My Event Full Life: Susie Nguyen of 626 Night Market

My Event Full Life is your chance to take a peek inside the lives of the honourees of Eventbrite’s inaugural Brite25 list as they share the secrets behind their success. What lessons have these seasoned organisers learned along the way? What advice has been the most valuable? And what keeps them up at night? Get ready to be inspired.

As a young kid spending his summers in Taiwan, Jonny Hwang fell in love with the night markets. So he created his own back in the US.

The result? 626 Night Market, which since launching in 2012 has grown from a one-location event to become one of California’s most popular food festivals, welcoming thousands of guests over several weekends and locations in the US state each summer.

In addition to sampling a wide array of delicious dishes from cuisines including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Filipino, you can catch live performances or shop for gifts, art, and clothes, making the market a rich cultural experience. 

Susie Nguyen’s journey with 626 began as an attendee and volunteer before she became its event director. Here, Susie reflects on the impact the market has had on her and the community and explains why she believes there is no such thing as failure. 

I love meeting new people and experiencing new challenges every day. It’s what really sets our industry apart from an office job where every day is the same, day in and day out. I love being able to work on new challenges with my coworkers and also being in new cities facing these challenges with them. 

I first started coming to the 626 Night Market as a volunteer with my friends. I loved the environment so I came back as a volunteer every year for all of the new locations as well. Eventually, the staff started recognising me and asked if I’d like to join the team. Ever since I’ve been working with the 626 Night Market in a variety of positions and have learned so much over my time here. 

626’s first location holds a special place in my heart. My favourite event I’ve ever hosted has to be the 626 Night Market in Arcadia. When I first started as a volunteer, there was only the Arcadia location and I loved coming to the event. The team that put together the event is so friendly and kind, and whenever I came to Arcadia it felt like coming home. 

The biggest lesson I’ve learned along the way is… there are (almost!) no failures. Leading such big events, there are a multitude of ways we can struggle, but we can’t count them as failures as long as we try our best to get past our obstacles. This is what I tell everyone who joins the team as well; every event is a success to me no matter what. 

I always have random cravings when 626 isn’t on. What is so special about our event is that it’s mostly during the summer, so I get these cravings and long for the 626 Night Market to come back next year so I can eat the food again.

I love hearing feedback from customers. It shows they really like coming to our events and want to see us grow. One of the most memorable pieces of feedback is when a customer took the time to give us ideas on how to make the event more visually appealing.

Seeing how many people’s lives we’ve been a part of is my proudest achievement. When we look at our overall Eventbrite check-in numbers at the end of the year, I’m amazed at how many people have come to our events just within 12 months. It makes me so happy and proud that 626 Night Market has now become a memory in their lives just like it was in mine when I first started going as an attendee. 

It’s helped uplift the community. Being Asian American, we’ve helped people learn more about Asian culture and cuisine. In the next five years, I hope that 626 Night Market is thriving and still having amazing partnerships with amazing brands further instilling us in the AAPI community, and also helping people learn more about the community as well. And of course, I hope I’m right there helping!