Celebrating 25 Years in Business! A Recap of the Innovative Party Planners Journey So Far
Throughout the month of November, we’ve been celebrating our 25th year in business as a party planning company by sharing posts on our social media channels! Our 26th year begins in December, and we can’t wait to take on our next chapter of creating one of a kind event experiences and giving back to the community. Before that, we’d love to share a little bit about how we got our start and the lessons we have learned along the way in our first 25 years!
Zozzie and Heidi
Before we were Innovative Party Planners, we were Zozzie and Heidi. When the dynamic duo first met, Zozzie was serving as the co-president of the parent association at Beth Tfiloh Day School. Heidi was an active school volunteer and a watercolor artist, selling her art at craft shows. While displaying her art at a local show, a passerby fell in love with Heidi’s work and asked her to decorate her child’s bar mitzvah with hand painted centerpieces. Knowing Zozzie had already done decorations for a bar mitzvah before, Heidi reached out for help and Zozzie was there to help her. While they certainly didn’t know it at the time, this was the seed that would eventually grow into what Innovative Party Planners is today.
After their initial collaboration, the pair started working together more closely to the point that Heidi had essentially moved all her art supplies into Zozzie’s basement. After six months of success working under the name, “Heidi and Zozzie”, it was time to file for an LLC. It’s at this time that Innovative Party Planners was truly born.
Innovative Party Planners
After a lot of hard work throughout our first year in business, we were building a solid network and hosting a variety of different events. We even managed to work a party with 1200 attendees in just our first year in existence. By the end of the year, Zozzie’s basement was starting to feel a little cramped up with all our supplies and party favors. By the end of year five, her entire house was being taken over. That’s when we decided to branch out and move into our own office space.
The move was a big deal for us, and it came at the perfect time. Business was just starting to explode, and we had plenty of space to continue expanding and growing our network. Here are some of the biggest lessons we’ve learned in the time that has followed:
· Find a trusted mentor. Around the time of our move, we decided to work with a mentor, Marvin Marks, through the Jewish Center for Business Development. We owe a lot of our success to the wise mentors we’ve learned from along the way, and we encourage everyone to seek out experts to lean on.
· Embrace technology in business. In the early stages of IPP, one of our best moves was installing a server for our database. Although, we’ve come a long way since working on our large, old-school, teal Mac, we still have our database dating back 25 years, to look back on! Our commitment to staying current with tech has paid off time and time again. Don’t stay still!
· Always be networking. Much of our success can be attributed to our networking efforts. We’ve placed a huge emphasis on networking from day one. Among some of the earlier groups we joined were the Baltimore chapter of NACE, National Association of Catering and Event Executives, the Baltimore Tourism Association, and Visit Baltimore. More recent groups we have joined include MitzvahPros and the Live Events Coalition. Outside of the event industry we remain active with the Great Baltimore Chamber of Commerce (former POM Chamber of Commerce), Pacesetters, Cake and Whiskey, Virtual Rebels, Pearlstone Center, and Techsytalk.
· It pays to advertise. Just after we got our start, The Celebration Connection in the Baltimore Jewish Times had just began, and we knew it would be the perfect spot to place one of our advertisements. Our phones began to ring more frequently, and more often than not, our clients said they saw our ad in the Jewish Times. Things were going well prior to the ad, but this is genuinely what ignited the spark that brought us beyond the Beltway. Innovative Party Planners were now decorating parties not only in Baltimore MD, but in York PA, Harrisburg PA, Washington DC, Atlanta GA, Houston TX, and even Canada!
· PR is a big deal! Another crucial pillar of our success has centered around public relations, PR. While we’ve had a bit of luck in landing jobs that had press in attendance, we’ve also worked with some fabulous PR companies. Over the years we have managed to be published in several industry publications including BizBash and eventpros.com, as well as quotes and features in Baltimore Business Journal, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, CNN Business, Jewish Times, Jmore and many more. We have also appeared on TV helping to promote local events or showcasing current trends. Heidi also authors and contributes articles for publication. We recently outlined one of our earliest PR successes on our Facebook profile!
Plan Your In-Person or Virtual Event with Innovative Party Planners
Innovative Party Planners is your resource for event design and planning in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Virginia. To learn more about our event planning services and how we can help make your event one of a kind, contact us by clicking here or call (410) 998-9999.