A Place With History
Sometimes work takes you somewhere unexpected.
Earlier in his career, Paul Durbin spent time on-site with a customer in a training role. It was a familiar type of project helping teams get up to speed, working closely with people day-to-day, learning how they operate.
But one detail made it stand out.
“The place I stayed while I was there was actually where my parents had gone for their honeymoon,” he says. “I didn’t know that until I got there. It was a bit surreal.”
That connection brought a different perspective to the work. It was a reminder that the organisations Artifax works with are not just venues or systems. They are places with history, meaning, and stories that go far beyond the day-to-day operations.
“My mum still talks about going there, seeing bands, being part of those moments,” he says. “So being there myself, working with a customer in that environment, it felt quite special.”
That is the world Artifax operates in. Not software installed in a building, but a system woven into the places where culture happens.
Bringing It Over the Line
Some opportunities stand out not because they are straightforward, but because of everything it takes to get them there.
For Paul, one of the most memorable moments in his time at Artifax was working on a large, complex opportunity that required time, persistence, and input from across the entire business.
“It took a long time to get over the line,” he says. “There were so many moving parts. It wasn’t just sales. It involved product, technical teams, APIs, Professional Services. Pretty much every department had a role to play.”
What made it significant was not just the scale, but the collaboration behind it. Different teams coming together, each contributing their expertise, all aligned around a single outcome. It is exactly how the business works at its best: not in silos, but as a connected effort.
Professional Services were involved early, helping to scope the work and ensure the solution genuinely matched the customer’s needs. Technical teams supported the environment and integrations. Product evolved where needed. It was never just about winning the work. It was about making sure it would hold together in practice, that when the customer needed the system to perform, it would.
“That was a really good example of everyone pulling together,” Paul explains. “It showed what we can do when everything lines up.”
Understanding the Work Behind the Work
What comes through in Paul’s experience is that the role is not simply about bringing organisations onto the platform. It is about understanding the complexity behind each one, and working out how Artifax becomes the operational foundation that holds everything together.
Every organisation is different. Some need deep technical input. Others rely more on relationships and trust built over time. Many require both, often at once.
The job is to ask the right questions, bring the right people in at the right moment, and make sure that what is proposed will genuinely work for the people using it every day. Not just in the demo, but on a Tuesday evening when 800 people are about to walk through the door.
“You’re not just selling something,” Paul says. “You’re trying to understand what they need and how we can support that properly.”
Why It Matters
The larger opportunities show what Artifax is capable of when everything comes together: the scale, the cross-functional depth, the ability to support complex operational environments that cannot afford to fail.
The smaller, more personal moments show something equally important: the connection to the sector itself. The fact that these organisations are not just customers. They are part of people’s lives, part of the culture that communities grow up with, come back to, and carry with them.
Together, they are the reason the work matters. Artifax exists to carry the operational weight so that the people running arts and cultural organisations can focus on what they do best. Paul’s role is to make sure that happens, not just at the point of signing, but at every point after.
The Takeaway
For Paul, the most memorable moments are not defined by a single outcome. They are shaped by the process, the collaboration, and the people involved along the way.
Whether it is a complex, cross-functional effort to make sure an organisation has the right operational foundation, or a more personal connection to a place and everything it represents, those are the experiences that stay with you.
“They’re the ones you remember,” he says. “Because they show what the work actually means.”