Assignment 3A - Your Entrepreneurship Story

My Entrepreneurship Story

To be honest, I can't say I've really been close to being an Entrepreneur. I find that I can be creative, but I have to be given a set of parameters and then create something from those. Luckily, this is exactly what is needed in my line of work as an Event Planner. Often times, my boss gives me her big picture idea of what she imagines for a particular event. I tend to refer to her as the "brains" since she's the initial idea-maker and refer to myself as the "brawn" since I make it happen.

This was different in my last job, though. I formerly worked in a five-star hotel called the Boca Raton Resort & Club and worked my way through the ranks from the systematic Front Desk Agent, got my first dose of management as a Front Office Supervisor, and then quickly jumped ship into the Sales Department where I was thrown into a unique experience. I accepted a position referred to as the "Site Coordinator" and it was one that was essentially a blank slate. The Resort noted a particular need for assistance in partnering with the Sales Managers as they sold the hotel for conventions and large programs and looked for someone to streamline their progress into the New Age of the "Site Experience" rather than a standard Site Inspection. Previously, Meeting Planners and Event Coordinators would source the hotel for their program in search of meeting space and overnight accommodations, and they would simply come for a quick tour and maybe a meal in one of the restaurants with one of the Sales Managers. This new era of the "Site Experience" took a three hour minimal encounter to a 24-48 hour Wine-and-Dine event where we would have our Executive Chef creating an interactive dinner for the Sales Manager and clients joined by our General Manager and other Executive Committee members. 

These changes required assistance on the back-end of things. Sales Managers could no longer rely on the Administrative Assistants who were also working on Contracts and client correspondence to drop their daily routine to plan these extravaganzas and go walk the floors to ensure everything was in perfect showing order. Thus, the need for a Site Coordinator was proven and I was brought in to execute. 

I was initially under the impression that I would be given guidelines at the very least, however this proved false in my first few weeks in the role. My only guideline was: Make it happen. 

So I did. I made it happen. I wrote out Standard Operating Procedures for future Site Coordinators of the Boca Resort, I developed new and successful procedures (mostly through trial and error) and assisted in establishing a set outline of expectations from department to department. Eventually, we began converting more and more Prospective programs to Definite ones, and we increased our conversion ratio from 30% when I started to 66% at my time of departure from the Resort two years later. 

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I enrolled in this class given my history in various roles throughout the Hospitality Industry and now Meeting & Events History. I decided that exploring my creative side may be worthwhile and based on what I had heard about the class, I thought this was the best way to do so. In my Advising session upon entrance into the UF Online program, Brandi Tennant mentioned that this was a class that got you physically in front of people and given my current position as an Events Coordinator, I thought I could use this opportunity to network with the member base that's connected with my Association.