The director of catering and conferences at the Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa in Houston and president of the National Association for Catering and Events (NACE) dishes on why ‘this industry is a bona-fide career.’
How did you get started in the hospitality and events industry? I became interested in the hotel indus- try when I was in college through some of my friends who were getting ready to graduate and go into the hotel-man- agement field. I was interested in doing something customer-oriented. I had a communications degree. I started off as a check-in/check-out person, a front- desk agent, basically. Those are kind of humble beginnings, but if you want to learn the industry, you have to learn it, I think, from the ground up, so that was my approach.
How did you come into your current position at the Houstonian? I was the assistant front office man- ager at the original McCormick Place hotel [in Chicago]. I had become very interested in sales and convention services, and the opening that came up was a catering sales manager, so it was very similar to my area of interest. I had been in the hotel industry then for about three years, so I took that opportunity that came to me, and I really, really loved the interaction with planning events — working with the food elements, working with the room space that you have. I really liked the fact that, even though you were doing a sales job, you were interacting at a very high level with the operation, which of course I was familiar with being from a front-desk background.
What are your goals as NACE president? Well, the first thing I want to do is make sure that NACE becomes a brand, a
national name; that people, both consumers and indus- try professionals, associate us with the people who are setting trends, the people who are moving the industry forward, advancing the industry through educa- tion, advancing the industry through giving back. That’s really priority one. And then working very closely with the Foundation of NACE to help them gain some expo- sure, and finding business partners for both entities — both the Foundation and NACE.
NACE recently changed its name but not its acronym. What was the thinking behind that? For years, we had been the National Association for Catering Executives, which interestingly enough, being a catering professional of 20 years, even I have trouble identifying exactly what a catering executive is. [Laughs.] What we really found, when we looked at our members, most of our members really identified with what I would call the intersection of catering and events. In other words, we are specialists in one area, but we have a real desire and see a huge competitive advantage to knowing all areas of catering an event. For exam- ple, most of our planners think that it’s really important to know the food-and- beverage side. Event planners, wedding coordinators, meeting planners, and then people like myself who are cater- ers by nature and by job title — really
Stirring the Pot ‘I love working with people and getting to that third alternative. I have an idea, you have an idea — let’s talk about it, let’s dissect it, let’s build it.’
want to make sure that they have the intricate understanding of what it takes to plan an event and how to take all of the support elements of an event, and make them work together. So when we thought about who our most basic member is, our core member, and what their needs are, we really had a desire to know about all elements of catering and events. So that brought about the name change.
What advice would you give to a younger professional who is just now entering the catering and events industry? I would tell any student or any young person who really wants to make a career of this industry, first of all, that this is an industry that you can build a lifelong career in. Some people think it’s something that you just kind of pass through on your way to something else, but this industry is a bona-fide career. And the second thing I would say is, get as much experience as you can. That doesn’t mean necessarily a job that’s