In the Spring of 2023, I served as Marketing Director of Strike Magazine Athens. Strike Magazine is the largest student-run fashion and culture magazine in the nation with chapters all across the country. At our chapter, based in Athens, Georgia, we wanted to create a community-wide event to gather members and non-members to celebrate music, art, fashion, and garner excitement for our upcoming issue, Issue 05.

Leading the Marketing Team, I created StrikeFest. We spent months planning and outreaching to organize the event with a budget of only $300. We ended up securing 15+ vendors and 3 bands. We had an extremely successful evening and can now proudly say this has become a bi-annual Strike event. The venue space we were graciously offered nearly tripled their usual Tuesday evening sales and Strike Magazine exceeded expected profits 2x. We profited by selling Strike Magazine merchandise at the event and charging our vendors a $20 fee to participate.  StrikeFest has now become an event that community members get excited about each Spring and Fall and we look forward to passing on the legacy of such a fun and profitable event to future Strike members. 

Planning an event like StrikeFest is how I discovered my passion for community focused brand events. There’s nothing like being able to feel the live connection being shared amongst event-goers. Although we are in a digital age, I still firmly believe nothing beats in-person connection. It creates an undeniable, organic foundation for customer loyalty. Because of StrikeFest’s success I have since been promoted to External Director where I now lead the Marketing, Finance, Public Relations, Merchandise, and Community Outreach teams.