We recently connected with Jessica Tomasin and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

After producing events and festivals for other people for many years, I knew I wanted to create something of my own. I was really good at throwing a party for people, but I wanted to do something more. I felt that art and storytelling had the ability to be much more impactful in people’s lives. We all have a song, or a film, or a book that has caused a shift in us, inspired us to act, to do something different in our lives. This is what I wanted to create. I had all the experience, so the next step was to build the vision.

First thing I had to do is make a game plan to be able to make creating my own event fit into my life. This meant saying no to a lot of projects to free up time to do the work needed. The next step was to do research into what I wanted to create. Was there already something like this? If so, was it successful? Was there room for another event like this? Then I started with writing a story about what my experience and what the attendee experience was like. This was a really good way of identifying what I wanted people to walk away with. The next part was to work on putting together the dream programming to create the experience I wanted. After that came the crucial part of putting the budget together and making a plan on how to get the money together. I had to scale down my programming significantly to be able to make the budget work. From concept to execution the amount of time was about 18 months.

Jessica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

From the age of 16, I knew I wanted to work in music. My first opportunity came in my hometown outside of Detroit where I sang backup vocals on a hip-hop track and was immediately hooked. I then took any work around music that I could, which lead to hauling crates full of records for the DJs at night on the rave scene.

After moving to Asheville, I continued to grow my diverse skills in construction, rock climbing, and restaurant management before landing at the Orange Peel music venue. It was in 2006 that I became the studio manager of Echo Mountain Recording, a position that would set the path for a passion driven career. Since then I have expanded my path to include artist/label management, booking, and event production.

I became co-founder the Asheville Music Professionals, a non-profit organization committed to providing education, advocacy, connection, and collaboration in the music community. With a passion for teaching, I created Inside Out, a music program that teaches music production, performance, and business to BIPOC artists and recently expanded the program to include youth programming. I also teach festival production, studio management, and music entrepreneurship at the high school and college level.

In 2014 I started Jet Up Productions, a full service event management and production company, and has curated a number of festivals and events each year. Jet Up has been a part of The Breeder’s Cup, Asheville Goombay Festival, Beer City Festival, Brewgrass, RHS Community Foundation Fundraiser featuring Gladys Knight and Little Big Town, and many other projects.

As time has progressed, I have decided that all projects have to come from a place of leaving the world/community in a better place than I found it. This is what drives me and is the foundation for everything I do. I love working with others and feel there is strength in numbers.

My latest project, Connect Beyond Festival, is a multi-genre arts festival featuring creative talent from around the world with a mission to inspire personal growth and change for social justice through music, film, art and literature. This innovative event features intellectually stimulating panels, movie screenings, and live music performances, with authors, producers, musicians, journalists, publicists, educators, activists, and filmmakers coming together in the name of achieving a more socially just planet.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to cancel my festival in March of 2020 and it was devastating. I had an amazing line up, tickets were selling really well but as time went on it became clear that I couldn’t put on an event about creating social impact that would also put people at risk. For a long time I was opposed to doing online events. But as time went on and there was no foreseeable end in sight, I decided that people needed to stay connected. So we started hosting online screenings and discussions for the films we had booked for the festival. The response was overwhelming positive. The last film we screened was Summer of Soul, which went on to win the Academy Award that year for Best Documentary.

We also created an online book club in early 2021 and invited the authors to be a part of the conversation whenever we could. The club has transformed since then to a multimedia club with films, books, podcasts, and more but it’s still happening today.

Any advice for managing a team?

Always start with the golden rule when working with others; treat people how you want to be treated. Creating an environment where your team feels valued, respected, and heard leads to higher output and satisfaction for all. You have to treat your staff how you want your staff to treat your customers/clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://connectbeyondfestival.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectbeyondfestival/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConnectBeyondFestival
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-tomasin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@connectbeyondfestival3705

Image Credits
Sandlin Gaither, Josh Rhinehard, Matthieu Rodriguez