Jo Packham, the creator/Editor-in-Chief of WHERE WOMEN CREATE, WHERE WOMEN COOK, AND where women create BUSINESS has been a leading innovator in the handmade publishing market for more than 30 years.
A successful entrepreneur with her own publishing company, WWC PRESS she is currently publishing with Quarry Books. She is also currently partnering with Stampington & Company to produce the best selling magazines: Where Women Create — Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women; Where Women Cook, The Heart & Soul of Cooking; and where women create BUSINESS, A Passion for Success. Jo has personally authored more than 40 titles, including her best selling titles: Where Women Create, Where Women Create: QUILTERS, Their Quilts, Their Studios, Their Stories; Where Women Cook CELEBRATE, and where women create BUSINESS: The Artisan Food Entrepreneur, Profiles in Passion and Success. Her publishing company, Chapelle Ltd., has packaged more than 1,000 titles for most major publishers in the industry including: Time Warner, Oxmoor House, Meredith Corp. (Better Homes & Gardens), Rodale Press, Random House, Chronicle, and others.
In 2013 Jo under the imprint of CREATE and COOK became a licensed designer for Sizzix.
In 2010, with Nancy Soriano, the editor-in-Chief of Country Living for 10 years, Jo co-founded THE CREATIVE CONNECTION – Women, Passion, Business. TCC was a national conference and market celebrating creative women and entrepreneurs. Bringing together the creative process of handmade goods and food with the marketing savvy of business and social media. TCC drew on the rich experience of industry experts, attendees, and best selling authors. Hands-on workshops were joined with social networking and business panels that focused on the practical details of setting up, running, and marketing a business, and leveraging its impact through blogging and other social media.
In its second year TCC joined forces with BlogHer as its official media partner. BlogHer, at the time the largest women’s social media network, received over 25 million unique views per month. “BlogHer recognized the handmade community THE CREATIVE CONNECTION brought together. We were honored to have the largest women’s social media community as our media partner,” said Jo Packham, creator of WHERE WOMEN CREATE and WHERE WOMEN COOK. Also partnering with TCC were its Presenting Sponsor, Sterling Publishing (Barnes & Noble, the number one how-to publisher in the world); Vogue Knitting; MaryJanesFarm; McDonald’s; and Starbucks.
Between 2000 and 2005, Jo and her daughter Sara embarked on a venture that helped spark the revitalization and renaissance of Historic 25th Street in her hometown, Ogden, Utah. Working together, they opened and co-owned three upscale boutiques, Ruby & Begonia, The White Fig, and Olive & Dahlia, in the heart of this old commercial district. Their vision and creative entrepreneurship was rewarded with two Gifts & Decorative Accessories Retailer awards, one for visual marketing in 2002 and another for community service in 2003. Jo was also Chair and supervised for 11 years the growth of Ogden’s Christmas Village to become the largest holiday celebration in the state of Utah.
Her life has been a journey that seems as if it were taken straight from the pages of a storybook. She looks forward to the promises of tomorrow and is proud to say that every single day she is blessed to be able to do what she loves, that she is surrounded by family and friends whom she adores and respects, and that she is trusted enough to represent those whose passion is to create with their hands … whether it be food, art, or business. She resides in Ogden Utah.