The Miller Tanner Associates’ (MTA) difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that brings our corporate meetings and events to life for our customers. Today we introduce you to Key Account Manager (EU) Ciara Redden, our associate based in Ireland. Combining her years of experience in the hospitality industry with her panache for relationship building, Ciara supports and navigates our clients throughout their event planning process with attentiveness and ease.
Meet Ciara Redden
Tell us about your current role with MTA. What are your primary responsibilities?
My position with MTA as a key account manager (EU) is a fully remote role, based in my hometown of Dublin, Ireland.
My role is twofold, where one part of my job is to manage the relationship with my portfolio of key clients from the life science and biopharma industries and to be the client’s main point of contact in regard to facilitating and setting up investigator meetings for their sponsors and studies, all while growing the existing relationship between key clients and MTA.
The second part of my role is to work with corporate clients to facilitate and support corporate events such as Global Leadership Summits, Annual Sales Kick Off events, etc.
What did you do before joining MTA?
Event management has led my life since I was 7-years-old and organising my own birthday parties for my friends and me, something I loved doing. This led me to pursue my degree in hospitality management and work within the hospitality industry specialising in corporate event sales, groups, bedrooms, celebrity parties and weddings. I then made the move into the Tech giant world which had an element of key account management, which I enjoyed thoroughly. This led me to my role of key account manager (EU) for MTA where I can utilise my skills, gained throughout my career.
Languages spoken:
Being born and bred in Ireland, we are brought up learning Irish and English equally. I chose German as my preferred compulsory language in secondary school; French was mandatory for my degree, but more recently, I attended extracurricular language school to learn a little of the Scandinavian languages such as Swedish, Danish, and Finnish.
What are some key strategies for launching a successful meeting?
Timing, preparation, and execution are key strategies for launching any successful meeting. In my opinion, these are the most critical components of all meetings, to provide the best experience for the client. If one of these 3 components fail, it’s a high likelihood that the meeting or event will not have the desired outcome.
What is the one must-have for every event?
Personally, being invited to multiple events, what makes me click the ‘accept’ button is if the content is engaging and if it is delivered by speakers that can grab and hold the attention of the attendees, giving them value for their invested time.
Timing, preparation, and execution are key strategies for launching any successful meeting. In my opinion, these are the most critical components of all meetings, to provide the best experience.
What makes Miller Tanner Associates stand out as meeting planning company?
In short, Marnie our CEO is the difference between MTA and other planning companies. Not only a visionary in her field, but for me, her human approach and values are what attracted me to MTA in the first place. Marnie is like no other CEO that I have ever come across in my career; she knows each employee, not just by name, but she cares about us as individuals, knows about our lives, knows our family’s names, our pets’ names, and our clients. She recognises that we are all different and gives us the tools to create our own destiny. Marnie takes time from her busy role to coach us on a 1:1 level and always attends our weekly team meetings to offer her support to us. The culture of MTA derived from Marnie and 26 years+, the company values are at the forefront of everything that we do.
What do you do for fun?
Being a ‘Dog Mom’ to two British Bulldogs, takes up most of my time nowadays but my key goal in life is to give back to the planet where possible, something that our dogs can be involved in too. Growing up next to the water in a small, but beautiful, seaside village, I was encouraged by my parents to be an active member of many volunteer groups, such as Tidy Towns, Clean Coasts, and other sustainability groups. This means that my weekends are usually spent with likeminded locals, picking up litter (and recycling the finds at the local recycling banks), planting trees, initiating recycling programs in local schools, collecting items for people that need it or volunteering in the local charity shop or clubs.
Recycling and sustainability are a huge part of my life. Following the motto “There is No Planet B“, I am aware of our impact on the environment and try my best to avoid adding to the problem by choosing to walk / cycle instead of driving, making home-made natural cleaning products, re-using before we buy, and avoiding as much plastic items as possible within our home. We recycle the majority of our household waste such as wine corks that are collected for the local schools for arts & crafts, to bottle caps that are collected for 3D printing. We compost, collect our own rainwater, and try to make our home as environmentally efficient as possible. Avoiding fast fashion or upcycling is a way of life, planting wildflowers to attract bees, adding bug hotels and bird feeding stations to your garden are just some of the very small things that we can do to encourage sustainability.
I recently qualified as a human nutrition coach and even more recently, I completed a course on the importance of the role of nutrition for dogs. Further educating myself on the importance of nutrition, in not just humans, but our pets, is something that I thoroughly enjoy.
For hobbies, I enjoy playing tennis, attending reformer pilates, sailing, or generally helping my family and friends plan events such as birthday parties, weddings, or doggy gatherings.
Visit www.millertanner.com to learn more about MTA and our associates. Get to know our associates by following us on Instagram for behind-the-scenes with our team.
