Jennifer Gilbert, Entrepreneur and Author of “I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag”

Jennifer Gilbert is the life of the party in the event planning industry, as President and Chief Visionary Officer of  Save the Date® an award-winning event management company. Her name and that of the company, are known not only in their home turf, New York City, but also across the country as she plans events in Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Chicago, to name a few.

Gilbert was a fledgling event planner in the 1990’s when the economy nose-dived and venues were in dire need of bookings, at the same time fewer clients were hiring event planners due to the costs. She came up with a business model, playing matchmaker, to help clients find the ultimate venue for their events, while charging them nothing. Instead, the venues compensate her monthly to market their locations, and offer her first right of refusal and access to their calendars. Save the Date hosts over 1500 locations on their database from which corporate planners, non-profits and brides-to-be can select the ideal venue. Using the service “does not increase their budget it, for the most part, decreases their budget by about 25%” because of the volume discounts that Save the Date® can pass on to their clients.

By month five, Save the Date® had over 400 spaces calling to ask, “How do I get on your list?” and had grown past Gilbert’s original first year expectations. By year four, the business hit $8 million. Gilbert received Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 1998 (the only women to win an award that night) after only five years in business, and has continued to win awards.

Self-described as “the opposite of ‘if you build it they will come’, if they don’t want it I don’t build it.” Gilbert’s forte is recognizing needs and fulfilling them. Despite the exponential growth of her original business model, when clients began about 10 years ago to ask for complete assistance with planning events, Save the Date® began satisfying those needs as well. The consulting business now equals about 50% of their business. Companies who do not wish to hire in-house employees to plan their events outsource to Gilbert who orchestrates everything from booking to clean-up.

Unlike other event planners with all-inclusive rates, Save the Date® offers a la carte services so clients can choose within their budget. “Not every client needs everything, all the time.” Gilbert said, “We let people choose what they need and what they don’t.” You only pay for what you need. Gilbert is there to assist in whatever way the bride or corporation needs her to assist. “One size does not fit all,” said Gilbert. However, speaking to the benefits of using an event planner, Gilbert said, “If you don’t do this for a living, why wouldn’t you want to hire someone that does?”

Behind the thriving business and happy façade, Gilbert’s sweet success hid a dark, little-known secret. Just over two years before opening Save the Date®, when she was only 22 years old, Gilbert was attacked while on her way into a friend’s New York apartment building. She was stabbed, repeatedly, and left to die. Gilbert survived, packed up the experience, and tucked it away, refusing to talk about or think about the incident. Instead, she went into “the happy, joy business,” figuring that at the very least she could vicariously live the joy of others’ happy occasions. She took a job with a small Manhattan events-planning company and proceeded to create a new, happier life.  When she started Save the Date®, “It was always built on this premise of something beautiful coming out of something really awful.”
Her past stayed buried until two years ago when she wrote a book, I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag, to share her experience and the growth she achieved thereafter. She wrote the book, in part, to explain to her own employees why she’s driven to succeed. Gilbert’s philosophy is simple, enjoy moments now. Your presense in your own life is the present. Don’t wait for the goodie bag at the end; no one promised you a goodie bag.

What is your favorite venue for events? “The venue I would use for 50 people, I wouldn’t use for 300 people. One of my favorite event spaces was The Rainbow Room, which has been closed for years and years.” Gilbert is excited that the venue, which she describes as “Quintessential old New York” will reopen in the fall.

Gilbert has planned or assisted with events both large and small. Her favorites ranged from a small dinner party for 20 to the FOX News anniversary party for which they closed the street in front of the FOX offices and tented them because they could not locate the right space to accommodate. Her employees asked, “How are we gonna do that?” Gilbert replied, “I’ve got a guy.”

What is the most ‘over the top’ event you have ever coordinated?  Gilbert cited an event for a company whose client was Barilla Pasta. The event included 60,000 attendees in Central Park complete with a concert by Andrea Bocelli. Save the Date® managed the entire event and the events leading up to it.

As a woman in business, Gilbert is tough as nails to make it in a man’s world. She would have no problem getting into someone’s face when she’s right, and especially when a client’s perfect event hangs in the balance. She suggested women can do three things right now to strengthen their fledgling businesses:

1. Ask for Help. Women are often afraid to ask for help. Reach out for assistance. In the beginning of her business, Gilbert felt it hard to find camaraderie. She advised that not everyone in your group have to do the same thing you do to be able to offer you support, advice, and perspective. “When I started my company, I found 6 or 7 women, who I didn’t really even know that well, who had started their own businesses. We met every 5 weeks and each person presented a week just about whatever was going on–I have a problem, I have an issue with an employee, or how do I find insurance?”

2. Find Mentors. There is a lack of mentorship in women’s businesses. Create a list of people you know. Look for mentors among them. It’s important not to feel like you are alone.

3. Build a Network. Ask women for their Rolodex to create a list of potential connections. Who is their accountant? What insurance agent do they use? You never know when a contact of your contact might be just the person with whom you need to connect.

What’s up next for the woman who has already overcome death, started a million dollar business and written a book?

Gilbert has another book in her, this time likely a ‘girlfriends’ guide featuring “real advice.” Gilbert said she “is a bottom-line it girl” and loves to give real advice about the business. She thinks that guides that offer advice to brides about what hair to wax for an event miss the real point.  She is also working with technology corporations to develop software beneficial to the industry.

Gilbert encourages people to be guests at their own events and to enjoy the experience. That’s really her message; enjoy the moment. When she started the company, Gilbert said, “I didn’t know what I was going to do with the rest of my life; I didn’t know if I’d still be here.” She never wanted to be successful because of the attack; she wanted to be successful in spite of the attack, but she said, “This company saved my life, it saved my mental health, it brought me back to life.”