It was a hectic mid-morning rush for both Katie Fountain, and all of us here on the Pivot & Pilot team. In the midst of a traffic-stopping and rain-inducing windstorm, we managed to find a cosy corner in JJ Bean on Homer and Davie.
Some background information about Katie: she’s bursting with information and ideas, and she’s one of the loveliest people you’ll meet. I was instantly charmed by her personality and how much she smiled despite having slept about three or four hours the night before.
Katie’s idea for 1 Web Events, an online directory tailored for event organizers around Vancouver, developed in a gradual manner. In September, 2016, Katie was sitting on the floor of her sister’s living room, discussing all the things you go to your siblings for: career paths, life, and everything else. They boiled it down to Katie’s strengths which included (but were not limited to) organization, and her ability to connect people. Having a calculative personality, Katie let the conversation bounce around in her head for a while, “And in January, I came up with the lightbulb idea.”
“I kept seeing all these posts in all of these Facebook groups for ‘I need a photographer, or I need this’ and few people were actually answering because they actually get missed,” says Katie. “You scroll down and you miss it. And then photographers want to increase their portfolio and they don’t know how to do it.”
Katie has an uncanny ability to approach her work in a logical and sensible manner, “My strength is the production of it, the management, the logistics,” she says. “An event always has a ‘why’ and more often than not, the ‘why’ is always forgotten because you’re too busy trying to find everything.”
As an event planner, I’ve never enjoyed finding a photographer; I’ve always enjoyed having a photographer on board already.
Katie saw a problem that event planners, photographers, and vendors were having: they had trouble finding each other. Equipped with fifteen years of experience, “I’ve been on the production side, the planning side, and the supplier’s side,” Katie explains. “I’ve owned a catering company and so I’ve seen that struggle where they have that need to find people. As an event planner, I’ve never enjoyed finding a photographer; I’ve always enjoyed having a photographer on board already.”
With her new online directory getting ready to launch, people of the event industry can rest easily knowing that finding the right person for the job is just a click away. By eliminating the need to scroll through each Google result, 1 Web Events helps ease the minds of event planners, photographers, caterers, hosts/hostesses, and suppliers alike. Stay tuned for her website launch! To get in contact with Katie, visit her Facebook page here or click here to email her!
