About Us
Experience. Creativity. Grit.
Let's make your next event SPECTACULAR!
Avant Garde Events founder, Valerie McSorley, is an award-winning Special Event Producer with nearly twenty-five years of industry experience. Her diverse event portfolio includes conference production, meeting planning, industry trade shows, golf tournaments, fundraising galas, product launches, corporate, non-profit and association management events.
Valerie launched Avant Garde Events, Inc. in 2002. She built her company from scratch with a homemade business card and sheer will, grit and determination to make it happen!
Valerie loves to connect professionals and brands to their target demographic through live events. By harnessing the power of the personal connection, she connects organizations and individuals to new clients, sales opportunities, strategic partnerships, media interviews, and new job opportunities. She developed a patent-pending formula to leverage connections into meaningful, measurable results. Coardial Connections® was launched in 2010 and has grown and expanded into multiple Chapters in and around the Boston area.
Valerie is passionate about bringing new ideas to life and believes that strong women lift each other up. Throughout her career, she has held many leadership positions, raised millions of dollars for charitable causes, published numerous industry articles and has served on several professional boards. She is a current board of director with Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals, SOCAP New England Chapter, Boston Women in Media & Entertainment, BWME and the Marshfield Chamber of Commerce. She is a past Board Member of Boston Women’s Network as well as a previous BNI Chapter President. She holds Bachelor’s Degrees in both Economics and Sociology from Binghamton University.
In addition, Valerie hosts a very niche portfolio in the Contact Center, Customer Service, and Customer Experience event space. She has produced industry-specific events and programs for nearly two decades for a variety of professional organizations dedicated to the field. She launched Contact Center Nation in 2016 and has hosted events in a variety of cities nationwide. The Contact Center Ideas & Innovations Tour was presented in partnership with Contact Center Pipeline Magazine and events were held in Phoenix, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Northern Virginia and Boston. She enjoys bringing professionals together to learn, network and collaborate.
FUN FACT: Valerie was once a contestant on the Wheel of Fortune!
A Sampling of Who We've Worked With
Don't Take Our Word for It...
Valerie is a skilled event planner and masterful networker, bringing professionals in all industries together to meet common goals. She is a dedicated professional with an eye for detail, customizes events and conferences, focuses on a client's problems and offers targeted solutions, and always delivers outstanding results. If you're looking for ROI on your next event, or want to throw a smashing party or conference, give Valerie a call.
Valerie is a top rate professional. She has managed a number of top-tier events for our company. All of these events have been handled proficiently by a true expert who knows every facet of her craft. Valerie goes out of her way to go the extra mile. One example that comes to mind was Valerie had quite a significant car accident on her way to one of our events. Where this would have immediately stopped most people in their tracks, Valerie left her car, arrived at our event and managed it as nothing had happened. How many people would do that?
It has been truly a fantastic experience working with Valerie and Contact Center Nation. Since the very beginning, we have enjoyed every moment being in the midst of such a great group of hyper-focused and engaged contact center professionals. I have learned so much from all of my conversations with each attendee in every city. I have found all the attendees to really want to share their experiences and help each other with use cases and how to avoid the pitfalls. As a vendor, I cannot thank Valerie enough for her unwavering commitment to service excellence to this community. We have had an overwhelming ROI from our participation in the Contact Center Nation Ideas and Innovations Tour all around the country. We have secured new clients at Panviva as a direct result of our participation. Each city seems to grow the movement further than the last. It’s not often when you find a vehicle like this with like-minded individuals that respect each other, share so openly and like to learn from the varied experiences that vendors have. Valerie’s knowledge and expertise in the market saw the gaps in the contact center events and was able to build a very effective series that makes a difference to attendee and vendor alike. Thank you for such a great run and here's to many more years. Thanks for everything, Valerie.
What can we do for you? Learn More about Our Event Planning Services
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