About Us
GigSalad is the marketplace for event talent and services, providing the ultimate booking experience for both the talent and the buyer.
What’s in a GigSalad?
What isn’t? From acrobats to guitarists, magicians to caterers, impersonators to photographers, and everything in between, we’ve got amazing entertainers and services for hire across North America for every type of event.
GigSalad makes booking performers, bands, speakers, and event services easy and accessible for everyone. Whether you’re a first-time event planner or a seasoned pro, GigSalad is the #1 destination to book everything you need (and you won’t even have to leave the house)!
Our simple booking platform allows for an easy connection between event planner and talent, so we get to help both sides get the gig. With tens of thousands of skilled pros ready to be booked, GigSalad provides the recipe for extraordinary events.
The GigSalad team
Fun in the sun: Heather, Destiny and Megan in Wilmington, NC
Celebrating the King
The Springfield, MO office
A GigSalad fan in St. Louis
Locke and Joe by the sea
Joey and Megan at the Kid City conference in Columbia, MO
Steve and Mark in Nashville
Heather and Locke
Kasey and Heather have a love–hate relationship
Joe interviewing Joey and Elody for a video
Mark and Locke outside the office
Joey rockin’ his GigSalad shades
Matt rips spinach cans open with his bare (bear) hands
Meeting in the Springfield office
Partners Mark, Locke and Steve
The Wilmington Team
Proud supporter of youth sports in Wilmington, NC
GigSalad meets The Office
Sunset over the Cape Fear River, (aka the view outside the Wilmington office)
Devin: Agent Extraordinaire
Kasey and Mark
At the NACA convention in Myrtle Beach
Mark Steiner: Van Inspector
The Gigmobile
Rallying after our very own Get Your Gig On talent competition
Andrea focused on her task
Video shoot in the Springfield office
Steiner at the Googleplex
We’ve got the actual hazmat suit used in Breaking Bad. You know, just in case.
Marketing Team at a conference in the Windy City
Our Manifesto
Each of us interacts with multiple businesses every day, from well-known brands to the mom-and-pop store on the corner. More often than not, it seems that the service we receive is less than remarkable. Once in a blue moon, a company really stands out. It’s different. It’s better. You just can’t help but to tell your friends about it. We want to be that company for you.
We are committed to:
Under-promising and over-delivering.
Meet the team!
Mark Steiner
Co-Founder/CEO
Mark Steiner is the co-founder and CEO of GigSalad. As chief visionary, he leads the company's business and marketing strategy, focusing on building a strong customer-centric team and connecting with strategic partners. His career in the entertainment industry has spanned more than thirty years, including a decades-long stint booking high-level talent for performing arts centers, festivals, concerts, and corporate events through the agency he founded. Mark is the recipient of the Goodwill Games Peace Prize for a product he created to teach racial equality to children.
Origin: High Bridge, NJ
Talents: Acting, Texas Hold ’Em, varmint shooting
Inspiration: “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” – Ayn Rand
Heather Roonan
Site Administration
Entertainment know-it-all and avid laugher. Enjoys traveling, reading, spending time with her friends and boyfriend, and watching more TV than any person should.
Origin: Camdenton, MO
Talents: Talking fast, making sarcastic comments, and reading Kasey’s mind
Inspiration: “Every song has a coda, a final movement. Whether it fades out or crashes away. Every song ends. Is that any reason not to enjoy the music?” – One Tree Hill
Kasey Mathews
Accounting
A farm girl in the big city. Her life changed when Heather got her the best job ever at GigSalad. When not crunching numbers, she enjoys smiling, attending concerts, and people.
Origin: Long Lane, MO
Talents: Finding things, and finding things out.
Inspiration: “You can’t trust every quote on the internet.” – Abraham Lincoln
Elody Tippie
Operations
Dedicated wife and mother, taxi driver for her three kids. Enjoys every minute of the chaotic life she has created with her husband, and loves to plan every detail of every day.
Origin: Portsmouth, VA
Talents: Mommy Powers
Inspiration: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss
Joe Batty
Senior Video Strategist
Husband, father, creative junkie. If not spending time with his family, Joe is usually found behind the camera or in front of the computer.
Origin: Osage Beach, MO
Talents: Photography, filmmaking, possessing very little belongings
Inspiration: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci
Brad Ramsay
Director of Customer Happiness
Constantly in search of answers to questions that no one asked. Likes trivia, television, and almost any board game imaginable. Spends most of his free time hanging with his wife, watching television reruns, and playing Words with Friends. He also once wrote a book.
Origin: Crawfordsville, IN
Talents: Logically solving problems, trivia, finding anything on the Internet, reciting quotes from various movies and television shows, as well as walking AND chewing gum.
Inspiration: “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” – Roald Dahl
Shirene Chehrazi
Digital Marketing Strategist
Traded in yellow cabs and city strolls for sweet tea and the salty sea breeze. Presently in a long-time love affair with style, music, words and all things design.
Origin: Elon, NC
Talents: Using my imagination, celebrating the little things, finding treasures in thrift stores, making houses feel like homes.
Inspiration: “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.” – Jack Kerouac
Shawn Shelton
Customer Happiness
Chain reader, musician, and free spirit. Always makes time to stop and smell the roses.
Origin: Little Rock, AR
Talents: Singing, baking, writing, and reading things that are written backwards.
Inspiration: “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl
Kevin deLeon
Engineer
Husband, friend, music maker, New Orleanian. Full-stack programmer with a borderline unhealthy obsession with music and the New Orleans Saints.
Origin: Bogalusa, LA
Talents: Pretty good at guitar and bass. Can flip eyelids inside out.
Inspiration: “Awesome ain’t easy.” – Steve Gleason
Tessie Barnett
Customer Happiness
Traveler, thinker, obsessive reader, sketcher, laugher, and lover of nature. Annoyingly curious about everything.
Origin: Springfield, MO
Talents: Playing the same four chords on most stringed instruments, colored-pencil sketches, and maniacal laughter.
Inspiration: “Never trust a man in a jumpsuit.” – Charles Bukowski Hot Water Music
Steve Tetrault
Co-Founder/VP Product
Steve Tetrault is the co-founder and Product VP for GigSalad. His creative energies are focused on overseeing the GigSalad brand, while leading the design and development teams to create world-class user experiences. After earning degrees in graphic design and advertising from FIT (with additional studies at RISD and SVA), Steve started a design firm to tackle branding and web development projects for startups, musicians, and corporate clients.
Origin: New Bedford, MA
Talents: Designing things, Wiffle Ball pitching, office free throw record holder.
Inspiration: “There is beauty when something works and it works intuitively.” – Jonathan Ive
Devin Wright
Senior Booking Agent
Busy booking celebs, fire performers, mariachi bands, and dancing monkeys. Loves movies, concerts, and spending time with his beautiful wife, Kylie.
Origin: Springfield, MO
Talents: Using an iPhone, losing keys, finding keys, booking people who actually have talent.
Inspiration: “It is amazing what you accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman
Destiny Brassfield
Search Marketing Strategist
Design enthusiast. When not working on design projects, Destiny can be found playing with her two pups or enjoying long walks on the beach, though those can be difficult to come by in Missouri.
Origin: Camdenton, MO
Talents: Breathing above water, balancing on one foot, and reciting lines from 30 Rock.
Inspiration: “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, ‘I’m possible’!” – Audrey Hepburn
John Bacon
Front End Operations Engineer
Front-end specialist with a love for web performance. Grows an awful mustache once a year for charity.
Origin: Morehead City, NC
Talents: Solving problems and creating problems.
Inspiration: “Art is the proper task of life.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Kory Urban
Engineer
Bassist in the band Museum Mouth. Avid player of nerdy board games. On an eternal search for new music.
Origin: Goldsboro, NC
Talents: Laughing, guitaring, programming.
Inspiration: “Don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can.” – Neil Gaiman
Geoff Davis
Account Advisor
Always ready to experience life. Loves the logistics of things, finding out how stuff works and solutions more than problems. Avid dog lover. When he isn't hanging out with his French Bulldog, he can be found watching movies, listening to music or going to concerts and festivals.
Origin: Los Angeles, CA
Talents: Guessing at stuff, improvising, cooking, playing sports instead of watching them.
Inspiration: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay
Shawna Batty
Director of Search Marketing
After humbling adventures and big city life, Shawna now lives in a quaint midwest city with her film enthusiast husband and their three little babes. She has a weakness for pastries and self-education.
Origin: Camdenton, MO
Talents: Multi-tasking, Googling, and perfecting a New York accent when stuck in traffic.
Inspiration: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
Ryan Westeren
Customer Happiness
Lover of: music and scents, conversations with coffee, making playlists, being rational, intuitive, keeping up with friends and family, live performances. Oregonian at heart.
Origin: Redmond, OR
Talents: Musician, storyteller, your personal DJ.
Inspiration: “Beautiful things don't ask for attention.” – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Brian Keith
Engineer
Enjoys photography, tinkering with computers and thinking about exercising. Managed an above-.500 fantasy football team for one out of the last two years.
Origin: Carolina Beach, NC
Talents: Taking things apart and not putting them back together.
Inspiration: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
Kerri Bilyeu
Customer Happiness
A loving wife and mother. When Kerri isn't enjoying time with her family, she is relishing time away from them. She's comfortable and happy at a concert, on a beach, camping, or just relaxing with a book.
Origin: Raymore, MO
Talents: Singing, smiling, encouraging others, and falling for practical jokes.
Inspiration: “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan
Locke Bircher
Lead Engineer
As a partner and Lead Engineer, Locke Bircher champions GigSalad's development team, overseeing its tech strategy and implementation. While in high school, Locke built a file sharing website which had over 200,000 members in virtually every country in the world. He earned a degree in computer science from the University of North Carolina.
Origin: Morehead City, NC
Talents: Biking, digital art, fossil hunting
Inspiration: “Simplify, simply, simplify!” – Henry David Thoreau
Matt Gartz
Engineer
When not coding magic for GigSalad, can be found on the links battling against par and opening cans of spinach with his bare hands.
Origin: Rochester, NY
Talents: Can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes.
Inspiration: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
Joey Esquibel
Brand Ambassador
Everything music! Writes, records, plays, produces, books and promotes. Loves spending time with his beautiful daughters Iliana and Audrina. Crossfit.
Origin: Ellettsville, IN
Talents: I can sing, play guitar, play some piano, and write songs.
Inspiration: “So be good with what you’re given, for it’s all you have to give. We are only passing shadows in a mighty wind.” – Noah Gundersen
Whitney Smith
Customer Happiness
Passionate about people, aesthetics, and breakfast foods. Always trying out a new crazy hairstyle. Enjoys making people laugh. The baby of the Springfield office.
Origin: Springfield, MO
Talents: Baking, painting, furniture restoration, interior decorating.
Inspiration: “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” – Ephesians 4:1-3
JoAnna Carpentier
Digital Marketing Strategist
New England native, INFJ personality type, dabbler of all things DIY, “Jack of All Trades and Master of None.” Inhabiting the space between too much TV and too many art projects.
Origin: Pittsfield, ME
Talents: Painting, cooking, DIY projects, starting conversations with strangers, hosting dinner parties, and ardently advocating for women’s & LGBTQ rights.
Inspiration: “Believe me when I tell you my soul has squeezed into narrow spaces.” – Anis Mojgani
Jonathan Clark
Creative Writer
Fledgling fiction writer and literary critic. Obsessive reader. Has-been skateboarder.
Origin: Columbus, OH
Talents: Writing, skateboarding, guitar, remembering opening sentences from novels.
Inspiration: “Art is work.” – Milton Glaser
Cory Dinwiddie
Event Specialist
Loves watching movies and playing softball. Proud to be a nerd. When not at work, Cory can be found updating his fantasy sports team, listening to podcasts, or enjoying the occasional game of Magic: The Gathering.
Origin: Camdenton, MO
Talents: Laughing at everything, alphabetizing anything, and enjoying terrible horror movies (yes, that takes talent).
Inspiration: “People is more important than anything, even grammar.” – Dan Harmon
Amanda Tippie
Event Specialist
Wife and mother of one daughter who keeps it real. Enjoys spending time reading, playing games, and watching movies with her family. Huge Kansas City Royals fan and crazy about reality TV.
Origin: Sedalia, MO
Talents: Cooking, party planning, and photography.
Inspiration: “Live the life you love. Love the life you live.” – Unknown
Vic Vaughan
Account Advisor
Servant, husband, father, friend, singer, musician, gardener and horse wrangler. Spends his free time Gourd Dancing at pow-wows and creating leather bags and Native American weapons. Enjoys playing with his two Aussies and studying Cherokee. Loves watching movies about New York City, Indian Heritage, martial arts and the underdog winning.
Origin: Brooklyn, NY
Talents: Singer, writer of songs, plays guitar, Native American flute, electric bass and percussion.
Inspiration: “You can have everything you want in life, if you just help enough people get what they want!” – Zig Ziglar
David Hazan
Marketing Consultant
Marketing consultant David Hazan has consistently conceived and executed breakthrough entertainment marketing campaigns for his tech, brand, agency, event and entertainment clients throughout his extensive marketing career. Having held senior positions at Universal, Warner Music, VH1, and The Orchard, David is currently focused primarily on the intersection of technologiy with the live music and festival sectors.
Origin: New York, NY
Talents: Drumming, ping pong, solving problems.
Inspiration: “Great ideas are a dime a dozen, it’s the ability to make things happen that counts.”
Where and When
It all began back in 2007 when GigSalad was founded by Mark Steiner and Steve Tetrault, who set out to create a way for talent buyers to connect with talent. What started as a simple online directory is now a revolutionary booking platform and a leading source of gigs for performers and event vendors.
Wilmington, NC
Our East Coast office used to only house the tech and design staff. Behind-the-scenes stuff, mostly. Since then we've grown. We've added members of the marketing team as well as new developers and event specialists. Our office faces the banks of the Cape Fear River in the historic downtown area. Even with the distraction of our totally awesome environment, we still manage to get quite a lot accomplished here. Most of the time, anyway.
Springfield, MO
The Midwest office is GigSalad’s official headquarters. From members needing technical support to event planners looking to book talent, our Midwest team is the center of our universe. They interact with customers personally--GigSalad is made up of real people, not automatons. We care deeply about making our customers happy.