Final Day

The last day of my internship was April 22 and it was really bittersweet! I walked in on my final day to find my desk decorated with streamers and little signs saying things like "We'll miss you!" and "Super-intern!", here is a picture I took.

I kept the streamers up while I worked that morning and just sat in the middle of my own little party! I was only working a half day so my boss and my co-workers took me out to lunch, where they presented me with a card and Target gift card!

I tried very had not to leave in the middle of anything, but somehow managed to leave in the midst of 3 projects anyways! It has been my goal to organize their messy storage room, but when my internship got cut a few months short, that idea went out the window. I blogged about the problem on the "Offering a Solution" discussion board and at the weekly meeting before my final day I passed off a sheet of paper with ideas on how they should organize their storage room as they'll probably have the time to tackle that project this summer. I had also been working on Sponsor Reconciliation Binders, but was never able to finish them as we didn't have time to gather all the estimates on the different values of our advertising campaigns, so Heidi the talent manager will be wrapping those up when the numbers come in. Finally, the day before I left there hadn't been much for me to do so I came up with my own project of entering the contact information from prospective vendors that had sent their information in during 2006-2008 (there were several binders on a shelf) but only got through 3 of the 5 binders, if only I'd thought of that project sooner!

Overall I loved my internship experience and it has been a little weird not making the trek out to Glendale anymore, but I've been keeping busy. I picked upmy graduation cap and gown today and have been picking up a lot of hours at the spa I work at (I celebrated my 2yr anniversary with Marriott this past Saturday, woo hoo!). It has been a pleasure sharing in your internship experiences with you, I wish everyone the best of luck in their future careers and hope to see you all at graduation!

Whirlwind

Whew! The past week and a half has been really hectic, both personally and professionally. The week of April 14-20 is always crazy for me because in that short period of time is my boyfriend's birthday, my birthday and our anniversary- throw is wrapping up an internship and career searching and one gets exhausted pretty quickly.
After posting my last blog on the 17th it seemed that I had spoken too soon, I logged onto the Marriott website and one of the administation positions that had disappeared had mysteriously reappeared! It was a part-time job with the timeshare property that adjoins my hotel property and I didn't waste any time discussing the opportunity with my manager who told me to go for it and ask the HR directoor about taking on a second job, as the application process within the hotel only refers to transferring. I held off applying for a day or two, waiting for an answer from the HR director and in the meantime discovered not one, but two full-time administration positions that had opened in the hotel in the event booking center- everything I had always wanted (one's ticket into the event planning department)! I was beside myself and called my manager to get her blessing to transfer and then applied. When the HR director returned my previous call I asked her about the admin positions I had applied for and found out they were literally for some event booking center that lists through our site and is located somewhere in Phoenix, not near my hotel at all. I was really frustrated, I think it is pretty ridiculous to list jobs as being on a certain hotel property and not even note somewhere that they are off site! As of now I haven't heard any response from this potential new job, I am not sure if it is something I want to do, so we shall see. While I had the HR director on the phone I asked her about the other part-time admin job, as it turns out, I can't have a part-time job with the spa and a part-time job with the timeshare company, I could only pick-up extra hours, but it is still somewhat of an option. To top it off, on Friday the Association of Bridal Consultants sent out a note about a possble part-time job, which I considered calling about but realized I don't have time to give at this point so let it go. It's crazy, there are either no jobs, or you're trying to juggle 10 choices at once, I would much prefer things to come one at a time, choices are good, but I guess I get overwhelmed.
My final posting will be about wrapping up my internship and my wonderful last day, but for now, it is time to work on my final report!

Action Plan, Getting Ready to Graduate

Yesterday my supervisor handed me a calendar for the month of April with all the days we had already passed crossed out and a marker for me to count down the rest until my internship ends next Wednesday. My co-workers and I didn't think it was the nicest gesture, counting down the days for me to leave, but he just insisted we were looking at the glass half empty and he was looking at it half full- after all we get to have a party on my last day! I'll have to take his word for it, after all he was happy to write me a recommendation.
The glass half full / half empty scenario really describes how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm a bit nervous to be graduating with the current job market and not knowing what is going to be happening in the next few months, while on the other hand I'm really excited! I've been waiting a long time to graduate, instead of doing full time school and work, I'll just have work, imagine the amount of time I'll have to do the things I've been unable to enjoy since I started college, like scrapbooking! I've been so busy the past few years that when I do start scrapbooking again, I will be starting with moving into my dorm my freshman year of college!
With only a few days left of my internship, I'm still in the middle of some projects- like sponsor reconciliation binders; and I have several loose ends to tie up, like reorganizing the files I saved on the computer so my co-workers can find them after I leave (unlike the last intern, they still have no idea where he hid his stuff!) We've wrapped up Jazz and Blues minus a few payments from several vendors, but this morning I officially filed away the folder with all the printed material we need to save.
Looking forward I'll be checking the job market on an almost daily basis, jobs seem to disappear as soon as they're posted. I've actually been kicking myself because Marriott posted two part-time HR positions that were ideal for me but I didn't apply because I wanted to talk to my spa manager about my hours at the spa first, next time I logged on the jobs were gone (within maybe a week or less)! I've expanded my search to other area hotels trying not to be too picky in the process, but the commute to Glendale has exhausted me- I don't want to work too far away!
During the month of May, while I sit at home job searching, I'll be completing several courses offered by the Association of Bridal Consultants and will apply to be a "Professionall Bridal Consultant", even though I've only ever worked at one wedding (the irony doesn't escape me). Hopefully, the economy will pick back up and I will be able to transfer to the catering department at my hotel where I can get hands on experience wedding planning until I feel comfortable enough to go out on my own- as I've planned on doing the past two years. If not, I'll just go with the flow and take any opportunity that arises.

Jazz and Blues

Wow! The event was the 4th and 5th and I am just getting around to writing about it- I spent last week recovering! Even though the event was only two days instead of three like Chocolate Affaire, it wiped me out the most. The event itself went really well, luckily the strong winds died down on Saturday and every vendor was able to set-up their tent. My responsibilities included covering all the tables with plastic cloths Saturday morning (as well as cleaning and replacing the dirty ones on Sunday) then wandering around the event answering questions, looking for problems and maintaining the snacks / beverages in the VIP areas. It was interesting to see how the Jazz and Blues festival differed from the Chocolate Affaire- it was much more laid back for one! There is a difference in the feeling of the crowd when people come to shop as opposed when they come with coolers and blankets to relax and watch performers all day. Here is a picture of me on Saturday 4/5 in my work outfit!

Not the most flattering picture, but I got my Jazz and Blues shirt, VIP pass, radio, and a Chocolate Affaire hat to protect my eyes, very official!

So, the event went well, but of course there were a few problems...

• I had ordered 100 white bath towels for the talent to use, the towel company had called and confirmed the delivery, etc. Well, Friday came and went, no towels. My co-worker, Heidi, who needed the towels (and had given me the company to call) was in contact with our point person and he told us the delivery time had changed and then said they were delivered- we never saw them! One of our sponsors ended up lending us the towels, whew!


• The VIP areas were often quite empty in the early hours of the show and having a lot of shade attracted event goers who wanted to sit in them, an old man cursed me out Sunday morning because I wouldn't let him up! We had security guards stationed at the VIP tents and my guard had happened to be about 20 feet away throwing something in a trash can, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! I did make the suggestion to my boss to start selling seats at the VIP tent areas in the future (instead of just reserving them for sponsors and talent)...


• Sunday I was making one of my final rounds at 5pm when I noticed the kids inflatables had been deflated and were being rolled up, even though the event wasn't ending until 6pm. I was considering if the company was supposed to be packing up early and I had forgotten when a confused event attendee who had purchased tickets for his children approached me. I called my co-worker Dory who headed over to the area as the inflatable company definitely wasn't supposed to be packed up. We called the owner of the company, who was incredibly upset that his team had packed up (they claimed the papers said 5p) and issued refunds to the event attendees that complained.


• We had a really unique art installation at the event, a pink porta potty that made noise juxtaposed next to a picture booth- something that would need a bit of explanation. Well, the artists felt if people didn't understand the concept on their own, then they just didn't understand art, and they refused to remain with their piece. If the attitude wasn't enough, toilet paper was ending up on their red carpet that led up to the toilet and started scattering across the lawn- not a nice effect.

Although there were some problems, the event was incredibly successful and we had great attendence (even with all the other music festivals in town that weekend). Here is a picture of our bike art installation which was a huge hit at the event!

How to Get A Jumbo-Tron in A Park On A Diesel

Let me tell you, it’s an experience! The Jumbo-tron is on a huge flatbed on a semi-truck. First several people from the office, who had to get certified in traffic laws, post themselves in the street to stop oncoming cars. Slowly, the semi pulls out and begins backing in onto the park sidewalk. I had the task of lifting the mud flap behind one of the massive back wheels to prevent it from getting stuck between the wheel and curb and being damaged. Along the way to the middle of the park we had to climb on the back of the cab to free tree branches, etc. Once we got to the grassy patch in the center of the park we had 6 boards of plywood that had to be shuffled as the truck backed in to keep the back wheels from digging into the grass too much. At the end we had to space the 6 boards so each was under one of the six sets of wheels. Lesson learned- gloves are incredibly important when working with plywood!I was also a part of history this weekend as the first stakes ever were hammered into the ground at Murphy Park, the central location of Glendale’s events. In the past, tents were always weighed down with cement blocks, water barrels or sandbags. Due to the high winds expected today and possibly tomorrow, staking became essentially the only safe option. It was a huge step for the city and some big wigs, including risk management, came down to the park for hours to discuss the situation. However, only the handful of tents in a small section of the park that were being set-up by our tent rental company were allowed to be staked. Ironically, this is the first event where Glendale is not providing tents for the vendors and the strong winds have thrown a wrench into that! Although it was forbidden, a lot of the vendors who set up their tents today used small stakes to secure them- we’ll have to be writing up infractions for them at the end of the weekend. There was also a tent casualty today! I walked by a small 10 x 10 tent that a food vendor had set up early this morning with all of their stuff, 5 minutes later I walked by again and the tent had collapsed and blown away from the tables. The tent owners had left so a few other people from the events office and I tried to secure the tent with extra sandbags and opened some of the flaps/walls that were acting as sails. Unfortunately, this solution didn’t last long as one of the metal legs actually snapped with the force of the high winds! Hopefully the wind will die down tomorrow and make way for a relaxing event.

ADA

My office hit a bit of a roadblock yesterday. With the big event 2 ½ days out- and people starting to load in today, the city’s Building Safety division denied our permit for our 2 VIP areas because they were not ADA compliant. Both VIP sections are platforms that are 24in off the ground with a step-up, and not wheelchair accessible. The platforms have been the same in the past, but were never denied a permit. My boss felt since the platforms are invitation only, and therefore private, we do not need to make them wheelchair accessible. Building Safety felt someone we invite could bring along a friend or relative in a wheelchair and we need to be prepared.
I ran out to the park with my boss and co-worker, along with the company that would need to build the ramps on the phone. We began measuring the area since for every inch in elevation, you need 1 foot of ramp- therefore we would need to squeeze a 24ft ramp into a small area. The situation was stressful because we needed to be mindful of access to the stages, not eliminating too much public seating with the ramps and how they were going to get built when the company needed is already fully committed this weekend due to the amount of events in the area. Once we had determined the best placement, we headed back to the office and explained the situation to my boss’s boss- who then went to the city attorney, spoke with Building Safety and made the whole situation go away by putting responsibility for accommodating anyone who can’t access the VIP platform because of physical limitations.I kept hearing in my head lectures in classes about being aware of ADA compliance and the importance of accessibility. While I can understand that the platforms are private and it would be an incredible hassle and expense, not to mention an eyesore, I think the VIP areas should have been equipped with wheel-chair ramps. Glendale events are supposed to be family friendly, so if some of our musical artists or big sponsors wanted to bring their family- which might just include an elderly parent or grandparent in a wheelchair we would have to scramble to accommodate them and make them feel welcome. As a family friendly event- we should be prepared to welcome family and friends of any physical condition.

Meetings

This past week my work load has really been ramping up to get ready for the Jazz and Blues Festival coming up April 4th and 5th. It will be interesting to see how many people attend as Country Thunder and the Tempe Music Festival are the same weekend! In addition to my heavier workload, I've also been able to attend 2 extra meetings this week.
First I went on a walk through with the company responsible for the children's area- namely the inflatables. they have a pletohra of different attractions- and you don't really know what they're going to bring out to the event until the day of. I learned about some of the things that need to be considered in order to place the inflatables. For example, they wanted to bring their most popular inflatable out (which they'd only recently determined by counting the # of tickets turned in at each of their attractions) that happens to be enormous, but it couldn't be in front of any stores, and they didn't want to put it next to the giant bike arch being erected by the Arts Commission as that would make that area of the event way too heavy. There will be a second company at the event with a euro bungee in the same area and it was also interesting to see how the inflatable company looked out for the euro bungee company and made sure they had a good spot, etc- even though they're technically competition.
My second meeting was a production meeting with the guys in charge of audio, the company providing and rigging the power, two other girls from special events and the company in charge of the scenery for the stages. It hadn't occured to me but putting the 4 different entities in one room allowed everyone to talk, work out any potential issues and pave a path so people will be familiar with each other when the event is actually happening.
Meetings can be a bit dry, but you get a lot done in a small amount of time and it really promotes cooperation among companies, departments, etc. Next blog, I'll fill you in on the projects I've been in charge of this week.