After Show: The Hospitality Gala

One word to describe this event and experience: WOW!

As most of you know, yesterday was The Hospitality Gala event my event's class has been planning.  The first week of this semester my class was handed four objectives for this event:

1. To provide a "Real-Life" and "Hands On" experience in event planning, event management and fundraising for HRMT students.
2. Increase the local, regional, and national presence and awareness of the HRMT program at Auburn University.
3. Raise funds for the HRMT program. (Our goal this year was $100,000!)
4. To be THE EVENT of the year amongst other fundraisers ... locally and regionally.

Again, one word: WOW!!! We accomplished every single one of these goals with flying colors.

The "hands on" experience was like no other.  This event required so much planning and managing.  The executives at the Hotel at Auburn University did an outstanding job and mentoring and providing assistance with anything and everything we needed help with during the past three months.  I feel so prepared to go into event planning after college because of this class.  My class and I were able to plan, organize, and execute an event (a fundraising event) for 390 people.  We learned to deal with the stress of last minute things going wrong (a truck of wine being stolen, a wine maker missing his flight, and a special guest double booking for the evening) and were treated as professionals in the industry.

The people that attended this event came from all over the United States.  Our three chefs came from Miami, New York, and Southern California.  Our three winemakers came from France, San Francisco, and Spain.  That in itself is amazing! The man honored at the event who has brought meaning to the word "hospitality", Mr. Horst Schulze, has traveled all over the world building hotels with the Ritz-Carlton and the West Paces Hotel Group.  Locally, businesses supported us, professors from other colleges attended, and social status people of the community were there in support of the Hotel & Restaurant management program.

The goal at the beginning of the semester ($100,000) seemed so far off!  No one in Auburn University history of fundraising has ever raised more than $100,000 in one night of an event.  Last night, we were able to raise $200,000!!!!! Unbelievable.  I can't wait to see what is in store for next year.  We broke a program record in silent auction donations as well raising $15,500!  The donors who attended could not be thanked enough for their generous donations.  This program would not be where its at if it wasn't for the people who support our program.  The Hospitality Management department is growing at an exponential rate thanks to the support of the community, board members, alumnus, faculty, and industry professionals.

Becoming THE event of the year is a very hard task to accomplish.  I believe we accomplished this goal as well.  Last night there were two other events going on in Auburn, AL: Dancing with the Stars and Big Man on Campus.  The Hospitality Gala sold out of tickets before the invitations were even sent out.  The waiting list kept growing a week before the event.  People who were not able to attend missed out on an exquisite event.  THE event of the year! Everyone was extremely elegant and the details put in to making this event top notch were just amazing.

The four teams (Design, Marketing, Operations, and Auction) could not have been a better group of students.  Everyone did a spectacular job at building anticipation, putting all the minor details on things, executing the flow of event, and gathering objects for the auction.  This experience was like no other for me.  I cannot believe it is over and this semester is coming so close to an end.  Well, I guess I know what's next: NAPA VALLEY!

Until next time,

Kayla