From Pez Dispensers To Power Moves: Angel Holmes On Building Community, Festivals, And Women’s Leadership

How are we doing? Who do you want to learn from next? Text us with notes and ideas.Big ideas rarely arrive fully formed—they grow from a single conversation, a brave email, and a room full of the right people. That’s the heartbeat of this episode with Angel Holmes, a Charleston native whose fingerprints are on the city’s culinary rise, women’s leadership networks, and a new purpose-driven hospitality venture.We unpack the origin of Charleston Wine & Food, from a sustainable seafood initiative and chef coalitions to building a nonprofit and borrowing best practices from festivals like South Beach and Aspen. Angel is candid about the unglamorous parts too: the mud-slicked year two, oversold zones, and why skimping on security, bathrooms, and flooring is the fastest way to break trust. If you’re in event marketing, sponsorships, or community building, her blueprint is a field guide—ask for help, design for experience, and plan for failure so attendees don’t feel it.Angel’s story is also about brand and belonging. She shares the Home Team Communications origin that later echoed through Home Team BBQ’s culture, plus a delightfully specific Pez collection that proves memorable details make messages stick. We explore Charleston’s growth, her family’s civic legacy, and how neighborhoods still connect on porches, at driveway cookouts, and through local institutions that welcome newcomers while honoring roots.Today, Angel is steering two high-impact South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors. King & Columbus is a full-service marketing and advertising agency based in South Carolina that helps brands grow through a mix of creative storytelling and data-driven strategy. They offer everything from branding and content creation to media planning, digital advertising, and PR—focused on delivering measurable results across digital, social, and traditional channels. https://kingandcolumbus.comSupport the showTitle Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing AssociationPresenting Sponsor: Charleston Media SolutionsAnnual Sponsor: ‪SCRA; South Carolina Research AuthorityQuarterly Sponsor: King and ColumbusCAMACast Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Rachel Backal, Tom Keppeler, Amanda Bunting Comen, Silicon Harbor Hot Take Host: Stanfield Gray, https://digsouth.comProduced and edited: RMBO AdvertisingPhotographer | Co-host: Kelli MorseScore by:  The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenuStudio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew ChaseYouTube...