Thursday, October 25, 2012

Classes I Have Had


I'm in my last semester and out of all classes I have had, I have to say the Hospitality and Tourism Management Internship class is the most efficacy to my future job.  This internship class provided me the opportunity to apply the theory, knowledge, and ideas that I have learned in class to a real world setting.  In addition, this internship allowed me to work in one of the most high respected hospitality cities in the world, San Francisco, and the hotel that I interned at is Mandarin Oriental San Francisco.

Getting into this class has to go through some hard work because of the prerequisite.  Hospitality and/or tourism work experience is required for the internship class.  Students must acquired or finished a minimum of 350 hours of work experience in the hospitality services industry as well as another minimum of 50 hours professional development.  Furthermore, the internship must consist of performing a minimum of 200 work hours.  This is a total of at least 600 hours of working and learning experiences dedicated to the internship course.

The assignments throughout the internship class include a mid-term progress report of how successful I have been at obtaining data for the research portion of the internship project and how supportive my management has been.  I have to attend one of the designated workshops at the Career Center to review my resume or discuss job interviewing skills during the semester.  For the internship, I have to submit monthly time sheets to my instructor.  For the project, I have to decide and agreed by my supervisor and instructor of the topic that I plan to write and it should be beneficial to the company and my education.  Once the topic is determined, I need to define the research problem, collect the necessary data, write/report on the findings, and present the results.  I'm required to make a formal presentation of the project/paper and findings to my supervisor upon completion and before the end of the semester.  My supervisor will then provide feedback and grade the presentation on the evaluation form.  To be honest, I spent a lot of time and effort in this internship even though it was all unpaid; however, the final A grade I got paid off all the hard work.

The departments that I interned at are Food & Beverage and Sales & Marketing.  My goal in the Food & Beverage department is to learn as many positions in the department as possible and then focus on those that fit me best.  The F&B department includes catering/banquet, room service, and restaurant.  During the internship, I assisted catering admin, performed banquet and room services, restaurant hosting and serving; assisted team with wine lists as well as learned POS system, OpenTable.  For the Sales & Marketing side, I mostly assisted the sales team with their admin, so I kind of know how the operation works in the department.  On my second week of the internship, I was lucky enough to sit in one of the meetings with all the department heads and the general manager.  It really opened up my eyes of how a “real” meeting looks and feels like.  Overall I learned and took away plenty of valuable things through meeting and working with different people in this internship.  I learned that leadership/team player and communication skills are very important if you want to be a leader one day.  Working in the real world really need to be a self-starter and take initiatives and let your supervisor know what you want to be and your goals, don’t hide it to yourself. 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Reading and Writing of an Event Coordinator

Reading

The event industry people need to read everyday to stay on top of whats happening around.  Usually they have to constantly check on current events and trends related to the Event Industry as well as decor and event theme books.  As the industry changes constantly, keeping up-to-date of whats trendy and what people like is the essence to all event planners.  It is required and no surprise that planners need to attend some kind of  seminars, conferences, or conventions that features the newest trends and the latest technology like the Cvent and Delphi softwares.  Attending conferences and seminars is one of the best ways to learn a lot in a small amount of time.  Also, the opportunity to meet colleagues and the industry people face to face provides the motivation and energy to do a better job back at the office.  Connecting and sharing with your peers about what works and how to do things better will never be replaced by a computer screen or a textbook.  Therefore, many planners as well as Michelle, are a member of at least one professional industry association.  

Writing

Some of the writings that Michelle does are preparing proposals and writing contracts.  Inside the proposal, Michelle needs to be very detailed as to how the business fits into the facility and make sure to include all costs associated with doing business with the facility or business.  Proposals should be customized, concise/straight to the point, respond to customer's requests, creative and demonstrate her understanding of the business.  Creating and writing contracts is one of Michelle's task at work.  In a contract, some of the major sections that need to include in a contract are the cancellation, attrition, and insurance (be very detail and specific).  Also need to write who will be the contact for planning the meeting, accounting and billing process and all deadlines.  

Thursday, October 11, 2012

A Day in the Life of an Events Coordinator


What is a Meeting and Event?

Michelle Giang is the Events Coordinator at the Marriott International Hotel.  She graduated from SFSU and got into the Marriott Management Training Program in her last semester.  From there she worked her way up to now an Event Coordinator.  Her ultimate goal is to become an Event Manager.

First of all, what is a meeting and event?  In the US alone, there are thousands of individuals who plan meetings and events.  It is impossible to count the number as the number is huge and constantly increasing.  Besides convention and conference centers, there are hotels and resorts as well as catering facilities that are also part of the events and meetings industry.  Annual conferences, training seminars, staff/board meetings, tradeshows, product launches, technical and scientific conferences, and incentive programs are just some of the meetings and events that make up the meetings industry.


Creating and Following a Timeline

When I ask Michelle what is the process of planning an event and what is her typical work day in the office, she said its all about creating and following a timeline and supporting the team.  Developing a timeline for the meeting or event is an important first step in the planning process because planning an event involves massive details and to-do lists.  Having a good timeline will help identify and prioritize key tasks and dates to keep you stay on track.  Most importantly, it will factor in the time you need to make decisions.  Planning tasks differ from meeting to meeting.  They are different depending on what kinds of meeting you are planning, whether its for a corporate, an association or a wedding.  All timelines must be customized to each unique situation.

Timelines are every component in meeting planning, and will vary depend on the type of events.  When thinking about your timeline, you have to consider about who is the timeline for, who will be the keeper, any special due dates, and assign responsibilities accordingly.  Whether you are developing a big event or timeline, Michelle said you need to incorporate the key tasks and key dates.
As I listen to Michelle listing out the tasks that she has to do everyday at work, I can feel the stress thats coming from her.  I know Event planning is a stressful and fast paced/changing job that you don't know what will be happen the next day or you might have to come in really early and get off very late at night.  My first goal or career was also to go for Events; however, after the interview with Michelle, I kind of feel discouraged and want to change my career plan.  For Events, people really need to have that passion and creativity in order to survive in the field.  I think I will switch to Tourism since I like to travel...

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Hospitality Blogs Review


Hotel Managers Group Blog is dedicated to the hotel owners by providing creative solutions on review of operations, marketing, and accounting to determine if the hotel is in good position with respect to competition and decide what strategies to implement in order to increase market share.  The best thing about this blog is that it’s managed by a team of highly skilled and experienced hotel professionals and on a timely basis, they post their advises and strategies according to the most recent trends about hospitality to their readers.  They also teach their readers how to use hotel new systems, how to attract more guests to book the hotel, how to increase the hotel awareness, etc.  I like how they have at least one blog post each day for the readers.  Meaning that they are active.  I also like the design of the blog that its very organized and easy to find where things are.  However, I don’t like that its all plain text with hardly any photos and no videos.  In addition, I don’t see any hyperlinks that link to more information.

 Hospitality Trends is a blog that provide online information on the trends of hospitality industry.  Looking at the homepage, I found it’s a bit too much that things are everywhere and there are lots of ads on the side.  However, I do like how its categorized by different categories for easy access.  The choice of color is too dull and boring and not catchy.  The content of the blog postings are too board that its targeting not just at the hotel industry though it names hospitality trends. I don’t think I will look at this blog for trends on hotels.  Moreover, the posts don’t have any pictures or hyperlinks to link to sources.

 HotelBlogs.com is mainly about hotel and tourism news around the world.  It is important to know what is current in both the hospitality and tourism industry if you are in it; otherwise, you will be left in the dust.  Knowing who are your competitors and how they operate and manage the properties so successfully is vital to all hotels chains.  By keeping up with the trends, you know how you can do better.  Also, the way that different tourists plan their trips and vacations is always changing rapidly and we, as hoteliers and travel planners, need to know what is demanding right now in order to attract and bring in more guests into the hotel.  It’s all about marketing.  Finding people’s behaviors, preferences, needs and wants and how we can make their needs and wants come true.  Therefore, this hotel blogs is a great source to look for news and current events.  





Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A New Way of Writing


What exactly is blogging?  

With the evolution and innovation of technology and Internet, blogs had been evolved as a new genre of writing in about 10 years ago and is still fast growing.  The word blog derived from ‘web logs’ and they are exactly like online diaries and journals with photos, audios, videos, commentaries, and links to articles on other Web sites.  According to the Blogs in Plain English Youtube video, a blog can be both personal and professional that is shared to the media for commendation.  “A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web.  Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.  Postings on a blog are almost arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.” (Rowse)  Typically, this interactive nature allows bloggers to refer to each other’s blogs, creating groups of blogs centered around specific themes, topics or interests.  “Blogs can range from the personal to the political and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.”  (Wordpress)  When you blog, you don't just publish a column on a newspaper or a magazine page, you actually join in on the conversation and let people talk back to you on your comment threads and on other blogs.  You can react to other blog posts of your interest and you can link and get link back.  Bloggers create web pages full of conversations and discussions within the same community. 

Blogging has transformed our world.  Blogging has become part of the social media as a source where we are likely to go for information, ideas, and advice in every situation from how to find the best hotel to stay in and to find what activities to do when we reached the destination.  Tripadvisor is a perfect example.  Information and ideas have become interactive.  We can all be part of the conversation with ease by using software and services that are free and available to us.  Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, and Twitter, to name a few.  


Most importantly, blogs function as an interactive communication between the bloggers and the many audiences that are fall under the same community or even to everyone, whereas traditional essay writing is only target on one specific audient.  The same like a student writing for a teacher.  “Most blogs allow readers to comment on a story contained in the blog, thus blogs have become vastly popular with visitors.  Instead of traditional websites, which provided plenty of information but no way for users to interact or provide their own opinion, the commenting feature in a blog makes it interactive. (Duermyer)  In other word, blogging is not just about writing.  it's about learning how to get that voice out by interaction, how to make recommendations, positive or negative, and be reactive and proactive. 


Blogs Vs. Traditional writing

In What isthe Difference Between Blogging and Content Writing, it talks about the difference between blogs and traditional writing that with a traditional paper, the essays must go though comprehensive editorial process, whereas a blog, anyone can create an article or post entry and publish immediately.  It could have poor grammar, misspellings and content issues as no editors are required.  Anyone can make a blog and start publishing content online almost immediately.  Blog users do not need the experience like professional writers or journalists that they must obtain a degree in journalism and have some kind of work related experience.  Lastly and most importantly, the voice of the writer is what makes the big different between a blog post and a traditional essay.  With a blog, blogger can use any voice he wants in creating his content meaning that he could be completely biased and include his opinions in the content.

What Can Blogging do for Business?

According to Zahorsky, blogging can improve business communication by making it simple for businesses to create new web content allowing customers to comment on the content that businesses post and enabling subscription to blog posts.  The essence feature of blogging is the commenting function that allows readers or customers to comment on the content being posted.  Commenting create interaction and encourages conversation, since bloggers can respond to comments and commenters can also respond to each other’s comments.  Opening the lines of communication through blog comments open up an opportunity for businesses to receive immediate feedback on products and services or even the company’s expertise. Nowadays many businesses have their own blogs about their services and products as a way to build additional web traffic and to draw and connect to more potential customers.