Alumni
Visual Communications Graduate Jenny Chang is an Award-Winning Event Planner
As the founder of ROCKNEVENTS, luxury event planner Jenny Chang has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Event Planners in the U.S. by PartySlate and Top 10 in Los Angeles by Junebug Weddings. The entrepreneurial Visual Communications Graduate and L.A. native's event empire includes the wedding planning app Vowlá and the recently launched ROCKNUNIVERSITY, an online educational platform for future event planners. We recently chatted with Jenny about her exciting career, favorite events, and advice for people whose events have been affected by COVID-19.
How did you select Visual Communications as a major? I applied to FIDM majoring in Merchandise Product Development. In high school, I overheard a girl talk about a career in event planning where she described all the responsibilities and opportunities, and I was attracted to it. I overheard her talk about Visual Communications being the major that would propel this career forward, so I changed majors before my semester began. It was the greatest decision I have ever made since Visual Communications taught me all the essential skills that I apply in my career today.
How did FIDM help prepare you for entrepreneurship? Through the very hands-on, time-sensitive, and teamwork-inspired projects that were expected of me. The education and advice I received helped me overcome my anxiety with time management. As many people can imagine, event production is nothing short of being a master of time, and the skills that I learned from FIDM aided me to create a strong relationship with time, instead of fearing it.
What are some of your favorite events you've planned? The events that I’m challenged to build from absolute scratch; the ones that require me to install sinks, fridges, flooring, and ceilings in a parking lot or private estate. The ones that instantly become the most rewarding when brought to life are my favorite experiences to manifest. Traditional, themed, or cultured events don’t phase me unless they allow me to create it all for the very first time.
Tell us why you founded the app Vowlá. I created Vowlá, the Uber of wedding planning, because the $72 billion dollar wedding industry continues to grow, but simultaneously lacks the number of professional wedding consultants to help the couple's plan an effective, intelligent, and luxury planning process. I decided to develop an app that would connect couples to a real-life wedding planner via instant match like Tinder, and allow the couples to self-guide themselves through a custom process I handcrafted, whilst having a ‘day-of' feature that brings their dream experience brought-to-life yet affordable for the masses. My intention is to spread luxury to the world, specifically on the one day that matters most.
You also have a new arm of your business, ROCKNUNIVERSITY, right? Proudly, yes! The university tailors itself to future event planners and moguls, and teaches the steps in how to plan luxury events and experiences from ‘ground-up’ perspectives. Many of the tours educated by, yours truly, are dedicated to teaching students what textbooks can’t teach. It’s a space where ‘events’ evolve into real conversations in the greatest and most challenging experiences in the event field. It’s designed to inspire those that wish to pursue their future careers in experiential planning and entrepreneurship journey.
What are the most rewarding parts of being your own boss? Attracting and molding your perfect team is the most rewarding outcome in being your own boss. Everyone who’s been attracted to my establishments, and those who continue to pursue their dream, are the ones I wake up doing this all for. They continue to fuel my passions. I owe a lot of my success to the people behind the scenes making my career dreams come true. Creating events and groundbreaking experiences is nothing short of the fundamental people and spirits that orchestrate these massive moments, so they are forever the reward.
Since the events world has been severely impacted by COVID-19, how are you personally dealing with everything and what are you recommending to your clients? Professionally and personally, my companies are healthy, motivated, abundant, and feeling grateful through the COVID-19 chaos. I actually started a new plan in the company called EXPANSION-19 where my team and I are motivated to use this time to expand on the new brand and marketing strategies. My best recommendation to clients is to continue planning your company’s events, best-day-ever-weddings, and social experiences. COVID-19 is temporary and experiences are forever.
Remember that it takes a healthy six to nine months to plan any celebration, no matter the cause or event mission, so even if you can’t launch your event next month, continue to work with professionals in planning it and plan it with greater strategies now that you have the time and focus to do so. This is a time to see the value in experiential marketing and celebrations because when the world is back on its feet, the event industry is going to be stronger than ever, so spend these moments to invest in the value and quality of your next event, not run away from it.
Learn more at jennychang.com and keep up with Jenny on Instagram @jennychanggang.
Categories: Visual Communication Alumni
