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.

4th Avenue Spring Fair

Friday was really fun, I got to take a trip to Tucson with my boss and another co-worker to see what we could learn about the 4th Avenue Spring Fair. The event is celebrating it's 40th year- with nearly 300,000 attendees! The event is run by a the 4th Avenue Association, a small office of 3 people that produce more than 24 events a year on 4th Avenue, a street in Tucson with a lot of unique shops and restaurants. We were invited by the event producer as guests to learn how they do things at the event. Here is a picture from their website, this is exactly what it looks like, only the tents continue going! (http://www.fourthavenue.org/)

It was interesting to walk through the event with Nikki, Glendale's vendor manager and see the fair through her eyes- she noticed so many things that I didn't see- an empty spot where a vendor didn't show up, signs placed on the ground, how to spot a good vendor, etc. Although we came away with a wealth of information, we won't be able to implement all of it since the 4th Avenue Association is private and has a lot more flexibility than a city event does. My assignment (from my boss) for Monday was to come up with a list of 5 thing I learned from the event, here it goes...

1. Latex signs on the pavement are a great way to give directions AND get sponsors involved.
2. Charging a higher base price for vendor booths (rather than a lower price PLUS percentage fees) keeps things simple without the stress of implementing a new method to track vendor sales.
3. Small groups of street vendors (like 2 high school violinists) are a way to incorporate the community and keep activity going in all places of the event as you move away from the main stages.
4. A great way to get rid of pesky groups trying to take advantage of the event and not pay the vendor fee is to place a terrible musician next to them!
5. Be wary of giving a vendor several different spaces throughout the event- if they decide not to show-up, you'll have a big hole!

Bummed

Today was my first day back at work after taking off Wednesday-Friday last week for a short vacation (and using up most of the overtime hours I got from working on Chocolate Affaire). Unfortunately, I got some bad news Tuesday afternoon. My internship was originally supposed to continue on past graduation till July 4th, this is because fall interns with the City get to work on 6 events and spring interns only get 3- so they made the internship longer so spring interns could do 4 events. Due to the poor economy and some budget cuts my department can only keep me long enough to fulfill my granduation requirements- so now I'll be finishing up around April 20th. I am dissappointed because I love working with Glendale and was so excited to help with their 4th of July event, but at the same time I am just grateful they are letting me stay on to fulfill my internship so I can graduate in May! With this change in the length of my internship I am feeling a bit like an outsider, and it is so strange to think that roughly a month from Friday will be my last day! With this change I am also feeling quite distracted wondering what is going to happen to me a few months from now due to the bad economy and a rough job market-while I am excited to graduate, it isn't exactly feeling like the best time to do so either. This wasn't exactly my most cheerful blog entry, but I am sure things will pick up later this week as I get busy working on projects for the Jazz and Blues Festival- and continue being hard working and trying to generate some more connections so I have some options upon completeing my internship :)

Down Time

My first few weeks "on the job" were very fast paced because we had 2 events close together, these past couple weeks have been much less hectic since the next event isn't until April. Due to the slower nature opf my job lately, I've been getting to work on all sorts of odd projects...

• One day I organized 3 boxes of folders that had been left by the woman previously in charge of permitting events for the city. There were all sorts of events held by the city, private organizations and other area groups. It was so internesting to read through the different events people planned and see their thought process. The folders also contained e-mails between the special events committee and notations on the progress of the permit- great communication insight!


• Another day I got to generate and send invoices to vendors for the upcoming April festival, which I discovered that I really liked doing, it felt therapeutic.


• Another time, I worked on writing up vendor "infractions" for people who perhaps didn't pay their fees on time- a less fun side of events, discipline.


• I've also been doing a ton of research on everything from custom USB's, renting bath towels and companies that rent or sell tents to things like how other events classify their vendor applications!

I am off the next few days-using up my overtime from the last event, when I get back I am sure I'll be doing a lot more Jazz & Blues related activities- here is a picture from the Blues stage last year.

Internship Networking Lessons

On Monday I attended a meeting for the local chapter of the Association of Bridal Consultants, and there was an educational segment on the use of Facebook, Twitter and Blogs for professional networking. I was astounded when the presenter asked how many attendees were on Facebook, and nearly everyone in the room raised their hand! Up until that point I had looked at Faceboook as a mere social avenue- I was aware that many companies out there might look up your Facebook page and therefore you don't want to put up anything that you wouldn't want a future boss to see- but I didn't realize how popular it now is among every generation! My immediate reaction was so run home and update my page and start 'friending" anyone else in the association I can find as they could all be possible business and employer connections. It is also a great way of reminding someone who you are, bridal meetings are once a month, it is easy to forget someone's name in that time but if your friends on Facebook, you can look them up for a quick refresher.
The same speaker also discussed the benefits of a blog. Starting out this semester, I honestly wasn't eager to blog once a week and have had trouble keeping up with it, but now I am glad to be practicing! According to the speaker, who owns a wedding photography business, her website gets about 30-40 hits a day, but her blogs gets anywhere between 300 and 500 hits every day!! Not only does more traffic go through her blog site, but it is an avenue for her to talk about her experiences and offer tips- which in turn gets other photographers asking her questions on the blog and makes her look incredibly knowledgable to potential clients.
Now, when I make another blog post or listen to my co-workers at my internship talk about their Facebook posts on one anothers pages, I'll be looking at the big picture, networking :)