Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Lin Kanno.
Sophia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have always been a creative person driven with a passionate soul and thirst for meaning and reward. I always knew that I was meant to serve and be around people but needed something to channel my creativity and manage a realistic business aspect of my life’s work. My childhood was full of hand making clothing and furniture for my troll doll city and while it was packed with finding a functioning miniature plate out of a milk jug cap or fabricating sofas from scraps of wood and fabric from my mom’s workshop, it wasn’t just about the crafts and design, it has always been about building full and functioning communities within my imagination, complete with an economy, leadership, relationships and balance.
I started planning events for my church youth group around the age of 13 and designed my first wedding at 15 for my youth group pastor. While it was amateur at best, complete with twinkle icicle string lights from my parent’s holiday decorations strung along the drop ceiling of the church fellowship hall and plastic Party City Table cloths lined with ivory tulle and vintage lace runners, it was just the beginning of my love with events and event design. My original plan was to go to business school in NYC, Stern specifically. I was so enraptured by the big city lights, a dramatic difference from the 4 story heights of my suburban town of Snellville, GA, it felt like my escape from the provincial life to lead to something great.
Everything fell into place, I was accepted to Stern, but when I saw the $30,000 per year tuition bill (I hadn’t gotten enough financial aid support) and then adding in the living costs in the city, I couldn’t bear to allow my parents to shell out nearly their year’s earnings for an education that I wasn’t even sure where it would lead. I knew that the traditional business path was not for me, but didn’t know of a more creative path to take.
My events passion and love for people wasn’t full revealed until I enrolled a Georgia Tech, where I yo-yoed between the international business school the management school and becoming an industrial engineer. While in college I waited tables at the renowned Joe’s Crab Shack where performance met food service and I fell in love with entertainment and environment in dining. It wasn’t until I was dragged to a Residence Hall Association meeting with my RA and then bombarded with the surprise of winning the residence hall presidency and given the role to plan events for over 300 residents that I realized a love so deep for people and for events. It was just the beginning with Georgia Tech, where I was a part of campus wide events complete with casino nights, oversized inflatables and big name concerts with Edwin McCain. It was at this juncture that I realized that I was perhaps in the wrong university and started pursuing other programs more suited for my events path. I ended up finding my heart set on Cornell’s Statler School of hotel administration and decided that if I was going to make a change, the only way to ensure that I was meant to go this route was to “Go Big” and “Go Bold” to prove that this was my designed path.
I enrolled at Cornell halfway through my sophomore year and somehow the rest is somewhat history. I continued my summers as an intern in various event companies in Atlanta with Atlanta Special Events and with Great Performances in NYC. Throughout my college career, I was an integral part of the Hotel Ezra Cornell Design team while in school to help our peers understand the value of design in events. The hospitality program didn’t have a special events track for this very new idea of a
Post college, I worked briefly in hospitality interior design sketching floor plans in AutoCAD and selecting fabrics and furniture for hotels. When the company folded, I found myself back at the roots of my event path. I landed at Legendary Events for nearly 10 years where I started in the catering world where my F&B background played an integral role, but eventually was looped back to event design within the company where my heart was. After 10 years of Catering and Event Designs in Atlanta, I had seen it all, from the Augusta Masters to the SEC championship, Trey Song’s album launch and events with celebrities such as Paula Dean, Opera and former President Obama. I decided it was time to make a change to a larger city where I could be continually pushed in design and reached out to Kehoe Designs. I had been following their Facebook and Instagram for years but this time, I took the leap and sent my resume over. 2 days later, I received a call from their HR department. The rest is really history.
A lot of people ask me why I left Atlanta when I was at the pinnacle of my career, the top of the market and design. My response—Growth. Sometimes we need to take ourselves out of our comfort zones, push the boundaries and force ourselves to say that we aren’t the best, there are more things to learn and to climb the other mountain, even when you’ve already conquered one.
Has it been a smooth road?
I think the greatest challenges in life are never achieved easily. It’s definitely not been a smooth road. Leaving in the middle of my sophomore year to start all over at a new university was very challenging. I didn’t know but maybe 1 or 2 people and ended up not having nearly any of my course credits translate over from Georgia Tech, where Bio 1 & 2 and Linear Algebra didn’t amount to any course equivalent in the Cornell Hotel School. I took nearly 20 course hours each semester of all core classes in order to graduate on time. Somehow I did it, running on 4 hours of sleep a night and jammed packed schedules for 2.5 years.
One of the hardest things that I had to learn was just about the strenuous and demanding nature of the events industry. Yes, there will always be hours on the clock for weekends and evenings, but I didn’t realize the length of hours on end during peak season and the 80-90 hour weeks sometimes it would require. Often the industry weeds out those who can’t keep up with the lengthy hours and categorizes those who can’t take the evenings and weekend hours as weak and unfit for the industry.
Not only that, the events industry is so heavily female, I had to learn to build my own style as well as thicken my skin in order to maneuver through the cattiness that exists sometimes even within your own company. Being in a woman and gay male dominated industry taught me a lot about putting my head down and working hard, not worrying about what others thought of me and getting into the daily gossip. It took a lot of time, a lot of tears, and sometimes your peers just being plain mean or rude, but in the end, I was able to fight my way through the noise.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Kehoe Designs is a full service event design and production company that specializes in transforming spaces and creating environments. It is sort of like interior design for 1 day or theatre/film set design but for regular people. I’m an Event Producer, but really what that means is that I wear many hats! I work and interface with clients on a daily basis, listening and learning about their events to make recommendations and create experiences that will enhance and make their events memorable.
In many ways, I’m an artist, a marketing agent, a designer, a logistics expert and a business woman all in one. I’m here to build a vision that fits the company or the person’s brand or values and create a message that guests can all understand. Sometimes it’s like telling a story for your client and the guests aren’t able to pinpoint one thing that makes an event so unforgettable, they just know that it was fantastic! What I love about Kehoe is that we never say no to any vision or ask, we will find a solution and often it exceeds the client’s expectations. I think that makes the company so special and so different from others is our dedication to our clients. It’s not just about a business transaction; it’s a relationship that we build. We covet that trust from our clients. Our goal is to always exceed the expectations and make our events an extension of the client’s message.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I am very new to Chicago, but have immediately found a home and love for this city and the events industry here. Chicago is amazing. There is such a vivacious energy that feels so much like New York, with bustling crowds, constant events and so many new restaurants and destinations to explore. But just a few miles away, you can step into a peaceful setting where there are waves crashing on the Lake Michigan beach or enjoy a beautiful tree lined street of brownstones in a city neighborhood. It’s like the best of both worlds—a lot of business and lot of pleasure. For someone starting in the industry, I think it’s a great city to begin. You’ll be thrown right in so it’s a little sink or swim, but you’ll learn fast and find the right niche in the industry fast!
Contact Info:
- Address: Kehoe Designs
2555 S. Leavitt Street
Chicago, IL 60608 - Website: www.kehoedesigns.com
- Phone: 312.376.0869
- Email: Sophia@kehoedesigns.com
- Instagram: @kehoedesigns
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kehoedesigns
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kehoedesigns
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