Looking Back

By: Amanda Norell

Well, after all of the planning, publicity, and preparation, the “big day” has come and gone. No, not my wedding day—get serious people! The fall installation of the LACD Speaker’s Series, the event that I project managed this semester, took place last Wednesday, Oct. 19, and passed just as quickly as it came.

This wasn’t exactly my first rodeo in the event planning arena, but this experience was much different from what I’m used to. Over the summer I interned for an event planning company where I worked in design preparation, venue setup, and day-of coordinating for weddings. So the work I did to prepare for the Speaker’s Series was a bit different from wedding prep. Instead of conditioning flowers and assembling boutonnières, I was making contact lists, editing flyer designs and press releases, and corresponding with a number of different people. While these two types of events seem like polar opposites, I did find that I was able to bring my coordinating and organizational skills from the summer to the field last week.

Erin Slater, Purdue alumna and CEO of College Mentors for Kids, was our guest for the evening, and I could not have asked for a more amazing speaker and genuine person to join us. Erin started Purdue’s chapter of CMFK in 1998, and spoke on the importance of community engagement and professional branding. Along with my fellow interns and a few other students, I was also able to speak one-on-one with Erin prior to her presentation. She knows so much about so many things—launching a new organization, building that organization, working in the community, building and maintaining relationships, running a business…the list goes on and on!—and was able to give me some great advice, both personally and through her presentation. We were so lucky to have her, and so thankful that she could join us. Thanks, Erin!

One thing I learned from this event is that some things will always be out of your control. Leading up to the event, we did a pretty good amount of publicizing. We posted flyers all over campus, sent out emails to various student organizations, Greek houses, and faculty, utilized social media, and sent out a press release. While we definitely could have done some things differently, I felt as though we publicized our event pretty well. That night, it poured. It had been raining all day, which I believe discouraged some students from attending. The weather affected our turnout that night, but the message delivered was no less meaningful.

Overall, I had a great experience project managing this event. I learned a lot of valuable information that I will be able to use in all aspects of my professional life, and had fun in the process!