Have you ever thought that a career in event management may lead you to meet people you’d only ever dream of meeting in most other jobs? Margarita, one of our current students, got to meet a former Canadian Prime Minister at a recent volunteering opportunity. Being Canadian herself, this made her evening.
Hosting global leaders
Margarita has been busy volunteering at high society gala dinner events, for example the
Boodles Boxing Ball and
Magic Bus gala dinner. Her latest, along with other current students on our Diploma and Postgraduate courses, was volunteering as a host at the
Global Leadership Foundation 10
th anniversary gala dinner held at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.
Former South African president Frederik Willem de Klerk founded the GLF and other members include former Senators, Presidents, Prime Ministers and high-ranking officials from across the globe. Our students were tasked with keeping these people happy for the evening – no pressure, then! Have a look at some
photographs from the evening to see the evening if you want to know what it was like.
Creating a friendly atmosphere
Our volunteers were acting as hosts for the dinner and each was given a table of guests to look after. Duties included taking coats as they arrive, guiding guests to their seats, giving directions, pouring drinks and being on hand through the evening to make sure all goes smoothly.
Margarita told us that the most surprising thing about the evening was the relaxed and friendly atmosphere. She found herself chatting to a fellow Canadian and the more they chatted, the more they found they had in common. Then the lady insisted on introducing Margarita to her husband, who turned out to be
Joe Clarke, ex-Canadian Prime Minister. What an amazing way to meet a former leader of your home country!
Building your CV
All the time she was volunteering, Margarita was putting her event management skills to the test and applying them in a live environment. Hosting sounds easy, she said, but you realise how much there is to it when you work at a real event, with high profile guests. You are constantly thinking, planning what must be done next while also keeping up a friendly and chatty conversation with your guests.
“Some of the conversations you get to have are just amazing and I’ve learned so much about how to be the ideal host and what I need to do to create the right atmosphere for events like this.”
Margarita tells us she is signing up for more volunteering opportunities, so we’ll bring you an update on what she is up to next in a few weeks.
Interested in finding a job that where you meet amazing people and work at fabulous venues in London? Do you want to do all this while still training? If so, have a look at
our courses or get in touch with
Karin our Head of Student Recruitment on (0)20 7183 5129 to find out more about studying event management with us.
Featured image used by kind permission of
Blake Ezra Photography.
