Rebecca (Events Manager)

Rebecca’s son goes to the school where my mum works and so she gets to talk to a lot of people and finds out what they do etc. She told me that I should speak to a woman called Rebecca as she is an Events Manager. My mum talked to her about me thinking about wanting to become an Events Manager after I have finished my degree and my mum asked if I could have her email for me to be able to ask her a few questions about the events manager role.

31/01/2013

I sent her this email:

Hello Rebecca,

My mum, Sarah works at school and she has given me your email address.

I am due to graduate this year having completed a degree in Theatre, Performance and Event Design. One of my final projects for my degree is to research potential future employers and find out more about the industry that I am hoping to work in. At the moment I am thinking of two different careers, one as an Events Manager and one as a set/production designer or art director. I would be very grateful if you could answer these questions:1. Please could you tell me briefly about your background and how you progressed to your current role?
2. Would you be able to forward any contact details to me of production designers who I could contact?
3. When applying for a job as an Events Manager, what personal qualities does one need?

4. Is there any possibility of having any work experience with you at some point?

Thank you ever so much for your time. If there is any other advice you can offer me, that would be great!

Jess Woodcock

06/02/2013

Hi Jessica,

 

Thank you for your email. I will admit to falling in to my roles over the years and via more luck than judgement J

 

My Post Graduate Degree was in Marketing ! Event planning happened via the companies that I worked with. I lived in Singapore for three years and worked with a Financial Consulting company, I offered to run their staff and client events when the opportunity came up. When I lived in San Francisco I applied for many, many positions and it took 6 months to find a job that actually didn’t sound appealing initially, but knew I needed to start from the beginning as I didn’t have any US experience at all. MCJ Consulting are based in the Bay Area and ran medical education meetings and events. Michele Johnson is the Managing Director and owner of the business and would be more than happy to give you some advice for expertise that she would be looking for, especially in a graduate. The online registration system and associate membership projects were really useful experiences that I did not gain qualifications for. However, Marketing will play a big part in any Event role as you need people to attend the event, buy in to the event, register etc. I think it all depends which area of Event production/management you would prefer.

 

I will discuss work experience opportunities with the business owners here and let you know. We are running several festivals this year, but we are a security and training company and the events are on top of what we provide. Many events require security now which is why we moved in to the business.

 

If you would like to talk to someone at the hotel I can get you names, but I am very far removed from their events team now and do very little hours for them. You will need to write to their HR team first and then the Banquets and Sales team as well. I will see what information I can get. The Guest Relations Manager, Maxine McDonnell is also a huge help, if you mention that I put you on to her she can then forward your email or letter to the relevant team.

 

Ben at ‘Producktions’ is a graduate from Tech, he runs his own production company now and will help. I will send him a note on your behalf.

 

I will send more details to you as soon as possible. Many thanks, Rebecca

 

 

Kind Regards

 

 

Rebecca