Kelley Gillespie

Kelley is a member of the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and helps produce the annual Smithsonian Craft Show, a live show and sale of the country’s best contemporary craft artists. Proceeds of the Show are granted to Smithsonian museums, scientists and researchers. Kelley is the principal of GEM Events, a corporate and non-profit special event planning firm in the Washington, DC area. With more than 20 years of event and conference management experience, Kelley has fine-tuned her creativity, vision, and leadership skills to produce award-winning events. She has worked on Presidential Inaugural parties, fundraising galas and testimonial dinners, corporate events for 12,000 guests and small but intimate incentive retreats in exclusive locations. She has also planned large-scale outdoor events on the National Mall, including trade shows for 400,000 people and political rallies for up to 300,000 attendees. She is an expert on logistical planning, creative development, and event marketing and designs her events to match her clients’ visions. After a two-year relocation to Shanghai, China, Kelley returned to the DC area to manage events once again for GEM.