For Sara Stumberg Walker of Sara Walker Private Events and SA Social Calendar, community involvement with countless non-profit organizations and facilitating event-based fundraising launched her professional career into a sought-after event designer. From the ground-up, Walker has built a boutique planning agency, focused on customized and unique experiences from planning through execution. She shares on her love of world travel and how it inspires the event experiences she creates, her journey into event planning and the women who inspire her daily.
On her career journey:
I graduated from college with a Liberal Arts degree and no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I managed to land a nice office job, but threw myself into the community and getting re-connected with San Antonio. I started volunteering for the San Antonio Rodeo, The San Antonio Zoo, The DoSeum, The Biomedical Forum (the list is lengthy), and through that was introduced to event-based fundraising and I fell in love with it. I spent countless hours of my youth putting together puzzles, and fundraising is just one giant puzzle of connecting people’s passions with community causes.
A few years later, I began to get requests from other non-profits in San Antonio for fundraising consulting and I decided to make a career out of it. The experience I gained from producing large galas and the relationships I created with all of these wonderful vendors across Texas gave me the opportunity to expand into a large-scale event planning agency. Today, my team and I plan and produce not only nonprofit galas, but private events, corporate events and international events. As our calendars grew fuller, we realized San Antonio lacked an accessible and comprehensive social calendar, so this past year, SA Social Calendar was born and is an integral part of our company and brand.
On what makes her business unique in her industry:
Sara Walker Private Events is a high-end, full-service, boutique-styled event planning agency. My team and I work collaboratively on all events, which means we bring a myriad of talents and ideas to the table. We offer a variety of services from turn-key productions all the way to event consulting and day-of logistics, which allows us to customize each client’s experience based on their specific needs.
On her passions outside of work:
Outside of work, my biggest passion is traveling. I am always up for crazy adventures and pursue them often. My travels invigorate me and inspire me and they show up a lot in my work. Whether it’s through the food we serve, the decorations we choose, or in the overall guest experience, we are able to make every event wonderfully unique drawing on inspirations from around the world.
On her personal female hero(es):
I am inspired every day by the women around me. They are mothers, students, entrepreneurs, artists, business women, you name it and every single one of them is a total rock star. I strive to surround myself with strong, smart women and I search for them in my daily life. I am a firm believer that one must never stop learning, growing and evolving and my girlfriends challenge me each day to be a better mother, businesswoman and friend. They are my heroes.
Connect with Sara Stumberg Walker on Instagram @sarawalkerevents and @sasocialcalendar.
This profile was (Em)Powered by Sara Walker Events.
Edited from an interview by Eleanora Morrison.