Dial It Up To Eleven - Greenville Events Agency Specializes In Everything From Meetings To Music

Casey Reid and Christy Phillips have different backgrounds and specialties that allow them to create a variety of events.

Eleven Events produces every aspect of the three-day Bear Shadow Festival just outside Highlands, North Carolina. In the fall, they produce the Highlands Wine & Food festival.

Companies and nonprofits that plan parties, meetings, festivals and fundraisers – or all four at the same time – might be looking to score a Perfect 10.

But that’s not enough for Greenville event planners Casey Reid and Christy Phillips, who aim for an 11 every time.

“We love pushing boundaries. We love it when we can help clients think outside the box and do something different,” Reid says. “We want to be able to produce something that we are proud to deliver.”

Reid founded the agency, named Eleven Events, in 2009. Phillips joined as a partner in 2012.

“We answer every call. We listen to what everybody wants,” Phillips says. “If we’re available, and it’s a good fit for our brand, and we will both enjoy doing it, we will take the event.”

Reid and Phillips, who both grew up in Greenville, were friends before becoming partners. They say their diverse backgrounds make it possible to create a variety of experiences for a variety of clients.

Reid’s background is in music, concert production and live entertainment. Phillips spent 10 years in corporate events and marketing.

“When we joined forces, we were able to have a bigger reach,” Phillips says. “That's why you'll see us doing a little bit of everything.”

The agency collaborates with corporations, nonprofits and municipalities to present tours, employee incentive trips, meetings, parties, destination and product launches, music festivals, fundraisers and more.

“Sometimes, we combine two things and have a corporate event with live music,” Phillips says. “We love brainstorming ideas on new things and bringing those to life.”

The company’s specialty, they say, is experiential marketing.

“Instead of just having a meeting, folks are realizing the power of events as marketing strategies,” Reid says.

“There is a return on the investment, even if it’s not hard dollars. It’s a real experience, and people walk away with positive memories. That’s our goal.”

In the Upstate, Eleven Events crafted and produced the first Mutt Strut for dogs and their humans to benefit the Greenville Humane Society; staged big-budget concerts inside the Greenville Zoo, featuring Jason Isbell, Keller Williams, The Revivalists and Bruce Hornsby, for VIP supporters of the Greenville Zoo Foundation; and created an in-person, local version of a hit cooking show to raise awareness and funds for Cancer Survivors Park in Greenville.

Two hours away in Highlands, North Carolina, Eleven Events produces the weekend Bear Shadow Festival in the spring and the four-day Highlands Wine & Food in the fall.

The Bear Shadow Festival takes place in May, drawing about 2,000 residents and visitors to the area, located in the southern Appalachian Mountains inside the Nantahala National Forest.

The eighth Highlands Food & Wine – scheduled Nov. 7 through 10 this year – is an elevated, intimate celebration in downtown Highlands, featuring James Beard Award-winning chefs, international winemakers, internationally renowned brands, and Grammy Award-winning artists, according to the Eleven Events website.

Both festivals create awareness and economic impact for businesses, restaurants, accommodations and recreational activities. They each operate under the umbrella of a nonprofit that also supports conservation efforts in the area.

Eleven Events works all year to secure sponsorships, arrange production and vendors, prepare for ticketing, activities and necessities on the grounds, and book the musicians.

Black Pumas was scheduled to close the fourth Bear Shadow festival this year.

“It’s an absolutely beautiful setting. Everybody can get close to the stage and still spread out and enjoy themselves,” Reid says.

Eleven Events brings in 40 to 50 people to produce Bear Shadow on a farm near downtown Highlands, she says.

Reid and Phillips work with contractors, freelancers and other agencies to create production-heavy events.

“We have great strategic partners, whether it's in production, the creative field, graphic design, PR. We’ve produced events for Fortune 500 companies, and we've produced really special live music events. We can team up and find the right resources for our clients so that we can deliver on their vision,” Reid says.

“People don't need to go to Atlanta to find a production company. They don't need to have a talent booker from LA. We have talented people right here in Greenville.”

A small, women-owned business, Eleven Events sometimes joins with another company’s team to help deliver what the client wants and needs.

“We have a client in California that is an experiential branding agency, and they do large events all over the country for folks like Nike and Facebook and Liberty Mutual,” Phillips says. “We've become partners with them. They started out doing an event in our area, and they asked us to be an extension of their team.

“Now, they're taking us on the road to 14 to 20 events in a year, traveling all over the country.”

Verizon, another large client, is one of a growing number of companies that understand the value of live events – especially after the isolation necessary during the worst of COVID-19 and because many employees still work remotely, Phillips and Reid agree.

“I was at an event for Verizon recently, and my client … it was the first time he'd ever met his boss in person, and he's been working for him for two years,” Phillips says.

Not every client has a big budget.

“People come to us and have never done an event or don't know what they want to do,” Phillips says.

“We stay nimble and scalable for our clients,” Reid says. “Budgets are always part of the conversation. Yes, there’s a fee to hire an event company, but you don’t have to pay an in-house team and overhead.”

Larger or smaller, near or far, Eleven Events can almost always bring a client’s idea to fruition, Phillips says.

“Between the two of us, there's not much we can't do or, at least, figure out how to make it happen. We can go anywhere in the world and produce just about anything. Honestly, the crazier the idea, the more excited we become. It’s nice to be able to say, ‘Yeah, we can help you figure that out.’ That's fun for us. We love that.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Dial It Up To Eleven - Greenville Events Agency Specializes In Everything From Meetings To Music