November 2025 - Jan Levie

Jan Levi  Handy Entertainment, CEO Joined MPI Georgia: July 2024

MPI Georgia welcomes member Jan Levie, CEO of Handy Entertainment, to the chapter.

Based in Atlanta and established in 2009, Handy Entertainment creates unique activations for trade shows, corporate and promotional events that connect people to each other, to you, your event, product, company, or business.

Jan earned her B.A. from Indiana University in Theater and Journalism. She has worked professionally in stage, film, television, voiceover, industrials, as a print journalist, and translator. Jan’s extensive experience in corporate, legal, educational institutions, and government entities both in the U.S. and internationally plays a major role in her work. The coolest thing Jan is working on right now is designing accessibility elements to add to activations so that all attendees can participate fully without worrying about being stigmatized for needing/using accommodations.

An educator at heart, Jan has taught French, German, English, Hebrew, Literacy, and Theater to students of all ages and nationalities. Realizing that a majority of the event professionals she most admired were all actively involved in MPI, Jan decided to join and get involved. She serves as a Mentor in the MPI Georgia Mentorship Program and is a nominee for the 2025 Greater Women’s Business Council’s Trailblazer of the Year award. Her personal mission: find, train, and hire people with disabilities and pay them well.

Jan's very first job in the meetings industry was organizing an executive conference for the educational leadership of a government agency where she worked. Despite the fact that she knew nothing about planning events, the event was a resounding success. As for some of her best practices, always say please and thank you, take responsibility for your actions--all of them, and prioritize honesty and integrity. “The only thing you have in this world is your reputation.” As for advice she will never forget, Jan had an agent when she lived in New York. He was pretty old and pretty wise. She had been offered an amazing job in a different city. It meant leaving everything she had been doing. “He said to me, ‘Sometimes the longest path is the shortest.’ He was so right.”

Jan describes one of her most life changing events: “I was walking home one day when I was young and found a large bill in a baseball field. I turned it in to the front desk. No one claimed it and they later gave it to me. I bought tickets to a show for my parents. My Dad couldn't go so my mom and I went. I had never seen a play before. The world changed. Completely.”

Jan is inspired by Sir Richard Branson, a dyslexic, who was told by a Headmaster that he would either end up in prison or be a millionaire. “He never ceases to inspire me. He lifts people up, does amazing things for many communities that he does not even publicize, and has always pursued the impossible with humor, grace, and a large dose of humanity.”

When it comes to family, once upon a time, Jan believed being the parent of a child with invisible disabilities was tough. Then she heard how hard it is to be the sibling of a child with disabilities. What she has come to know is that the hardest thing of all is to live with invisible disabilities. “I have witnessed and unknowingly contributed to the struggle between understanding and accepting that there is a difference between wanting to do something, trying to do something, and being able to do it. When you hear over and over that you are lazy, that if you only tried hard enough, all the little punches and jabs, insinuations and insults add up. There is a long process of learning how to stand up for yourself, to find your way, learn who you are, and how you have the power to change the world for the better. I am always learning and grateful for what I have been privileged to see through the eyes of my child.”