Fast track with 20 Days' Verity Bertram

When I sit down for coffee with Fulham's Verity Bertram she's only just recovered from celebrating her 30th birthday. She looks younger than her three decades, but she may as well be twice her age given all she's achieved already in life.

The truth is, she's made a successful business in living life to the full - squeezing enjoyment out of every available moment is the premise on which her events and travel company 20 Days is based. Officially launched two years ago, 20 Days aims to help young people get the absolute most out of their annual holiday entitlement.

The idea was borne of Verity's own experience as a university graduate adjusting to the life of limited holidays while working at the Extreme Sports Channel. "The bosses were really strict on our 20 days holiday a year - they were pretty mean about it," she laughs. However, she and three other girls in the office figured out how to make their spare time count: "We'd leave work on a Friday night, get on a plane, get to Verbier for one in the morning, ski all weekend, then leave Monday at 3am, get the first flight back and be in the office on time to start work." Total sleep in an average weekend? "About two hours!"

Some people need sleep in order to function, but it seems Verity's most basic need is to be planning things. While still at university, she was chairman of the organising committee of the British Universities Snowsports Council, or BUSC. "It's a countrywide club that takes students skiing," she explains. "It takes around 10,000 students a year and it's run by students, which is crazy but fantastic."

After a year at the helm of BUSC, Verity was still working on her degree in Nottingham when she was headhunted by Cham Jam, a music and ski festival in France. "I thought, 'I'm doing politics, I've only got two hours of lectures a week - I can do both at the same time. I've got all the contacts, I've got all the know-how, I'll do it from here and I'll come out to Chamonix for six weeks over the event.' I popped back to do my finals, got a 2:1, so that was all fine!"

With experience organising ski trips for thousands, to putting together events from afar, to planning weekend getaways of her own while working, Verity was ready for the next stage in her short but substantial career. "I'd had this constant idea ever since school. I always organised events for people, I organised the holidays. I just thought there's got to be something that will bring everyone together that's inclusive - yet a little bit exclusive. At BUSC the biggest event is 2,500 students in one resort and I thought, 'What do they all do after university?' I wanted to recreate that."
Always up for a challenge, her entrepreneurial adventure wouldn't be limited to snow sports. "I'd taken groups of people to things like Cartier Polo and Royal Ascot before just as friends. So I thought, 'Other people want to have a hassle-free day out; I could organise it for them.'"

Today 20 Days coordinates group activities such as yoga in Morocco, kite surfing in Egypt, partying in Puerto Banus and heli-skiing in British Columbia. In England, there's shooting, polo, golf, dinners, parties, films and festivals. "The thing with all these day events is that if you go with four people you'll have a good day, but if you go as four people with 60 other people you're going to have an amazing day. And that's kind of the ethos behind 20 Days."

Although recent personal trips have taken her as far away as Kenya and New York, she admits to having an almost evangelical commitment to her London neighbourhood. "It's my favourite place in the world. I do love Fulham! Fulham is just fantastic. We use a lot of local businesses," she says, before rattling off a list of nearby spots that 20 Days colonises for everything from wine tastings to speed dating, as well as her own recommendations for shopping and eating. "There's just so much great stuff. To be honest I don't ever leave - except to get on a plane!"

With her knack for bringing like-minded people together, three years ago she started a club for south-west London's young entrepreneurs. They initially started with 12 members, but are now up to 50, which Verity views as a testament to the area's dynamism. "It's just a great place to be. There seem to be a lot of people just doing their own thing here," she affirms. "It's very creative."

In spite of a passport stuffed with stamps and an addiction to her local area, there are still destinations she'd like to explore, such as Bali, Alaska, India and Russia. However, she'll have to fit them in among a host of other commitments in the pipeline. Later this year she's marrying her Fulham-dwelling ski champion fiancé; she's just been named in the top 100 of the Courvoisier Future 500; she's adding a volunteer matching component to promote charity work on the 20 Days website; and she has a folder on her computer called 'business ideas'. "There's 20, 30, 40 in there that are just waiting for the right moment," she says.

Almost out of the blue, she adds, "That's the other thing - my obsession is the gym. I teach spinning in my spare time at Chelsea Virgin Active." Spare time? Clearly Verity doesn't know the meaning of the phrase. While the rest of us snuggle deeper into our duvets, this phenomenally hard-working, high-flying and fast-living Fulhamite lives like she doesn't have a second to lose.

20 Days is now taking bookings for SnowDays, its flagship winter event 21-28 March in Val d'Isere, with accommodation from £240 to £799

07968 478 782; www.20days.co.uk; info@20days.co.uk

Fast track with 20 Days' Verity Bertram

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