Category: Working Woman

Four Tips from an Event Professional

This month I finished one of the largest events during my career as an event producer. I fell into this role accidentally, after choosing unemployment over a super abbreviated schedule (I had bills to pay, y’all). An internship with my current employer was purely to keep busy and stay learning. And here I am almost 3.5 years later having taken a management role over a budget beyond anything I could imagine. It was exhausting, but also rewarding, and I’ve come away with 4 tips I want to share with anyone considering a career in the world of events.

THE SHOW WILL GO ON with or without you
That’s the thing about events, regardless of if you “feel ready”, an event day approaches quickly… like a birthday or a wedding. There’s really no going back once you’ve signed the contract on a venue, have finalized catering and ordered your flowers. Your job as an event producer is to foresee every issue to the best if your ability, and to prepare for the worst, knowing the outcome will be the best.

ALLIGATOR SKIN IS SEXY
This industry isn’t for the weak skinned and faint of heart. It’s hard, and it’s not as glamorous as one may think. While you may be walking the red carpet at the GRAMMY awards, you’re also picking up trash from the same red carpet with your bare hands. Know that there are ups and downs. And hold on for the ride.

FINDING A BALANCE is key
Event producers are an incredible breed. We’re not going anywhere until our work is done, even if it’s 1am and you’re alone in a big scary office. It’s important to know your limits and to practice balance before you burn out. Know when to say yes but don’t forget how to say no. Both are equally important in this industry.

YOUR BEST IS ALWAYS ENOUGH, I promise
I mean it. Your best is incredible. You should be proud of your best. Certain clients are impossible to make happy on event day. Just know that you did your best, and that’s pretty great. In this industry, as in life, perfection is a myth. Growth is the goal. The best we can do is problem solve, and hide the flaws to create a mirage of a perfect event. Things will NEVER go as planned, not once. So your job is to plan to the best of your ability, and to be prepared to react as necessary to ensure a smooth event. Just to be clear: your best is absolutely enough. I promise.

The Generational Shift

It was a Tuesday night when I met up with a girl friend with every intention to go to a party thrown by my idol, Demetria Lucas. However, her recent (and well deserved) rise in popularity resulted in an over-capacity event and a overwhelmed bouncer.

We walked along the Lower East Side, looking for a nice place to grab a drink, letting the lights from the Empire State Building guide our footsteps. Our conversation bounced back and forth between topics: career, men, family, friends, and that wild Saturday night that left us all in shambles. We settled in at La Linea, a dark little dive that plays great music, enjoyed $4 Blue Moons and great conversation.

It was in La Linea that I realized how much priorities shift as each generation goes through the motions of life. My grandmother left her southern home and boarded a bus to Boston for a man who promised he would be her husband. Her focus was him (and eventually their children), and she did everything she could to ensure her safe arrival in Boston. Nanny was no fool, she had back-up accommodations at the Y and a job waiting to ensure her own funds, but she moved for him.

My mother learned independence from my grandmother. She spent her years after college with a focus on higher education and job success. When she met my father, her intentions were not to find her husband. She met him randomly and was open to the idea of a date. When he took her to the movies, my mother insisted they use her free movie vouchers – nothing standard about her.

What I’ve learned from them is to always have a back up plan, and to always strive for success; the rest will fall into place. As a result, I am clearly my grandmother’s grandchild. I am obviously my mother’s daughter. I am not your “normal” twenty-something woman (whatever that may be).

So for me, the fact that I am 26 and single is not “awkward” or “unfortunate” and I certainly don’t find it “unusual” as generations before me might. My focus is on keeping a job, keeping a home (read: rented apartment in NY), and keeping my friends near. My focus isn’t on creating a home… my focus is on creating my financial legacy (and apparently listening to Independent Women pt. 1 by Destiny’s Child).

Does that make me more like my male counterparts in some ways? To spend more time building a steady cushion while enjoying being a twenty-something prior to redirecting my attention to the rest? As my girl and I discussed this, I couldn’t help but wonder, where does it level out? Where do we, the Generation Y kids, submit to the same urge the generations before us have?

Xx, Maiah

Sometimes, my job doesn’t actually make sense

As you know, during the day I am an event producer. I throw together a million elements to create one awesome event. The type of event varies… While I focus mostly on beauty, fashion, and lifestyle brands, the events themselves include Fashion Week, Fashion Presentations, Runway shows, editor events, parties, and the always exciting kabuki reveal.

My most recent assignment involved traveling across the country for a 3 hour “layover” in LA during which we had a site vist, and then traveling back across the country to my home in NYC. However, our 3 hour “layover” turned into a 9.5 hour purgatory. Here is my story, told in photos.

11/17/11 4:30am EST

Wake up, attempt to put on clothing acceptable for clients. Settle on leather, heather grey, black, and leopard and leopard. Struggle to stay awake for car service to bring me to JKF. Decide to take mirror photos.

1:30pm EST

Arrive in LA. Immediately get whisked away for an airport tour. Explore an airplane repair hanger, which is essentially a big square room. Inquire about standing at the top of the tail repair ladder (seen in the back of the photo). Receive side eyes. Inquire about taking a photo with the airplane tires (bottom left). Receive side eyes.

4:30pm EST

Arrive at gate for return flight to JFK, putting us home at 10:30pm EST. Very excited. Gate attendant announces there is an issue with the air conditioning and airplane is “very hot”. Less excited. Air conditioning issue turns into what is actually a missing fuel line. Not excited at all. Decide to refuse to board plane. Gate attendant announces we will need a new plane, and this one will not leave until 10:25pm EST. Really un-excited. Watch line form at gate and wonder if we should get in it. Decide to go to Sky Club instead. Excitement grows.

6:30pm EST

Find great seating and an open bar in Sky Club. Rejoice. Decide to do more work until we can’t see straight, then we close all computers and indulge in wine, and then wine, and then some more wine. But not before having a bit more wine. They announce our flight is leaving “on time” at 10:25 and we bolt to the gate, get the most fantastic seats, and enjoy complimentary in-flight television and more wine. Notice women wearing fur and think, “I could live in LA.” Call home before take off. Employ a mom recommended buddy system do to excessive wine.

 11/18/11 4:30am EST

Back where I started a full 24 hours later. Unclear of what just happened, likely due to the wine. But after 5000 miles and a brutal red eye, I am home.

You Have to Let Me Go

About a month ago, I found myself at the Apple Store Genius Bar on 5th Avenue. My iPhone decided it didn’t want to work anymore and I was in a total tizzy trying to figure out how to get it fixed. My white knight in shining armor was Mark. He set me up with a new 3GS thanks to my Apple Care and as we were talking about how to set it up, the room exploded into applause.

“What’s happening!” I shouted over the whoops. Turns out it was someone’s last day and they were being sent off with a goodbye fit for Kanye. “Makes me want to work for Apple,” I said and he just smiled. Apparently, this was a normal goodbye for someone who had worked hard and was moving on to their next venture.

It had me thinking about the power of letting someone go – this applies not only to the workplace, but to friendships and relationships. Because there’s growth (and beauty) in the breakdown.

[via]

Break ups are hard. All kinds. For example: leaving your place of work for a new opportunity is a bittersweet moment. You find yourself “breaking up” with your boss, your supervisor(s), your favorite colleagues and work friends through a “letter of resignation” which could be seen as the text message equivalent. Searching on Google for perhaps some sort of online support leads to articles on how to leave your job “gracefully” or “on good terms” or “with dignity”, signifying that this is a negative thing. And when you do go through the process, you find people asking “why?” rather than shouting their congratulations. It’s odd that the parting is strained when I believe a good working relationship should mean well wishes all round. You have to let me go.

Again, break ups are hard. You break up with someone, only to find them texting, tweeting, calling (you know men never delete phone numbers), and always appearing. They act like it’s completely normal and you spend every day just worried they’re going to show up unannounced, again. You spend time confused because when you break up with someone, you expect it to be a clean and swift break. You plan for him to be ripped off like a band aid, but instead you find that sticky residue on your arm, asking you to hang out, or hugging you at a party when you least expect it. More break up conversations ensue, and all the time you were supposed to have spent healing, was spent going through the motions of an awkwardly long break up. You have to let me go.

I’ve been trying to figure out how one can have a clean break up. From closure conversations to exit interviews, it can all just get very messy. But after a post by my girl over at The Ella Project and a tweet from the ever-fabulous Bevy Smith (via the teachings of Demetria Lucas and her new book A Belle in Brooklyn), I decided the answer relies on your own strength.

[via]

When I began writing this post, I intended to place all blame on the “other party” whoever or whatever that may be. In talking to my mother about this recently, I complained about the options, none of which seem all that great. Leave a company and find yourself blacklisted. Leave a boyfriend and yet, you can’t ever really let go. Her response was a brief one, “Those things aren’t the point, Maiah. You have to make it work for you! Just you.“ So, I suppose the title, “You Have to Let Me Go” is not just to employers or ex-boyfriends, but to myself. Because if I can’t let go, I’ll never get on.

You Can’t Have It All

It’s Saturday morning, I’m on the train platform, waiting for the N, listening to Zeyi’s Working for Bill*, and hoping for inspiration so I can dust the blog off with some fresh writing when it hits me. Hard:

You can’t have it all.

Now, this is a shock. And a bit concerning. And totally disheartening to me. I whip out my notebook and scribble down the idea before I head out on my errands for the day, all revolving around work.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpXAknykeg?fs=1]

You can’t have it all? Really? I suppose it’s hard to accept, or grasp because it’s the opposite of everything I’ve ever been told. As an only child and single woman, I grew up thinking I could have whatever I set my mind to. Wanna move to NYC? Done. Wanna get a new job? Done. Wanna get that boy at the bar? Done. Wanna get those shoes? Charged.

But then I got online and did a little research, and the results were so depressing.

Uh, what’s that?

You can’t have it all.

Oh. Okay.

At the beginning of 2010, I did not have it all. I was incredibly single and incredibly sad. I was grateful for one thing: a job that kept me so busy I had no time for thoughts or friends. My days circled around events and industry parties; and it was exactly what I needed to get by.

The summer changed everything. I was making time for friends, making new friends, and trying my hardest to enjoy my 20′s. At the same time, I was working harder than I’d worked before. The most epic day was my birthday, where I clocked at least 12 hours at work before heading off to Fashion’s Night Out (an important evening for my industry), and then celebrating my 25th. I was on top of the world. Did I have it all? I considered it a possibility but they say hindsight is 20/20 and I now know that’s not the case.

Flash forward to December and things have reversed from where they were almost a year ago. I have almost everything I’ve ever wanted in a solid group of friends who preoccupy the majority of my time when I’m not working. Yet, I feel unfulfilled in other areas.

So wait, you can’t have it all?

Hm. Do you think that’s the case? I mean, what does “all” really entail when it comes to your life? Love, happiness, a great career, wonderful friends to lean on? Does one always suffer to allow you to achieve the rest?

I suppose I’m on a blind journey to see what’s true; throughout which I’ve been keeping this gift from my mother on my wrist (in the form of a bracelet with the following inscribed)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

I’ll let you know where I net out. Where did you?

*Note, Working for Bill did not inspire such a sad little post. It inspired me to be creative because it’s a work of art. If you’re not listening, you should be.

Suburban Girl Apologizes!: #NYFW

Hello little darlings,

Many apologies for the radio silence over here.

I’ve been spending my days working (see Maybelline and Essie images) at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the new Lincoln Center location. When I wasn’t running around managing the spaces and models, I was trying to attend as many shows as possible thanks to my amazingly generous clients and the guest appearance of a certain Kelly Cutrone!

So, as Fashion Week ends tonight, the madness winds down, and I bid Lincoln Center adieu til Feburary 2011, I’m excited to have time for posting regularly. I’ve got a few fun things planned, including a little three part series called “Suburban Girl Reviews Shows She Wasn’t Actually Invited To But Still Attended”… hm. I’m actually out of breath typing that! Gotta work on the series title, huh?

Regardless, it’s coming up soon. And if you absolutely can’t wait and miss me so, so much it hurts then check me out on twitter. I do my best tweeting from the backseat of a cab – especially when the cabbie farts audibly like this afternoon. Amaze.

Xx