Stephen McLean is an Events Partnerships Manager at VisitScotland with a broad track record spanning major championships, city‑wide programmes, festivals, and destination strategies having recently returned to VisitScotland.

On the strategic side, Stephen has advised local authorities and destinations, including working with Purple Moon on the development of the Halifax Regional Events Strategy and Major Events Policy, contributing to Liverpool City Region events strategy work, and refreshing the Scottish Borders Events Strategy before designing a follow‑on workshop series for local organisers. He has collaborated with Edinburgh’s Festivals on a sector skills research project, connecting talent pipelines with industry needs.

Stephen supported partnership integration for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships and contributed to business engagement and planning for SportAccord 2024 and Glasgow 850 with MIH Major Events. Stephen has worked closely with festivals and cultural organisations, providing practical funding and development support to the Borders Book Festival and undertaking strategic reviews with Purple Moon for Aye Write & Wee Write Festivals.

Earlier in his career at EventScotland, Stephen produced the National Events Conference (2015) and developed the EventScotland seminar programmes that brought practitioners together to share innovation, funding know‑how, and best practice an approach he continues to champion across Scotland’s events ecosystem.  Previous VisitScotland projects including Homecoming Scotland 2014 and the Year of Food and Drink 2015.