Green Scene: [Cambodian-Canadian?] Marketer mingles lavish parties with sustainable values

Teang Tang says her marketing group Mingle Events is largely based on her Buddhist values, which teach to give back to the community and respect life. (Photo courtesy Joi Media)

“It was in business school that I realized I didn’t want to make a career out of (fashion design). I didn’t want to be chained to a sewing machine all day. I just wanted to be able to have an outlet for my creativity." — Teang Tang, founder of Mingle Events

Friday, 30 October 2009
Written by Theresa Tayler
The Calgary Journal (Canada)

Teang Tang knows how to throw a lavishly glam — yet exceedingly sustainable — party.

The 27-year-old is the founder of Mingle Events, an eco-focused marketing group that puts on high-end bashes, which at heart have been planned around a very conservative core set of values.

The Calgary bred marketer credits her religion as the influence behind her passion for the environment.

“I’m Buddhist and part of the teaching is to give back to the community and respect life, whether it be your own, others, animals, plants, etcetera,” she says.

“You have to respect the environment that you operate in, the people that you hire and the materials that you use. You don’t want to be a leech on the world — whatever you take, you need to give back.”

Whether it’s planning the opening launch party of a new Roots Canada store or co-ordinating an eco-chic fashion show, Tang acquires goods from sustainable food and beverage providers, finds ways to reuse and recycle, focuses on securing venues that fit her eco-friendly vision and helps clients build green business models in the process.

“I started (Mingle) because I saw a need in the market for socially responsible events,” says Tang, whose company launched in 2006.

Tang was born in Thailand and moved to Canada when she was an infant. Her family eventually settled in Calgary in 1988 as Tang entered Grade 1.

“My parents have a huge influence on my life. As immigrants, they came to this country without knowing the language and already in debt to the government (for immigration fees),” she says.

“My father couldn’t even speak enough English to figure out where they could go to buy a bag of rice. My dad used to go to English school during the day and then in the evenings wash floors and clean dishes at a local Chinese restaurant. He didn’t get home until 4 a.m. and then he would get up at 6 a.m. and start the routine all over again.

“I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like. It was a tough life and I’m grateful each day for the sacrifices that they have made.”

As a little girl, Tang had her heart set on becoming a famous fashion designer.

By high school, she was interning with Calgary clothing designer Lisa Arcega, who advised the garb-adoring teen that success in the style industry was based on not only being a fabulous stitch and sew, but excelling as a business woman.

Tang took Arcega’s advice.

She enrolled at Athabasca University, where she majored in accounting. As her first year progressed, Tang quickly realized that she had a knack for numbers and promotion — she left the sewing machine behind and never looked back.

“It was in business school that I realized I didn’t want to make a career out of (fashion design),” says Tang. “I didn’t want to be chained to a sewing machine all day. I just wanted to be able to have an outlet for my creativity.”

When Tang graduated in 2004 and began working for Momentum Calgary, a not-for-profit society that partners with low-income Calgarians to help create productive futures.

She started as a Business Development Facilitator and moved on to Marketing & Community Relations.

“It was very motivating working for non-profits. I was always in direct contact with our clients and would experience first-hand how our work really helped them gain entrepreneurship skills or helped them take another step away from poverty.”

When it became Tang’s turn to start building up her own business, Momentum signed on as her first client. She planned Marketing Photoshoot events for them, an Annual General Meeting and Dinner as well as a Business Breakfast.

Carolyn Davis, Associate Manager of Momentum says Tang bring a “tremendous” amount of energy to her work.

“She invests herself personally to ensure that events she organizes come off smoothly ad smartly,” says Davis.

“Teang’s commitment to sustainability is authentic, and this is one of the reasons we continue to work with her.”

Over the past three years things have begun to take off for Tang and Mingle. In 2008, Roots Canada hired her to handle their opening gig for their new Calgary flagship store on 4th St.

She also planned an eco-chic fashion show, showcasing local designers and eco-boutiques, during Calgary’s 2008 Career Show.

Jennifer Peters, owner of DIRT, a Calgary-based online eco-fashion store, was one of the vendors featured in the Career Show runway show. Peters says Tang’s strength is in her creativity and organizational skill.

“She takes care of all the external marketing and promotions so all (you) have to do is supply her with promo materials,” says Peters.

“The first time I worked with Teang she single handedly planned an eco-fashion and trade show. She really managed to highlight some of Dirt (then named Green Bee Boutique) best styles and eco-designers and showcase them excellently on the runway. She helped showcase our clothes in a way that was chic and beautiful. No one would have ever guessed, if Teang hadn’t told them, that the runway show featured eco-friendly fashions.”

Mingle holds their own annual promotional bash, Masherari, a New Years’ Eve party equipped with a ton a glitz and glamour, to help build awareness about sustainability.

You’ll be hard pressed to find any traces of hemp on her fashion runways, or patchouli-scented candles at her parties. Those stereotypes of sustainable fashion shows and eco-events couldn’t be further from Mingle’s mantra.

In the Future Tang says she wants to expand to cities across Canada.

“We currently have clients in Toronto, but I'd like to offer our services to other cities, specifically Vancouver,” she says.

“The more sustainable events we produce - the bigger the impact. Our goal is to educate as many people as we can about sustainability along the way. Mingle will become the leading event management company for Socially responsible businesses. We want to align ourselves with companies that focus on the triple bottom line: Social, Environment and Economics – aka, people, planet, profit.”
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How she does it, and how you can do it to — Teang Tang’s tips for planning a home eco-friendly party.

Guestlist & Getting there: Keep the guest list to low numbers, so you can comfortably talk to everyone ad make sure everyone has attention.

Invitations: If the majority of your guests have access to email, the "greenest" invitations you can choose are online invitations. There is no waste involved! You can also set up an event website for easy access to event details. Check out evite.com.

Centerpieces: Fill hurricane vases of all sizes. Fill one with fruit/nuts (cranberries, pomegranates, limes, Mixed whole nuts (in shells) etc.), others with pinecones from your yard and others with pillar candles. Arrange them offsetting each other down the center of your table, creating a look of a wave. Or alternately, you can group them together in the middle of the table for impact.

Music: You have to love all the new technology! I put all my songs on an IPOD and play it throughout the party.

Party favours: Rather than giving them something that they might never use, consider donating to a charity on their behalf or donate as a group and track the progress of your donation throughout the year. You can also set up a charity table, list three different charities and let your guests direct where you put their donation.

Pictures: Avoid disposable cameras and stick to digital. After the party, post them on Flickr/Facebook or email them out to your guests. It eliminates the need for prints that may go unused and each person can decided if they want to print out pictures for framing.

Food: Try to select finger friendly foods, therefore eliminating a need for utensils. Buy local organic foods. Hit up our local farmers market. If finger food is not appropriate use sturdy reusable flatware (either metal or hard plastic) be sure to provide clearly marked receptacles for them.

Beverages: Serve beverages in punch bowls, pitchers and urns. If you must serve in individual containers, make sure they are recyclable in nature (cans, glass, plastic bottles with 1 or 2 listed on the bottom near the chasing arrows recycle sign) Provide and clearly marked separate receptacles for recycling and for garbage.