Director of Event Planning, Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center

Ashley is the Director of Event Planning for the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, FL. She runs us through a loaded day at the resort, from putting out customer service fires to training industry best practices.

Transcript

>> My name Ashley Akright and I'm the director of event planning at Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. So, I support a team of catering managers, convention service managers, executive meeting managers and local social that all plan meetings and events, varying from zero guest rooms on peak to 1400 guest rooms on peak. It could be up to 5-, 6,000 attendees that are coming and also our local social business supports any weddings, bar mitzvah, local corporate business that's coming in for day meetings. So, I'll also then put out fires, so fires happen in hotels a lot, not literal fires, but you'll have a lot of fires of a customer that is upset because they didn't get what they had anticipated getting on site, so maybe a fire of putting out a service failure fire with an onsite customer. But it could also be a customer that's coming in 18 months from now that is having an issue with their space being not what they need, or needing to adjust their room lock and it may be something that we need to work through to partner with them to handle. So, I'll also be looking at things like innovation within the meetings industry of how are we continuously innovating ourselves to be cutting edge, how can I improve my catering menus, how can I improve my meeting AV, and working with all of those partners involved to make sure that we're able to provide an innovative meeting experience to customers.

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