Event Managers Manual

Charlie is a highly experienced and respected Events & Safety Professional with over 25 years’ experience in the project management and operational delivery of televised mass events across the UK. An experienced event planner & director, producing event safety plans for urban & Greenfield sites, he created the operational & safety systems behind the Great Run series. Focused on operational and safety management, Charlie has a strong interest in improving best practice at events and developing the next generation of event professionals through leadership, lecturing and support.

Following a long career at The Great Run Company, the UK’s leading mass participation events agency, Charlie went freelance in October 2020 and provides Event & Safety consultancy to a number of clients including Massive. During the pandemic he refocused his safety skills & TV Outside

Broadcast experience into TV production safety, joining First Option as an Associate Consultant, acting as Safety Advisor & COVID-19 Advisor on TV productions & photoshoots. He is a guest lecturer at a number of UK universities and HE institutions.

In 2013 he completed the level 5 University Diploma in Event Safety Management at Derby, and is a member of the IIRSM & Tech IOSH.

As Senior Operations Manager at The Great Run Company, Charlie was the author of the Event Safety Plan for the worlds biggest half marathon, and Finish Director of the Great North Run for 20 years. He was Event Director for the Great Manchester Run from its inception in 2003 up to 2019, developing it to a peak of up 40,000 runners live on BBC. He led operational & safety management across the event series; developing a team of event managers, site safety advisers, event control officers, external crew and suppliers.

During his time with TGRC Charlie was involved with a variety of televised sporting events including the Hi-Tec Adventure Racing Series on C4; Nationwide Football League playoffs & England matches; BBC Match of the Day Live Show; Great Swim series with C4 and the BBC; and the Great Run Series with the BBC, Five & Sky including the UK's leading 10 mile run the Great South Run with 25000 entrants and Great Runs in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Balmoral, Sheffield, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Addis Ababa & Dublin.

Paul Walters has an employment history that spans over 25 years within the area of music management, exhibition design/build, management of major outdoor music festivals, project management, touring theatre management, film production, sponsorship/marketing and major sporting events at an international and national level.

Paul’s area of proficiency over the past ten years has enabled him to be instrumental in developing Event Management courses at degree and masters level. Over that period he secured the position of programme leader at 4 UK universities and teaching the same subject over a period of 5 year at 4 European universities. They include ANGELL Business School in Germany, Ecole de Management de Normandie institute in Paris, France, IMI University Centre Switzerland, Breda University of Applied Sciences, and University of Northern Denmark.

Paul also recently taught at the Guangdong Industry Technical College in China to undergraduate event management students. He is a published author within the field of event management with a number of publishers.

After ten years at Manchester Metropolitan University lecturing within the area of Events Management at undergraduate and masters level. This wealth of knowledge and experience enabled him to take up an Associate Dean position at Backstage Academy in Wakefield from 2015 - 2018. He had responsibility for all taught programmes at foundation and degree level. Paul also had responsibility for course leadership for the Live Event Production course.

Paul is an active event professional who enjoys working on live music events throughout the UK and Europe.