Today we talk to Steph Forman, IBM project manager  and Dorchester Festival organiser

 

  • WHAT I’M CALLED: Steph Forman.
  • MY AGE: 49.
  • WHAT I DO: In my spare time I manage Dorchester Festival, which happens in Dorchester Abbey every two years. As a paid job I manage projects for IBM as a management consultant.
  • WHERE I LIVE: I live in Dorchester, which is not only a beautiful village but also has a fantastic, lively community of 1,000 people, 200 of whom volunteer to help with the festival – everything from pouring tea for a couple of hours to creating a Festival Ball.
  • WHO I LOVE: I love my amazing husband Nick, who calmly supports every mad thing that I volunteer to do. I adore my two children Josh,14, and Ella,11, who are far more clever and more talented than I ever was. We are lucky enough to live in a beautiful 15th century house which we all love. 
  • HAPPIEST YEAR: Really hard to choose, especially as I can never ever remember dates. Happiest years have to be when I got married and had my children, closely followed by some fantastic festival years. I was also fortunate enough to go to a Buckingham Palace garden party in recognition for my work on the Abbey Campaign which raised £4.5m. Great fun.
  • DARKEST MOMENT: Every festival I hit a patch where I simply wonder whether anyone will come. A few organised enthusiasts have bought tickets and then there’s the sales lull. Have I simply organised events that only I want to go to? Friends always remind me that they (inevitably) haven’t bought their tickets yet.
  • PROUDEST BOAST: Dorchester Festival has now raised over £50,000 equally split between the Abbey and local charities. This is money that I could never have afforded to give myself. It also represents great PR for the charities that we’ve worked with and many events which have not made a profit but have got families into our beautiful Abbey or given children from local schools opportunities that they would otherwise never have had.
  • BIGGEST REGRET: That there aren’t more hours in the day. Particularly early when I’m at my best – I am a hopeless dinner party guest because I fall asleep almost as soon as I sit down.
  • WORST WEAKNESS: A complete and total inability to say no when someone asks for my help.
  • LESSON LEARNED: People are happy to give money to charity if you entertain them in return. Everyone will help out if you find the right job for them.
  • DULLEST JOB: Perhaps folding programmes. l GREATEST SHAME: When I came across my three-year old daughter playing “organising festivals” with her friend. They’d drawn posters, sold tickets and were just starting on the performance...
  • LIFE-LONG HERO: I’m always more impressed and touched by the everyday people who demonstrate lifelong cheerful persistence in the face of day-to-day challenges.
  • OLDEST FRIEND: Sarah, who I studied maths with and (against my dating advice) married my brother. I also have to mention my closest Dorchester friends Sue and Caroline without whose support and laughter life would be nowhere near as rich as it is.
  • WIDEST SMILE: The Phil Selway drumming workshop with 48 drum kits going full blast in the Abbey. Aerial artist Matilda Leyser performing from a rope in front of the Abbey wall paintings. Perhaps, simply the little boy who came up to me last weekend and thanked me for giving him the best weekend of his life.
  • FAVOURITE DREAM: That the next festival will somehow organise itself and I will be able to just hang around and smile – but that’s not my style.