Business
Ricketts Rhodes Events Perseveres Powder Springs event planner pushes through 2020 and sets sights on 2021 SpringsFest By Cory Sekine-Pettite
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f there were a “word of the year” for business owners whose livelihoods outlasted 2020, it would be pivot. Think: moving to an online-only sales model; completing deals/contracts with PDFs instead of handshakes; or keeping your store open but limiting customers to appointment-only visits. Virtually every industry — every employer — had to alter their business models to continue operating or to reach new clientele. Of course, if your business depends on the willingness of people to gather in large numbers — restaurants and movie theaters, for example — then the past year also may have been as much about praying for your business to survive as it was about pivoting. Now imagine you’re an event planner. This was the tough reality facing Petergaye Rhodes, owner of Ricketts Rhodes Events in Powder Springs, whose company was just one year old when the pandemic forced a nationwide halt to all public gatherings. Just as her company was on the rise, having successfully organized the first-ever Powder Springs New Year’s Eve Gala and recreating that city’s annual SpringsFest into an Independence Day celebration (more on this event below), COVID-19 stopped Rhodes in her tracks. “As you can imagine, 2020 was a wash,” Rhodes said. So she thought, “we’ll pivot just like everyone else.” Rhodes told herself to just roll with the punches because this is life; it is unpredictable. She began hosting online events, such as virtual mixers for business professionals, all the while holding out hope that at least one of her in-person events still would happen last year. But one by one, she had to cancel everything, from SpringsFest in the summer to a fall singles retreat to the 2021 New
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