Eventful Life with Tinique Hay

Tinique recently visited the University of Hertfordshire as alumna.

Tinuque helped organise the Cocoa Kids Career Fest at Epsom Downs Racecourse

After gaining a first-class events management degree from the University of Hertfordshire in 2014, Tinique Hay, founder of Hay Events, kicked off her career with a venue event sales and marketing role. Then in 2018, she had a light bulb moment. Here she tells us what happened next.

Driven by the love and passion of working within the events industry alongside wanting to build a legacy, I decided to create Hay Events.

Hay Events is an event management agency with the primary aim of helping entrepreneurs and small businesses increase their brand awareness through the power of events. In 2019, I took the opportunity to build on Hay Events’ strategy plan which led to the official launch of Hay Events in February 2020.

Hay Events survived the pandemic and I have helped more than 25 entrepreneurs and small business owners plan events with impact to support the growth of their businesses. The event industry is such a saturated sector with many event agencies focusing on the same type of clientele. So I really wanted to ‘niche down’ and set Hay Events apart from other agencies.

Through research, I identified an opportunity to align both my passions for events and entrepreneurship towards helping with the growth of entrepreneurs’ businesses through the power of events resulting in increased brand awareness, visibility and profitability.

Strategy

One could say I took a massive risk in officially launching Hay Events in 2020. However, I didn’t see the pandemic as a barrier. Instead, I used the time to redefine Hay Events’ strategy and development.

The most rewarding part of my role is seeing businesses grow through the power of events.
Tinique Hay

To me, a successful event professional doesn’t allow unforeseen challenges to set them back but instead uses them as fuel to strengthen their growth and development. That doesn’t mean I don’t encounter challenges. As an event professional and event agency founder, I often find it difficult to know when to stop working in the business instead of on my business. In other words, knowing when to delegate tasks.

However, as Hay Events has started to expand, I recognise the need to step into my CEO mode and delegate tasks to those who are experts in their fields.

Growth

The most rewarding part of my role is seeing the growth in entrepreneurs’ businesses through the power of events, whether that be in-person, hybrid or virtual.

It brings me nothing but joy when I receive amazing testimonials from clients who started off with an event idea and were able to, with the help of Hay Events, turn their event idea into reality - resulting in a successful ROI.

I am on a mission to continually raise awareness of how powerful events are as an effective marketing strategy to help with the growth of entrepreneurs and small business owners.

My dream event to work on would be a large-scale brand activation event where I help an entrepreneur or up-and-coming brand create an unforgettable, everlasting, emotional connection between the brand and its targeted audience to generate brand awareness and interactivity with their customers - resulting in a successful ROI.