Event Production
Creating immersive experiences that dip people into meaningful encounters and aesthetic revelry
Organisational aptitude and artistic sensibilities come together in my particular professional passion - the creation of events that are thoughtfully designed and competently run. My events are characterised by their warm hospitality for participants, empowering work environment for team members and volunteers, and inviting and aesthetic spaces. With these trademarks I have organised art festivals, concerts, trainings, conferences, reunions, and storytelling events.
My direct responsibilities have ranged from overall coordination; PR and communication; volunteer coordination; event budgeting and finance; PA system and stage management; event programming; liaising with contributors/trainers/speakers; liaising communication between internal departments; material rental and acquisition; hospitality coordination; line management of team members, and the coordination of evaluation processes.
Contact me for help with conceptualising, planning and executing your event.
A selection of past events
AoPL training - Corrymeela Centre NI, 2023
The Art of Participatory Leadership training was a 3,5 day immersive training in participatory leadership practices and design principles, based of the Art of Hosting body of practice. Hosted at the Corrymeela Centre, the oldest peace and reconciliation centre on the island of Ireland, the training had a special focus on social divides in our current society, drawing on the legacy of peacebuilding work in Corrymeela and Northern Ireland more generally. As part of the training team, I helped design, organise and deliver the training. Learn more on the training website.
Event at a glance
Team size: 8
Volunteers: 3
Participants: 50
Days: 4
Budget: £ 24,000
EASTival - Inner East Belfast NI, 2019
EASTival was a summer festival of three weeks in disadvantaged inner east Belfast, tendered and funded by Belfast City Council. Coordinated by me on behalf of EastSide Partnership, and organised by a consortium of six local community organisations, we offered a free programme of tours, soccer camps, music, theatre, art, fun fairs and mini festivals in the lead up to the Twelfth of July. Always a tense period in Belfast, EASTival sought to strike a diverse yet subtle balance that would resonate both with the proud local unionist tradition, as well as welcome in visitors from further afield to learn about unionist culture and heritage in a positive setting, celebrating local artistry and talent.
Event at a glance
Team size: 10
Events: 20
Visitors: 4000
Contributors: 100
Days: 21
Budget: £85,000
Carafest Arts Festival - Ballycastle NI, 2018
Carafest is the annual arts festival over Easter at Corrymeela, Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation centre. The 2018 edition, which I co-organised with Corrymeela’s former community leader Pádraig Ó Tuama, brought together 40 contributors, 50 volunteers and 200 guests for four days of poetry, music, interviews, good conversation and stunning views on the North Antrim coast.
Event at a glance
Team size: 2
Volunteers: 50
Paying guests: 200
Contributors: 40
Days: 4
Budget: £32,000
Art of Hosting training - Karlskrona SE, 2017
The Art of Hosting community is a global network of practitioners in participatory leadership. Applicable to any sector and organisation, many trainings take place around the world each year to teach the techniques and methodologies for designing and facilitating processes that empower participants, and exchange expertise from the field. The Art of Hosting training in Karlskrona, Sweden, is one of the most well-known and well-attended trainings. In 2017 I co-organised the 8th annual training in Karlskrona.
Event at a glance
Team size: 8
Volunteers: 10
Paying guests: 180
Trainers: 30
Days: 4
Budget: €34,000
Tri-cooperatives Thanksgiving Reunion - Davis CA, 2014
The student co-operatives of the University of California in Davis count about 45 residents. They have existed for over forty years, and their network of alumni is considerable. Every year alumni are invited back for a Thanksgiving Dinner. During the year I lived in Davis, the reunion marked the culmination of a legacy project I had been working on for the community. I organised a storytelling evening inside a room-sized blanket fort for one of the houses, in order to gather stories from the visiting alumni to build an oral history archive for the community.
Event at a glance
Team size: 3
Volunteers: 15
Attendees: 100
Contributors: 12
Days: 2
Budget: $500
UCSA Introduction Weeks - Utrecht NL 2011 & 2012
At University College, the liberal arts honours college of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the board of the student association is responsible for organising the introduction week for first years every semester. The week consists of a dense programme of lectures, meetings, cultural events, dinners and celebration for roughly 200 incoming students. In 2011-2012 academic year I was elected to the board as manager to the twenty arts committees on campus and co-organised two introduction weeks.
Event at a glance
Team size: 6
Volunteers: 80
Participants: 200
Contributors: 50
Days: 7
Budget: €58,000
Reviews
“I recognised in Stéphanie someone capable of taking on responsibility for a substantial and sensitive programme. I was proved right. Without hesitation she stepped up to the challenge, and from day 1 I felt EASTival was in safe hands with her as coordinator. Present and supportive to all involved, the partner organisers quickly warmed to her. She guided the festival to its success during a nervous time of year in Belfast.”
“Working with Stéphanie on the Corrymeela Carafest Festival was extraordinary. She gives attention to detail, to the mission and vision of a project, and ties it all together with wonderful efficiency, good humour and energy. She’s dependable and entirely adaptable to change. You’d be delighted to work with her on any project.”
“In terms of content, hospitality and organisation, this has been the most challenging, supportive and hope-filled time in my Corrymeela experience - which goes back to 1965!”
“This year’s training was clearly the best organised out of all the Karlskrona trainings I have been involved with.”