Swindon Lives: Michelle Chambers

In our latest edition of Swindon Business Lives, we caught up with Michelle Chambers, of Queen Bee Events - a successful event and party planning company from Swindon.

Where is home and why?
Home is Swindon, I grew up here and although I spent 9 years living and working in London during my twenties I have now returned home to my roots

What inspired you to set up your business here?
Every time I came home from London to visit, Swindon seemed to have got just that little bit bigger, there is so much diversity here and I love the passion that the people of Swindon have about our (not so little anymore) town.

What advice would you give anyone looking to do the same?
Go for it! Research your chosen industry as much as you can and get advice from as many different people as you can, I constantly ask people for their thoughts and feedback and it really helps me to better myself and my business.

What do you think attracts business people to Swindon?
We are in a great location, easy access to London and Bristol which is definitely a pull for businesses who are attracting clients from all over, and I think in recent years events like the Radio One Big Weekend have really helped raised the profile of Swindon.

How do you like to spend your time off?
I really enjoy musical theatre and whenever I have the opportunity I go and watch a show, having been part of a musical theatre group in London it is a big passion of mine. I also love to go out to eat and drink with friends and think we are really lucky here with the amount of great bars and restaurants in and around Swindon.

Your phone book must be full of business contacts, but who is the most famous person in there?
I would probably say Kele Baker who choreographs the Argentine Tango on Strictly Come Dancing, I am very proud to say that Kele has been instrumental in making my ‘Strictly Team Building’ so much fun to work on and I’m really looking forward to creating more of these for the business community in Swindon.

Your 2pm meeting has been cancelled, meaning you now have a two-hour lunch break. What do you do?
I would probably use it as an opportunity to view a new venue and try out their lunch menu at the same time – event management has its perks!

Describe Swindon in three words...
Diverse, Thriving, Unique.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?
Setting up my company, it has been and is still a huge amount of hard work and you give absolutely everything but it is all worth it when you get feedback from a client that they are still talking about the event you created months afterwards.

You've got 20 words to surprise us with. Go...
I was lucky enough to work backstage on the MTV Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen and Live Earth at Wembley Stadium – awesome experiences!