Biography

Dani Vachon has over 13 years of music and hospitality industry marketing and management experience. It began at the young age of 18 when she opened a small retail record store called Headache Records in Vernon, BC. The record store also produced a handful of small live concerts before Vachon heard the big city calling her name, packed her things and moved to Vancouver.

The next two years were spent studying fine arts and graphic design and Vachon was rewarded with a diploma in Internet Graphic Design. Even before she received the certificate she was offered a position in marketing and design at the local advertising agency Peter Tedman & Associates. At the end of the one year contract Vachon chose to venture off in pursuit of design work within music and the arts.

For the two years following she and her partner Doug Phillips organized and hosted a successful weekly live music night at Mesa Luna on Broadway. The culture and sense of community they created surrounding the events propelled them. Local record stores and radio stations were invited to participate in the events by setting up in-venue shops or broadcasting live to air.  Their web site hosted classified ads for the community and featured interviews with local artists. They implemented a VIP program offering discounts on entry for those who attended regularly. Tracking devices were implemented on every form of advertising and the results were carefully measured so that only successful means would continue. Vachon was the designer of all advertising media, including event posters, and experimented readily with different styles, especially those which incorporated hand drawn artwork. Live Nation (at that time House of Blues) began approaching them to co-produce bigger and bigger shows.


One day Vachon received a call from a group of local concert producers who needed a new producer. Vachon took the position under one condition: she was also responsible for designing all of the gig posters. After only a few weeks, due to business issues that had been building for years, the company folded. One of the principals called Vachon the next day and asked her to form a new concert production company, she agreed and they called it Sealed With A Kiss.

Vachon was responsible for all the branding, advertising and production for the first few years, then, as the company grew she shifted her focus to production. She remained in this position for 5 years but also had the time to start up a couple of other projects.

In 2004 Vachon and partner Doug Phillips launched a record label called Sound Document Recordings. The three albums were released, marketed and distributed by the label before the Internet started to get the best of the recorded music industry. The most successful of the three releases was You Say Party! We Say Die! (the now defunct You Say Party) debut album "Hit The Floor!" which sold nearly 10,000 copies world-wide. When the band asked Vachon if she might become their personal manager, she agreed and immediately closed the label to future releases.

For four years, as a band manager, Vachon was responsible for: acquiring licensing opportunities; acquiring and managing team members such as booking agents, publishers, tour managers, publicists and so on; seeking press and performance opportunities; negotiating, with the help of a lawyer, various contracts and agreements; and much more. She traveled the world a couple times over for meetings, conferences, festivals and tours.

It was in 2008 when everything changed again. Vachon left both Sealed With a Kiss and band management and founded, with partner Jason Sulyma, Olio Festival. Olio Festival is an annual multidisciplinary arts festival now in its fourth year. 2011's festival boasts a turnout of over 8500 people who attended 42 music, comedy, film, art and skateboarding events over 4 days. Hundreds of artists are showcased, both national and international, and nearly 80 staff and volunteers employed annually.

Because Olio Festival is annual, the workload increases as the festival draws nearer; and while there is much work to do year round, there is still time to take on other projects. Over the past 4 years she has accepted consulting contracts and employment opportunities that have allowed her to flex her organizational and marketing muscles while also helping her grow into the formidable consultant she is today:

For more information on any of the above experiences, please contact Ms. Vachon to request a meeting.


Click here to download her CV.