Pulse BEAT
ENCORE PERFORMANCE Stefanie Lerner produces her way to the top
BY ALISON BAILIN BATZ / PHOTO BY MARK MORGAN
Stefanie Lerner gets to play dress up every day – and gets paid for it. “My job is to ‘dress up’ everything from local resorts for Halloween to entire cities for the Super Bowl,” she explains. It all started when she began volunteering with her college admissions office – the focus just so happened to be producing events to encourage prospective students to enroll. She was so adept at the work that after graduation, she stayed on with the school another year to help produce large-scale recruitment events. “Then, I produced events nationwide for other firms before starting my own at 25 years old,” Lerner says. “But then I fell in love with Jeff.” “Jeff” was Jeff Lowy, owner of Phoenix’s Encore Creative. So, Lerner sold her Denver-based firm and moved to the Valley in 2002. “We agreed working together would be a mistake,” she says. “That lasted six months.” Over the next decade, the couple got married and grew Encore into one of the most successful event production companies nationwide, working on everything from NFL pre-game VIP parties to Super Bowl festivities to college bowl game events to the Final Four to VIP events for partners like Waste Management and local philanthropies. Eventually, however, Lowy was ready to take a step back and Lerner took on the role of CEO in 2014. Today, she leads Encore in producing 500-plus events worldwide annually. “Right now, we are working on a Star Wars event,” Lerner says. “Sounds pretty basic, right? But, the event is set high atop a mountain that is only accessible via gondola. So, everything we create, from a holographic Yoda to a Death Star, has to be somehow transported via sky ride!” And, of course, what is fall without some Halloween parties? “Halloween is one of our favorite times of year!” she exclaims. “We do the big Talking Stick Resort Halloween production as well as some ghoulishly fun projects for private businesses and even individuals across the Valley as well.”
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Uptown October '17