Xperience Live Team – XPERIENCE LIVE, LLC

VARICK BAIYINA

CEO OF XPERIENCE LIVE, LLC

Mr. Baiyina is a 25-year management and media impresario, who has generated and budgeted millions in operations and advertising revenue. His experience in media management, sponsorship sales and marketing is vast. Starting his career in print with the family business, Varick was exposed to the advertising industry via three (3) family owned newspapers as a young teen in Rochester, NY and learned very early, the value of the advertising dollar.

Fresh out of Syracuse / Howard University he worked as a major market media buyer for the ‘92 Clinton / Gore Presidential Campaign at Great American Media. Post victory, he launched into the field of advertising sales and worked for some of the world’s premiere artists, athletes, and companies, including; Dun and Bradstreet / Reuben H. Donnelly, the founder of yellow pages, HTS (Home Team Sports), NBC Sports, Electronic billboard pioneer, NGN (Next Generation Network), and Six Flags Theme Park Media Networks. In addition to those endeavors, Varick served as Sr. Integrated Media and Events Specialist and top sales generator for CBS radio’s #1 ranked Washington DC area flagship station, WPGC 95.5. He’s also worked for Bonneville Corporations DC Radio Division, Clear Channel Radio, where he participated in launching two (2) radio stations, as well as Urban One (Radio-One and TV One) where he served as a Sr. Integrated Media Specialist for local, regional, and national corporate alliances.

Mr. Baiyina is known as an innovator in the field of strategic partnerships, lifestyle products, marketing and events, radio promotions, product and sponsorship placement, and creative services for companies targeting niche markets. Currently, Mr. Baiyina serves as CEO for Xperience Live. He is instrumental in all major decision making and strategic planning for the company. He also plays lead on most event development, design, and tactical expansion. Top annual contracts include the City of Rochester, NY’s “Rochester Summer Soul Music Festival” (2017 – 2022), “Atlanta Fashion & Polo Classic” (from 2020), “Celebrez En Rose’ ” (Wash DC, Atlanta + Houston -from 2019)

In addition, Varick serves on the Board of Directors for Caribbean Blue Natural Spring Water and RHN – The Real Hip Hop Network… The world’s first 24-hour television network dedicated to exposing the positive side of Hip Hop lifestyle and culture. Mr. Baiyina is a proven management and media veteran. His unique experience and background has afforded him an incomparable outlook on strategically building niche businesses and major events.

ALANNAH BAIYINA

VP OF PROMOTIONS & EVENT LOGISTICS

Alannah Baiyina is a Howard University graduate with a background in human health, performance, and leisure. As a previous life and Division I Softball Athlete, Alannah has proven teamwork and leadership abilities through a resume of multiple championships through her competitive nature; she coached on many different playing levels ranging from Division I to age 7. As activity coordinators for both The Washington Nationals – Youth Baseball Academy and Prince George’s County – Maryland National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, Alannah has developed an uncanny ability to be creative and impeccably organized.

Alannah is the current Director of Promotions & Event Logistics for Xperience Live. Handling the day-to-day for the following has already had a huge impact on our event management and overall efficiency. Alannah has developed an uncanny ability to be creative and impeccably organized. Her duties include but are not limited to: Event idea development, mediating, and brainstorming sessions, Curate event timelines with key dates and tasks – Keeping the X-live team on track, Job fair organization, communication, and logistics, Help delegating key tasks to Xperience Live team members, RSSMF Community Block Party planning and partnerships, Soliciting additional high profile Job Fair partners/participants, Researching new festival management contract opportunities. Alannah’s creative energy and winning attitude are priceless.

Her ability to both evolve current programs and design new curriculums continue to contribute to the success of Xperience Live client projects and major events.

LISA M BAIYINA

VP OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND EVENT MANAGEMENT

As the Vice President of Social Media and Event Management at Xperience Live, Lisa oversees the strategic development, execution, and measurement of social media campaigns across all platforms. She also serves as the lead liaison for Event and Talent Hospitality. With over 20 years of experience in retail management, Lisa is passionate about helping people grow and evolve in all aspects of their lives. She has channeled her skills into entrepreneurship, operating two small businesses.

Lisa runs Evolution Estate Solutions, a full-service estate sales company specializing in individualized estate downsizing and moving sales to maximize profit and facilitate smooth transitions. Additionally, she is the founder of Tree of Lyfe Collection, a brand dedicated to spiritual enthusiasts, offering unique products and experiences that promote well-being and spiritual growth.

Lisa holds a degree in Antiquities and Collectibles and is furthering her education in Social Media and Digital Marketing. A creative at heart, she loves sharing her expertise with others. She also enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures. One of her favorite quotes is from the poet Rumi: “Only from the Heart Can You Touch The Sky,” which she interprets as a call to connect deeply with oneself and share one’s knowledge to achieve greatness.

JIMMIE HIGHSMITH, JR.

CEO – XPERIENCE LIVE MUSIC GROUP

James “Jimmie” E. Highsmith Jr. is a Grammy-nominated saxophonist and a native of Rochester, NY. With a career spanning over 25 years, he is renowned for his work in the smooth jazz genre and has shared the stage with notable artists such as Najee, Alicia Keys, and Wynton Marsalis. His discography includes 11 top-selling smooth jazz albums, including the Grammy-nominated “The Anthology of Sound.”

Jimmie’s diverse background also includes 41 years of martial arts training in Tae Kwondo and Aki Jujitsu, where he holds a Black Belt rank. Additionally, he served 10 years in the US Air Force from 1987 to 1997, working in Logistics/Intelligence and receiving an Honorable Discharge as a decorated NCO with the rank of Staff Sergeant.

As CEO/Managing Partner of Xperience Live Music Group LLC, Jimmie leverages his extensive experience in Business Management, Logistics, Professional Leadership, KPIs, ROI, and Customer Service to achieve outstanding results.

TRACIE ISAAC

VP CORPORATE ALLIANCES & PARTNERSHIPS

Tracie Isaac has developed a career spanning forty-plus years of experience in Marketing/Sales, Media Planning & Buying, Event Production and Strategic Corporate Alliances. Her client list ranges from the Apollo Theatre Foundation and Parkinson Disease Foundation to the South African Consulate and the Bermuda Department of Tourism; NBA, WNBA , NFL Super Bowl Events and NAACP, just to name a few. Clients benefit from Ms. Isaac’s diverse industry experiences which include: advertising, entertainment, fashion, beauty/grooming, health and wellness, financial, food/beverage, travel/tourism, sports, media production, consumer and corporate special events. As the Founder/CEO of TopNotch Strategies, a full-service production agency founded in 1995, the sentiment of the leadership is “We believe in exceeding our clients’ expectations by becoming experts in reaching the target audience. This allows us to have a vertical perspective to developing successful and result oriented initiatives,” stated Tracie Isaac, CEO.

Developing a new entertainment/fundraising initiative for the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation with New York’s Copa Cabana night club to reach millennials.
Event Manager & Sponsorship Sales for the largest East Coast, outdoor, interdenominational festival The New York Call, envisioned by multi-Grammy Awards, Stellar and DOVE Awards winner, gospel artist Donnie McClurkin. This faith-based event attracted up to 30,000 attendees annually.

Prior to TopNotch Strategies, Tracie managed accounts for a top ranked advertising agency, the UniWorld Group, Inc. (UWG) for prestigious clients such as Kraft, M&M Mars, AT&T, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury and GlaxoWellcome. Examples of her strategic partnerships and sponsorship efforts include:

Media buys, sponsorship for consumer & trade conventions, product placement for the Ford Motor Company. Responsible for product placement at the 1999 MTV Award’s for Ford’s Excursion SUV; Introduction of Ford’s Focus as the futuristic vehicle of choice with an award-winning advertising campaign recognized by the New York Times as the “Year’s Best Product Introduction Ad”
Positioning Lincoln-Mercury as the first automotive sponsor and official vehicle for the annual African American Film Festival in Miami and Los Angeles.
Managing activations nationally and internationally for AT&T and 1-800 Call AT&T during NBA, NCAA, NFL and many national festivals and large audience events.
Blending education and entertainment was a successful formula for the “first ever” 10-city “Living Proof Gospel Tour” sponsored by GlaxoWellcome. This A-market tour produced major impact for HIV/AIDS education, testing and national organizational initiatives to support the awareness and treatment options.

Tracie has always possessed a natural talent for marketing and special event production. She was the first to have a combined position of Model Editor and Fashion/Beauty Associate Editor of ESSENCE Magazine, where she contributed to the creative direction and editorial production of this leading women’s magazine for women of color.

ESSENCE Communications, Inc. developed new ventures and enlisted Tracie as an independent consultant and producer to participate in their licensed products for ESSENCE Eyewear & Sunwear (sunglasses) and ESSENCE Hosiery. She is the writer of the Standards and Operations Procedure Manual for special events and for the televised “ESSENCE Awards.” With the success of the award show, the realization that a one-day show was not enough to satisfy the cultural celebration of the African American culture. To expand on the awards show popularity and to celebrate the 25^th Anniversary of ESSENCE Communications ‘a party with a purpose’ birthed “The ESSENCE Music Festival.” The sentiment of the ESSENCE leadership was to bring in experts who understand the value of the African American culture combined with the legacy of ESSENCE Communications. Tracie was a long-standing member of the “ESSENCE Family” and was immediately identified to participate on the inaugural Feasibility and Production Team. This led to a 12-year Festival Execution and Lead Producer role for the ESSENCE Licensed Products distribution and activation.

Intrigued by business and banking, she ventured into International Banking with Citibank, N.A. as part of a unique technology development team and account processing department for International Banking Information Systems Management servicing the Caribbean, Central and South America (IBISM-CCSA). A position in the Development Division with Lincoln Center allowed Tracie to work under the direction of the American Soprano Beverly Sills, where she assisted in several productions and was part of the Fund-Raising team for the NYC Opera. She was requested to continue in Development to contribute to funding for all the theaters (Metropolitan Oper, New York City Oper and Avery Fisher Hall) when Ms. Sills became Managing Director of Lincoln Center.

The opera world and international exposure led Isaac to entertainment and production, where she embarked on a successful career as an International Talent Agent at Famous Artists Agency. Her daily responsibilities consisted of cultivating purchasing relationships with national and international promoters, negotiating performance contracts and production logistics of the agency’s roster featuring over 200 recording artists, comedians and celebrities. Major tours for artists such as Madonna, Patti LaBelle, Four Tops & Temptations, Kool & The Gang, Commodores, New Kids on the Block, and many R&B headliners, just to name a few.

Radio offered Tracie the opportunity to produce commercials and on-air shows at New York Times in-house classical station WQXR, one of the oldest and leading classical stations. Moving into the Morning Show category, Tracie Produced the “Less Brown Morning Show” at WBLS for one-year, moving forward to produce “live” events for Les Brown as a motivational speaker.

With the growth of the Hip Hop culture the new owners of the SOURCE Magazine (The North Star Group) envisioned providing a full circle view of the Hip Hop world from the early beginnings to current day economic, technology, merchandise and educational components. A visit to the ESSENCE Music Festival inspired The North Star Group to contract Tracie to Produce the annual SOURCE360 Festival consecutively for three-years. Tracie Isaac was a manager of one of Hip Hops “founding father groups” The Cold Crush Brothers out of Bronx NY. During her management she solidified the Cold Crush Brothers as one of the foundational performing groups in Hip Hop, along with securing movie soundtrack deals for feature films such as “FRESH” and co-producer and song writer deals with C&C Music Factory and albums produced by Chuck D and Terminator X.

Growing up in Rochester, NY, Tracie was exposed to the dance world by studying with Garth Fagan’s “Bottom of The Bucket…But Dance Troup later renamed as Garth Fagan Dance. During her high school years, she developed her gift in fashion design and after graduation attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC majoring in Fashion Merchandising and Advertising Communications. After FIT, her interests in film making lead to Long Island University’s Film Production series under a special scholarship directly from Spike Lee. Her experiences became compelling topic contributions that extended to invitations as a guest speaker at Columbia University.

Currently, she is a consultant to various entertainment companies such as Xperience LIVE Events, which produces the Rochester Summer Soul Music Festival. She is a frequent guest speaker on the topics of “women and business” and entrepreneurship. Tracie believes in mentoring and became a Life Member of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. (NANBPWC, Inc.) where she has held the office of President for six-years of the local Rochester Genesee Valley Club. She was appointed as the Special Consultant to the National President of the NANBPWC, Inc. on the 83^rd National NANBPWC Convention, charged with Producing the Virtual Conference, enlisting national elected officials as speakers and Directing the Virtual broadcast of the convention. Additionally, she holds two consecutive National Championship titles for the past four years for the development and sponsorship of the 1^st Place Classical Vocal Arts winners of the Leontyne Price National Vocal Arts Competition.