Marcus Evans - SMG Im another fool who was scammed Berlin Germany

I have worked for Marcus Evans mainly on summit sales in Amsterdam, Berlin and Sydney. I was with the company for more than 3 years. The work is a bit repetitive and mind numbing in some ways, having to make 150 phone calls a day and being monitored on your daily activity sucks to be honest. However there are some serious pluses. Work hours are 8:30 to 17:30, once you leave the office that's it - over for the day you can leave it all behind and go out and enjoy yourself with no worries. The commission was laways paid when due with no messing about.

You spend all day speaking to very senior corporate execs in huge companies while trying to sell them one of the summit packagees. This is an excellent platform to earn how to negotiate and perform at the highest level. If you can cold call a huge company, get past all the secretaries and get the CEO or other C-level exec on the phone make sense to him and close a sale then you have a skill that very few people posess and this will be in great demand for the rest of your life.

I am Managing Partner of an Investment Bank these days in which I am one the founding partners, the skills I developped at Marus Evans and a few other places have been of great use to me in my banking career.

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The downside of course is that there is a high staff turnover because most people cannot do the job as they are unsuited mentally and emotionally to it. You have to make sure that you are one of the successful ones by yourself. My ex-colleagues from time at Marcus Evans have all gone onto excellent senior and very well paid jobs utilizing the skills they developped here. So my advice is give a try, if you are any good you will make lots of money and learn a lot.

If you are no good you wil leave pretty quickly and go and do something less arduous. You won't know which you are however ntil you try. Those complaining about the place are generally the failures who are looking to blame someone else for their own lack of success.

Hi - I'd like to update this report, especially about Berlin but specifically about Gavin Mayfield. The writer of the report is biased about Berlin. It goes without question that Gavin was the primary problem for many employees in marcusevans. There are some positive comments about Gavin in reply to this report but the data is there to prove otherwise. I can verify the sexual harassment claims and add to them in that Gavin was eventually fired from the Berlin office and as far as I know, marcusevans. A number of people in various offices and regions collected reports, pictures and video of his behaviour and used it in a successful case to have him fired in 2010 or 2011. While I have had good experiences with Gavin myself, he really went out of his way to be unnecessarily bad on most other occasions. In terms of marcusevans itself, problems can be extended to other of companies in the industry. Many of the staff and management have made the easy step to swap conf. company. Advice - avoid the conference business if youhave the option. It can also be difficult to leave the industry once in it.

Hi - I'd like to update this report, especially about Berlin but specifically about Gavin Mayfield. The writer is biased about Berlin. It goes without question that Gavin was the primary problem for many employees in marcusevans. There are some positive comments about Gavin in reply to this report but the data is there to prove otherwise. I can verify the sexual harassment claims and add to them in that Gavin was eventually fired from the Berlin office and as far as I know, marcusevans. A number of people in various offices and regions collected reports, pictures and video of his behaviour and used it in a successful case to have him fired in 2010 or 2011. While I have had good experiences with Gavin myself, he really went out of his way to be unnecessarily bad on most other occasions. In terms of marcusevans itself, problems can be extended to other of companies in the industry. Many of the staff and management have made the easy step to swap conf. company. Advice - avoid the conference business. It can also be difficult to leave the industry once in it.

I was in South Africa the same time as Gavin when Marcus Evans was known by some other name! Yes they use hard tough techniques, some are worse than others but there are (were) also some really good people there. I can honestly say though that Gavin was always perfectly charming in his natural Oz way and supportive to me and I have some very fond memories of that part of my life. Perhaps you are just not used to Australian men :-) !!

The term for this charming and now portly GM (General Manager) is best termed as a 'ladies man!' I guess - even though he is somewhat older now, but still fond of the ladies from what you say in Berlin? I had heard a while back he had settled down with a Russian lady (young girl!? perhaps who wants to escape Russia for a better life...and is happy to turn a blind eye). In SA he had a girlfriend/s and was well liked when I was there. I am very sorry to hear he is despised by those in Berlin, I always found him a perfect gentleman and before you ask - no I'm not ugly!! Does he fair any better in Amsterdam? I have not been to either for several years and have lost contact...

I have since been a supplier to Marcus Evans (and yes we got paid!!) and was subsequently sold an event by their Madrid office and became a customer AS WELL ! The event was great, we made good sales, and re-booked for the next year. Unfortunately for me I was made redundant by the US Company I worked for before my 3rd visit with MEvans as a customer.

I do have some concerns over Adnan Quazi in the London office and have subsequently never got too involved - seem to be lots of secrets in there around Adnan Quazi??? but perhaps it's because I don't really know him. Everybody else I have had the pleasure to know there was always been perfectly charming to me!? Am I totally stupid or just lucky? Perhaps they should move Gavin to London and let him work his magic there? It's about time there was some movement in the key offices I imagine...

All the events I ever worked on and attended were top class - they were summits though... I have in the past (a while ago now) socialised with them and I think this is just the lifestyle and way they work. It's clearly for some and not for a lot of others. You will find lots of pretty young girls and hungry young men. Not sure what is happening/will happen now those people that have been there over 15 years who are clearly 15 years older now? Would they employ me now I am 15 years older? not sure - the average age is 20 somethings and I don't think I have the staying power (don't know how they afford it on such low salaries! alright for the GM's) for the 'required' social life..

YES !! I would buy a good summit/event from them at the right price and use them again if I were in the position to do so - I think working for them is good if you can get a senior role and/or are the 'in crowd'.

I wish all past/present/future Marcus Evans employees/suppliers/customers (fish) all the best including Gavin Mayfield - look after and out for yourselves you are all big enough now!! Do let me know what you all think though - surely I am not the only one who has something nice to say??

Hi-I was a higher up and eventually GM of offices in Europe. I can tell you something, firstly, Gavin Mayfield is despised. He was moved from USA to S. Africa then to Europe to avoid sexual harrassment charges in USA, he is one of Marcus' "Golden Boys" FOR NOW. All the girls in Berlin despise him. On a night out he got drunk and reached up my dress--he is a disgusting pig frankly.

I do not believe they think they would be denied. Germany has stricter regulations than other countries for permits, I am surprised they did not offer you another European office but so be it you got lucky if even unlucky. You would likely not have made much more but yes at least made something.

I can tell you from my own experience, I hated Berlin. It, for me, was bitter cold, dreary and frankly I found not much had changed in the German mind since the days of the Nazis---everything is still "I am just following the rules". Germans do not bend, break or consider going against anything but the rules. In fact I owned a flat there and could not get out fast enough! For a visit it is great, but when you get "into the system" you start to see these things, especially if you speak German.

Most of my friends in the Berlin office have moved on, luckily for them. Foreigners, especially Americans come to Europe and seem to look for this magical dream of exotic free-spirited women (the males) or a romantic foreign partner (the females) and a general wild experience where almost anything goes etc. only to find things are not so different. In fact-with respect I must say Germany was a disappointment in the looks department, I personally figured out that the men have a "window period" between about 16-23 or so when they look good then they suddenly get fat and look old-my theory is all the wurst and beer and smoking. The women are not much different, between 16-22 or so they seem to look good then age horribly! Germans are gluttonous to say the least, Gaving Mayfield actually fits in well there. Naturally I am generalising but it is generally my finding. I also found when I had American recruits they usually realised within a year that things were better where they were from.

As for your rights, well you have none. You were never legally in Germany to work so any work you did was at your own risk and trust, there is no recourse. That said, you can file an official complaint in Germany with the government or AMT where Marcus Evans Berlin is located and they will in turn file a complaint with the workers union. The complaint should state you were assured a permit to work and asked to start doing work before the permit was denied repeatedly. This at least is a bit of payback.

My honest and strong advice if you have not done so is go home to USA and try and get yourselves real jobs!