Operations · Events · Experiential

Nicki LaVigne

Operations and events executive building businesses, teams and events in regulated and high-pressure environments.

Hi, I'm Nicki. I build the gathering, and the business follows. For twenty-plus years I've opened storefronts, produced festivals and trained teams that run the standard without me. This is a portfolio of the work.

Get in touchSee the work
Gold line-art sketch of festival grounds on a deep green field — placeholder for an upcoming photo
Photo coming soon — festival grounds

Selected work

Four builds, told straight: what the situation was, what I did, and what came of it.

Case study 01 · Hero story

Canna Camp 2026 — the 48-hour storm rebuild

The situation. Two days before gates, the forecast turned into a confirmed Nor'easter aimed straight at a 220-acre site with 450+ attendees expected and every vendor already placed.

What I did. I redesigned the whole festival inside 48 hours. Every vendor was pulled to higher ground, we procured around 15 event tents so everyone stayed dry, the rest of the programming fit inside the main hall and the big top, and vendor parking moved next to the tents so nobody walked through mud. When the storm took out the planned layout an hour in, I pivoted the product from space to people — re-tasking 15 volunteers into vendor-attendants and checkers, and working the crowd myself all day.

The outcome. Gates opened on time and attendees never felt the panic. The event's reputation was made by the storm, not broken by it. I've carried companies through 70-hour crunch weeks; this was foresight at festival speed.

Gold line-art of event tents on a ridge under storm winds — placeholder for a Canna Camp photo
Photo coming soon — festival grounds
Gold line-art of two storefront buildings with an awning — placeholder for a venue photo
Photo coming soon — the venue

Case study 02

Naked City Brewery & Music Venue

The situation. I joined a startup brewery and music venue in Seattle and stayed more than a decade as it grew into a two-storefront operation with 75+ employees.

What I did. I ran operations across both locations — staffing, scheduling, vendors, customer experience — and built the nightly production floor myself: sound, staging, lighting, load-in and artist relations. I directed programming that drew nights of 2,000+ attendees, and each year I fit six to eight distinct festival events inside a ten-day window.

The outcome. Programming became the engine of repeat visitation, and I built the GM and supervisor pipeline from the floor up so the standard held across teams of 3 to 15.

Case study 03

Licensed cannabis retail, built from zero

The situation. A licensed cannabis retail business, one year of licensing already behind it, no team, no systems, no vendor base — and a compressed window from end of construction to opening day.

What I did. I ran every workstream at once. People: 77 interviews in two weeks, ten hires, training and SOPs for the whole floor. Product: branding, signage, displays. Process: around 37 vendors found and connected in three weeks. Platform: POS and track-and-trace implemented end to end, replaced mid-crunch when the first provider failed. Promotion: walked the neighborhood and introduced the store to the town.

The outcome. The first compliance walkthrough failed on construction errors, so I removed the door and trim myself to protect the re-inspection window — and we passed two weeks later and opened on time, on 29 May 2024. I built a management layer that runs the standard without me, which is the point.

Gold line-art of a retail counter and shelves — placeholder for a store photo
Photo coming soon — the shop floor
Gold line-art of partner canopies and banners connected like a network — placeholder for an activation photo
Photo coming soon — partner activations

Case study 04

C2C Productions — the sponsorship program

The situation. A compliance-constrained market where tickets can't be sold through a licensed retailer, and sponsors who needed more than a logo on a flyer.

What I did. I founded a separate production company so ticketing stayed compliant, then built the sponsorship program from nothing: sourcing, negotiating, and holding partners to delivery standards — sourcing partners, coordinating contracts and running creative handoffs so each activation actually shipped.

The outcome. 15+ partner organizations per cycle, with every commitment translated into a delivered activation on site. Compliance as architecture, not checklists.

How I Work

My method is foresight. Before anything exists, I run through every failure mode, find solutions in advance, and bring the team to the table so we're not solving in a vacuum. Whatever is left over, the team has already been trained to solve on the spot. I hire for temperament and train for knowledge, and I measure success in what survives my departure.

I'm also genuinely AI-native. I design and run a daily AI operations stack covering inbox management, document generation, financial reporting and content pipelines — technology that makes good people better, and makes a small team move like a big one.

Gold line-art of a planning table with site plans and checklists — placeholder for a working-session photo
Photo coming soon — planning session

Get in touch

I'm always glad to talk with people building something. The fastest way to reach me is email.

nickiandesa@gmail.comLinkedIn — coming soon

Relocating to the Denver area in mid-2027. Open to remote, hybrid or on-site roles in the meantime.