One thing we hear over and over again from clients is how brilliant the Sharky + George events team is. So where does this seemingly unstoppable flow of funny, talented, friendly and slightly unusual human beings actually come from?
One of the nicest things clients say to us after an event is how amazing the people were – and not just fun or full of energy, but really, really good at what they do.
Great party leaders can take control of a room without making it feel controlled, and they know how to get everyone involved without picking on the person who desperately doesn’t want to be. They have an instinctive understanding of when to step in or crank up the energy, and when to step back and let something take on a life of its own.
They’re funny, warm, quick-thinking, confident, inventive and, above all, very good with people.
So where on earth do we keep finding them? Well, we make quite a lot of effort…
Every August, like salmon heading upstream to spawn, thousands of actors, comedians, writers, musicians and other creative people migrate to Edinburgh. And the Sharky + George recruiters go fishing for the best of them.
The Edinburgh Fringe is an extraordinary concentration of exactly the sort of people we like: people who have made something, taken a chance on it, dragged it all the way to Scotland and are now trying to persuade total strangers to come and see it.
So while they’re out on the streets leafleting potential audiences, we leaflet the leafleters.
The great thing is that we don’t have to rely on a CV or a carefully prepared audition piece. We can see people doing their own thing in the wild, as it were, seeing how they handle an audience, improvise and talk to strangers.
It’s the best way to see who really has that magic touch, a hard-to-define combination of charisma, confidence and warmth that makes people want to listen to them – and, importantly, join in.
Those are the people who make brilliant Sharky + George party leaders.
Another reason the system works is that we make sure Sharky + George is a very, very good gig for the brightest and best.
A lot of creative people need flexible work while they build careers in acting, comedy, writing, music, theatre or whatever else they’re pursuing. We give them that, and make sure it’s well paid. There are opportunities to travel and to work alongside a huge community of other creative people. Most importantly, to spend your working day actually using the things you’re good at and love doing.
In fact, plenty of our existing team are up at the Fringe each year too, putting on and performing in their own shows. So while we’re scouting for the next generation of S+Gers, we’re often also watching and cheering on people who already work with us.
In other words, it’s a job that doesn’t require you to stop being a creative person while you’re doing it.
Many people stay with us for years. Others eventually disappear into successful careers in television, film, theatre, publishing and all sorts of other places – which we regard as a pretty good outcome too.
At the heart of the deal is a wonderful win-win-win.
Creative people win because they get flexible, rewarding work that actually uses and develops their talents.
We win because we get to work with an extraordinary pool of funny, imaginative, capable people.
And our clients win because the person who turns up to run their event really is the best of the best.
Because however much planning goes into a Sharky + George experience – and quite a lot does – the person actually running it really does matter enormously. You can teach somebody the rules of a game, but really great people also have an innate ability to notice the child hanging back at the edge, win over the sceptical grown-up, rescue something that isn’t quite working or sense the exact moment when a room is ready to go bananas.
Over the years at Sharky + George we’ve honed our recruitment and training to a fine art, but it has to start with the best people. Which is why we go all the way to Edinburgh to find them.
