Watch Out for That Sword! MEET LYNNE, THE TOUGHEST OFFICE COORDINATOR IN TOWN
“[In 2017], I was looking at Groupon and saw an ad for three sword classes for $30,” she recalls. “So, I went to the beginner class in a basement in Harlem. It looked very sketchy from the outside, but it turned out to be a treasure trove of new friends! One was an opera singer, one was a corporate lawyer, and one was a pilot for the U.S. Air Force who disappears and can never tell us where or why. It was an interesting group of people, and I got to meet them all in one place.” Lynne was hooked. Drawing on her childhood fearlessness, she dove into the male-dominated world of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA)! Today, she helps run sword-fighting events across the country in her spare time and fights as a squire alongside her partner, Lu. “I’m the one who runs the events — the one with the big stick and the clipboard yelling at people in protective gear and making sure they go where they’re supposed to go and follow the rules,” she says. HEMA has taken Lynne as far afield as a castle in Switzerland — and it’s surprisingly similar to her day job as team coordinator for the office of the CEO at Eventique. Instead of corralling knights in full armor, she onboards new vendors, keeps the office organized and running on time, schedules pickups and deliveries, handles invoices, and works directly with founder and CEO Liron David.
Lynne Khouri was born an underdog.
“From an early age growing up in Lebanon, I had to figure out creative
ways to get over the obstacles that are usually present when you’re a girl in a culture that glorifies boys and underestimates
women,” she says. “I grew up hearing a lot of, ‘You can’t because you’re a girl,’ or ‘Your brother is allowed to do that because he’s a boy — it’s different!’” But Lynne didn’t let that stop her. She quickly learned the art of persuasion, first using it to convince her father to let her on the basketball court (and create a new set of rules to put her on equal footing with her brothers), then gaining admission to college in Lebanon. Lynne climbed the educational ladder to a master’s degree. Against all odds, she became a licensed psychotherapist! Then, in 2008, she moved to New York City. “I wanted to see the world and leave Lebanon because it was becoming very oppressive,” Lynne said. She landed a job at a friend’s restaurant, kicking off a roller coaster career path that eventually led her to Eventique’s door. “Before Eventique, I had a very fun and diverse work background,” Lynne says. “I worked in broadcast set design designing sets for newsrooms and talk shows, spent time with an architecture firm, and even worked as an office manager at a high school in Harlem.” Lynne continued to pull off the near-impossible along the way — like figuring out how to transport a curling stone from the U.S. to Sochi, Russia, for a newsroom set during the 2014 winter Olympics. She honed her organizational skills, coordination expertise, and powers of persuasion. And she also picked up a new hobby: She became the girl with the sword.
“My favorite part of working at Eventique is that it’s never boring, not even for a split second,” Lynne says.
“There’s always something fascinating and intriguing going on. I’m learning so much here about what
goes into creating large-scale events.”
Given her background, it’s no surprise Lynne is always ready to pull strings and tackle challenges. With her sword and her cat, Batman, at her side, she isn’t the underdog anymore.
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