Big opportunities coming at TweedLove

It’s 14 years since TweedLove Bike Festival was created and its founder Neil Dalgleish will soon be stepping back.

TweedLove has had a big part to play in the development of MTB in the Tweed Valley, and through literally hundreds of events has helped bring MTB and bike racing/participation to a much wider audience. When we first started, most MTB events consisted of an ez-up in a rainy carpark, with very basic production and a fry-up van if you were lucky. Now TweedLove festival is one of the best-produced and most enjoyable MTB events in the UK and continues to provide inspiration for countless other events in the UK and beyond.

But it’s time for change, and with Neil concentrating more on other business, there’s an important role to be filled here, influencing the direction, production and delivery of some of the best MTB events you’ll find anywhere, all on a fantastic Scottish stage offering some of the best MTB riding on earth. At TweedLove, we also have the best, friendliest and most positive team you could ever hope to work with.

So if you have suitable energy, experience and passion for mountain biking (and probably other bike projects too), there’s a big opportunity here. An ability to manage a huge number of organisational areas within the events business is essential – you’ll have a hand in almost every part of operations.

Here’s a list of useful attributes for helping to write the next chapter of TweedLove’s story. You’ll need to have quite a few of these, while others can be picked up along the way.

• You love riding bikes
• You love the Tweed Valley
• Relevant event/race experience
• Indepth local trail knowledge
• Sound business head, and an eye for opportunity/increased revenue
• Ability to deal with private and public sector partners
• An interest in community and valley politics
• Willingness to take on serious responsibility
• Marketing, promo and brand management skills
• Solid writing ability and a flair for communications
• Creativity and ideas for new/developing events and business practice
• Event Safety knowledge
• Bike industry experience/familiarity
• You’re a team player and an effective team leader
• Multiple plate spinning skills
• You work very well under pressure
• You can put in long hours when required
• A very pro-active approach

We realise there will be few people who can immediately tick all of these boxes – it’s possible that the right individual can grow into the role, with more responsibility taken on as knowledge and experience grows. It’s envisaged you’d join the team later this year.

Lots of people dream of a creative career in the bike and/or outdoor industries and this can definitely be one of them – there’s a lot to enjoy. It’s a big job with great satisfaction and potential reward, and some flexibility too, but it requires an experienced individual who’s serious about making things happen and has big reserves of energy and motivation. Tough graft at times and definitely not stress-free, but for the right person it will rarely feel like hard work.

If this is of serious interest, please send your CV and a write a brief note of self-introduction and what you could bring to the future of TweedLove to neil@hillsideoutside.com. Detail on how the role would work, specific responsibilities and remuneration package will be worked out in consideration of experience, abilities and commitment.

photo Matt Wragg