You’re not looking for a vendor. You’re looking for someone who thinks.
After 15+ years of building events, I’ve learned that most of what goes wrong isn’t about effort. It’s about how the thing was designed in the first place. That’s the work I do here: consulting, creative direction, speaking, and workshops for the people responsible for the room, the team, or the business.
Is This You?
You might be in the right place if…
You’re the person responsible for the room, and you want it to feel intentional, not just executed.
You’ve outgrown coordination help and need a strategic partner, not another set of hands.
You care about how people feel, not just what they leave with.
You’re building something (a program, a gathering, a season of work) that matters more than the spreadsheet shows.
You’d rather have one sharp outside read than five rounds of revisions.
You believe gatherings are how culture gets built: at work, in your community, and in your life.
Consulting & VIP Days
A VIP Day is a private, focused strategy session: the clarity, direction, and plan you’d normally get from months of back-and-forth, in one sitting. Virtual, or in person in Winnipeg.
Pre-session prep. A detailed intake questionnaire so we hit the ground running.
3–4 focused hours. Virtual or in person. Your biggest questions, worked through.
Custom action plan. Within 48 hours: decisions, recommendations, and your exact next steps.
2 weeks of follow-up. Email support as you start putting it in place.
VIP Days are custom priced, starting at $1,350 + GST. See if a VIP Day fits →
For planners & creative entrepreneurs
Planning process & client workflow
Pricing, packages & positioning
Systems, boundaries & team building
Your season: event, rest, and growth
For corporate teams
Event goals & purpose
Production plan & run of show
Team roles & who owns what
For organizations & not-for-profits
Audit your current event process
Timeline, budget & vendor strategy
Guest experience & event flow
Committee & volunteer structure
Lifestyle Consulting
For when the business is working, but your life around it isn’t.
This is newer, and I don’t think many people locally are doing it. It’s the same thinking I bring to an event (how the pieces fit, where the pressure points are, what needs to change so it runs without so much force) turned toward your work and your life together. Business transitions, rebuilding how your weeks and seasons run, and making room for a life you actually stay inside of.
That kind of calm doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t show up on its own. It took me a long time to build mine. Now it’s the thing I’m most sure of.
What we work on
Navigating a business pivot or transition
Designing your schedule, seasons, and capacity
Systems for work and home that don’t need you “on” all the time
Figuring out which parts of your work you want to keep
Creative Direction
For events, programs, and experiences that need someone designing the whole thing, not just the look. Strategy and aesthetics, woven together.
For Melee Gala XI, that meant a Cirque Vegas concept built around the boxing ring’s sightlines: fully costumed, theatrical, and premium, with aerialists, showgirls, a local violinist, and ring-card characters in tailored 70s white suits. For the Churchill Northern Studies Centre’s 50th, it meant signage built to their brand and a signature cocktail built around their own logo.
Speaking & Facilitation
Keynotes, panels, and facilitated sessions for organizations that gather people on purpose. Facilitation means guiding your group through a structured conversation to a real outcome — not hosting or MCing.
Speaking Topics
The Leadership Skill Nobody Teaches: Hosting
Events Are Systems, Not Schedules
The Invisible Work of Events
Community Through Gathering
From Operator to Architect
Facilitation
Strategic planning sessions for teams and boards
Retreat design and facilitation
Community conversations and town halls
Post-event debriefs that actually change next year
Committee kick-offs for galas and fundraisers
Work By Design · The Podcast
Want a feel for Amanda’s energy before you book her?
Press play. Work By Design is Amanda’s podcast about building work, and a life, exactly how you designed it. It’s honest, a little nerdy about systems, and full of the same warmth and straight talk she brings to a stage or a boardroom.
Ten minutes in, you’ll know if she’s the right voice for your room.
Event Planning Workshops
For anyone who wants to host better — on your own, or as a team that plans events on top of everything else. A full day of hands-on training, built on the same systems we use for every event we run.
Before: A workbook to get you thinking about your own events before we meet.
The day: A full day of training — practical, hands-on, and built around the events you actually host.
After: A follow-up video call to see how it’s going, and to answer the questions that show up once you’re back at it.
Each level builds on the last, so everyone starts with 101.
Event Planning 101 · Start here
The foundations: how to plan, manage, and host an event with confidence.
The full scope of an event, start to finish
Where to start: goals, guest count, date and venue
Building a realistic budget (and sticking to it)
Your planning timeline, month by month
Basic design: setting a look and feel
Vendor relations: finding, booking and working with vendors
Event Planning 2.0 · After 101
Builds on 101 for people ready to take on bigger, more involved events.
The why: designing around purpose and guest experience
Marketing and promoting your event
Tickets, registration and pricing
Etiquette and hosting: invitations, flow, VIPs
Run of show and day-of timelines
Event Planning 3.0 · After 2.0
The advanced level, for people leading events and the teams around them.
Sponsorship: building packages and pitching partners
Leading committees, volunteers and teams
Larger budgets and fundraising goals
Risk, contingency and day-of problem solving
Post-event: reporting, thank-yous and next year
Bring us to your team
We come to you and teach your team in your own space — a PD day that leaves your people with a skill your whole company can use.
Join a yearly workshop
We host each level once a year for individuals. Dates, location, and price are coming soon. Get Notified →
There’s a conversation worth having here.
Whether you’re planning something complex, building something that matters, or just curious whether we’d think well together — say hello.