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THE TEAM

Our core team is employed across two locations - in Edinburgh and the North East of England.

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Zoe Bottrell

Managing Director

“Zoë is willing to take on technical projects that would scare most people to death” INSPIRING FUTURES

Zoë has over 15 years’ events management experience and specialises in delivering contemporary art projects in heritage and landscape settings, often in challenging locations. Her role at Culture Creative involves working closely with partners and developing and managing projects from conception to completion, including project and production management, marketing and communications, and sponsor and financial management. Zoë is well versed in managing the strategic context and ‘big picture’ phase of any project, and managing budgets and partners.

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Ian Bone

Director, Head of Production

Ian has been involved in all aspects of event production for over 30 years. During this period he has worked on major events throughout the UK. The majority of which have been large-scale public events involving music, street theatre and art installations. At Culture Creative Ian is directly responsible for health and safety and overseeing the production of event manuals, risk assessments, planning schedules, delivery and budgetary control. He also has extensive experience of working with local authorities, the emergency services and artists from across the world.

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Gary Campbell

Head of Operations and Development

Gary previously worked for English Heritage and Northumberland County Council and was Museum Manager at Locomotion in County Durham up until 2018. At Culture Creative, Gary is responsible for business development and ensuring that the operational side of the organisation supports the company’s growth.

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Emily Sewell

Head of Events

Emily previously worked within the Event Department of English Heritage for 21 years, and as Head of Events for the last 13 years. As Head of Events, Emily was responsible for the public event programme for the organisation, overseeing the production of approximately 700 events a year across about 40 historic properties.
At Culture Creative Emily is a Senior Producer, overseeing and managing relationships with our partner venues for events.

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Clare Elliot

Senior Designer

Clare is a BAFTA award-winning costume and set designer and has been the creative talent behind our illuminated Christmas trails for over seven years. Clare also designs and produces our indoor Christmas experiences including Cinderella (2018) and Alice in the Palace (2019) at Blenheim Palace.

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Simon Smalley

Senior Content Producer

Simon was Operations Manager at The National Railway Museum in York before moving to Culture Creative in 2018. Simon’s role is to support the Senior Management Team and to work as Associate Producer across a number of projects throughout the year including Christmas at Dunham Massey.

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Ellie Barnatt

Senior Producer (Operations)

Ellie has over 15 years’ experience of event production for both public sector and commercial clients, and began her career as Events Manager for Kew Gardens. At Culture Creative Ellie oversees the event management for My Christmas Trails and produces Christmas at Bedgebury and Christmas at Belton House.

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Emma Henderson

Senior Producer (Communications)

Emma has been working in communications for over 15 years and specialises in festivals and the visual arts. For Culture Creative Emma works closely with Raymond Gubbay on the marketing of My Christmas Trails and also produces Christmas at the Botanics in Edinburgh.

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Tony Simpson

Head of Lighting

Tony has worked as a lighting designer and practitioner across a wide spectrum of disciplines for thirty years. He has worked extensively as a theatrical lighting designer, as well as designing and running many large commercial projects in the live events industry, and designing and overseeing stage lighting for several feature films.

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Brian Thunder

Fire Producer

Brian has been setting things alight professionally since 1991. In that time he has burned things on every continent apart from Antarctica. Using fire, fireworks, theatre, music, and art, he has been a core team member of world-leading companies including The World Famous, Theatre of Fire, And Now, The Bureau of Silly Ideas, Lightfires, PaBoom, Avanti Display, Emergency Exit Arts, Le Maitre, and The National Theatre of Scotland.

Since 2017, Brian has worked on the delivery of fire installations at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for Culture Creative. A Fire Producer, Brian creates fire installations for all of the UK and EU trails and supports delivery of fire installations for trails in the USA and Australia.

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Ben Coxon

Senior Production Manager

Ben worked in concert touring, theatrical touring, and corporate and private events before he landed in the large-scale, site-specific outdoor arts events world. He has a wide-ranging knowledge and experience base, and has worked in almost every department of any major event. At Culture Creative, Ben’s role spreads far and wide including leading the UK-based production department, and the on-site delivery of some of our most prestigious events.

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Karen Dryden

Operations Manager

Karen is an experienced Operations Manager who brings over 20 years of office management experience to her role. She is new to the events industry, and previously worked in the height and rescue equipment industry, cleaning cloths and floor mops industry, and with landscape and environmental consultancies. Karen has been brought on board to oversee the warehouse function at the new Culture Creative offices. She always has a positive outlook and a ‘can do’ attitude and is not afraid to get her hands dirty; you will often find her joining in with the Warehouse team where necessary.

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Adam Fawcus

Finance Systems Manager

Adam joined the team having completed a maths degree at the University of Bristol. In his role, his responsibilities include financial reporting, managing the accounting system, as well as ensuring the accurate reconciliation of project budgets. He also assists the Head of Business Operations in managing the work programme of the wider business team.

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Demelza Triffitt

Event Producer

Demelza has worked in the Events industry for the past 14 years. Before joining Culture Creative Demelza spent almost 6 years in the Events team at English Heritage, where she worked on a variety of public events at English Heritage properties across the North of England, taking events from an initial conception through to the onsite delivery. As Producer / Event Manager at Culture Creative Demelza works alongside the wider production teams to create a coherent and seamless delivery of events across the business.

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Clare Brown

Event Producer

Clare has a background in the theatre industry and over 16 years experience as a project and operations manager across both the public and private sectors. During this time she worked on events ranging from small intimate weddings to large corporate She spent 12 years working overseas in China, Azerbaijan, Malaysia and most recently as operations manager for a chain of hotels in Fiji.

At Culture Creative, Clare’s role within the events team is to support the wider production teams and deliver amazing events across the business.

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Gemma Dunne

Event Producer

Gemma has moved to Culture Creative as Event Producer following a successful 20-year career in stage management. Gemma’s work has seen her stage manage live productions across the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. As Event producer for Culture Creative Gemma will be bringing her skills and knowledge to support the delivery of production and events across the business.

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