Kaitlyn Green

Foundations are crucial to the success of a child; two amazing parents raised me. They gave me many gifts from their personalities and structure.  I grew up with my father’s entrepreneurial spirit and sales swagger and my mother’s creative problem solving and organization thinking.  Growing up in a small rural town allowed me to grow lifelong relationships and value the safety of a small town. While the country element instilled hard word and the value of money, my father’s success allowed us to travel and see different areas of the world.

As a young adult, I found my passions planning large family events and cooking.  I enrolled in a continuing education course in addition to my high school classes. Classes and competitions grew into scholarships and internships to Johnson and Wales University, in Charlotte. Later, I decided I always wanted to be a part of planning the event so I changed my major to Sports Entertainment Event Management with a Minor in Food and Beverage.

My educational journey has been based on hard work in the industry; starting in a culinary kitchen in high school and working throughout college to eventually achieving a peak in my career in my twenties. I proved to myself that with hands-on work and specific educational goals – I can succeed even in a changing era and overcome an economic recession.

During my college years, learning to transform from a well-traveled and spoken “country” girl to a well-traveled and well-spoken “city” girl proved to be an emotional and exciting transformation.   I picked up multiple jobs and multiple internships; I began to find my place in Charlotte and became financially independent. Over the first two years in Charlotte, I learned to be a better multitasker and sleep less – I took on a full time job as a nanny, a part time job with a church in child care, an internship with an Event Designer and a full class load of 20+ hours a week. I constantly juggled each day with a new priority and a new schedule. I excelled academically. I believe that was due to the passion and intrigue that I had with my professors and courses. I collected every business card in the industry, which played into scoring my first “real” job. I graduated in the year the economy hit an all-time low – when businesses were laying off not hiring event planners – but I landed a job!

Meanwhile, I had fallen in love and gotten engaged. I felt a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed professionally and personally. The years between 2009 and 2012 were the most developmental, exhilarating and fun years I experienced so far. Working with Clarke Allen to rebuild his company and legacy was a highlight of my career. Clarke Allen taught me how to make a sale, plan event experiences and how to keep clients coming back. At the same time, my young marriage weathered long hours, nights, weekends and my husband’s career change.  I grew from an inexperienced planner to a Senior Account Executive and entrusted coordinator for a celebrity event designer.   Seven years later, the “country” girl returned home during the summer of 2012 – returning to new professional path in the industry with new challenge and the challenges of juggling a family and a career.