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, site visits, 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, it was also very rewarding seeing the whole event executed successfully. 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 engagement. 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 that I learned is that you can't do everything yourself. Doing things yourself can lead to burnout, stress, and limited results. However, working with a team improves the overall event experience since individuals on your team have different strengths that cover areas of improvement while allowing creativity to flourish in the planning process.

What advice would you give?

My advice to future students is to be confident in yourself. Having confidence allows you to go places where you never thought you could go. When you're confident, you're more likely to move forward with people and opportunities. And if things don't work out, you have the confidence to try again.