JENNIFER PROCESS BLACK SHEEP WEDDINGS GREEN BAY, WI   Website: www.blacksheepweddingsgb.com ig: @blacksheepweddingsgb

 
Jennifer Process is the CEO/manager of Black Sheep Weddings & Events outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. If someone would have told her five years ago that she would be running a wedding venue, she would never have believed it. She worked in insurance for the previous 10 years and her fiancé, Tom, owned a successful pub & grill. (They are getting married in June, and yes, they are getting married at their venue.) When Tom and his business partner decided to build a wedding venue, they asked Jennifer to run it. At first, she was excited to take on this new challenge, but then she started to realize that she had no idea where to begin. She had never worked in the wedding industry, so the idea of being responsible for the startup of this $1.3 million business made her excitement quickly turn to nervousness and anxiety. When dealing with two guys who have never been in the wedding business and thought that you just need to run it like they run their pub and grill, she knew she had my work cut out for her. She’s grateful that she found a venue coach and that with her help, they have created a business that will be close to $1 million in sales this year.
 
TOPIC
New Venue Owners Panel Discussion
 
SESSION DESCRIPTION
If you’re looking to open your own venue or are newly opened, then this panel discussion with new venue owners is for you. Our panelists are all within the first few years of opening, and they’ll participate in an open Q&A session about what it was like to start and grow their business – some in the middle of a pandemic! Attendees will hear topics such as about success and challenges, breaking in to the market, what lessons were learned, etc. This session will be hosted by a moderator, but attendees will be able to ask questions of their own for the panelists to answer. Hearing real life stories from venue owners themselves is always a great experience!
 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the presentation, attendees should expect to learn about:

• A new venue’s biggest successes or challenges
• What contract clauses were most important to include (or were added after experience!)
• What changes new venues are making in Years 2 and beyond after learning from Year 1
• What new goals are on the horizon now that the venues were successfully launched