Please introduce yourself 

My name is Peggy and I’ve travelled a lot. I used to live in China and I went to school in Bejiing. After that I went back to France and I managed a small/medium size company during two years. I used to love partying because my parents were doing it a lot with family and/or friends. This is why I now feel close to the event world. I also travelled a lot with my parents.

When I was living in Beijing, I used to party a lot. During the 2000’s the after work started to become a trend! When I arrived in Toronto there were nothing such as after work to break up the routine and do something to meet people ‘after work’ and especially for the french community. So I’ve started to think to organise them but I was not sure of myself. French people are always scared of failure! 

But in October 2011, Apéro Chic was launched. Honestly Facebook helped a lot at the beginning! The idea was to create an event with a french touch in Toronto. I was looking for someone to follow me in this adventure and I met Estelle. Things were very natural and easy with her and she became my partner. 

How do you juggle with work and family life ?

I manage to deal with both because my husband is a real support in my projects and I know that I can rely on him anytime. Especially now that we are parents of twins.

What is Apéro Chic’s main secret ?

I invested myself a lot and I organised parties in which I can picture myself going. We always tried to organise casual and fancy parties always with a little french touch. As we like to say here ‘less is more’. This is really the Apéro Chic spirit : create relationships in an chic and relaxed environment. those are parties organised during the week with a special theme and a lot of fun. The opportunity to share a nice time with friends or simply meet other people.

What is a day in your life ?

I prepare my children to go to school in the morning and then I walk and enjoy the nature. It allows me to think of new ideas. If I had a big team I would organise my meetings in the forest (laugh). After that I open my computer to look at my emails. It is funny because everything is happening behind the computer.  And from here my day is really starting.

What was your biggest achievement ?

To go from 100 to 10,000 members, we received a lot of thank you and when we have fun during the event. 

Question 7 : What was your biggest challenge ?

It was to start my own project, I realised that the most important is to not being afraid of failure ‘which is very French’, whereas in Toronto, failure is only an experience. An advice that my dad gave me “never listen to people “

If you had an advice to give to our readers 

Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there and don’t listen to negative opinions. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years ?

I am convinced that Apéro Chic is going to take place in several cities and the team is going to grow a lot more.

Prestila and Peggy.