Emily Grubman: Blog #3

The biggest thing that I will take away from this class is that no matter what I’ve chosen to study, I can end up anywhere in life. So many of our guest speakers didn’t plan on being in the hospitality industry. They didn’t study it or actively try to enter; they sort of just found their way there. For me, that is very cool because even though I’m studying event management, I may not end up going into events. In addition, I really liked that Cattleya went to culinary school after university to explore that passion, because I’ve talked with my family about going to culinary school after graduate school and seeing where that takes me. Through interactions with people that I meet in the future, I can end up doing something I never imagined, and that is a very motivating idea to me.

My second biggest learning was about the importance of site management when it comes to planning events. Our field trip to Social Tables was very enlightening about the necessity of space optimization and planning ahead. I’ve worked with a non-profit organization planning a formal dinner gala for a few years, and we’ve always done everything by hand after getting room specs from the venue. Site management and Social Tables showed how much easier it is using available resources, like the Social Tables software, to easily change set-ups, set seating assignments, and find out if what you want will actually fit. I think that knowledge will be very valuable if I end up in the events/meetings industry.

My third top learning was with regard to negotiations. Before this course, I had never really thought much about formal contract negotiations. As someone planning on going to law school in the next couple years, this was a good introduction. I thought the group exercise of actually negotiating a contract between a sales manager and a meeting planner was very effective. It showed how important flexibility is when it comes to your “nice to haves,” and when you really need to stand your ground for your “must haves.” The concept of negotiations will be relevant in life no matter what field I end up going into because people negotiate informally all the time.