Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michaella Holden Kalan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Michaella, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I founded Lucent Blue Events + Design so that I could focus on work that makes a difference in the world, so every project we take on feels meaningful, if I’m being honest. Events are designed to create meaning by their very nature — we are often hired because our clients are looking for a way to celebrate something important to them, or perhaps build connections around something that is significant to their guests and/or constituents. Maybe they’re raising money for an important cause, maybe they’re building community around an important issue, or maybe they’re commemorating something significant. No matter the occasion, when an event feels purposeful or momentous, we know we’ve done our job well. Events are tangible, so its extremely gratifying to see everyone’s hard work come together for something bigger than whatever each of us could do on our own.

When we have the opportunity to work on a large public event with many partners that bridge both the nonprofit and corporate spheres, that’s particularly exciting for us. Take The Great Northern Festival, for example, which is a winter festival held annually in the Twin Cities at the end of January that aims to bring people together to celebrate the season and all that it has to offer, while reveling in outdoor play, the arts, and promoting action on climate change. We support the festival behind the scenes, handling all of their production and operation logistics and collaborate with their team to ensure the programming that is produced is both bold and impactful. We work really hard to ensure the festival attendees have an amazing experience and it feels really special to see that come to fruition. We also work with various corporate and nonprofit sponsors to help their activations at the festival go smoothly. When it all comes together, it is so gratifying to see thousands of people having fun, learning, playing outdoors, and delighting in all that a Minnesota winter has to offer.

Michaella, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My passion for events started when I was about 11 years old and started a children’s birthday party “venture” with my best friend. It was called Teddy and Confetti Entertainment Service for Kids and we dressed up like a bear and a “confetti fairy” and sang songs, created treasure hunts, put on puppet shows…you name it. That only lasted a couple years, but it was so much fun – I was totally hooked. Little did I know at the time you could actually plan events for a living!

I studied theater and sociology at Barnard College of Columbia University, and during my freshman year I sat next to a woman on a plane ride home for Thanksgiving who worked for an event agency that planned huge fundraisers. She had also studied theater in college so invited me to volunteer. I helped out at fundraising galas for the New York City Ballet and the Save Venice Foundation, and new immediately that I had found my calling.

After graduating I got a job planning benefit events for a small arts nonprofit, and eventually moved on to direct events at NYU’s Wagner School. I later landed at David Stark Design and Production, where I produced events ranging from the Opening Night Galas for Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera, to the fashion week launch party for Prabal Gurung’s collaboration with Target.

When my husband and I started to plan to move to Minnesota (where I’m from) I switched to freelancing and worked on luxury weddings and private corporate events for celebrity event planners Marcy Blum and Bronson Van Wyck. I had so many adventures all over the world working on events from L.A. to Miami and even some international projects in Barcelona and Dubrovnik. It was a lot of fun, but also a LOT of hard work, with very grueling hours. When we were ready to start a family, I knew I wanted to go out on my own so I could set my own schedule, and that’s how Lucent Blue Events + Design was born.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It is always challenging to run your own business and we have had a lot of ups and downs, but if I had to choose just one story, I’d say that COVID tested every bone in my body. My company was very new and we were just starting to take off in 2020. We had landed a project at the MN Zoo that January and designed a super cool interactive activation for their “Farm Babies” exhibit opening in the spring. When the pandemic hit in March, the whole thing was cancelled and it was devastating – but little did I know that was just the beginning. The event industry was the one of the first to collapse during that season and also one of the last to build itself back up. Clients started cancelling left and right, and by June or July, all of our business had dried up. A lot of companies in the events and hospitality world went under between 2020 and 2022 and honestly, I was proud just to keep the lights on that initial year. We stayed in the black, thanks to a grant from MN’s Department of Employment and Economic Development, and I hustled to pivot to virtual events and did a few outdoor things when we could, but if I’m being honest, it was really hard.

What got me through it was the support of the incredible network of event producers we have in the Twin Cities. We bonded together and did weekly calls to share resources and brainstorm ways to transform our businesses and the way we operated in real time. I’ve always been a relationship person but it was then when I learned how much we all depend on each other and how valuable those relationships truly are. It took a few years to bounce back to full capacity, but its great to be on the other side of it all and those lessons learned have definitely made our team stronger.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

That’s a great question. One thing that was challenging for me was the fact that in New York City, I had built a lot of street cred among the people I worked with and was just starting to build a name for myself when I met my now husband — we decided to make the move to Minneapolis a few years later (I had always intended in coming back to Minnesota), but I didn’t realize how valuable my local network was in NYC until I left it. That network helped to a certain degree when I initially moved to Minneapolis, (I had worked with a lot of folks at Target, which is headquartered in the Twin Cities) but I learned the hard way that building a reputation in a new city takes time and endless dedication.

I did a lot of networking when I first launched my business (and I continue to try to make time for that to this day), but I think what’s been most impactful is that I’ve always worked really hard to go above and beyond for my clients. We strive to offer a truly white-glove level of service and we want the client experience to feel seamless. A lot of our business these days comes from word of mouth and I do not take that for granted. We’ve also worked hard to create a solid digital footprint. It still feels tiny, and digital marketing often feels like the bane of my existence, but I know having a strong brand online is invaluable. Whether in person, in print, or online, we do our best to tell a consistent story. That, combined with strong word of mouth, and a few awards along the way is what has helped us become known in our local market.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lucent.blue
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucent.blue.events
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaella-holden/

Image Credits

Darin Kamnetz, Coppersmith Photography, Graddy Photography, D. Morgan Photography