Hi, Everybody! I’m John, and it’s a pleasure to be joining the HdK team as its Web Support Manager.
Originally hailing from King’s Lynn, Norfolk (a – haaaa!), I’ve lived in London for twenty-something-more-years-than-I-care-to-remember. In those years however, I’ve been lucky enough to call some of London’s top cultural venues and attractions my employer, and I’m thrilled to be working with so many more at HdK.
I arrived in London all those years ago to study Music, and in doing so thought I’d get to see loads of gigs and concerts for free (which I did!) if I worked at one of the big venues, so I hung up my wings at The London Eye and picked up the phone at the Barbican, where I worked in the box office. After uni, I also worked in the Roundhouse box office, and it was there that my boss described me as “quite vocal” about how our website at the time wasn’t all that. To counter this (or get me to shut up) he suggested I help work on the new website for Roundhouse, which I did as a spirited user acceptance tester! I’ve been working on them in one way or another ever since.
Between then and now I’ve remained “in the culture”, working for 10 years at Southbank Centre, where I got to collaborate on websites with wonderful organisations and orchestras such as Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, Chinike! and the Philharmonia. I’ve also been website manager for The Postal Museum and Edinburgh International Festival, which gave me a real insight into the technology stack used at HdK.
In more recent times, I’ve worked on the agency side, project managing new websites for The Lowry, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Donmar Warehouse, as well as being a service desk manager for many cultural organisations across the UK, US and Europe.