Member Spotlight: Betsy Krug
- Ollie Turner
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
This member spotlight was written by Ollie Turner, a college student at University of Colorado Boulder and intern with REACH Women's Network. This blog post was part of her project to conduct information interviews with REACH members.
Betsy Krug is the Co-Owner and Event Director of Rebecca Rose Events, a premier event planning, design, and production firm that produces events around the world, but is headquartered in Winston-Salem. Almost all of the events that Betsy produces are in a celebratory capacity; the majority are weddings, but she also works on social and philanthropic events.
Betsy started in hospitality at sixteen when she got a job working at a gourmet food shop, which did catering work for an exclusive clientele. From this first job, Betsy fell in love with the fast-paced world of food and events, leading her to get a degree in hospitality. She worked for Hyatt Corporation for a few years, where she was able to feed her passion for working closely with clients and getting to know them. Betsy met her future business partner while working at Hyatt, and in 2013, she decided to move back to Winston-Salem and become the co-owner of Rebecca Rose Events.
For Betsy, no two days are alike. Her job requires lots of travel to meet with clients at venues and properties, as well as spending at least a week away from home when producing events. Betsy says that one of the highlights of her career is the fact that families trust her and her expertise enough to invite her to participate and be present during one of the most personal and meaningful milestones in people’s lives. She says that being invited into this intimate time in someone’s life is a gift she will never take for granted.
Betsy says that the biggest challenge that women face in her career is trying to balance work and caring for others, with prioritizing your own life and well-being. As natural caregivers, Betsy believes that it can be difficult for women not to worry about the well-being of their team and those who work around them. Hospitality is built on celebrations that take place outside of normal business hours, but for those who work in hospitality, working on weekends or late nights is an integral part of the job. Because of this, it can be hard for hospitality workers to enforce boundaries between work and personal life. Betsy feels that women as caregivers have to try very hard to balance caring for themselves while also being hospitable towards their clients.
Betsy’s most important piece of advice, for not only those in hospitality, but leaders in any industry, is to understand the mechanics of your work. Before you can lead a team, you need to have a complex understanding of all of the individual pieces that go into your work, whether it be producing an event or launching a new product for a major corporation. As someone who started in hospitality at an entry-level position and worked her way up to co-owning a business, Betsy’s experience is what makes her a strong leader. She leads with empathy and a deep level of understanding for every single worker who goes into producing an event.
Betsy’s first experience with REACH was at the first conference that the organization produced. Rebecca Rose Events attended the conference and was immediately blown away by the experience. Betsy applied for membership right away. She also joined the board as conference chair to help support the event. As a REACH member, Betsy highly values the avenue that the organization provides, which allows her to meet women whom she wouldn’t have naturally met otherwise. Betsy says that there are so many women whom she’s met and developed deep and lasting relationships with, whose paths she wouldn’t have crossed without REACH.
