Luke hails from Cape Town, South Africa where he grew up and subsequently studied management accounting at the University of Stellenbosch.

He previously worked for a shipping services firm in the finance department but decided to take the plunge and join the world of events. Luke is based at Evolution London where he oversees the operations of the venue, from day to day maintenance to venue upgrades.

Shilpa has hit the ground running at Evolution London after joining the group in March 2022 and being in the events industry for over 6 years. Shilpa knew she was destined for the events industry after planning events throughout sixth form and interning at an events agency after university.

Once you have confirmed your event with our sales team, she will be your main point of contact all the way through to the live event answering any questions and making the planning process as easy as possible along the way.

Alex has worked in the sales industry from a young age, gaining extensive experience on the shores of New Zealand and Australia, before returning to the UK and joining Smart in 2014.

He now manages our highly passionate Ticketed Sales Team, driving the sales of outstanding events throughout the summer and winter months, whether it’s a fantastic day at Ascot or a mind-blowing Christmas party.

When he’s not in work mode, Alex enjoys socialising with friends, practicing his cooking skills and aspiring to be like his favourite chef, Tom Kerridge.

Lauren studied Event Management at the University of Derby, graduating with a first class honours & having one of the best experiences of her life. A year after moving to London from Yorkshire, Lauren joined us at Smart Group in 2015, and her career has flourished ever since.

Lauren is responsible for managing the sales of our Summer and Christmas sites, as well as year around events at Evolution London and Oceandiva London. She also heads up our agency incentive scheme, Smart Friends.

Her favourite past times are spending time with family, namely her beautiful daughter who is the light of her life. Loves lunching at new places, freshly baked scones (jam first) and a cold glass of Macon.

After completing a university placement year within the events industry, Lucy just knew she had to continue on this career path, and eventually landed herself a job at Smart in 2018. She’s now dedicated to selling the perfect summer and Christmas parties at a variety of prestigious venues around London and beyond. Lucy loves a bottomless brunch and is regularly out with friends searching for new places to eat and drink!

Sam is a co-founder of Story, having worked in the events industry since 1986.

Proudest Event Moment

Watching the teams perform their live acts at the recent Towers Watson Festival in a Day – seeing this reminded me of why I love events and how they can add true value to morale, loyalty and team spirit.

Steph was one of the first members of the Story family, joining in April 2014 as an Event Manager. She now leads the team in dreaming up and delivering our amazing events and is still obsessed with colour coding and lists.

Favourite Event

Delivering a festival 38 floors high in the sky in the Heron Tower was a career highlight. It was a logistically complicated yet highly creative event which made it all the more rewarding.

Ros joined the Story Events family back in 2015 as a director, initially heading up the venue finding side of the business. She is now incredibly privileged to lead the Story team and firmly believes that the magic that is created at Story Events is a testament to the team’s dedication, creative and innovative thinking, and tireless efforts.

Best Event

My dream event (which came true) was running the Great Ormond Street Formula One Ball which was amazing as it combined my love of fast cars, events and famous racing drivers!

Melanie is one of the original 5 who started at Story and has been building the fantastic Story client base and Story team ever since day one.

Best Event

Delivering a fully 1920’s prohibition themed, jam packed with entertainment, event at Café de Paris. The client allowed us to go wild with the brief and completely immersive ourselves in the theme.

Event Speciality: Production and Content

Event Top Tip: A well-fed crew is a happy crew!

Best Event: The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for Awards, at Evolution London. The 2020 Awards was my first Smart Live Awards Show I produced, and working alongside our sister companies at Smart Venues and Smart Hospitality made it all the more fun!

Did You Know That: I once sung to and then met The Queen.

Lulu is our Account Director within the Story Events Bespoke team. With a fantastic background within luxury catering she loves nothing more than a juicy and creative brief to get her teeth stuck in to (excuse the pun!).

Best Event

How do you pick one..! I’ve loved working on so many amazing events but one highlight includes a charity dinner at the Natural History Museum involving Sir David Attenborough, just seeing the amount of money raised for such an incredible charity puts everything in perspective and makes all the hard work worth it!

Holly is our Event Director within the Story Events Bespoke team and brings over 8 year’s event management experience, with a background in luxury catering and unique venues. she loves receiving a complex brief to get stuck in to and delivering beyond expectations.

Proudest Event Moment
This is very hard to choose. I’ve been lucky enough to work in some incredible venues and I love seeing how a space is transformed for an event. One of my favourites has to be transforming an industrial warehouse into a totally immersive enchanted forest theme, where almost everything was edible – even the trees!

Harry’s foundational knowledge originates from training and practice within the theatre and arts industry, it’s because of this he always focuses on nourishing the creative concept for any event. Harry values like minded collaborations, working together in providing clients with a high quality creative output.

Best Event

Nothing beats events with Royalty – Military precision and huge consideration of the smallest details.

Alex is our Business Development Manager looking after all clients in our two boutique shows: The London Summer Event Show and The London Christmas Party Show.  Coming from a 5-star luxury hotel background, Alex makes sure that all her clients feel they are her number one priority through her track record of building long lasting relationships.

Best Event

Organising a very high-profile wedding in Dubai. With an open budget we were able to create the brides every request including a floating wedding cake that came from the ceiling!

With a background of working in some of London’s most prestigious venues, including Banqueting House and Kensington Palace, there is nothing that Jess is more passionate about than planning events! With over 6 year’s experience in the events industry she prides herself on finding solutions to her clients most ambitious requests – turning the ‘impossible’ into a reality.

Best Event
My all time favourite event was planning a luxury jewellery showcase with Harrods. This was such a special event to be involved in as it was the first time the world famous store’s jewellery was being displayed in an external venue. The event featured over 100 trees, 4.5 miles of cabling and a rainstorm – it was definitely one to remember!

Vicky was previously an intern, now that she has completed her studies at Sheffield Hallam she has rejoined the events team. She has an eye for detail and is excited to continue to develop and learn, experiencing all that the events industry has to offer.

Best Event

A memorable event for me was the evening we held at St Paul’s Cathedral in Nelson’s Chamber. The breath taking historic surroundings added to the sparkle of the event.

Izzy joined Story Events as our Events Assistant on the London Christmas Party Show and the London Summer Event Show. Having worked for a venue finding agency in the past, she is keen to learn every other aspect of the event’s industry and is enthusiastic to make her mark.

Best Event

It would have to be hosting my top clients for a ‘Night In The Museum’. I was lucky enough to take a handful of clients to the Natural History Museum, after it had closed to the public, for an immersive tour of all the event spaces; followed by delicious food and drinks. It was truly magical!

Dani joined Story as an intern back in 2016 and shortly after finishing her degree, came back as a permanent member of the operations team! After a couple of years away from Story developing her skillset in other areas, she’s back to support the Show team with the London Christmas Party Show and London Summer Event Show

Best Event

The London Christmas Party Show 2016 will always be top of my list, purely for how magical it was to experience such an immersive Christmas experience in the height of summer!

Our Operations team has expanded and we would like to introduce you to the newest member of the team, Robyn, who has joined us as a Senior Event Executive.

Proudest Event Moment

I think my proudest event moment would be working on an awards scheme for the regional press industry. It was a very difficult project with a lot of moving parts and is in a very complex industry, I took the challenge head on and delivered a very successful awards scheme and luncheon.

Born and raised in Essex, although I’m often found in Soho at the weekend with an Espresso Martini in hand. I like to keep my creativity busy whether it’s baking for friends, making balloon arches for birthdays or organising friends hen parties. After working 11 years in Telecoms I felt it was time to take the plunge and explore the Events world within a company that helped me grow over the years. Fun Fact: Faye from Steps told me she loved my energy.

Best Event

During a Work Experience week with Story Events, I was lucky enough to work on a corporate Summer Party which took place on a boat down the Thames. I had so much fun working with the onsite team, helping theme the Silver Sturgeon venue and ensuring guests were happy throughout. We had a BBQ catering company on the outside deck and Capital FM Radio DJ’s performing on the boat who were both great to work with! It was the first event I ever really worked on, and a great one at that. It certainly confirmed for me that I wanted a career in Events.

Iona is an Account Executive within the Story Bespoke team. She has a wonderful background within catering, hotels and events and loves nothing more than working with clients to bring their dream event to life!

Proudest Event Moment

There are so many to choose from as I have been fortunate enough to work in some fantastic venues with amazing clients. The best moment for me has got to be building, nurturing and maintaining a relationship with a wonderful client who contracted an extravagant 4-day conference and reception event to the venue in 5 days of receiving the brief. It was amazing to see the joy on the client’s face when this event came to life.