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Meet Niki Jorgensen of Events with NJ in Ahwatukee

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Niki Jorgensen.

Niki, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Sunny Southern California and at the age of 12, began to spend her summers in Rhode Island. Even as a child the events industry was a part of my life. At the young age of 14, I began helping my aunt in Rhode Island with her catering company. During those summers helping around the shop & kitchen, my spark ignited in the culinary, catering & events, it’s then that my career began. It was quickly realized that this was the path I wanted to proceed down.

Over the course of almost two decades in events, my passion and true love for events has grown. Over the years, I have worked alongside incredible individuals who have taught me so much. After two years of community college at Eastern Arizona College in Safford Arizona I moved back to the Valley and began working as a sales assistant and banquet server at Andrew’s Catering, this is where my Arizona catering foundation all began, after several season’s with the Andrew’s team I was ready to launch my career to the next level and began working with the Artisan by Santa Barbara Catering Company (ASBC) in late 2008. I started as a banquet server and worked my way through the ranks jumping in and helping in many areas of the company which eventually led me to one of the highest positions within their organization as the Director of Sales, where I was managing team members in excelling their off premise catering around the valley. In 2011 – 2014, I did take a little leave from the ASBC team, at this time I was a Junior Sales Manager and ready to make the decision to expand my wings and leave the company for a while.

During that time I accepted a position at the Senior Sales Manager for The Herb Box Catering (THB), after joining the THB Team I realized my event style and knowledge just wasn’t being used to the best of my ability and decided to part ways just under two years with them.

At that point, I set my sights on venue management, this was a new avenue in events for me since most of my knowledge and training had all been in catering until this point. November 2012, I began working at Inspirador, which was incredible; ironically, they were an exclusive contract I had maintained when I was the Junior Sales Manager at ASBC. While at Inspirador, I assisted in establishing an in house catering department and service team alongside some absolutely incredible women. In late 2012, our client’s lives were turned upside down when the owner abruptly decided to close the doors one day leaving 63 brides/clients with no palace to host their celebrations and didn’t offer any financial relief.

After Offering my event services free of charge to several of the Inspirador couples, I worked alongside great vendors in brining 5 coupes dreams to life; I was offered a full time catering sales manager position with Arizona Catering and I joined their amazing team of incredible event professionals.

While at a networking event for Phoenix NACE event I was approached by the Director of Sales of SBC and was asked to come in for a chat. After a few meetings and conversations I was offered a position to re-join the ASBC team as an Executive Sales Manager, this is where my career in events really flourished and grew 2015-2020. While back at ASBC my knowledge, passion, drive, intuition and creativity became alive. I lived for my events and educated the next generation of event professionals.

Then COVID-19 struck, this was/is a very unfortunate situation We are all in but with the loss of my entire team and all events postponed or canceled, I needed to reevaluate my career. After many conversations with mentors and fellow vendors in the industry, I was ready to take the next chapter of my career by the horns and launch my event planning business.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think there have been three main struggles in my career which have led me to the position I am in today. The first when I was told there wasn’t a position for me to grow at ASBC in 2011, which ignited a fire inside me to prove that I could be an incredible record setting catering sales manager.

The second was overcoming being betrayed by the owner of Inspirador, witnessing the devastation brought to couples two days before their weddings.

Third, having the faith, trust, and courage to decide to leave SBC behind me and create my own future, name and brand.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Events with NJ story. Tell us more about the business.
Events with NJ is a full-service celebration planning collaboration. Our team’s experience includes uniquely curated event design, dream weddings, special event galas, corporate events, team building, bar & bat mitzvah, new product launches, and private dining experiences.

We specialize in a variety of services and customize each experience to the specific needs of each client. Our gracious and knowledgeable team of associates will go above and beyond to provide our clients with excellent service and a seamlessly produced event.

We pride ourselves in getting to know our clients and creating a unique event that is reflective of their personality, style and taste. We are truly fortunate because we LOVE what we do. As a client, you will be able to see this as we make every moment of planning your event effortless and fun…from our first initial meeting to your last dance, final song, or closing of the doors.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
This is a tricky one. There is so much uncertainty in the coming days, weeks, months and the rest of this year with the state of the world. Events are on the downturn, but they’ll be coming back, not in the extravagant over the top corporate parties of yesterday with thousands of guests, but in a new form. Events will be smaller in guest counts, more intimate, selective guest lists and prioritized level of services and details. I do think couples and families will continue to celebrate life’s accomplishments but backyard weddings and intimate venues will be most popular. Creating safe spaces for loved ones to celebrate each other. Large scale corporate events will become intimate dinner parties with the top performers, and incentive events will take a unique digital approach.

But we all will CELEBRATE AGAIN!

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Image Credit:
Fable Photo & Video; Harley Bonham Photography

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