Star H. Spider Director of Reality Alternate Reality Event Planner
Star was a straight A student in the Event and Meeting Management program at George Brown College. Upon graduating she got a job at a corporate communications and event management agency in the Distillery District where she spent a productive year. Finally, after years of experience in event management, the time came for Star to branch out on her own and devote all of her time to Alternate Reality Events.
By creating A.R.E. Star hopes to inspire and encourage people to step outside of their everyday lives and look at the world from a different perspective. Star is interested in helping to make peoples lives more interesting and positive through experiences of all kinds!
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Star’s event management experience began in high school when she started her own company organizing concerts and raves for charity. Exodus (Star’s production company) was successful in raising funds for women’s shelters around downtown Toronto.
Around the same time Star started her work for festivals and raves. Providing support for people who played too hard, Star helped to run the first aid centre at the OM festival for three consecutive years and worked for two years with the Toronto Raver Information Project (T.R.I.P) going to various events to provide information and insight into safe partying.
After graduating high school Star started working in nightclubs around the city. Working for two of the largest clubs at the time gave her a good perspective on the nightlife of Toronto and solidified her desire to build a business that provided entertainment in social environments. From the nightclubs Star moved on to restaurants and cafes – working as a hostess (and go-go dancer) at the Hard Rock cafe and moving to bartending and serving in Toronto and Brighton (England). With a well rounded knowledge of the service industry Star hopped on a plane and started a new leg of her journey.
Star travelled around the world to ancient mystical spots such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza and Macchu Pichu in Peru. She hitchhiked through the highlands of Scotland, climbed mountains in Peru and slept on beaches under the stars on the coast of Italy. She lived and worked in Brighton, England while learning Spanish and making money to travel to Egypt. Star met many people on her journey, experienced so many new things and got a good look into the cultures of the world. She came back to Toronto a little bit wiser and driven to create something meaningful and unique.
Star attended George Brown College for two years in the Event and Meeting Management program. During that time she was involved in many special events and designed two tabletops – a Dr. Suess table & a Nightmare table – for a competition at the Canadian Special Events and Meetings Expo. Both of the tables won awards – the Dr. Seuss table winning first place in the student competition and the Nightmare table capturing first runner up in the professional competition – winning out over some of the top decor companies in Canada.
Launched in February 2009, Star is currently running Alternate Reality Events, developing unique events for the private and corporate sectors, blogging, looking forward to future work with her husband Ben Badger and building her reputation and portfolio as the world’s only Alternate Reality Event Planner.
