About SIK Promotions, Inc.
Suzie at 4th of July Festival in Gulfport, FL
SIK Promotions, Inc. is a sole proprietorship that produces, promotes and manages themed fundraising festivals and events in the Tampa Bay, Pinellas County area of Florida for 501c3 and other not for profit organizations. We are well known for our unique festivals, bringing interactive performers, live musicians, costume contests, themed vendors and free family fun to a growing number of communities in the Sunshine State. Event productions include art and craft shows, seafood festivals, themed events, music festivals, pet adoption fundraisers and a popular “end of summer” celebration, which draws over 30,000 attendees to the one day show. All of the festivals and events are family friendly and free for the public to attend, while also being affordable for artisans and craftsmen.
Suzanne King began arranging festivals in 2000. Starting with her enthusiasm for all things Pirate, she began arranging the annual John Levique Pirates Days and the John's Pass Seafood Festival in Johns Pass where she worked at the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant. As a local resident of Gulfport, Florida she became active in the Gulfport Merchants Association and brought her expertise with vendors to the bi-weekly Art & Gallery Walks. Suzanne’s professionalism with vendors has led her to become the primary event coordinator for: Geckofest, an end of summer celebration for the Gulfport Merchants Association; Springfest Garden Art & Faerie Festival, a themed festival for the Gulfport Area Chamber of Commerce and Get Rescued in Gulfport, an animal rescue event.
Suzie brings enthusiasm and professionalism to each event. Her ‘tricked out’ pirate golf cart and easy laugh belie the hard work behind the scenes to create an orderly, safe and dynamic event.
Pleasure Doing Business: SIK Promotions, Inc.
Suzanne King has become the go-to person to organize events in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.
Suzanne King volunteered to help organize a local festival years ago and now finds herself doing it as a full-time gig as SIK Promotions, Inc.
Event organization is something many think they can do and want to take part in but when it comes time for everyone to be where they're supposed to be on the big day it takes an experienced organizer to make it happen. She has made it happen for more than a decade and works from home, riding a constant wave of emails and phone calls each week in preparation for the next event.
She began by helping set up a festival in John's Pass Village and gradually moved on to organizing festivals while maintaining a full-time job in the restaurant industry. Through word-of-mouth she eventually started getting calls from more distant areas in Florida and in 2008 became too busy to work the full-time job anymore and began organizing events full-time.
“I was doing the two festivals in John's Pass and I got started in Gulfport because I volunteered to dress up like a pirate,” she remembers of one of the Geckofests. “They continued to invite me to their planning meetings and eventually hired me to do Art Walk and the rest is as they say, history.”
Originally from Maine, King came to Gulfport on a whim.
“A friend and I came down to work at one of the [upscale] clubs for the winter. We didn't care for it there so we bought a station wagon for $190 and went driving all around Florida,” she remembers. “Eventually we ended up in St. Pete and and had $200 between us and found an apartment for $200.”
The next day she walked into the Friendly Fisherman restaurant, got a job and worked there for the next 27 years. She bought a home in Gulfport in 1998 and has been here ever since.
All the festivals are fundraisers and most are for nonprofit organizations including the Gulfport Chamber of Commerce and Gulfport Merchant's Association among others. With years worth of contacts for vendors, artists, crafters, retail, web design and the rest, she is a valuable resource in putting an event together. Once a plan is hatched she utilizes her media list for promotion and then it's on to more planning and organizing until the day of the event.
“It is a lot of work. I work all day every day,” she explains, describing the planning as a year of work for one day of glory. “But then when you put the events on and the visitors come and they're having fun, that's what it's all about.”
She adds to the mystique with her own custom-made pirate-themed golf cart created by local artists Marcella Ruso and Fishbone, which has become her trademark and a much needed tool in getting from one place to another during the days of the events.
“I enjoy working for myself. You spend your whole life working for somebody else and I was nervous when I stopped working full-time,” she says. “As soon as people found out I was doing this full-time the phone calls just started coming in. It's worked out well.”
She can be contacted through her web site or via her Facebook page.
SIK Promotions
