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This year, PCMA’s 20 in Their Twenties program honors exceptional young leaders in the business events industry. Class of 2024 member Alexis Dick, Event Planner at HARDI, explains how learning to manage personalities has been the best professional advice she’s ever received.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve gotten?
Learning how to manage personalities. Working in events, you not only work internally with many cross-functional teams, but also with various industry partners. Everyone works differently, but trying to meet your partners where they’re at will always help ease communication and increase the success of an event.
What role do you think digital events have to play in the industry?
There is currently a strong drive for individuals to attend in-person events to grow their networks and skillsets. Digital events help reach larger audiences who may not be able to travel, and they allow the event to break into other industries. For instance, someone might only be interested in the personal advancement track at a conference, so they don’t want to attend four days when relevant content is only presented one of those days. Instead of missing the conference in its entirety, the attendee can simply log in to get the content most relevant to them. Digital events increase accessibility, while expanding the event’s reach to larger audiences.
What do you like most about your job?
Simply put, I love the constant change that event planning presents. From the number of attendees to the location, no two events are the same even if they happen every year. It’s a constant challenge to innovate and be creative.
What made you choose the events industry as a career?
When I went to college, I didn’t know producing events was a career path. I started as a Learning & Development intern where the team helped dictate content to be presented at meetings and that’s where I met and fell in love with the Engagement & Events team. I quickly shifted roles to help them execute one-of-a-kind experiences for store managers, district managers and regional directors at Bath & Body Works. Room sets might not always be that glamorous, but being able to choose gifts for room drops and playing with how to stage a logo shop can create a lot of excitement. Seeing how engaged the attendees are always keeps me striving to find something new.
Members of PCMA’s 20 in Their Twenties class of 2024, supported by PCMA Foundation and Experience Columbus, were recognized at PCMA Convening Leaders 2024, Jan. 7-10 in San Diego, California.