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Special Edition: Atlanta International Special Events Society

MPR

Lori Harbin / TEP Catering Linkedin Twitter

I have a passion for good food, helping projects succeed and spending quality time with my loved ones. So it should surprise no one that these passions led me directly into the special events industry. After graduating from Trinity University, I started my career at the UPS Corporate Headquarters where one of my responsibilities was planning departmental meetings and events. My love for this piece of my job led me to seek out a position with a full service special event company and soon she I coordinating corporate picnics and family days for groups up to 20,000 at The Fun Company. However, my passion for sales and marketing, along with a passion for fabulous food, ultimately led to my current position as the Director of Taste Experiences at TEP Catering.

I currently serve as the President-Elect for ISES Greater Atlanta and am an active member of MPI, ICA, and WIPA.

Doc Waltrop / Full Circle Lighting & Productions

Doc Waldrop brings more than 30 years of experience in theatrical lighting and overall technical production to the meetings, special events, convention, motion picture, and association industries.

His lighting designs and installations have gathered praise and awards from international and Fortune 500 companies and have been featured in many industry and related magazines. He has held an executive board position, including Chapter President in 2004-2005, with the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the International Special Events Society and was recently honored with the 2008 Bob Blaesing Lifetime Achievement Award from ISES/NACE Atlanta. Doc is a founding member of Full Circle Lighting and Productions.

In his spare time (what little there is of it), Doc enjoys ripping up mountain roads on his Triumph Speed Triple motorcycle, chasing his son around, NASCAR racing, or playing a competitive game of pool, darts, croquet, or golf (OK, so the golf game could hardly be called competitive). Mr. Waldrop currently resides in Marietta, GA, but can often be found wherever his clients take him.

Lee Stepancik / Proof of the Pudding Twitter Facebook

Holland Muscio / Balloonacy

Holland’s love affair with flowers started in elementary school thanks to her Mom, the Crown Grant Garden Club, her Nannie and Aunt Nancy. On her way to becoming a floral designer, balloon artist & eventpreneur she made a detour through the arts and ticketing industries. It was while working at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that she started creating floral designs for her events and worked with the former owners of Balloonacy as one of her vendors.

After Sean’s adventures in the Navy he met Holland in Atlanta. After jobs in the IT and construction industries he was searching for a way to be self-employed. One night after a few libations, the Muscio’s were approached by the former owners with buying Balloonacy. Sean & Holland saw it as an amazing opportunity to collectively use their talents and work for themselves. In 2005 they opened Balloonacy and added floral design to their stable of event décor options. Since then they have decorated thousands events around the Metro Atlanta region. Holland handles much of the design and Sean is the production & installation designer.

 

 

Liz King with Liz King Events

Liz KingLiz King / Liz King Events Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Liz is an event planning superhero by day, and closeted tech geek and introvert by night. Distraught by the thought of everyday civilians being conquered by spreadsheets, she resolved to re-channel her organizational and tech savvy superpowers and launched Liz King Events while still running events full time for Columbia University. Liz voraciously shared content on event best practices via social media and quickly became a thought leader/influencer amongst her peers. Her hopes of being an incognito event superhero went down the drain as her cover was blown once she started making cameos on lits like ‘Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry” and ‘Connect Magazine’s list of 40 Under 40 Up-and-Coming Event Planners in 2011″. Liz now comfortably wears her cape and employs her superpowers to helps entrepreneurs/brands like Claudia Chan and Ramit Sethi plan smart, tech-savvy events to better engage their attendees.

Outside of client events, Liz uses her prowess to educate and challenge her industry peers on how to better integrate technology into live events to create a more winsome audience experience, through auxiliary outlets techsytalk.com and PlannerTech [Founder]. When not saving gotham from the event planning woes, Liz can be found unwinding by learning how to code, brushing up on her Korean, or indulging in Korean cuisine … all in civilian geek attire, of course.

Liz King Events

Dirk Ebener with Global CIF

MPRDirk Ebener / Global CIF, LLC Linkedin Twitter

Dirk Ebener is the CEO of Global CIF, LLC, an international business consulting company, focusing on startup businesses and international trade shows. Global CIF also represents companies from China, Thailand, India, UAE, and Germany here in the USA. One of the events organized by Global CIF is Kids Business Expo next year in February at the Cobb Galleria Centre. The event will focus on providing a platform for young entrepreneurs in the age group 12-18. Attendees can participate in seminars, workshops, and a listen to key note speaker and panel discussion. Information about the event is available at www.kidsbusinessexpo.com. We can be reached at 404-735- 5646.

Kids Business Expo