Meet LaTonya…
For more than three decades, I have worked at the intersection of event strategy, logistics, production and experience design helping organizations transform their mission, goals and ideas into experiences that work for the people they are intended to serve.
I am an event strategist and producer, but I am also a logistician at heart. I enjoy figuring out how all the pieces fit together: the venue, schedule, production, people, movement, communications, vendors, accessibility, hospitality and countless details that determine whether an event simply happens—or whether it works.
My approach begins with a wide lens. I consider an experience from multiple perspectives: the organization with a mission to advance; the attendee deciding whether they feel welcomed and whether their time was well spent; the person with an accessibility need navigating the environment; the production team responsible for delivering what happens on stage and screen; the venue and vendor partners executing behind the scenes; and the budget holder responsible for making it all possible.
I bring these perspectives together to create experiences aligned with each client's mission, values and goals.
Strategy. Logistics. Production. People.
Since founding Event Experts in 1992, my work has spanned corporate and nonprofit meetings, conferences and conventions, community and cultural events, public engagement, social events, group experiences and large-scale productions.
Today, my expertise includes event and conference strategy, large-scale production, logistics coordination, venue and vendor management, contract strategy, attendee experience, accessibility and inclusion, community engagement, and experience design.
I am equally comfortable thinking about the big picture and working through the details required to deliver it.
That can mean developing the strategy for an event and determining what success should look like. It can mean coordinating complex logistics across venues, vendors, speakers, production teams and attendees. It can mean managing a large-scale general session or live production where show flow, audiovisual production, staging, content and timing have to come together precisely.
And sometimes it means noticing the seemingly small thing that could fundamentally change someone's experience. I believe those things are connected.
Designing With a Wider Lens
People enter event spaces with different abilities, identities, expectations, experiences and needs. That's why attendee experience, accessibility, inclusion and belonging are a part of the planning process.
That wider lens influences decisions from registration and room configuration to program design, production, signage, food and beverage, accessibility, transportation, technology, sustainability and the ways people move through and participate in an event.
The goal is thoughtful execution in service to purpose.
Large-Scale Meetings & Production
Some of my most rewarding work happens where strategy and complex production meet.
I have extensive experience leading and coordinating conferences, general sessions and multi-faceted events involving live audiovisual production, staging, content, speakers, multiple vendors, complex schedules and both in-person and virtual audiences.
Large-scale production requires an understanding of how hundreds of decisions interact—contracts and budgets, venue operations, technology, program flow, accessibility, safety, communications, hospitality and the attendee journey.
My role is often to see across those functions: anticipating where they intersect, identifying potential gaps and helping teams move from a collection of individual components to one cohesive experience.
An Industry Thought Leader
After more than 30 years in this profession, I still believe strongly in learning, exchanging ideas and contributing to the meetings and events community.
I hold the Meeting Professional Audio-Visual Certification (MPAC) and am an active member of PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association), MPI (Meeting Professionals International), and RCMA (Religious Conference Management Association).
I am a speaker and regular contributor at industry events, sharing insights drawn from the practical realities of producing meetings and conferences.
I serve on the Columbus, Ohio Customer Advisory Board and was selected to participate in the inaugural Providence, Rhode Island Executive Exchange, opportunities that allow me to collaborate with destination and industry leaders while helping shape conversations about the evolving needs of meeting professionals, organizations and attendees.
These relationships keep me connected to what is changing in our industry while giving me opportunities to contribute the perspective gained from decades of doing the work.
About Event Experts
I founded Event Experts in 1992 with a mission to use my knowledge, reputation, and experience to produce quality experiences that meet the stated objectives of our clients. Event Experts brings together strategy, logistics, production and human-centered experience design to help organizations create meetings, events and experiences that are operationally sound, thoughtfully produced and genuinely reflective of who they are.
The best events are not necessarily the biggest, most elaborate, or most expensive. They are the ones that leave attendees glad they were there.
