Christian Grensteiner

Responsibilities

As the Meeting & Events intern, I was tasked with planning multiple events for the organization, such as fundraising events, strategic customer events, and employee appreciation events. I did a lot of in-depth planning for these various events, such as venue & vendor sourcing, food & beverage planning, providing on-site support for events, budget and expense tracking for multiple large events, and managing event volunteers.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment would be planning & executing the company's annual fundraiser against children's cancer. This fundraising event is important as it directly impacts the community around me in a positive way. Planning such a large event that raises over $100,000 each year was a great challenge for me; however, seeing the whole event executed successfully was also very rewarding. This event took a lot of strategic planning, such as managing multiple vendors, managing over 40 volunteers, meeting with multiple stakeholders, keeping an up-to-date budget, and encouraging attendee management. Overall, I am very proud of this great accomplishment as it allowed me to learn more about corporate events that directly impact my community.

Learning experience

The greatest lesson I learned is that you can't do everything yourself. Attempting to do everything yourself can lead to burnout, limited results, and stress. Having a team and working together can greatly improve the overall event experience. Teamwork is essential in event planning, as having multiple people with different strengths working together on a project can cover areas of improvement while also allowing creativity to flourish.

What advice would you give?

My advice for other students is to be confident in yourself. Having a positive mindset can take you places that you never knew you could go. Confidence encourages you to move forward with people and opportunities without backing down from a challenge. And if things don't work out, you have the confidence to try again.