As a student worker at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, I was asked to support in planning a networking conference for graduate students. At the end of the event, my supervisor asked if I knew about event planning as a career, to which I responded, “How is that possible? That was really fun.” And as they say, the rest is history. I immediately immersed myself in learning everything I could about the industry and pursuing a career in event management.
March to May is one of the busiest times for our organization from an event perspective, and overnight everything changed due to the pandemic. Fortunately, our organization has a strong culture of “taking care of our people” and our jobs were never in jeopardy. Once all of our events were cancelled, I turned to my peers and management in search of what our team could do to support teams across the organization. The Events team stepped in and helped several different departments when they found themselves drowning, and we tried to support in any way we could. We also started learning all we could about virtual events and how to safely host in-person meetings again. Personally, I took the extra time I normally would not have had to focus on self-care and spending more time with my family.
Learning and understanding how to safely host an event has become my obsession. I believe wholeheartedly in this industry and the impact live events have on people and business success. Attendee safety will always be a top concern.
The biggest challenge for me every year is finding new and innovative ways to ensure our events are not just a repeat of the year before. We want to create new surprises and unique experiences so that our events continue to exceed expectations, even for our repeat attendees. Our largest event brings in our sales professionals every year and they are a fiercely competitive group. We want to find new ways to engage with them while still maintaining a high level of customer service—therefore, we challenge ourselves each year to surpass the year prior.
Most everyone I have come into contact with in the meeting industry has a servant’s heart—individuals who truly care and want to partner with you to see your event become a success.
I initially joined MPI for the educational and networking opportunities, as I was new to the area and wanted to build a strong professional network. The connections I have built through my chapter are individuals who I turn to for advice and best practice sharing. I have found that those strong supplier relationships have made doing business easier. There is a mutual respect and understanding that has made the process easier for everyone involved.
Earning my CMM is still on my bucket list!
I am a born and raised Texan who married a guy from Illinois! My husband Jason and I have two children, our son Caden (6) and daughter Addison (3). They keep us busy! When I’m not chasing kids, you’ll find this former coach’s kid watching college football (Gig ‘em Aggies) or traveling to the beach to relax.
Photo by Kali Rogers-Smith
