Changemakers Podcast: Jee Vahn Knight on BVO, Memphis, and Opening March 7
January 5, 2026
cityCURRENT
On CityCurrent’s Changemakers podcast, host Andrew Barteladotta talks with BVO CEO Jee Vahn Knight about her path from artifact conservation and hospitality to immersive entertainment - and why BVO’s mission matters for Memphis. They discuss the March 7 opening, the creative momentum behind the River of Time, and what it takes to bring a story-driven experience to life on Mud Island.
Below: Watch/listen to the episode, then scroll for the full transcript.
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Full Episode Transcript
Read the full conversation below…lightly edited for clarity and flow.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Welcome to the Changemakers podcast produced by CityCurrent and powered by Hagen Botham Insurance and Financial Services. I’m your host, Andrew Bartelada, and today we’re diving into the world of creativity, innovation, and bold vision with Jee Vahn Knight, the CEO guiding the next era of Memphis’s newest immersive experience, Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time.
Her journey from artifact conservation, to global entertainment brands, to Meow Wolf—and now here in Memphis—is nothing short of extraordinary. We can’t wait to learn what makes Jee tick, what she’s passionate about, and what we have in store for the March opening of Baron Von Opperbean.
Jee, thank you so much for coming on the Changemakers podcast.
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Thank you so much, Andrew. I don’t know what I’m going to do after that intro. I feel like you covered just about everything.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Oh no—now we just peel away the band-aid and go deeper and deeper. It’s gonna be fun.
Let’s start off with childhood. Talk to me a little bit about what Jee was like as a younger child—your experience, and when the curiosity of creativity began that connects to the work you do today.
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Oh, that’s deep. Okay—if we go all the way back to childhood, the thing you have to know about me is that I was adopted from Korea when I was eight months old. I grew up in a very all-American family in California—the agricultural part, not the surfing part.
People always need to understand that when they think culturally, kind of “Jee, where do you come from?” I grew up on casseroles and barbecue and grills and everything you kind of expect. It just doesn’t look like it from the outside in.
Creative-wise: my father gave me a Polaroid camera when I was four or five. We were a road trip family—throw it all in the car and wander around the country. I always had a notebook and colored pencils or pastels. Eventually, around six or seven, I got a 35mm camera with film. You could only take 27 photos on a roll, so you had to be selective.
When I reflect back, cameras have always been with me. Once I got a very adult job, one of my first purchases was the first Canon DSLR because I wanted the click-click. I didn’t want it to be mirrorless.
I’ve always been someone who goes in and out of both science and art. I was the nerd doing science competitions, but I was also in the dance program. That followed me through college and gave me balance.
I always find a home in creative industries because I’m right at that intersection: I understand business, I understand operations—and I understand how the beautiful genius person’s brain works. Let me translate it for people who don’t understand the way your brain works. That’s always been a sweet spot for me.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
It’s cool you mention being passionate about science and art—because in today’s technological world, it mirrors each other. But a decade or two back, it was still separate. For you to be passionate about both plays really well with the work you’ll do at BVO.
Career-wise: what was your first “real job” that you still take lessons from today?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Great question. Something you were saying made me think of a voice in my head—which is not my voice—“science is a career, art is a hobby,” which was drilled into me through the 80s.
I started working young. My grandma took care of my great-grandmother, and on weekends she wanted to go out. So I spent most weekends in my early teens taking care of my great grandma. I’d make her dinner, we’d watch television, talk, and I’d help her get into bed and wait until my grandma got home. That service-based connection was always there for me.
In college, I got a job working in UCLA’s version of hospitality. Dorms aren’t usually exciting, but UCLA has 36,000 people—it’s like a small town. The dorms were tiny hotels. I learned a lot about hospitality—service standards, and also numbers: how many people per floor, communication logistics. This was before email and texting were ubiquitous. I was literally stapling notices to students’ doors.
I parlayed that into working briefly in the Marriott world. That was my first real intersection of: when you have true hospitality and service standards, how are they defined, written, embodied—and how do you make it ritual instead of punitive?
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Working in hospitality and service and then into entertainment, museums/ artifact conservation—how does that mesh? And then marketing—how did that lead to what you do today?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
That’s complicated—let me try to be concise.
Counterpoint: after UCLA, I was burnt out, so I became a bartender—much to the chagrin of my family. I took my fancy pre-med degree and became a bartender at a Marriott property in Los Angeles.
That time was pivotal. I removed academic elitism. I was working alongside service professionals who were impeccable—some had done it 30–40 years. They cared about customers, worked extremely hard, and it humbled me in a way I absolutely needed.
Then I did what every random 20-year-old does: I moved across the country to Washington, DC, figuring you can be unemployed anywhere—which you can.
DC is a transient town. Entry-level jobs were being held by people with PhDs. I applied to admin assistant jobs and they’d say the last person had an MBA or PhD.
After about 300 applications, three interviews, two offers:
One was grants administration for the American Society of Clinical Oncology—spreadsheet-heavy, organizational. The other was a historic preservation company. They said, “You don’t have enough writing and marketing experience for marketing assistant—but we like you. If you want to come work with us, show up and we’ll figure it out.”
The logical job was oncology. The terrifying one was historic preservation—conserving sculptures and building facades, artisans working in stone and metal.
So I chose the terrifying one.
I believe if I identify I’m afraid of something, that’s my sign to run toward it. I don’t want fear to control me.
I joined, moved into project management. Historic preservation is an artisan version of construction—chemicals, job sites, scaffolding.
They got a contract restoring the Saturn V rocket at Johnson Space Center. That required constructing a 25,000-square-foot temporary building. Most historic preservation folks aren’t from construction, so they needed an assistant project manager who could help manage the construction.
I learned by breaking it down: what happens first, second, what does it cost?
From there, I went from construction project management to IT project management to website development project management on the business side. Website development is basically an arm of marketing.
Then I popped out here in Memphis and met the BVO team kind of by accident. BVO is part creative, part construction, part operations, customer service, security, janitorial—everything. It’s a hub-and-spoke of my whole career.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
It’s cool—this role feels made for you.
When you first heard of BVO: give your explanation of Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time, your understanding of it, and when you said, “I have to be part of this.”
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Immersive entertainment is a bit of a misnomer. As an industry, it’s only been around about 15 years. But humanity likes to be immersed—swept away. Sports are immersive: you’re locked in, highs and lows, you let go of predictable day-to-day reality.
The need for immersion isn’t new. Entertainment is figuring out what’s next because the human brain settles into predictability and that stops sparking joy—it becomes habit.
Adults need more help getting back into immersion than children do.
There’s no age expiration on playing. There’s a social contract that adults aren’t supposed to play—but why? There’s a chemical, intangible thing when people experience joy, wonder, discovery. It’s uncontainable—you must share it, and that creates connection and community. It may not show up neatly on a spreadsheet, but it’s real—and by proxy, profitable.
Now, my entry into BVO: I got to watch what Meow Wolf did for New Mexico. I worked with Creative Startups, the accelerator they went through. It helped them pivot from artisan model to business model. I later joined Meow Wolf for about 2.5 years.
Watching it change tourism was mind-blowing. New Mexico’s number one tourist destination for decades was Carlsbad Caverns, and the biggest one-off event was Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Then Santa Fe—75,000 people—put in a 21,000-square-foot attraction and rapidly eclipsed numbers across the whole state. The tourism board had to change marketing and strategy.
New Mexico was often ranked near the poorest states. A single creative business changed jobs and investment dynamics.
But I was a little burnt out with creatives when I moved to Memphis. I stepped away. Meow Wolf went through massive growing pains.
We chose Memphis before the job. Memphis was on our short list of cities.
I came here, started a new job, and five weeks later COVID shut down the world.
For five years, people kept telling me: “There’s a Meow Wolf in Memphis.” And I’d say, “No, there isn’t.” I was literally the only person in the city who used to work there.
Eventually I had space in my life, and someone said, “Are you working with BVO yet? You should be.” I was annoyed—and had time—so I said, “Okay, enough.”
I pulled them up on LinkedIn, found Reuben, and messaged him. My motivation was: meet them, learn, share anything helpful, then go on our merry way so when someone asks, I can say “They’re great.”
It didn’t end up that way. [laughter]
I came in expecting a conversation with Reuben. Reuben, Marvin, and Chris were there. Kat ran through with a TV because she was taking a pitch somewhere.
I realized: location is everything. Having an actual site puts you 25% down the road. Infrastructure assets matter. Standing on the riverboat bow, I said: “You may not realize this, but you’re halfway through the marathon already. You’re not starting with an empty warehouse or strip mall.”
Constraints can focus creativity.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Now that you’re part of the team and you’ve set an opening date—tell us: when are you opening, where are you currently, and how can the community rally behind BVO?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
March 7th—it’s a Saturday. It’ll be a big day and a big week.
Banana Ball is in town that weekend, so the Party Animals are coming—an entire party downtown. It’s the week before spring break, strategically. We want BVO to be the celebration it deserves to be for Mud Island, downtown, Memphis, and everyone coming through.
It also puts us about a month and a half out from Memphis in May, and in a position to be well-oiled by Fourth of July. Spring break and Fourth of July are huge windows.
I like to stack statistical odds in our favor: delivering an experience that meets Christopher’s expectations; giving the city a revenue and tourism story they can champion; giving downtown clear numbers on influx.
You don’t want to open in April when everyone’s back in school. People need space to sit in the joy.
Where are we 100 days out? We need a lot of caffeine. [laughter] But there’s clarity: not “if,” but “when.”
You don’t get to do everything perfectly. Perfection can be procrastination. I liken it to Star Wars: the first was brilliant because George Lucas knew exactly what he wanted and did it with constraints. When he had unlimited resources, the prequels weren’t quite as brilliant.
The best thing I can give creatives is: here’s the runway, here’s the time, here are the tradeoffs. Make decisions. Focus on what must be brilliant. We’re opening either way—because an open experience is leaps beyond a perfect experience that never sees the world.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Memphis has deep roots in culture, music, reinvention. You’re located on Mud Island, with this massive steamboat in the former museum space. How does BVO draw on Memphis’s identity and add to it?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
They’re entangled—not separate.
If Christopher and Marvin had secured the Coliseum as the first permanent location, the narrative would have been tied to the Coliseum. They didn’t bring that narrative over. They brought the universe to the river museum.
There’s a reason it’s Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time: we have two full-size replica ships, and the museum’s legacy is Mississippi River history. The river relates to Memphis and becomes shadows and echoes in the world.
Downtown gave an opportunity to dive further into which parts are future representations of alternate Memphis—with nods and inspiration from Memphis now, the future we want, and even Memphis’s namesake in ancient Egypt.
We’re building a world, not a single linear story. You explore it and decide what it means.
Memphis honors its past. But it was missing an attraction that honors the present and the future in this technologically advanced way.
Also: Memphis has a confidence problem—believing the national narrative about itself. People assume it’s only crime. I’ve lived in DC, Houston, LA, New Mexico—I don’t feel more afraid in Memphis than those places.
We chose Memphis before the job. People here still struggle to believe that.
Memphis doesn’t need an import to save it. My job is to be a fresh voice—stop carrying that baggage—and focus on execution. Numbers and executing change things.
In my first meeting I said: “I love the vision. When are you going to open?” That’s the game. Everything else falls into those containers. Now we’re here.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
How can the community get involved—hot items you need, ways people can help before March 7th and beyond?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Not to sound completely capitalistic, but we’ll have pre-sale tickets open to the public by the end of the month—days away.
That helps fund the business, and it helps investors understand demand. There’s no better way to show demand than what people choose to spend money on.
I’m grateful for the Memphis impact investors who’ve rallied around BVO. Some don’t know the industry model, but they want something amazing on Mud Island, downtown, Memphis.
We also want investors from the industry. Attractions like this exist in other cities; it’s not mysterious there. We’re bridging those groups.
Tickets also help municipal partners plan: vehicles, volume, people—so parks, city, businesses, hotels can prepare.
There’s been focus on donations/items, and we’ll likely be quieter now because the team is focused on the end goal. If something specific is needed, we’ll reach out.
And I ask people for patience and hope for another three months. Memphians have been asked to believe in hopeful ideas that didn’t come to fruition. I’m not asking for excessive hope—just hold on until spring break. If it isn’t what you hoped, you’re entitled to that opinion once you experience it. But be open to it being the thing you’re afraid it’s not going to be.
Rapid Fire
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
You’ve been in Memphis almost six years. Where’s your go-to spot for dining?
Jee Vahn Knight Knight (Guest)
It’s not Pho Binh anymore, but when I visited in 2018, my family went there. For years I told people the best lemongrass tofu in the entire country was at this restaurant in Memphis. My whole family is vegetarian—so we don’t go for barbecue, we go find delicious tofu. That place holds a dear spot in my heart.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Do you read? Favorite book in the past year—or favorite entertainment?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
I have three children—I don’t think I could make it through a paper book without falling asleep. Most of my audiobooks are business/industry.
There’s a brilliant Scottish man who wrote a book called “Unf Yourself”* (audio version is delightful—he narrates it with a Scottish accent). It’s about how your brain is always winning—even in cycles of self-sabotage—because it’s getting something from it. If you identify what it’s getting, you can rewrite the pattern. I’ve listened to it two or three times as a reset.
Entertainment-wise: my husband is a blues rock musician. Music is part of why we’re here—this is the cradle of American music. It’s almost spiritual.
We’re big concert people. My kids are full-fledged members of the KISS Army—they’ve seen KISS twice. We go to tribute bands too. We’ve seen Bohemian Queen, Def Leppard, ZZ Top, Eric Clapton. My son might’ve been the youngest person in the arena when we saw Clapton in St. Louis. We went to AC/DC in Nashville this year.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Where do your kids like to experience Memphis?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
We live in Germantown, but they love that I work downtown because we come down more. We lived downtown at first, right off Main Street. They went from rural New Mexico to downtown Memphis.
One day I said, “Let’s go to Starbucks,” and they were shocked we could walk there. That was new for them.
My son is more video game/building type—his birthday was at Bricks & Minifigs. My middle child is fashion and luxury and Hello Kitty—opulence—so I need to prepare for that budget. My older one wants to be a paleontologist—she’d live outside if I let her.
They love adventures. We went to Donnelly Farms near Jackson because we got a Facebook ad saying you could smash pumpkins with a sledgehammer. Picking pumpkins? Maybe. Smashing pumpkins? Get in the car—we’re going.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
What legacy do you hope to leave decades from now—for yourself, Memphis, and immersive entertainment?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
At its core: if the only thing I’m known for 50 years from now is that I’m Inara’s mother, Amela’s mother, Axel’s mother—and they’re great human beings—I’m 100% okay with that. Parenting is a crapshoot. You do your best for 20 years and hope for the best.
Beyond that: I want to create more in the world for them, teach them to be good stewards. You can choose what you do with your gifts.
My gifts are communication and building businesses/projects—execution. Having impact in a space like this that can also have economic impact on a city is fulfilling. I want that for my children and for all of Memphis’s children.
I’m joining the roller coaster Memphis is on—its trajectory. Memphis’s impact isn’t regional; it goes global.
As an outsider, if I can take a little weight off shoulders—fear, expectations—so people can see what they’re already achieving, that’s how I can help. And now we have an opening date, and that removes a big weight.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Thank you for sharing your passion and the heart behind Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time. Where can people learn more, purchase tickets, and support your efforts?
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Keep an eye on bvoexp.com, as well as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If we have big announcements, they go out instantaneously—so whichever social media is your flavor, you won’t miss it if you’re watching.
Andrew Bartelada (Host)
Well, Jee Vahn Knight—you are a changemaker. You’re powering the good in our community and globally already. Thank you for the work you’re doing, and I’m blessed to have this time with you.
Jee Vahn Knight (Guest)
Thank you so much, Andrew.