Meet Vanessa Escamilla an Event Planner in West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa Escamilla.

Vanessa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My career began in NYC when I met with an experiential marketing agency that was looking for an event coordinator for their new client Amstel Light. They loved that I was young, had a background in the beer industry and were willing to teach me everything. The next few years I had the opportunity to learn the in’s and out’s of my craft while traveling all over the U.S. for Amstel Light executing all their sponsored culinary events. As the agency client list grew, I was able to transition from Event Coordinator to Event Manager and onto other accounts like Organic Valley, Hornitos, Dos XX, Mountain Dew, and Deathbowl to Downtown.

Three years later the economy tanked and I found myself thrust into the world of freelance. I’ve since worked for clients including Dove, Moet Hennessy, Grolsch Beer, Stoked Mentoring, Vice, Noisey, Creed (Movie), Wonderwoman (Movie), Uniqlo, Puma, The Colony (TV Show), Mr. Robot (TV show), and more.

I’ve also had the opportunity over the years to transition between event production, to consulting, to working on influencer programs for brands, to securing sponsorships for a music festival, helping launch other spirits brands, and have continued following my passion as an Event Producer.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Its been far from a smooth road in my career – The recession knocked me down hard and took me from a steady full-time job to unemployed and forced me to transition into freelance life.

Along the way, I’ve learned that people can abuse their authority but always standing with honesty, integrity, and remaining consistent in your professionalism is crucial.

The biggest things I’ve learned along the way is to always have a written agreement in place to protect yourself and always follow your instincts.

Event Planner – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Event Planning is about always being two steps ahead of everything happening, being highly organized, and thinking critically on your feet.  You truly never know whats going to happen in a moments notice and you always need to be prepared!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
One of the highlights of my career was working with Levis and Hip Hop artist Vince Staples to create a music technology program in Vince’s hometown of Long Beach. We partnered with the local YMCA Youth Institute to build a year-long music program for their students to serve as their after-school program for their youth.

With the help of the students, Levis’ and a few key sponsors our team transformed the YMCA storage room into a beautiful classroom and launched a two-day hands-on workshop that included a special performance by Vince Staples.

On day 1, YMCA Youth Institute alumnus John Sanders and Leslie Barnes led a Music Production & Songwriting workshop in collaboration with Vince Staples and Music Producer Dion “No I.D.” Wilson. Students learned the basics of music production and ended the workshop with writing their own lyrics. The day culminated with a private, invite-only performance by Vince Staples.

On day 2, students used their lyrics to design hand painted posters with Artist Philip Lumbang. They were taught the art of wheat pasting and used the posters to decorate the walls of the new Music x Technology studio.

Fast forward to today – I stumble across messages on Vince Staples Instagram on how this music program has impacted those select kids and their lives.  I love to hear they are still very much focused on it today!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vanessaescamilla.com
• Instagram: vanessa_hearts_you
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaescamilla/

Image Credit:
Alex Tamargo, Jennifer Catherine Photography, Client hired, Zack Patino, David Morrison

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