VBT 081: Interview with Karine Brighten, vegan event planner and founder of Veg Speed Date

In this episode I interview Karine Brighten, event planner and founder of Veg Speed Date in Ontario, Canada. After working with Canada’s largest event planning company JPDL, Karine started her own company Karine Brighten Events in 2009, based out of San Francisco, California. Karine has more than a decade of experience in producing and planning events, including the renowned San Francisco Vegan Iron Chef, Berkeley Vegan Earth Day, weddings and more. Her latest project is Veg Speed Date, a speed-dating service exclusively for vegan and vegetarian singles. She started planning speed dating events in San Francisco five years ago, before launching Veg Speed Date in January 2017. Veg Speed Date events have been running successfully in cities across North America since February 2017, providing an intimate atmosphere for 30 people to connect and get to know each other in the hope of finding that someone special. In this interview Karine discusses: • Some of the challenges involved in running an event and how to handle them • The key things to consider before you decide to run an event • When to start promoting your event • The two key marketing strategies that have been most successful in getting ticket sales to Veg Speed Date • What to do on the day of the event to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible • Three things it’s important to do after you’ve held an event • How she manages to run successful events in different cities – without necessarily being there herself • How to get people to book tickets to your events well in advance • And much more Visit the Veg Speed Date website Sign up for the Veg Speed Date newsletter and get $5 off your next event Check out Karine’s blog post Top 5 things to consider when planning an event  Brands mentioned in vegan business news roundup: Spectrum Collections Inika Organic VegFestUK Trade Tesla Ripple Foods RESOURCES: My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business Follow Vegan Business Media on: Facebook   Twitter  Instagram  Connect with me personally at: Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn