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G o o d t o K n ow Tell us about your role at Tycoon Events. I am the owner and lead event strategist—though some of the team refer to me as their work mom! I am responsible for business development and proposals, operations, managing our internal teams, company strategy and recognition. I also take the lead on many of the events within our portfolio. What's your favourite part of your work? I absolutely adore my team. Behind all of the experiences and accolades are extraordinary individuals who all have such unique skill sets, backgrounds and personalities. As we always say, we're a relationship-based, relationship-focussed company. I love digging into the foundation of an event and understanding why it's happening, who it's happening for, what value it should provide, and building on those takeaways to create something unique, powerful and memorable. What led you to where you are today? I had set my trajectory on biological sciences. Some years into it, I realized I wasn't passionate about it. I enrolled in visual communication and design at MacEwan University. It had an event-planning module and I found I really had a knack for it. Upon graduating, I took on a variety of marketing and communication roles. An opportunity came up that found me living in London, England. For a few months I worked as an events coordinator at a venue that specialized in celebrity events. The company culture was terrible, which prompted me to leave. I was nearly ready to fl y back home when I was headhunted to manage events for Gordon Ramsay. When I came back to Edmonton, I found myself back in marketing-related roles and other event roles. I never felt quite fulfi lled. So, on February 1, 2015, Tycoon Events was brought to fruition. Eryne Sarabin The owner of award-winning Edmonton-based Tycoon Events shares how focussing on teamwork and education has helped her company survive the pandemic Get To KNow What has been your proudest Tycoon moment? I have always been passionate about professional development and education. We're major champions of providing clarity around what our profession does and the value that we provide. When we became certifi ed providers of educational content and continuing education hours, it was an extremely proud moment. How has Tycoon weathered the pandemic? In the fi rst week of COVID we lost over 97% of our business. That same week we hired four new people and incorporated. We knew we would need to reimagine what our services and value proposition would be and how we could create opportunity where there was none. We focussed on building out our educational pillar. We invested in creating resources such as our annual Event Trends Report, seasonal event guides and our award-winning Virtual Event Resource. It allowed us to stay in the know on many important topics that were having an impact on our industry. (Available at tycoonevents.ca.) We also implemented an internal social committee to maintain connectivity while operating remotely. It was also important for us to ensure we had a bricks-and- mortar location to act as our hub for those times when we were able to safely meet with one another. What might your colleagues be surprised to learn about you? I have participated in competitive combat sports and I have an affi nity for monster trucks and action movies from the '80s and '90s (especially those on VHS)! 14 | Ignitemag.ca | Autumn 2021

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