Public Relations Outside of the "Box" Talent Agency

By Tiffany Cunningham

The Box Talent team has a love of music and Kym Johnston is one of the innovators of entertainment planning within the agency. Kym is the Vice President of Operations at Box Talent Agency, which has set the standard for the entertainment industry in Oklahoma. The services of Box Talent include booking concerts for Toby Keith and The Doobie Brothers to planning thousands of proms, weddings, backyard parties and hundreds of other special events. The company’s success is apparent but the down to earth operations of the agency keep the innovation and imagination alive among the agents and the clients whom the agent’s work with.

Kym began in this business by chance after attending the University of Maryland and moving from the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area in the summer of 2000. She began to work for David Box, the C.E.O. of Box Talent, in 2001 and books bands all over Oklahoma and surrounding states. She met David a couple times previously before he hired her. She started as an HR/office manager and within five months she started booking bands.

“I started with some small clubs around the OKC and Norman area,” Kym said. “Before long I was handling big accounts like the Bricktown Brewery and Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill.”

One of the most important experiences to finding out what you want to do after college is internship experience Kym expressed. There are many benefits to an internship and one is getting hands on experience and figuring out which jobs work for you.

“A lot of young people today think that event planning and booking bands is so glamorous,” Kym said. “Once our interns come in and see the “behind the scenes” day to day routine, their eyes are truly opened to the reality of this business.”

Another suggestion Kym had to offer to students graduating college and embarking into a professional career was to network. It is never too early to establish networking relationships. Many college students have an outlet through student organizations, sororities, fraternities, internships, jobs and professors to start building their own network. Networking is something Kym strongly believes in. Trying to stay as active as possible in meeting new people will only be a personal reward in a time of need.

Kym’s day in the life at Box Talent currently consist of agency meetings, getting interns their designated assignments with other agents and coordinating an all day concert at the Bricktown Brewery on October 24 to celebrate the brewery’s 17^th anniversary.

“Its non stop from the time I walk in the door till its time to go home,” Kym said. “Everyday brings new challenges and we are always looking for new business opportunities. It’s a great industry we work in, we help people plan FUN… what could be better than that?”

Kym is a unique individual who took a chance in the entertainment industry and has excelled as one of Oklahoma’s top special events coordinator and recognized citizens who brings fun to the entire state.

 Picture provided by boxtalent.com