Burnsville native Kalsey Beach, president of St. Louis Park’s Do Good Events, initially focused on launching a venue—not an event-planning business. “[My husband and I] wanted to open a venue, and I developed a business plan for one,” she says. “We were driving around looking at farmland [to build on]. My husband said at the time, ‘Put your head down, don’t look up for six months, and see what you can make happen.’ I had the entrepreneurial bug, but I ended up taking it in a different direction.”
During that nose-to-the-grindstone period, Beach picked up consulting work through past clients and family friends, and she was hired to plan a company anniversary party and a nonprofit gala, among other things. “After six months, I looked up, and it felt like we had enough traction to keep going with an event-planning business,” she says. “We still haven’t opened a venue—but maybe someday. We founded Do Good Events with a couple corporate and a couple nonprofit clients. We had a good trajectory at that point.”
Today, Do Good Events plans 100 events annually, 60% of which are nonprofit fundraisers—the company’s specialty. Beach and her team plan philanthropy events that include galas and charity walks, runs, and golf tournaments, plus corporate events like employee recognitions, client appreciations, and industry lunch-and-learn programs.
Beach is a lifelong distance runner who, today, also coaches high school cross-country and track and field. She competed in 6-kilometer events, milers, and 1,500-meter races during her college years at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. And although her competitive drive is likely instrumental in building a successful event-planning business from the ground up, Beach notes the most important element of executing an event is “creating surprise and delight” for every attendee.
She adds, “At a well-planned event, the attendees aren’t feeling any headaches or seeing any of the curveballs. We use a duck as the mascot for our team, because we are cool and calm on top of the water, but sometimes there is a lot of paddling underwater [behind the scenes]. As long as our clients and their attendees only see the calmness, then we are doing our job.”
