Experience Doesn’t Make Event Leadership Easier with Ben Hardy

In this episode of Event Matters, David Watt is joined by Ben Hardy, Managing Director of Richmond Event Management, to explore what leadership really looks like when you are responsible for delivering complex, high-visibility events at scale.

Ben brings a delivery-led perspective shaped by years of running large public events across the UK, where planning, safety, stakeholders and scrutiny collide. The conversation centres on a simple but often overlooked truth in the events industry: experience does not remove uncertainty, it simply changes how leaders carry it.

Together, they reflect on the quiet pressure that sits behind successful delivery. Ben talks openly about the weight of responsibility, the loneliness that can come with senior roles and the judgement calls leaders are required to make without perfect information. From safety planning and traffic management to managing teams through long delivery cycles, the discussion stays grounded in the realities event leaders recognise every day.

The conversation also explores partnership and sustainability, not as values statements but as operational necessities. Ben shares why strong relationships with clients, suppliers and authorities are essential to delivery, and why looking after people is not a wellbeing initiative but a prerequisite for consistent performance.

Technology features as an enabler rather than a solution. Ben explains how tools can create clarity and free up thinking time, but never replace leadership judgment, experience or human connection.

This episode is a calm, honest reflection on leadership endurance in the events industry. It offers reassurance to experienced leaders who still feel the weight of decision-making, and a reminder that confidence is built over time, not in the absence of uncertainty.

Host: David Watt, Partner at Kershaw Partners
Guest: Ben Hardy, Managing Director, Richmond Event Management