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Jovanca Maitland

Director, Live Events and Experiential, ESSENCE

Director, Live Events and Experiential, ESSENCE

Jovanca Maitland is the Director of Live Events and Experiential for ESSENCE. In this role, she focuses on developing customized sponsor experiential extensions and partnerships with the sales and marketing divisions to deliver the brand’s revenue goals. She leads a team to plan, execute and organize numerous brand events—including its signature programs such as ESSENCE’s Black Women in Music GRAMMY® week reception; the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Oscar week Awards Luncheon; the ESSENCE Best in Black Beauty Party; the ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans; the ESSENCE Street Style Fashion Week Block Party and Awards and more. Jovanca is a creative, meticulous and passionate executive with over 15 years of experience conceptualizing and employing strategies that successfully bring the ESSENCE brand vision from inception to final execution. She also implements numerous client/advertiser programs and develops client entertaining activities and more. She collaborates with the internal departments (editorial, public relations, social, online and video) to create full 360-degree engagements and audience experiences. She has also received internal recognition for her marketing prowess on behalf of the brand—resulting in stellar events that have garnered attention in national media outlets such as the N.Y. Times, USA Today, Billboard, CNN, MSNBC, BizBash, Event Marketer, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and much more. Her seamless executions have garnered multiple industry awards for ESSENCE, including accolades from Media Industry Newsletter (MIN) and top honors by the Folio: FAME Awards for ESSENCE’s Black Women in Hollywood Awards Luncheon in the “Best of the Best in Magazine Events” category. Her career path launched at Saks Fifth Avenue, where she began working in retail and segued to the buying department. Following this, she moved to Macy’s as an assistant buyer and eventually made the transition to event planning. In this role, she oversaw in-store events for all of Macy’s East Coast stores, and ultimately for its flagship Herald Square store. During her tenure, she successfully led its launch events, cooking demonstrations, bridal and fashion shows, celebrity appearances and more. Jovanca received her Bachelor of Science in Organizational Communications from the State University of New York College at New Paltz and also attended the Fashion Institute of Technology where she frequently guest speaks. She also founded JANE, a full-service event consulting company, to expand her event producing passion. In her spare time, Jovanca is an avid fan of the consignment app Poshmark, traveling and participating in charitable fundraisers such as the annual MS Walk. She is also a member of ColorComm, an organization for women of color in all areas of communications. She resides in New Jersey with her family.

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