Practitioner Spotlight--Debbie Ferguson

Name:

Debbie Ferguson

Office:

Home-based

Practice Area:

Field/Event Marketing

Area(s) of expertise:

Event planning, coordination, logistics, and promotion

About Me in 140 Characters:

I’m a married, middle-aged redneck tomboy, dog-mom, avid hunter, and I like to do charity walks (not runs): 10Ks, 5Ks, and half marathons.

Favorite Thing about Being an Event Marketing Practitioner:

I’m involved all across the board with every segment and every practice, and with a lot of the regions. Being able to pull off an event and have a client say “That was a great time, thanks so much for including me,” makes it all worthwhile.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

Planning, organizing, getting to do a little bit of travel, and bossing people around.

If someone at a party asks what you do, how do you respond?

I work for an environmental, health, safety and sustainability consulting firm. They look at me like “that's a mouth full” And I explain: If you see a smoke stack - it needs a permit; if you’ve got any kind of chemicals you use – they need to be managed; even if you have an office - there needs to be health and safety plans in place.  

Then they look at me and say "But you’re not a technical person/scientist..." and I say “I’M THE EVENT PERSON,” and they say “Oh, how cool.”

What surprises people about your job?

The number of details that go into doing it and the lead time that you need to pull off an event successfully.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to a vet, but I was not very good at chemistry. I wanted to be a rock 'n roll star, but I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. I had to come up with something to do behind the scenes – and events work for me.

What was your first job?

Hustling neighbors and family for yard work, cleaning, painting. But my first real job was working at a barbeque restaurant in my town–I was the first woman they ever hired.

If you had one month off, where would you go or what would you do?

Do Survivor or the Amazing Race. I’d love to do either one. (Mark Burnette, are you listening?)

What historical or fictional character would you most like to work with?

Elvis.

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