North Bay Woman

Starting a publication armed only with a passion for inspiring event professionals—a career ranked as one of the most stressful every year—is not a job for the faint of heart. But Marin County entrepreneur Marin Bright did just that in the height of the recession in 2002. Her vision was to build a community to support people who plan meetings and events by taking a colorful, consumer approach to print, online and live events. "I wanted to change the way people thought about their jobs," she said. This hospitality veteran also had some pretty innovative ideas about the culture she wanted for her team because she knew the energy and joy she fostered in the office would make its way onto the pages of the magazine. "From the time I started the company, I had a vision for a place where people could come to work every day engaged, excited about the next piece of beautiful music we would create together," she said. You see, Bright is a classical music fan, so she always compared her company to a symphony where she is the conductor who cues the percussion section (sales) and then brings in the wind instruments at the right moment (editorial) and adds strings (events) just when the momentum is building. The important thing is that everyone be in harmony. The result is a publication that has won awards year-after-year for design and writing. She was recognized for her thought leadership by Folio as one of the Top Women in Media. "We were the textbook definition of scrappy and we knew we had to overdeliver," she recalls. She painted the office walls bright orange, green and purple and filled it with bold art. The team worked side-by-side and played together as well. Later, he newborn son joined her in the office and would make the rounds, spreading cheer wherever he went. A standard poodle named Scarlett is the official greeter and office security. Seventeen years later, Bright is still actively reinventing expectations for industry events and sharing information in new ways online as the Smart Meetings Instagram community has become a prime place to feature new ideas and encourage others. "Success, for me, is bringing people together to accomplish things they could never do on their own," she concludes. Marin Bright on Culture " Marin Bright on Culture S tarting a publication armed only with a passion for inspiring event professionals—a career ranked as one of the most stressful every year—is not a job for the faint of heart. But Marin County entrepreneur Marin Bright did just that in the height of the reces- sion in 2002. Her vision was to build a community to support people who plan meetings and events by taking a colorful, consumer approach to print, online and live events. "I wanted to change the way people thought about their jobs," she said. This hospitality veteran also had some pretty innovative ideas about the culture she wanted for her team because she knew the energy and joy she fostered in the office would make its way onto the pages of the magazine. "From the time I started the com- pany, I had a vision for a place where people could come to work every day engaged, excited about the next piece of beautiful music we would create together," she said. You see, Bright is a classical music fan, so she always compared her company to a symphony where she is the conductor who cues the percussion (sales) and brass (marketing) sections, then brings in the wind instruments at the right moment (editorial and digital) and adds strings (events) just when the momentum is building. The important thing is that everyone be in harmony. The result is a publication that has won awards year-after-year for design and writing. She was recognized for her thought leadership by Folio as one of the Top Women in Media. "We were the textbook definition of scrappy, and we knew we had to overdeliver," she recalls. She painted the office walls bright orange, green and purple and filled them with bold art. The team worked side-by-side and played together as well. Later, her newborn son joined her in the office and would make the rounds, spreading cheer wherever he went. A standard poodle named Scarlett is the official greeter and office security. Seventeen years later, Bright is still actively reinventing expectations for industry events and sharing information in new ways online, as the Smart Meetings Instagram community has become a prime place to feature new ideas and encourage others. "Success, for me, is bringing people together to accomplish things they could never do on their own," she concludes. SAUSALITO PUBLISHER SHARES VISION OF WORKPLACE HARMONY I wanted to change the way people thought about their jobs."

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