Back in 2003, armed with a geography degree, a Masters in GIS, and experience of a myriad of random jobs from cleaning car windscreens to electoral work in Kosovo, I took a punt, registered this domain and set up my own company – Heason Events. The learning curve was STEEP, but things fell into place, people were generous with their time and advice. Rock climbing lecture tours around the UK with my brother Ben and friends Ian Parnell and Steve McClure lead to independent film nights at Sheffields Showroom Cinema, freelance work for dot-com start up PlanetFear, the creation of a specialist speaker’s agency working with the likes of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Kenton Cool and Sir Chris Bonington.
A call from Kevin Cheetham at Sheffield City Council and another with Ian Wild, CEO of the Showroom saw Cliffhanger and ShAFF born from the early recognition that Sheffield was a special place – The Outdoor City. Twenty something years later and with over, 1,000 events organised, nearly a 1,000 products reviewed, and a wealth of Blog posts I was asked to write a book. A guidebook to Wild Swim Walks in the Peak District. Wild Rock followed and there are more in the pipeline.
I still curate the film programme for ShAFF, promote the BritRock Film Tour for award winning filmmaker Al Lee, put up funky Christmas lights in the Peak District every December, take on creative carpentry jobs for people I know, and somehow make ends meet.
If you fancy getting in touch you can get me on matt@heason.net