group 7 post 1

One of the most important things I gained from my internship was the confidence to speak to someone else, i.e. a vendor, restaurant owner, sponsor, about my company and event.  I learned that I'm capable of successfully describing our goals and values as a company and team and I'm able to get others on board as well.  For my big event, "Check, Please! Arizona," I had to repeatedly call restaurant owners and pitch my event, remind them to send in their application, give me their menus and chef biographies and their protein requests.  This was difficult for me at first because I felt like I was nagging and annoying, but they're all so busy they genuinely needed to be reminded and were appreciative because they did want to participate.  Once I realized this, I relaxed a little more and realized I was becoming more confident in my capabilities.

I also learned how difficult the events business is.  And that I probably don't want a career in events.  And I don't see that as a negative thing.  I thoroughly enjoyed my internship and had amazing experiences.  I think in order to have a successful event planning business, personal time has to be sacrificed.  Because I want a family, I don't think this is the career for me.  I do, however think it's a good background to have.  It has taught me to control my anxiety in stressful situations and find ways to solve problems quickly.

I think I certainly achieved my goals. My first goal was to to better understand the process behind creating an event.  Because we created the first Check, Please! event, I got to see how they created an event from scratch.  Being able to sit in on meetings was really cool, too.  They would bring up things I never would have thought of to think about. My second goal was to create relationships with professionals in my field.  Because our office was so small, I was able to connect with each of the owners and other employees.  This is certainly true with Chelsea and Allison who were more around my age.  My third goal was to create, work on, and carry out an event.  I achieved this with Check, Please! and feel very proud of it.  It was even nominated for Phoenix New Times Best Of!