Alisa
Walsh had the honor of being on the Expert Panel at the MPI SCC and
ASEP Cal Poly hosted "Future Leaders Forum 2017" at the Collins College
Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona on February 21st.
The 10 panelists each brought a different
set of skills and experience to share. Alisa proudly represented event
production services.
On the panel: Kheam Tang, Four Points San Diego Downtown, Anna Kim,
LATCB, Sacha Tani, Universal Studios Hollywood, Jamie Oakley,
Revolution RFP, Alisa Walsh, EventWorks, Marc Berkowitz, California
Association of Realtors, Kim Meltzer, KidKesty Productions, John
Ehlenfeldt, Visit Huntington Beach, Ajit Acharya, The Waterfront Beach
Resort,
and Jon Baumgardner, Society of the Promotion of Japanese Animation.
Alisa,
the students wanted to know how you got to your professional position.
What is your advice to aspiring event and hospitality pros?
"My first piece of advice was to take advantage of opportunities when
they are presented to you, even if they seem to be very scary at the
time. That is precisely how I got to where I am. My first role in the
hospitality world came about during my freshman year in college when I
got the chance to live on Maui and work at the Grand Wailea Resort as a
Beach&Pool Attendant. It sounds like a no-brainer but it took me out
of my comfort zone, away from my friends and family, at the time. It
was there that I fell in love with Hospitality and I knew from then on,
that it was what I wanted to do for my career. You have to start from
the bottom. When I got back to school in San Diego, I worked at a hotel
front desk. I took unpaid internships, thanks to a lot of friends who
worked at hotels in San Diego. I worked my way up. During my college
years, I was also able to take two semesters to study abroad. First in
Australia and then in Costa Rica, where I studied eco-tourism. It again
meant traveling alone and experiencing and learning a lot. I met a lot
of people who are still my friends and mentors today. After 8 years in
San Diego I moved to Orange County where I worked as Senior Event
Manager at a Newport Beach hotel. Three months after my start, my
director was promoted and moved on to another property. Consequently, I
was promoted to Director of Events at the hotel, which was a great
honor. At the same time it was terrifying, as I was working in a senior
management position while most of my co-workers had many more years on
their resumes. It was challenging but I learned a lot about management
and I had to live up to my General Manager's expectations. He had
trusted my leadership skills and that I could fulfill this role. I
finally took another risk and joined EventWorks in January of 2016.
EventWorks had been a client of mine at the hotel. It was a big shift as
I had worked towards becoming a General Manager in the hotel industry
some day, but when the opportunity of working in event production
presented itself, I was really intrigued by the new challenge. It has
been a little over one year now and I really love working with the
EventWorks team. I am traveling a lot. I am attending many functions and
I have grown my professional network probably 10-fold in a year. The
bottom-line is: say yes to opportunities. It may be a little scary but
it can be a really good thing."
Alisa in conversation with student Kevin, making new connections.
You were also asked about your biggest work-related blunder and how you solved the problem.
"I guess my biggest blunder so far occurred early in my work life. I was
an event manager at a San Diego hotel. As every event manager, I was
very busy, all the time. I had a group in-house, about 450 people.
During a prep meeting I became aware that I had neglected to place a
B.E.O. for 450 lunches for the very next day. My team was completely
unaware of that request. Of course, the client was expecting lunch for
all of her attendees the next day. I felt sick to my stomach and turned
pale white. Thanks to my efforts of building relationships, not just
with clients, but also internally, I could go to my executive staff and
admit my mistake immediately and work it out. It would have been much
harder to confess if we had not had such a great working relationship. I
was in the kitchen at 3AM the next morning, working with the catering
staff and helping put together those 450 lunch boxes. The client never
knew of my disaster, thanks to the support of everybody at the hotel who
helped me recover from my mistake. It's important to learn that it takes
a whole team to make it work. You cannot succeed alone.
After the panel presentation we had a chance to mingle in a
mock networking event. The Food-and-Beverage students had even created a
mock bar! In my conversation with Kevin I shared my experience with
networking. It's what I do every day now and it can be very intimidating
for people, especially at the start of their career. But it's hard for
almost anyone. I shared with Kevin my personal approach: realize that
all the attendees started off as strangers at some point and that
everyone will treat you like a friend after the first time of meeting
you. It's easier to set a goal of making a connection with one
particular person. Maybe choose a C.E.O. or someone else who may seem
difficult to approach. Once you succeed in making that connection you
will gain a lot of confidence and it will become a lot easier."
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The students were very interested in all
the advice from the panelists. Many wanted input from the pros on what
area or field in the industry to pick for their degrees to have the best
chances after they graduate.
"We told them that it does not really matter. Even if you pick one area
now, 10 years from now, the industry will have changed so much that you
have to evolve with it anyway. I suggested that they concentrate on
communications, as communications play a part in anything else they will
do. It crosses all areas."
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Our Thank You goes to Sacha Tani, Manager, Group & Special Event Sales
Universal Studios Hollywood, MPI member and Volunteer, as well as a Collins College Cal Poly Pomona Alumni.
Sacha had organized the expert panel and invited Alisa.
Sacha Tani:
"We were looking for a variety of planners to inspire the next
generation at the Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly
Pomona. Alisa is great at speaking with the student population as she is
passionate about the industry and she is also an advocate for MPI. Her
being part of Eventworks also helped the students understand, that there
are various stages to planning design. Alisa was able to explain how a
production company works with third party planners and end users."
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Thank YOU for reading and....
DON'T FORGET TO LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!
Happy Mardi Gras!
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