Women in Business No. 2: Chloe Bott Built Coalescence Around Taking Care of People
Chloe Bott, owner of Coalescence Event Services. Photo/source: Coalescence Event Services.
THE STINGER NEWS | WOMEN IN BUSINESS No. 2
By Liam Anderson | Stinger in Chief (SiG)
There is a particular kind of business that looks effortless precisely because somebody behind the scenes is working relentlessly to make it feel that way. For Chloe Bott, that is essentially the business model.
Bott is the owner and heart behind Coalescence Event Services, an event and hospitality company built around planning, coordination, catering, bartending and elevated guest experiences. The company works across weddings, destination celebrations, private dinners, corporate gatherings and milestone events, with a central promise: the host should be able to remain present while the team handles the moving pieces.
Capitol City Barn, an Olympia-area venue appearing among Coalescence’s preferred-vendor network. Photo/source: Capitol City Barn gallery.
HOSPITALITY BEFORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Bott’s relationship with hospitality started long before Coalescence had a name. On her company’s website, she traces that instinct to childhood, when she served coffee to clients at her mother’s salon and saw how small gestures could make people feel seen and cared for.
That instinct became a career spanning more than 20 years in hospitality and more than a decade in leadership and management. Her experience has crossed restaurants, bakeries, catering kitchens, craft bartending, fine dining, fast-paced bars, weddings and large-scale events.
In 2018, Bott made a deliberate investment in the other side of her experience: formal education. She returned to school for culinary and hospitality training, building a stronger bridge between front-of-house service, back-of-house operations and management. During and after culinary school, she spent six years as catering manager for a small woman-run business in Portland, where her responsibilities included event production, logistics, client relationships, menu execution and team leadership.
Pacific Northwest wedding setting. Photo/source: Moments & Mountains, Olympia wedding portfolio.
BUILDING COALESCENCE
Eventually, those disciplines came together in a company of her own. The name Coalescence is intentional: a merging of elements into a unified whole. Bott describes the business as the culmination of her culinary experience, bartending, management, leadership and people-focused hospitality.
The company’s current service model reflects that range. Coalescence offers event planning and coordination, vendor and timeline management, culinary and staffing services, bar service, grazing displays, private dinners, setup and breakdown, and customized event support. Its public client reviews repeatedly emphasize Bott’s ability to anticipate needs, remain calm under pressure and keep hosts from having to manage their own celebrations.
Wedding at Capitol City Barn. Photo/source: Zola, Capitol City Barn venue gallery.
The most valuable thing an event professional can create may not be the tablescape, menu or timeline. It is the ability for everyone else in the room to stop thinking about those things.
WHY SHE IS WOMEN IN BUSINESS No. 2
The Stinger’s Women in Business series is about the people behind the enterprise: women who have turned experience, skill and an understanding of their industries into something they own and lead. Bott’s trajectory fits that mission. She did not arrive at entrepreneurship by skipping the operational work. She spent years inside it, learned both sides of hospitality, led teams, went back to school and eventually assembled those experiences into Coalescence.
Event-design context. Photo/source: WeddingDay Magazine, 2025 Look Book feature.
This profile is being published as the opening edition of our conversation with Bott. The Stinger has invited her to expand on the moment she decided to build her own company, the challenges of leading as a woman in business, the philosophy behind her approach to hospitality, the milestones that have made the risk worthwhile and where she wants Coalescence to go next. Her answers will be incorporated into this article as an interview update.
THE INTERVIEW: FIVE QUESTIONS FOR CHLOE BOTT
1. You’ve spent more than 20 years in hospitality. What was the moment when you realized you were ready to stop building someone else’s operation and build Coalescence for yourself?
2. As a woman building and leading your own company, what has been the hardest obstacle you’ve faced that clients looking at the finished event would probably never see?
3. Your story keeps coming back to taking care of people, all the way back to serving coffee to clients in your mother’s salon. How do you turn something that personal into a business without losing the human side of it?
4. What is one moment since launching Coalescence when you looked around and thought, “I built this”?
5. What do you want Coalescence to become over the next five years, and what would you tell another woman who has the experience and talent to start her own business but is still waiting for permission to do it?
The Stinger News | Women in Business
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