Community Event Management

Project Portfolio
Event Production & Project Management

Community Event Management

Leading cross-departmental planning and execution for large-scale community events

Event Production Project Management Cross-functional Coordination Vendor Management Communications
Context
Big Canoe Property Owners Association, North Georgia
Timeline
Two years of recurring events
My Role
Project manager and creative lead
The Work

For two years I served as project manager for community events at Big Canoe, a private residential community of roughly 2,800 homes in North Georgia. The events ranged from large-scale signature occasions like the Independence Day celebration and October Festival to recurring community programming throughout the year.

These were not small productions. A single event involved coordinating across public safety, public works, operations, technology, food and beverage, entertainment, and volunteer teams simultaneously, alongside external vendors, road closure permitting, transportation logistics, and day-of site management. Each one required a project plan built months in advance with clearly defined tasks, owners, timelines, and dependencies.

What the Role Involved
Project Planning and Tracking Built and maintained detailed project plans covering every phase from initial concept through post-event close, with assigned owners and tracked status across departments including operations, public safety, IT, food and beverage, and landscaping.
Vendor and Entertainment Coordination Managed relationships with food trucks, entertainment acts, activity vendors, beverage partners, and equipment suppliers, coordinating load-in schedules, site assignments, and day-of logistics.
Site Design and Signage Developed site maps and transportation flow plans, identified signage needs, produced print deliverables, and coordinated physical setup including stage placement, vendor slots, shuttle routes, road closures, and parking management.
Cross-departmental Coordination Served as the connective layer between teams that did not typically work together: aligning public safety staffing with transportation plans, coordinating IT infrastructure with vendor POS needs, and keeping creative and communications timelines in sync with operational readiness.
Creative and Communications Lead Developed event visual concepts, produced community communications, and ensured consistent brand presentation across all event materials and touchpoints.
Why It Matters

Event production at this scale is a condensed version of everything project management requires: competing priorities, multiple stakeholders with different definitions of success, hard deadlines that cannot move, and a public outcome that reflects on the organization. Managing it well over two years, across recurring events with increasing complexity, reflects the same systems thinking and cross-functional coordination that runs through all of my work.

Skills Demonstrated
Event project management Cross-departmental coordination Vendor management Site design and logistics Print and signage production Transportation and operations planning Community communications Creative direction

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