About Vic Elizabeth Turnbull
Vic is a podcast producer and music geek and runs MIC media, her podcast production company. For a more up-to-date glance of what they get up to head to their website here.
MIC media is a social enterprise that amplifies often underheard stories and voices. In 2022, MIC won the Silver Award in the Grassroots Production category at the Audio Production Awards and in the same year nominated for a Manchester Culture Award. MIC’s also received a nomination in the British Podcast Awards and the Manchester Publicity Awards (MPA).
Also in 2022, Vic contributed to The Guardian and Third Sector news as a podcast specialist.
In recognition of her achievements to date, Vic features in the Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise List 2022 (WISE 100, Natwest and Pioneers Post), was nominated as the ‘Social Impact Star’ at the Inspiring Women Changemakers Awards (2019), is recognised as a role-model on the prestigious Northern Power Women Future List 2017. In 2019 she was awarded a place on the competitive School for Social Entrepreneurs and Lloyds Bank start-up business development programme.
Originally and proudly from Sheffield, Vic decided that after her GCSE’s, she was done with the formalities of education, and went down a more vocational route, from a National Diploma in Media Production at College, to then graduating with HND in the same subject from Salford Uni. Vic’s been an honorary Manc for eighteen years and now her accent is a hybrid Lancashire / Yorkshire, super Northern one.
She’s a massive advocate of the power of informal learning, DIY approaches and talent as routes to success and amplifying underrepresented voices.
Current work
MIC media
Vic founded MIC in 2019. It’s a social enterprise that makes podcasts for people and trains other folk how to produce their own.
She’s produced podcasts for the Co-op, National Football Museum, Children’s University, the People’s Powerhouse and Manchester City Council.
Vic also delivers podcast workshops and coaches new podcast producers. MIC’s delivered sessions for the likes of the University of Manchester, Salford College, PIE and Yellow Jigsaw.
MIC's Podcast Club
In 2018, she founded ‘MIC’s Podcast Club’ a community for podcast creators with regular meetups and learning events.
As of early 2023, the community of podcasters has 1,000 members.
Vic started the events as a way for pro audio producers and DIY podcasters to come together, learn from each other, spark new collaborations – over a beer.
MIC Podcast Clubs also have the odd special guest and have included podcast guru Arielle Nissenblatt, Brown Girls Do It Too and BBC Sounds commissioners.
The latest events can be found on MIC’s meetup page here.
Pods Up North
Vic’s the co-founder and Director of Pods Up North, the north of england’s first conference for the podcaster community.
Sponsored by Spotify, inaugural, sellout event held in Manchester, Nov 2019
Attracted 150 delegates, 33 speakers, 18 workshops & sessions
Speakers included Jonathan Wall (BBC Sounds), Craig Parkinson (Two Shot Pod, Line of Duty), Gay and a Non Gay, Emma Goswell (BBC Manchester, Gaydio) and The Naked Podcast
Scheduled to run over two days in Nov 2020!
Tourist
Her own podcast is called Tourist, an alternative travel guide with comedians and well-known faces.
The hilarious podcast has featured the likes of Daliso Chaponda, Britain’s Got Talent finalist 2017, international stand up comic Christian Reily, Canadian stand-up Alison June Smith and award-winning writer and comedian Katie Mulgrew.
These guys have visited places such as Wigan for the best pie and the stunning John Rylands Library in Manchester.
Speaker
Vic is a regular panelist and speaker.
Her recent appearances include
– BIPC Manchester’s Start-up day
– Off The Record festival
– Sound City Plus
– The MPA
– DivaManc’s ‘Divas In Action‘
– The Inclusive Growth Unit’s Local Approaches to Improving The Quality of Work’ conference
– Flourish CIC’s ‘Going It Alone’ event
– Northern Power Women’s ‘Northern Power Futures’ Conference 2018.
Work from the not so distant past
Silent Radio
She’s the former Director of the independent music website, Silent Radio.
Vic’s also co-Founder, Exec-Producer and Presenter of the Silent Radio show, which has been broadcast live on MCR.Live and FAB Radio International. It features regularly in the Mixcloud Top 30 Indie & Alternative charts.
Vic joined Silent Radio in 2010 and quickly came part of the furniture, and became a founding company director in 2016.
Her fan girl moments include interviewing The Buzzcocks and Mark Morris from The Bluetones.
Music & Host
Vic hosted the Manchester edition of the global music movement ‘Classic Album Sundays’
She also hosts other creative events, including interviewing the cult art project Bands FC and Grammy award-winning producer Steve Levine at music venue 33 Oldham Street – opened by the guys behind Bluedot Festival and Kendal Calling.
Vic also plays music to people, founding her own music night Road To Joy and DJing across Manchester including the legendary Night & Day cafe. She also releases regular mixtapes on Spotify and Mixcloud.
Government
Liasing with local and national Government.
As part of working with the amazing charities UpRising and NOISEfestival.com (see below), Vic’s had her fair share of pitching, presenting and promoting their causes to the leaders of this country, including Andy Burnham (then MP for culture), Alistair Darling (as Chancellor of the Exchequer), Jack Straw (then Leader of the House of Commons), Lucy Powell MP, Yvette Cooper MP (as Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and Rushanara Ali MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
TV & Radio
Vic’s further media production credits includes,
A unique documentary for BBC 5Live Drive, exploring the journey of four unemployed young people as they tried to find work. The Production was a co-pro with NOISE and Wise Buddha. Jonathan Wall, 5Live Commissioner, cited the project as one of the ambitious programmes the station had commissioned, since it’s move North. More here.
Back in the day she also did internships with BBC Radio Manchester and Hits Radio – which were then BBC GMR & Key 103 – that’s how long ago it was!
Vic also has international TV Production Management credits under her belt, (BBC, ZDF / Arte, Smithsonian…) with Urban Canyons, a production and distribution company, based in Manchester.
This includes ‘Krush on The Drom’ a ground-breaking documentary that followed the lives of a group of young Gypsy and Travellers from West Yorkshire. Vic also worked with the young people to help them to achieve a GCSE equivalent qualification for video production.
She was once invited to be a judge for one of Italy’s biggest new music festivals, staged in Naples. Other judges included Italian TV presenters and music journalists. It was a very random few days indeed
UpRising
From 2014 to 2017 Vic was Fundraising and Marketing Manager, as part of the senior management team at UpRising, the UK’s leading, youth leadership development charity.
Here she,
– Lead national projects such as, conceiving viral, Register To Vote campaigns for the Cabinet Office.
– Secured top-level, cross-sector backing (Bruntwood, Brother UK, PwC, Grant Thornton, Siemens, Liverpool, GMCA, Manchester City, Oldham and Trafford Councils, Bank of England…)
– Designed innovative youth development programmes (Find Your Power outreach, getting graduates into meaningful employment…)
– Contributed to significant fundraising efforts (Big Lottery Fund, Esmée Fairbairn Young Manchester, setting up online giving systems…)
– Engaged senior-level mentors and programme speakers for young people from underrepresented backgrounds, including leaders from the BBC, AstraZeneca, NHS and Arup.
As UpRising’s North Regional Manager (before the Fundraising & Marketing gig), she spent eighteen months, building the reputation, reach, support and internal working culture for UpRising North and managing delivery teams and offices in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City region.
In 2017, her application saw the charity win in the Innovation Category at the inaugural Social Mobility Awards, in addition to the charity being nominated at the Spirit of Manchester and North West Charity Awards.
Her most favourite bit of working with UpRising was seeing the young participants receive life-changing outcomes from the programmes delivered by her teams in the North
NOISEfestival.com
She’s the former Deputy Director of NOISEfestival.com, Europe’s leading promoter of emerging creative talent.
During her eight and a half years at the award-winning, national charity, she helped secure new creatives massive media exposure (BBC R1, 1Xtra…), showcases at impressive locations (Downing Street, House of Commons, Liverpool Biennial, V&A, Urbis, ICA, Manchester Town Hall, People’s History Museum) enabled them to get recognition from the best in the business, including (Brian Eno, Boiler Room, Wayne Hemingway, Doc Brown, Tom Dixon, Dame Zaha Hadid, Giles Deacon, Ian Livingstone, Peter Saville, Badly Drawn Boy, Tim Marlow…).
Starting as an intern in 2006, her time at NOISE also included a myriad of exciting and pioneering projects, including,
12 months as the Operations Manager for NOISELAB, Europe’s largest pop-up shop project, designed as a creative ‘street university’ on Manchester’s Market Street. The Manchester City Council-backed project attracted 42,000 visitors, with top creative guests such as Peter Hook, Mr Scruff, Virus Syndicate, Pete Fowler, Pure Evil, Mark Wigan and Jon Burgerman who staged free workshops, talks and masterclasses. The three-storey former shoe shop, also featured a retail space for new creatives, a performance area, an exhibition floor and a cafe that employed young, and out of work, people as part of the Future Jobs Fund scheme (RIP).
Vic also worked on KiosKiosk, an unique, rent and commission-free retail opportunity for new creatives, right outside the Town Hall in London, in partnership with Hemingway Design and the Mayor of London.
She flexed her fundraising skills at NOISE too, helping the charity to secure funding from the likes of the European Commission, Arts Council and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities.
As part of the Charity’s Festival of new creative talent in 2014, she worked with advertising legends Publicis and Bartle Bogle Hegarty for the celebration’s promotions and campaigns, including the set-up and hosting of Google Hangout masterclasses with Festival curators including legendary illustrator Gerald Scarf, fashion designer Giles Deacon and acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Elaine Constantine.
Singing to the massive geek that she is, Vic’s worked on innovative, online technology for talent to track and promote their achievements online via the NOISEfestival.com portfolio platform.
