With over twenty years' service to Scotland’s events industry, Verity Blanchard has extensive strategic and operational experience across a diverse portfolio of high profile, large-scale and award-winning events, projects and programmes for private clients and the public sector.

Working strategically with a range of stakeholders and partners (from government and the emergency services to national cultural institutions and international sport federations), she has led the planning and operational delivery of several complex, site-specific events from concept to debrief.

Her work history includes over a decade at Castle Concerts and Unique Events, where she latterly led the detailed operational planning for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay as Head of Operations, liaising with the joint agencies as a member of the Safety Advisory Group to develop health and safety and contingency plans. She also represented Unique in the Multi-Agency Control Centre as Bronze and Shadow Silver Commander for the flagship 75,000 capacity Street Party.

Verity was also the first, and longest serving, employee of 2023 Cycling World Championships Limited which delivered the inaugural mega event for the Scottish Ministers, a project which presented significant scale and complexity as one of the biggest international sporting events ever hosted in the UK.

Verity has fulfilled several roles for VisitScotland / EventScotland including the management of grant funding programmes, the delivery of a national Themed Year events programme, project management and corporate governance roles and most recently national/regional events strategy as Senior Manager – Regional/Destination events.