Judith Young talks potcakes, parenting and politics

“You spend two thirds of your life at work, so you should never think of your work as a job, but as an experience.”

“Some of these networking events can be quite stuffy,” said Robin Hall (of Robin Hall HR) as we queued up for coffee, “but this strikes just the right balance”.

Chamber members and guests filled Carluccio’s on Friday morning to hear about Judith Young’s ‘Potty and Eventful Journey’ to business success. The atmosphere was lively as attendees arrived, and after a cup of coffee we were seated and presented with the breakfast of our choice.

“I tend to judge conferences and events based on the food provided,” laughed Laura Evans from Makemedia. Carluccio’s’ cooked breakfast (enjoyed by the majority) did not disappoint, and plates were cleared over business chatter.

Mark Dennis, speaking on behalf of breakfast sponsors Hilton Sharp and Clarke, started the morning’s speeches with a nod to breaking stereotypes. He said he and his colleagues strive to be “proactive accountants” who are not just people you see when it’s tax return time. This led on nicely to the main event; innovative presentation is everything in Judith Young’s line of work.

Born to a family of lawyers and the daughter of Lord Young of Graffham, a prominent figure in the Thatcher government, Judith quipped that her love of all things creative came as “a bit of a shock” to her family. After qualifying as a teacher she decided to put her ambitions to teach children with special needs on hold until “I was 40 and really old and had my own family”. Like many people, Judith diverted from the ‘life plan’ she made as a youngster. She travelled the world, battled skin cancer and is now the owner of a riskily named events production company – Potcakes.

Named after the stray dogs of the Caicos Islands, who are called potcakes by the locals who feed them the crumbs from their cake tins, Judith said the name’s double entendre meant “Customs and Excise were quite curious about what we were doing...”. Judith’s production assistant Sophie Aymonier said the name still invites a giggle from new clients.

Events organising was “love at first sight” for Judith, and six months in she found herself signing confidentiality papers with Alistair Campbell and agreeing to organise the next Labour Party conference. Upon hearing that Judith would be creating a set for the largest political party in Europe, her mother said warily, “You will build it properly, won’t you darling?”. Evidently she did; Potcakes worked with the Labour Party for the next nine years.

Judith also had some sage advice for when things go wrong. First, “Anything important, back it up...[because] if it can go wrong, it will try to”. Backups saved her slides for an all day Woolworths event after a “catastrophic systems failure” eight minutes before showtime. The transitions were lost, but because the slides were there and her team worked fast, Judith’s clients were none the wiser.

Second, “Find a solution before you present a problem”. Upon losing all communication with her backstage crew at an Eriksson show because their headsets overheated, the event was run through the use of mobile phones which, Judith joked, was rather appropriate at a telecoms show.
After ten years in London, Judith moved Potcakes to Brighton in 2010. She said “To me, this is a media capital that Soho was in London ten years ago”. Against all the odds, Judith had a baby girl last year, and she said this makes the city even more special to her.

Things are moving quickly these days, with 3D and even 4D productions becoming the norm. “People don’t just want to look at a stage anymore,” she said, “so a lot of our shows now involve interaction”.

Judith finished with one last piece of advice: “You spend two thirds of your life at work, so you should never think of your work as a job, but as an experience.”

“I’m still shaking!” she said, as she sat down. “It was a bit nerve-wracking, I was finding it hard to turn my pages!”

Attendees – both first timers and regulars – enjoyed hearing a speech packed so full of colourful anecdotes. Richard Excell, of Excell Design, said “It’s always nice to hear the human side.”

Judith’s speech struck a chord with female guests. Laura Evans said it was always interesting to hear from female speakers because it showed business moving away from the gender gap.

From the round of hearty applause Judith received, it was clear Chamber members loved hearing about business from a pottier perspective.

By Sarah Morgan

Sarah is a trainee journalist and runs the blog Bright [as a butt] on

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