When Tiara Phillips first started Bitchin’ Events in 2025, she had around 200 followers on Instagram who viewed her post advertising her first event, a singles mixer at The Green House in Iowa City.
A year and over 2,000 Instagram followers later, Phillips is back at The Green House celebrating her business’s first anniversary with a singles mixer.
Over the past year, Phillips hosted over 40 different events, ranging from watch parties, book clubs, craft nights, and mixers aimed at connecting people of all ages with fellow community members in Iowa City.
“My goal right now is to just bring people together,” Phillips said. “To just build community, try to get people out of their comfort zone, and get people back into third spaces.”
From the business’s inception, Phillips said her main priority has been combatting the sense of isolation that many feel as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, where many switched from working and school in-person to online classrooms and Zoom breakout rooms.
The inspiration behind Bitchin’ Events came from Phillips’ concern over how a friend who was going to school and work online would be able to make friends.
“I just really don’t know how someone would make friends,” Phillips said. “We make a lot of our friends after college through work, so if your colleges are across the country, you’re not going to meet up together.”
The turnout of Bitchin Event’s first event, a single’s mixer, shocked Phillips, but since then, the business has only continued to attract more people who are interested in meeting people through her events.
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“It’s crazy to me that anybody cares, and that’s what the last year has been: finding out that so many people care and so many people want to be a part of this community, and just building community,” Phillips said.
Phillips has also been able to take on her first intern, Grace Hecox, a fourth-year University of Iowa student majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication with a certificate in event management. Hecox reached out to Phillips after learning about Bitchin’ Events and asked Phillips if she could intern.
“I really like how Tiara puts forth different ideas about having a third space and community,” Hecox said. “You have to put work into making a community, especially right now. It’s really important to come together and be with people, so that’s why I was interested in Bitchin’ Events instead of something more corporate.”
Alongside working at her full-time job as a purchasing agent with the UI and owning her own crochet business, Phillips dedicates her time to Bitchin’ Events. While it is been a lot of work, Phillips believes it’s more important than ever to be in community with others.
“Not knowing your neighbors is how we get to be so angry at each other and allow political spaces to feed our anger,” Phillips said. “If we just knew each other and knew our neighbors, we would all feel a lot better about each other, and we wouldn’t have so much hate in our hearts.”
Phillips emphasized the importance of getting to know everyone in the community, and hosting events that people of all ages can attend. While many assume Bitchin’ Events is aimed at people between 20 and 30 years old, she said everyone is invited, accepted, and can learn from one another.
“If you’re 50 and you show up, nobody’s going to look at you like you’re crazy,” Phillips said. “They’re just going to welcome you with open arms. Every person who is attending my events, every single person, knows that you’re there to meet people and meet people of any background, any age, it does not matter. You need to be ready to accept those people.”
Marc Korver, who attended Phillips’s singles mixer at The Green House on Feb. 15, said he went to try something new. He, along with about nine other people, mingled inside The Green House and participated in icebreakers Phillips provided to help people converse with one another.
“If you’re unsure about anything, be it a dating event like this or a mixer, go,” Korver said. “You never know what will come of it.”