Problem Solver

PRO

I am a professional. In my line of work, client service and attention to detail are paramount. For every four people that give you praise for a well-appointed meeting or a super cool event, there's one that throws a dagger right through your inflated heart. It's all about how you handle it. One, it comes with the territory, but then I take it as a badge of honor. You can't satisfy every person with one event, but you can always give them something to talk about.

BLEM

In spacing out the word problem solver, my brain somehow thought black lives everywhere matter. Like for real. There's a lack of diversity in almost every industry. Meetings and events are no different. How we get hired, promoted and looked over, some could not even imagine. More than once in my career, I’ve been subjected to negative feedback from people who didn’t feel I deserved to hold the position I did and I was held to a higher standard than my non-black counterparts. I’ve been told I did not have what it takes to succeed. The BLEM in PRO-BLEM is that I gained perspective and more importantly, I leaned into the notion that one can contribute to a solution, positive or negative.

SOLVER

Solving problems is at the heart of what I do as an event professional. People want to meet. People need to meet. Stakeholders want a return on the benefit of those meetings. In either scenario, my job is to solve the problem of the meeting. What, where, when, how and NOW. Attendees need their questions answered, Stakeholders need to see the value in their investment, Clients or supervisors want to make sure key people have access, venues need plans and payments, vendors need support. And when you are in the midst of an active event, everyone's "problems" become an immediate emergency all at once. Being professional with perspective and adept enough to pivot nimbly towards a solution. A problem solver. Yeap. That's me.