Special Events Assistant
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
As I was promoted from Special Events Intern to Special Events Assistant, in the second half of my summer at the Opera I took on the much larger responsibility of solely managing the Opera’s special events for two weeks until the arrival of the new coordinator, at which point we began to split the work load. Along with my coworker, we were entirely responsible for the planning, design, and execution of the annual Summer Gala, a multi-location, highly involved production with an attendance of 250+ patrons, bringing in over $450,000 to the Opera.I was given the opportunity to independently execute 160+ person high-end catered dinners, including creating, sending, and tracking invitations, print material creation, event set-up, coordination between multiple vendors and providers, directing other development staff members at the events, and overall ensuring seamless execution while managing overlapping timelines of multiple dinners in close succession. In this larger role, I communicated with the opera’s high-level donors on a consistent basis when extending invitations, confirming attendance, and at the events themselves. Developed personal relationships with donors and became adept at ensuring their satisfaction. I was able to learn so much under our Director of Development, Eva Toia, and am so grateful I was given the opportunity to step up and put into practice what I learned in the beginning of the summer through the execution and coordination of these events.