Emma Broom, Director and Founder of Opulence, knows a thing or two about event management.

As a 2015 Event Management graduate, Emma propelled herself into the fast-paced world of events, working for some of London’s leading barristers straight out of University.

Working both simultaneously for Chambers and for 60 individual barristers was an exciting challenge that saw Emma skilling-up pretty quickly.

“It was like having 60 different bosses and keeping them all happy, but I absolutely loved it,” she said.

“I delivered all of their marketing and events which included private dining, seminars, overseas conferences and large parties. It was the perfect job to do out of uni as it was ‘go, go, go’, but I live in Kent, and when I started working in London I wasn’t sure if I could live there as well. After three and a half years I knew I couldn’t.”

The lure of the lush Kent countryside, made Emma re-evaluate her career and she started looking closer to home for event opportunities.

“In Kent we are surrounded by vineyards. Hush Heath (now known as Balfour Winery), for instance, is just five minutes from where I live.”

“They have a 200-seater tasting room and one day I was sitting in this beautiful building, and I thought: ‘Surely they need an event manager?’ A week later they advertised and I got the job.”

After organising some amazing events there, the first lockdown happened in 2020 and Emma did what everyone was doing at the time – pitching in wherever she was needed.

“No events meant no customers, so I was packing up orders and helping on the bottling line. We eventually reopened to the public for walks, but no wine tasting.”

During those tough few years for everyone in events, Emma pivoted back to working for barristers in London, specialising in marketing and online events.

Eventually, she couldn’t wait to share with them what she had started to develop in Kent.

“Because I’d had that experience with English wine, I started taking clients to vineyards in Kent. The journey time from London made it a really easy getaway and the feedback was everyone felt safe and that they were doing something different.”

News of Emma’s new event-ures with vineyards started to spread and fellow event manager friends were asking her for advice on running similar events when an idea struck.

“They were asking me how I did the wine tasting events and through helping them I saw a gap in the market so I took a leap – and in 2022 Opulence was launched.”

Emma took on everything herself – from building a website and designing a logo to logistics – she did it all and within one month of launching Opulence, she had nine clients ready to experience tastings and tours at four different vineyards.

“I now work with lots more clients, taking them to seven (soon to be eight) Kent vineyards,” she confirmed.

“It’s been amazing, and the bookings grow year on year. We take care of everything: transport, gifting, table plans etc. and create exclusive events at vineyards that aren’t open to the public, such as a boutique artisan winery called Herbert Hall that make wine for King Charle’s Highgrove collection and supply F&M and Harrods.

“They are great to work with and really care about what they do. The Owner and Winemaker host the tastings for our clients and they have unique touches, such ashand-signing every bottle. Taking groups to them is such an incredible experience.”

Emma’s aim is to deliver unique, memorable events for the delegates and to ultimately make things seamless for the event managers or PA’s.

“They are so busy with everything else they don’t have time to talk to five different logistics providers.

“We can even deal with all the invites and handle dietary requirements as well as taking care of the experience itself and organising all transport.

“Because I have been on ‘that side’ I know what people are looking for - even down to finest details.

“You have a great schedule of how you want the day to go, but it never runs to that minute. Then someone’s missed the train and it seems chaotic - but to us it’s no problem. We can work with that and advise, and if something urgent comes up and someone needs to get back to London instead of the event manager worrying about it, we can sort this out. We take the stress out of it all.”

Feedback so far has been remarkable with clients reporting that delegates are enjoying this type of experience over some of the more traditional hospitality offerings.

“Clients tell us that they don’t have to chase invites in for a vineyard experience – they get acceptances within the hour.

“The vineyards are beautiful and it’s wonderful to host your event out in the countryside.

“There is a nice variety of vineyards to take clients for tastings, tours and lunches and we can visit more than one vineyard per event.

“What’s also great is that people can really bond and talk as they enjoy the day; it’s so different to a hospitality box in a stadium where you can only talk to the people around you. These tours provide a way of networking fluidly.”

Event managers looking for in-house team building options will also be satisfied here with Opulence’s options and extensions.

“We can provide a great team bonding day,” said Emma.

“Teams aren’t stuck to their favourite people as the activities require people to be mixed-up and joining in.

“For instance, at harvest time (end of September or October) people can get involved in the picking together.

“Especially at smaller vineyards, we can do a morning’s picking, then a lovely lunch and a tasting, including tasting the first juice from the grapes they have just picked”

“Four or five years down the line they can have the bottle of wine with the grapes they picked on that day.”

And it’s not just the wine that appeals – many come for the ‘destination’ feel and for the educational aspect.

“People like learning about the vineyard lifecycle which is like a form of farming, which is fascinating, and the conservation element - how vineyards manage wildlife.

“Lunches are all locally sourced and menus are changed seasonally which is great for repeat clients.

“We can make up hampers from different vineyards and there are many options for non-drinkers that include candles and apple juices made locally, a sort of ‘taste the best of Kent’ gift.”

And for client events that want to serve little or no alcohol, that can be achieved, too.

“There are plenty of non-alcoholic sparkling wines and juices and we create an experience where all guests do the juice tasting as well. The wines are phenomenal but so are the non-alcoholic offerings.

“It’s about having that experience that people do together. Even if people don’t know each other they have that talking point: the juice or the wine they are tasting as well as the incredible food.

“One thing still fascinates me about the world of English wine is that people don’t know these vineyards exists and how easy it is to come out of London.

“I’m hoping to change that.”