By Mallory Cohen
I went
into my internship with Village Crown and Esprit Events knowing event planning
sounded interesting, but not really knowing much else. I wasn’t sure what
to expect when I started my first day. I just hoped that by the end I
would have a better idea of whether the event planning industry was still
something I would want to consider for my future career. And coming on
the last day of my internship, the answer to that question is officially a yes.
While catering may not be the exact part of the industry that I want to
stay with, this internship has helped teach me a bit more of the inner workings
of the event industry as a whole, and given me skills I would need for any job.
The first skill was
talking on the phone with strangers. Most people my age rely pretty
heavily on texting, and try to avoid actually speaking on the phone, especially
when it comes to phone calls with random people that last longer than a minute.
However, starting day one I have been on the phone almost every day with
people, and have had to learn to be more comfortable with it.
Another skill I used
was social media. While I have been using social media since middle
school, I have only used it for myself. However, I see with the social
media work that I have done through Esprit and Village Crown that through a
company it may be very different approach, because you are trying to appeal to
others rather than whatever you want. But at the same time it is still
fun. Especially when doing things like making a board for wedding cakes
on pinterest. The easiest way to find and write things that appeal to
others is things that you yourself find interesting too. Social media
should try to feel personal for the people viewing it.
I also learned just
how important presentation and approach is. This is a catering company,
so you would think how the food tastes is the only thing that matters.
But I see that it is much more than that (even though of course the taste
is very important). When viewing a tasting I notice how meticulous they
are in arranging everything so that it looks nice. Whether it is cutting
and stacking the string beans into a pyramid, or rearranging the deserts so
that the colorful treats are distributed evenly among the darker chocolates on
the platter, they clearly put thought into more than just the cooking.
The food, however, is not the only time presentation counts. I’ve
noticed just with the proposal at the start of the process time is spent to
make the layout look nice. There are pictures spread throughout, and for
things like the cocktail stations there are cute names for the stations.
All of this is done with thought, rather than just listing out the food
and prices.
The last thing I
learned that I am going to talk about are from these blog posts. The
force me to not just witness what the companies I am interning for does, but to
be able to reflect on the things I am learning and share them with an audience.
It forces me to put more thought into what I am doing, rather than just
writing some numbers down in a chart. In addition, while writing has
never been my strong suite these blogs not only taught me that no matter what
field you work in writing is important, but also have given me the chance to
improve my writing skills.
Overall interning for Esprit Events and Village
Crown has been a short, but informative and rewarding experience. I plan
to take all the things I have learned and use them in my future career.
