She’s won national and provincial awards for her events and conventions, but Teanna Lindsay still worries that people won’t show up to her party.
“Of course!” said Lindsay, who is among Windsor-Essex’s prodigal children who left town to launch careers and are now returning to set up their ventures closer to home. Events don’t always go as planned, she said, and she’s still amazed when it all comes together. “That moment right there is like, ‘Awesome. This came out of my mind.'”
Lindsay is the brains behind some of the region’s newest and increasingly popular events, including the Walkerville and Kingsville night markets and the restaurant-hopping Tasting Trolley. And her work in event management and with local politicians even led her to the federal campaign trail, where she was part of the team organizing rallies and events for Justin Trudeau.
But, the Cottam native said, she never thought she would end up in event planning. After graduating from the University of Windsor in political studies, she went on to work at the provincial level with MPPs like Sandra Pupatello — whom she says is a great role model — in Windsor and at Queen’s Park. As she got more involved with planning events for provincial Liberals, including for former premier Dalton McGuinty’s campaign, she decided to pursue event planning at Ryerson University and starting working with Woofstock, North America’s biggest dog festival, which is held every year in Toronto.
In fact, Lindsay has gone on to win a national award for Best Festival in Canada for Woofstock and she recently bought the trademark for the event with a business partner, meaning she is now officially in charge of a party for some 100,000 dog lovers and more than 200 vendors.
But rather than stay in Toronto, Lindsay wanted to make a go of it back in Windsor and moved back in 2013. “I really missed my hometown,” she said. “I had some ideas and events to start in Windsor that would be a good fit.”
The Walkerville Night Market is pictured in this handout photo.
The idea for the night market emerged over drinks with friends, Lindsay said. Farmers markets are great … if you’re a morning person, that is. The monthly Walkerville Night Market launched in summer 2014 and made a point of featuring all-local food, vendors and musicians. This was key, Lindsay said, because she wants to make sure any event she designs serves its surrounding community or a charity.
“At the end of the day it’s all fine to throw a party but it has to have some meaning behind it,” she said.
The night market concept was so popular among locals and also tourists that it only took a year before it spread to Kingsville. Now there’s talk of bringing it to other county locations in summer 2016.
In the spirit of Windsor-Essex collaboration, Lindsay also launched the Tasting Trolley — a restaurant crawl in a vintage trolley bus with mystery destinations — with local food entrepreneur Jeff Denomme of Papa D’s Hot Sawce. “Everyone loves to eat and there’s such great restaurants here,” she said.
She also worked on the city’s green expo this year with natural goods retailer ShopEco and coordinated the ever-popular Carrousel of Nations.
In between dreaming up and running events in Windsor, Lindsay travelled a bit of Trudeau’s campaign trail. When the opportunity came up to work on the federal Liberal campaign, Lindsay said she simply made herself available to help whenever she could.
Teanna Lindsay, owner of Teanna Lindsay Events, is pictured in her home office on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015.
Pretty soon, she found herself on a team of planners coordinating rallies all over Canada, including an event in Brampton with 5,000 supporters.
“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of that,” she said. “It was really rewarding to be a part of something that made history.”
Lindsay hasn’t run out of new event ideas for Windsor-Essex yet, and she has a few up her sleeve for 2016. In the meantime, she’s got another Woofstock to plan, more Tasting Trolleys and Night Markets to host and she’ll be making her mark on Leamington’s home and garden show in March.
Her job entails managing everything for an event from booking venues and arranging city permits to arranging for special fencing and chairs.
What she’s noticed is that people in Windsor-Essex don’t just want to go out to bars — they want to be social and they’re also looking for events that appeal to different demographics. That might explain the popularity of the night markets. “It’s almost like a high school reunion, barbecue feel to those events,” she said.
And it seems to be paying off. Last month, Lindsay took home an innovator’s award from the Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence, helping put Windsor-Essex tourist attractions on the same map as Toronto, Niagara and Bruce County.
It’s easy to build relationships and make a difference in a community like Windsor-Essex, Lindsay said, adding if you’re willing to work hard, there are lots of opportunities.
