Climbing that paperwork mountain
As a first timer when it comes to RHS flower shows, I set out to surround myself with people who have a lot more ‘know-how’ and experience than me. As well as wanting to learn as quickly as I could, I also wanted to minimise stress and worry as I found out the same week as being accepted by the RHS that I was pregnant with twins.
As I’ve gone through the planning process for the show, I have thanked my luck stars on a daily basis that I went for this strategy. Going forward I am going to do the same for all future projects.
A couple of weeks back for example, I received a pack in the post from the RHS. Inside were just a few sleepless nights – sorry – a heavy show guide manual and a book (no less) of forms to fill out in the run up to the flower show.
In a previous life I worked on some pretty big events where I spent many a day working through the intricacies of health and safety and the various red tape elements of building an event. But for some reason that has all been hidden in some dark recess of my brain and I still felt pretty unsure about filling out all the various forms.
Only just ever so slightly daunted by the prospect of the forms I thought I would call our landscape contractor for the show – David Neale (of Neale Richards Ltd) to see if he would be my saviour. David and Leigh did a show garden last year so I figured they wouldn’t have the same feeling of dread that I had.
Saviour he has been. He understood my dread or was it closer to panic, having had a similar reaction to mine last year. So we met up last week on a glorious morning just outside Reading, at the Thrive headquarters (the garden charity) where David and Leigh are currently building some gardens.
Despite the heat in the makeshift greenhouse office, it took us no time at all to get through the 30 odd forms and in the process ironed out a few final details for the build which will start in less than two months time. With a large part of the admin out of the way (I hope), I can’t wait!
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