Saskia Carr, 38, works in Sydney, Australia, as chief operating officer and client executive Australia at SongDivison. As a 2019 40 Under 40 honoree, Carr discusses her passion for the events industry.
What I do: As client executive, I develop new business and maintain existing relationships with our top clients, such as Ernst & Young, McDonalds, Pfizer and Anytime Fitness. I design and deliver innovative events for our clients, and commonly follow clients through the entire life cycle of their SongDivision journey—from their initial enquiry, to creative design, through to on-the-day event delivery. In my COO role, I am involved in overseeing our global processes so our team in Asia Pacific, Europe and the US are all aligned, and I work closely with our CEO, Chief Brand Officer, Sales Director and Finance Team to analyze and manage Global P&L’s, pricing and strategy.
How I got here: I met one of my greatest friends in a mother’s group in 2015 while I was on maternity leave (and between jobs), and she was telling me all about her friends Andy and Marsha who owned this incredible company called SongDivision. I was hooked from the moment I heard about SongDivision, and even though I had zero meeting and events industry experience I told her I had to work for this organization ASAP. I did my first day the very next week, and haven’t looked back ever since.
Greatest career accomplishment: I was incredibly excited to be given the global role of COO for SongDivision in 2017, overseeing operations in North America, UK & Europe and Asia Pacific. I helped drive a global revenue growth of 28 percent.
Impressive stats: I have been key to growing the Australian business by 50 percent.
Specific improvement I’ve made: Over the last 12 months we have had a number of clients looking for large-scale, bespoke entertainment offerings. I have grown our range of entertainment offerings significantly to meet client demands which, in 2018, included the design and delivery of a 1000 pax Anytime Fitness annual gala awards dinner themed after the film, ‘The Greatest Showman.” This event featured a choreographed performance of songs from the movie complete with the full production of sound, lights, colorful costumes, a six-piece dance troupe and eight-piece backing band.
What I am working on now: I am working on our international expansion into India and South Africa. These are both new markets for SongDivision, and after successfully growing our business in North America, the UK/Europe and Asia, we are dedicated and passionate about transforming and strategically growing the SongDivision brand globally.
What I do outside of work: Travel; listen to music and I keep my 4.5 year old entertained, which is pretty much a full time job in itself. She’s a mini-me though, so there is a lot of dancing, singing and music in our house.
