Jill Snodgrass is a world-class cat herder.
That’s probably not her job title. She really spends her days planning and coordinating Key West occasions and markets — however given her occupation’s complexities and challenges, it may simply be in comparison with herding rowdy felines.
When Snodgrass arrived in Key West, she had no intention of transplanting her profession. A profitable Missouri occasion planner and widowed mother whose son was off to varsity, she headed for the island metropolis to perform a life objective: studying to sail.
“I’d been coming to Key West for years and it simply appeared like the tip of the earth — the most effective place to go with out really leaving the nation,” Snodgrass mentioned.
Inside a surprisingly quick time, she was residing on a ship and had met Sean Krikorian, the person who would grow to be her fiancé. Whereas she continued to run the massive annual Salute to America pageant in Missouri, she additionally discovered herself partnering with Krikorian to coordinate occasions in Key West — together with the Artisan Market that debuted in 2013.
Snodgrass initially started coordinating particular occasions years earlier, along with her promoting gross sales job for a Missouri newspaper. Discovering she liked that facet of her work, she based the occasion administration firm Each day Plan-it in 1994. She finally helped arrange high-profile political conventions and in addition authored 4 books on the subject.
Regardless of her profession’s whirlwind tempo and wish for turn-on-a-dime flexibility, Snodgrass exudes an air of unflappable professionalism.
“You simply should take it in very manageable items,” she suggested. “You possibly can’t let it get overwhelming.”
Immediately she and Krikorian are finest recognized for coordinating the Artisan Market, held exterior the Key West Wildlife Middle at Indigenous Park off White Road both each Sunday or biweekly from October by way of April; and the Farmers Market on Thursdays alongside the East Quay Wall at Truman Waterfront Park. Every market gives an everyday probability for a number of dozen distributors to show their wares earlier than an enthusiastic viewers — thereby creating a following, and an earnings stream, that they wouldn’t in any other case have.
“With the Artisan Market, and to a point the Farmers Market, we’re capable of present a venue for therefore many small companies and artists to have a spot to showcase their wares and make a residing,” Snodgrass mentioned. “We’re very happy with that — understanding week to week that it’s producing a lot for therefore many individuals.”
In addition to the ever-popular markets, Snodgrass and Krikorian have poured their artistic energies into occasions together with the wintertime Florida Keys Seafood Competition, quite a lot of holiday-themed bazaars and specialty markets, and the Key West Bicentennial Celebration in March 2022. Every November, they coordinate all of the VIP, hospitality and vendor preparations for the Race World Offshore Key West World Championship powerboat races.
In 2024 they turned a part of the workforce producing Only a Few Buddies, a multiday celebration honoring the late singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett and his legacy in Key West.
“The Jimmy Buffett occasion may be very private to me,” mentioned Snodgrass, who credit Buffett’s Keys-infused music with serving to draw her to Key West. “It’s really a labor of affection, working with the occasion founders and Sean to develop one thing from the bottom up.”
She regards the prospect to work with Krikorian, and fuse her skills along with his to forge profitable occasions, as a selected pleasure.
“Sean is nice at logistics and he’s additionally very artistic, so we’ve got these nice artistic classes — brainstorming issues to do for an occasion or methods to make one thing higher — and that’s the actually enjoyable half,” Snodgrass mentioned.
In addition to having fun with her enterprise and private partnership with Krikorian, Snodgrass is trying to the longer term. Whereas she has no plans to minimize her function within the Artisan Market or Farmers Market, she’s at present coaching her son Sam Snodgrass and daughter-in-law Candela to help with operating each occasions.
“The markets are essential to us and we don’t need to see them go away, so I really feel like coaching a brand new era to come back in and be taught the ins and outs is only a prudent factor to do,” defined Snodgrass.
She and Krikorian are additionally forging new residing plans following the New 12 months’s Eve sinking of their houseboat dwelling. In the meantime, every time their busy schedule permits, they take the time to take pleasure in life in Key West: boating of their small runabout, fishing, snorkeling, getting along with buddies for joyful hour or dinner.
Nevertheless, the girl who constructed a profession primarily based on herding cats can’t all the time unplug utterly. Even in her spare time, she’s looking out for inspiration.
“I wish to attend different occasions with a watch for studying,” Snodgrass admitted. “I all the time attempt to give you one thing new.”