Member Spotlight

Vanessa Huff is originally from Lexington and moved back 5 years ago to work for AMR Management Services as a Conferences and Events Manager. AMR Management Services is an Association Management Company located in Lexington, KY with 22 clients ranging from Healthcare, Government and Professional Associations. Vanessa plans meetings and conferences for her clients for up to 700 people in cities all over the Unites States and Canada.

Vanessa first started attending conferences in college at Eastern Kentucky University when she was the Kentucky State President for Phi Beta Lambda (Future Business Leaders of America). She would attend state and national meetings on behalf of her chapter and took part in the planning, implementation and leading of the annual state meeting held in Louisville, KY and also served as a workshop presenter at the national level for FBLA.

After college, Vanessa moved to Cincinnati and became a Membership Extension Specialist for the Great River Girl Scouts Council where she worked in community outreach and helped recruit girl and adult members to the organization. Vanessa was also on the planning committee for several of the larger annual events that the council held as well as helped plan their regional conference held in Cincinnati.

Vanessa has always had a love for travel and at that time spent all her free time doing just that. In 2005, she packed her bags and started working for Norwegian Cruise Lines in Hawaii as a Maitre D’ and for the next three years she helped manage 250 restaurant department crew members, 9 restaurants and the Off Broadway musical Tony and Tina’s wedding. She worked to help improve customer service and crew morale, coordinated group dinners, managed special VIP parties, and helped plan the annual passenger New Year’s Eve party on the ship.

After the cruise ship experience, Vanessa felt like she needed to soul search to find her next career path, decide what she really wanted to do with her life and what she was passionate about. Given her experience, her love for travel and her ability to plan social events, she decided she wanted to be a Wedding Planner or Meeting Planner. Vanessa was determined to get experience and decided to work for the Hyatt Regency Downtown Lexington as a Banquet Captain for a year before moving to Louisville to work for the Galt House Hotel and Suites as a Convention Coordinator and then a Convention Services Manager. To move to the next level in her career Vanessa thought that she needed to get her CMP. Vanessa obtained a Certificate in Global Meetings and Business Events II through MPI at San Diego State University and then in January 2011 received her CMP designation.

Vanessa has been a member of MPI since June 2010 and feels a sense of community in the organization. Kentucky is a small place for the Meetings Industry when you consider that most all of the members have worked for multiple companies in the industry and everyone knows one another. I love getting to know and become friends with my fellow meeting planners and suppliers. I commend the MPI Leadership for all of the wonderful networking and educational opportunities that they give to all members. For two years in a row, Vanessa has served on the Bluegrass Chapter MPI Board of Directors as the Director of Auctions and will serve as the Director of Member Care in the 2018-2019 term. Vanessa absolutely loves being a Conferences and Events Planner and she can now see that everything in her life has brought her to the position where she is today and a place in the Meeting Industry is where she is meant to be. The chaos of executing a conference on-site brings her back to the days when she worked on the cruise ship when everyday was a “Big Event”. Vanessa worked many weddings while at the Hyatt but will plan her first one this year which will be her own.