In conversation with people watching one of the stunt displays we have at our popular Cycle Festivals, one of the most common remarks is “Don’t they make it look so easy?”. Bearing in mind the ‘it’ in question is to jump their bike up a set of poles or leap over a 10 foot gap or bunny hop 4 foot into the air – something us mere mortals have no chance of ever accomplishing – it strikes me that the compliment is often double-edged.

On the one hand it recognises the supreme skill that comes as a result of plenty of practice and coaching. Something we admire and pay good money to watch people – from Federer gracefully swatting the tennis ball out of the air, to Messi bamboozling defenders, and all sorts in between such as street artists in Edinburgh casually juggling sharp knives, to the Parkour performers.

On the other hand it is almost disparaging in that it is almost saying well I could do that too. We only have to pick up a tennis racquet or a football and could do exactly the same thing, just because we’ve seen them do it and it looks like no effort is required.

And of course, we may get lucky once and hit a majestic single-handed backhand down the line or curl the ball round the keepers arms but next time round it’s as likely to end high in the stands or falling on our backside. But to repeat it constantly, that is skill.

It’s not just in sport or artistic performance that examples like this crop up. In our world of organising high quality events, others often look in and think they can do that. Why should we pay for something that surely we can do ourselves? All you do is make a few calls, send a few emails, draw a few maps – I’ll do that instead. So they plough on and we watch bemused from the sidelines, a bit like seeing a clown trying to play football with those big shoes on. They know where they want to get the ball, they just have no chance of getting it there as they’re ill-equipped.

Putting together a complex puzzle is hard enough even with the picture, doing it without – well then you need a lot of skill, as luck will only take you so far. It’s like that with a big event. It’s not just a case of booking suppliers, writing a few documents, getting staff and the hundred and one other tasks. It’s a lot more than identifying what you want – how to pull it all together and make it look easy is as hard as leaping over fences on a bike or juggling knives. You wouldn’t try those would you, or at least not without expecting a lot of pain, so why do the same with an event?

So if you think it's expensive to hire a professional, just wait til you use an amateur….

Save yourself time, money and an awful lot of hassle and frustration and call us instead. – 01772 447979.