Amy Doherty, TMP
Amy Doherty, TMP, is the Events & Outreach Division Director for the City of Suwanee, Georgia, where she also proudly resides. Her journey in community events began as a volunteer, serving on committees and helping plan the Fall Festival. She quickly fell in love with working alongside residents and seeing the joy her events brought to the community. When the previous staff member left, Amy applied and started part-time, eventually transitioning into a full-time role. Over her tenure, she has helped grow the city’s events from about 25 annually to over 50, creating experiences she fondly calls “memory-making moments” that help Suwanee truly feel like home.
Amy leads a talented team in planning and executing city events, overseeing volunteer efforts, and coordinating private events held in the city’s parks. She strives to ensure that each event reflects the diversity of Suwanee’s residents and gives families a chance to see themselves represented in the community—from elementary school choirs to high school marching bands and cheerleaders in parades. Through her work, she helps residents participate in and celebrate their culture, creating lasting memories that span generations.
Beyond her city role, Amy shares her expertise with the broader events community as the current Board Chair of the Southeast Festivals and Events Association. She has earned multiple awards, including Event Director of the Year from SFEA and the Innovations Champion Award from the City of Suwanee. Passionate about creativity and lifelong learning, Amy enjoys reading as many books as possible each year, bringing fresh ideas and inspiration into her work. Her commitment, energy, and vision ensure that every event she oversees leaves a lasting, positive impact on her community.
• Tourism Marketing Professional
• Festival and Event Professional
• The University of Southern Mississippi - BS, College of Libral Arts
• Southeast Festival Event Association Event Director of the Year 2020
• Annual Employee Awards - 2023 Innovations Champion
• Southeast Festival and Event Association
• North Gwinnett Rotary Club
• Relay for Life Gwinnett Event Leadership Team
• Community Fundraising Support
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the community itself. When I first started working for the city, our population was half of what it is now. We've grown a lot over the years thanks to our school system and our safe police department, and the things that make living in Suwanee a great place to be. Even though we've been doing the same events, they do change over time. The people who were coming to that event this year may not have lived in Suwanee the 30 years that I have, so for them it might be something new and exciting and different. I will say that we haven't just said this is enough, and this is as good as we need to be. We constantly still work to improve, to make everyone feel included, to be a leader for what we do, and not just be complacent and say it's good enough as it is.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I think one of the things I do believe in is that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. When you love it, it's not work, it's fun. And that's everything from the people you interact with to the team that you work with. When you love it, you spend more time with your coworkers a lot of times than you do your actual family. So when you have that great team of people, it doesn't feel like work, it feels more like fun.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You don't get to where I am overnight. You start doing small things really well, and you build on top of that. Make sure that the people around the table that you're planning around, that those seats are full of people who want the same things. You build a table and make sure the people around it have the same like mind and goals for what you want to do, and you start doing small things well and build upon it. Don't go so big so fast because you'll wear yourself out. If you try to do a whole lot of things at one time, the best you can, you'll be exhausted, you won't want to stick around. But if you start with 20 events and then move to 40 events, it doesn't seem like such a big change. You can't start with doing 50 events a year because you'll wear yourself out. I always try to tell people, do smaller things really well and build on it. Don't try to go out the gate doing everything with all guns blazing, because you'll get worn out.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Some of the challenges are that we're a community that puts on about 45 events a year, but we could do 100 events - there's just only 52 weeks a year. There's only 52 Saturdays and 52 Fridays, and sometimes we have some things on Sundays. We could have more events, but it's hard to do events in January and February when it's cold. We try to do the best that we can in the amount of time that we have, and also keep in mind that our staff and our park itself also deserves and earns breaks. We literally just choose not to do a July 4th event so our staff, police department, public works guys, and city hall staff all know we are never working the 4th of July. I can't add more weeks of the year, and I can't also wear out our staff. Event fatigue can be a real thing, so after you've had 40-something events already happen, the attendance starts dropping off in November and December because people are tired and they don't feel like they need to be entertained every weekend. We try to be strategic and mindful of our events to not just have events on random days and nights just to have another event.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Creating a place that people want to live. Creating that community that they're proud of. We're a metro Atlanta city suburb, and I like to know that when people tell people where they're from, they don't just say I'm from the Atlanta area, they specifically say I'm from Suwanee. I want Suwanee to be what they're proud of, and not just from being an Atlanta metro city. I specifically want them to be able to say Suwanee by name because of the pride they have in their hometown, because of the memories they make here and where they chose to raise their family. I love that people can feel like they had a part in pulling off and making those events successful, from running a game to helping people figure out how to get back on a bus if we have a shuttle lot. From the volunteers to the actual events themselves, I want people to feel like they had a part in the success of what we do in our park.