Meet Gianna — The Story Behind Consalvo Creative Events

Every event planner has a reason they do this work. For me, that reason goes back further than any job title — all the way back to a high school class I only signed up for so I wouldn't have to give speeches.

It All Started With an Acting Class

At Glenbard North High School, I signed up for an acting class hoping to avoid public speaking requirements elsewhere. On the very first day, an upperclassman invited me to a Theatre Honors Society meeting after school — and I basically didn't leave the theatre for months. I was immediately enthralled with the stage manager position, and fell in love with the teamwork it took to pull off a live event.

By senior year, I was stage managing our production of Les Misérables — where my brother (and now CFO of CCE) Michael was a freshman. Michael had joined theatre after not making the final cut for the baseball team. His options that day were simple: walk home, or hang out in the theatre until I finished rehearsal. He chose the theatre — and quickly found the community welcoming, fitting right in as a self-proclaimed "scenery kid." He ended up operating the turntable for that same production of Les Misérables — my final show at Glenbard North. It was the first time the two of us were around each other longer than the ride to/from school without fully annoying each other, and Michael caught the theatre bug too. (It's also where he met Gabi — so it turns out being too shy to take a speech class changed more than one life.)

A Career Built on Live, High-Stakes Moments

That love of live events followed me to Illinois State University, where I earned a Bachelor's degree in Production Design and Technology from the School of Theatre and Dance, with a focus in Stage Management. While there, I worked stadium operations for the Normal CornBelters and overnight dorm supervision at the university — early lessons in staying calm when things get chaotic. From there, I spent four and a half years with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, working my way up from Intern to Assistant Stage Manager to Stage Manager — running live performances and rehearsals, coordinating logistics across departments, and managing production elements of Richard II.

I took that same steady-under-pressure instinct out to sea, working as a Production Manager aboard a Celebrity Cruises ship — living onboard, managing lounge entertainment, and coordinating performer travel in real time. My production and logistics career later took me international, where I spent a week managing a full schedule of corporate shows alongside a crew that largely spoke a different language — adapting on the fly, solving problems as they came, and keeping every show on schedule despite the language barrier.

In between, I spent years at SAG-AFTRA and in nonprofit administration, working my way from Membership Representative to Business Representative assisting negotiators of union contracts, and eventually to Executive Assistant. That world of administration taught me precision, patience, and how to hold a dozen moving pieces at once without dropping a single one.

Where the Instincts Really Came From

Some of that came from the jobs. A lot of it came from home. I grew up watching my "Papa" — an immigrant entrepreneur who, alongside my grandmother, ran several businesses while working other jobs at the same time (barbering, primarily) — and my single mother raise three kids with resourcefulness and the ability to throw an unforgettable party out of $10, a trip to the Dollar Tree, and a Wilton pan shaped like whatever character was the favorite that year. Add in a lifetime of Consalvo cousins with an unmistakable sense of humor and a work ethic to match, and you get someone who was, quite literally, raised to plan the party and hold the room together while doing it.

My brain also just works a little differently — and that's exactly what makes me the planner I am. The same wiring that means I notice every detail, hold a hundred moving pieces in my head at once, and thrive on the exact kind of organized chaos an event day brings, is the wiring that makes me genuinely great at this job. I don't plan events despite how my mind works — I plan them because of it.

Building Something From Nothing

One role stands out as a turning point: I was the inaugural Operations Manager at a brand-new event venue built inside a 1920s-era ballroom. There was no playbook waiting for me — I built every system from the ground up, solving the very real challenges that come with opening a new venue space from scratch, and leading a small but talented team to do it.

It was there that I saw the same problem play out again and again: people had the resources to throw the events they wanted, but without the right planning and systems in place, those resources went underused. Events turned chaotic. People couldn't enjoy their own celebrations — or couldn't afford to have the event they'd envisioned in the first place. That gap between what people wanted and what they were actually getting became impossible to ignore. It's also where I learned a valuable lesson of my own: knowing my worth, and recognizing when a role no longer matched the market standard for the work involved. I moved forward, ready to build something on my own terms.

From Experience to Consalvo Creative Events

Today, as CEO and co-founder of Consalvo Creative Events, I wear most of the hats that running an event company requires — client conversations, coordinating details between our designers and vendors, and overseeing setup, execution, and cleanup, alongside a team of event assistants who are experts in their own right. (Design is where our Creative Director, Gabi, truly shines — I make sure her vision, and everyone else's, comes together seamlessly.) It's the same range I've carried through every job that came before: live production, high-pressure problem-solving, systems-building, and an unshakable calm no matter what the day throws at me.

But if I'm being honest about why I love this work most, it's this: taking an idea and bringing it to life in a way where every host, guest, and staff member walks away feeling it. When an event is organized right — the food is good, nobody's left waiting or confused, everyone actually gets to enjoy themselves — there's this shared sense of joy and community that fills the room. That's the feeling I'm chasing every time. And when we get it right, people don't just leave happy — they leave already looking forward to the next celebration.