Kristen Kaza
Cultural Producer creating parties with a purpose in Chicago and beyond.
- Role
- Special Events Consultant at Chicago Reader
- Location
- Chicago, IL, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Kristen Kaza
Kristen Kaza is an event producer, community connector and LGBTQ+ champion. With 15 years…
Experience
Special Events Consultant
Dec 2018 — Present · Chicago, IL, US
Making a \"comeback\" after a seven year hiatus, I returned to the Chicago Reader in 2019 to assist the new leadership and team when the media icon became independently owned again. This was intentionally designed as a one-year full-time commitment, transitioning into a contractual consultant role in 2020. In leading all community engagement strategies, I devised and produces all public facing initiatives: Programs, Parties, PR and partnerships. This included-A Pride Block Party featuring over 50 Chicago LGBTQ+ artists and benefiting three crucial QTPOC lead and centered Chicago organizations. The day-long festival featured family programming, live musical performances and dance lessons in both english and Spanish, local food & drink and a vendor fair of all Chicago LGBTQ+ organizations and businesses-The return of the Reader Best of Chicago campaign & party, attended by over winners & Chicagoans and featuring over 20 food & beverage and arts & entertainment winners & nominees-Communication strategies including a streamlined and redesigned email newsletter and launch of a membership & donation drive, which garnered over in donations from 2400 people in its first iteration. In my transition into a contractual role, the Reader and No Small Plans Productions developed six large-scale, person ticketed events to take place over the course of 2020. Included in this was \"Tropic of Chicago,\" a cuisine & culture festival featuring vendors from all tropical countries of origin with partial proceeds benefiting Organized Communities Against Deportation to take place in April. With over 20 independent restaurants and two major sponsors on board, it was set to be an unprecedented festival with potential to continue as an annual affair, but due to COVID, this event had to be canceled. All planned events with the Reader to follow have been canceled, and pivoting to online events is on pause til further notice.
Education
Columbia College Chicago
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Public Relations
2003 — 2007
Columbia College Chicago
BA, Marketing Communications
2003 — 2007
Skills
- Marketing
- New Media
- Event Planning
- Nonprofits
- Special Events
- Audience Engagement
- Social Media Marketing
- Public Speaking
- Public Relations
- Guerrilla Marketing
- Publicity
- Marketing Management
- Experiential Marketing
- Social Media
- Relationship Marketing
- Collaborative Environment
- Collaborative Working
- Customer Engagement
- Building Relationships
- Brand Management
- Fundraising
- Community Engagement
- Personal Branding
- Entertainment
- Creative Writing
- Event Management
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