Karen Burns is Events Manager at BJSS, the UK’s leading privately-owned IT and business consultancy and Lead Tech Sponsor of Digital City Festival in March.
At BJSS she is responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality events including meet-ups, digital festivals, partner conferences and invitation-only client events, and ensuring the company builds relationships in each regional tech community.
Karen sits on the Steering Panel for Digital City Festival, collaborating with other sector leaders from the region to drive the five-day event, which is coming to Manchester on March 9th. She says: “I’ve been involved in events management for several years now, and whilst I’m by no means a ‘techie’ I’m still passionate about tech!”
The Leeds-based role she started in was a new one for the company – and, she says, “I did a lot in terms of growing our presence in the community. That’s where my involvement started in Leeds Digital Festival a couple of years ago.
“We developed our involvement in the Leeds tech scene by hosting tech events. The first time we partnered with [the festival] we put on about 10 events.” She got to know Stuart Clarke, Festival Director, and was invited to join the 2018 steering panel. As a result, BJSS’ involvement grew significantly. “We were involved in over 30 events, so it was a slightly crazy two weeks.”
In a company that once didn’t offer many external events, “I created my own role,” says Burns. “We’re now in a position where there’s so much going on across the UK and in the US, the challenge is how to keep track of everything we’re doing!”
