to March and have lost exhibitors (suppliers to retail outlets) and visitors (owners of Scottish retail outlets) who have gone south to source stock, including Scottish stock, which is madness. We are all confused, retailers are on their knees and lobbing business events into the same category as football matches has been bad for thousands of businesses.

Restrictions were only lifted on January 24 in relation to business events in Scotland. As a result we have had to postpone our Spring show to March 27-29, which is too late for some sectors and suppliers. It also causes enormous upheaval and cost. It takes a full year to plan a large scale event and being given a few days’ notice of a lockdown or easing of restrictions is not realistic. We need the Government to see business events as different to other gatherings in the long term. They are an entirely controlled environment with full data on attendees – other countries around the world have been far more sensible about this.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

That it is a wonderful thing to work with your other half (of course!) and that in a small team it is important to keep a good sense of humour and proportion and to acknowledge that we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

How do you relax?

Good wine, great food, brilliant friends and excellent chat!