Nicole Garner, CEO of Garner Circle PR, goes behind the scenes of RHOA
Nicole Garner, CEO of the Garner Circle PR, makes a living working with high end clients such as JaguarLuxury Brand, Ciara, Estelle, Porsche, Adidas, and more with her work appearing on MTV, BET, E! and VH1. Garner, whose events are some of the most sought after in Atlanta, recently penned a book“Are You In Inc: PR’s Alter Ego,” as a guide to working in PR. The book is part of a series and will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and on AreYouInInc.com. She was recently featured on an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta as the publicist in charge of producing Kenya Moore’s Forever Relevant Charity Gala. Take a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of one of the most high profile publicist in Atlanta.
6:00AM Finalizing media and guest lists, going over final logistics - hopping on the phone with Daniel Dickey (TGC PR Vice President) and Eugenia Johnson (TGC PR Senior Account Executive) to discuss our plan of dividing and conquering for today’s events. Since The Garner Circle was brought in to handle the PR and event activation, there are a lot of moving parts to today’s series of events surrounding Kenya Moore’s Forever Relevant Costume Charity Gala.
7:00AM - Client calls and changes her mind on wanting additional seating as some of her high profile friends have alerted last minute that they will be attending. Trying to find an event furniture rental company that is open and will deliver on a SUNDAY! Lol #LifeOfApublicist
8:00AM - Events company (RAI Events) arrives on site to start event build out. Our team arrives to the venue to set up our mobile office. For events of this level, we are working all the way up to the event begins.
Nicole Garner up early for work
8:30AM -The venue forgets to alert us in advance that there is a wedding on the same day as our event (aaggghhh parking!). Daniel, heads out the door with the facilities team to figure out plan B, C, and D
9:00AM - I beging working to accommodate national media with pre - interviews with Kenya. She is very hands on with the event and pays close attention to detail as she wants the event to go off with a hitch, so the pre-interviews are not the easiest to schedule.
11:00AM - In today’s event, Kenya has NeNe Leakes coming into the crowd on a chariot. The chariot has just arrived and we can not get it through the door of the event space. Putting all of our brains together, the chariot had to be diseasembled and reconstructed inside of the space. Special thank you to our patient events team.
Nene Leakes arrives as Nicole Garner looks on
12:00PM - Caterer (Imperial Soiree), the Production Team (PA Universal) and our spirit sponsor for the evening - Grey Goose have all arrived1:00PM - This event will be taped and nationally televised , the camera crew has arrived for set up
2:00PM - proper lighting becomes a concern for this event, the event production team and the camera crew are at odds and have to come to a happy place for what will make the event look nice but will still look nice on camera
4:00PM - Sound Check with Miss Brie and the Band and Mr. Daniel Moore along with all the performance actors from the Green Room Actor’s Lounge and our hosts for the evening Mr. Tommy Ford and Ms. Eboni Elektra Live
6:00PM - OMG booth arrives for our picture room and the step and repeat is being set up with the red carpet being rolled out
7:00PM - event begins and our team is in place, time to work our magic. Eugenia goes around and makes sure all sponsors are accommodated (African Pride Hair Care, Upscale Magazine, 4 Natural, Rai, Uber and more) with photo opps, proper seating etc. Daniel handles event flow and oversees the run of show. I handle the red carpet, handling celebrity arrivals and interviews for our client for the evening Kenya Moore.
There is limited media access for this event, so I have to properly manage the press’ expectations.
8:00PM - parking issues transpire, plan B and C are put into effect immediately. So glad we talked these issues out this morning
8:30PM - quick Red Bull break!
9:00PM - the program begins, client is visibly upset by a guest and our team tries to assist in diffusing the situation - the goal is to make sure the client always stays happy.
Kenya Moore and Nicole Garner take an OMG photo
9:30PM - making sure we stay on time with the flow of the event, we usher Kenya on stage so she can discuss the purpose of the Forever Relevant Gala and honoring women of color in film who opened doors for those to follow such as herself
11:00PM - event ends and we are all dreadfully tired but our job is not over yet
1:00AM - working with the Wire photographer to tag and identify pictures of guests to go on the Wire in the morning, volunteers disperse gift bags as guests are leaving and assist with event shut down
1:00AM - another quick red bull break!
1:15AM - sitting down with the wire image photographer to identify notable guests in his pictures before he puts on the wire, drafting a media recap to send to media and bloggers and preparing to post pitch tomorrow
3:00AM - a goodnight “nap”
6:00AM - Back up and at it
The Epsiode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta aired on March 31 at 8pm. For more info go to www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta
