Laurel Challet Axelrod, Cmm, Citp Email & Phone Number

Costa Mesa, California, United States

While continuing to operate programs, I supervise and provide support to Account Managers, Coordinators, Independent Contractors, and Event Staff; facilitate day-to-day functions of Operations Department; and assist with training and onboarding of new department employees.

• Managed all hotel related aspects of events from 5 to 500 attendees, including blocking rooms and meeting space; planning menus and theme parties; coordinating off-site events and optional activities; and negotiating contracts and managing a detailed budget.• Conducted site inspection and planning trips with clients to determine the best activities, venues, restaurants and meeting space to accomplish the program and client’s goals.• Created project plan for all events, guiding cross functional team toward goals and ensuring client needs were met.• On-site lead manager for events with as many as 2,300 attendees, remaining in constant contact with clients and quickly responding to inquiries and resolving any issues that arise.• Met with clients on an individual basis to determine program needs and establish guidelines for attaining goals. • Wrote, proofread, and edited program of events (day-to-day schedule) for all events.

ADMINSTRATION• Provided high level administrative support with positive attitude to VP Sales, VP Training, President, and 10+ outside sales representatives.• Diplomatically screened and handled calls from business owners and key executives, solving problems, connecting people, and saving bosses countless hours.• Managed busy calendars for several senior executives.• Used expert level typing, composing and proofreading skills to create professional correspondence.COST REDUCTIONS• After reduction in force, assumed Director of Seminar Operations duties in addition to existing duties, and made immediate cost reduction recommendations resulting in annual savings of $75K.• Increased communication between business development and sales departments, decreasing the number of travel changes each week thereby reducing travel expenses by 15%.• Reduced postage costs associated with Gateway seminar by 90% by making simple process change.• Streamlined sales reports by consolidating 4 reports into 1, improving accuracy and saving 4 hours each week.• Negotiated contracts with vendors, reducing costs as much as 75%.STAFF MANAGEMENT & TRAINING• Assisted in the hiring of outside sales reps by writing and placing ads, reviewing resumes and screening candidates.• Oversaw sales operations function, entering ticket orders accurately, quickly processing refunds, investigating and resolving payment issues in a timely manner, and diplomatically handling customer issues.• Perform onsite management at 25+ events each year, hiring and managing onsite staff to support group; providing staff assignments; and acting as main liaison to resolve client issues.• Wrote training manuals to educate co-workers about event planning, effectively cross-training internal staff and standardizing policies and procedures.

• Controlled trade show calendar of 25 shows, comprising of exhibitor registration, booth shipment, and assigning staff roles.• Using Survey Monkey and other tools, designed and administered surveys to collect participant feedback.• International event planning in locations as far reaching as the Mediterranean, Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico and South Africa.• Traveled 25% of time, both domestically and internationally, understanding needs of travelers and cultural diversity.• Comfortable speaking to audiences from 1-100+ in size.

• Managed all hotel related aspects of events from 5 to 2300 attendees, including blocking rooms and meeting space; planning menus and theme parties; coordinating off-site events and optional activities; and negotiating contracts and managing a detailed budget.• Coordinated mass mailing of event packets to 1000's of attendees in a timely manner.• Created project plan for all events, guiding cross functional team toward goals and ensuring client needs were met.• Debriefed with client after each event and used feedback to assess staff and make program improvements for future events.• On-site lead manager for events with as many as 1,600 attendees, remaining in constant contact with clients and quickly responding to inquiries and resolving any issues that arise.• Partnered with sales executives in procuring and retaining clients. • Met with clients on an individual basis to determine program needs and establish guidelines for attaining goals. • Scored exceptionally high marks on customer feedback surveys after events.• Specifically requested by Mitsubishi to be their main account manager on all of their events.• Event planning for 11 city tour, with 250 people per city.• Created marketing collateral, direct mail pieces and other advertising for worldwide events.• Delivered presentations to client executives to propose events and details and secure budget authorization. • Wrote, proofread, and edited program of events (day-to-day schedule) for all events.

Organized schedules for team of six instructors, reserving class/meeting space at various local facilities. Received registration documentation and tracked enrollment numbers for each course.

Destination Management Company: Directed program registration for corporate, association, and incentive programs, with groups ranging from 20 to 1,500 attendees. Organized transportation and completed restaurant reservations. Provided administrative training to other coordinators.