FIRST appoints Katie Weston to oversee global embedded team offering

Global brand experience agency FIRST, which operates out of New York, Los Angeles, London, Dublin and Singapore, has announced the promotion of Katie Weston (pictured) to head of solutions. The post is a new role created to oversee the reorganisation of FIRST Solutions, the agency’s proprietary strategic meetings management model. The delivery model is designed to help clients maximise the effectiveness of experience and roadshow teams through a combination of custom outsourcing, operational consultancy, and recommendations based on in-depth data analysis and insights. The team members act as an extension of in-house teams. Weston will report to CEO, Group & CEO, Americas, Maureen Ryan Fable. “FIRST Solutions is on track for record growth in 2021,” said Maureen Ryan Fable and Weston added that moving to a more globally aligned operating model would allow the agency “to cohesively manage its growing number of accounts and continue to provide curated and tailored solutions to each”. “Demand for outsourced business models, especially within the event and brand experience function, has been increasing over the past five years. It has been significantly accelerated due to the pandemic, as the ability for large corporations to scale up and down as needed is of significant value,” Maureen Ryan Fable added.