Bios: Your Team at Bright Ideas
Sharon Bonner, VEMM
CEO & Founder
Sharon Bonner, VEMM is an award winning Event Producer, Event Strategy Consultant and Published Author who founded and has operated Bright Ideas Event Agency (BIEA) since 1988. Sharon has always been a trailblazer. Sharon penned her first book called The Bright Ideas Adventure chronicling her 25 year journey of event excellence.
In February 2021, inspired by her pivot to virtual events, Sharon released her first digital E-Book called Donuts in the Lunchroom. In April of 2021, BizBash Canada listed Sharon as one of the TOP 250 Most Influential Event Professionals in Canada and in November 2021, BEIA received the Most Innovative Enterprise Award for innovating several projects during the pandemic.
March 2022 brought two ILEA Vancouver award nominations for BIEA, as well as a nomination for Sharon for Event Professional of the Year. In May 2022, the Canadian Special Events (CSE) awarded BIEA with Best Virtual Event and in June 2022, BIEA won an ILEA international Esprit award for Best Event Solution.
By October 2022, Sharon had launched her Event Consulting business www.sharonbonnerconsulting.com to assist clients in producing their own quality events.
March 7, 2023 Sharon received A Woman to Watch Award spotlighting event leaders who are making an incredible impact on their community and the people around them.
Her career has been long and filled with dozens of industry awards, but her greatest accomplishment in her own words is “making a significant impact on an intern’s life that will forever change their trajectory in the event industry”. She plans to give back to the community that served her so well, long after she has retired from producing events.
Find her at sharon.bonner@brightideasevents.com
Beth Ross
Senior Event Planner
Beth works with Bright Ideas as a Senior Event Planner, brainstorming event concepts, activities and entertainment ideas, conducting research, working events at particular stations, as well as assisting to run events. Born in Eastern Ontario, she moved to Vancouver on a whim after completing two Bachelor’s Degrees, in Linguistics and Political Studies. She has a wide variety of interests from travel to reading a good book, from inventing in the kitchen to growing her own organic veggies, from working out the stress at the gym to working out a lunch date with life-long friends. She has been involved with Bright Ideas since December 2008 and looks forward to participating in many more events to come.
Find her at events2@brightideasevents.com
Jennifer Kopp
Senior Event Planner
Jennifer grew up in Saskatchewan and moved to British Columbia in 2011, where she studied dance with Harbour Dance Centre’s Intensive Training Program (ITP), as well as Event Management at the Art Institute of Vancouver. Upon graduation, she began volunteering with Bright Ideas in December 2013 and is now happily working as a Senior Event Planner.
In her spare time Jennifer loves dancing, acting, and showing off Canada as the best country in the world!
Find her at events@brightideasevents.com
Zoe Kelly
Intern
Zoe Kelly, born and raised in Ottawa, is working as a Junior Event Assistant with Bright Ideas. She is a uOttawa alumnus in the Social Work program and has worked for several mental health organizations since she graduated. She graduated from the Event Management Program at Algonquin College in April 2021. She enjoys hosting and attending events, and decided to take the Event Management program at Algonquin College because she believes events are a great way to bring people together.
Find her at info@brightideasevents.com
