Create & Cultivate Festival 洛杉矶举办：观众人数翻倍至逾4000人，创始人复盘挑战与经验

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On Saturday, Create & Cultivate Festival founder Marina Middleton asked founder and CEO of Bumble Whitney Wolfe Herd for leadership advice on the main stage. Wolfe Herd recommended “offloading weaknesses” and “acknowledging superpowers.”Photo: Courtesy of Create & Cultivate

LOS ANGELES—More than 4,000 founders, CEOs, creators, investors, and innovators made their way to this year's Create & Cultivate Festival, dubbed “the world’s largest festival for women in business,” which took place Sept. 19-20 at The Beehive in South LA.

The weekend of convening brought more than 150 experts, speakers, and keynotes including Emma Grede, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Alix Earle, Halle Berry, Olandria Carthen, and Jen Atkin, along with a headlining performance by Cardi B.

Plus, brands including Chase Ink, Constant Contact, Intuit, BFF, Archies Footwear, Covergirl, ACE Hardware, and Allergan engaged badgeholders throughout the two-day agenda.

Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry chatted with fellow female founders and attendees about intimate wellness brand Joylux, with which her women’s midlife wellness brand, Respin, is in partnership. Photo: Courtesy of Create & Cultivate

The festival, which doubled its attendance from 2025, required new strategic thinking about how to meet, learn, network, and discover.

“As we grew from 2025, we wanted the programming to reflect the range of women in our audience and the different stages of their careers,” shares Marina Middleton, creator of Create & Cultivate Festival and CEO and co-owner of Create & Cultivate, a women-forward digital media and event company. “Across the grounds, we incorporated brand experiences, places to gather, and moments worth sharing. The goal was to make a much larger festival feel personal and useful to each attendee.”

During her Sunday keynote, model, lifestyle influencer, and Love Island star Olandria Carthen spoke about setting her dreams and aspirations aside out of fear of failure. Photo: Courtesy of Create & Cultivate

On Sunday, Emma Grede, co-founder and CEO of Good American, promoted her new book, Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life, during her inspirational keynote, which ended with advice on letting go of old thoughts and making space to unlock something new. Photo: Courtesy of Create & Cultivate

Of the 5.5-acre multi-use space, 300,000 indoor-outdoor square feet were activated to craft distinct areas, including The Quad, home of the main stage and great lawn; Creator Compound, a turnkey activation playground for creators; Core Campus, intended for Q&As, workshops, wellness experiences, and guided sessions; Connect Garden presented by Chase Ink, which hosted CONNECT, an AI-powered matchmaking program that facilitated 15,000 one-on-one meetings generated ahead of the festival; Study Hall, meant for intimate real-time work; and The Commons, a place to shop and demo products.

Additionally, there was a designated Mess Hall for mealtime and a VIP Lounge that offered a more exclusive experience.

Middleton says her core team comprised 10 members who led the festival’s vision and in-house planning, including the overall program and both the attendee and partner experiences.

Rapper and entrepreneur Cardi B took to the stage to close out the festival with a high-energy performance on the main stage. Her Grow-Good Beauty brand activated on site both days. Photo: Courtesy of Create & Cultivate

“We work with agency partners, production specialists, and event staff to bring it to life,” explains Middleton. “During peak seasons and on-site execution, that broader team is essential to delivering a production of this size.”

However, no production is 100% flawless. Middleton’s team faced several challenges, starting with Saturday’s registration. The badge printer malfunctioned, causing a hiccup at check-in, and Middleton's team resorted to manually verifying registrants and issuing correct badge types without personalization.

“It was a stressful way to open because you want the first interaction with your event to feel seamless,” notes Middleton. “My focus immediately shifted to helping the team resolve the bottleneck and get guests inside.”

On Sunday, several attendees did not have access to the meals included with the cost of their festival badge. Middleton says the festival team planned for food quantities for all 4,000 attendees, but there were gaps in service while food was being prepared and stations were left unreplenished.

“Our team worked with food partners to prepare and bring out additional food,” notes Middleton. “We recognize that having food planned or on its way does not help an attendee who needs a meal at that moment, and we are sorry for the frustration those gaps caused.”

Looking ahead, Middleton notes a need for better coordination of service and replenishment, more food pickup points and options, and broader distribution. Adding food purchasing options is also under consideration.

Additionally, while the festival’s footprint accounted for two air-conditioned buildings, an 80-by-80-foot shaded tent, and seating in lounges and other campus areas, attendee feedback made it clear that not everyone’s needs could be met during peak hours.

“We are using that feedback to plan more shaded seating and dedicated cooling and quiet spaces,” Middleton says.

Middleton also spoke openly about technical difficulties caused by Cardi B’s soundcheck needs, which affected the microphones during various panels.

“A performance of Cardi B’s scale requires substantial production and sound preparation, and we wanted to deliver a great concert experience alongside our business programming,” says Middleton. “Coordinating those elements was our responsibility as the organizer.”

Looking back, Middleton says that even though her team acted quickly, she would’ve built more separation between the concert sound checks and panel programming, with additional buffer time for technical testing and troubleshooting.

“We would also evaluate how sound carries between stages to better protect each conversation,” she offers.

Every seasoned event production team has a strategy for tackling challenges. “Our approach was to keep communication direct and make decisions as close to the issue as possible,” shares Middleton.

In Create & Cultivate’s case, production, guest services, programming, and partner teams stayed in close contact throughout both days so information could reach the people equipped to act. Issues were prioritized that affected entry, attendee comfort, and access to programming, whether that meant changing the badge process, coordinating food replenishment, or addressing sound issues. The festival app was also used to communicate updates to attendees.

“For me, leading through those moments meant staying focused on what attendees needed and helping the team make timely decisions,” says Middleton. “Responding in real time is one part of the job; understanding where the experience still fell short and applying those lessons is equally important.”

On Saturday, after her keynote session, famed social media personality and recent skincare brand founder Alix Earle surprised and delighted all with a Reale Actives After Party. Attendees collected puzzle pieces under their chairs to redeem Reale Actives products at a meet-and-greet with Earle. Photo: Courtesy of Create & Cultivate

Despite attendees and creators taking to Instagram and TikTok to air their grievances, Middleton and her team are also focused on the positive feedback.

“We are paying attention to both,” she says. “It has been moving to hear about the introductions people made, the ideas they took home, and the opportunities that began in those rooms. The specific suggestions are valuable, too, because they tell us how to make the experience stronger as it grows.”

Create & Cultivate Festival 2027 is set for Sept. 25-26, 2027, in Los Angeles, and tickets are already on sale. “This tells us the community is ready to build what comes next—together,” concludes Middleton.

About the Author

Senior Contributing Editor

Tracy Block is a veteran writer and editor and owns a content marketing consultancy. She's been covering meetings, events, venues, and experiential marketing for BizBash since 2012, and contributes to various travel, hospitality, and lifestyle publications.