Event planner enjoys being the calm in the chaos

From missing refreshments to flooded venues, there isn't much that event planner and St. Cloud State University alumna Lea Barron has yet to see.

Barron earned her degree in mass communications and advertising from SCSU in 1991, and while enrolled wrote travel copy a travel agency. Just months after graduating, she was working for an incentive travel destination management company.

"That was by far the best education ever, because you do everything," Barron said.

Over time, she felt like she needed more continuing education opportunities, which ultimately led her to event planning and coordination. She started Barron Event Planning & Management in the late ’90s.

"I ended up as an independent event planner. I decided to take a break from working for a company full time to see where I wanted to go, and that gave me an opportunity to start working as a contract worker with nonprofits, corporations, people who wanted to start festivals — to help them like look at events from a development standpoint," she said. "Along the way, I took full-time positions because there were opportunities to learn that I wouldn't get as an independent contractor."

Some of the companies or organizations Barron has worked for include Macalester College, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Make-A-Wish Minnesota and Polaris Inc., among others.

"I never really intended to be self-employed as long as I have, but opportunities just keep coming and they're exciting. I've worked on VIP programs for the Super Bowl, Ryder Cup in France, Ryder Cup here in Minnesota. I've done concerts at golf tournaments. I've done concerts at races. My husband produced a concert in Crandon, Wisconsin, and KISS was the headliner and that was Interesting," she said. "My motivation is I need to continuously learn."

Barron appreciates the variety and excitement event planning and management has provided throughout her career.

"I love the chaos. Everyone thinks you get into the industry to travel a lot, and you do and you can, and you can also now choose not to. But it's not that. With my personality and makeup, it has always been hospitality," she said. "I want to create something. I can't throw a pot or paint a picture, but I can create an experience that is pretty exceptional. And I want to provide experiences that are really exceptional that don't break the bank."

Much of Barron's job is problem-solving and pre-planning for multiple potential scenarios. From custom cookies being locked up at UPS the day of an event, figuring out how to bring a major cricket match to the United States, to handling inclement weather, delayed buses and everything in between, she's just about seen it all. While earlier in her career she strived to be the hardest worker and the most efficient, she now focuses more on mentoring the next generations.

"Now it's all about mentoring, because there's a lot of chaos and there's a lot of stuff going on in event planning, and some of it's getting lost," she said.

Barron encouraged others looking to go into travel and tourism or event planning and management to continue learning everything they can.

"Do the work. It's not easy. And if you don't know what you're doing, it's going to be really visibly obvious when you get in front of a peer or when you get in front of someone who you report directly to," she said. "That's why mentoring is so important to me right now, because I think there's so much pressure that you should know everything when you get out of college. You should know everything about event planning, but so much of what you need to know can only come from hands-on experience. That real-life experience is such an important piece, and being able to provide that as a mentor is so meaningful."