The story of Palmer Event Solutions didn’t begin the day the business became official. Like most good stories, ours started before we knew exactly where it was going – with Gail, doing the work, building relationships, and figuring out what came next.

As we celebrate 10 years, we’re going back to the beginning – one chapter at a time. And for Chapter One, there was only one person to ask.

We sat down with Gail to revisit 2016: the work that led her here, the event that became a turning point, the people gathered around her kitchen table, and the story behind three words that would come to mean so much more.

This is the story of why Palmer Event Solutions exists.

THE BEFORE

Before Palmer Event Solutions, what did your work look like? 

Before Palmer Event Solutions, there were really two versions of my professional life. First, there was Gail in Anchorage, working full time for Art Services North, where we planned just about every kind of event imaginable: corporate and nonprofit events, weddings, fundraisers, runs and walks, city festivals, holiday installations, and even an employee appreciation event at an oil facility on Alaska’s North Slope. It was often hard work, but it was also a lot of fun, and I loved the company, the team, and the sheer variety of what we got to create.

When I left Alaska, I was not ready to leave that work behind, so I proposed becoming a part-time remote employee long before remote work was common. I continued serving my Alaska clients while slowly building relationships in Cleveland, beginning with weddings and eventually moving into nonprofit work. People found me almost entirely through word of mouth. I said yes when good people asked for help, and when other good people were looking for someone doing good work, those clients and friends were willing to say my name.

What did you love most about that stage of your career?

I think what I loved most was figuring things out. I was solving event problems, and I was also figuring out how to build a career in a new city. I was figuring out how to take the parts of my work in Alaska that I loved, and recreate them in Cleveland. Along the way, I realized the work that energized me most was helping nonprofits. I didn't have a mission statement yet, but I knew I wanted to build a company that, like me, was good at solving problems… and I wanted my work to benefit people and organizations doing good work. 

THE TURNING POINT

Was there one event that made you realize it was time to start your own company?

Tri-C JazzFest 2016 was the project that made the need for a company impossible to ignore. I was hired to design a sponsor-driven opening celebration that felt like a flash mob, complete with a line dance, roller derby skaters, drum lines, stilt walkers, mascots, musicians, and dozens of entertainers all appearing from different locations and gathering beneath the Playhouse Square chandelier. It all came together exactly as I had imagined it, and I remember thinking afterward, "Holy shit... did I really just do that?"

At the same time, I ran into a very practical problem. I was still just Gail Palmer, an independent contractor, and it was more complicated than it should have been for an institution like Tri-C to hire me. I realized I didn't want organizations to struggle with how to bring me on board. I wanted it to be easy to hire me, and that realization became the catalyst for creating Palmer Event Solutions.

What changed for you during or after that event? 

I don't think there was one dramatic moment where everything changed. It was more like a tipping scale. When I first moved to Cleveland, almost all of my work was still coming from Alaska, but over time more and more opportunities were coming my way locally. By the time Tri-C JazzFest came along, I realized I wasn't just working. I was investing in my future self, and she needed more than Gail with a great network. She needed Palmer Event Solutions.

You’ve said that you couldn't simply be "Gail with a great network" anymore. What do you mean by that?

For a while, people hired Gail because Gail knew how to get things done. I knew how to solve problems, I knew how to find the right partners, and I knew how to bring an event to life. But as the projects became bigger and the trust became deeper, people weren’t just hiring me to get things done. They were trusting me to carry something that mattered to them. I realized I needed to build something that could carry that responsibility with me, and Palmer Event Solutions became that something.

BUILDING THE BUSINESS

Once you knew you needed a company, what were your first steps?

The first thing I did was pick up the phone and call the Small Business Development Center because I had never started a business. They pointed me to resources, gave me a roadmap, and connected me with an attorney and an accountant who each offered a complimentary exploratory call. I followed the steps, worked the checklists, and learned what I needed to do to establish a business. Fun fact: the accountant I met through that very first referral is still my accountant today.

Tell us about when you named Palmer Event Solutions. 

When it came time to name the company, I wanted to lean on more brains than my own. I invited Cassie, Robin, and Vince to join me around my kitchen table because each of them saw the world through a different lens. Cassie knew my aspirations, Robin understood branding and identity, and Vince knew the Cleveland event industry inside and out. They asked great questions, challenged my thinking, and by the end of the conversation, we kept coming back to one word: solutions. Looking back, I know we didn't invent the company's identity that day. We simply found the right word for something that had already been true about how I approached my work.

Why "Palmer"? Why "Event Solutions" instead of "Event Planning" or another name? 

Each word in the name had a purpose. I chose "Palmer" because, at that point, the company was still very much an extension of me and my reputation. "Event" was intentional because I had worked for a company whose name didn't always make it clear what they actually did, and I wanted people to immediately understand the industry I was in. "Solutions" took the longest to materialize. It wasn't my idea as much as it was something my kitchen table collective helped pull out of me. I never wanted to be known as a company of stuff. I wanted people to know they could bring me an idea, a challenge, or a problem, and together we'd figure out the best way to make it happen.

LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD

When you officially launched Palmer Event Solutions, what did you hope the company would become?

Honestly, I hoped it would become a way for me to make a living doing work I loved. I wanted to replace the income I had been earning from Alaska, wake up every day excited about my work, and have the freedom to say yes to the projects I cared about and no to the ones I didn't. Most of all, I wanted to build something on my own terms and be my own boss. I don't think I was dreaming about the company Palmer Event Solutions would become ten years later. I was simply hoping to build a career that felt meaningful.

Looking back 10 years later, what would you tell the Gail who was sitting at that kitchen table in 2016?

I'd tell her, "You're going to work really hard, and you're going to love it. You're going to meet and help a lot of really awesome people along the way. You're not going to make a million dollars doing any of it. But you're going to build something that's incredibly rewarding and that you're proud of."

If someone reads this chapter years from now, what's the one thing you hope they understand about why Palmer Event Solutions exists?

Palmer Event Solutions was born to help good people plan great events. Period.