Each year, event management majors put their skills into action by organizing the SEEM Leadership Conference, which brings together trailblazers and emerging leaders from across the industry to share their career successes, advice and best practices.
The 2016 edition made some notable changes from the previous year’s conference. The schedule was shifted from April to October to take advantage of the Fall Career Fair. The addition of an elevator pitch competition afforded hospitality students and recent alums a forum to hone their presentation skills prior to the Fair, which took place the following day.
Every year, the organizing committee taps the cream of the crop to speak and share their insights. Previous guest speakers have included such luminaries as former Patriots offensive guard Joe Andruzzi, whose eponymous foundation helps cancer patients and their families focus on recovery, and Gary Lombardi, the senior VP and GM of TD Garden in Boston, Mass.
This year’s conference included keynotes by Dusty Rhodes, president of Conventures, New England’s leading special events company, and Jeff Mann, general manager of Live Nation Entertainment — as well as Megan Duclos (Alex + Ani), career transition consultant Mia Hall and Brittany Abber ’14 (Columbia Records).
We asked student organizers to share their takeaways from the conference — the priceless advice, the last-minute challenges, even things they might have done differently. What follows is a selection of their lessons learned.