Friday 10 November saw King George V College played host to Pier Shepperd, Director at Wonderworks Ltd. Speaking to a packed theatre of over 120 students, Pier’s spoke in detail about his career to date. Growing up in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, Pier’s spoke frankly about how he went from the boy destined to become a farmer, to Technical Director of one of the world’s largest and most challenging events, the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony.



Addressing in detail his early career, some 15 years spent in the music industry supporting internationally recognised bands such as Take That, Pier’s highlighted to the Business, Drama & Theatre Studies and Music Technology students in attendance that skills learnt along the way, including Auto CAD, became invaluable in helping him to secure his most challenging position to date.

Progressing from providing technical support to bands on tour, to developing ideas for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Piers worked on a wide range of international, technical events such as the Delhi Commonwealth games, before securing his position for London 2012.

Advising the packed student audience, Pier’s commented on the importance of not only thinking about ideas but also ensuring that those ideas were committed to paper, delivered and mistakes learnt from.

Speaking after the event, Music Technology students James, Connor and Toby commented on how the presentation had been “absolutely amazing”, providing a real eye opener into the vast amount of work that goes into staging and delivering events on a global scale. Additionally, the students commented on how they were unsure of what to expect from the presentation but were glad that they had been provided with the opportunity to attend, as it had put the amount of preparation time and thought that goes into such events into perspective and had also highlighted career possibilities to them that had not previously been considered.

Joe Barrow, Course Leader for A Level Business at King George V College and organiser of the visit added “At KGV Business we have enjoyed some wonderful visiting speakers in recent years, sometimes provided by the 'Speakers 4 Schools' charity. This year via 'Speakers 4 Schools' we are highly excited to have been given the opportunity to host Piers Shepperd.

Piers' talk was of great benefit to our Business students, as it provided a fascinating insight into this exciting and growing sector, which links directly into several aspects of the students chosen courses such as Marketing, Finance, and Events Management. The sector is also obviously of great interest to KGV's Music Technology and Theatre Studies students who also attended the presentation.”