Having led the delivery of some of the UAE’s most important and impressive events – including the Special Olympics, Al Hosn Festival, and several Eid Al Etihad celebrations – over the past decade, Tim Elliott and his company, People, have become interwoven into the fabric of UAE culture. An ardent advocate of the arts, passionate about sustainability, and committed to supporting the next generation of production talent, the People CEO continues to bring his creative flair, hard work and dedication to everything he turns his hand to.
Growing up in the UK, Elliott’s passion for the arts was ignited from an early age, with his parents, Steve and Helen Elliott, producing on one of the most prestigious, best-documented versions of the play Peace Child when he was just three years old. First performed in 1990 at Taunton’s Monkton Heathfield School, it was then taken to London’s Shaw Theatre, with children from 20 different countries coming together on stage. “I was passed around backstage, looked after by whoever had time between scenes,” Elliott commented, looking back on what proved to be a formative experience. “Everything we’ve done at People stems back to the original Peace Child story and the power of how you can change lives through the power of theatre.”
While he was too young at the time to have strong memories of the backstage experience, Peace Child would prove to be pivotal in Elliott’s professional journey, as it was the power of that production that prompted noted dancer and tireless campaigner for peace, Kathleen Tacchi-Morris, to donate her life’s savings to the development of a new multipurpose performing arts and community space in her name, which became a second home for Elliott throughout his school years.
“As the centre was being built on a patch of land next to my school, it was my job to take photos of the site every day,” he recalled. “The building was completed when I was around 14 or 15, and from then on I spent pretty much every waking moment outside of school there, doing whatever I could, from serving interval refreshments to helping with lighting, sound and staging.”
Clearly bitten by the bug after his early and intense exposure to theatre, Elliott’s choice of career comes as no surprise. What is notable, however, is the way he has channelled his dedication, creativity and leadership skills into the creation of a company that serves a much greater purpose than simply putting on outstanding events.
In this in-depth interview, the People CEO looks back at how the company has grown over the past decade, discusses the passions that drive him, and looks ahead to what the next 10 years might hold.
How did you progress from the early days to becoming established in the live events industry?
By the age of 16, I had become Technical Manager at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, so I was running 150 different shows a year, all done before and after school. As part of that, I had the opportunity to design and build sets for dance festivals, musicals and shows. I had a particular passion for lighting, but I also got a valuable grounding of how to do sound, stage design, show-calling, stage-managing – everything really.
One of the people who worked on Peace Child was Mark Wallace, who at the time ran a company called Mark Wallace Associates, which over time evolved to be part of Jack Morton Worldwide. Mark and I had kept in touch, and he always said that when I was old enough, I could come and work with him. This happened for the first time when I was 17 and he invited me to work with him on the G8 Summit in Gleneagles. On the first day, Prime Minister Tony Blair was arriving by helicopter, and I found myself filming his arrival. I had never appreciated the level of detail that goes into a summit on that scale, and it changed my way of thinking about live events.
After that I freelanced for several years on a lot of government and corporate events as well as film premieres. I was lucky enough to be connected to a few people in the industry, including Mark ‘Foggy’ Fogwill, who used to run a company called Touch and gave me many opportunities in my early career. He now works for People as our full-time Technical Director – and he just won the Production Manager of the Year at this year’s TPiMEA Awards!
Eventually I went to work for a company called Reflex, which later merged with another company called With to form With Reflex Group (WRG). As WRG expanded, I was asked to set up offices in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong, before returning to London to become joint Managing Director of WRG, which at time had 250 people.
What was the motivation behind the launch of People?
After WRG was acquired by private equity, I felt that the drive of the business became more money and less creative, so at that time I chose to leave and set up People.
People was born in both London and Abu Dhabi at the same time and was the result of a group of young friends deciding to take the leap and join unpaid initially. We had very little money, but we all shared the same strong vision of changing people’s lives through live experiences.
We wanted to put on shows that could creatively have an impact on humanity in some way, knowing that not every event can do that, but that we would always strive towards that aim. We wanted to build an agency that people enjoy coming to work in; we wanted to work with clients who valued us and who we shared a good rapport with; and we wanted to work with audiences that we believed we could have an impact on.
What were the early days of the company like?
The industry was pretty seasonal at the time, so we were very busy in the UK in the summer and very busy in Abu Dhabi in the winter. Of course, nowadays, those seasons are gradually combining and blending into one, which is a great problem to have. We were lucky enough to win projects in both locations from the start, and we had a fantastic group of people who came together to deliver above expectations and get the company off to a great start.
Our first show in Abu Dhabi was in Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, to celebrate Al Ain FC winning their 12th championship. We’d come up with the idea of having people jump out of a plane to deliver the trophy into the stadium, and we got the call two weeks before the event to say that we’d won the pitch. I immediately flew out from London to the UAE and personally drove round every supplier and freelancer who had looked after me in my previous life and asked for support.
The reaction was incredible, and trucks full of kit were sent to Al Ain with no quote, no spec, no design, and everyone just dug in to make it work. While of course we’re a much more sophisticated operation nowadays, we maintain that startup mentality, and we continue to cherish those long-term relationships of those who showed faith in us from the start.
What have been some of your favourite memories over the years with People?
There have been many, but a big one was the Al Hosn Festival. Back then we didn’t tick many of the procurement boxes, but we won the pitch on the strength of the creative, and with the support of the client, we were able to employ around 200 freelancers for a few months in the build-up to the show, which was a major catalyst when it came to building our freelance family.
The Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi was another incredibly special project. That show was special not only because it was a huge stadium gig, but because it was the first time that we genuinely felt that the concept of changing lives through live experiences could actually happen.
Our pitch for that project was unusual in that it didn’t contain any visuals. Instead, we explained that the show would be designed by the community of the Special Olympics, and we would build a team of people from that community to create the show with us. It was their story, and we wanted them to be able to tell it their way. The idea was approved unanimously and so began an incredible journey where we ran music, dance and writing workshops with people of determination, as they’re now known in the UAE, and we learned new skills from those people.
I still get goosebumps thinking about a particular moment on that show when we had someone up on stage who used to be extremely shy and unable to speak in public, and they got up in front of 44,000 people to speak about the power of people of determination. The Special Olympics was a perfect example of the kind of work that we really want to deliver – it had scale, impact, and was a great representation of our values.
Another big moment that year was delivering the fan zones in eight cities across the UK for the Cricket World Cup. That was a pitch against 20-plus other agencies, which we wouldn’t ever do now, but we were delighted to win the right to produce such large-scale public events in the UK, and it really boosted our reputation for being able to deliver in the sporting segment internationally.
How has your ongoing relationship with UAE Eid Al Etihad developed over the years?
Our journey with Eid Al Etihad started on the 49th National Day in 2020, when we were called a few weeks before the show to take over the design and build of the majlis areas – handling the audience experience up to the seating area. We worked day and night to deliver that project, and I personally worked solidly for four days and four nights to pull off that experience. While we were pleased with what we’d produced, we were always striving to be part of what was on the other side of the grandstand.
Our involvement grew from there year on year, first being awarded the operations of the event, then the technical production of the show without any creative scope and it culminated last year in us being trusted to deliver the entire experience, from building the road leading to the site to writing the storydirecting the show. I also acted as Artistic Director, which was an incredibly proud moment on a show of such scale and importance for the UAE.
How much of a focus do you place on building the industry inside the UAE?
We are a local business, and we are committed to investing back into the UAE both in terms of talent and production resources. In fact, 75% of the people working on last year’s Eid Al Etihad were based in the UAE. There’s certainly been a shift in the time we’ve been in the UAE, with the country now boasting a strong supplier network and many of the freelancers now living in the country full time.
Tell us about the family of brands that make up People&Co…
The People&Co. group is made up of four brands: People, which is the core creative agency that delivers traditional event work; Spectaculars, which delivers large-scale ceremonies; Spaces + Places, which delivers high-end temporary architecture; and Film x People, which creates independent films.
We decided to create these clear divisions because our work became so versatile while at the same time, we had such tailored talent. This subdivision enables us to allocate the right resources to the areas where they are best placed and have the most interest in and means that we can become very good at all the individual disciplines.
When we set up People, we established some core principles – and one of those was that we will ‘go where our people grow’. If a member of our team is particularly passionate about one aspect of what we do, or something that we don’t do yet, we will endeavour to provide them the opportunity to grow in that area. The second we decided to launch those individual brands, it felt like the team slotted into place perfectly.
What’s your approach to sustainability?
Sustainability is incredibly important to everything we do at People. When we started working on improving our sustainability, we found out that we could either do it on an event-by-event basis or we could do it in a more holistic way, and it quickly became apparent that it’s possible to create a much more meaningful change by embedding sustainable practices into everything we do and driving for it to become entrenched in our day-to-day lives.
We’ve started the journey and there’s a long way to go, but we have invested in a foundation and systems that mean that we’re no longer waiting for the client to ask for sustainable solutions; we’re telling the client that we’re going to operate sustainably and delivering on that promise even when it’s not specifically requested.
A small example is from the past few Eid Al Etihad shows – the previous two of which have been ISO20121 certified – where we’ve had spare fabric left over from manufacturing all the sofas and the furniture. We chose to keep that fabric and it’s now been reused for various purposes, including for the sofas in our new People Studio.
We care passionately about how we can we build a sustainability movement beyond just ticking boxes, and the nicest thing I find is that there are a lot of people in our business who share this same passion and are leading our sustainable journey.
Tell us about the new People Studio…
We’ve taken an additional new, unique space at twofour54 in Yas Bay that is under a grandstand, so the roof slants from the ground to three or four storeys high. We fitted it out in sections, including a state-of-the-art film studio with edit suite for client viewings, a snug space for the team to relax, wind down and get over any post-event blues, and – at the heart of the space – the main workshop studio, which has been kitted out with a top-of-the-range AV system and a huge slab of shared work surface, and can be used for everything from pitch prep and client presentations to project startups and training.
One of the first initiatives we ran in the space was something called ProjCo Bootcamp, where we invited a range of young talent from all corners of the industry to take part in a two-day The Apprentice-style experience. The idea was to give people hands-on experience of what it’s like to be a young runner, assistant or coordinator in the industry. The first edition was a great success, and we plan on bringing it back annually.
What’s your take on the Saudi market?
There’s no doubt that Saudi Arabia is an extremely interesting proposition. However, while we’ve had many approaches, we are not currently in that market. The work we have in the UAE and in various other countries all over the world remains our focus. Our clients who have provided trust and commitment are those we have chosen to focus on, and build long-term partnerships with.
How are you celebrating the company’s 10-year anniversary this year?
We’ve come up with 10 big ideas, which we’ll be rolling out this year to celebrate the anniversary. I can’t say too much about most of them at this stage, but they will be a combination of celebration, thanks to our team and suppliers, giving back to the community, and pushing us forward to take on the next 10 years.
As well as taking our team away for a week sailing from Italy to Greece in the summer, we have also announced an employee co-ownership structure.
Another initiative that we have brought in is a change in our fee structure, integrating something called the Giving Fund. Clients can opt into the People&Community Fund, which keeps the project fee the same, but part of the budget is allocated towards a fund that will be donated to good causes within the UAE community.
We have also invested in the building of a youth theatre in the UK, and we’re set to open the People Youth Theatre in September, which will be run by David Duthie. The theatre will allow approximately 25 students between the ages of 14 and 21 to join each year from all backgrounds, all walks of life, and they will learn performing arts and put on two shows a year.
As well as funding the theatre, we will also support by giving opportunities to the students to be part of the various global ceremonies we produce.
What’s your long-term vision for the company?
We have always grown where our people grow and seized opportunities that take us on new journeys. We don’t have a north star of exactly where we need to get in terms of scale or size – that isn’t our primary driver.
All we want to do is continue to have a bigger impact through the work that we do. In the next 10 years, we are really interested in building our group, and our people are the ones who will make sure that we can do that.
There are so many opportunities out there and the great thing is we don’t know what they are yet. I would like to think that whatever we become in the next decade will be different from what I could predict now, and if that is the case, that will mean we’ve been successful.
Photos: People
