Joe Blackman: From Global Events to International Business and Trade
Joe Blackman MBE is an events industry entrepreneur whose career has taken him from building a company from a bedroom in Wales to planning events around the world for global business leaders, entertainers, professional sportspeople and members of royal families.
More recently, he has broadened his work beyond events, using the international relationships and experience built over two decades to work on projects helping with global business expansion and trade development with a specific interest in the creative industries and services sectors. Based in Austin, Texas, he continues to produce selected bespoke events while advising businesses on developing international opportunities and connecting people and organisations across markets. His recent work has a strong focus on the relationship between the United Kingdom and United States, as well as broader connectivity into Asia and the Middle East.
For more information about his background, current work and professional activities, visit Joe Blackman’s official website.
His career has always been built around a simple idea: bringing people, ideas and opportunities together.
“I’m probably at my happiest when somebody says, ‘I’ve got an idea, but I’m not quite sure how to make it happen.’”
That instinct has remained a defining feature of Joe Blackman’s career, even as his work has evolved far beyond the events industry.
Who Is Joe Blackman?
Joe is a British entrepreneur whose international career spans bespoke events, creative industries and global business, with a particular focus on developing relationships and opportunities across markets.
He began his entrepreneurial journey at a young age, eventually building the events company that became Collection 26. However, his professional story extends well beyond that business.
After exiting Collection 26, Joe Blackman continues to work on selected private and international events while broadening his career into global business, trade and citizen diplomacy. His events background remained central to that evolution, with the relationships built through projects around the world leading to new opportunities across business, creative industries and international markets, particularly between the UK and US.
He has travelled to more than 70 countries and has worked with an unusually broad range of clients and organisations. For Blackman, those experiences reinforced the importance of relationships.
“I’ve always been passionate about bringing people together. Events taught me very early that the real value isn’t simply what happens in the room, but the relationships, ideas and opportunities that can come from it. I think business works in much the same way. Ultimately, it comes down to understanding people, connecting them and creating something they genuinely value.”
That philosophy continues to shape Joe’s work today.
Joe Blackman and His New Chapter in America
Joe Blackman initially moved to New York as he expanded his professional interests in the United States. Following the disruption caused by Covid, he relocated to Texas and eventually settled in Austin.
Texas offered Blackman a very different business environment, one he describes as entrepreneurial, ambitious and highly relationship-driven. Austin, in particular, has provided a base from which he can continue producing global events while also developing relationships across technology, creative industries, professional services, hospitality and other sectors.
“I was honestly blown away by the scale of opportunity in Texas,” he says. “It has an economy of around $2.9 trillion, which would make it the eighth-largest economy in the world if it were a country. It also has this extraordinary connectivity to the rest of the United States and increasingly to international markets. The Texas Stock Exchange has also just opened!. You have huge industries, enormous entrepreneurial energy and people who genuinely want to build things. For somebody who has spent most of their career working internationally, that combination is incredibly exciting.”
Rather than leaving his British connections behind, Blackman has increasingly focused on connecting the two markets during his time in the US.
For Joe Blackman, the UK-US relationship represents an opportunity to combine two environments he understands well: Britain’s international expertise and America’s scale and entrepreneurial ambition.
UK-US Business Relationships
When Joe Blackman isn’t travelling the world planning events, much of his work closer to home has increasingly centred on his passion for business, trade and transatlantic connectivity, with a particular focus on strengthening relationships between the UK and US.
His work has included serving as a board director of the British American Business Council and Sister Cities International, alongside extensive involvement with business, civic and diplomatic networks across the United States. He also served as an advisor to the Texas America250 Commission.
Through this work, Blackman has supported relationships between businesses, cities, communities and organisations in the UK and United States.
His involvement has included helping develop the Sister City relationship between Austin and Greater Manchester, including working with Andy Burnham during his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester, before he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2026.
Blackman has also participated in wider initiatives designed to strengthen UK-Texas trade, investment and international relationships, including being involved with the Texas delegation to the UK for the signing of the Statement of Mutual Cooperation between Texas and the United Kingdom. He has hosted and supported international delegations, including the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to the United States.
These activities reflect an increasingly important part of Joe Blackman’s work today: using relationships built over more than two decades in events and international business to connect people, create opportunities and open doors across borders.
Joe Blackman MBE: Recognition for Business and Charity
One of the defining achievements of Joe Blackman’s career came in the 2022 New Year Honours, when he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to business and charity.
For Blackman, the honour was particularly meaningful because it recognised more than commercial achievements, reflecting his wider work across business and charity.
His charitable work has included supporting organisations such as The King’s Trust, mentoring entrepreneurs and contributing to international business relationships and citizen diplomacy efforts.
His charitable work has included supporting organisations such as The King’s Trust, mentoring entrepreneurs and contributing to international business relationships and citizen diplomacy efforts.
“I think that was what made it so meaningful to me,” Blackman says. “Business success is obviously important, but the MBE made me look at the wider picture. It made me reflect on how proud I felt to have supported so many young entrepreneurs from underprivileged backgrounds who simply needed some help getting started, but it also reinforced how good it feels to genuinely give back in whatever small ways you can.
“I think we are all often so busy doing our day jobs that we forget the important little things, like giving some of our time to causes we genuinely care about. The honour felt like recognition of a much broader part of my life, not simply what I had achieved in business.”
Building businesses and winning clients had always provided clear milestones, but the honour represented something different: recognition that the experience and relationships he had built professionally had also created value for other people and organisations.
Arriving at Windsor Castle
Although Joe Blackman has sometimes been associated with Buckingham Palace because of his royal connections and invitations, his MBE investiture took place at Windsor Castle.
The Windsor Castle investiture became one of the most memorable moments of Blackman’s life. It was particularly significant because his mother was able to attend. Her terminal cancer diagnosis meant the investiture was brought forward so she could be there with him.
“For me, the most important part of that day wasn’t really the medal,” Blackman says. “It was having my mum there. She had been so much a part of the journey from the very beginning, through all the difficult moments and the things that somehow worked out, and knowing how ill she was made being able to share that day with her incredibly special. I remember seeing how proud and happy she was, and that means more to me now than almost anything else about the occasion.”
Seeing his mother’s pride and happiness on the day remains one of Blackman’s most important memories. A photograph of the two of them from the occasion is still one of his favourite photographs of her.
Joe Blackman and King Charles III
Joe Blackman’s connection with the British royal family also includes a memorable conversation with King Charles III, who was Prince Charles at the time of Blackman’s investiture.
Blackman had met him several times through his professional work and recalls being struck by his engagement in conversation and his ability to remember previous discussions.
During their conversation, Charles asked about young entrepreneurs Blackman had been mentoring and how their businesses were recovering following Covid.
The exchange eventually became more light-hearted when Blackman asked whether he was nervous about his “next big job” becoming King.
Charles replied:
“Well Joe… I’ve had a long time to think about it!”
The remark made them both laugh as they shook hands, a moment captured in the photograph taken immediately afterwards. The conversation remains a memorable part of Joe’s story.
Global Events
Events remain at the heart of Joe Blackman’s career. Over more than two decades, he has produced private and international events for entrepreneurs, global business leaders, Premier League footballers, musicians, entertainers and members of royal families, particularly in the Middle East.
“I’ve always been fascinated by experience design,” Blackman says. “For me, the best events are never simply about choosing a beautiful venue, great food or entertainment. They’re about orchestrating an entire experience and taking people on a journey from the moment they arrive”
“You think about what they see, hear, taste, touch and feel, how the space changes around them, where the surprises come and how every detail works together. The goal is to create something immersive and deeply personal, something that feels effortless to the guest but has been designed down to the smallest moment.”
That way of thinking has influenced much more than Blackman’s approach to events. Designing experiences at that level requires an understanding of people, trust, creativity, logistics and the ability to bring the right elements together at exactly the right moment.
Today, Blackman continues to work on private and international events around the world, while applying many of the same relationship-led and creative principles to his wider work in global business.
Joe Blackman’s Approach to Entrepreneurship
Although Blackman built his first company at a young age, entrepreneurship for him has never been limited to starting businesses.
He describes himself as someone driven by curiosity and the possibility of turning an idea into something real.
That approach began during childhood, when he would invent small enterprises, and continued into his teenage years when he started his first business.
By the age of 19, he was building an international events company from his bedroom in Wales.
The experience taught him that entrepreneurship demands adaptability. Blackman had to learn as he went, from building websites and marketing the business to hiring people, managing cash flow, understanding accounts and winning new work.
One of the biggest lessons was that credibility is ultimately created by trust.
Today, that experience informs Joe Blackman’s advisory and entrepreneurial work, particularly when helping businesses and leaders navigate international opportunities.
Joe Blackman’s Views on Success
Joe Blackman’s definition of success has changed considerably over the years. Earlier in his career, success was measured differently. Revenue, growth, bigger clients, bigger projects and the next milestone all mattered.
“I think success is about what you create around you,” Blackman says. “I still want to work on extraordinary projects and keep pushing myself, but I’ve also come to appreciate the wider impact your work can have on other people and the communities around you. For me now, success is also very much about the relationships you build around the world, the opportunities you create for others and whether something is genuinely better because you were involved.”
For Blackman, that does not mean replacing commercial ambition with softer measures of success. It means expecting more from it.
“I’ve met incredibly successful people all over the world, and one thing I’ve learned is that money or recognition on their own don’t necessarily make somebody successful or happy. You really have to enjoy the journey you’re on, and value the people who are part of making it happen with you.”
He still believes strongly in growth, achievement and setting difficult goals, but increasingly sees those things as part of a wider picture.
“I want to keep working on amazing projects, but also be able to look back and feel that the work mattered, that I created opportunities for people and that I used whatever experience or relationships I had to do something useful. For me, that’s a much more exciting definition of success.”
The Future
Blackman is currently building a new business venture while continuing to work on international events and creative projects around the world. Although he is keeping the details of the venture private for now, much of his work already brings together the different worlds that have defined his career for more than two decades.
That momentum is increasingly bringing the different strands of Blackman’s work together. Events, entrepreneurship, creative projects, international business and cross-border relationships frequently overlap, with one project, conversation or introduction creating opportunities in another.
“I think that is what excites me most at the moment, and I feel like I’m busier than ever,” he says. “There is so much happening across different parts of my life and work, and increasingly they all connect. I love that one week I can be thinking about the design of an event and the next I’m sitting around a table talking about an international business opportunity. For me, that variety is incredibly energising.”
For Joe Blackman, those connections are becoming an increasingly important part of how he works. Whether producing an international event, advising a business expanding into the US, mentoring an entrepreneur or helping bring together people and organisations on opposite sides of the Atlantic, he remains drawn to ambitious ideas and the possibilities that emerge when the right people come together.
“I’m incredibly excited about the future,” Blackman says. “I have more ideas, more energy and probably more things I want to do than at any other point in my career. I want to keep creating extraordinary experiences, building businesses, travelling, meeting interesting people and finding opportunities in places I perhaps haven’t even thought about yet.”
With a new venture already taking shape in America and an expanding range of international projects underway, Joe is entering one of the busiest and most ambitious periods of his career, bringing together events, entrepreneurship, creativity and international relationships on an increasingly global stage.
