Ashley Albrecht: Infusing Life with Color?

Going out on her own 12 years ago to “see what would happen,” Ashley Albrecht, President and Founder of Albrecht Events, parlayed her creative expression as an English major into the event planning world, realizing that event planning is a good balance between creativity and structure. Each event has a start and a finish, and creative writing helps to paint the picture for potential clients.

She also discovered a deep passion for the creative aspects of event planning, “bringing ideas to life in a 3-dimensional way,” as she recently did for a 10-year client’s holiday party. Whereas last year’s event was an all-black theme, this year she proposed the complete transformation of a raw space into a multi-colored palette, taking the group “from a starry night event to a blast of color.”

The 200+ person audience, celebrating the entire corporate family, appreciated the decorative accents that utilized the raw industrial space in new ways. A giant wall of balloons climbed up a wrought-iron staircase, dueling pianos added exciting ambiance, and upside-down Chinese umbrellas of various colors decorated the ceiling.

Of course, as a raw space, it wasn’t always roses. There were changes to the building that they weren’t made aware of until the day of, such as a wall completely removed. Her team overcame this challenge and others, focusing their approach on seeking advice from the experts in the category of the challenge, staying calm, and picking the problem apart.

It’s that team-based collaboration that Ashley likes the most about her career: being given a challenge and trying to “figure out the best way to make that happen.” She appreciates the organic nature of her career path – meeting people early in her career, attending lots of networking events, and continuing forward even when it’s hard.

Besides perseverance, Ashley’s advice for people new to the industry is to “get out and meet people face to face; that’s the biggest thing in the beginning.” YEP! agrees, and we hope you’ll attend our monthly genuine networking events to do just that.