What's Your Story: Elizabeth (Liz) Glover Wilson

Full name: Liz Glover Wilson, CMP, CSEP
Age: 36
Hometown: Yorktown Heights, NY
Current position: President and Founder, Elizabeth Rose Consulting, LLC
Education: B.A., Mercy College - Business Management
Years in the industry: 15

How I got to here in 10 words or less: Hard work, amazing opportunities and many blessings.

As a young artist, I aspired to be a fashion designer and headed to NYC to attend F.I.T. Very soon after arriving, I realized that the fashion industry was not for me. I did not know what else I wanted to do so I secured a job as an Administrative Assistant. In my early days as an Admin, I was always looking for creative projects to take on as an outlet for my creativity and to keep me from total boredom. I worked hard and gave all my projects a 110%.

My mom always taught us to do every task to the best of our ability and to remember that you never know "who is watching." Little did I know that would apply to that particular chapter in my life. After a couple of years in that role, the President of our company offered me a unique opportunity - to build an events department from the ground up. Now the fact was I had no actual professional event experience, but what I did have was a unique blend of strong instinct for events, a high level of work ethics, a load of creativity and good people skills.

I spent about 10 years building the corporate events department. Starting out was hard and I felt very isolated, as I was the only one in the company given this task and had no access to historical data or internal resources. I had to build it all by myself. The first thing I did was to broaden my education and scope of support so that I could be successful with my new task.
I signed up for a course at NYU and learned as much as I could about corporate event planning. Dianne Devitt was my first mentor and still a very valuable part of my life till this day.

Additionally, I volunteered for the local chapter of ISES (International Special Events Society) and quickly was elected to the board of directors as Director of Communications. I stayed on the Board for 10 Years and was President in 2007-2008. I learned so much from my fellow industry colleagues and from other board members. My experience and educations was truly priceless.

I worked hard. I studied everything and collected mentors. I volunteered and took classes. When I resigned my corporate job to start my own consulting firm, I was truly proud of the journey and the department I built. Till this day, the department is strong and my old team is just terrific.

Starting my own business has been a tremendous joy and I owe a lot of my current success to my years of building relationships, expanding my education and being willing to give back to the industry. I do not under-estimate the power of giving back. My new business, in fact, is all about that. I launched Elizabeth Rose Consulting which focuses on event management and fundraising support for non-profit organizations. Each day, we work to give to non-profits the support they need so they can give back to those in our community and world who need services. It is extremely fulfilling.

How I Believe Others Can Get There, Too
My journey is unique in someways, as being an event professional was not my original goal. I did not actively pursue it . . .the profession "found me." However, the most important advice I can give to others regardless of how their journey starts is to first be honest with yourself, then go out and volunteer, know your boundaries and then get ready to work hard for what you want. Oh and did I mention you must have patience.

Be Honest With Yourself - Why do you want to be in this profession? Be honest. Do you think it is glamorous? Do you think it will be fun? Do you think it will be like planning your wedding? Understand "why" you really want to do this. Then get some honest feedback from those inside the industry. Go in with eyes wide open.

Volunteer - I still volunteer these days. You can learn so much about different types of events,styles, processes, etc. You also can learn alot about yourself and explore your strengths and weaknesses. Just recently, I volunteered for CGI and realized that I enjoyed dealing with diplomats from other countries. Did not know that about myself!

Know Your Boundaries - Once you have dedicated yourself to this journey, it is important to know your boundaries both personally and professionally. They do not call the events industry the "burn out" industry for no reason. Many event professionals go at a fast pace for many years and just exhaust themselves. My advice is to set boundaries from the very beginning. For example, commit to taking at least one full day off a week - no blackberry - just shut down. Treat yourself to a spa once a month. Be committed to healthful eating and exercise. I know it sounds a bit extreme, but it can make a difference.

Working Hard - It is very simple to me. What you put in is what you will get out. I was not a success overnight. Years of hard work and dedication did pay off and I am proud of that.
Be Patient - To be a true expert in any field you have to build experience. It takes 10 years or 10,000 hours to be considered an expert, so get relaxed. . .it is going to be a long ride.

Skills you need: Strong instinct. Good writing and communication skills. Exceptional multi-tasking skills. Management ability. Highly organized.

Where you should start: There are planning jobs in every profession; non-profit, law firms, politics, sports, hospitals, corporations, hotels, venues, clubs, camps, parks and recreation, schools, places of worship, and more. Join a local networking groups, such as AFP, MPI, ISES, COPE, HSMAI and NYEP and look for volunteer opportunities and postings.

Best Advice: Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

From Film school to Fundraising...say that 3 times fast

I've often been asked for tips on getting your foot in the door for the events industry, how I personally got into the industry and what I think about non-profit events (which is where I do most of my event work currently).

The short answer is volunteer, happenstance, and it can be tough but equally rewarding.

Now that can be the end of this blog, but it might be more interesting and possibly even helpful to my huge following of 4 people (insert sarcasm here) if I elaborate.

I wanted to be an actor but knowing the response I would get from my family I decided instead to work behind the camera, where maybe I would have a slightly better chance at earning a steady pay check. So, I studied film in college.

After college while I was working in film I unknowingly was gaining experience in producing and managing projects and events...whether it was a film premiere or an awards show. The film industry can be a tough biz and as a naive girl in her early 20's I was easily consumed and spit out. The web world was booming and start up companies were abound, so I got a job as a junior web designer at exactly the time all the companies were about to bust.

While collecting unemployment I thought long and hard about what I enjoyed doing. What I came up with was planning events. I reconfigured my resume so that the listings were by job type rather than chronological and landed a job at NYU planning Academic and Alumni events...during that time I also enrolled in NYU's continuing education program certificate program where I met mentors like Dianne Devitt and Richard Aaron who introduced me to ISES. I quickly joined and started to volunteer on any event that would have me. After a bit people started offering me compensation for my work (how cool was that). On the home front I saw an opportunity to advance at NYU and took at position in the development office managing fundraising events...a totally different animal. I learned quickly the art of asking for money, managing the expectations of board members, committee members, trustees and appeasing sponsors. Whoa, what a lot of letter writing...I would like to publicly apologize to all the trees and say that their lives were not taken in vain. The solicitation letters were pivotal in generating much needed funds for the many programs and treatments at the hospital.

I felt like I was hitting my stride, feeling good about events and getting more involved in ISES, (freelancing on other types of events as much as possible) eventually producing the Big Apple Awards Gala, joining the board and helping produce the NE Regional Education Conference (REC). During this time I was itching to grow and felt I had learned all I could at NYU. So after 6+ years I left one acronym for one that was a bit longer, MSKCC (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center).

Two years later I am still managing events for The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center...a one-of-a kind volunteer board with a more than 60 year history. During this time I garnered valuable exposure to high society, celebrities and high fashion (I wish I could say my wardrobe has improved accordingly). Simultaneously, I launched my own event company...Clockwork Events...that is just in the infant stage....I should also mention that I studied my tush off and achieved both the CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) and CSEP (Certified Special Event Professional) designations.--both well respected achievements in the meeting and event industry that I highly recommend obtaining.

Oddly enough, my personal trainer husband, wrote and independently produced (and starred in) a feature film that just wrapped shooting this summer. http://achieveyourdreamsatanycost.blogspot.com/ So I feel that I've come full circle from film to fundraising to film? Maybe, I wouldn't want to be a publicity assistant at Miramax Films again, but I'd be happy producing premieres or the Oscars or any event for a studio...bring it on, I can do it.

My suggestions...volunteer, join event organizations, subscribe to event publications most are online right now--(there are many...some of my favs are BizBash, Best Events, Event Solutions, Special Events), ...tweet, follow tweets, read blogs, volunteer, did I say volunteer? For me I'm not sure how much longer I will stay on the non-profit side of events, I feel I have been type cast, however, I do feel like I have priceless skills as a result and know that I can produce all types of events.

In my next post I hope to be able to share another event professional's story in how they got where they are today and their suggestions for "making it" in the industry.

I hope this is helpful.