My Career: Co-founder of H&G Creations Sinead Bailey Kelly 

Did you always want to work in events?
I’ve been creative my whole life, since I was old enough to hold colouring pencils at age three. I took part in every class, competition and extracurricular activity that I could the minute I started school in Canada. I tried my hand at everything from fashion to architecture, graphic design, make-up, costume, set design, photography and videography. It’s only when I moved to Ireland in 2005 that I started taking an interest in events, I really loved the idea of being able to bring art to people in unusual spaces. Myself and a few artists got together to start bringing people art parties in club spaces in 2008/2009 they continued on for quite some time in the Twisted Pepper, now known as Wigwam. This is when I could start to see how experiences could create lasting impacts on the people who came to them. I don’t think I ever thought that creating a life around events was even a possibility at the time. But I’m grateful for the journey it’s taken me on, and for where it’s brought me to today.

In college, I studied… graphic design, photography and digital marketing.

My most formative work experience was… myself and my business partner, Deirdre Young, we both used to work with a collective called Emergence. They ran all of the best club nights in the city at the time and they also had an office and gallery space on Little Green Street, Dublin 1. We both helped them curate and manage their gallery space, it’s where we met and a lot of the other artists and creatives we know. It’s also where we learned a lot of lessons firsthand about business, entrepreneurship and applying creative thinking to business. They were some wild times, and I learned a lot very quickly. 

My first real job was… I’ve been working for as long as i can remember – the newspaper route when I was 10, babysitting all the kids on my block at 12, the newsagents at the local tourist centre near my house when I was 14. I worked in retail in Clery’s on O’Connell Street when I first moved here at 17, and then various bar jobs which really helped with the whole hospitality side of events. But the first event I ever did was probably the nights I ran while I was in college, art parties and creative club nights called Crafty Beggars in the Button Factory and Twisted Pepper before I left my bar job at 21 to work with Emergence. They were the first agency or events company I ever worked with. 

The most invaluable thing I learned early on in my career was… be kind to everyone you meet and everyone working with you. You really never know what’s going on with people when you meet them at an event or on the job. But also because people will never forget how you made them feel, and that’s so important as you build a community of people around you and your business. 

A common misconception about what I do is… that the whole job is one shiny disco ball of glamorous events, creating beautiful things and travelling to exciting new places. Everything people see online from us is the finished project, event or installation. Which is only really about 10% of the job. The other 90% is often researching, endless hours of emails and administration, cancellations, redirects, spreadsheets and some of the more laborious tasks that help to orchestrate the magic that happens in real life. 

My main responsibility in work is to… make sure everyone is happy, from the in-house team to our crew on-site, to our clients for each job. It’s not my main responsibility but it is something that’s really important to me. I like to make sure the lines of communication are open, no one is feeling isolated in the work they are doing and that everyone is feeling supported. Aside from that, I look after marketing, socials, content creation, design and business development mainly within digital spaces.

Do you have a career mentor or someone you look up to/seek advice from?
The local enterprise office has been a great help to us over the years, especially Micheal Gough, one of their mentors who has helped us with everything to do with business growth and finances. He is an angel dressed in a shirt, for sure.

The biggest risk I have taken in my career so far is… continuously betting on myself. And trusting that every time I take a leap of faith in a new direction, the steps I need to take will appear as I leap into the unknown.  

I wake at… 8am.

The first thing I do every morning is… make breakfast and hug my partner Daire and our cat LBC (little black cat).

My morning routine is… take some vitamins, write down three intentions for the day, do reiki with my cat and pull a tarot card. 

I can’t go to work without… my MacBook, my charger and a smoothie.

I travel to work by… I love cycling around the city so much, we recently moved office to Stoneybatter and I actually only live up the road. Dreamy, I know! But sometimes I walk to work now too. 

On an average workday I… go into my task lists for the day and my Google Calendar, and look to prioritise my time and then block out my day. The time blocks could be a mixture of creative, content creation, writing, spreadsheets, design, video calls, and in-person meetings – the works. I have a pretty short attention span so the multitude of different tasks over the course of the day keeps me excited and interested in whatever it is that I’m working on. 

I start my working day at… it depends on the day and what is pencilled into the calendar. Some days it’s 9am, other days it’s 11am.

The first thing I do at work is… I usually get a cup of black coffee, have chats with Dee, my business partner and our team, and get stuck into my task list. I find big projects can become a bit overwhelming so I like to break things down into smaller bite-sized chunks to make them more manageable and then time block them into my calendar. I’m most focused when I have a task list in front of me that has been prioritised to suit the amount of hours I have to dedicate that day. Then I get straight to work. 

I usually spend the first portion of the day… I know this sounds really nerdy, but I like to check in on all the data for my online efforts. This could be Google Analytics, Meta Ads Manager, and all of our social media dashboards. I’ll then have a little look at some other social accounts I follow for inspiration, compile all the data and inspiration findings and then apply this to my spreadsheet for content creation for all of our social channels and marketing efforts. Then I’ll get creating images, video and text that are all inspired by my findings. 

I break for lunch at… around 3pm. I love any type of food that saves time. I’m a huge fan of liquid meals like Huel or My Protein which make nutritionally complete meals that are actually smoothies. I’ll usually have one of these and a protein bar with a cuppa. 

The most useful business tool I use every day is… Click Up for my task lists and helping me to prioritise what is important work to complete each day, and Google Drive/Google Calendar. Actually the whole Google suite is an absolute must for day-to-day work, meetings, scheduling, chats, spaces etc. 

I save time by… by batch-creating all copy, images and videos needed for social media and marketing. I do this in one to two sessions over the course of each week instead of trying to dedicate time to this every day. 

I rarely get through my working day without… having a laugh with the girlies in the office. 

The best part of my day is… making dreams a reality with one of my best friends, and business partner, Deirdre, and our whole team. 

The most challenging part of my day is… I’m a chronic overthinker so being present, and reminding myself to enjoy the journey and not always be thinking of the destination, and the quickest routes to get there.  

I know it’s been a good day if… I walk home with a smile on my face.

I usually end my day at… 7pm – sometimes earlier, sometimes later. It depends on what’s booked in that week. 

I switch off from work by… putting on some house music and getting into the gym. When I’m moving my body, my mind doesn’t have much space for overthinking.

Before I go to bed, I’ll… do something nice for my skin and listen to something inspirational online like Esther Hicks.

I often prepare for tomorrow by… go over my task list for the following day, and get my work clothes and my gym clothes ready. 

After a long work week, I destress by… hanging out with my partner Daire listening to whatever nice music we’ve both discovered, talking about all of our creative adventures from the week. He’s a music producer in a band called Prymary Colours and I DJ a little bit as Minikimono so we usually do a lot of music together. Or we go out dancing and have a laugh with our friends. 

The accomplishment I’m most proud of is… co-creating a beautiful creative space that merged art, music, production, creativity, and club culture in New York with our friends at House of Yes. I am such a massive fan of House of Yes, one of the most creative and outrageous performance clubs based in Brooklyn. It’s a challenge trying to create something from scratch in a new city and new country that you’ve never produced anything in before. So, I really am so proud that we were able to create art and impact the community there in such a meaningful way. My parents were able to fly down from Canada and join in the party too, which was really the cherry on top because they were never able to go to any of our events because of the long distance between us.

If you want to get into my line of work, my advice is to… understand your ‘why’. The why for me was always to bring art to people in unusual spaces, and to bring people joy through experiences. When you get clear on your why, it will give you direction but also help you overcome challenges when they come your way.

I’ve just finished working on… I’ve just finished renovating our new offices and HQ in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, and I’m working on a secret new multidisciplinary art party coming later this year keep your eyes peeled. 

Imagery courtesy of H&G Creations