Event Organiser Profile, Awesome Events

Denis McCourt, the man behind Awesome Events and the Original Party Bus, tells Annica Wainwright he’s in it for the thrill of the ride

Spotting Denis McCourt arrive at Sartoria (Conran’s sleek homage to tailoring on Mayfair’s Savile Row) in his Awesome Events-branded bomber jacket, I begin to wonder if we’ve chosen the right restaurant for our lunch. Thankfully, the less than salubrious coat is hiding a smart lilac shirt, which the former City boy has rebelliously paired with well-worn jeans and a surfer dude leather necklace – as if to say: ‘My suit days are over. I work for myself’.

Not that McCourt strikes me as the kind of man who spends much time worrying about what his clothes – or, indeed, other people – say about him. Probably the least pretentious event organiser I’ve ever met, he refuses to brag and fails to list a single achievement when asked to name his most memorable event. It’s a question that would usually prompt party planners to reel off countless triumphant moments. But, as he explains: ‘It’s the client, not the event management company, who should shine at an event. If you’re good at this job, people shouldn’t even know you’re there.’

McCourt is equally diffident about Awesome’s position in the marketplace. Describing the key attributes of its service as innovation, dynamism, personable service and value for money, he ventures: ‘I wouldn’t say we are leaders in our field but we have high aspirations and we’re very honest with our clients. I’m just fortunate they trust me and let me do the job.’

With a front man as open as McCourt, mistrust could never have been an issue for Awesome. Here’s a guy who looks you straight in the eye as he speaks, ending each statement with a reassuring ‘yeah’, and an accompanying nod to ensure you’re still with him. More self-important organisers might try to up-sell what they do but that’s not McCourt’s style. He is frank about the fact that his core business is in low-budget events, where the emphasis isn’t on wowing guests but on ensuring they all have a really good time. ‘A client is not going to notice a £50,000 lighting rig but they’ll remember if the food was good and whether they had a good boogie on the dance floor. At the end of the day, you want people to enjoy themselves,’ he explains.

A keen traveller and adventure sports enthusiast, McCourt first found inspiration for his events business when he took a year off from trading to travel the world. In Australia, where he stayed for a year playing semi-professional football, he came across a company that used double-decker buses to take punters on a Melbourne pub crawl. ‘It wasn’t very sophisticated but I thought “I could do something with this”,’ he remembers.

On returning to London, McCourt worked as a derivatives trader but was also preparing to launch the original London Party Bus. At one point, he combined the two jobs, entertaining clients on the bus until 4am before returning to his desk by 6am. But what started out as a side business soon took off in a big way, enabling McCourt to leave the rat race. Today, the Party Bus brand, which still accounts for a third of his turnover, operates in 12 locations, while umbrella company Awesome Events, which originally focused on the stag and hen market, has broadened its horizons to also encompass corporate events.

‘The good thing about this job is that there’s no typical day, and I enjoy the challenge of not knowing where I’ll be from one month to the next,’ says McCourt, whose only ongoing struggle is to overcome people’s perception of his most famous product. ‘The image of the Party Bus is that it’s either a bit tacky or full of 18- to 21-year-olds being sick and starting fights on the bus. In fact, the average age of our customers is 28 and we’ve only had two fights in 10 years.’

To put that number into perspective, at the height of its popularity (and before the launch of all the copycat operations it now has to compete with), the Party Bus entertained 400 guests a week in London alone. Indeed, it still attracts some 250 customers a week to its London operation. According to McCourt, the average punter’s reaction is: ‘Wow, that’s nothing like I thought it would be’. ‘Everyone agrees it’s just a great night out,’ he asserts.

Having recently parted ways with his original business partner, McCourt explains that he is looking to take the company further. ‘I wouldn’t go as far as to say he [the partner] used to drag me down, but it was often hard to get things done. Now, it’s full speed ahead.’ The new arrangement has given McCourt more room to experiment. This has already resulted in the launch of Awesome FX, a prop-hire business set up in collaboration with theming expert Steve Waxman (see box, under), and several new Party Bus packages. But McCourt is not one to let work go to his head. Nor is he greedy. Awesome Events’ packaged Christmas parties are some of the best-value products on the market, and the £30 price tag for the basic Party Bus package hasn’t changed in 10 years.

‘I’m not in this business to make huge amounts of money. I’m here to enjoy myself – work hard and play hard – before I pack up and move my family to a desert island somewhere,’ says McCourt. He says his experiences have taught him to value what’s important in life. ‘My father died at 38 and I’m just glad I’ve lived two more years than him. My only grand plan is to be happy. If I wanted to make money, I would have stayed in the City. These days, I’m just glad to be able to put my head on the pillow each night and think that I’ve had fun, that I haven’t upset anyone and that my little girl is happy,’ he concludes.

WHITE TIGER TOURS

One of many new products in the Awesome range is White Tiger Tours, an upmarket alternative to the Party Bus, in which customers are ferried to exclusive nightspots aboard a swish converted mini-coach. The 19-seater vehicle is kitted out with a bar, plasma screens and karaoke system, while its ports of call include members-only clubs that wouldn’t usually welcome groups.

AWESOME FX

Anyone who has organised a corporate event will know how difficult it can be to get people to get up and dance for fear of embarrassing themselves in front of their colleagues. The Awesome solution? Ensure the dance floor is irresistible. Through its new sister business, Awesome FX, the company now offers an under-lit dance floor similar to the one in the classic Pulp video Disco 2000 – only this one is portable and available to hire for events. Split into lit-up squares, the floor can use single or multiple shades of light – your company colours, perhaps – that fade in and out, and change pattern in time with the music.