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Meet Kelly Nelson of L.E.D. Experience in Smyrna / Marietta

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Nelson.

Though she grew up in a South Floridian small town, Kelly’s personal style and outlook have always reflected a more international and cosmopolitan flair. As a youngster she traveled to Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Canada, and Russia, experiences that provided her with a more worldly sense of sophistication and creativity.

Fresh out of Florida State University with a degree in Advertising and looking for employment during the economic downturn of the 80s, she briefly worked service-oriented survival jobs while persistently seeking a position that would provide growth opportunities for her unique talents. Kelly has long been intrigued by working with mediums that create emotional, behavioral, physical, and entertaining links that traverse our lives in work and play.

Kelly’s career began at one of the world’s largest marketing communications design and production agencies, Jack Morton Worldwide. That background served her well as she went on from there to build extensive professional credentials in event design, award-winning creative direction, writing, and production spanning all media. Working with all types of industries, associations, non-profits and community organizations (e.g., Coca-Cola, Arby’s Inc., TechBridge, Cartoon Network, CNN, United Way, Girl Scouts of America) she developed her own singular, artistic voice.

By the early 1990s, in response to the changing climate in the industry and fueled by the motto, “Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?” she creatively commanded her own course. Kelly used her non-traditional influences from the arts and keen sensitivity to the power of pop culture to engage audiences worldwide. It’s no wonder she was continually labeled a “Maverick”… long before the term was considered mainstream.

For 19 years her first company, The Maverick Group (TMG), an experience design and marketing agency, provided innovative event production and experience design solutions unmatched in the industry. Today, Kelly continues to be a dynamic, passionate champion of alternative thinking and artistic envisioning, always pushing the boundaries of the normal to achieve more engaging results. Kelly’s unique perspective and ability to use creative thinking as a pathway towards strategically motivating behavior has made her a sought-after artistic creator and designer for a wide range mediums and platforms.

Her work has brought her a bevy of awards garnered for creative direction, as well as countless accolades for her unique public show concepts and use of innovative live tactics to enhance brand activations. Now at the top of her game after more than 30 years of creative leadership, Kelly is busy with her newest experience engineering company L.E.D. Experience which provides her with a constructive outlet for her groundbreaking artistic visioning and knowledge of behavioral psychology.

In addition to being founder and Chief Creation Officer of L.E.D. Experience, Kelly is also the founder and creator of Luminocity, a collaborative platform of contemporary multi-discipline artists incubated in 2007 and brought to life for the first time as a public art spectacle in the fall of 2010 in Downtown Atlanta to an audience of over 20,000 spectators. Luminocity is an original work of immersive theatrical public art and performance that breaks through the traditional confines of stage and gallery. Lighted live performances of dance, drum, acrobatic, aerial, puppetry and extreme urban sport stunts intertwine with live music performances, broad spectrum architectural projection mapping, illuminated mobile sculpture stages, and other forms of multimedia. The public became part of the show, as they were invited to interact and even participate within the 360 experience. The entire spectacle was punctuated with thousands of LED lights bringing the night to light.

Kelly’s next public production, currently in the funding stages, is slated for launch in Spring 2020 on the west side of Atlanta’s Midtown and features a unique two story tented venue which will host a series of long-running immersive theatre shows, an interactive outdoor maze, a performance-driven daytime lunch destination and a bohemian style membership-driven nightclub. Her collaboration team for this project includes globally known veterans of Cirque du Soleil, Henson Studios /Muppets, MOMIX, Delaguarda, Pilobolus, the film industry, Broadway and television. The project will be a creative blend of live music, circus arts, dance, immersive theatre, breathtaking set design, choreographed food service, aerial arts, AR/VR and Video Mapping technology, innovative lighting, special effects, 4 D theatrical elements with audience-driven experiences that change each time they visit the show compound. Aligning with Kelly’s strong belief in the balance of life and work, the company culture she models from the top is founded upon nurturing an environment of trust, respect, and care for employees regarded as a second family.

Kelly currently lives in the Smyrna area with her two children aged 19 and 13, husband and business collaborator, and third “child” a chihuahua named Luna. In addition to her work, family, friends, and hobbies, Kelly also shares her energy supporting various organizations who work towards the public good such as the Anti Defamation League’s effort to pass a hate crime bill and as a board member for “Paint Love” a non-profit that provides art workshops and creative outlets for youth who face poverty and trauma.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The juggle of agency leader, mother, wife, friend, and community advocate has always been challenging. Finding enough time in the day to accomplish all I want to do in the world has always been difficult. With the two agencies I founded and with my public projects, there have been big wins and disheartening defeats and many hard lessons learned along the way. All that said, these lessons have ultimately made me more knowledgeable each step forward from there. I tend to be a visionary who is constantly ahead of her time but unwavering persistence and learning to have patience for the right “timing” has become my best weapon against frustration.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the L.E.D. Experience story. Tell us more about the business.
L.E.D. Experience is a WBE certified experience design and production agency specializing in live tactics leveraged to bring about strategically based action. Our projects over the last 30+ years have ranged from meetings, trade shows, special events, film and video production, new product launches, promotional programs, brand activations, and public and private live entertainment shows and pop-ups.

Our business structure is lean, with an ability to tailor its team to each specific project. This approach allows L.E.D. to incorporate and collaborate with the added services at highly competitive prices.

Initially founded in Atlanta in 1992 as The MAVERICK Group, L.E.D. Experience rebranded the agency and added an in house entertainment design division in 2010 following the success of our original public light parade spectacle “Luminocity”.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
As the old saying goes, I believe that “luck is where preparation meets opportunity”. It is as important to know where you are going and to know how to put your canoe in the stream that will take you in the right direction. I will say I am grateful for the luck of being born into a good family with two trailblazing parents who showed me by example how to “get things done” and taught me to own the conviction that I could be anything I set my mind to. Most luck is self-created in my opinion.

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