Meetings, meetings, meetings

This week started off very slow but by the end of the week it was a whirlwind of activity! The first two days of my week were spent with the Executive Meeting Specialists. We only had 2 groups on property and they weren't very needy so there wasn't much to do. I'm glad we were slow, though, because I had the chance to ask a lot of questions about the job and attend some meetings that I have never been to. I learned a lot of technical knowledge such as what size tables and table clothes we carry, what a stantion is, and even how to fold tableclothes certain ways.

I was also able to attend a BEO meeting and a pre-event meeting. The BEO (Banquet Event Order) meeting was very boring. This meeting takes place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Basically a supervisor from set-up, a chef, the banquets manager, the conference services manager, someone from A/V, and an executive meeting specialist get together and very quickly read over the BEO's for the current day and the following two days. As an executive meeting specialist you don't really participate, you just follow along and ask if you don't understand something. The point of this meeting is to communicate any changes to the BEO's that the client has requested (which there seem to be a lot of) and to make sure everyone is on the same page and knows what needs to be done. Even though it was boring I can see that it is absolutely necessary if you want things to go smoothly and not spend all day sending e-mails about the changes each group has made.

The next meeting that I got to attend was a pre-event meeting. We hold a pre-event for every large group that holds functions at our resort (unless they request not to have one). This meeting was very formal. A representative from every department must attend as well as a representative from the group (usually the meeting planner or group contact). Everyone introduces themselves to the client(s) and asks any questions that they have about the group's resume or preferences. The group representative(s) also introduce themselves and tell us what their expectations are for us as employees. This is definitely an important meeting because it lets both the employees and the group know what to expect.