Jill Snodgrass is a world-class cat herder.
That’s not really her job title. She actually spends her days planning and coordinating Key West events and markets — but given her profession’s complexities and challenges, it could easily be compared to herding rowdy felines.
When Snodgrass arrived in Key West, she had no intention of transplanting her career. A successful Missouri event planner and widowed mom whose son was off to college, she headed for the island city to accomplish a life goal: learning to sail.
“I’d been coming to Key West for years and it just seemed like the end of the earth — the best place to go without actually leaving the country,” Snodgrass said.
Within a surprisingly short time, she was living on a boat and had met Sean Krikorian, the man who would become her fiancé. While she continued to run the huge annual Salute to America festival in Missouri, she also found herself partnering with Krikorian to coordinate events in Key West — including the Artisan Market that debuted in 2013.
Snodgrass originally began coordinating special events years earlier, in conjunction with her advertising sales job for a Missouri newspaper. Discovering she loved that aspect of her work, she founded the event management company Daily Plan-it in 1994. She eventually helped organize high-profile political conventions and also authored four books on the topic.
Despite her career’s whirlwind pace and need for turn-on-a-dime flexibility, Snodgrass exudes an air of unflappable professionalism.
“You just have to take it in very manageable pieces,” she advised. “You can’t let it get overwhelming.”
Today she and Krikorian are best known for coordinating the Artisan Market, held outside the Key West Wildlife Center at Indigenous Park off White Street either every Sunday or biweekly from October through April; and the Farmers Market on Thursdays along the East Quay Wall at Truman Waterfront Park. Each market provides a regular chance for several dozen vendors to display their wares before an enthusiastic audience — thereby developing a following, and an income stream, that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
“With the Artisan Market, and to some degree the Farmers Market, we’re able to provide a venue for so many small businesses and artists to have a place to showcase their wares and make a living,” Snodgrass said. “We are very proud of that — knowing week to week that it’s generating so much for so many people.”
As well as the ever-popular markets, Snodgrass and Krikorian have poured their creative energies into events including the wintertime Florida Keys Seafood Festival, a variety of holiday-themed bazaars and specialty markets, and the Key West Bicentennial Celebration in March 2022. Each November, they coordinate all the VIP, hospitality and vendor arrangements for the Race World Offshore Key West World Championship powerboat races.
In 2024 they became part of the team producing Just a Few Friends, a multiday celebration honoring the late singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett and his legacy in Key West.
“The Jimmy Buffett event is very personal to me,” said Snodgrass, who credits Buffett’s Keys-infused music with helping draw her to Key West. “It’s truly a labor of love, working with the event founders and Sean to develop something from the ground up.”
She regards the chance to work with Krikorian, and fuse her talents with his to forge successful events, as a particular joy.
“Sean is great at logistics and he’s also very creative, so we have these great creative sessions — brainstorming things to do for an event or ways to make something better — and that’s the really fun part,” Snodgrass said.
As well as enjoying her business and personal partnership with Krikorian, Snodgrass is looking to the future. While she has no plans to lessen her role in the Artisan Market or Farmers Market, she’s currently training her son Sam Snodgrass and daughter-in-law Candela to assist with running both events.
“The markets are very important to us and we don’t want to see them go away, so I feel like training a new generation to come in and learn the ins and outs is just a prudent thing to do,” explained Snodgrass.
She and Krikorian are also forging new living plans following the New Year’s Eve sinking of their houseboat home. Meanwhile, whenever their busy schedule allows, they take the time to enjoy life in Key West: boating in their small runabout, fishing, snorkeling, getting together with friends for happy hour or dinner.
However, the woman who built a career based on herding cats can’t always unplug completely. Even in her spare time, she’s on the lookout for inspiration.
“I like to attend other events with an eye for learning,” Snodgrass admitted. “I always try to come up with something new.”
