Please discuss your career path which has led you to achieve this great degree of success.
As a senior at Trinity, I thought about special events because of the different activities I had done here. It was something I enjoyed and wanted a job in. I was an Art History major so I wanted to do something in the arts. I interned at the National Gallery in the special events department, which was eventually going to work be a full-time job in the fall.  I then realized that most of my friends were going to be in New York and also that the National Gallery had not been as good of an experience as I would have liked. I decided to begin interviewing for positions in New York and I just fell into the position at the Lotus Club as an assistant.  Just a year and a half, I moved into the manager level and I have been there ever since.

What do you feel are some of the key attributes of a successful event manager?
You definitely have to be organized and need to be able to juggle many different things at once. You have to be a people person, you have to like people a lot and a lot of people at once and keep that all-straight. I was prepared for this because of all the different things I did on campus with classes and a campus job, that helped to know that I could do this kind of work.

What type of events were you involved with at Trinity?
I did SGA for my first year. I then decided to do class committee things because I ‘d rather see my hard work pay off in an event instead of working on a project all year. My sophomore year I ran for class president and organized events all year. I was also on TCAC all four years so I assisted in organizing Spring Weekends and other big events.  As a junior I studied abroad, got back that spring and was involved again. I was Senior Class President and that carried right into my fifth year reunion, so I was doing things right away. When moving to a place like New York, I joined the Trinity Club of New York. I helped with all those events and it was a fun way to keep in touch with everyone and to do something for the college. All of that helped with getting more rounded in my job.

How important do you feel networking is?
Because I work in a private club, I am always in contact with a great network of people.  If you were working at a hotel, networking would be very important you’d have to go out there and try to get people to do events at your location. I am very lucky that I do not have to do that, but there is still some networking involved. I often find myself talking to alums about what I do and then they end up calling me when they need a place to hold their party or weddings.  There are also different sections of special events such as whether you are a hotel or a big corporation which need to hire the hotel to have their events or someone to organize them. There are different sides of it and some sides have much more networking. I am not planning the events from the client side sending out invitations and such. I am more the day of the catering side that plans the whole event.

 Did you find that networking was really important in your own career search?
Trinity is even better now about networking than when I was here a few years ago. My first job at the National Gallery was, and I didn’t realize it when I sent out the resumes, was just a basic letter saying 'I hope you have some kind of position' to this woman. The woman who called me back was someone who graduated just a year before me and I had not realized that. I am sure our connection to Trinity helped me to get that position. It really is amazing how the small world of Trinity really helps. You should use as many connections as you can all of the time. You meet people through different situations and it helps.

 Can you describe an average day for an entry-level employee within event management?
Where I work we do 500 events a year, so it is a significant amount of juggling. For example, we do meetings for four, business cocktail parties for 150, and weddings which can all be happening in one week. If 15 events are going on in one week, there are many many little details to keep track of.  It is finding out that the count is now 42 not 43 and making sure that all the departments know about all the little changes. It is getting people towards the facility, selling the space, and informing the rest of the club about all the different things that are going on. It can be a lot of different things at once. It is pretty busy constantly.  Some people think that they want to plan special events, then get in and realize they would be better at planning one big event that lasts a whole year instead of the bombarding of all the different things at once. Some people are organized, but not in that way. For other people one project is boring because there just isn't enough happening. If you are interested in going into this special events, you need to weigh your skills.

What is something that you like most about what you do? What are some of the aspects that you really enjoy?
I enjoy meeting all of the different people, which is really fun. I work with a great group of people and it is small. All of the big banks have a special events department and they plan all of the events like important dinners and conferences. I like not being on that end of it where it is the same thing everyday. I think it is more fun to work on lots of different types of events and meeting people from all over—right in Manhattan and then a family from Fort Worth planning a party in New York because their son is getting married in New York. It will come up that I went to Trinity and the father of the brides best friend son went to Trinity and was in my class. Some of these really crazy connections make it much more fun. It makes a big city like New York feel very small and that’s nice.

What are some of the things that you like least about what you do?
I have really been very happy where I am. I don’t know if I would be as happy if I were just planning conferences, working in a field that I just wasn’t that interested in. For me, this kind of job is great for living in New York City.  My hours are good and I happen to be in a place where I don’t have to work at all the parties. At a hotel for example, you would be there all day, the one selling the space and then you’d have to work at the function. There is a lot of burnout there. I can go to work, be happy all day and then go do all my volunteer work at night. I have the time to have an actual life. I have friends that have jobs where they make a lot of money, but they work crazy hours and are not happy.

What would you say is a good way for a student to break into the field of event management?
It definitely helped that I had a lot of experience before graduation. There was probably as much space on my resume with activities as it was for jobs. In fact, I had a meeting with the development office today and Eugenie Devine said to make sure I tell you that I worked at the development office and that is how I started in the field. It was really probably many of those things, such as TCAC, the class committee planning big events, and a summer in the public relations department of the alumni office. All these experiences provided me with great organizational skills. When I thought I liked special events I went to work for Marriott as part of the student manager/caterers. It taught me that I want to do this, but not on the end of setting tables. I wanted to be on the other side.

It makes a difference to have good experience. It is good to have fun summer jobs, but if you can get a summer job with experience that helps you develop skills that helps. It makes a difference that Trinity is in the city, otherwise it is totally up to your summers to get that experience. That definitely gives Trinity students an advantage, they’ve had jobs and volunteer work which employers notice. If you go to Boston, New York, Washington or Philadelphia people have heard of Trinity and know someone whose gone there and that definitely helps to break the ice.

What do you recommend students do during the summer to prepare for this field?
There are probably many summer jobs and internships in this field, especially if you are going to go in the catering side. They are plenty of catering companies where they might need summer people; now you may be doing the "waiting the tables", but all of that is good experience. You might have to put up with that for a few months over the summer, then get the full time jobs and stop doing that. It’s very important to make as many connections along the way as you can, it will benefit you in the long run.

What is a good way for Trinity students to really distinguish themselves from other candidates going into the interview process?
There are many opportunities in Hartford and that’s a big advantage, because they graduate with more and more on their resumes every year. For example, you see students devoting their Saturday mornings to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club right across the street. That not only looks great on your resume, but it also develops your people skills and other skills that you will use every day in the real world. Those opportunities will prepare you better, and the experience will make you more confident when pursuing any position.

If there were one thing you learned in your career that you wish you knew while you were at Trinity, what would it be?
It’s hard to say because I was pretty well prepared to go into the real world with the different types of jobs, volunteer work that I had done. I wasn’t too shocked by what a workday in the real world is. You have to make sure you are prepared to do the amount of work and deal with the long hours you will face.

How do you feel Trinity prepared you for your success?
It prepared me because I took advantages of everything here. I was involved in many activities and did a lot of the Trinity Alumni events. I volunteered at many places in the city and also made connections just by meeting and talking to people. I believe working at the Alumni office really helped me do this.

Do you have any words of wisdom you would like to share with Trinity students?
I have had a great experience after college and my involvement in the college life helped significantly.  Students should get involved as much as possible in the life of the college and the community. They should also try to meet a lot of different people, which will eventually help you. Even if you don’t use it now, years from now you can bump into those people again and you never know what might happen. It’s been fun for me to meet a lot of Trinity people.