The founder of Mass Movement talks to Craig Hough about her career and new venture born during lockdown 

Together with her team of creative directors and choreographers, Nadia is responsible for producing huge spectacles for TV shows, live performances, award ceremonies and corporate events. Mass Movement provide dancers, choreographers, set designers to various shows including Strictly Come Dancing, Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor shows all across the world. The company has also worked on large scale sporting events such as the opening/closing ceremonies for the Champions League and the Olympics. Here, Nadia discusses how she came up with her new venture Waggy Caddy, whilst out walking her dog during lockdown. The product has proven successful amongst celebrity users with stars such as Alexandra Burke, Alex Light, Karen Hauer, Gemma Louise Atkinson, Kate Lawler and Natalie Appleton all happy customers.

Back in the eighties working on conferences for sports fashion brands you noticed that sports matches offered no pre-match entertainment. Having spoken to Wembley officials you convinced them of your vision to have entertainment before big games and were handed the 1991 Rugby World Cup closing ceremony with just a week’s notice. How did you cope with that kind of pressure and how did you manifest this vision?

Fortunately, I was working on other projects alongside Wembley’s preferred technical house (who had delivered Live Aid from Wembley), so I knew we could handle the technical aspects needed like high quality broadcast sound, deliver an incredible daylight pyrotechnic display, design and build large scale staging and provide all the technical wizards needed to support my vision - the theme of which was carnival.

My technical team thought I was slightly mad but definitely wanted to be involved as there had never been anything like it before, so we all threw ourselves into it working round the clock. When I think back, we must have been mad as we had just five days to find 300 school children who had to be choreographed to the second, dressed in team colours and taught to perform a large-scale performance on the hallowed turf.

On top of that, we had to engage 250 members of the army to form the sponsor’s logo in human form on the pitch to be broadcast from the blimp in the air, design and build giant colourful carnival floats - one for each of the two finalists teams and employ skilled carnival entertainers both on the floats and around the perimeter of the pitch, which in those days was called the ‘dog track’.

We also had to book about 150 other performers from jugglers to stilt-walkers, to face painters, who worked outside the stadium to create the magic before the fans entered the arena, contact record labels and book a major international artist to perform from the centre stage. We had to manufacture flags from all the countries that had taken part and create a giant parade ahead of the finalists entering to play the match.

Thankfully everything went off perfectly and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. I can’t say I’d ever do an event of that size in five days again though…but you live and learn! Thinking about it now still gives me goosebumps as what the team accomplished in five days should really have taken at least two weeks.

After the success of this event, how did you see your company grow?

It was amazing really as we were then approached by different sporting bodies, like the FA, RFU, ECB, UEFA and other stadias and suddenly, before we knew it, we had carved out a whole new industry for literally thousands of skilled professionals and made entertainment part of every major sports event. it has brought fun and spectacle to so many occasions now I can’t imagine it not being part of any sporting event.

You credit Simon Cowell as one of your business idols. As a successful business entrepreneur, what is it about Mr Cowell that inspires you?

I think it was just his total belief that whatever he said he would do he did. it wasn’t that he  had any specific experience when he started out either, just the total belief he could do it.

Have you had the opportunity to work with him – how was the experience? 

I met him originally at BMG. in those days I was managing a classical crossover group called Amici Forever, who were three guys and two girls – all fully trained opera singers. I had put them together and signed them to BMG and he was in the audience. He saw Amici Forever and promptly went on to form Il Divo. I like to think he learned something from me on that occasion!

As it’s our celebration issue, can you share some stories from some of your favourite events you’ve worked on?

Oh my goodness I’ve been so fortunate to do a whole raft of different amazing things. I guess a couple of the ones that spring to mind were bringing home ‘The Ashes’ to Trafalgar Square, which was just incredible, and, for the Commonwealth Games, we did the baton relay handover with Her Majesty the Queen in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. That was quite a moment going for production meetings at the Palace and parking my mini in the forecourt!

But my all-time favourite was producing the World Sports Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. Icons like Mohammed Ali, Buzz Aldrin, Bryan Adams, Jimmy Connors, Damon Hill - in fact anyone who was anyone was there either receiving or presenting awards or in the audience. During the event we were presenting a lifetime achievement award to Mohammed Ali, which was being given by Prince Albert of Monaco, Sir Roger Moore and Lennox Lewis. With 55 seconds to go (and we were live to the world) Lennox went missing! I mean I couldn’t believe a Stage Manager assigned to him could actually lose Lennox Lewis … he is pretty hard to lose as he isn’t exactly small.

Pandemonium ensued backstage but he was found in the nick of time outside the stage door chatting to a fan and he was literally pushed onto the stage with no one any the wiser… phew!

With events looking set to return to some kind of normality– is there one event you aspire to work on?

It’s been a very difficult time for the events industry, but we are proud to be working on the UEFA Euro 2020 final closing ceremony on July 11th at Wembley Stadium - which was postponed from last year due to covid. It will be nice to start this next chapter off where I began the first chapter. I just love what I do to be honest and am grateful we all get to go back to doing what we do best. I would love to do the Superbowl but they don’t really need me…but never say never.

During lockdown you launched a new business venture. Where did the idea for Waggy Caddy come from?

The pandemic and lockdown hit our industry extremely hard as theatres closed and live events were cancelled. With more time on my hands than usual, I was walking my gorgeous cockapoo Bentley every day at the local park in North London and it didn’t take me long to realise that there were suddenly a vast amount of new puppies around - with new owners - as well as a lot more people walking their dogs.

We were all laden down with a vast array of doggy stuff - balls, chuckers, water bottles, poo bags, frisbees etc. The inside of my car was also littered with more of Bentley’s stuff and the boot was a disgrace. It occurred to me that while I was waiting for my industry to right itself, I had time to create a solution to the problem of having to fill my pockets and car with all this stuff all over the place.

I did my research and could not find anything that gave you everything you needed in one simple carry bag that would make an owners’ life simple and do away with all the mess and having to stuff  pockets with everything as well as clipping poo bags and water bottles to my coat. There was a huge gap in the market, and I decided to make Bentley his own easy to carry suitcase.

I knew all these dog owners would have all of this stuff all over the place and if there was a way to provide doggy essentials conveniently and provide specially curated items for their fun, health and safety - and if it could be delivered in a clever carry all bag that would be a massive help to the owners.

I spoke to scores of dog owners that I saw out and about over a couple of months and made a list of every item they said they needed for their puppy or dog and it came to a staggering 19 items. Waggy Caddy was the answer - 19 doggy essentials specifically curated and delivered to your door in a clever carry-all bag. And for owners who already had an abundance of dog stuff and do not need the essential items, they could simply purchase the bag to store everything in

Tell us more about your four legged friend Bentley? 

Bentley has been very busy…He is the CEO of WAGGY CADDY. Without him and all his stuff it would never have come about. He is our product tester and our brand ambassador. He features on all our ads. He is a busy boy and loving it. He has always loved everybody and everything and now he really enjoys being the boss for real. He loves his walks and the fact I can find everything he needs in an instant… 

www.waggycaddy.com

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