Meet an entrepreneur Kedger working in the events planning world in London

"Augustin met me in a pub close to London Bridge, an icon neighbourhood in the English capital" - Robin Rouvier

Would you briefly tell us about yourself?

My name is Augustin Coste. I graduated from the Grand Ecole Programme of Euromed Management, class of 2011, just as it was merging with BEM.

I did a customised Master and spent my gap year working in event management in South Africa and India. After having travelled around the world as part of my job, I’m now setting up my start-up while freelancing as an events manager in London.

Would you tell us about your background in international events planning?

It all began during my gap year in September 2010 when I began working for GL Events. At the end of two weeks, my boss asked me if my passport was up to date and sent me to South Africa for ten months to work in the nine cities of the 2010 World Cup. At that time my work consisted of plane trips, and lots of meetings with the Organising Committee, federations, and sub-contractors. Then, during the delivery phase, on ten locations simultaneously.

I ended my gap year by going to India to work on the CommonWealth games, and after that, I went back to Euromed and finished my Master.

After I got my degree, I signed a fixed-term contract with GL events and left for Gabon to organise the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. After that, I went back to London for a year to organise the 2012 Olympic Games. That was the largest project that we handled.

At the end of 2012, I left for Sotchi, Russia, to prepare the Tests Events for the Olympic Games that took place a year later. But faced with the cultural conditions and business that was too difficult to manage, we decided to not accept any more jobs for the Olympic games and left as soon as we finished the Test Events. At the end of my contract, I did a tour of East Asia for several months to take my mind off things.

When I returned from my trip, and with a new fixed-term contract in hand, I flew to Brazil to organise the 2014 World Cup. That was my last project for the company. I’ve seen my responsibilities grow. The project was crazy and the Brazilian atmosphere even more. That job let me finish the years I spent at GL Events in style.

After that last trip, I decided to join my girlfriend who had just found a job in London. What’s more, it’s a city where the events world is very advanced. I’ve lived here for five years now.

Once I got to London, I worked freelance for a year for different agencies. Then, in 2016, I went to work for 2Heads Global Design, a company that did events design and production with an extremely high-quality rendering. Its main clients were in the world of finance, aeronautics, defence, and media. I travelled a lot with 2Heads Global Design and worked on all the continents - about two long trips per month. But, travel to and from the office in London took nearly two hours in both the morning and the evening, which really stretched my patience. And my wallet. The cost of transport was close to £500 per month.

So, I decided to resign and began freelancing with the idea of spending time to develop a “side project”. I didn’t do that for very long because the cost of living in London is very high. I had to find a rhythm and stable employment to survive.

I was finally recruited by DesignScene. I worked there for more than two years. Its clients were tech and media giants, like Amazon, Snapchat, ITV (the English equivalent of Canal +), and Medialink. I had the opportunity to participate in many major international forums, notably the CES in Vegas, Dmexco in Cologne, and the Cannes Lions. I worked hard for two years on those jobs, which ended when my daughter was born in London.

My girlfriend had asked that I change my pace. The hours were very long, and the increased responsibilities made me accumulate a lot of stress. Also, when you have a baby, the cost of living in London is hard to manage. We finally decided to return to France to raise our child.

Since then, I’ve continued to freelance for London agencies and dedicate the rest of my time to my family and the project that I was working on.

Would you tell us about your project?

After all those years working in events planning in the four corners of the world, I realised that I was in good shape materially (real estate, decor, material goods, electronics, etc.) I got the idea of creating a platform for the resale of buildings for agencies whose logistical problems threatened to destroy their goods. So, I offer a sort of circular economy around all that the agencies destroy – a marketplace that is addressed to professionals in event planning. A project that is perfectly in tune with the times by limiting the upstream of waste produced by businesses.

Did you note any differences between the French and English cultures?

There are many, but the main difference between Paris and London is the open-mindedness. Here, people are more cheerful, freer, and less superficial. To go to a pub after work and have discussions with bankers and workers at the same time, is something cultural. It’s difficult to imagine that in Paris, but it’s common here. The feeling of those pubs (of which there are fewer and fewer) is much warmer.

Even though a lot of my friends live in Paris, and that I very much appreciate this magnificent city, I prefer life in London. After having lived in Johannesburg, New Delhi, and Rio, nowhere have I found such vibrancy.

What advice would you give to a student who wants to move abroad?

My way of travelling was required by work, and I always learned very late where I was going next. I loved that way of working because each time I left for the unknown, I wasn’t prepared. So, my advice is to not do much research about the country before you go. That way you won’t have any particular expectations when you get there. You won’t risk being disappointed by the image you got of a country, you take all that is good and not so good in person!

I would also say that you have to keep your humility and curiosity. That’s the key to fitting in!

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