How This Events Business Owner is Focusing Her Time These Days
Erica Taylor Haskins, cofounder Tinsel Experiential Design
“Currently, my focus is just staying sane and staying connected with the people in my life that I care about. I’m allowing myself to feel the feels and to appreciate this unexpected, unprecedented chapter of slower living.”
Erica Taylor Haskins cofounded New York City based events company Tinsel Experiential Design (formerly Tinsel & Twine) in 2010 with her two business partners, Liz Castelli and Adette Contreras.
Over the course of their 10 years in business, they have created hundreds of events with brands like Spotify, Samsung, L'Oreal, and The Rockefeller Foundation and hosted these experiences in landmark spaces like The Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Natural History, and The New York Public Library. Like so many industries affected by the pandemic, the event industry has been hit hard. Tinsel’s entire calendar of events and gatherings has been wiped through the end of October.
In the time before coronavirus, the team was focused on scaling the business by expanding to new markets on the West Coast and in Europe. While other companies in the event industry pivot and explore new business models, the Tinsel team has chosen to go operationally dark for now and assess their timeline for some sort of return to business. “Currently, my focus is just staying sane and staying connected with the people in my life that I care about. I’m allowing myself to feel the feels and to appreciate this unexpected, unprecedented chapter of slower living,” Erica shares.
Below read more about how Erica is adapting to this “new normal.”
What has been a silver lining in all this?
Embracing moving more slowly and deliberately through life. I’m hoping to find a middle-ground in our “new norm” where we don’t all have to power-walk through over-programmed daily schedules.
What is something you have been invigorated to do?
Use available technology to help educate classrooms about the event industry and entrepreneurship. So far, I’ve connected with friends to do a career day for a wonderful 5th grade class in Queens and to guest lecture for an event management course at NYU.
What is something you are mourning?
My regular schedule of meetings, site visits, and events that allows me to see so many incredible sides of the city. My final day out before the coronavirus lockdown had me deep in the belly of The Intrepid, down to the Prohibition Era wine cellar at the 21 Club, cocktails at The Modern, and then off to a Broadway show. It was The Most New York Day! Like a movie montage. I miss experiencing the city beyond the 2 block radius of my apartment.
What is a habit you are maintaining?
Keeping in touch with industry friends and peers. It’s been helpful to have weekly standing zooms and calls to maintain some type of routine and mile-marker for this unknown timeline.
What are you continuing to prioritize?
Communications and supportive touch points with peers and partners in our network to maintain our relationships. This helps for morale in the present and will hopefully help us with positive momentum when we all re-emerge.
When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed what is something you do?
Shut off my phone and rest. And importantly; without feeling guilty about it.
What is giving you the hope these days?
The beautiful moments of humanity, especially here in New York City -- like the nightly 7pm cheering that started as a way to show gratitude for medical workers (and a means of human connection and broader citywide solidarity). Like the rooftop and balcony sing-alongs. Like The Rainbow Project that’s become so colorfully prolific, at least in my little slice of Brooklyn. Like my friends in the industry banding together to produce masks and drop off food for healthcare staff and other essential workers.
Learn more about Erica and her company, Tinsel Experiential Design, here.