As Sr. Director of Industry Relations, I will spearhead strategic sales and marketing efforts for Cogent, with a large focus on brand awareness through industry involvement and leadership.

In the midst of the pandemic and an industry decimated by the economic downturn, a couple former colleagues and I have doubled down on our commitment to the meetings industry by starting a small business offering consulting and 3rd-party planning expertise on a contract basis. While many organizations are mired in the difficulties of making old models fit new realities, venue and vendor contract renegotiations, human resource reductions, and an equally uncertain future, we leverage our expertise and agility to help people and organizations remain proactive, relevant, and engaged with their communities to bridge the gap between now and a future state of full recovery.

Managing a portfolio of sponsored and member-exclusive webinars, creating process efficiencies and maximizing revenue opportunities.

In this elevated role, I've continued previous responsibilities while taking a more strategic role within the organization. Responsibilities and results have increased significantly within all conferences, including greater involvement in program and experience design. Joining internal teams like the IT Governance Committee, DEI Team, and Change Advisory Board has given a unique perspective of the organization and industry, allowing for more seamless execution of projects, management of core teams, and leveraging relationships with vendors, sponsors and community members to provide more accessible and engaging attendee experiences. Major projects managed include creating an Accessible Classroom experience onsite at our ELI conference, implementing software-based closed captioning for all educational sessions at our annual and spring conferences, managing the integration of external peer-to-peer networking and engagement platform for annual and spring conferences, as well as one online conference. In addition to increased responsibility within the walls of EDUCAUSE, involvement with industry organizations like PCMA National and Rocky Mountain Chapter, and Customer Advisory Boards for Houston and St. Louis has blossomed, leading to more influence within the industry and more great ideas to implement at our conferences.

Excited by the return to the higher ed IT community, I continued utilizing my skills as a meeting planner to run a variety of programs, ranging from hundreds of smaller ancillary events at the annual conference, to smaller high-touch VIP meetings, to multiple spring conferences in the 300-800 attendee range.

As the old committee members faded out of this all-volunteer committee and left a very large void, the need for additional personnel, explicit mission/vision/values/goals, strategic planning, redundant systems, a less horizontal organization chart, and a general re-structuring of the organization was apparent. Through thick and thin, hiring and firing, I created a team and directed all operations, leading to increased bandwidth, content diversity, attendee satisfaction, marketing communication, community exposure, attendance, and financial foundation. I revamped our processes for curating content from our community, allowing for a more diverse content base without sacrificing our authentic community-driven experience. Presenter training, resources and support mechanisms all thrived and continuously improved throughout this time. In addition to leading the organization, I gave my own Ignite presentation and delivered an on-stage celebration for the founder of Ignite Denver, John Wilker, both in front of crowds of 400 attendees. While not a paid position, this remains one of the most rewarding positions in my career.

Originally brought on to just assist the all-volunteer team as-needed, I quickly moved into a presenter training role, leading workshops on public speaking instruction to improve presenter comfort, preparation and stage presence to provide a better experience for both speakers and audience. This quickly turned into additional responsibilities managing the organization, selecting a more diverse speaker slate and contract negotiation leading to higher sponsorship revenues and lower overhead costs.

Provided third-party meeting planning consulting services, guiding best practices in food and beverage, audio visual, room set, and attendee experience. Developed internal process for sourcing venues and negotiating commissionable contracts, and the ability to provide those services for other organizations, increasing profit more than $70,000.

While continuing to run a full load of 10+ K-12 professional development conferences and workshops every year, I built the internal structure for sourcing all event venues, negotiating 50+ contracts annually, collecting commissions and rebates, managing deposits and conference-related cash flow. I organized all processes and reporting structures to create a sub-department focused solely on contract management. This amounted to an overall profit of almost $2.5 Million during my time at the helm. In addition, I created major reporting systems to track registrations across years, conferences, and other criteria to provide better insight into conference performance projections and financial planning efforts. The big win came when hotels started signing the venue contract with our letterhead - the Dan Stones-written contract that would define the future of contracting for Solution Tree.

The interview started with the question, "What is your experience in planning meetings?" I replied, "Not really much, but let me tell you about this party I threw in college!" While certainly not a typical interview response, my subsequent clarification led to my first meeting planning position. In this role, I supported K-12 teachers, principals and superintendents across North America by managing logistics for their professional development. My skills in budget management, milestones timelines, team leadership, negotiation, presenter management, etc. all improved rapidly while I learned how to run engaging and profitable events, serving our authors, our attendees and our company.

Represented UNT at dozens of College Day programs at schools and community centers across the state, speaking to audiences of more than 200 regarding degree programs and personal growth experiences offered through the university. Evaluated residency status of Graduate School applicants for tuition purposes per legal guidelines of the State of Texas.

Installed, maintained, troubleshot and repaired audio/video equipment and systems in hundreds of classrooms. Trained incoming technicians and personally operated technology in all classrooms containing complex audio-video systems.